Buckeye Bits: Another day, another example of Dabo being the worst

Happy Monday, friends, and for those who celebrate the holiday, merry Christmas Eve Eve Eve Eve! In just under two weeks, Ohio State and Clemson will face off yet again in the CFP, and man oh man are the Buckeyes HUNGRY for revenge (but we’ll get to that later).

From around Land-Grant Holy Land...

For some exceptional grade-A content, mosey on over to our home page where we have a couple spicy columns by Matt and Meredith respectively, a B1G championship game analysis by Gene, and another MC&J by Brett.

I’m sick of this man being the main subject of my Monday Buckeye Bits...

Yet here we are. Dabo Swinney continues to be the worst after ranking Ohio State outside of the top 10 in his final coaches’ poll ballot. (Also, why in the world is there a coaches poll, anyway?)

I mean... Ohio State already had enough material on their bulletin board for this game but hey, we’ll make room for this one! There’s no doubt in my mind that the Woody Hayes facility will be wallpapered with this list by the end of the day today.

Same, Lebron.

What makes this storyline even better is that Michigan (!) offensive coordinator Josh Gattis jumped to Ohio State’s defense, arguing that a 6-0 Big Ten team had to endure more challenges despite playing less games than other contenders.

That is until Michigan fans lost their ever-loving minds on him and he was forced to delete the tweet and lock his Twitter account. We appreciate the effort though, Josh!

Not every bad take, insult, remark, etc. is enough to motivate a team, but this...this has to have Ryan Day and company fired. the. heck. up. Swinney’s been disrespecting Ohio State in the media for weeks now, saying an undefeated team who has played six games should not be ranked above teams who have played nine or 10, but ranking them ELEVENTH? Like Doug writes “what Swinney gave the Buckeyes on Monday is bulletin board, wallpaper, voicemail, T-shirt, social media, let it sink into your soul material. Oh, and Ohio State should consider changing its Twitter handle to ‘The 11th-best team in the country.’”

The video below (which apparently Demario McCall secretly streamed?) was before Dabo’s ranking became public, for reference.

Players of the game...

Trey Sermon was named the Offensive Player of the Game after he set an Ohio State single-game record AND Big Ten Championship record with 331 rushing yards.

Sixth-year senior Justin Hilliard was named defensive player of the game after leading the team with nine tackles, two tackles for loss, an interception, and a fumble recovery.

And last but not least, walk-on punter Zach Hoover—who was called upon after Drue Chrisman was ruled out due to COVID-19— rose to the occasion and then some, averaging 39.3 on three punts, downing two of them inside the 10-yard line.

Here’s the full list of game champions. You will notice a prominent name on offense missing from this list.

Haskell Garrett throwing some shade at the Big Ten, who ranked him third-team all Big Ten. We really do love to see it.

I mean did anyone actually have Trey Sermon passing Eddie George’s program record for rushing yards on their 2020 bingo cards?

EYEBALL EMOJI...

Our recruiting analysts will have more on this in tomorrow morning’s State Secrets, but here’s a preview.

From around the hardwood...

After losing to Purdue on the road and beating UCLA last week, Ohio State dropped three spots from No. 20 to No. 23 in the latest AP Poll.