Break out the brooms, cause Columbus is getting that sweep tonight.
Check out our pals over at 1st Ohio Battery (and on Twitter) for coverage of the game tonight as well as the rest of the Jackets' Stanley Cup run, all the way until the parade down High Street.
ICYMI
- Position battles are still active, but progress was made.
- Larry Johnson will attend the NFL Draft to see Nick Bosa selected.
- Drue Chrisman and his new fiancée are feeling the love from Buckeye Nation.
- It was just a scrimmage, but the spring game revealed a bit about the 2019 playbook.
Word of the Day: Tohubohu.
BACK WHERE IT BEGAN. Michael Thomas had himself a bit of a homecoming this weekend as the current NFL star came back to campus to let a future NFL star give him a little guided tour.
Look at all these TROPHIES! @Cantguardmike returned to Columbus for an @OhioStateFB tour.
— NFL (@NFL) April 15, 2019
His guide: @dh_simba7. pic.twitter.com/gSZdz9GTvm
I think the wildest part of this video is realizing that it's been long enough since that 2014 title for Dwayne Haskins to have watched it happen in high school and now be heading to the NFL himself.
In my humblest of opinions, I think the Bucks should try to win a new Natty sometime soon. It's been a while.
CHUG, CHUG, CHUG. People forget, Chris Chugunov is the only Ohio State quarterback who's ever started a game and taken a snap in a Buckeye uniform.
He may have lost both starts at West Virginia and handed the ball off immediately after the only snap he took last year at Ohio State, but it all happened, and that's what's important.
To be frank, if Chugunov ever has to take a meaningful snap for the Buckeyes, that means absolute disaster has struck. He's here to be the third-string quarterback. Hell, ideally, he'd probably be the fourth-string quarterback. But he's perfectly fine with all of that.
From Kyle Rowland of the Toledo Blade:
“Honestly, when they call my name and say, ‘Hey, Chugs, hop in, take some reps,’ I’m just like, ‘All right, let’s just play ball,’ ” said Chugunov, a graduate transfer from West Virginia. “That’s pretty much the only thing that really goes through my mind.”
...
Despite starting games for a Power 5 program, Chugunov is not part of Ohio State’s spring quarterback competition, a reality he has no qualms with. Mentoring Fields and Baldwin is a responsibility Chugunov has embraced, and he’s been equally accepted by his teammates.
“I love him,” sophomore center Josh Myers said. “He’s awesome. He’s super positive. Always goes out of his way to talk to me. Just a heck of a guy. I absolutely love him.”
...
“He’s a guy in the locker room who’s always mellow,” senior receiver C.J. Saunders said. “He’s never going to get too high or too low. He’s been around a lot of good players and played in big games. He’s going to be there for you when you need him. And he’s a really good player.”
And according to his barber, who resides in the bedroom 12 feet down the hall from me, Chugunov is an extremely pleasant individual off the field, as well. I've even heard term "top customer" tossed around, which is trash because I am also his customer.
I know we probably won't get to see him play much, if at all, but I'm glad Chug's on our side. He's the hero we need.
GRIMES BALLS OUT. Yesterday, I talked about Tate Martell's rather rough spring game down Miami, but it ain't all bad news for former Buckeyes in the sunshine state.
I have no real way of backing up this claim, but I'm pretty sure Trevon Grimes had the best spring game performance of all time over the weekend for his Florida Gators.
From Matt Baker of the Tampa Bay Times:
Grimes’ 195 receiving yards broke UF’s spring game record; two of his four catches went for touchdowns, and a third took him down to the 1.
“He went crazy,” receiver Freddie Swain said. “You can tell that during spring practice he finally understands what he is doing and why he is doing it. It shows that he has tremendous ability to be a great athlete.”
Historically, the success rate of players who transfer from Ohio State isn't all that high, but I think Grimes is going to be just fine, and I'm rooting for him. He tore his ACL before his first season at Ohio State then ended up missing most of the year to be closer to his sick mother before formally transferring a few months later.
Nobody's ever really doubted his ability to play football, life just hasn't exactly given him that chance until recently, and he's making the most of it.
THE BEST DAMN DOC IN THE LAND. I never thought I'd feel like running through a wall after watching a teaser trailer for a documentary about a marching band, but here we are.
A filmmaker and university employee (with a very long title which has something to do with national broadcast media) Joe Camoriano is putting together a documentary taking viewers through the 141st season of The Best Damn Band in the Land.
Here's your first look:
There's no other school in the country that treats its band kids as proper legends the way Ohio State does, and I'm the furthest thing from mad about it.
DAVID LIGHTY WATCHED HISTORY. Notre Dame nearly burning completely down is one of the wildest things I've watched unfold in a while. But I was following along from over 4,000 miles away. David (now rebranded as "Dave") Lighty was about 400 feet away.
Crazy! It happened right before my eyes! pic.twitter.com/keUY0KPUCT
— Dave Lighty (@OSULighty23) April 15, 2019
Lighty plays over in France with the club ASVEL Basket, located near Lyon, so his presence there wasn't that out of the ordinary. But it's still a wild coincidence that he happened to be right there as the flames started.
It was fantastic to hear that the structure of the cathedral was saved. It's far from awesome that the 900-year-old wooden roof is lost and essentially irreplaceable, but in the long-run this is just going to be another chapter in the crazy history of a legendary building.
In 500 years, I have no doubts that cathedral will still be standing and folks will be reading about The Fire of 2019 as they walk its beautiful halls.
LINK LOCKER. The first-time bettor who won $1.19 million betting on Tiger Woods to win The Masters... Woman accused of assaulting her husband because he didn't say that she is pretty... Man sues parents for throwing out porn collection... Forget the ambulance, in the future a drone may take you to the hospital... Linguists found the world’s “weirdest” languages—and English is one of them...
