In partnership with
Vo. 1, No. 39
Hello, and welcome to another edition of Cus Words Sports!
This week in Ohio State football, we learned what Ryan Day is emphasizing this offseason.
While Day hasn’t done much with the local media this offseason, he spoke to ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg for a story that ran this week about his concern about the Buckeyes being ready to play their best in the final quarter of the game.
That makes sense for a few reasons.
Most of all: They wilted in the fourth quarter against Indiana and Miami (Fla.) last season, costing them the opportunity to defend their national championship, but that’s not all.
They also figure to be in a lot more close games this season given the projected strength of their schedule (more on that below).
Sure, this seems obvious, but there is another twist: The Buckeyes tend to be so dominant against most of their schedule, they don’t get a lot of opportunities to practice performing in the clutch.
So what’s a coach to do?
Have his guys treat everything like it’s the fourth quarter throughout the offseason, apparently.
"There'll be some confrontations, there'll be some little bit of yelling, a little bit of guys getting after one another, and it's so good for us, because you have to play in the chaos in the fourth quarter, and you've got to have mature guys who are at their very best," linebacker Payton Pierce said. "I think guys are going to be ready this season to go dominate in fourth quarter.”
How that works out remains to be seen, but that was an interesting window into what the Buckeyes are focusing on a little more than a month before Big Ten Media Days in Chicago.
When it all clicks.
Why does business news feel like it's written for people who already get it?
Morning Brew changes that.
It's a free newsletter that breaks down what's going on in business, finance, and tech — clearly, quickly, and with enough personality to keep things interesting. The result? You don't just skim headlines. You actually understand what's going on.
Try it yourself and join over 4 million professionals reading daily.
The bulk of the news this time of year revolves around recruiting
June is big now because of changes in the college football calendar.
Not only did Ohio State host its one-day recruiting camps and two team seven-on-seven competitions over the past two weeks, official visits are going on all month (those used to have to wait until fall or even winter).
This weekend, Bucknuts reports Ohio State is having Brady Edmunds, Jamier Brown, Karlos May, Blake Wong and Jordan Donahoo on official visits.
Edmunds, a quarterback from Huntington Beach, Calif., and Brown, a receiver from Huber Heights who has moved to Central Ohio and will play for Sunbury Big Walnut this fall, are both verbally committed.
May is a four-star DT from Birmingham, Ala., Wong is a four-star receiver from Norco, Calif., and Donahoo is a three-star receiver from Oviedo, Fla.
Edmunds is in a unique position because he is a long-time commit, but there seems to be some doubt about whether or not that will stick.
That appears to be more a result of what Ohio State is doing — trying to recruit over him, essentially — than his own wandering eye.
To wit, Ohio State got a close-up look at the No. 1-ranked quarterback prospect in the country this week when Christopher Vargas of Massachusetts teamed up with Brown on a seven-on-seven team.
While Vargas mulls offers from Ohio State, Oregon, Alabama and others, Edmunds is doing his due diligence. That includes taking an official visit to UCLA, which amounts to his hometown school, although he told reporters at the camp including Patrick Murphy of Bucknuts walking away from Ohio State would be difficult.
Not only has he been committed to the Buckeyes for more than a year, he also grew up an Ohio State fan.
"I think at this point in recruiting and in college football, it's a whole different game. So you've got to kind of look out for yourself in a sense, and that's kind of what I'm doing. At the end of the day, it's a business. It's turning into one day by day, and so many rules are changing. So for me to just continue to talk to schools and continue to be a recruit still, I think it's key to just protect myself at the end of the day.”
Being part of a two-quarterback class is not a dealbreaker.
“At the end of the day, there's always going to be another quarterback. When I get here, there's going to be four no matter what. When I go to the NFL, you might get drafted in the first round next year. The next year, they're going to get a third-rounder or vice versa. That's just how the game of football is. So by no means I'm not worried about it.”
Will he stick with OSU? Will they get Vargas instead? Could Ohio State end up with both? What about neither?
All of those seem to be on the table.
Two more commits this week
Entering this weekend, the 15-person Ohio State class sits at No. 9 in 247Sports Composite national rankings.
The class grew twice this week with verbal commitments from Deontay Malone of Massillon Washington and Jaden Carey Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) St. Thomas Aquinas.
Both are four-star cornerbacks, though 247Sports analyst Garrick Hodge wrote this week Carey profiles best at nickel because he is not the biggest guy.
Malone is the fifth member of the class from Ohio, joining Brown, Liberty Center offensive lineman Kellen Wymer, St. Clairsville offensive lineman Mason Wilt and Columbus Bishop Watterson offensive lineman Davis Seaman.
About the schedule
Meanwhile, the actual 2026 season is getting closer by the day, as evidenced by the release this week of ESPN’s annual Big Ten preview from the perspective of Bill Connelly’s advanced stat, SP+.
That is based on measuring how efficient and explosive a team is while considering a few other factors as well, including past success and recruiting rankings.
Ohio State is No. 1 nationally in preseason SP+ projections followed by Oregon.
Indiana is No. 5 while USC, Michigan, Penn State, Washington and Iowa are all in the top 25 as well.
The Buckeyes don’t play the Nittany Lions or Huskies, but they are scheduled to take on No. 32 Illinois and No. 37 Nebraska along with NO. 49 Northwestern and No. 53 Maryland.
So, yeah, looks like a pretty tough schedule on paper…
Ohio State is expected to have the No. 2 offense and No. 1 defense in the nation while the Ducks are first in offense and third in defense, and Indiana also has both units in the top 10.
Do click and read the whole thing, but Connelly wonders if this is Oregon’s year after Michigan, Ohio State and Indiana won the last three national championships in their own unique way.
The Ducks have felt on the cusp for several years but gotten thrashed in the playoffs the past two years.
Now they have perhaps the best quarterback in the country in Dante Moore plus a talented group of skill players and overall defensive players. They do have questions on the offensive line, though and will be breaking in two new coordinators. (Plus they might just be a perpetual fraud?)
(Like what you see? Please share by forwarding this email, sharing the link on social media or sending someone this link)
Learn how to code faster with AI in 5 mins a day
You're spending 40 hours a week writing code that AI could do in 10.
While you're grinding through pull requests, 200k+ engineers at OpenAI, Google & Meta are using AI to ship faster.
How?
The Code newsletter teaches them exactly which AI tools to use and how to use them.
Here's what you get:
AI coding techniques used by top engineers at top companies in just 5 mins a day
Tools and workflows that cut your coding time in half
Tech insights that keep you 6 months ahead
Sign up and get access to the Ultimate Claude code guide to ship 5X faster.
BONUS CONTENT!
Aside from this newsletter, I’m also sharing my thoughts on the premium message board at BuckeyeSports.com.
Beyond that, I’m writing for multiple sites, including primarily PressProsMagazine.com, The Associated Press and MensJournal.com.
This week was busy at Men’s Journal, I had pieces about EA Sports signing a high school football player for the first time and the lineup of games coming to PlayStation Plus subscribers this month.
Also, did you know which state has produced the most United States players in the World Cup? Click here to find out.
Interested in starting your own newsletter? I’m using Beehiiv, and I highly recommend it.
Click here to learn more (and if you end up subscribing, I would get a commission, but it is free to try and to maintain a newsletter).
