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BONUS: Signs Of Significant Steps Forward From Julian Sayin · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Speaker 1: Back with another bonus show. And we're going to talk
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  Speaker 1: a bunch about Julian Sayen on this show. That passing
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  Speaker 1: offense has been pretty good this year. There's certainly been
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  Speaker 1: areas where they could be better. But Julian Sayen has
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  Speaker 1: definitely taken another step forward this year. And man, he
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  Speaker 1: took a big step forward on the ground last week,
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  Speaker 1: picking up five first downs in seven rushes, if you
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  Speaker 1: include the touchdown that he ran for there. He had
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  Speaker 1: a really, really phenomenal week. running the ball. And that's
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  Speaker 1: something that we've been talking about a bunch around Julian Sands.
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  Speaker 1: You're going to get to hear Ryan Day's thoughts on
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  Speaker 1: that and a bunch of other stuff as well. But,
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  Speaker 1: you know, Julian Sands is one of those guys who
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  Speaker 1: Ryan Day sort of challenged a little bit last week and,
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  Speaker 1: you know, felt like they got a really well-rounded performance
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  Speaker 1: out of him. One of the best, as I said,
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  Speaker 1: that we've really seen. So what were those conversations like
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  Speaker 1: between Ryan Day and Julian Sands last week?
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  Speaker 2: Well, I think it's our job as everybody in the
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  Speaker 2: building to challenge each other, coaches challenging coaches, players, all
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  Speaker 2: the above. And, um, you know, we all are looking
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  Speaker 2: to get better. So, you know, identifying the areas that
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  Speaker 2: we feel like we got to improve in and then
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  Speaker 2: seeing how guys respond. I thought it was great to
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  Speaker 2: see Julian respond the way he did. And now we're
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  Speaker 2: going into a, you know, you know, even tougher environment.
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  Speaker 2: And so, you know, he's going to have to continue
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  Speaker 2: to build in those areas. You know, it was good
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  Speaker 2: to see some really good growth in some of the
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  Speaker 2: areas that we talked about. But, you know, he's got
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  Speaker 2: to keep going from there. But I think there's definitely
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  Speaker 2: some confidence coming out of last game based on, some
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  Speaker 2: of the stuff he put on film.
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  Speaker 1: New offensive coordinator Arthur Smith now has four games under
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  Speaker 1: his belt, a third of the regular season already done.
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  Speaker 1: So how has Arthur Smith sort of grown and progressed
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  Speaker 1: in his partnership with Ryan Day and his relationship with
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  Speaker 1: Julian Sane in terms of calling plays and understanding what
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  Speaker 1: Julian Sane, what works well for Julian Sane and what
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  Speaker 1: works well for the offense? Where has that, you know,
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  Speaker 1: that whole process sort of grown and changed so far
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  Speaker 1: this season?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I get into the rhythm for sure. Every week
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  Speaker 2: it's building. I think there's definitely a transition when you
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  Speaker 2: come in from the NFL and how we do things,
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  Speaker 2: how Arthur's done things in the past and working together
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  Speaker 2: and the vision of where it goes, how we game plan.
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  Speaker 2: Every week is different in college. think about just in
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  Speaker 2: the past couple of weeks, the different styles of defenses
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  Speaker 2: we've gone against on offense, where when you're in the NFL,
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  Speaker 2: I mean, you see a handful of defenses from different philosophies.
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  Speaker 2: And when you're in that tree, you sort of go
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  Speaker 2: down that road, uh, in, in, in, in college is different.
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  Speaker 2: And so there's just a lot of things, you know,
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  Speaker 2: you're dealing with younger players, you're not dealing with, you know,
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  Speaker 2: dealing with young men, not quite, you know, grown men.
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  Speaker 2: So there's a lot of differences. That being said, Arthur's
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  Speaker 2: a quick study. He's learned quickly. He's, um, you know,
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  Speaker 2: done a really good job. He's brought a lot of
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  Speaker 2: value to what we're doing. And I think he's starting to,
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  Speaker 2: you know, even gain more and more momentum as he
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  Speaker 2: gets a feel for it and familiarize himself with the
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  Speaker 2: college game.
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  Speaker 1: When you have a player as special as Jeremiah Smith,
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  Speaker 1: you want to get him the ball as much as
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  Speaker 1: you possibly can. But obviously Ryan Day has talked about
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  Speaker 1: the fact they obviously need to get other guys involved too.
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  Speaker 1: So how do you, if you're Julian Say in balance,
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  Speaker 1: getting Jeremiah Smith the ball as much as he probably
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  Speaker 1: deserves to get it, but also not having him be
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  Speaker 1: the sole focus of the offense?
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  Speaker 2: I think it's part of putting a game plan together.
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  Speaker 2: It doesn't always go as planned, but you have to
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  Speaker 2: have things that, you know, you use, you know, to
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  Speaker 2: target certain people. But then at the same time, it
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  Speaker 2: doesn't always go that way. Something could come up where,
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  Speaker 2: you know, they're using a defense that would take that
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  Speaker 2: away and then that forced you to work down through
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  Speaker 2: the progression. But then there's other times where you have
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  Speaker 2: to sort of predict, well, if they're going to take
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  Speaker 2: this away, then this should open up something over here.
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  Speaker 2: So let's call something that wouldn't exploit that part of it.
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  Speaker 2: And then there's just plays that we know where it
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  Speaker 2: doesn't matter where anybody is, we just got to go
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  Speaker 2: work the progression and work the spacing of it all.
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  Speaker 2: So where those all fit in and how we put
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  Speaker 2: that in is important, knowing that we have to be
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  Speaker 2: really good at what we do in this game. They
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  Speaker 2: feed off of teams that try to come in there
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  Speaker 2: and get cute, and we can't get cute. So there's
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  Speaker 2: all that balance, and that's part of game planning.
