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Two Ohio State Receivers Enter Transfer Portal · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Welcome to Buckeyes tomorrow morning for Tuesday, January second. I'm your host,
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  Tom Moore. The Akron game is in two hundred and forty two days,
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  the Game of cons Fishigan in three hundred and thirty three days. We're gonna
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  be dropping this one a little earlier in the day than we typically do for
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  these episodes, but that's because it's sort of a breaking news episode. A
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  couple Ohio state wide receivers hit the transfer portal on New Year's Eve, so
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  we're gonna be talking about it today. We're gonna be doing that with their
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  buddy, Tony Gerdiman of Buckeyhuddle dot com. Tony remember his last spring coming
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  up with a little mnemonic to remember how to spell Noah Rodgers' name and Bryson
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  rodgers name because one of them had a D in their last name and one
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  of them didn't. And here we are on in the first day of the
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  next year, both of them are in their transfer portal. Neither of them
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  had to catch his buck eyes. This all feels a little anti climactic.
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  Yeah, you can go ahead and put that mnemonic in the trash and let
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  it go forever. Really disappointing turn for the twenty twenty three receiver class after
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  a disappointing turn for the twenty twenty two receiving class. But yeah, yeah,
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  kind of came in a flurry there, and when Bryson Rogers was first,
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  I kind of got the feeling that he wouldn't be the last from the
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  class just based on how little they played. So disappointing turn. And we
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  can talk about it more and more today, tomorrow, whenever about how to
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  keep this from happening. But it is a different day and age with nil
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  and so much now of when you're sitting on the bench, you're costing yourself
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  money. That is what people will tell you. So that is a brand
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  new factor into all of this, even aside from playing time. Well,
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  and I mean, let's at least talk about the playing time moving forward,
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  because I think that's part of the conversation and the twenty twenty four season Ohio
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  State. Let's assume that a Mecca Abuka comes back. That's not official yet,
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  but it's certainly a possibility if he does. You've got a Mecca Abuka,
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  you got Paranel Tate, you got Brandon Innis, you've got Jayden Ballard
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  who played some in the Cotton Bowl. You've got Jeremiah Smith coming in as
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  a five star, number one player in the class. You've got Mylon Graham
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  coming in. You've another five star. So that's six guys you've got.
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  You know, Noah Rodgers, Bryson Rodgers. Maybe they're ahead of one or
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  two of those guys maybe at start, but you're still kind of buried pretty
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  deep on the depth chart. You're not looking at a ton of playing time.
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  Bryson Rodgers is from Florida. Noah Rodgers is from North Carolina. We
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  heard all through his Noah Rodgers recruitment that he was a homebody, and you
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  know, he seemed like he was leaning towards North Carolina State for long stretches
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  because that's where he's from, and it would not be surprising to see that
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  be where he ends up now. But it just it just felt like there
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  was not a particularly clear path to the playing field for either of those guys
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  this year. So, as you say said, in this day and age
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  of college football, if you're not if you don't have a clear path to
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  the playing field in year two, you're seeing more and more guys jump after
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  year one. Yeah. And this is especially Bryson Rodgers doesn't surprise me greatly
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  because he's playing the slot. He's playing the same position as Brandon Ennis.
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  And with the assumption that Mecca Abuka is back and he could be in the
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  slot, where is that playing time coming for Bryson Rodgers, especially as much
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  as they like to move guys around into the slot like they did with Marvin
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  Harrison this year, like Cardinal Tate will be done with and anybody else,
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  so the playing time for Bryson Rodgers seems would be just tough to come by.
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  Noah Rodgers, I think the receivers on the outside are very unproven outside
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  of and we'll see what a Mecca Abuka does. Will they move him outside
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  if he comes back. Cardinal Tate will be out there, obviously, Jeremiah
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  Smith will be out there. I still think it's a ton to put on
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  a freshman, and we can talk about him in in a minute about how
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  this take puts so much more pressure on him to produce right away. But
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  Noah Rodgers, knowing what we know, and certainly Brian Hartline knowing what he
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  knows about his players, and again, it is the special it is the
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  position coaches who play the players, they determine the playing time knowing what they
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  know about Noah Rodgers. To not play him more, you are inviting him
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  to leave. And you could say that about anybody. When you're not playing
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  too freshmen, you're inviting them to leave. When you're playing walk On's ahead
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  of them, you're inviting them to leave. But to just assume that these
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  guys were ready to play, I think is also not true. It's it's
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  unfair, it's not accurate. But you know, the I don't know,
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  Tom, is it the lack of blowouts this year that really impacted things Because
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  you go back and you know, the number of snaps this year I probably
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  down just the total opportunities because of the blowouts and things like that that weren't
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  there. So maybe in twenty twenty two they could have gotten these guys more
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  snaps. And if you look at the twenty twenty two receiver class, they
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  got those guys more snaps, more snaps than they got the twenty twenty three
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  class this year. So I think the offense overall probably cost them a receiver
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  or two this year, just because it's not a rotation like we've seen in
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  the past. And Brian Hartline's never really had a full rotation. But where
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  are the snaps supposed to come from? When you're playing in a bunch of
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  closer games and you have a quarterback who is very reliant on Marvin Harrison and
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  even having a mecca a book out for as long as he did, Cardill
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  Taitt and Xavier Johnson took most of those snaps, and really they're just wasn't
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  anything for anybody else based on the way the games are going, and I
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  guess based on the way Bright Heartline saw those freshmen. Yeah, and looking
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  forward now it feels like, boy, they've got so many guys, and
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  we're talking about how it's so hard to get these guys on the field because
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  they have so many, you know, it's so such a deep room.
