Ohio State vs. Ball State score picks, BREAKOUT player predictions for season opener

0:00football is officially back. Mick Walker, Spencer Holbrook. Ohio State Ball State, 1230, Big Ten Network. Mick, it's the most wonderful time of the year. How you doing, man? I'm very excited to have some football back in the shoe. On the new turf down there, I'm excited to just get on it, foot on grass, feet on grass, and just feel it. I'm excited for that experience. Spot the ball, man. We're fighting through adversity already. I have an eye infection. Look, if you're an eye doctor, let me know what's going on. I don't know. I've been using some medicine in there. I'm trying my best. My vision was still good enough to watch UMass, dump truck, ruckers, and send Greg Siano to a, probably an unceremonious end at some point here in the near future. Got some good ball-watching experience from Colorado Georgia Tech, where the buffs out physical Brent Kees team, which I was kind of surprised by,

1:01but hey, maybe the buffs had something. So yeah, it was a good Thursday night, but I'm ready to talk Ohio State football. What do you think, Nick? That's all we're here for. All we're here for. Wow, no fun. Mix the no fun, so okay. All business. Mix the day. Look, I've done a bold prediction show for every single game I've ever covered at Ohio State. But I look around now and are bold predictions a thing of the past, Nick? I just like, I'm looking for new ways to engage the conversation with Ohio State fans. And so we're gonna draft players that we're excited to see. I'm only going to make it non-starters. You know, I like to talk about starters because we could just draft Jeremiah Smith, Julian Sain, Edrick Houston, Devon Sanchez, Jaylen McLean, and one of the other starting receivers, or Bo Jackson, and be like, oh, okay, good show. Look at, no, that's stupid. So we're gonna exclude starters, because we're all excited to see the starters. And we're gonna talk about, we're gonna do three rounds. Each of us are gonna pick three guys.

2:01So we're excited to watch here in this upcoming Ohio State Opener against Ball State. Nick, why don't you kick us off, man? I want you to take the number one overall pick. Oh wow, number one overall pick for me. I'm gonna go with TJ Offer. I don't know why, but that was the first day in the game in my head. I think he's gonna be kind of a minute for the Ohio State defense this year. I'm excited to see if we can get that started against Ball State. Playing linebacker, a little bit closer to the line of scrimmage on the end of the line of scrimmage. I'm interested to see what TJ Offer does when he gets on the field and has to just go into attack mode. Okay, I like that pick, because it's a little off the board, but there's some value there, because if he goes out and has like two sacs in the second half, you're gonna be able to post this video and X the everything happened. You're like, hey guys, I tried to tell you that I was excited to watch TJ Offer. I'm going in a similar vein. I'm not gonna go with the six foot six alien outside of White receiver. I'm gonna go with the slot demon backup White receiver Brock Boyd. Look, you get an undersized three star White receiver

3:01who's all of a sudden gonna play as a freshman at Ohio State. I'm intrigued. Sorry, call me crazy, but I'm intrigued. I want to see what this looks like. He's a little interesting to me, because everyone buzzes about how great he is, but when we've been in there at practice and I don't think he's been like bad, but it's like, oh, he made a couple catches. Oh, it's been fine. Like he looks like a guy who can get open, but when maybe when it's just the team in there, everyone just raves about how great of a day he had. Oh, he torched this defensive back. Oh, he had another touchdown. Oh, he got open and made something happen after the catch. It's like, I believe you, because I trust the people that we talk to in the building, Mick, but I haven't seen it. So I trust that they aren't just feeding us Brockwood propaganda. I don't see a reason why they would do that, considering he's a three star freshman. So I really want to see him play football,

4:03like legitimate football. And so he's my number one pick. I know what Chris Henry Jr. can do. I don't want to see what Brockwood can do. I love that pick. I, you're right, though. Whenever we've been in there, it's been like, oh, Brockwood's been tearing up and then we go in there. It's like, oh, it's a pretty just how home day for Brockwood. Yeah, it's like really get the full Brockwood experience that everybody talks about. It's like, hey, there's an 11 yard catcher with a middle nice. He moved the sticks. It's like, oh, he got open. He didn't get the ball, but like those are good route against, like, you know, one of the backup defensive backs. And oh, he's put the safeties there. And that was a really nice toss from Tavine St. Clair doing sand. But at no point I've been like, you've got to see this kid. Whereas when we walk out of the building, we start talking to people and it's like, dude, you have no clue how good Brockwood is. He's amazing. I'm like, okay, I believe you. So now I just want to see it. Who's your second pick? Are we snake, no, we're not snake. No, we're just going to the straight second pick. Probably could have been the first overall pick if we're being honest. You just didn't come to my mind at the beginning, but I'm going to go with Legend Bay because we can see from the first snap of the game,

