The Scarlet and Gray

[toysoldier00]

Indiana might be good

Indiana

Jesus Northwestern destroyed Penn State, look at the Hoosiers go........ almost like they are going to win the Natty.

It's amazing what having the best QB in the country can do lmao

Donaldson should have stayed at WVU smh

tbh, yes.

That BTA that Penn State got

Makes me feel better about Oklahoma losing by 3.

Oklahoma will get their get up

Bye bye Franklin

The hell is going on with Penn State?

Probably the most shocking result I've seen this year

[toysoldier00]

Day Says Eddrick Houston “Should Be Ready” to Return against Wisconsin
By Zachary Anderson on October 13, 2025


Sophomore Defensive Tackle Eddrick Houston Will Return After Sustaining a Dislocated Knee in the Opener.



Ohio State is set to get a significant piece of its defensive line back.

Ryan Day said after the Buckeyes’ win over Illinois that sophomore defensive tackle Eddrick Houston is expected to return next week against Wisconsin after missing the last five games with a dislocated knee. Houston dressed and warmed up Saturday night in Champaign, but Ohio State ultimately chose to hold him out as a precaution.

“He was close,” Day said postgame. “He warmed up, he dressed, and we felt good about where he was at. But in a game like that, with where the score was and where we are in the season, we just decided not to push it. The plan is he should be ready to go next week.”

Houston suffered the injury in the fourth quarter of Ohio State’s season-opening win over Texas and has been sidelined since. The timing was especially unfortunate, as the former five-star recruit entered the year as one of Ohio State’s top breakout candidates, a sophomore poised to take on a larger role on the interior after flashing as a freshman on last year’s national championship team.

Despite being a first-year player in 2024, Houston was a consistent part of Ohio State’s rotation, playing 141 snaps, one of the higher totals among the Buckeyes’ freshman contributors, and appearing in 15 of the team’s 16 games during its title run. He finished his freshman season with seven tackles and two pass breakups, including a pair of solo tackles in the national championship win over Notre Dame. While his raw numbers were modest, Ohio State consistently viewed him as a high-upside interior defender whose physical tools could translate into disruptive production with another offseason in the system.

With Houston sidelined over the first month-plus, Ohio State has leaned heavily on a defensive tackle rotation featuring Kayden McDonald, Jason Moore and Tywone Malone Jr., while also mixing in younger players as the score allowed. That group has held up well overall, particularly as Ohio State’s defense has consistently controlled games through sacks, negative plays and turnovers. Still, Houston’s return adds a different dimension, more explosiveness, more penetration ability, and another high-ceiling athlete on the interior as the Buckeyes move deeper into Big Ten play.

Now, if all goes according to plan, that next step begins next week, with Houston back in uniform and back in the rotation against Wisconsin.

[Agent]

Homie cooking with the layout

[toysoldier00]

Homie cooking with the layout

Thanks!

[toysoldier00]

The Stage is Set for Ohio State and Indiana

By Bailey Lloyd
October 14, 2025



For most of the modern Big Ten era, the championship game has been less a mystery than a formality: Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, pick your brand, circle the date, move along. Indiana wasn’t supposed to enter that conversation, at least not this quickly, and certainly not with the kind of momentum that now has the Hoosiers sitting tied for second in the AP poll with Texas A&M, even earning more first-place votes.

But that’s where the league is heading, and it’s getting harder to pretend otherwise.

Ohio State remains the No. 1 team in the country at 6–0, a defending champion that reloaded at speed. Indiana is unbeaten, surgically efficient and suddenly carrying the Big Ten’s most compelling story. And with the rest of the conference already taking dents, Illinois has a league loss, Penn State’s season is wobbling, the Buckeyes and Hoosiers stand as the only teams left without a conference defeat.

“It’s October,” Ohio State coach Ryan Day said this week, “and this is when you find out who can sustain it. People talk about getting to the top. Staying sharp week after week is the hard part.”