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  You're losing Marvin Harrison, You're losing Xavier Johnson, You've lost Julian Fleming,
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  and the twenty twenty two class has already lost Caleb Burton and Caleb Brown to
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  the transfer portal. You've now lost two guys from your twenty twenty three recruiting
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  class, Bryson Rodgers, Noah Rodgers, Kojo Antwee Key on Gray's key on
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  Grace was hurt most of the year, Kojo Antwe only saw the field a
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  few times. It feels like if they do have other guys who end up
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  leaving at some point, it's suddenly you're going from boy, this room has
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  a ton of guys to boy, there's not a whole lot of guys here
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  because they just lost Jeremiah McClellan, who was a late flip to Oregon.
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  So next year, if you've got the room, it's Mecca Abuka, maybe
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  Carnel, Tate, Brennan, Innis, Jaden Baler, Jeremiah Smith, Mile
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  and Graham. We talked before the show tomorrow and Whitten. He's listed as
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  a wide receiver. He's listed as a tight end, might start as a
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  wide receiver because he isn't quite physically developed enough to be a tight end just
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  yet. That's not that many bodies in that room. You're looking at seven
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  guys there, and well that's plenty. You have one or two guys get
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  hurt, and all of a sudden, you know you have had Ohio state
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  wide receivers miss big chunks of the last couple of years because of injury.
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  That is a very talented but suddenly not particularly deep room, which for someone
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  who recruits as many talented players every single year as Brian Hartline, seems crazy
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  that you could be having a boy, you know, are they deep enough
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  kind of conversation in that room. Yeah, And if you're looking at receivers
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  for next year, you may as well throw a walk on David Adolphin there
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  as well, because he played more than Bryson Rodgers, more than Kojo Anthwy,
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  more than Kean Gray's. So that might be somebody else, but we
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  know Ohio State wanted to sign four receivers in this class, missed out on
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  Jeremiah McClellan, missed out on a couple of other guys that they were trying
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  to get, and so I do think that Demurian Witten maybe eases that pain
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  a little. I think it was the MVP of the Army All American Ball
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  last week playing receiver, which gives you an idea of his skill set.
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  We've seen him at Glenville the last two years playing everywhere it plays quarterback,
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  kicks, plays receiver obviously, and every time we've seen him, he's been
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  impossible to stop. He was the most impactful player I saw earlier this season
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  when Glenville could do nothing in the first quarter and wasn't playing, and then
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  they finally let him play. I don't know what was going on there,
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  finally let him play, and Glennville just took over and blew out the opponent
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  just based on the presence of Demurion Witton into plays he was making. But
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  really, you're asking now for the Jeremiah Smith, and I know everybody just
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  assumes, well, he's a day one starter. He may bee day one
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  rotation. I think I'm not gonna book at Carneal Tate Brandon innist. That
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  looks great on the video game, you know, that looks really cool.
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  You know, you three five star guys there and another one waiting in the
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  wings. But it's then, and maybe maybe a thin room was the best
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  way to keep anybody from transferring out because there will be snaps for people.
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  It's gonna be interesting to see how they do it, and you're not in
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  a position where you can continue to lose guys. And I don't know that
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  the twenty twenty five class will be nearly as good as the twenty twenty four
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  class, which wasn't what isn't as good as the twenty twenty three class the
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  last two years, the twenty twenty three class of twenty twenty two class probably
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  Herdline signed four guys, I'm sorry, eight guys. He's already lost four
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  to the four in those two classes. And over the last six years they've
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  signed twenty one receivers. Nine of them have gone into the portal. One
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  was transferred to tight end in g Scott. Ten of the twenty one basically
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  have played receiver at Ohio State or state at Ohio State, and that includes
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  Ken Gray's, Kojo Antweed and Jaden Ballard, who will see what happens with
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  them if because they've not been playing much either, and so they'll have decisions
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  to make. The portal closes on January tewod as we speak, so it'll
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  be an interesting few days. And then the other portal opened window opens in
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  the spring after the spring, and maybe this will be an opportunity for guys
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  to see where they stand in the spring, which we know always happens.
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  I want to see where I am, do I get passed over if I
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  do? Deuce as I'm out, And at least Ohio State will know more
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  than as well. Yeah, and we'll probably know more about who might be
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  throwing the football to all of those guys. As the Buckeyes are supposedly maybe
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  reportedly close to adding a quarterback through the portal, We'll keep an eye on
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  that for you. We'll see who's blocking for all of these guys. There's
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  that's suddenly a little bit of a concern as well in another room where they've
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  brought in a lot of guys and somehow they maybe you're feeling like they're a
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  little thin up front? Will they have will they have any other additions to
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  that group through the portal potentially now or after the spring. Just brought in
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  a transfer tight end through the transfer portal. Tony and I did an instant
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  reaction show on that. You can find it YouTube dot com slash Buckey Huddle.
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  They want to talk about any of this, you can do that on
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  the huddle board at bucke Uddle dot com. Is presented by our friends at
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  Jeff Ruby Steakhouse and his members only. So you want to sign up,
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  you can do that at Buckeye Huddle dot com and of course also watch all
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  of our stuff at YouTube dot com slash Buckeye Huddle. You're watching this there,
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  hit that thumbs up that will help other folks find these shows. Make
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  sure you're subscribed, hit that notified. We will probably do some live stuff
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  here and there in the coming days as news continues to break around Ohio state
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  transfer, portal arrivals, departures, and everything else. We will see you
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  there at YouTube dot com, slash pucke Huddle, and at puckeyehuddle dot com.
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  That will do it for today. Thank you guys all for joining us.
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  Have a great day. We'll talk to you tomorrow.