5:06the first play from the scrimmage because it sounds like he doesn't sound like Ryan Day told us that he's going to be back there assuming all things go well, which they should, there's been no real eye. Soon there's been no real changes. Best on the best Friday's in football or something on those lines that obviously does. I'm not going to assume there's any changes. Legend Bay is going to return the opening kick off for the last day whenever that comes. I guess that could be the first half or the second half because I don't assume ball state it's going to be scoring eight on. And then we're going to get to see him do that. We're going to see him play wide receiver, we're going to play running back out of the slot. Whatever he wants to do, he's going to move them around just kind of like what we got to see through that one day at the training camp, kind of what you got to see in the spring. I'll be very fascinated to see what it's like when Legend Bay actually gets on the field and how they find different ways to use him. Because you can also try and just use that as mind games against Texas, which I assume is part of the plan as well. Yeah, that's not a bad pick. Look, this show isn't all going to be freshmen and sophomore, so we're going to get into some veterans here in the back half of this draft, which is where I'm going with my next pick because there's a ton of guys that we can pick

6:07just because we don't talk about them, doesn't mean that they're not gaining buzz or anything like that. It's just like what's an intriguing way to talk about this storyline. And so like Legend Bay is a story into himself. So it's like how are they going to use him? We just want to know, we don't care who the opponent is. TJ offered, how is he used? We don't care, we just want to see the, you know, and Brock Boyd, like we haven't seen that dominance yet. So like if that starts to shine, like how quickly does he vault himself up into that top conversation and not just the depth conversation? That's where I'm going with my second pick because look, this is not me too many on Horn because I was super apprehensive about putting his name out, but once we started hearing his name, at the beginning of August, I started to get a little intrigued. It's just like, oh, he kind of looks a little different than he has in the past. I asked some people, I was like, I wouldn't say too much because I don't know how much he's going to play. Okay, like I'll slow pedal this. And now I kind of look stupid for slow pedaling it because every time the defensive tackles are brought up, there's not just the top four, which is the guys we expected. Will Smith, Jr. Eddrick Houston, James Smith, John Walker,

7:07but it is very clearly a top five. No freshmen included and the fifth guy is Jason Moore. Like, Mick, he could go out there and be terrible and we won't talk about him the rest of the year. But the fact that Ohio State, for the first time in his career, is bringing him up with a top group of defensive linemen, tells me that they are either A, trying to will him into that, or B, he is showing that he can be among that. They need a backup three-tack. John Walker, James Smith, Will Smith, Jr., all more traditional one-tack nose tackles. What, however you want to say that? Like true defensive tackle. The three-tack that Eddrick Houston occupies, he cannot take every snap. They need a legitimate three-tack. And when Larry Johnson said years ago, that Jason Moore was like, oh, this guy like ideal three-tack. You look at the way that Matt Patricia's defensive operate. Jason Moore looks like the perfect Matt Patricia defensive

8:08on the line. So can you put that together? And in this case, we're going to do on Saturday's rapid reaction show. We're going to talk about the Ball State caveat. I can't remember who it was last year. We used a caveat when they played somebody terrible. Grandbling. Yeah, with the Grandbling caveat. And that was an FCS opponent, but this is not an FCS opponent. I know that we're supposed to take the ball to stay game with the Grand Assault, but if Jason Moore goes out there and is really good against a ball state offensive line, which they practice too, as our friend Tim maybe used to say all the time on this show, I will have a little bit of confidence that yeah, he can probably help the steam a little. Is he going to be a star? No. I just want to see him against competition to see what that looks like for him. And if he even does all right, I think that will be a positive sign for Ohio State. I'm not trying to wear kid gloves with him. I have no reason to do so. I'm just super intrigued by him

