Latest / College Football Addiction: A Show About All Things College Football / Ohio State Star Just REVEALED Something That TERRIFIES Big Ten Rivals

Transcript

Ohio State Star Just REVEALED Something That TERRIFIES Big Ten Rivals · College Football Addiction: A Show About All Things College Football

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What's up, Buckeyes? Thank you for joining us as we
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: take a look at everything surrounding your program. Here on
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: College Football Addiction, we are brought to you by PrizePix,
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: where all new users get $ 150 in lineups if they
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: win a $ 5 lineup using code HMA. When you analyze
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: the big picture of Ohio State Buckeyes football right now,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: the expectations inside this facility are certainly sky high. Young
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: leaders on defense are willingly stepping into the spotlight and
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: embracing the highest level of accountability. Meanwhile, the coaching staff
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: continues to secure high-profile commitments to cement the program's long-term future.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: But despite all of that positive momentum, national critics are
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: still questioning whether the overall ceiling is where it needs
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: to be. Key position groups are facing pretty heavy scrutiny
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: from anonymous evaluators around the sport. I know you guys
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: follow this team closely, and so you know that proving
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: these doubters wrong is the central story of the upcoming season.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: I do have a lot that I want to get
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: to today, so let's get right into it. Ohio State
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: sophomore quarterback Devin Sanchez opened up fall camp by naming
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: the toughest receiver that he will face all season. However,
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: that receiver is not on Ohio State's schedule. He lines
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: up across from him every single day in practice. You
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: know I'm talking about Jeremiah Smith. He said, going up
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: against him made me realize that I can go out
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: here and guard anyone in the country because obviously he
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: is the best receiver in the country. He didn't describe
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: those reps as fun. Instead, he described them as something
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: closer to punishment, a punishment that he willingly signed up for.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: He said, going out there, guarding JJ for every practice,
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: matching up with him every time, that is uncomfortable. He said,
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: I feel like you've got to be a real stud
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: to go out there and do that. The way he
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: frames it, that discomfort is the entire point. He said,
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: he's getting me better and I'm getting him better. We're
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: going to butt heads every day. There's going to be
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: times when we get into it, but it's all coming
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: from love. Smith isn't the only wide receiver who has
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: sharpened him. By the time Ohio State's 2026 schedule was released,
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: Sanchez didn't look at the logos. He looked straight at
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: the names. He immediately started running through the number one
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: receivers that he would have to play against week by week.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: There's Texas' Cam Coleman in week two. There's Indiana's Charlie Becker.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: There's Oregon's Decorian Moore and Evan Stewart. Some of those
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: players he knows personally, but he made it clear that
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: won't matter for three hours on the Saturday. He said,
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: friendships are going to be out the window when we're
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: on the field. That list exists because of a major opening.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: David Igbenosun is gone. And with him goes the assignment
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: nobody else on this roster wanted to talk about. Davison
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: was the corner who traveled with the other team's best
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: receiver all over the field. Snap after snap and not
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: a lot of help and nowhere to hide. Sanchez didn't
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: ask for a softer version of that role. He asked
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: for the same exact one. He said, I'm counting on myself,
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: my family's counting on me, and the whole fan base
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: is counting on me as well. It's for a guy
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: like me that's not scared of it. What makes that
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: mindset so interesting is how little he thinks that he
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: has actually proven himself. As a freshman, he played 409
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: snaps across 13 games. He had one start. For a
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: former top recruit, it was a real workload in his
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: first year. His own review of it came down to
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: just one word. He called it okay. He is not
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: hiding what he wants instead. My main goal is to
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: get that Thorpe, Sanchez said, referring to the award given
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: to the best defensive back in all of college football.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: He wants to become an All-American, and then he went
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: even further. I feel like there's no better corner in
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: the country than me. That kind of talk usually comes
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: with a coach quietly rolling his eyes in the background. Instead,
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: Sanchez says that the coaching staff is the exact reason
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: that he sounds like this. He credited co-defensive coordinator and
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: secondary coach Tim Walton for riding him harder than anyone.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: He said, he's been on me really, really hard, where
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: sometimes it's even uncomfortable. He said, I respect it. I
