Hello and welcome back to Cus Words Sports!
If you were wondering why I didn’t send a newsletter following Ryan Day’s Tuesday press conference, it’s because I was pinch-hitting for Jeff Gilbert at Press Pros Magazine.
Jeff is our award-winning Ohio State beat writer, and I add my perspective on the Buckeyes from time to time there on top of covering high school football, but he was feeling under the weather earlier this week so I stepped in and wrote about how Ryan Day kept coming back to one particular word as he previewed Illinois and reviewed what his team has done so far this season.
So that was the most interesting thing I heard at Ohio State this week, and you can read that here.
Ryan Day's weekly press conference was, in one word, efficient. Marcus Hartman writes for Press Pros: pressprosmagazine.com/2025/10/08/rya…
— #PressProsMagazine (#@PressProsMag)
9:28 AM • Oct 8, 2025
While you’re there, you can find more stories from Jeff as well as Press Pros coverage on high school football and volleyball from Western and Central Ohio.
(Which I also recap here every Monday.)
PressProsMagazine.com is a site that is mature and growing at the same time, and I’m thankful to be part of it providing both high school and Ohio State coverage!
I’m also happy to be back posting on the BuckeyeSports.com premium message board and contributing to Buckeye Sports Bulletin’s coverage in print (Yes, they still send out a high-quality print product after every game! Let me know if you are interested in subscribing to them and I’ll connect you.)
Stay up to date on Ohio State football, basketball and other sports with a subscription to Buckeye Sports Bulletin.
Buckeye fans can also sign up today to receive the next four print editions of BSB — completely free!
buckeyesports.com/subscribe-4iss…
— #Buckeye Sports Bulletin (#@OhioStateBSB)
9:19 PM • Aug 31, 2025
As for my site, I’m enjoying it so far.
Of course I would like more subscribers, but Rome wasn’t built in a day.
The plan is still to maintain this as a free site1, a supplement to the other work I’m doing for Press Pros, BSB, Reds Report, the Associated Press and Men’s Journal (and you? Drop me a line if you are interested in having me write for you or doing some sort of collaboration).
Free sites require ads to make money, which is why you see them here from time to time (and hopefully more in the future if we’re being honest).
I’ve already signed up for the Google Workspace referral program because I am using some of their professional tools (including email hosting and Gemini AI to assist in research), so if you are interested in something like that (or even if you’re not), go ahead and click on the button below to learn more (I’ll get compensation if you end up subscribing to their service).
Beyond that, I can certainly use a lot of help getting the word out, so please share! You can forward this email to someone just like any other email, or you can just send the URL — www.cuswordssports.com.
I’m working on a referral program that includes perks for making recommendations (I’m thinking puppy photos? Salsa recipes? Let me know what you’d like to see), but for now you’ll have to settle for my eternal gratitude.
And if you happen to see an ad on the site, please do me a favor and give it a click. You don’t have to buy anything, but I might get a little $$ if you do.
I’m also looking for advertisers if you would be interested or know anyone who might be.
Hit me up at [email protected] if you have any questions or suggestions.
For now, I get a few ad opportunities from my newsletter host, Beehiiv (and I’m a partner with them so let me know if you’re interested in starting your own newsletter and I’ll share what I know — or just click this link).
OK now you’re up to date on what’s happening with this site, and I’ve got some hot sauce to make and tomatoes and peppers to pick just in case it gets a little colder in rural Clark County tonight than the weather folks are predicting.
I’ll be back with This Week In Ohio State as usual on Friday.
That is intended to be the main feature of my newsletter during and after the season while I also drop in whenever I have anything else I think is worth sharing from the top (or sometimes depths) of my sports-addled mind.
If you want to see more of what's being said during Ohio State interviews, check out my YouTube channel, and for more great sportswriting, check out my buddy Matt Brown’s newsletter that focuses on the business of college sports.
1 I could also try a “freemium” model in the future with some free content and some that is behind a paywall. I’ve also seen sites that simply give you the option of joining the pay tier basically as a show of support. I’m just pointing this out now so there’s no shock to the system later if I go one of these routes. I am generally in favor of people getting paid for what they do, but I believe making this site free is the best option at this time for growth, especially as long as I’ve got some other paying gigs. We’ll see how it goes…