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Vo. 1, No. 40
This week in Ohio State football, Ross Bjork spoke to reporters for an hour, but that was not the biggest development.
Have you seen what the Buckeyes are doing with offensive line recruiting?
Those two items and an incredible honor for Jim Tressel make up the latest news roundup from Cus Words Sports!
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Top 100 offensive lineman Caden Moss commits to Ohio State
On Friday, Ohio State got big news with the verbal commitment of Caden Moss, an offensive lineman from Jackson, Miss.
He is the sixth lineman to commit to Ohio State for the 2027 class.
If that seems like a big number, it is: The only other time the Buckeyes have brought in that many offensive lineman in the modern recruiting star era (since 2002) was 2020, when they also signed six.
(That group included Paris Johnson Jr., Josh Fryar and Luke Wypler.)
Six represents more than a small difference: The average per year since 2002 is 3.7, though that number has been on the uptick since Ryan Day took over for Urban Meyer after the 2018 season.
From 2020-26, Ohio State has averaged 4.1 offensive linemen per year, including five last year, and it’s also more than a matter of just increasing the raw numbers (even if that in and of itself would probably be a good idea in my opinion).
The quality is also higher (using 247sports rankings) as five of the six OL commits are four-star prospects (Moss, Kellen Wymer, Mason Wilt, Jimmy Kalis and Davis Seaman).
If they all sign (and maintain four-star status or move up to five), that would be the most ever, eclipsing 2014 when Jamarco Jones, Demetrius Knox, Marcelys Jones and Kyle Trout were all four-star prospects (per 247Sports rankings but not the composite).
While he still has some developing to do, the hire of Tyler Bowen to coach the offensive line a year ago is looking pretty good at this point…
Bjork covered a wide variety of topics Thursday, from selling Ohio Stadium naming rights (not likely) to jersey patches (coming soon) to which teams get to take part in sharing TV revenue (still football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball and women’s volleyball), College Football Playoff expansion (bleh) and the future of college athletics overall (TBD).
He mentioned the plans to significantly update the Woody Hayes Athletic Center and slightly alter the Schottenstein Center, seeming to acknowledge the latter is beyond saving as a rocking basketball venue at least.
There was not much actual football talk, but he endorsed men’s basketball coach Jake Diebler, whose team seems to be on the upswing, and women’s volleyball coach Jen Flynn Oldenburg, whose program has fallen off a cliff since making the Elite Eight in 2022.
Bjork’s appearance was somewhat highly anticipated because when he was hired two years ago he spoke about wanting to be at the forefront of changes roiling college sports.
Ohio State is expected to be a leader in that regard anyway, so that all made sense, but so far not much has happened.
He hadn’t had a big presser since last summer despite things changing nonstop in college athletics, and this one didn’t offer much beyond confirmation he believes in the Big Ten’s awful vision for a 24-team College Football Playoff.
Bjork stated unequivocally he expects college sports to remain college sports in the most basic sense, but he did not guarantee much else would be familiar to fans when this round of changes is complete.
“We will go to class. We'll develop young people, and we’ll play games,” Bjork said.
Beyond that, look for Ohio State to be selling sponsorships for everything possible and calling you more and more to beg for more money.
“There’s a lot of data that shows that we have 12 million fans. If 1% of those people would join the Buckeye Club (there would be 120,000 members). Right now we have about 25,000 donors, and that’s a great number, but if you think about how we take the size and scale of Ohio State and maximize it, there really is no ceiling for our program from an engagement, enterprise, value and revenue (standpoint).
“That’s what we’re really going to focus on, is to take vision and turn it into action, and really focus on what we have to do to make sure we’re nationally competitive. We have to make sure there’s a financially sustainable model. We will be the first program that has a $500 million annual operating budget. It’s going to happen. It could happen three years from now, it could happen two years from now, five years from now, but we will have a $500 million athletic budget at some point in time very soon.”
Inspiring, isn’t it?
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Jim Tressel joins exclusive club
In another timeline, Jim Tressel might be Ohio State’s director of athletics today.
I figured that was his logical next step once he retired from coaching, but the TatGate scandal derailed those plans in 2010-11.
While the man who led the Buckeyes to their first national title in three decades and flipped the Michigan rivalry left the program in disgrace 15 years and one month ago, he was not in exile for long.
Ohio State welcomed him back for a celebration of the 10-year anniversary of the ’02 title team in the fall of 2012, and I would say all has pretty much been forgiven among the fans ever since.
He’s obviously done OK for himself, too, serving as the president of Youngstown State from 2014-23 and being named Ohio Lt. Governor last year.
Now he’s set to be immortalized inside Ohio Stadium with his name joining fellow national title winning coaches Paul Brown and Woody Hayes in the Ring of Honor.
In true Tressel fashion, he said in a video posted by the university it made him think not of himself but someone else.
In this case, his mind went to his father, Lee Tressel, who dreamed of playing for Ohio State but ended up leaving the Buckeyes for the Navy during World War II.
Of course, I am also a fan of this because it gives me a chance to remind you I’ve got an ongoing series going recapping Tressel’s first season as head coach of the Buckeyes.
Here’s the first edition in case you missed it:
(Like what you see? Please share by forwarding this email, sharing the link on social media or sending someone this link)
BONUS CONTENT!
Aside from this newsletter, I’m also sharing my thoughts on the premium message board at BuckeyeSports.com, and I’m happy to announce another new venture.
I’m joining the forthcoming BuckeyeInsiders.com site being launched by some other veterans of the Ohio State beat, including Tom Orr and Tony Gerdeman.
While the site is not up yet, I’ve already done a couple of videos with Tom focusing on the basketball team.
Beyond that, I’m still writing for PressProsMagazine.com, The Associated Press and MensJournal.com.
While my PPM column on the Bjork presser is linked above, I had another productive week at MJ, including a look at Dusty May’s decision to leave Michigan for the NBA and the forecast calling for a dangerously hot week ahead.
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