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: know where it's coming from. Ryan Day didn't pretend that
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: this transition was going to be simple. He said we're
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: going to need him to step up in a big way.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: It's a completely different role. He certainly has the chance
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: to do that. Sanchez summed up his entire approach in
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: one sentence that explains why he keeps asking for the
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: hardest matchup in every practice. He said, if I'm comfortable,
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: then this is not the place for me. But here
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: is the part that Sanchez has no control over, and
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: it's the part that decides whether any of this confidence
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: means something five years from now. A corner like him
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: is on campus for maybe two or three seasons, and
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: then he's gone. The programs that stay on top are
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: the ones that are already stacking the next wave before
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: the current one leaves. And within that same window that
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: Sanchez was talking about winning the Thorpe in 2026, Ohio
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: State closed a recruiting deal that had nothing to do
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: with this year. It had everything to do with who
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: is still standing in 2030. Before we get to that,
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: I will tell you guys about cfbaddiction.myswaggymerch.com. I had a
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: viewer of the show, shout out my guy Mark, reach
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: out to me and say, hey, you need some merchandise
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: that people can go and support your show, College Football
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: Addiction at, let me build it for you. And I said, dude,
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: I don't have the time to build merch. Go ahead
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: and do it. And so he created a website you
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: can go check out for generic merchandise. kind of college
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: football addiction merchandise, but we do have something special for
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: you Ohio State fans. Huge matchup. We know about it.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: We'll talk about it over the coming weeks for sure.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: But it is the Ohio State-Texas game that will happen
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: down in Austin. In fact, I went ahead and got
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: this sticker. I love this logo. Look, you may think
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: it's corny. You may not like it. I think it's
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: the coolest thing that I've seen. I've already got a sticker.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: I'm certainly going to get a shirt for this matchup too.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: Go check that out. There's a two-week special right now.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: You can activate a discount as we launch this and
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: get this started. Nobody's required to do anything. I'm not
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: telling you you have to buy it to watch the
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: show or tune in, but I think that logo is awesome.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: If you want to go get one yourself, you can
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: go check it out. Now, on Saturday, Massachusetts quarterback Christopher
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: Vargas announced his commitment to Ohio State. He's not even
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: able to sign until December of 2027. That is how
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: far ahead this move was made. He's a 6'4.5, 195-pound
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: passer at St. John's Prep, and the rankings on him
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: are absurd for a player this young. 24-7 Sports lists
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: him as the No. 2 quarterback and the No. 4
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: overall prospect in the country. Rivals goes even further. He's
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: the No. 1 quarterback in their 2028 class. He picked
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: the Buckeyes over an offer list that included Georgia, Florida, Michigan, Oregon,
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: and Stanford. The production behind the ranking is not just
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: a projection either. As a sophomore, he completed 138 out
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: of his 207 passes. He had over 2,000 yards and
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: 24 touchdowns with just three picks. He did that during
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: a run to the Massachusetts Division I Super Bowl. His
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: yardage total set a single-season passing record at his school.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: His offense set program records with 539 points and 5,442
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: total yards. Ohio State did not stumble into him late.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: The Buckeyes offered him back in November of 2024 and
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: treated him as their top quarterback target in the class
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: for well over the last year. Then came the detail
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: that told everyone how this was going to end. In June,
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: Ohio State was the only school that Vargas and his
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: family visited. On that trip, he met the full staff
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: and he connected with future teammate Jet Harrison. The relationship
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: that mattered most belonged to quarterbacks coach Billy Fessler. I
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: have a pretty strong relationship with Billy. I talked to
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: him quite a bit, Vargas said. He said I probably
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: talked to him every day since then. His comments about
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: Ryan Day went in a different direction entirely. Not everything
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: is about football when I talk to Coach Day, Vargas
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: was saying. He said sometimes I would sit down and
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: talk to him about life. Those are the things I
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: love about Ryan Day. Then Vargas pointed out the actual
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: argument that closed the deal. And it was not a facility.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: It was not a fan base. It was not NIL.
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: It was development. He pointed straight at Tavion St. Clair.
