Did a Buckeye get jobbed for the Heisman?

Yeah, probably, but it wasn’t Julian Sayin or Jeremiah Smith.

In my fourth year voting for the stiff-arm statue, this was the first year I did not vote for the winner.

I chose Ohio State safety Caleb Downs, who is the best player on the best unit in the country.

This Week in Ohio State Football: Regrouping

I realize he lacked the splash plays to get what usually is necessary to garner support nationally, but I just felt like he was the guy no matter where the zeitgeist seemed to be going after conference championship weekend.

I had Texas Tech linebacker Jacob Rodriguez second and Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza third.

Even before the Big Ten championship game I didn’t really feel like either Mendoza or Sayin seemed to fit the bill.

If one of them had thrown for 400 yards and four touchdown passes I might have changed my mind, but that didn’t happen…

Ohio State-Indiana postgame thoughts

Mendoza is a great player and a great story, but getting 84% of the vote also tells me both this was one of the worst races in Heisman history, such as a race even really existed.

Ironically, Ohio State having multiple candidates on offense hurt both cases and took up all the oxygen for a potential run by Downs in a year that seems like it could have been set up for a non-QB to win it.

I figured Mendoza would win unless the South got crazy for Diego Pavia, and that’s fine — but I don’t see how he could be such a consensus winner.

I worry a lot about groupthink dominating these things, and that is what this looks like: “Oh, well we usually vote for the quarterback of one of the best teams, so I guess he’s the guy.”

But he didn’t put up crazy numbers like Johnny Manziel or Robert Griffin III, so I would think this should have been a wide-open race.

Let’s try to he more creative here, people…

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Usually national reporters only make things worse on a local level, but Dianna Russini of The Athletic was an exception last week.

She wrote a story dispelling the national narrative that Joe Burrow might want to quit on the Cincinnati Bengals, a firestorm that started when he talked about wanting to have fun if he is going to keep playing football.

That was great, except then Burrow and the Bengals had their least-fun game yet in perhaps the most miserable season in team history¹.

I lost all hope the Bengals would make the playoffs after the loss to the Bears begin November. That coupled with the Jets loss proved they were not going to be good enough to go on another second half hot streak and get into the tournament even with Burrow returning early.

Burrow was right yesterday when he said losing football teams find ways to lose. That has been a notable characteristic of Zac Taylor’s squad the past two seasons.

Burrow also took some of the blame Sunday, and rightfully so given the pair of red zone interceptions that crippled the team. Guess what? Even great quarterbacks have off games. Everyone knows this, of course, but it’s more glaring when a guy like Burrow plays for a team with no defense and no coaching staff to speak of.

I do not root for my teams to lose, but I am at least hopeful the season playing out this way means Burrow and the Bengals will finally be rid of Taylor and his awful staff.

He has a year left on his contract, but much like David Bell, he’s already passed the point of negative outcomes this year that would generally get even good coaches fired.

I have only written one Bengals post so far in this newsletter, but it had some of the best Google impressions thanks to people searching for “Bengals suck” being likely to land on it.

I had plenty of thoughts on them since then, but I don’t want to just be negative all the time — plus I figured there was no way they would really turn it around anyway.

Around the internet, most of the hate has gone toward the front office, and some of that is warranted, but I truly believe the coaching staff is the biggest problem. Many of the same people drafted the players for multiple playoff teams under Marvin Lewis, and I believe that is because this staff just can’t develop players.

Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins, Chase Brown and Logan Wilson all came ready made, right? They had to sign basically all the good players on defense out of free agency (Jesse Bates was drafted before Taylor arrived) and almost nobody they’ve tried to develop on their own panned out.

What does that tell you?

As for the Burrow quitting thing, I do not worry about it. I took his comments as meaning he intends to play, so he needs to maintain the mindset that he needs to enjoy himself rather than just coast along and get washed away in negativity…

Bengals continue to suck the fun out of being a fan

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Bruce Thornton played hero for Jake Diebler’s Buckeyes in Cleveland, but that was only part of the story.

His 23 points and game-winner in the second overtime would not have been enough without John Mobley Jr., Christoph Tilly, Devin Royal and Amare Bynum all scoring in double figures as well.

Bynum, a 6-8, 240-pound freshman, might end up being the key to the season.

After Diebler bet on young prospects in the front court last season and went bust, he added Tilly and Brandon Noel of Wright State as veterans instead. That raised the floor for the group, but they can’t do it alone.

As a national top 50 prospect, maybe Bynum can raise the ceiling and give the Buckeyes a better defense and rebounding presence inside.

Right now this looks like a team that is not going to compete for a top spot in the Big Ten but could at least make the NCAA Tournament if is brings the hard hat every night.

WVU doesn’t look like a world-beater, but neither was Pitt so they couldn’t afford to lose both of those games.

The Buckeyes play No. 14 North Carolina on Saturday in Atlanta. That figures to be another measuring stick…

As for Kevin McGuff’s women’s basketball Buckeyes, they pulled away from Toledo for an 85-60 win Sunday afternoon at Value City Arena.

Kennedy Cambridge scored a career-high 23 points while Chance Gray, Jaloni Cambridge and T’yana Todd also scored in double figures.

Ohio State is 9-1 and ranked 21st, though the Buckeyes have only played two quad one games and split those (lost to UConn, beat West Virginia).

They have two more warmup games (Norfolk State and Western Michigan) before Christmas then host No. 4 UCLA on Dec. 28.

This Ohio State team also has a young frontcourt player who could lift it up: Redshirt freshman Kylee Kitts. She was the No. 25 player in the class of 2024 and transferred to Ohio State after one season at Florida. The 6-4 Florida native is averaging 9.3 points and 7.1 rebounds per game.