OT: Buckeye JT Tuimoloau Returning
Pretty surprising. Kid is projected as a top 15 pick in NFL draft.
https://www.on3.com/college/ohio-state-buckeyes/news/ohio-state-edge-jt…
January 12th, 2024 at 2:14 PM ^
They are going all out to beat us next year.
January 12th, 2024 at 2:18 PM ^
They’re so cute. They wanna return to school to beat a depleated team without possibly it’s head coach and QB. Lol all this to say “we beat the team up north” God I hate them.
January 12th, 2024 at 2:23 PM ^
From Day's perspective, they kind of have to win The Game next year. A fourth straight loss to Michigan probably gets Day fired. I'm sure he's firing the NIL cannon as hard as he can at returning star upperclassmen. I don't think he can afford to make any other choice.
January 12th, 2024 at 2:38 PM ^
From days perspective? He can eat crap and die
January 12th, 2024 at 3:00 PM ^
A fourth straight loss and Day is gone - take it to the bank. I will say, though, with all of their key guys returning (minus Harrison of course), they'll be loaded and absolutely NO reason not to beat a depleted UM team in Columbus in 2024
January 12th, 2024 at 3:59 PM ^
Absolutely. I never thought Day would be on the hot seat for THIS year's game - Michigan was a title favorite going into the year and the Game was in Ann Arbor. Michigan was favored. Next year is their do-or-die year.
January 12th, 2024 at 3:12 PM ^
Which will make it so glorious when we beat them four in a row. Can you imagine the stress on all their multiple year returning players to win or go out in disgrace? For good measure they got a center off the portal with the yips, especially vs Michigan. Go Blue!
January 12th, 2024 at 2:30 PM ^
Depleted? Not like casual fans of rivals think. Defense won't be depleted. Offense? Depends on some key decisions.
January 12th, 2024 at 2:44 PM ^
And the variance on offense is all on the passing side. It should still be an excellent rushing offense.
January 12th, 2024 at 2:58 PM ^
We are loaded on both the OL and DL. That’s where is starts.
If Harbaugh, Minter, and JJ return we should be the or one of the favorites to win it all.
Clearly there is contingent of Buckeyes that don’t want their legacy to be winless against Michigan.
January 12th, 2024 at 3:30 PM ^
Get a load of these losers trying to win a national championship. Adorable how they want to be a good team that beats their rival even when that rival will probably take a step back in terms of talent. Imagine.
January 12th, 2024 at 3:31 PM ^
Uhh, they didn’t win this year without our head coach. The evil empire got exactly what they wanted and still lost.
January 12th, 2024 at 2:18 PM ^
Good thing about next year is UM can lose to OSU and still make it to the playoff.
January 12th, 2024 at 2:22 PM ^
Imagine losing to them in the regular season and how they will act like they've won the national title. Only to lose to Michigan on a neutral site in the playoffs. That would be satisfying.
January 12th, 2024 at 3:10 PM ^
This was my nightmare in reverse in 2022- so yeah, that'd be pretty cool.
January 12th, 2024 at 3:14 PM ^
Actually beating them 3 times next year would be the more satisfying.
January 12th, 2024 at 2:34 PM ^
If you've been on reddit r/cfb at all, there are more than a few osu fans claiming they'd rather go 4-8 with a win against Michigan than 11-1 with a loss to Michigan.
I'll take 11-1 with a loss to osu all day, every day if it means we get the perennial playoff spot and osu loses more than it wins.
January 12th, 2024 at 2:59 PM ^
Hell no. The game is the season. Always has been. Always will be.
January 12th, 2024 at 3:10 PM ^
Not with going to a 12 team playoff format it isn’t. Win 11 games and stay healthy enough for a playoff run. That will be the goal every year. The Game is important, but the reality is it won’t matter as much anymore as it’s not a de facto playoff games like it has been the last three years.
January 12th, 2024 at 3:50 PM ^
Blasphemy. The day that Michigan sits players to rest up for the playoff or doesn't take the game seriously is when I start tuning out. College football is special because it isn't the NFL. The more we wore erode the traditions and culture that makes college unique, the less it matters. Pay the players, let them transfer? Of course. But the minute the OSU game is not a matter of life and death importance is when college football will truly jump the shark.
January 12th, 2024 at 4:40 PM ^
You guys are arguing over a hypothetical thought process.
You don't get to choose between 4-8 and 11-1. Michigan and Ohio State will always try to beat one another.
January 12th, 2024 at 3:58 PM ^
Agree. The game has always been The Game because you needed to win it to win the big 10 and have a shot at the national championship/Rose Bowl. With 18 teams in the BIG and a 12 team playoff, the game will lose some of its luster over time. At some point we'll meet OSU in the playoffs, and THAT will be something.
