What I Know, What I Think, What I Wonder – The Receiver Expectations Edition

I know it’s going to be interesting to watch the fourth quarters of blowouts this year. You can’t just burn the clock by running the ball. You have to let the quarterbacks throw the ball. This will help the QBs and the receivers. You can’t go into November with only one quarterback who has been in charge of legitimate touchdown drives.

I think if you look over the history of true freshmen receivers under Brian Hartline, the production is pretty limited. Even if you leave out the receivers who didn’t really play as true freshmen, the numbers are small. If you take the true freshman seasons of Chris Olave, Garrett Wilson, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Julian Fleming, Emeka Egbuka, Marvin Harrison, Brandon Inniss, and Carnell Tate, it works out to about 12 catches for 168 yards and two touchdowns. If you remove the Garrett Wilson outlier, those numbers drop to nine catches for 136 yards and a touchdown.

I wonder how much they try to get Mylan Graham involved this season because you can’t keep losing receivers to the transfer portal. Especially the ones you want to keep. Graham has some Jameson Williams to his game. It would behoove Ohio State to keep that kind of talent around.

To read the rest of this edition of What I Know, What I Think, What I Wonder, you can click here, but you’ll need to be a premium subscriber. Additional topics include thoughts on Gene Smith’s legacy as he leaves Ohio State, the expectations for incoming freshman wide receiver Mylan Graham, the 2025 recruiting class at receiver, utilizing the transfer portal next year at receiver, the addition of South Carolina defensive back Keenan Nelson, Jr., the situation at safety this year for the Buckeyes, a couple of talented 2026 Ohio prospects, and much more.