The start of spring football is less than one week away, Ohio State men’s basketball could play its way back into NCAA Tournament contention, a frontrunner has emerged in Ohio State’s coaching search and the NFL Scouting Combine is underway.

That gives us a lot of ground to cover on this week’s episode of Real Pod Wednesdays, and we discussed it all in a little more than 80 minutes.

With Ohio State football set to begin spring practices Tuesday, we start this week’s RPW by previewing the spring ahead, focusing primarily on the five biggest position battles that will take place in Columbus this spring. We also preview this year’s first edition of The Buckeye 20, which will be updated later this week, with a look at Ohio State’s top five players on the current roster entering spring practices.

Ohio State men’s basketball gave us something positive to talk about for the second week in a row with its buzzer-beating win over Michigan State, and we take a look at Ohio State’s potential path to the NCAA Tournament – which starts with winning its final three regular-season games, beginning Thursday against Nebraska at home (6:30 p.m., FS1). We also dive into Sean Miller’s emergence as a potential frontrunner to be Ohio State’s new coach and why he could be a fit to lead the Buckeyes.

We wrap up the show by talking about which Buckeyes could be the top candidates to boost their NFL draft stock this week and which ones have the most riding on their combine performance.

The full rundown for this week’s show:

• 0:45: Transfers will garner plenty of attention this spring
• 1:59: Five scholarship quarterbacks will force Ohio State to be smart about how it splits up reps
• 4:47: Ohio State’s most important position battles will take place on right side of offensive line
• 16:25: Sonny Styles, C.J. Hicks give Ohio State two intriguing candidates for one starting spot
• 27:00: Jeremiah Smith will be tough to keep out of starting lineup, but Brandon Inniss will be, too
• 32:59: Will Kacmarek will face competition from Gee Scott Jr., Jelani Thurman at tight end
• 36:59: Ty Hamilton, Kayden McDonald, Jermaine Mathews Jr. among others to watch this spring
• 43:40: Denzel Burke, TreVeyon Henderson and Caleb Downs enter 2024 as OSU’s top players
• 49:27: OSU men’s basketball gives us something positive to discuss for a second straight week
• 52:32: Three winnable games to end regular season keep OSU’s NCAA Tournament hopes alive
• 59:41: Eleven Warriors readers are split down the middle on Jake Diebler as OSU’s next coach
• 1:01:53: Sean Miller looks like the frontrunner to be Ohio State’s next coach
• 1:09:55: This is a good week to start watching OSU women’s basketball if you aren’t already
• 1:13:51: Marvin Harrison Jr. would have had nothing to gain by working out at NFL Combine
• 1:16:07: Mike Hall, Josh Proctor, Steele Chambers among candidates to boost draft stock