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  Speaker 1: Tight end Nate Roberts has taken on an increasingly large
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  Speaker 1: role as the season has gone along. It sure does
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  Speaker 1: feel like he is tight end number one for Ohio
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  Speaker 1: State pretty clearly at the moment, and has turned into
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  Speaker 1: a pretty decent threat in the passing game as well.
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  Speaker 1: Is that something that Ryan Day was sort of expecting
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  Speaker 1: from Roberts in the preseason?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, we liked coming out of high school. We thought
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  Speaker 2: he had a chance to really be somebody who could
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  Speaker 2: do everything for us as a tight end and was
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  Speaker 2: athletic enough to run routes and do what we need
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  Speaker 2: him to do in the passing game. But as a freshman,
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  Speaker 2: it takes time, especially at tight end, and he's put
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  Speaker 2: the work in. So you're starting to see some of that, um,
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  Speaker 2: you know, show up, but even as a freshman, we
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  Speaker 2: saw him running routes and doing things, you know, when
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  Speaker 2: he was in our camp as well. Um, and then,
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  Speaker 2: you know, again, last year where you forecast that this
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  Speaker 2: guy can really play for us. Now he's got to
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  Speaker 2: show it on the field and mature and do all
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  Speaker 2: these things. But, um, but I think you're seeing, you know,
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  Speaker 2: the athleticism and what he can do now it's the
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  Speaker 2: ability to sustain throughout a long conference season. And that's,
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  Speaker 2: that's what the huge challenge for Nate is going to be. Um,
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  Speaker 2: to keep his focus and keep stacking weeks.
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  Speaker 1: Wide receiver Kyle Parker, who transferred over from LSU, came
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  Speaker 1: over with his wide receiver coach from LSU, Cortez Hankton.
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  Speaker 1: When Hankton jumped from LSU to Ohio State, Kyle Parker
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  Speaker 1: did as well. Saw a bunch of him this spring,
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  Speaker 1: looked pretty intriguing, and then he had injury issues. Missed
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  Speaker 1: pretty much all of fall camp, missed the first several
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  Speaker 1: weeks of the season. He was finally cleared to play
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  Speaker 1: last weekend, was dressed, but did not play. So what
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  Speaker 1: can you expect from Kyle Parker when he finally does
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  Speaker 1: get back out there.
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  Speaker 2: You know, I think he's getting more and more healthy
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  Speaker 2: and he's starting to get back into it because, you know,
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  Speaker 2: he did some in the spring and then missed a
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  Speaker 2: lot of the preseason. He hasn't really been on the
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  Speaker 2: rotation a whole bunch or built a lot of chemistry
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  Speaker 2: yet exactly with Julian. So we're starting to get that
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  Speaker 2: going a little bit. Right now, he would kind of
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  Speaker 2: come in in a backup role and see if we
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  Speaker 2: can get him some reps if needed. Hopefully over the
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  Speaker 2: next couple of weeks, we'll start to get him in
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  Speaker 2: the game and allow him an opportunity to get some
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  Speaker 2: reps and put it on film. But he's an older guy.
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  Speaker 2: He's played football in big environments before. So it's not
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  Speaker 2: all new for him. It's not going to be too
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  Speaker 2: big or overwhelming to be in these conference games. So
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  Speaker 2: although he hasn't played a lot, he will still have
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  Speaker 2: a bunch of bank reps under his belt that he
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  Speaker 2: can obviously reference as he's playing into these games and
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  Speaker 2: that we all know that he's done it before.
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  Speaker 1: One of the big storylines during that win over Illinois
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  Speaker 1: was the running of Julian Sane. You've seen Julian Sane
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  Speaker 1: as a passer. You know what they've got there. But
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  Speaker 1: for a year now, there's been a lot of conversation about, boy,
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  Speaker 1: if they could just get him to run the ball
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  Speaker 1: a little bit more, that could make a real big
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  Speaker 1: difference in the offense. And you saw against Illinois, boom,
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  Speaker 1: he made a real big difference in the offense. The
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  Speaker 1: Fox broadcast talked about the fact that he had not
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  Speaker 1: picked up a single first down on the ground all
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  Speaker 1: season with his legs. And then, boom, he picked up
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  Speaker 1: three straight first downs with his legs immediately after they
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  Speaker 1: talked about that. So, obviously, it's in there. What does
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  Speaker 1: Julian Sayen bring? Is he like an instinctive runner?
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  Speaker 2: He has good instincts. He has good quickness. And so,
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  Speaker 2: he's got to believe in that, trust in that, and
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  Speaker 2: let it go. But, yeah, you can see that there
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  Speaker 2: is some natural feel to him that he has. So, yeah.
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  Speaker 2: you know, when you're in third down, you're in the
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  Speaker 2: red zone, you know, having that X factor is huge.
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  Speaker 2: So good to see him respond in that way. And
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  Speaker 2: I think it's going to continue to build confidence knowing
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  Speaker 2: that he can do this. And he had that done
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  Speaker 2: in the past, but I don't think, I think we'd
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  Speaker 2: all agree, maybe not as much as maybe we needed
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  Speaker 2: him to, but good to see him, you know, take
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  Speaker 2: that step. All right, there you go.
• 7:56
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• 8:03
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• 8:06
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• 8:11
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• 8:16
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• 8:24
  Speaker 1: this week's Ohio State-Iowa game. Top 15 showdown in Kinnick Stadium.
• 8:28
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• 8:32
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• 9:11
  Speaker 1: with another bonus episode soon.