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“I’ve gotten questions about everything,” McLaurin said. “I have no problem deferring and talking about my teammates. Those are my guys. They work really, really hard. I work hard too, but if I have the chance to pump them up, I’m going to take that opportunity.”
- Tom Rock, Newsday
We wrote about it in yesterday’s WITN as well, but in case you haven’t noticed, former Buckeye receiver Terry McLaurin is having himself quite a week, as he prepares for the Senior Bowl down in Mobile, Alabama, on Saturday. However, while plenty of talk has centered around his play on the field, for good reason, McLaurin is also apparently impressing off the field in interviews with teams.
However, according to McLaurin, the interview questions aren’t just about his game, but about his teammates, namely Nick Bosa and Dwayne Haskins. A consummate teammate, McLaurin has been happy to prop up his former teammates when asked.
On Nick Bosa:
“He has a life-changing opportunity,” McLaurin said. “While we missed him and we wished we could have had him, we understood.”
On Dwayne Haskins:
“His throws are always going to be great, but at that position he’s going into where he’s going to be a top-10 pick, he needs to be a great leader,” McLaurin said. “The maturation he had from TCU where he was unsure and we struggled on offense [Ohio State trailed 14-13 at halftime of an eventual 40-28 victory] to the time in the Maryland game [a thrilling 52-51 victory], he was taking over our offense and I was deferring to him. That’s what you want to see out of your quarterback.”
Given his performance on the field in 2018, serving as the ultimate glue guy for Ohio State’s offense, and now his impressive showing at the Senior Bowl, it’s easy to see McLaurin shooting up draft boards. With how much work he’s put in, and with the rough start he had at Ohio State under receivers coach in Zach Smith, it’s really wonderful to see Terry putting it all together at the right time.
You can watch McLaurin in the Senior Bowl tomorrow at 2:30 p.m. ET, on the NFL Network.
Basketball team desperate for a win on Saturday
It’s been a real tough start to the new year for the Buckeye basketball team. After starting the year 12-1, Ohio State hasn’t won since late December, dropping five straight Big Ten games and falling from the top 15 to firmly on the NCAA tournament bubble in the matter of just a few weeks.
Now, with 13 games remaining on the schedule, Ohio State’s margin for error is tiny. Four of those final 13 games are against ranked teams, and three of them are on the road (Michigan, Michigan State, Maryland). Knowing that those huge tests remain on the schedule, Ohio State has to take care of business in every winnable game left on the schedule, and they’ve got a crucial one in Lincoln, Nebraska at Noon tomorrow.
The Cornhuskers, sitting at 13-6, serve as a bit of a final chance for Ohio State to turn the tides of the season before things truly get out of hand. It’s as even a matchup as the Buckeyes will have until they start February against four bad teams, and by then, things may already be too far gone. A win over Nebraska can recenter things, and getting Ohio State headed back in the right direction before they hit the final stretch of the season.
“The Ohio State women’s tennis team begins dual match play this weekend in Atlanta for ITA Kick-Off Weekend. No. 14 Georgia Tech is the site host, joined by the Buckeyes, Auburn and No. 25 Kentucky.”
- Ohio State Buckeyes dot com
Dual match play kicks off this weekend for the Ohio State’s women’s tennis team, as they face off with Georgia Tech at 10 a.m. ET on Saturday. Both the consolation game and title game will happen on Sunday, so the Buckeyes are guaranteed two games regardless of outcome.
All four teams were in the NCAA tournament last season, meaning that it should be a pretty high quality series of games, as it is every year. Getting two wins this weekend would be a huge deal for the Buckeyes as they look to return to the NCAA tournament this season.