9:09because he continues to come up. And I don't think that's by accident, Mick. No, I like to pick a lot. You and I talked about it kind of just what the plan would be to talk about Jason Moore when the name started coming up. It's like we don't want to seem silly, but also everybody that you talked about, just to player himself and even as teammates, we get to see that really. Jason has been doing very well. Well, that's the thing. We understand with our jobs, it kind of does craft a narrative a little bit. And we're not narrative crafters. But what we say can get into the fan base and they can talk about it. So it's like, okay, you start to hear his name for the first few days. If you start to say, well, he's in the picture. And then he doesn't play at all. Then fans start to wonder what we're talking about, but B is something going on. Is he, does he suck? I don't think it's fair to the kid. If you're unsure, it's better to just air on the side of caution. So like after those first three days, I was impressed. Let's start asking around.

10:10We don't know maybe. And then now it seems like, yes, potential for some playing time. So we'll see, but I'm intrigued. I'm super intrigued by that. No, yeah, my third pick. And we've said no, not all freshmen is often more. Maybe more down the line. Like we can do some honorable mentions or whatever. I just want to bend this guy up because I think Paul state might be his opportunity, at least this first opportunity of this season to really make a name for himself. And I'm going to go with Philip Bell, just because I, Ryan Day mentioned him with the White or Sea Group. It's also kind of another special teams code to pick, because I think if we were up to me, and I was making the calls, I think I would give Philip Bell the Punt return job and let him see if he can do anything with it. Leave Brandon and his to just play White or Sea Europe for this team and give Philip Bell a role and see if he can make any more plays than Brandon and his did last year. Because we've had that discussion on the lot of and not especially board, the explosivity of Brandon and his in the return game, whether that's valuable or the trustworthiness. I'm not really here to let him relegate that, but I just think Philip Bell could bring something to the Punt return game. He's also somebody that continues to come up when I come to talk about why receiver rotation. I don't know if he'll specifically have a spot in that right now.

11:13But I think he could hurt himself with a role with whether it's through Punt returners in this White receiver room. So Philip Bell is somebody I'm excited to see really at length. I hope for it in the first time, because we haven't really seen much of him. Beyond a handful of snazzy were there last season. Yeah, no, he's still my last pick, which is fine. Before we do some honorable mentions here at the end just so we can shout some guides out. My third and final pick, and again, these might be boring. I've taken Jason Moore and now this guy. I'm not going to apologize because we're trying to get a little more in the weeds here. We've previewed this game for nine months. We've been looking forward to it since the Miami loss. And in that Miami loss, there was one guy in particular who, I mean, these guys are getting paid now. We can say he was bad because it was really bad at guard. And it was so bad at guard that he was pulled after the first half. Like it was bad. But the game before that, even in a loss to Indiana, it was really good. And it was against some really good defensive tackles. Like Tyrick Tucker is a really good player.

12:14And he had no problem. Well, he had, you know, there were some wins and losses, but like he had no problem fitting in along the offensive line in that game. And then the Miami game happens. And it was ugly. And Josh Pedia played in the second half because of it. But here in the last two or three weeks, Gabe Van Sickle's name has come up a lot in the offensive line conversation. He is not going to start. Ian Moore has taken that left tackle job and run with it. It put Austin Sarabot at right guard. They have a fantastic, what they believe a fantastic starting five day. Josh Pedia and Gabe Van Sickle were on the bench. Josh Pedia, I have confidence in as a player, because he was supposed to play right guard for them last year, but he was hurt. So they couldn't pull Tegra Shabot to put him in there. So they have confidence in Pedia as well. They have a now mixed sample size when it comes to Gabe Van Sickle. What does he look like now that he has regained some confidence that he lost in the Miami game. He looked a little pretty rough in the spring.

