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Is Bill O'Brien About To Leave Ohio State For Boston College? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Welcome to buck Eyes tomorrow morning for Tuesday, February sixth, of your host
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  Tom Or. The Akron game is in two hundred and seven days, the
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  game against Michigan in two hundred and ninety eight days. When those games happen.
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  Pretty recently, we thought Bill O'Brien will be the new offensive coordinator of
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  Ohio State, and as of this moment, Bill O'Brien is still the new
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  offensive coordinator at Ohio State. However, Bill O'Brien also a candidate for the
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  Boston College head coaching job that was just vacated when Jeff Hafley jumped to the
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  NFL. So we're going to be talking about a job opened by one former
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  Ohio State assistant could be taken by another current Ohio State assistant, unless it's
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  taken by one of a couple other former Ohio State assistants who knew Ohio State
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  in Boston College are so closely tied. Here, Tony Gerdiamin, I'm going
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  to bring you in to break try and break all of this down. So
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  there's been a bunch of different reports on this, and at one point it
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  was like imminent that there was a decision that happened on Monday in a press
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  conference on Tuesday, and that doesn't that only it's going to happen, but
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  Pete Samill had to report on Monday afternoon that sort of laid out a little
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  bit more of a structure for what this search is going to look like.
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  Yeah, from what Pete Damill said, there'll be interviews on Tuesday with several
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  candidates, and perhaps interviews following that as well, maybe follow ups, and
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  then a decision sometime this weekend. So that's that seems to be a pretty
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  accurate timeline. And I know people Buckeye fans all over the place have been
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  asking all of their people on all of their various sites, what's going on,
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  what's going on? Why aren't you reporting anything? The people in Boston
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  are saying this, and people in Boston are saying that, yeah, like
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  you said, like it's imminit, Hey could be today, we'll see,
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  And they've been saying that for about a day or so now. And you
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  know, throughout this whole thing, you know, we ask around and it's
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  like nothing is imminent and nothing is definite. But the more this kind of
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  lingers until there's like a definite no, he's not going anywhere. You're kind
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  of wondering, well, why why are we still talking about this? And
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  there's there's there's a reason. Yeah, there is a reason. And before
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  we get to that reason, I do want to touch on some of the
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  stuff that we're hearing right now for on our staff at buckeyehuddle dot com.
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  You know, as I said, there was a rumor that boy, this
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  this decision is imminent and the press conference is gonna happen Tuesday. And then
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  our buddy Ross Fulton had some really interesting information on the on the huddle board
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  for our insider members on Monday morning, which at the time at least sort
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  of backed everyone from deaf Con one, maybe at least step back all the
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  way back to deaf Con two on that. So you want to explain sort
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  of what Ross had at that point to sort of get everyone at least like
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  a half a step back off the ledge. Yeah, the word was that
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  Bill Brian was leading. It was in the morning meetings at Ohio State and
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  the thought being that if if you're out the door, then you're you're out.
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  You're out the door, you're not you're not in the building. And
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  so it seemed to follow that there wouldn't be any immediate announcement because in terms
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  of Boston College, because Bill O'Brien is still in Columbus. So the fact
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  that he's still on hand at Ohio State going through team meetings and things like
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  that, staff meetings lends once you believe that nothing has been decided or nothing
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  is written in stone at this point are written in ink, like nothing has
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  been signed nothing. There's still some things up in the air, clearly,
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  and so when you hear that, you're like, well, maybe there's a
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  chance. So the chance and the decision, you know, if Boston College
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  wants Bill O'Brien. I mean, it sounds like Bill O'Brien is at least
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  strongly considering taking this at the very least. And I think there's a lot
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  of people who are looking at this and saying, why would you jump to
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  Boston College? The Boston College job? They have not gotten above seven wins
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  in the last I think it was twelve or thirteen seasons, and they have
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  just very consistently hit their head on that ceiling. It was like six or
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  seven times they won exactly seven games, and three times they won exactly six
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  games, and it's just like that's sort of what that program is, and
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  you're never going to get over that hurdle, at least based on the last
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  decade or decade and a half or so of Boston college football. So it's
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  realistic to wonder, why would you do that when you could be the offensive
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  coordinator for an Ohio State team that's one of the favorites for national championship and
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  potentially parlay that into a much bigger job, better job in one of the
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  big two conferences instead of the ACC Which is a whole separate conversation. But
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  Tony, there is a football decision here, but there's also a family decision
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  here that people may not know about that is probably going to play a significant
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  role in this decision if about Bill O'Brien does end up getting offered this job.
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  Yeah, aside from the fact that Bill O'Brien is from Boston, family
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  is there is from there, is they've spent many years there, I think
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  total maybe of six or seven years coaching at New England or in that area.
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  But as Sun has serious health issues and so the best care that they
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  can get is in that Boston area, and so there is this opportunity now
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  to be the head coach to presumed opportunity at least you're an opportunity for an
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  opportunity to be the head coach at Boston College, to be around the kind
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  of care that you would prefer for your son and for your family to be
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  there, so that aspect of it, while also being able to run your
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  own program and not just be a coordinator as some are. I think he
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  did a fantastic job at Penn State and turned that into a pretty good job
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  at Houston, the Houston Texans, and so I think there's certainly plenty of
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  draw just outside of the football stuff, the family stuff, as you mentioned.
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  The opportunity for that care, that proximity and to be around more I
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  think would be you know, certainly something that you would have to consider.
