Buckeye Awards Season and the Coaching Carousel

With a lull between Ohio State games, we look at all the various trophies and awards Buckeye players piled up with their performances throughout the 2025 season. We dive into the various All-Big Ten teams as well. Who was deserving? Who got snubbed? How the hell did Julian Sayin end up fourth on the Heisman list with numbers comparable to or better than the winner (even in the head-to-head meeting)? And furthermore, how did a receiver win the Biletnikoff Award without even winning the award for being the best receiver in his conference? That’s another snub for Jeremiah Smith (and an egregious one — I didn’t see Makai Lemon’s name in the top 10 in Heisman Trophy voting).

Following our walk through the postseason awards, we turned our attention to the coaching carousel. Former Ohio State defensive coordinator Jim Knowles only worked at Penn State for one season and is now headed to Tennessee. It’s a bit ironic that his last outing before being hired by Tennessee was to give up 500+ yards to Greg Schiano’s Rutgers Scarlet Knights. After all, Schiano was supposed to become the Vols’ head coach until the fanbase pushed back hard against the choice.

Mike Jacobs, who played for Ohio State on the offensive line in the late 1990s and early 2000s is the new head coach at Toledo. I can honestly say I don’t remember him as a Buckeye, but now he’s back in the Buckeye State and has a solid job in the MAC.

Finally, we discussed the bizarre case of Sherrone Moore and the ongoing issues at Michigan. While Moore’s wife and kids never asked to be put in this position, here they are. It may not be fair to them, but it will probably be some time before this matter is put to rest. The University of Michigan is investigating its athletic department’s response to previous school scandals, and there doesn’t seem to be a way for Warde Manuel to keep his job (nor should there be). We discuss the matter without getting into the salacious details or diving into reports and speculation, and perhaps the best plan forward for Ohio State’s rival is to cut all ties with the Jim Harbaugh era and start fresh.

We’re taking next week off, but we’ll be back on Dec. 30 to preview Ohio State’s next opponent in the College Football Playoff. We’ll be watching the Miami-Texas A&M game with great interest.

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0:20 - Some Buckeyes won some awards, but some of those Buckeyes didn’t win some of the awards that they should have. Also, some Buckeyes may have been honored in ways that didn’t quite make sense.

20:26 - Knowles moves on to Rocky Top and Mike Jacobs returns home to northwest Ohio.

28:05 - The Sherrone Moore saga is odd and fascinating and sad. Michigan needs a reset.