From now until preseason camp starts in August, Land-Grant Holy Land will be writing articles around a different theme every week. This week is all about our Unreasonable Expectations. You can catch up on all of the Theme Week content here and all of our Unreasonable Expectations here.

Everybody knows that one of the best parts of being a sports fan is debating and dissecting the most (and least) important questions in the sporting world with your friends. So, we’re bringing that to the pages of LGHL with our favorite head-to-head column: You’re Nuts.

In You’re Nuts, two LGHL staff members will take differing sides of one question and argue their opinions passionately. Then, in the end, it’s up to you to determine who’s right and who’s nuts.

Today’s Question: What Is Your Most Unreasonable Unreasonable Expectation for the Ohio State Football Season?

Jami’s Take: Will Howard will be a Heisman finalist

Will Howard saw a lot of playing time at Kansas State, and as Ohio State’s starting quarterback job is still very much up for grabs, there’s been a lot of talk about whether he can actually fill that role for the Buckeyes now that he’s transferred.

And while we probably shouldn’t throw out the tapes from Kansas State altogether, I also don’t think they’re indicative of his potential as a Buckeye. In fact, I don’t think we have any idea what he’s capable of yet.

So my first expectation for this season (a not-at-all unreasonable one), is that Howard will be the Buckeyes’ starting quarterback.

My second expectation — a far more unreasonable one — is that he will be a Heisman finalist (I know that’s pretty unhinged even for me. I’m leaning in, though).

In large part, a quarterback is only as good as the players around them, including the offensive line and the receivers. And with no disrespect to Kansas State (ranked 18th in the final 2023 AP Poll), Howard certainly didn’t have players of the same caliber around him in Kansas as he will in Columbus.

At Kansas State, he was surrounded largely by some very talented three-star players. There is nothing wrong with being a three-star player! You’re batting above average, you’re definitely better than me! I am not knocking three-star players! But in Columbus, that rating largely bumps up to four or five stars.

Not only does this mean he will be set up for more success (both in terms of the quality of receivers he needs to connect with and in terms of how much time he’ll have to throw the ball), but there’s also a strong possibility that playing with better players will force him to elevate his own game. The guys around him will make him look good, yes, but they will also make him better.

Even if, by some mystery, he plays exactly the same, we know the Heisman committee loves a quarterback, and we’ve seen finalists in recent years who weren’t even the strongest guys on their OWN offense, let alone in the country. But because the other guys on their offense were so strong, their job at quarterback looked easy. And making it look easy is very convincing to the Heisman committee.

It’s deceptive, but it happens often.

And this year, with better weapons and a higher bar, I believe Howard will have a breakthrough season that puts him in the same ballpark as Quinn Ewers at Texas (currently the preseason favorite to win the Heisman) or Carson Beck at Georgia. With receivers like Emeka Egbuka and Carnell Tate, plus an offensive line powered by guys like Donovan Jackson, expect Howard to surprise everyone.

He doesn’t have to be the best player in the country to be a Heisman finalist. He just has to be one of the best, and with the right people around him, I believe he has what it takes to nurse the Buckeyes’ wounds from last season and make an impression with the Heisman powers-that-be.

Matt’s Take: Ohio State will have the Big Ten’s Offensive, Defensive, Quarterback, Running Back, Wide Receiver, Defensive Lineman, Defensive Back, and Coach of the Year

Look, the idea for this prompt was to go way overboard, like even more overboard than normal, so I did just that. The Ohio State football program has had some dominant runs when it comes to Big Ten awards, but that was the old Big Ten when it was just a 14-team league and the Buckeyes were really the only serious team in the conference.

Now, we are coming off three straight seasons of That Team Up North winning the league title and the Corn and Blue are now the defending national champions (sorry, I just threw up in my mouth a little bit). Not only has OSU been dethroned as the league’s only dominant team, but the Powers That Be have added four West Coast-based teams with loads of football prowess and pedigree of their own. This fall, Oregon, UCLA, USC, and Washington will be Big Ten members, meaning that Ohio State will have to contend with even more competition for the conference crown as well as post-season awards.

However, in my most unreasonable of unreasonable expectations, I do think that Ryan Day’s squad can walk away with both the Offensive and Defensive Players of the Year, as well as the quarterback, running back, wide receiver, defensive lineman, and defensive back awards. And, in what might be the most unreasonable expectation of all, that Day himself will win the B1G Coach of the Year honor… outright! Day shared the award with Minnesota’s P.J. Fleck in 2019, but before that, a Buckeye coach hadn’t won the award since Earl Bruce in 1979.

Obviously, if Jami’s Will Howard prediction comes true, I will take him as the B1G QB of the year, but the beauty of this unreasonable expectation is that on all of the others, I have options. Like with the Ameche-Dayne Running Back of the Year, that could legitimately be either TreVeyon Henderson or Quinshon Judkins. The Richter–Howard Receiver of the Year could be Emeka Egbuka, Carnell Tate, or even Jeremiah Smith; Smith–Brown Defensive Lineman of the Year… J.T. Tuimoloau, Jack Sawyer, Tyleik Williams; Tatum–Woodson Defensive Back of the Year… Denzel Bruke, Caleb Downs, Lathan Ransom.

I know that the voters like to spread these awards around, but with how stacked this roster is, I could see it being a case where they have no other choice than to just give all of the awards to the boys in scarlet and gray.

Let us know who you are agreeing with:

What end deer hunter Christopher J. Alexander foresaw in November when he reported the buck whose pinups drew raves couldn’t have been this one.

The tale Alexander related at the time hinted at fortune, not ruin. At fame, not infamy. A tangle of facts sometimes intrudes.

The story of the potential Ohio record buck hasn’t reached an end exactly. An indictment is only a charge. That holds true when even 23 charges and a grand jury are involved, as occurred early this month.

