Tony No. 1 Share Posted April 22 According to Mel Kiper's projections, the Buckeyes have 9 and the Ducks have 4 players in the top ten at their respective positions, Many of these Buckeyes would not be ranked where they are a year ago. They came back to be elite, and win a championship. There is always a lot of talk from the Buckeye players about their development in the off season, and building for their opportunity to start. This is the next step for the Ducks. I'm a Duckeye. I'm for the Ducks every game until they play my alma mater. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
30Duck Moderator No. 2 Share Posted April 22 It would be great to see Ducks coming back year after year, benefitting the team and themselves. In 2007, much to Oregon's dismay. Florida's basketball team all came back for a repeat, and got it, against osu2. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Author No. 3 Share Posted 13 hours ago And now I see 15 Buckeyes were drafted into the NFL. What a lesson. What a year for the Buckeyes! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Joseph Moderator No. 4 Share Posted 13 hours ago Tony, Ohio State had 14 players drafted, one short of the record 15 held by Georgia. I'm sure the Ohio State culture had much to do with the Buckeyes winning the national championship. However, large NIL payments to players who were draft-eligible in 2024 also helped. No offense, but what was your take on the Buckeyes culture the day after the 4th straight loss to Michigan? Ohio State was fortunate to have the chance to overcome the loss, and hats off to Ohio State for a tremendous PO run. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nevada Dawg No. 5 Share Posted 3 hours ago Culture is paramount to the success of champions. Retention of talent is, IMHO, more important to success than portal acquisitions. Players who are recruited to top programs and spend their careers there are typically much more successful at getting to and staying in the NFL than program hoppers. Case in point: 26 of the 32 first-round selections in the recent NFL draft spent their college careers at their original landing spot. This is not possible without strong culture that emphasize player development. The Ducks have reached the point where they can rely on this model, stressing to in-comers that development is everything and to start grinding early, to learn from the older players, and to do anything to contribute before reaching the status (hopefully) as a starter and/or regular rotational piece. For many players at Georgia, they don't regularly see the field (except for special teams) until late in the second or the third year. But if they have embraced the "development" mantra and are ready to ball when opportunity knocks. One of the major reasons that both Michigan and OSU won nattys the past two years is that the coaching staffs had been very successful at retaining the top talents, whi, in turn were very experienced and "developed players who knew how football is supposed to be played. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
