Drafting the 2023 Ohio State Football Team

If you could pick only 22 Ohio State football players to go win a game for you against 22 other Ohio State football players, which Buckeyes would you choose?That’s the question we were tasked with answering on this week’s episode of Real Pod Wednesdays as we held our annual Eleven Warriors preseason team draft, going head-to-head to pick the best possible lineups for a hypothetical intrasquad game.The ground rules were as follows: Each of us had 22 total picks to draft 11 offensive players and 11 defensive players. Offensively, we were required to draft one quarterback, five offensive linemen and five skill-position players (wide receivers, running backs or tight ends). Defensively, we were required to draft at least three defensive linemen, two linebackers and four defensive backs with the other two picks being flexible, though we both opted to draft four defensive linemen and five defensive backs.Griffin won the pre-draft coin toss which allowed him to choose between the No. 1 overall pick or the second and third picks, and he chose to pick first. Following the No. 1 pick, we alternated selections two at a time in a snake-draft format until we both filled up our 22-man rosters.Our picks:1. Marvin Harrison Jr., WR (Griffin)2. JT Tuimoloau, DE (Dan)3. Donovan Jackson, G (Dan)4. Josh Fryar, OT (Griffin)5. Josh Simmons, OT (Griffin)6. Emeka Egbuka, WR (Dan)7. Kyle McCord, QB (Dan)8. Tommy Eichenberg, LB (Griffin)9. Carson Hinzman, C (Griffin)10. Matt Jones, G (Dan)11. Denzel Burke, CB (Dan)12. Mike Hall, DT (Griffin)13. Jack Sawyer, DE (Griffin)14. Cade Stover, TE (Dan)15. Lathan Ransom, S (Dan)16. Sonny Styles, S (Griffin)17. Davison Igbinosun, CB (Griffin)18. Steele Chambers, LB (Dan)19. C.J. Hicks, LB (Dan)20. TreVeyon Henderson, RB (Griffin)21. Julian Fleming, WR (Griffin)22. Ty Hamilton, DT (Dan)23. Jordan Hancock, CB (Dan)24. Tyleik Williams, DT (Griffin)25. Cameron Martinez, S (Griffin)26. Ja’Had Carter, S (Dan)27. Xavier Johnson, WR/RB (Dan)28. Miyan Williams, RB (Griffin)29. Enokk Vimahi, G (Griffin)30. Tegra Tshabola, OT (Dan)31. Kenyatta Jackson, DE (Dan)32. Caden Curry, DE (Griffin)33. Jyaire Brown, CB (Griffin)34. Josh Proctor, S (Dan)35. Carnell Tate, WR (Dan)36. Kye Stokes, S (Griffin)37. Cody Simon, LB (Griffin)38. Jakob James, C (Dan)39. Zen Michalski, OT (Dan)40. Brandon Inniss, WR (Griffin)41. Victor Cutler Jr., G (Griffin)42. Tywone Malone, DT (Dan)43. Chip Trayanum, RB (Dan)44. Devin Brown, QB (Griffin)Listen to the podcast to hear our rationale for picking each player where we did and our arguments in favor of our respective teams. For written explanations of every selection, a side-by-side lineup comparison and to vote for whose team would win, visit elevenwarriors.com.In the final minutes of the show after completing our draft, we also talk about Pat Fitzgerald’s dismissal from Northwestern, what Griffin learned from interviews with the Ohio State women’s basketball team and what he’s hearing about how the offseason is going for the men’s basketball team.