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You’re Nuts: What is your most unreasonable Unreasonable Expectation for the Ohio State season?
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:
Poll
Who has the right answer to today’s question?
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Jami: Will Howard will be a Heisman finalist
(0 votes)
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Matt: Practically Sweep the B1G awards
(0 votes)
0 votes total
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Out of prison, Indiana’s caviar king back on Ohio River to find fishing holes taken
David Cox, of English, Indiana, says once he began setting his nets again after a two-year prison sentence and a three-year ban on commercial fishing, all of his once-secret spots were taken.
Can you eat fish from the Ohio River?
In 1975, future presidential candidate Michael Dukakis, then governor of Massachusetts, bet 20 pounds of New England cod that the Red Sox would defeat the Reds in the World Series. If things went south for Boston, Ohio governor James Rhodes promised to send Dukakis 10 pounds of Lake Erie perch and 10 pounds of Ohio River catfish. The Reds ended up winning and the cod was sent to the Convalescent Home for Children, in Cincinnati.
At the time, people were still eating catfish from the Ohio without too much concern. The fish were also served at several restaurants along the river.
There were warnings in 1977
But two years later, in 1977, The Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission released the results of a study of contaminants found in the tissues of Ohio River fish. They warned anglers in cities such as Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Louisville, Wheeling and Gallipolis that man-made chemicals known as PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, had been discovered in the river fish. Later, high concentrations of mercury were discovered in the fish, too.
Thanks to the Clean Water Act of 1972 and the environmental regulations that followed, the river is now cleaner than it was in the seventies. And it’s still teeming with a variety of fish, including catfish, striped bass, drum and black bass, among other species.
But even though PCBs were banned by the Environmental Protection Agency in 1979, they are still found in fish, since they remain in the sediment in the bottom of the river. “Organisms live in the sediment and fish feed on them,” Rich Cogen, the executive director of the Ohio River Foundation told The Enquirer. Mercury is also a big problem, according to Cogen.
So the question is: Can you eat fish caught in the Ohio River?
The short answer is yes. But it depends on what species you are eating and where along the river you caught it.
There are also very strict limitations on how frequently you should eat them, according to the web site for the Ohio Sport Fish Consumption Advisory, part of the Ohio Department of Health.
In areas of the river between the Belleville Lock, located 204 miles downstream from the river’s origins in Pittsburgh, to the Indiana border, the advisory agency currently recommends consuming Ohio River fish no more than once a month max. That area includes Adams, Brown, Clermont, Gallia, Hamilton, Lawrence, Meigs and Scioto counties.
Here’s where to check
Recommendations change throughout the year, but you can keep up by visiting the Ohio Department of Health’s Sport Fish Consumption Advisory page, which provides updated information on when certain fish, usually bottom feeders such as carp, are deemed too dangerous to eat at all.
Here’s who should take a pass on Ohio River fish
The agency also warns that people who are more likely to have health effects from eating contaminated fish, includingchildren younger than 15 years old, pregnant women and women who are planning to become pregnant to avoid Ohio River fish altogether.
Just because you have to limit the amount of fish you eat, doesn’t mean the river is a bad place for fishing, as long as you limit your intake or do catch-and-release fishing. Just make sure you have a proper fishing license before casting your line.
Have a question for Just Askin’? Email us.
The Just Askin’ series aims to answer the questions that no one seems to have an answer for, except maybe Google.
Do you have a question you want answered? Send it to us at justaskin@enquirer.com, ideally with Just Askin’ in the subject line.
It isn’t over until it’s over. That’s the case for both the UCLA Bruins football program recruiting and for quarterback Brady Edmunds. Edmunds is currently committed to head to Ohio State but he took a visit from UCLA offensive coordinator Dean Kennedy earlier this week.
Kennedy met Edmunds on Thursday despite the fact that the quarterback has been committed to the Buckeyes since December of 2024 but could the UCLA Bruins be making a run at flipping the quarterback?
Edmunds has only had an official visit with Ohio State but could UCLA heave a heat check on the 6’5” quarterback? New UCLA head coach Bob Chesney is off to an unbelievable start to his recruiting with the Bruins and flipping a recruit of Edmunds’ caliber would be his most impressive move yet.
247 Sports has Edmunds as the No. 16 quarterback in the class, which would give UCLA a clear predecessor for Nico Iamaleava whenever the Bruins current starting quarterback decides to head to the professional level.
It’d be a full circle moment for the Bruins, as Edmunds was originally recruited to Ohio State by former UCLA head coach Chip Kelly, who bailed on UCLA to go run the Buckeyes offense. Ohio State is a great spot for a developing quarterback, as the Buckeyes produce tons of NFL talent, especially at the wide receiver position, which would help Edmunds put up some gaudy numbers in Columbus.
Chesney and the Bruins have geography on their side, Edmunds attends Huntington Beach High School in Southern California, which could potentially become a factor if Edmunds views UCLA as a program on the rise that’d be much closer to his friends and family than out in Ohio.
Time will tell if Kennedy’s visit will make a difference but UCLA’s recruiting has made waves in the first offseason under Chesney and the new regime.
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