Happy New Year, Eleven Warriors!

Hard to believe the football season is already over for these Buckeyes but what a way to win the Rose Bowl! Did you see C.J. Stroud's skycam highlights?

Now that the 2021 season is behind us and several Buckeye greats such as Chris Olave are moving on, I believe it is appropriate to begin looking forward to next season. Given national signing day took place a bit over two weeks ago, I think a fun question to get brains thinking about 2022 this week would be, if you could make one incoming freshman start right away next football season, who would you choose?

I think this is an especially relevant question given Denzel Burke's unexpected rise and breakout as a true freshman defensive back. The obvious answer for many is going to be C.J. Hicks, the highest-rated prospect in Ohio State's 2022 class and a five-star caliber linebacker that fills a glaring hole in this defense.

But I also think a compelling case can be made for Sonny Styles, a versatile player with the potential to fulfil roles at all three levels of the defense. Jim Knowles has a reputation for giving opposing offenses an abundance of schemes and coverages to navigate from down-to-down, so I have a feeling that Ohio State's new defensive coordinator could get a lot of mileage out of someone like Styles right away.

Kenyatta Jackson, Caden Curry, and even Caleb Burton could also have great cases to contribute right away next year. But I'm curious to here your thoughts on which freshman deserves the fast-track to the first eleven, and how they would help the team right off the bat.

Secret Bonus Question: There is a highly controversial new rule at a popular Miami Hurricanes message board that has banned booty gifs/pics as avatars and requires all booty content posted in celebration threads to include spoiler tags.

While I don't find this rule change nearly as draconian as I do hilarious, it has me wondering which Eleven Warriors Forum posting rule do you find most amusing?