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: They've done a lot to grow Tavion and kids behind him,
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: Vargas said. Watching him grow within two years, it's great
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: to see. If the plan holds, Vargas could sit a
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: season behind St. Clair before possibly taking over this Ohio
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: State Buckeyes quarterback room. He is now one of the
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: commitments in A standout 2028 class that also includes defensive
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: lineman Jameer Wyche, wide receiver Jett Harrison, and running back
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: Elijah Newman-Hall. That group is ranked number one nationally right now.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: Vargas even scouted his own weaknesses without being asked. My
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: decision-making is good. My arm strength is great. One thing
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: I have to work on is pre-snap reads. But look
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: closely at why Vargas chose Ohio State because entirely seeing
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: his reasoning rests on one claim. the claim that Ohio
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: State takes elite quarterback prospects and turn them into finished products.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: Which means the strongest evidence for or against that promise
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: is not St. Clair and it's not Vargas. It's the
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: quarterback taking snaps in 2026. And right now, people inside
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: the sport are saying out loud that he is not
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: what everyone thinks he is. The Athletic polled roughly three
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: dozen coaches, GMs, personnel directors, scouts, and asked them to
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: rank all 138 projected FBS starting quarterbacks. Julian Sayen, a
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: Heisman Trophy finalist, came in fifth. He finished behind Ole
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: Miss' quarterback Trinidad Chambliss, Oregon's Dante Moore, Notre Dame's CJ Carr,
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: and Miami's Darian Mensah. The anonymous comments were a lot
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: harsher than their ranking. One Big Ten GM called him
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: an overrated player and just a game manager. A Power
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: Four offensive coordinator went after his ceiling and I don't
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: think he's a high-level NFL-talented kid. If he grows a
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: lot this year, maybe he'll prove me wrong. Not everyone
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: in this poll agreed, and one staffer swung completely the
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: other way. I think people are criminally low on Sane,
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: that staffer said. I think Sane is a top two
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: or three quarterback, and anyone else who doesn't have him
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: there is wrong. So where does this criticism actually come from?
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: I think it comes from three games. Ohio State was
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: truly tested against Texas, Indiana, and Miami, and the doubters
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: treat those games as the real evidence that exists. One
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: GM admitted he was high on Sane until that Indiana game.
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: That was a 13-10 loss in which Sane threw for
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: 258 yards with a touchdown and a pick. Those two
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: nights are doing an enormous amount of work in reshaping
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: his reputation because the full season looks nothing like that.
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: Sagan threw for 3,600-plus yards and 32 touchdowns, had just
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: eight picks, and completed 77% of his passes, a program record.
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: ESPN's Bill Connolly ranked him as the No. 2 Power
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: 4 quarterback and framed 2026 pretty bluntly. In 2026, the
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: training wheels must come off, Connolly wrote. He added that
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: Ohio State is going to win a ton of games again.
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: Will they win the right ones this time? His San
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: Diego-based quarterback trainer, John Moeller, pushed back hardest on the
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: arm strength knock. He gets disrespected in the arm strength category,
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: but the kid can reach all areas of the field
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: in many different ways. He said his throwing ability is
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: sky high. Sane's own response never mentioned the pull. I'm
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: not focused on the good plays, but focused on the
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: few plays I wish I could have made that gave
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: us a chance to win those games. I'm chasing to
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: be the best version of myself, he said. So all
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: three stories point at the same test. Sanchez wants the
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: hardest assignment on the field. Vargas is betting his career
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: on Ohio State's development, and Sane has to answer coaches
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: who watched him lose the biggest games that Ohio State
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: played last year. The first real answer will arrive in
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: week two, when Sanchez and Sane will travel down to
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: meet Cam Coleman in Texas to find out whether any
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: of this confidence in Ohio State will continue to hold up.
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: We appreciate you guys for tuning in. We appreciate our
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: friends over at PrizePix. All new users there get $ 150
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: instantly when they win a $ 5 lineup using code HMA.
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: Go get you a sticker or a shirt with that
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: cool logo on it over at the link in the description.
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: We appreciate you guys for tuning in. We'll see you
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: next time on College Football Addiction.