Ohio State finally has a starting quarterback and the 2023 season is about to begin.

That gives us plenty of topics for conversation on this week’s episode of Real Pod Wednesdays.

We start today’s show by evaluating Ohio State’s decision to name Kyle McCord the starting quarterback and how likely he is to be the starter all year long. We also assess Ohio State’s indecision at free safety and how much of a concern that could be for the Buckeyes’ defense and explore why Jayden Fielding beat out Parker Lewis to be the Buckeyes’ kicker.

After that, we take a brief look at this weekend’s matchup with Indiana – which we both expect to be a decisive win for the Buckeyes, though only one of us believes Ohio State will pull away early. Then, we discuss our expectations for Ohio State’s 2023 season as a whole and make some predictions for whether the Buckeyes will have a Heisman finalist, who their offensive and defensive MVPs will be, which under-the-radar players will have breakout seasons and whether Ohio State will have a top-10 offense and a top-10 defense.

A timeline of the main topics we discuss in this week’s episode:

• 1:33: Kyle McCord being named the starter seems to be more than a nod to his experience
• 6:00: Devin Brown deserves a chance to play, but McCord also deserves chance to work through mistakes
• 11:43: It would be ideal for Brown to enter the game with a comfortable lead, but OSU can’t wait too long
• 17:13: Ohio State doesn’t have a free safety it’s fully confident in yet, and that’s a concern
• 24:08: Buckeyes can afford to experiment at free safety for first two games, but not much longer than that
• 27:12: Jayden Fielding was ahead of Parker Lewis since last year, even though Lewis is on scholarship
• 30:04: Indiana has fallen hard since it nearly upset Ohio State in 2020
• 36:16: We both expect the Buckeyes to cover, but Dan expects some first-half bumpiness
• 39:09: Ohio State vs. Michigan shapes our national championship predictions
• 46:34: Can Ohio State adapt if it doesn’t have elite quarterback play? It should be able to
• 55:02: Why we both think Marvin Harrison Jr. will be a Heisman finalist (but not the winner)
• 56:48: TreVeyon Henderson, Emeka Egbuka will be OSU’s non-Harrison offensive MVPs
• 59:16: Mike Hall, JT Tuimoloau are our picks for Ohio State’s defensive MVP
• 1:03:22: Xavier Johnson, Julian Fleming, Ty Hamilton, Davison Igbinosun could be under-the-radar stars
• 1:09:20: Why we think Ohio State will have both a top-10 offense and a top-10 defense