Buckeye Bits: Ryan Day talks first practice, Justin Fields extra motivated, Rondale Moore opts out

Folks, believe it or not, we actually made it to football season, or at least official preparations for football season. Today, the Ohio State Buckeyes kicked off their fall camp, so we are going even heavier in the football coverage for today’s Buckeye Bits than normal.

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From around Land-Grant Holy Land...

Ohio State recruitment of top 2022 athlete picking up steam

Tia Johnston, LGHL

It’s time for Dasan McCullough to make the recruiting world go #BOOM!

Sleepers of the Room: Running back injuries open the door for Steele Chambers

Also Tia Johnston, LGHL

Last week, I wrote about the leaders in Ohio State’s running back room, but eventually arrived on the fact that there is no real leader, and every guy in the mix has something to prove. As Tia points out, that works in the converse as well. Pretty much everybody is a bit of an unknown from this group, but Steele Chambers is even more under the radar than players like Trey Sermon, Master Teague, and Marcus Crowley. However, he has just as much potential to break out as any of them.

Ohio State 2020 schedule breakdown

Gene Ross, LGHL

From his neighborhood Dunkin’ Donuts — since Tropical Storm Isaias knocked out his power — Gene ran through the rather disappointing Ohio State football schedule 2.0.

Get your ‘Hang 100 on ‘em’ shirt today!

Me, LGHL

As the black sheep of the Ohio State blogosphere, I consider it one of the primary duties of all LGHL staffers to find as many petty ways to needle, goad, and troll our rivals up north. So, with all of the recent reports coming out about the growing feud between Jim Harbaugh and Ryan Day, we thought it our responsibility to bring this shirt to the masses as soon as possible.

I bet Darron Lee would look great in one of these Ts!

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From around the gridiron...

What we learned as Ryan Day evaluated start of training camp

Austin Ward, Lettermen Row

Ohio State head coach Ryan Day had always been scheduled to talk to the media on Thursday, but it had originally been planned as a preview of the first day of fall camp. However, with the Big Ten moving OSU’s first game up from Saturday, Sept. 5 to Thursday, Sept. 3, the Zoom call became a recap of the first day of camp instead.

In the chat, Day said that he felt comfortable with the safety measures put in place to keep his players and staff healthy and praised the B1G for the protocols that they handed out, and it seems that his team feels the same way, as no Buckeyes have opted out of the season thus far.

The second-year head coach previewed the right tackle battle between Dawand Jones, Nicholas Petit-Frere, and Paris Johnson; praised his collection of running backs; and as you will see below, said that his quarterback is ready to achieve big things in this unusual season.

Obviously there is little that we can be absolutely certain of as the Buckeyes prepare for the season, but Day said that the team is remaining focused and motivated, despite having to adapt to changes happening on nearly a daily basis.

This is very bad for everybody else in the B1G.

Clemson starts at No. 1 in preseason Amway Coaches Poll for second consecutive season

Eddie Timanus, USA Today

No real surprise that the Clemson Tigers come in at No. 1 in the first Coaches Poll. The Ohio State Buckeyes are next at No. 2 with the second most No. 1 votes. A trio of SEC teams round out the top five in No. 3 Alabama, No. 4 Georgia, and No. 5 LSU.

The other B1G teams in the initial poll are No. 7 Penn State (although that will likely change with Micah Parsons opting out of the season), No. 12 Wisconsin, No. 15 Michigan, No. 18 Minnesota (although that will likely change with Rashon Bateman opting out of the season), and No. 23 Iowa. Nebraska and Indiana got a combined three votes to be in the ARV category.

I don’t know about you, but I really want this Buckeye team to have a chance at revenge against Clemson.

Well this certainly change the makeup of OSU’s game in West Lafayette on Sept. 17.

Ohio State and Michigan Need to Play their Unique October Matchup Under the Lights this Fall

David Regimbal, Eleven Warriors

Our boy Brett Ludwiczak has been championing this idea for a while now, and I completely support it. Because of B1G rules, conference teams can’t host night games in November, and because of the tradition of The Game, it is almost always played at noon ET.

But folks, this is 2020. We are living through an absolutely bungled and mismanaged pandemic. There are no rules. As I’ve been saying on Twitter, this is the time for all sports to embrace the weird. Let’s get funky with as many things as possible. This year’s gonna have an asterisk by it anyway, so we might as well go crazy.

It’s been a while since we’ve had a Buckeye hype video, but I am HERE. FOR. IT!

Penn State announces no fans at fall sporting events, including football

Benjamin Ferree, The Daily Collegian

If the football season makes it to Nov. 7, when the Buckeyes travel to Happy Valley, the only white that they will see out in the stands will be the seats themselves.

As if there was ever any doubt.

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From everywhere else...

Ozzie Guillén going after his former player and Buckeye legend Nick Swisher.

How dare you, Ozzie. How very dare you.

No matter what you think about how he’s handled the coronavirus response, I hope everyone wishes Gov. DeWine a speedy recovery.

It’s a shame that they need to take this into their own hands.

In this time of intense examination of the failings of institutions at every level and in every area of our society, it is encouraging to see powerful, respected individuals taking the reins of change in hand. However, it is also a reminder of the generations of “leaders” who have abdicated their responsibilities for far too long in favor of maintaining a death grip on power.

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And now for something completely different...

Why is this so soothing?