Buckeye Bits: Pair of freshmen lose their black stripes, B1G hoping rapid tests prevent cancellations, more

Happy first day of fall, everybody! The air is crisp, the leaves will soon begin to change, and of course the most important aspect of the changing seasons — Ohio State football is on the horizon.

If things had gone normally in 2020, which pretty much nothing in the world has, the Buckeyes would already be three games deep into their schedule, with a pair of home games against Bowling Green and Buffalo sandwiching a road showdown with Oregon on the original non-conference slate. That is clearly no more, and although it stinks that we have to wait another month to see Ohio State take the field, at this point we are lucky they are playing at all.

With all the rumors of the season happening or not happening hopefully a thing of the past, we are looking forward actually talking about on-field stuff these next few weeks. Ohio State practices should be ramping up shortly, which should provide some of the much-needed football content we’ve been craving. That being said, let’s get to today’s headlines.

From around Land-Grant Holy Land...

Five-star 2022 OT lists Ohio State among top schools
(Dan Hessler, LGHL)

Luckily for the most part we have had a pretty constant stream of recruiting news to keep us somewhat sane in these times of great uncertainty, and the large majority of that has been good news as Ryan Day and his staff have been dominating on the trail. They're continuing to see the fruits of their labor, as yet another five-star prospect has included the Buckeyes on his short list.

Buckeyes in the NFL Week 2: Injuries overshadow standout performances
(Gene Ross, LGHL)

It was a terrible weekend for injuries in the NFL, as we saw so many of the league’s big names go down on Sunday. Unfortunately, there were more than a few former Buckeyes included on that list, with both Nick Bosa and Malik Hooker suffering season-ending injuries and a few others with ailments that will keep them out for at least a few weeks.

Yesterday’s Buckeye Bits
(Tia Johnston, LGHL)

ICYMI, check out yesterday’s Buckeye Bits, where we discussed some analyses of Ohio State’s new Big Ten schedule, some of the Vegas odds surrounding the Buckeyes, why Justin Fields is going to win the Heisman, and much more!

From around the gridiron...

News out of Ohio State practice!! Man that feels good to say.

The first three Buckeye newbies have officially lost their black stripe. After transfer running back Trey Sermon was the first to lose the black stripe last Wednesday, a pair of freshmen lost theirs on Monday as Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Kourt Williams officially became members of the team as part of the program ritual.

Position-by-position overview of Ohio State’s 85-man scholarship roster
(Dan Hope, Eleven Warriors)

Now that we are officially about a month away from Ohio State football, it is officially once again #PositionPreviewSzn. With Wyatt Davis and Shaun Wade returning to the program, nothing has really changed in terms of the last time we saw the Buckeyes’ roster. Dan gives us a look at each position on the depth chart, as well as Ryan Day's thoughts on each group from his radio show last week.

How rapid testing could allow Big Ten to avoid game cancellations
(Colin Hass-Hill, Eleven Warriors)

With eight games occurring in eight weeks, the Big Ten cannot afford for games to be postponed because of COVID-19. We’ve already seen this occur numerous times across the college football slate that is already playing, including within the ACC and Big 12. Many of these cancellations have happened because of the inability for adequate contact tracing — something the B1G is hoping to eliminate the need for through daily rapid testing.

They’re banking on that being the case, so they can avoid things like this...

Urban Meyer has no regrets about beating up on Michigan for seven straight seasons.

Jonathon Cooper’s motivation ‘higher than ever’ after tough last year
(Patrick Murphy, Bucknuts)

One of the people I am most personally happy for that Ohio State will get a chance to play football this fall is Jonathon Cooper. The senior defensive end battled through numerous injuries last season, and wound up taking a redshirt so he could come back this year to try and help his team win a national title. That was nearly taken away from him, and now the Buckeye captain will get a chance to show off all his hard work this offseason as he and the rest of the Rushmen are tasked with replacing Chase Young.

From around the hardwood...

Lindy’s handicaps Ohio State’s place in Big Ten hoops race
(Steve Helwagen, Bucknuts)

Lindy’s Sports College Basketball annual has dropped for the 2020-21 season, and they have Ohio State ranked No. 22 overall and fifth in the Big Ten — which is exactly where they finished in the conference last season. According to Lindy’s, the pros for Chris Holtmann’s squad this year are both his returning guards in Duane Washington Jr. and C.J. Walker, as well as the growth of E.J. Liddell and his additions through the transfer portal in Justice Sueing and Seth Towns.

From everywhere else...

Ohio State defensive lineman Haskell Garrett was injured in a shooting back at the end of August after trying to break up an altercation between a man and woman on the street one night. Thankfully Garrett was okay, but he is now facing large medical bills from intensive surgery on his cheek as well as dental implants. A GoFundMe has been started to assist Garrett and his family in covering these expenses, and at the time this is being written has already raised over $17,000.

Kobe Bryant was truly one of the greatest minds in all of sports. Gone way too soon.

Is the Mountain West going to come back before the Pac-12 does?

13 years ago to the day we received this infamous rant by Mike Gundy.