Opposing fanbases made fun at the expense of Ohio State by claiming them as the “offseason champs” before the 2024 college football season began. It wasn’t meant to be a compliment, but a knife in the back of coming up short on more than one occasion (in their eyes) despite having a slew of talent on the roster. The Buckeyes again had a stellar recruiting class, convinced several veteran and skilled players to come back, and swayed a handful of transfer portal players to come to Columbus to join the fray.

After taking all of that through a journey to a College Football Playoff national championship, Ohio State got the last laugh in a surreal “Ohio Against the World” moment. But I digress …

One of those transfer portal acquisitions was Alabama center, Seth McLaughlin, who played so well this season that he won the Rimington Award handed out to the best center in college football annually. He came to Columbus, seemingly because of the retirement of arguably the best to ever coach college football, Nick Saban. Or at least, that was the thought. However, according to his comments on the “Cube Show Podcast.” there was more to it than that.

Most college football fans remember McLaughlin’s troubles snapping the ball to Alabama quarterback, Jalen Milroe in the Rose Bowl loss against Michigan. What they probably don’t know is the amount of ire and criticism McLaughlin received from Alabama fans, so much so that it played a lot into him making his way to Columbus.

We always knew there was more to the story with McLaughlin. Everyone assumed it was for a fresh start, but little did we know it was a combination of needing development and the vitriol he got hammered with after that night in Pasadena.

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