Indiana has been doing the sharp part better than anyone expected. The Hoosiers’ 42–21 demolition at Oregon didn’t feel like a “road upset” so much as a declaration: they were the stronger team, the cleaner team, and the more physical team. Curt Cignetti, who has never coached like a man hoping to be invited into the room, has Indiana operating with an edge that looks increasingly permanent.

“We’re not a one-week headline,” Cignetti said. “We’re building a program that expects to win. If you want to be taken seriously, you have to keep showing it.”

The biggest accelerator has been quarterback Fernando Mendoza, the Cal transfer who has turned Indiana’s offense into one of the most consistent machines in the sport. He hasn’t turned the ball over, he’s in the Heisman conversation, and NFL evaluators are already treating him like a first-rounder.

He’s surrounded by legitimate weapons, Elijah Sarratt and Omar Cooper Jr. at receiver, a functional run game, a better offensive line, and backed by a defense that has real playmakers at every level: Mikail Kamara up front, D’Angelo Ponds on the outside, Aiden Fisher in the middle.

The schedule only amplifies the sense of inevitability. Indiana’s remaining slate doesn’t include a team currently above .500: Michigan State, UCLA, at Maryland, at Penn State, Wisconsin, at Purdue. If Penn State’s free fall continues, Indiana will likely be favored by double digits in every remaining game.

Ohio State’s path is a bit trickier, but still manageable for a roster that has handled its toughest road tests already. The Buckeyes’ win over Texas opened the season’s tone, and victories at Washington and at Illinois confirmed they can travel. The final exam remains a trip to Ann Arbor, not because Michigan is unbeatable, but because Ohio State’s recent history there is emotional, and because rivalry games don’t care about resumes.

Day’s 2025 team has been less about familiar names and more about new ones becoming necessary. Caleb Downs is still the sport’s best defender. Jeremiah Smith is still its most terrifying offensive player. But the season’s defining development has been the emergence of players who weren’t supposed to be the story: linebacker Arvell Reese turning into a star, and edge rusher Caden Curry building a sack total that’s forcing game plans to bend.

And then there’s Julian Sayin, the first-year starter who has grown into the job with each week, calmer, cleaner, more decisive. Ohio State doesn’t need to lead the nation in yardage to be lethal; it needs to be efficient, and it has been.

There’s a recruiting subplot, too, one that used to be simple: Ohio State plucks Indiana’s best when it wants. It still can, the Buckeyes have multiple Indiana standouts on the roster, and four top 2026 prospects committed. But Indiana now has something it hasn’t had in decades: the on-field credibility to tell in-state kids they don’t have to leave to play for something real.

If the Big Ten is heading toward an Ohio State–Indiana championship game, it won’t just be a matchup. It’ll be a referendum on the league’s new reality, and a reminder that sometimes the most dangerous team isn’t the one you’ve been watching for years, but the one that suddenly stopped asking for permission.

[toysoldier00]

Grady Austin Took the Paris Johnson Path — and Might Unlock Ohio State’s Next Recruiting Gold Mine
By Colten Brooks on October 15, 2025


Grady Austin is among the best offensive lineman to come out of Cincinnati since Paris Johnson Jr.



Grady Austin doesn’t talk like someone who thinks he found a loophole. He talks like someone who made a decision.

The Cincinnati Princeton offensive lineman committed to Ohio State on July 19, 2024, becoming the Buckeyes’ third pledge in the class of 2026 and the second in-state lineman in the group behind Pickerington Central tackle Marcus Okam. At the time, it felt like Ohio State simply did what it usually does in Ohio: identify a big, talented body, get in early, lock it up, and move forward. But Austin’s recruitment has evolved into something more interesting, because the biggest headline isn’t his star rating or his offer list.

It’s the move he made to make sure he could get to Columbus sooner.

Austin began his high school career at Cincinnati St. Xavier, one of the state’s most respected programs and a place that routinely produces college-ready linemen. But as his recruitment accelerated, Austin made a choice that raised eyebrows in the way only serious football choices do: he transferred for his senior season to Princeton so he could enroll early at Ohio State, a luxury he wouldn’t have been able to secure if he stayed at St. X.