January 12th, 2024 at 3:45 PM ^
No. 2006 sucked. 2016 and 2018 sucked. Being so close only to fall short to tOSU the last weekend of the year is abysmal.
January 12th, 2024 at 4:03 PM ^
I think we still can beat them next year, especially since their QB room still looks shaky.
Would also be awesome if the Catapult investigation reveals some misdeeds implicating their team. Come on back for an epic implosion sounds nice as spice.
January 12th, 2024 at 2:41 PM ^
JJ has the chance to do the funniest and greatest thing and whip their ass again in '24.
January 12th, 2024 at 2:48 PM ^
Day trying to hold on to his job by building a super team.
Culture still sucks, O-line still suspect.
Best part, nothing they do can erase the last 3 years of The Game - the last time The Game will have such significance. 3 straight top 5 matchups, all won by UM
2 straight undefeated matchups, won by UM.
And the National Title cherry on top of course.
They can never rectify or nullify the past 3 years, even with this attempt at a super team.
January 12th, 2024 at 3:01 PM ^
So if your team has draft-eligible guys return it's because of a great culture.
If your rival has draft-eligible guys return they still have a sucky culture.
Got it.
(sigh)
January 12th, 2024 at 3:08 PM ^
When your team's culture is 'come here to get paid, not go to class, and win easy games while waiting out your 3 year quarantine before the NFL' it absolutely makes no sense to come back when you're a first round pick. Granted that's my biased outside impression, lol.
January 12th, 2024 at 3:17 PM ^
It's a good sign that guys are coming back for OSU but this is still the team that looked ill-prepared to play Missouri and has for the last 3 years been pushed around by UM. Michigan's guys came back because they were so close to winning a title last year; OSU hasn't been that close and while you can expect incremental improvement guys like JTT have underwhelmed compared to expectations in college.
OSU should be, like they are most years, a favorite to win the national title. But depending on what happens with Alabama I'm not sure they're better than the Tide or Georgia, and we'll see how teams like Texas, UM, Oregon, etc. look next year. Bringing the band back together for one more run is great but the actual track record for those seasons isn't great; UM this year is more the exception than the rule.
January 12th, 2024 at 3:35 PM ^
Most (all?) of OSU's players who are coming back guys were a missed field goal away from beating Georgia and advancing to the title game vs a far inferior TCU team two short years ago. They were one drive away from beating Michigan. They had one terrible showing vs Missouri, but they have have absolutely been contenders for the last three years. Your narrative is delusional.
January 12th, 2024 at 3:53 PM ^
OSU really should have lost to ND last year, could have lost to Maryland and Penn St, and did lose to UM by getting bullied on the ground in the 4th quarter again. The way UM finished against Bama and Washington in the CFP, I think if UM needed a TD against OSU to win the game in the 4th quarter, they would have gotten it.
UM is facing down the potential of a lot of turnover, but brings back the bulk of game breakers on both sides of the ball and on both lines. Ohio St is bringing back guys who haven’t been able to finish against the best teams they’ve played (Oregon, UM, and UGA), so until they win a game like that, their culture/contender status is suspect.
January 12th, 2024 at 5:15 PM ^
So you're saying that without Miata Marv missing from that team is the same team? I guess I could agree with the term,"delusional!"
January 12th, 2024 at 4:41 PM ^
I appreciate all the responses.
this is still the team that looked ill-prepared to play Missouri
This take needs to be limited to one side of the ball. O-line and a pair of backup QBs were a mess.
for the last 3 years been pushed around by UM
Don't fail to recall that according to the UFRs by Brian & Seth, both D-lines won the battle in the trenches last fall. (Now I'm sure most of you will point to Michigan's 4th quarter drive, but Brian's O-line rating was a miserable 56% prior to that drive and still a substandard 62% after it.)
OSU hasn't been that close
Failed FG vs GA (as mentioned in the above comment), and had they pulled out a close one against Michigan last fall, they would have been in the CFP. So yea, I'd say pretty close.
January 13th, 2024 at 3:55 AM ^
Hi BuckeyeChuck.
This is a very interesting off-season for OSU. You have correctly identified that we (as a fan base) are operating on a cloud. The reality is we don't yet know what Michigan's team in 2024 will look like apart from the defense, and even that unit we are unsure who will be coaching it.
You have a lot more certainty wrt your players/coaches going into the season. I'd argue that your players fit and ability will have a higher variance and your coaches have to prove they can win.
