
Ohio State football named its 'Dudes of the Week' on Thursday
Ohio State football named its 'Dudes of the Week' on Thursday
While the Ohio State football team isn't in the middle of fall training camp, it's still in and around the Woody Hayes Athletic Complex getting workouts in in preparation for breaking the seal on the start of camp. We've seen a flurry of activity from some of the "June Olympics" events and other things going on, so we know the team is still hard at work.
For further proof that guys are still on the grind in summer, Ohio State will routinely announce its "Dudes of the Week." We're not quite sure what goes into being nominated, let alone winning the recognition, but you can bet it involves being an Alpha athlete in some way, shape, or form.
For this week, the "Dudes of the Week" are none other than receiver Jeremiah Smith (is there a "Dude of the Year" award?), offensive lineman Austin Siereveld, and linebacker Garrett Stover.
Congratulations to this trio for working hard. We're pretty sure it's not the last we've seen of any of them in the spotlight.
Contact/Follow us @BuckeyesWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Ohio State news, notes and opinion. Follow Phil Harrison on X.
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Fox News
18 minutes ago
- Fox News
2025 College Football Predictions: 10 Matchups that will Shape the Regular Season
Every week, it feels like the college football season is getting just a little closer and closer. I truly can't wait for what's in store for the 2025 regular season. So, I decided to look at the schedule for the regular season again and try to pinpoint which 10 games will have the most impact. These aren't necessarily the 10 best games, although some look to be epic. Rather, they're the 10 games that I think will shape how we view the season and might have the biggest impact on the College Football Playoff. There are plenty of games early in the season that will certainly have some sway in how things get determined in 2025, with a couple of monster matchups taking place in Week 1. Let's start off our list with the one that I'll call for FOX. It's a rematch of one of the CFP semifinal games, with Ohio State winning that game en route to a national championship. Both teams look poised to make another deep run in 2025. 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He's going against a top two or three coach in Ryan Day, who has to feel he is entering the season with the monkey off his back. That might be beneficial to Ohio State. Another Week 1 matchup that I think will feature two teams ranked in the top 10. Brian Kelly needs to win this game for LSU. Kelly went all in on the portal this offseason and is returning his quarterback, Garrett Nussmeier. But Kelly has gone 0-3 in season openers during his time in Baton Rouge, and LSU fans need to see this program progressing. It's fair for us to ask when the breakthrough is going to happen for Kelly at LSU. I do think we'll see that this year. Yet, I actually feel better about Clemson between these two teams. Dabo Swinney has bet on himself over the last few years, and it feels like Clemson has reloaded for another run. I've got Cade Klubnik as my No. 1 quarterback entering the season and that defense is really talented. There's also the conference element to this game. 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Notre Dame lost three games at home in September over his first three seasons as head coach. I also really like Mike Elko and his fit at Texas A&M. He gets College Station and I think he'll work out at Texas A&M. But he'll have to win games like this one to prove that he's the guy for the Aggies. A rematch of the Big Ten Championship Game. I think this game is bigger for Penn State than Oregon. I've repeated over and over again that it's time for Penn State to beat someone it's evenly matched with or upset a team with more talent than it has. James Franklin has done a perfect job at winning the games he's supposed to win, which is a talent that shouldn't be underrated. But he and Penn State have to win those matchup games, where you have to beat a team that has equal talent to you. The Nittany Lions got close to doing that last year, playing Ohio State, Oregon and Notre Dame close. If Penn State can win this game, that would announce to everyone that this group is ready for the big stage and potentially make a run for a title. From an Oregon perspective, this is Dan Lanning's first opportunity to show what his squad is made of after getting blown out by Ohio State in the Rose Bowl. There isn't any shame in losing to that Ohio State team, but Oregon has to show that it has turned the page and can continue to play at a high level. If it can win at Penn State, which I think is the toughest place to play in the Big Ten, that would be saying something for Oregon. This is a sneaky, under-the-radar one. This game is important for Illinois because the game gives them an opportunity to show they can be this year's Indiana. Both teams could be 4-0 entering this game. If Illinois wins this game, it'd likely be 5-0, with its game against Ohio State as its only difficult game remaining. That Ohio State game doesn't look as daunting if Illinois handles business against USC. Bret Bielema is building something very special at Illinois. However, they're going to have to fight the chance of being a former afterthought that turns into the apple of everyone's eye. Illinois doesn't have the talent to blow everyone out, but Bielema is building something very sustainable. As for USC, it's pretty obvious: Lincoln Riley needs to stack some good wins. He did great early in his tenure at USC, but things got shaky over the last couple of years. If USC loses this game, it's staring right down the barrel of another possible 7-5 season. USC has one of the best recruiting classes in the country for 2026, so it's building momentum off the field. Now, it needs to build momentum on the field, too. This is an obvious one. This game is really always a great game. They could play it in a parking lot, and it would be a great game with high stakes. The winner of this game will likely be in the SEC Championship Game. Then, you get into the implications for both teams. Is Alabama back at the level it was at with Nick Saban? This is a huge early test for Kalen DeBoer in Year 2, and Alabama's schedule after this game is manageable. For Georgia, if it loses this game, we'll wonder if the Bulldogs are slipping. It'd mark two straight losses to Alabama, with a loss in the CFP quarterfinals sandwiched between that. This is likely another top-five matchup, which will present another opportunity for James Franklin to get a marquee win. If Penn State doesn't beat Oregon in Week 5, there will be a ton of pressure on Franklin and the Nittany Lions when they head to Columbus, especially in a year where the Buckeyes are breaking in a new quarterback and coordinators. This is also the most experienced and talented team Franklin has had in his tenure at Penn State. It's a big opportunity for Drew Allar to show what he's made of. The loser of this game will be in a precarious spot in the Big Ten title race. We'll see how it plays out, but Penn State needed a wild loss from Ohio State against Michigan to reach the Big Ten Championship Game last season. As I got to the later weeks of the season while making this list, I started predicting some outcomes from earlier games. Most of us probably think that Georgia will beat Alabama in Week 5. I think Clemson will beat LSU in Week 1. If those two results happen, the LSU-Alabama matchup in Week 11 will be a monster game with CFP implications. I don't know if the loser of this game can still make the CFP if it also lost its game earlier on this list. It could be a battle for the third or fourth CFP spot among SEC teams. And as I touched on with both teams' inclusions earlier on this list, this is a high-stakes game for both coaches. Brian Kelly needs as many high-profile wins as he can get, and you have to think that Kalen DeBoer doesn't have that long of a runway at Alabama. The way things finished for DeBoer in Year 1 wasn't very Alabama-esque. This game was obviously going to make the list. It's a battle between the last two national championship winners. You've got the backstory of how this game finished last year, with Michigan trying to plant the flag at The Shoe before a fight broke out. Even though Ohio State got its national championship, it still has to listen to Michigan say, "Well, you didn't beat us, and we won our national championship going 15-0." This year's game is going to be epic. Can Michigan actually win a fifth straight game against Ohio State? Thinking back to the COVID year, I didn't think Michigan was going to win The Game for the foreseeable future. Somehow, it's won four in a row. There are some games that were certainly worthy of being mentioned on this list, but these are the 10 that I feel will truly shape the 2025 college football regular season. Maybe I'll touch more on those games at a later date. Joel Klatt is FOX Sports' lead college football game analyst and the host of the podcast "The Joel Klatt Show." Follow him at @joelklatt and subscribe to the "Joel Klatt Show" on YouTube. Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? Create or log in to your FOX Sports account, follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily.


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