After eight months of looking ahead to Ohio State’s 2022 football season, it’s finally game week in Columbus.

Come next week’s episode of Real Pod Wednesdays, we’ll have an actual football game to recap and a much better feel of how good this year’s Ohio State football team actually is and what it still needs to work on. This week, though, it’s all about looking ahead to the first and one of the biggest games of the year as we break down how things could play out when the Buckeyes finally take the field against the Fighting Irish in Ohio Stadium on Saturday.

The first half of this week’s episode is all about previewing what will happen on the field in Saturday’s big game. We break down what we expect to see from Jim Knowles’ defense and what would constitute a good first game in terms of points and yards allowed and how much of a challenge Notre Dame’s defense will present to Ohio State’s offense, then make our score predictions (at the 33:30 mark) for how we think the game will ultimately play out.

Later in the show (starting at 36:35), we talk about why this will also be a massive recruiting weekend for the Buckeyes – and not just in football – as Ohio State’s top targets in both football and basketball will be on campus. Dan discusses why it’s vital to Ohio State’s 2023 defensive end recruiting for the Buckeyes to impress Keon Keeley, Matayo Uiagalelei and Damon Wilson this weekend, and Griffin discusses why he thinks Ohio State basketball has a genuine chance to land Bronny James.