13:15They were a little worried about that from people that I've talked to. But in the fall, he has turned it on. And he looks like the player that played against Indiana and not the one that played against Miami. So if he gets second team reps and I assume he's going to get a lot of them, and potentially even some first team stuff if they start to mix and match, if they start to get a lead. What does that look like? Where is his confidence level? How does he perform and what kind of depth does he add to the offensive line? I could go with all these freshmen that we're excited to watch and look, I'm more than excited to watch these freshmen too. But like the things that are going to matter to this team this year, Gavin Sickle could potentially be a piece of that. And so I want to know where his confidence is, how he looks fire and off the ball, what he looks like against a competition that he should dominate, considering he was good against Indiana. So I know it was a long way to say it about a backup guard. But he is a very intriguing piece for me. So yeah, I just, I want to see this entire backup offensive line really. And I think I could have just drafted them, just me in a major way.

14:17The things that we're starting to hear about Carter Low, officially turning a corner, which another guy, the spring was bad when he was with the ones. But he's turned a little bit of a corner. You're getting some Armstrong whiffs, if you will. People starting to talk about him a little bit more. Padilla could play center this week. Jake Cook could be in there. Like that entire backup offensive line, they feel pretty good about it. So I just kind of want to see them operate. But I'll highlight Gabe Van Sickle there. Yeah, I like that pick a lot. I think we know the whole three picks. There's an angle of it are like the unknown, which is like the freshman. We have not seen these guys play. And then there's the element of like, what do these guys have left? Because there's a lot of these guys where they're escape Van Sickle, or maybe even if you wanted to get into some of these second year guys like Philip Bell, who I mentioned is you're kind of in a maker break year. If you're going to earn a role at Ohio State to like be an impact player, you kind of got to do it now. Because by the time like Philip Bell's role would come around, you're going to have to mere brown on campus next year.

15:17You might have another one or see her on campus, like from the high school classroom transfer. So like your role will not be guaranteed beyond this year, unless you were able to secure something like firmness season. Yeah, no, I agree with that. And also like the problem with modern color football is like we are just looking for the next guy. Like everybody was excited to see Brandon and his after his touchdown catch against Purdue from Devon Brown back in what was at 2023. And then he was fine in 2024, had a lockluster, but okay, 2025. And now everybody's just done with them. And they want to see the next guy. And then next year, if you mere brown is good in spring, well, there are people are going to start asking if Brock Boyd's any good, because that's just the way that it works. Like, well, what's next? What's next? What's next? This guy's, you know, the next five stars going to be the one that wins you the championship. It's always the selling point, which is fine. That's great. But like some of these guys on the roster get forgotten, but they're going to be key pieces like a pitty. I like a band cycle, like, you know, potentially Jason Moore, like a bowacan, who has developed and, you know,

16:20sometimes I feel like people don't let people get better. Like I think both got a lot better. Bow could be honorable mention there for me legitimately. Any other honorable mentions for you? I mean, we probably at some point should have mentioned the back of quarterback thing, what Tavine St. Clarenly, Fahey, like both those guys deserve to be mentioned. I just, I don't know if there's much more to say about it or really to talk about it. It just needs to be results on the field and things need to happen before like it's undecided. I think people would want Tavine St. Claren to have that job secure. I think there's a lot of pressure on him to get that job secure. He's still developing it. I don't really know if there's much more to say beyond that. Not all five stars are created equal. So I'll be interested to see if Tavine St. Claren can look at it. I'll be interested to see if we can live up to the height that we've heard. So like I, the back of a quarterback battle, and even, I guess, Justin Martin, what he looks like, maybe in the fourth quarter. Like some of that stuff will be fascinating to see as well. Yeah, I have a hard time seeing. Well, it depends on the game script, but we'll see if Justin Martin gets anywhere on as the fourth guy. It's senior day, Mick. But I think the freshman will be the story.

17:21There's two on our own lynching guys that I have both in the secondary. Both guys that we've just heard so much about. Not Jay Timman. He's a starter. Remember that. Jordan Thomas, the most energetic guy in the secondary. And, and Cimian Colbo, guys who are going to play who are seemingly primed for roles. Are they both in that nickel conversation with Jay Timman's? Like, is the nickel conversation just the refreshment at this point? Or is there is Terry Moore in there? You know, is the nickel conversation? Those are, are there, you know, Miles Lockhart? Is he in there? Or is it Cimian called well and. Jay Timman's and Jordan Thomas, like Jordan Thomas looks good. People are really excited about him. He's not at Jay Timman's level just yet, but he's really working toward becoming an impact guy. Does he land like an actual role in the defense? I don't know. But I think that there's reason to believe that he could do some things for Ohio State this year. If he's given the opportunity and Saturday's going to be his first opportunity. So I think it's called well and Thomas are those two honorable lynching guys that I think

