Okay, so everyone’s always buzzing about these Ohio State coaching rumors, right? It feels like every year, there’s some new drama cooking. I figured, hey, let me actually try to dig into this stuff, see what the whole process is like from the trenches, so to speak. Not that I’m some insider, far from it. Just a regular guy trying to make sense of the noise.
So, my grand plan? First, I’d dive headfirst into the fan forums. You know the ones. Man, oh man. It’s like a thousand people shouting in a tiny room. Everyone’s got a ‘source,’ a ‘guy who knows a guy.’ Most of it, you can tell, is just wishful thinking or someone repeating what they heard somewhere else. I’d spend time sifting, trying to see if there was any common thread, but mostly it was just a tangled mess.
Then, of course, there’s social media. Twitter, or X, or whatever Elon’s calling it this week. That’s a wild ride. You’ll see some account with like, ten followers, drop some bombshell ‘news’, and suddenly, it’s being screenshotted and passed around like it’s gospel. It’s crazy how fast something totally unverified can spread. My practice involved trying to trace these things back, clicking profiles, looking for any hint of credibility. Mostly, it was a dead end. Just people echoing other people.
I even tried listening to those sports talk shows and podcasts that claim to have the ‘inside scoop’. Some are better than others, I guess. But a lot of it felt like they were just spitballing, filling airtime to keep the listeners engaged. They say it with a lot of confidence, though, I’ll give ’em that. Made me realize a lot of what’s out there is just performance.
It reminds me of a few years back, there was this huge rumor about a particular coordinator, supposedly a ‘done deal’. My buddies and I were all worked up. We’d heard it from someone who heard it from someone whose brother’s friend apparently cut the grass for someone on the athletic board’s staff. Yeah, that specific. Turned out to be absolutely nothing. We felt like fools, but hey, it was exciting for a hot minute while we were all speculating.
I remember one afternoon, I must have wasted a solid three hours chasing down one particular lead about a potential hire. It started with a vague comment on a message board, led me down a rabbit hole of old articles, obscure tweets… you name it. My wife asked me what I’d been so focused on. I just kinda grumbled, ‘Important research.’ She just rolled her eyes. Can’t blame her. It really felt like I was just spinning my wheels.
And the clickbait articles! Don’t even get me started. Headlines screaming ‘MASSIVE OSU COACHING SHAKEUP IMMINENT!’ and you click, and it’s three paragraphs of pure speculation based on absolutely nothing new. They just want those clicks, you know? That part of the “practice” got old really fast. Just trying to filter out what was an actual attempt at reporting versus what was pure click-driven nonsense was a chore in itself.
The toughest part is, you’re a fan. You want to know what’s going on with your team. You get invested. So it’s hard to just ignore everything. But wading through all the garbage to find a tiny speck of truth? It’s exhausting, really. It can take the fun out of just being a fan if you let it.
So, what did I learn from my little ‘practice’ of rumor hunting? Well, mainly that it’s a chaotic circus. A sometimes entertaining circus, if you don’t let it get to you, but a circus nonetheless. Most of what you hear is just smoke. Lots and lots of smoke, very little fire, or fire that’s so far off you can’t even smell it yet.
My big takeaway from this whole experience? You find a couple of actual journalists, people who have a track record of being careful and getting things right, and you pay attention to what they say. And even then, you don’t believe it fully until the ink is dry on the contract. Everything else? It’s mostly just noise designed to get people riled up or clicking links. That’s the hard truth I settled on.
Honestly, these days, my ‘practice’ has evolved. I mostly just wait for the official announcements from the university. Saves a ton of mental energy. This whole exercise of trying to be an amateur sleuth just proved to me that it’s a full-time job I’m not cut out for, and frankly, don’t want. Let the folks whose job it is handle it. I’ll just enjoy the games… or try to, amidst all the speculation that will inevitably keep popping up!
