50 For 50: Buckeyes Will Have Some Slot Machines In 2024

Welcome to our daily feature that I am calling “50 for 50” where I attempt to get us to Big Ten Media Days — which are six days away — with a daily sampling of what we can look forward to this upcoming college football season.

We will do this via the following categories: the 50 biggest individual matchups for the Buckeyes this season, the 50 most important college football games this season, 50 Buckeye things to look forward to this season, 50 national predictions, 50 Big Ten predictions, and 50 predictions involving the Buckeyes.

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Biggest Buckeye Matchups

Ohio State LT Josh Simmons vs. Penn State DE Abdul Carter

Abdul Carter was a very effective pass-rushing linebacker last year for the Nittany Lions, which is one of the reasons why they moved him to defensive end full time this year. Ohio State left tackle Josh Simmons will have the size advantage, but he’s going to have to be light on his feet to deal with Carter. Penn State always has quick defensive ends. Carter will fit right in with them. Even though this game won’t be a White Out for Penn State, the environment is still going to make it very difficult for the Ohio State offensive line to communicate.

Most Important Games

Nebraska Cornhuskers at Iowa Hawkeyes, November 29 (Fri., 7:30 pm NBC)

The Midwest will be back from their Black Friday shopping in time to fall asleep in front of the television watching Nebraska and Iowa claw open the scabs that they scratched upon each other in last season’s 13-10 Hawkeye win. If this is Kirk Ferentz’s last regular season game as I have predicted, you know he’s going to want to go out on his own terms. Which can only mean at least one punt on third down.

Things To Look Forward To

The slot position filling out.

It is looking more and more like Emeka Egbuka will be back in the slot this year for the Buckeyes. He won’t be the only one there, however. Receivers coach Brian Hartline will move his players around, but only a handful of them will be tasked and entrusted with snaps in the slot. He will ask Egbuka and Carnell Tate to play both outside and inside, just as he did last year. Can freshman Jeremiah Smith handle that kind of assignment as well? Or is that too much too soon? Second-year receivers Brandon Inniss and Bryson Rodgers were in the slot last year and will be involved there once again. Can one of them step up and be a true backup for Egbuka?

National College Football Predictions

Chip Trayanum will rush for at least 1,157 yards this season.

While 1,157 yards might seem like an arbitrary prediction for a rushing total, it is actually one yard more than Chip Trayanum’s career total. In those four years, Trayanum’s career-best season is 401 yards in 2021. Now that he is out of the Ohio State backfield and at Kentucky where the Wildcats are looking for a starter to replace Ray Davis, Trayanum could be in line for a pretty big season. It will be interesting to watch what he can do while getting a consistent number of carries from week to week.

Big Ten Football Predictions

Dan Lanning will be named Big Ten Coach of the Year.

You will not find a Kirk Ferentz joke here. Sorry. There’s a pretty good chance that Oregon is going to take the Big Ten by storm — or at least tropical depression — this year. This means that Ducks head coach Dan Lanning is going to be in line to win the conference’s most coveted trophy — the coach of the year award. In 2019, Ryan Day became the first Ohio State coach to win one of the two B1G Coach of the Year awards, earning the nod from media but not coaches (PJ Fleck). The expectations for the Buckeyes have generally kept voters from giving OSU head coaches their due credit. That won’t be the case for Lanning, who coaches a shiny program that will no doubt entrance conference voters like me.

Ohio State Football Predictions

Will Kacmarek will have a career day against a MAC opponent.

Prior to transferring to Ohio State this year, tight end Will Kacmarek started 13 games the past two seasons at Ohio. As a redshirt freshman in 2022, he caught 20 passes for 264 yards. Last year, he caught 22 passes for 243 yards. This year, he will get to face a pair of MAC teams with whom he is familiar. So what does a “career day” mean? Well, his career high in receptions and yards for one game came against Kent State in 2022 when he posted four catches for 48 yards. I don’t know that he’ll go over both of those yards against either Akron or Western Michigan, but I won’t be surprised to see him go over 50 yards in one of those games.

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