Remembering Dwayne Haskins and Previewing the Spring Game

While we’re looking forward to this weekend’s spring game at Ohio Stadium, we had to start this week’s episode of Real Pod Wednesdays by looking back.Following this weekend’s tragic death of Dwayne Haskins, we took some time at the beginning of this week’s show to reflect on the impact Haskins made on Ohio State and remember some of his most memorable performances as a Buckeye, including Ohio State’s comeback wins against Michigan in 2017 and Penn State in 2018.After paying tribute to Haskins, we turn our attention (beginning at 15:20) to the upcoming scrimmage in the Shoe, where the general public will have the opportunity to watch this year’s Buckeyes in action inside Ohio Stadium for the first time this year on Saturday. We discuss what we’ll be watching most closely on Saturday – spoiler alert: the defense – and which players we believe could benefit most from a big spring game performance, including Julian Fleming and Evan Pryor.We also talk about everything we learned (starting at 26:38) from the final week of Ohio State player interviews before the spring game, including some telling comments from C.J. Stroud about what he’s seeing from Jim Knowles’ defense in practice this spring compared to what he saw from the Buckeyes’ defense in practice last year. Could facing more defensive looks in practice have tangible benefits for Ohio State’s offense when the actual games begin this fall? We think it will.Later in the show, we also discuss what Ohio State’s new assistant coach contracts tell us (39:35) and what you should know about the two newest members of Ohio State’s recruiting class of 2023, Malik Hartford and Mark Fletcher.We spend the final 10 minutes of the show talking about some of the latest developments with Ohio State men’s basketball, including what we think should be expected from Justice Sueing after he announced his return to the Buckeyes for the 2022-23 season and who else the Buckeyes could still add from the transfer portal. (Note: This episode of Real Pod Wednesdays was recorded before Meechie Johnson Jr. announced his decision to transfer from Ohio State.)