Scarlet Sunrise: With Ohio State season approaching, AD Ross Bjork 'just can't wait to see it all in action'

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With Ohio State season approaching, AD Ross Bjork ‘just can’t wait to see it all in action’

Before Ohio State played Missouri in the Cotton Bowl last season, the teams hadn’t met since the 1998 season. New Buckeyes Athletic Director Ross Bjork was at that game in Columbus two and a half decades ago, except he was working for the athletic development office at Missouri back then.

“The stadium was different,” a reflective Bjork said Wednesday. “Things evolve, they changed.”

Bjork, seven job titles and close to 26 years later, is eager to finally see “the Horseshoe” in action for a regular season football game again.

Although Bjork is officially less than three weeks into his stay as Buckeyes AD, he’s been in Columbus since the spring when he served as senior advisor for intercollegiate athletics during the final months of now-retired Gene Smith’s 19-year tenure at the helm of the athletic department.

Now that Smith is gone, however, Bjork is the head honcho. And things are really starting to ramp up. Bjork will be headed to Indianapolis for Big Ten Media Days next week, but, first, over the weekend Ohio State will hold its red coat security supervisor training. Bjork described game day as a “massive operation” that partly goes off because of the help provided by a collection of law enforcement agencies.

“We can’t do it alone,” Bjork said. “We need a lot of help from our community. So I want to see that all really come together.”

The former Texas A&M, Ole Miss and Western Kentucky AD continued: “There’s nothing better than a football weekend. It all starts ramping up on really Thursday, Friday. Saturday’s game day. You get to the stadium early, it’s nice and quiet. Tailgating is all happening.”

That’s especially the case at Ohio State, where, as Bjork noted, “you don’t have to convince people to care around here.” With that peak fan interest, however, comes sky-high expectations, particularly in a year like 2024 when the Buckeyes have as much talent as they do and a three-game losing streak to reigning national champion Michigan looming.

“We know what we signed up for,” Bjork said. “We know the expectations. But it’s all about what are we doing to build it and then worry about the scoreboard. That’s what’s exciting, just to see all the building blocks. And then that piece will really take care of itself.

“If you do all this right, the scoreboard will take care of itself.”

Bjork said he has a view from his office in the Fawcett Center where he can see the football practice fields over at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center. He watches the players doing their runs and workouts. Now the coaches can be out there, too, Bjork pointed out.

“So all those pieces, it’s exciting,” Bjork said. “Just can’t wait to see it all in action.”

All three Buckeyes starters land near top of 2025 draft-eligible cornerbacks list

College football preseason magazine legend Phil Steele released his list of the top 60 draft-eligible cornerbacks. All three of Ohio State’s expected starters at the position — Denzel Burke, Davison Igbinosun and Jordan Hancock — made the top 11.

Burke is on the verge of becoming a four-year starter. He wants to be a top-10 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. Igbinosun started 10 games his first year at Ole Miss, transferred and then quickly emerged as an everday starting outside corner at Ohio State last season. And then a healthy Hancock blossomed as an inside corner while manning the “nickel” position in 2023, run fits, blitzing and all.

Find out where each of those three cornerbacks rank in Steele’s top 11, plus get more analysis on a trio that helped the Ohio State secondary reclaim its “Best in America” tag line last year.

Check it out here.

Veteran Buckeyes corners focused on helping true freshmen learn ways of ‘BIA’ tradition

The Ohio State cornerback room is loaded with talent, starting with those three aforementioned upperclassmen, all of whom have a chance to hear their named called in next year’s NFL Draft.

Secondary/cornerbacks coach, and now assistant head coach, Tim Walton has built a formidable pipeline in less than three years at Ohio State.

The newest wave of corners — Aaron Scott Jr., Bryce West and Miles Lockhart — is pretty intriguing, too.

“It’s crazy, you know,” senior “nickel” cornerback Jordan Hancock said. “I don’t even know how to explain it, but our room is so talented right now. Like anybody can go out there, even our twos and threes, and start anywhere else in the country.

“So, from top down, it’s super talented. We got young dudes like Aaron, Miles and Bryce. They’re gonna go out there and ball in a couple years, and I’m excited for their future and potential.”

Veterans like Hancock are just trying to help those true freshmen learn the ways of the “BIA” tradition.

For the full story, go here.

Counting Down

Buckeyes vs. Akron: 44 days
Buckeyes vs. Michigan: 135 days

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