If that sounds familiar, it should. It’s almost exactly what Paris Johnson Jr. did on his own path to becoming a top-five NFL Draft pick.

Austin knows the comparison exists, and he’s not running from it. He’s embracing it, not as a claim that he’s already Paris, but as proof that sometimes the smartest development move has nothing to do with highlight tapes.

“People can say what they want about it,” Austin said. “But for me, it was about being ready. I wanted to get to Ohio State early, get in that weight room, learn the system, and compete. If you’re serious about it, why would you wait?”

That sentence is the heartbeat of his story. Austin isn’t a unanimous five-star the way Johnson was. He’s a four-star, Top 250-type recruit, highly regarded, highly recruited, clearly talented, but still in that category where development can determine the ceiling. The good news for him is that he’s built exactly like the kind of lineman Ohio State loves to develop. At 6-foot-6 and roughly 310 pounds, he has the frame to play tackle or guard at the next level, the length to survive on the edge, and the body type that can add strength without losing movement.

And unlike some prospects who arrive as raw clay, Austin comes from one of the best foundational environments you can ask for. St. Xavier’s offensive line culture doesn’t just teach kids to block; it teaches them how to prepare. It teaches the language. It teaches leverage. It teaches how to be coached hard and not fold. That’s a head start that Ohio State’s staff values, and it’s part of the reason Austin’s upside is viewed as more than theoretical.

But the early enrollment piece might be what turns “great foundation” into “real runway.”

At Ohio State, the offensive line is never short on bodies. It’s short on time. Linemen don’t become Big Ten ready overnight, and the ones who play early tend to be the ones who arrive early, early physically, early mentally, early in the program. Austin wants that head start, and he made a decision to get it.

“I’m not trying to skip steps,” Austin said. “I’m trying to take them sooner. I want to be in the room with the older guys, learn how they do it, learn what it takes. That’s why you go to Ohio State.”

That’s also why the Paris Johnson comparison matters. It isn’t about saying Austin will be drafted where Johnson was drafted. It’s about recognizing the blueprint: if you can get into the program early, you can develop into something that doesn’t feel possible at 17. Johnson used early enrollment to accelerate his timeline, earn trust, and eventually become one of the best linemen in college football. Austin is using it as inspiration, and as a reminder that development is a choice as much as it is a process.

And maybe the most important part of this story isn’t even Austin alone. It’s where he’s doing it.

Because Cincinnati, not Cleveland, not Columbus, not the Dayton suburbs, might be the state’s most important talent engine right now.

Austin is one example. His teammate at Princeton, linebacker Avondre Lincoln, is another. Both are Buckeye commits. So is Winton Woods edge rusher Ornell Mack, a late-riser with length and upside. So is Elder punter David Procter, who earned his scholarship at camp. That’s four commitments tied directly to Cincinnati-area programs in one Ohio State class, a number that would have felt high a decade ago, and now feels like a trend.

And it doesn’t stop at 2026.

The 2027 class is already bubbling with Cincinnati prospects who look like they’ll be four-star or better by the time recruiting heats up. St. Xavier receiver Zion Meeks is tracking like one of the best players in the country. Winton Woods edge rusher Delonte Salter has the frame and early production of a high-end recruit. Elder quarterback Eddie Simms has started turning heads. Moeller corner Jaylen Finish is on the kind of trajectory that usually ends with national offers and official visits.

For Ohio State, that matters for one simple reason: when a talent base expands, the best programs don’t just react, they build relationships before everyone else does. Cincinnati has always produced players, but the concentration of high-level prospects across multiple schools at once is starting to look like something more sustainable. It’s beginning to resemble a region that can consistently feed Power Four rosters, and give Ohio State the kind of in-state recruiting advantage it’s always been most comfortable leaning on.