A Clinton County court ultimately will adjudicate the matter of guilt.

What Alexander, 28, of Wilmington, is accused of by the Ohio Attorney General’s Office boils down to felony fraud and to misdemeanor hunting violations, some of which are tied to more than a single deer.

But it was a single deer that commanded attention.

Mike Rex, an experienced measurer of antlers, an officer in the Buckeye Big Buck Club, and a longtime and successful hunter of trophy whitetails, took a close look soon after the Nov. 9 kill and declared, “It was the biggest set of antlers I’ve ever held in my hand.”

With only the slightest of reservations, Rex said in December he would support Alexander’s 18-point buck as a state record when in January a panel of measurers officially would put tape to the typical, that is, symmetrical rack.

Neither Rex nor most interested people at the time pondered reasons to doubt Alexander’s story about a surprise late-afternoon encounter with a distant deer carrying epic antlers on property his sister, Kristina Alexander, had only recently acquired.

The deer, Alexander said, seemed to be pursuing a doe when it fortuitously ambled to within about 7 yards of the tree stand and the waiting crossbow.

“I knew he was a giant,” the hunter said. “I didn’t know he might be a record.”

A few weeks after the kill, Alexander confided that he’d already been offered $20,000 for the antlers but was holding out until the official scoring. He said was willing to take the risk because the antlers might fetch $100,000 if determined to be a record.

The possibility that a giant buck could have been roaming the countryside not far from Wilmington unknown or unphotographed did seem unlikely in an age of preseason antler scouting and in-season trail cameras.

That Alexander’s chance deer had drawn attention and interest before its demise seemed unavoidable. And thus was the case.

The big buck generously had showed up for semiregular public viewing at a local cemetery. Its head and antlers mounted on some hunter’s wall wasn’t on the wish list of many who’d come to appreciate the deer’s stately presence among them.

How the Ohio Division of Wildlife was alerted hasn’t been revealed, but an investigation begun in December uncovered evidence that led to the indictments.

According to Attorney General David Yost’s office, Alexander claimed that the deer was shot and killed on the land owned by his sister, where he had written permission to hunt. However, an investigation by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, which obtained a warrant for Alexander’s cellphone data, found that deer was illegally hunted on private property 10 miles from his sister’s land.

Alexander staged the deer taking at his sister’s property, according to Yost’s office, with the help of Corey Haunert and his brother, Zachary Haunert, to conceal the poaching. The written permission presented to wildlife officers was likewise falsified.

ODNR’s investigation also found that Corey Haunert aided Alexander in poaching deer on multiple occasions, according to Yost’s office.

Charges against Alexander include three felony counts of theft by deception and one felony count of tampering with evidence. Hunting violations, all misdemeanors, include multiple counts of hunting deer without written permission, taking possession of a deer in violation of a division rule, hunting without a license and hunting deer without a valid permit. Single counts include jacklighting, theft, falsification and sale of wildlife parts.

Corey Haunert, 29, of Hillsboro, was indicted on a felony charge of tampering with evidence and on misdemeanor charges including four counts of aiding a wildlife offender, two counts of hunting without permission and a single count of falsification.

Kristina Alexander, 37, of Blanchester, and Zachary Haunert, 31, of Lebanon, face two misdemeanor counts.

Contributing: Chad Murphy, Cincinnati Enquirer

outdoors@dispatch.com

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Cooper Burt has verbally committed to swim and study at The Ohio State University beginning in the 2025-26 school year. He wrote on social media:

“I’m extremely excited to announce my verbal commitment to THE Ohio State University where I will continue my academic and athletic career. I would like to thank my family for all they have done to help me get to this point. I also want to thank my coaches Chris McKinney, and Alex Muni, for all they have done for me over the years. I have dreamed of this since I was little and can not thank Coach Wright, Coach Hulme, and Coach Dorenkott and the rest of the coaching staff enough for this amazing opportunity. GO BUCKS! 🅾️🌰”

Burt is from from Okeana, Ohio, near the Indiana border. He is wrapping up his junior year at Ross High School in Hamilton, Ohio, and he does his club swimming with the Miami University Makos in Oxford, Ohio, where he trains under head coach Chris McKinney. He is a U.S. Open qualifier in both the 100 back and 200 back.

Burt placed 3rd in the 100 back (49.16) and 4th in the 100 fly (49.65) at the 2024 OHSSA Division I Championships. He also led off both the 200 medley relay and 400 free relay, going best times in the 50 back (23.34) and 100 free (47.70). He was the first swimmer from Ross High School to make the Ohio State Division 1 state meet in an individual event; he has qualified for the meet and made the podium in each of his three prep seasons.

At 2023 Winter Juniors East, he earned lifetime bests in all three of his events (100/200 back and 100 fly). He also clocked a PB in the 200 free in time trials. In March, he went best times in the 100 free, 200 back, and 50/100/200 fly at the Tim Myers Senior Short Course Championships. A couple weeks later, he kicked off 2024 long course season at Indy Sectionals with PBs in the 50 free (25.94), 100 free (55.48), 50 back (27.39), 100 back (57.69), 200 back (2:04.90), 100 fly (57.20), and 200 fly (2:12.52).

Ohio State was always Burt’s number one choice – he has been going to OSU football games his entire life and his family are big OSU fans. His mother, Shawn Burt, is a former swimmer who graduated from The Ohio State University in 1998. She coaches middle school swimming at Ross.

Burt will join the Buckeyes in the fall of 2025. His best SCY times include:

• 100 back – 49.00
• 200 back – 1:47.00
• 100 fly – 49.64
• 200 fly – 1:52.92

If you have a commitment to report, please send an email with a photo (landscape, or horizontal, looks best) and a quote to [email protected].

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