Boy has college football changed dramatically from when this guy was a 17-year-old freshman taking his first steps on campus at The Ohio State University in 2004. Seems like the term ‘student-athlete’ is long gone and ‘employee-athlete’ is more fitting. I've always been an advocate for players getting paid but it has obviously gotten out of hand.

Anyways, I’m hoping some of you like me are tired of everything going on right now and want to switch gears from the hot topic of NIL/the portal to something else. 

I was at Ohio State from September of 2004 til June of 2008 and thankfully got to witness a 4-0 record against TCUN (honestly don’t remember any transfer talk back then). On the flipside, sadly, I witnessed firsthand our Buckeyes lose 2 national championships.

Curious to see if you build an Ohio State team based on players when you were in school your undergrad years (whether you were at Ohio State or just a fan attending a different school). If you didn't go to college, then the 4 years after high school. Only rule is the player just had to be on the roster for at least one season when you were in school (ie a player may have been a senior when you were just a freshman or other way around).

Only rule is to keep each side to 11 (only work around I can think of is a bonus WR or RB or S as the kick/punt returner and they could double on offense)

Offense:
QB (1) – Troy Smith
RB (1) – Beanie Wells
WR (2) –Santonio Holmes, Brian Robiskie
TE (1) – Jake Ballard
FLEX WR/TE/RB (1) - Dane Sanzenbacher
OL (5) – Alex Boone, Nick Mangold, Rob Sims, Jim Cordle, Bryant Browning

Defense (numbers by position can vary)
DL (4) – Quinn Pitcock, Cam Heyward, Vernon Gholston, Doug Worthington
LB (3) - AJ Hawk, Bobby Carpenter, James Laurinaitis
DB (4) – Kurt Coleman, Donte Whitner, Malcolm Jenkins, Chimdi Chekwa

Special Teams
K (1) – Mike Nugent
P (1) – AJ Trepasso
KR / PR (1) – Ted Ginn Jr

Lot of talent I had to leave out but stuck to the 11 each side – this helped me kill some time, get distracted a bit, and get a little nostalgic and hopefully it does the same for you