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  And Bill Obron, I don't know if I've actually said this out loud yet
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  or not, but Bill O'Brien was the offensive coordinator for the New England Patriots,
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  so his family has been living in that Boston area for a while.
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  When Bill Belichick left, Bill O'Brien left, but there were some reports out
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  of the Boston area that his family may be choosing to stay in Boston even
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  if he was going to Columbus just to be able to stay there and have
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  that That was, you know, something that was reported by some of the
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  Boston College cided folks in terms of, you know, factors that are at
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  play here. So then if your family is not moving and you can you
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  continue to live with your family, that obviously is a factor there as well.
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  We have seen that over the years with head coaches with families. You
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  know, James Franklin has a child who had some health concerns and they were
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  living separate from James Franklin during the whole COVID pandemic for health related reasons.
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  That's obviously a significant additional stress on your family. If you can avoid that,
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  that is certainly understandable and probably outweighs the football considerations, or it certainly
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  you know, comes close to outweighing the football considerations there while you're making that
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  kind of decision. But you know, this is not as of right this
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  second, Bill O'Brien's decision to make, because Boston College is still going through
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  the interview process. As Pete Themill reported, there are a couple other candidates
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  there the four that we have sort of view as sussed out as you know
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  significant candidates that have been mentioned by notable sources out there. A couple of
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  them with former Ohio state ties. Al Washington, who of course was the
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  linebackers coach at Ohio State, defensive line coach at Notre Dame right now.
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  Paul Rhodes, who was the Iowa state coach quite a while ago, but
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  who was a QC guy for Ohio State, quality control guy for Ohio State
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  a couple of years ago. Plus Jeff Monkin, the current Army coach,
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  and Paul Christ the former Wisconsin coach. I mean, that's a very interesting
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  pool of candidates. And you know, I don't know that all of those
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  guys are officially getting interviews, but that's just a very interesting pool of candidates.
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  You got some young guys, you got some old guys, you got
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  some offensive guys, you get some defensive guys. It's you know, Al
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  Washington obviously with ties to the program. So that's quite an Interstan candidate pool.
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  I don't know, are there any conclusions to draw from that group?
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  And where Bill O'Brien fits in that group. You know, I wonder if
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  they maybe are they trying to learn a lesson from the Jeff Haffley thing,
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  because you see some very veteran and established head coaches on that list. Of
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  course, the Al Washington thing, he played at Boston College, so that
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  is why he would be involved there. But other than that, you've got
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  guys who have been head coaches for a while, have run their own programs,
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  wouldn't necessarily be learning on a job like Jeff Haffley, but also have
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  been in college for a while and understand the college game and would certainly be
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  willing to deal with the transitions of the college game, unlike Jeff Affley,
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  who came to college and then everything changed, you know, every single year
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  since he came to Ohio State in twenty nineteen, and he had been in
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  college years before that. But like, at least by this point, these
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  established former head coaches that they're talking about have been around the game present day,
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  in the past. They understand the changes, and I think they've been
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  around long enough to understand the challenges at Boston College as well. And that's
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  why I think some of those guys would be okay with those challenges because they
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  don't demand a national championship, so you're like, hey, this is pretty
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  nice if I can just get these guys seven to eight wins. You know,
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  that's that's a nice living. Make five million dollars a year to do
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  that, no real pressure and nobody and nobody talking about you on the sports
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  talk radio because nobody in Boston really cares about Boston College. So there's there's
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  very little pressure. But it's also difficult to win there. It is definitely
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  difficult to win there. And you know, in case you're wondering what,
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  you know, where this ranks on Boston sports, Obviously you have the big
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  four pro sports there. You also got MLS. You've also got right now,
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  college football is not even the biggest college sports story in the Boston area
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  right now. Now. The Beanpot Tournament going on with BCBU, Northeastern and
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  Harvard. That is a big, a big February event every year. So
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  it's not even that Boston College football is way way way down the list.
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  And yeah, if you're looking to have a little bit of a turn the
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  pressure down a little bit, that's probably not a bad place to do it.
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  So we'll continue to follow this story and maybe we'll have a whole separate
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  conversation about who might replace Bill O'Brien. If Bill O'Brien does jump from Ohio
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  State to Boston College. We'll be tracking all of that stuff this week at
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  Puckeye Huddle dot com. As I said, Ross has had some really good
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  insider information on our board today, not not even discussing all of the stuff
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  he shared, and we'll continue to sort of follow that as that this whole
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  coaching search sort of kind of keeps going on for Boston College and how it
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  might impact Ohio State or teams at Ohio State might face next year. We'll
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  keep track of all that for you a pucke Huddle dot com. There's also
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  a whole bunch of we're expecting to have some interviews this week, could have
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  some be able to give you a little more football talk this week as and
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  then signing Day. There's all sorts of stuff coming up right now. Bucky
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  has been very active on the recruiting trail as well. If you do not
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  listen to the Skull Session recruiting podcast that Tony and Mark did about just the
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  latest in the five star cornerback commitment pipeline for Tim Walton, you can find
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  that on the Buckeye Weekly podcast these as a bonus episode, or of course
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  on the Skull Session Recruiting podcast feed. I would encourage you to subscribe to
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  both of those, both fine fine shows. Both. Just you can search
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  Buckeye Huddle you can find them both. Subscribe, leave us a five star
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  rating and review as well, which will help other folks find those shows and
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  we would appreciate that. So thank you guys all for joining us. Have
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  a great day. We will talk to you tomorrow.