Austin sees that too. He lives it. He knows what the city is producing right now, and he knows what it could mean if Ohio State continues to treat Cincinnati like a priority, not an afterthought.

“There’s so much talent here,” he said. “People used to think you had to go somewhere else in Ohio to find it. It’s here. And it’s only getting better.”

That’s the bigger picture. Grady Austin is a four-star lineman with tackle/guard versatility and a high-end body type. He’s also a kid who made a very specific decision to speed up his development, a decision that mirrors one of Ohio State’s most successful recent offensive line stories. And he’s doing it while playing in a region that is quietly turning into the state’s most fertile recruiting ground.

The Buckeyes got him early. He’s trying to get to them even earlier.

And if Cincinnati really is becoming the state’s biggest talent-producing area, then Austin might not just be the next Buckeye from the city. He might be part of the reason there are so many more coming behind him.

Rank	Pos	Name	Height	Weight	High School	Home Town
	QB	Tyree Figurs	6'3"	190 lbs	Mission Hills	Mission Hills, CA
	WR	Ashton Ramsey	6'3"	190 lbs	Loyola Academy	Chicago, IL
	TE	Jordan Ivory	6'5"	235 lbs	Culver Academies	Culver, IN
	OT	Marcus Okam	6'7"	285 lbs	Pickerington Central	Pickerington, OH
	OT	Grady Austin	6'6"	305 lbs	Princeton	Cincinnati, OH
	OT	Derron Merriman	6'6"	300 lbs	Hilliard Bradley	Marysville, OH
	OT	Alex Jordan	6'7"	280 lbs	Paramus Catholic	Paramus, NJ
	IOL	George Crecelius	6'4"	285 lbs	Cy-Fair	Cypress, TX
	IOL	Thaddeus Roe	6'4"	290 lbs	Avon	Avon, IN
	IOL	David Weeks	6'4"	300 lbs	Janesville Parker	Janesville, WI
	DE	Deontae Savage	6'6"	240 lbs	Avon	Avon, IN
	DE	Ornell Mack	6'5"	240 lbs	Winton Woods	Cincinnati, OH
	DT	Vondree Eagles	6'3"	345 lbs	Reynoldsburg	Reynoldsburg, OH
	DT	Dillon Bridges	6'3"	290 lbs	Snider	Fort Wayne, IN
	LB	Pauly O'Dwyer	6'5"	215 lbs	Washington	Massillon, OH
	LB	Emmanuel Wooden	6'2"	210 lbs	Westerville South	Columbus, OH
	LB	Jaylen Smalls	6'2"	210 lbs	Glenville	Cleveland, OH
	LB	Avondre Lincoln	6'1"	200 lbs	Princeton	Cincinnati, OH
	CB	Teion Cherry II	6'1"	175 lbs	Wayne	Huber Heights, OH
	CB	Tremayne Shepley	6'1"	185 lbs	Greenville	Greenville, SC
	S	Bobby Jackson-Ruud	6'1"	190 lbs	St. Thomas Aquinas	Fort Lauderdale, FL
	S	Landon Bishop	6'0"	195 lbs	Whitmer	Toledo, OH
	P	David Procter	6'5"	170 lbs	Elder	Cincinnati, OH

[Caesar]

We know what that Indiana roster is capable of so this will be a big test for your championship hopes.

You can never have too much talent stocked on the offensive line. Austin looks like he may end up being a stud.

[Captain Canada]

That offensive tackle Austin is an absolute behemoth. Looks like he's got the potential to really anchor your line in a a few years.

Beat the Hoosiers!

[toysoldier00]

We know what that Indiana roster is capable of so this will be a big test for your championship hopes.

You can never have too much talent stocked on the offensive line. Austin looks like he may end up being a stud.

Hoosiers are the real deal tbh

[toysoldier00]

That offensive tackle Austin is an absolute behemoth. Looks like he's got the potential to really anchor your line in a a few years.

Beat the Hoosiers!

All I want it a dominant offensive line, and I don't feel like that's too much to ask.