Buckeye Bits: Shaun Wade is Big Ten’s defensive back of the year, men’s basketball gets a schedule change, more

While we’re still three days out from real life Ohio State football taking place, it’s already been quite the eventful week the Buckeyes. Not only have we been celebrating current players as many have received their Big Ten awards this week, but Wednesday was also National Signing Day— and folks, if you didn’t already know, the future of Buckeye Football is looking real bright.

In case you missed it (you likely did because all 21 commits signed before noon), check out this thread of graphics that our own oh-so-talented Gene Ross made via the link below.

As always, Ohio State absolutely dominated compared to the rest of the conference in terms of signing the nation’s top talent. A tale as old as time.

They also finished with the No. 2 overall recruiting class with a score of 310.39, finishing just under Alabama who scored 315.72.

And as it stands right now, Ohio State currently holds a verbal commitment from the top overall recruit in the 2022 class, QB Quinn Ewers.

Here’s what the masters themselves had to say about the legendary class they put together.

The Big Ten announced its defensive awards today and, quite frankly to everyone’s surprise, Shaun Wade was named the Tatum-Woodson Defensive Back of the Year.

We all know Wade is talented and—when he’s on his A-game—deserves this title and then some, however we haven’t really seen A-game-Wade come out to play much this season. In his defense though, he hasn’t had many chances to... literally come out and play, so all things considered, this was a good call by the B1G imo.

Here is where the rest of the Buckeyes stand in the All-Big Ten Football Team (defense), starting with the media’s selections. Tommy Togiai was named second team All-Big Ten, while Jonathon Cooper and Pete Werner were named third team.

A lot more Buckeyes found themselves on the coaches’ selection however. Pete Werner joins Shaun Wade as first team All-Big Ten. Zach Harrison joins Togiai as second team All-Big Ten, while Haskell Garrett and Baron Browning join Cooper as third-team.

Ohio State is standing strong in the No. 4 spot in the College Football Playoff rankings, despite not having played over the weekend. It’s safe to assume a win over Northwestern will sign seal and deliver their way into the playoffs, and may even bump them to No. 3 considering the committee won’t want another Notre Dame/Clemson matchup for the third time this season.

From around the hardwood...

I told you this week, specifically today, was an eventful one! It was announced that the Ohio State men’s basketball team will now face UCLA this Saturday in the CBS Sports Classic instead of North Carolina.

“The revised schedule was created to more closely align COVID-19 testing protocols between the competing programs and their respective conferences,” the CBS Sports Classic said.

North Carolina vs. Kentucky will now be at 2:00 p.m., followed by Ohio State vs. UCLA at 4:15 p.m. on Saturday.

Don’t forget Ohio State Hoops also has a game against Purdue tonight at 7:00 p.m. ET! Connor has your game preview and prediction here: