Joey Bosa is impressing NFL veterans

“All of which is to say: because he's been shutting them down for a decade, it seems pretty likely that Thomas knows a good pass-rusher when he sees one. And he sure sees one in Joey Bosa, the No. 3 pick in the 2016 draft by the San Diego Chargers.”

– Jared Dubin, CBS Sports

Joey Bosa is having a pretty good rookie season. With two games left in the 2016 campaign, the former Buckeye pass-rusher/sacker/nightmare of offensive coaching staffs has 7.5 sacks – which is even more impressive when you remember that he was out of action for a handful of games at the beginning of the year.

Players in the NFL have taken notice of Bosa. Joe Thomas, who’s appeared in 10 Pro Bowls while also being named to 8 All-Pro squads, had some glowing words on Bosa.

As reported by Ohio.com and written about in CBS Sports, Thomas said that Bosa was “the most polished pass rusher I’ve ever seen.” In addition to the sacks, Bosa is indeed putting the heat on opposing quarterbacks. This season, he has an average of 4.9 pressures per game. In comparison, Super Bowl 50 MVP Von Miller is averaging 5.2 pressures per contest, as noted in Jared Dubin’s CBS Sports article.

While Bosa’s stock and stats are on the rise, he wasn’t voted into the Pro Bowl. If he keeps things up, there should be no question that Bosa will be part of the Pro Bowl next season.

“There’s no shot that she can’t make, won’t take. She gets a head of steam up, forget it. You’re not going to stop her.”

– Connecticut women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma on OSU star Kelsey Mitchell, The New York Times

Onto the hardwood. The New York Times wrote up a piece that looked into Buckeye basketball star Kelsey Mitchell’s rise in the college hoops universe.

After being put into a youth boy’s game at her request—and picking up a decent stat line— Mitchell’s path (and focus) to becoming a top player has been paved with hours and hours spent at the basketball court. The upside to all those hours sunk into becoming a proficient basketball player show up in the games; Mitchell has been able to make spectacular dibbles, shots and everything in-between.

This season, the Buckeyes lost to the Connecticut Huskies, one of the most dominant programs in women’s basketball, but the praise of Mitchell’s play-making abilities were talked about by Huskies head coach Geno Auriemma.

Already this season, Mitchell became the fastest player to reach 2,000 points in a career. But, as the New York Times articles notes, the journey doesn’t end here. With Mitchell being able to declare for the WNBA Draft, her next journey could be wowing the professional basketball circuit in the same way she wowed the college basketball.

“The Ohio State (loss) is going to sting,” Speight said this week. “We could blow out Florida State and be 11-2 and we could go next year and be 15-0 and win a national championship, and I’m still going to think back to that game. That’s just one that doesn’t go away no matter how successful or unsuccessful you are down the road.”

– Michigan quarterback Wilton Speight, Detroit News

And lastly, we go back to the gridiron. Actually, we’ll go back in time a little bit as Michigan Wolverine world is still talking about the lost to Ohio State.

In preparation for the Orange Bowl, Wolverine QB Wilton Speight talked about the effect of losing to the Buckeyes in overtime. Speight, who was said to have an injured no throwing shoulder in The Game, played through the pain in the defeat. It should also be noted that Speight was going to play against Ohio State regardless of the condition of his shoulder. While the injury could have had lasting effects, he said that he wasn’t going to to give up on his teammates before the biggest game of the regular season.

But, the main takeaway from the Speight article in the Detroit News was that the loss at OSU won’t go away anytime soon. For Speight, he alluded to the fact that the coaching staff will help him progress as a player, and now with an exodus of talent, will allow him to step into the role of a leader. All of this signifies that Speight will get another crack at the Buckeyes in next year’s edition of The Game, however, the 30-27 OSU victory has been seared into the long-term memory and lore of the rivalry between the two schools.

Who knows, next year’s edition of The Game could come down to inches, too.

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