18:23were worthy of shout outs. What do you say about a counter-hocke inspecced fence? Would you take a counter-hocke inspecced? Look, the people at Ohio State are really confident with the counter-hocke inspecced fence. So we'll see. You think we see a little angling maybe for, you know, 30, 40 yarders, something that there's kind of like, you know what, we've gone here in the second half. Let's just kind of stall out and see if we make sure we can get counter to see one go through the operates. Look, if they're up seven, nothing. And it's fourth and three from the 31 yard line. And it's like, oh, let's get him out there for a 48 yard vehicle. It's like, ah, let's go for fourth and three. If it's 42 to nothing and it's fourth and four from the 40, and it's like, ah, you know, well, that's a little too much because that's 57 yards. So it's like, if it's fourth and four from the 34, and it's a 51 yard field goal, it's like, okay, now we have to weigh whether we want him to take a 51 yard field goal as

19:26potentially his first ever field goal to Ohio State. And it potentially be a miss because 50 yard field goals, even for the best kickers, are not automatic. Or do we try to get him like a 33 yarder in front of the home crowd to get him, you know, comfortable kicking in this building? Because one thing we haven't talked about, which we probably should have, it's like, Jason Fielding had one thing legitimately correct when he was talking to the media. And that is, it is not easy to kick in the horseshoe. The way that the building is built, the wind whips through there, it whirls around a little bit. Like, it's not like a perfect dome setting to kick field goals. And it's supposed to be a little cloudy tomorrow. I would expect a little bit of wind at least. So that means that it's going to be a little bit more windy on the field, which means that the wind might swirl a little bit. I'm not setting it up and I'm not excusing Fielding whatsoever. I'm just saying like, it is, you've been on the field for a lot of games. Like, it is a little swirly down there. So I don't know if they want to fully dip Conor Hawkins in there and give him a swirly

20:30right away. I think that they should like set him up for some success early in the game and then maybe try something from range later, depending on the situations. Does that make sense? Yeah, I just didn't know if Conor Hawkins was worthy of a pick there. And then you let me just go off on this stupid, muppet tangent where I just talk about special teams and geek out. Okay. Dance for me, Puppet. Yeah. You know, I'm always willing to dance, Mick. And I'm also always willing to tell you that you should delete your sports book app right now. Polymarket is here. Here's why the revolution is happening. It's legal in all 50 states. And I'm not joking when I'm saying I'm done with the old way. Let me pull up the Polymarket app right now. So I can show you the revolution in real time. I'm pulling up Polymarket as we speak. Ohio State 99% of the market says Ohio State is going to beat Ball State. I know. That's crazy. There's currently a 50 and a half point spread. You can go take that position over at Polymarket trade on Ohio State to cover the 50 and a half or you can trade on Ball State.

21:32You can take those points. And here's the part that you that should make you furious remember the last time your team started hot and tried to cash out in your sports book block you. They will block you. Don't 100 times per game in the penalty as you 50% just to get your money back. They are holding your money hostage. Polymarket gives you the freedom to cash out instantly. If the momentum swings you traded off in real time, you were in control. They can't lock you out. So it's a buy in anytime. And when you the market dips like if the team starts slow, Ohio State goes on 14th and the ball state, God, please don't happen. I can't take a message for a genius meltdown. That's not a loss that you're time to buy in. You buy cheap and ride the momentum back up. And the fees the sports books are stealing from you. They take around $9 on $100 when Polymarket charges one single cent. It's not even close with Polymarket. You were playing against other users, not the house right now. Polymarket is so competent. You'll never go back to the old way. They are challenging you and giving you a $50 bonus. When you put $10 in there, use the link right now on three. The code on three over at Polymarket trading not available in all jurisdictions. Check local regulations before trading restrictions. You know, it's really requirements apply trading is risky 100% loss can occur.