That being said, I fear OSU once again. I cannot believe how they are able to keep that team together. It seems like destiny is pulling the threads apart but Day is somehow manifesting his own destiny. November 30 2024 is D-Day.
January 12th, 2024 at 3:29 PM ^
Not so fast, my friend! It depends why they’re coming back. If it’s a team oriented national championship goal, that’s one thing; but if it’s more bag money, that isn’t the same.
As fun as it is to pile on OSU as a Michigan fan, not necessarily sure the culture is quite the tire fire my fellow Wolverines make it out to be; but Igbinosun doing the money thing to Will Johnson, indicating that was the main reason he went there and Harrison wearing designer cleats shows there’s a handful of guys that are decidedly less team oriented that can drag down a locker room. The center complaining about not getting enough NIL (kudos to Day benching him) and McCord’s father demanding he be handed the starting job also indicates some more team chemistry killers. Jeremiah Smith demanding money won’t help either. Nothing would tear a locker room apart faster than certain guys getting more than others and then starting to get frustrated over that.
Also if the rumors about the Ole Miss RB are true claiming that he left because he wasn’t getting enough NIL…yikes.
Were you around here to hear what happened during the 2020 season when we supposedly had internal conflict from Dylan McCaffrey and his father taking offense with Harbaugh and there being schism over that? If a little bit of conflict can cause that dumpster fire of a season, imagine what multiple stars and their families quarreling with staff might do.
OSU needs to get their guys focused and elevate a team first culture if they want success. Worked for Washington and worked for Michigan.
January 12th, 2024 at 5:15 PM ^
The only guy I noticed having any fire for OSU against M was Treyveon Henderson. Everyone else didn't seem to care. Made me feel bad for Henderson.
January 12th, 2024 at 3:32 PM ^
Yes, OSU sucks.
January 12th, 2024 at 3:44 PM ^
I mean, your own coach did say a little while back (maybe last year?) that he needed $13M to keep his class together. So it stands to reason that maybe he got the $13M he requested. Also, your draft eligible guys are often 5*/1st round players, so they are foregoing big money to come back. Usually that means they are getting big money to come back.
But generally speaking, returning talent is a positive thing, so OSU should be happy. JTT often seemed a little underwhelming (unless you try to beat him in open space), but another year might make him more well-rounded.
OSU will return most of a really good defense. And so will Michigan.
January 12th, 2024 at 3:45 PM ^
For osu it’s all about how good will Howard is and how good that o line plays. If those don’t pan out it won’t matter for the rest.
January 12th, 2024 at 4:02 PM ^
I honestly don't know if culture has anything to do with either team. Sometimes guys just enjoy the college experience and being "the man" on campus.
Now, with NIL, more players don't feel the need to jump to the NFL so they can stay and enjoy college. Throw in no gold pants and no NC and it's easy to see why JT would want to return.
I think it's good for the sport when players stick around for their senior year.
January 12th, 2024 at 4:23 PM ^
You can’t replicate what this Michigan team had. They can try just like they tried to be tough but it probably won’t work
January 12th, 2024 at 3:25 PM ^
45th anniversary of the '69 game against 'the greatest team ever assembled'.
January 12th, 2024 at 2:46 PM ^
credit to 'em. Honestly after the Cotton Bowl - so, a week ago - I really thoguht the wheels were falling off. I'm still not sure the wisdom of running off Will Howard. But it would just be INCREDIBLY satisfying to beat them in Columbus (again) and emphatically end their era.
January 12th, 2024 at 2:52 PM ^
Didn't Will Howard just transfer in? Honda McCord left.
January 12th, 2024 at 4:05 PM ^
Looks like Day is trying to replicate what Michigan did this year. Quite contrary to their typical “path to the NFL” philosophy.
Imitation being the sincerest form of flattery and all. We’ll see if Day and OSU can really change their culture in one year come this November.
January 12th, 2024 at 2:15 PM ^
What about Tommy "Three Thumbs" Eichenberg?
January 12th, 2024 at 2:17 PM ^
They're getting all their juniors to stay like we did last year. And they get us at home. No pressure, Third Base.
(Also anybody who picked that guy in the top 15 should have been insta-fired)
January 12th, 2024 at 2:20 PM ^
It would be hilarious if Jim, JJ, et al leave and OSU loses anyway.
January 12th, 2024 at 2:43 PM ^
I don't know if I've seen him that high. I've definitely seen him in the 20's on several mock drafts which isn't THAT far off. I think more likely he would get passed in the pre-draft process by several other Edge types and end up in the 2nd round.
January 12th, 2024 at 2:59 PM ^
Conversely there's a very high chance he tests out of this world at the combine and somebody talks themselves into that instead of the tape.