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Buckeye Bits: We’re back

All of the latest Ohio State news from around the beat and beyond.

By Tia Johnston

We made it, fam. After a month of pure and utter chaos within the Big Ten community, the conference has finally announced its plan for a fall football season. Finally, the fake reports from unreliable sources have ceased, and Twitter, for the first time in a long time, is full of nothing but good news, humor and some pretty incredible videos.

While it was almost overwhelming to put together because of all the great content today, I tried my best to roundup all of the best tweets to paint a picture of how the day unfolded. (In case you missed it because you were, ya know, at work at 9:30 a.m. on a Wednesday).

First up, the Big Ten’s press conference:

If you click on the tweet below, Dan Hope of Eleven Warriors has a thread of all the main quotes that came out of the B1G’s presser, including details on medical protocols, rapid tests, season format and the schedule.

Cleveland.com’s Doug Lesmerises, a man of the people, straight up asked Kevin Warren why his communication over the last month, well, sucked. To which Warren answered (if you want to call it that) “...a lot of the criticism that has been displayed over the last couple months, I take it as, we’re passionate in the Big Ten. We have passionate student-athletes, we have passionate families, we have passionate fans.” Outstanding swerve, commissioner.

Before you get too excited about the return of the football season, you should read the logistics of the season. The Big Ten is requiring players to sit out 21 days after a COVID-19 positive test so that they have a 7-day transition period back to football after 14 days away from the team. Ohio State Football head physician Dr. James Borcher says “this is a safe protocol that will allow us to complete this season ... If we need to adjust, we’ll adjust.”

Most importantly, the Buckeyes should still have the opportunity to compete in the CFP. Having Iowa AD Gary Barta as the CFP selection committee chairman definitely helps push the Big Ten’s case in that department.

And now, Ohio State’s press conference:

The link below has the footage as well as all the main takeaways from Ohio State’s presser, which included Ryan Day, Gene Smith and OSU president Kristina Johnson.

Ohio State certainly got a good one in president Kristina Johnson. As Smith said in the presser, “leading The Ohio State University in normal times as a challenge ... to come in and deal with what we were dealing with in the athletics space is a daunting task, and she’s been phenomenal. I can’t thank her enough for her tireless work.”

Is someone cutting onions?

As for the return of Shaun Wade and Wyatt Davis...

Under the NCAA’s rules concerning COVID-19, players are allowed to opt out and opt back in as many times as they’d like, as long as they do not receive any benefits after opting out. Neither Wade nor Davis have signed with an agent.

During his press conference, Smith had to step away because Davis was calling him. The plot thickens.

It wasn’t until later on Wednesday evening that we got the good news. It isn’t officially a done deal yet, but Wyatt Davis is opting back in. If everything goes smoothly — which we anticipate it should given the circumstances — it is a MASSIVE win for Ohio State as their best offensive lineman is making his return.

Then, SportsCenter announced that Wade would be joining the show to talk about his decision (which obviously got my hopes up). But first, Wade’s dad, Randy, made an appearance.

Once it was Wade’s turn, he gave the fine people of ESPN quite literally nothing.

He basically said “I don’t know yet, I’m just trying to enjoy my birthday.” And logged off.

Reactions from Ohio State football players and staff:

And my personal favorite...Justin Fields with big eyeball emoji-energy.

Plus some more good news and something to make Ohio State fans feel good. Oklahoma transfer RB Trey Sermon officially became a Buckeye on Wednesday with the removal of his black stripe.

Miscellaneous tweets that were just too good not to include. I saved the best videos for last:

This wasn’t a “fun” tweet per-say, but if you see Jerry Sandusky trending on Twitter, this is why. And don’t get me wrong, I get Christine’s point that, ethically, it’s not exactly great that college football teams can get rapid tests from the U.S. government while hospitals, nursing homes, etc. cannot, but to call this “the darkest day in Big Ten history?” C’mon now.

This. This is the tweet. Also reiterated by Matt in his column today.

If you watch nothing else today, you must watch the following:

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