22:36Download the Polymarket app today. Go sign up with the code on three. You get 50 bucks. Nick, there we go. Let's do a score prediction here. Polymarket currently has a holiday trading as a 50 and a half point favorite. That is massive. That's not even like that's more than seven touchdowns. How are you feeling? I'm still feeling the Ohio State part of it. I'm going with Ohio State 56 zero is what I texted you. That's what I'll go with. I think Ohio State would be defensive. Probably feel great to pitch a shut out. And I think the buck guys are going to want to get the get some workout, some kings, test some stuff on offense to see how things are working. Yeah. They beat a bad Akron team 52 to 62 years ago and they played at a pretty slow pace. I think the pacing is going to be a little different here. I gave score prediction on a radio show the other day in Lima shout out to the 419. I apologize.

23:36I'm going to revise that score prediction. I think I'm going to go with 6327. I think maybe like the walk on give up a touchdown. If ball state has some pride, they'll play through the four quarters and potentially get one while we're down on the field like six minutes to go. That will make everyone at Ohio State pretty angry for giving up the shut out, but look, shutouts are hard. I'm going to go with 60. No, 66 to seven because I think they're going to try to kick a field goal. There you go. Wait. 59 to seven because I don't see them scoring nine touchdowns. So we're going to go with eight touchdowns. 59 to seven and unlike their big 10 East. Brother Patriots, brethren come Patriots, Rutgers, they will not struggle with an underachieving Mac program. Nick anything else in college football that's got your interest this week? Not much. As I watched TV for these games yesterday, as I watched, as I watched different podcast

24:41Josh paid all the people that we got on three doing great stuff over on you. I'm going to go to the YouTube channel. I continue to see ads for road back and I just want to remind you guys that you should go over to rowback.com, use code letterman 20 and get 20% off your first order to get yourself some of the game day apparel so you can wear it to the shoe. Maybe you're not coming to the ball, stay game, but if you're coming to the game later in the season, they have some great stuff for you to wear over on rowback.com. So go check it out, use code letterman 20 for 20% off. Last but not least from me, college football means a lot of things to a lot of different people and for one person in particular who spent his entire career at two different places. I think it's going to be immensely cool as a graduate of Ohio who covered Frank Solage. Two watch Frank Solage be honored by Nebraska. I know that it doesn't matter to Ohio State fans what happens at Nebraska this weekend between a max school and the Cornerskers. They are honoring Frank Solage at for that game. He was a ridiculously good fullback for the Cornerskers. He was the head coach there. He was wrongfully fired for the great sin of going nine and three before they started their program decline.

25:42He came to Ohio, resuscitated a terrible failing downtrodden program into a perennial bull team and was very, very gracious with his time when I was just a student reporter being an idiot, showing up to the Ohio football facility, probably hung over at times and covering practices and covering games and he answered every question that I had and he was super nice to me. And now he's getting up there in age and it is just an absolute delight to see that Nebraska is finally honoring him. So thank you, Mick, for letting me say this for a couple of minutes. I wish the absolute best for Frank Solage. It is so cool that Nebraska is finally honoring him. And if I was not at Ohio Ball State, I would do about everything. If I was not at Ohio State Ball State this week, I would do about everything I could to get to Memorial State because I think it will be a really cool sea. So that's all. Very touching, Tripp. I imagine Spencer will be talking about that game over on the Letterman. Letterman Labs, message board. That's right. That's right. I imagine if you want to talk about any games or that's Ohio State Ball State and the other college football games, you should come over to Letterman and Laroah and check it

26:43out. Spencer is going to provide you with the best coverage there from the team side. We'll have you the best coverage from the recruiting side. You can get all of it for $38 right now, 75% off. We keep saying this. We said it for a couple weeks. This deal will end. I can tell you right now it's going to end on Monday, Labor Day. So get it, get it, go in, sign up right now, $38, 75% off. Take advantage. Come join us over on none of row.com. That's Mick Walker. I'm just Spencer Robert. Thanks for watching. Thanks for listening. We'll see you guys in the shoe on Saturday. I'm going to have my coffee in my hand. Come say hi. Come say hi. Tell us that you read Letterman Row. It means the world to us when we hear from you guys. Don't be shy. For Mick, I'm just Spencer. Thanks for being here. Thanks for watching. We'll see you guys inside the Horseshoe for Ohio State and Ball State to kick things off for the 2026 Ohio State football season.