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5 Things We Learned From Ohio State's Newest Transfers · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Welcome to buck Eyes tomorrow morning for Wednesday, January thirty. First time your
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  host Tom Or. The Akron game is in two hundred and thirteen days,
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  the game he gets Michigan in three hundred and four days. We sort of
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  unofficially turned the page from twenty twenty three to twenty twenty four Ohio State football
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  on Tuesday. That's when we got to talk to five of Ohio State's new
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  transfer players. They've gotten six. One of them is a true freshman,
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  Julian saying, we're hoping to get to talk to him a little later on
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  in the spring, but right now, talk to the five transfer players,
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  Caleb Downs, Seth MacLaughlin, Will Howard Quinchawn Judkins, and Will Kes Merrick.
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  I missed it all. I was not there for any of it.
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  But luckily for me and luckily for you, Kevin Noon a fuckey huddle was
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  there for all of it. So Kevin's going to give us a little bit
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  of a speed run through all of these interviews, and then I thinkably in
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  the coming days we'll do a little bit of a deeper dive on all of
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  them, but want to at least give you a little taste of some of
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  the news we got out of the day. So Kevin, welcome. Let's
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  start with Caleb Downs, Yohio State life like in the transfer portal. What
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  do we hear from Caleb Downs? Yeah, Caleb Downs said that being a
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  high school recruit and is a lot more fun than being a portal recruit.
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  The calendar is so much more compacted as a portal recruit, I mean,
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  because you have to get it all figured out and get enrolled in classes and
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  everything. And whereas a high school recruits you may have if you're a top
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  player like Caleb Downs, was several years of recruiting. Whereas for Downs,
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  who didn't enter the portal day one. You know, it was very abbreviated
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  in order to get into a position to get enrolled at a new institution.
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  He's somebody it sounds like the adjuster position may be where he ends up,
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  you know, talking to him about just the whole process. I mean,
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  he, you know, really has a great relationship with with with Tim Walton,
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  really likes everything so far with Ryan Day seems to really be taking to
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  things. And he was asked point blank, are you the missing piece?
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  Are you the piece that this team has been missing? And he said,
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  well, that's not for me to say. I think we're going to be
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  really good, and then you know it kind of going on to being elite
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  and not to borrow that from James Franklin and Penn State and there are we
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  elite, but you know, he you know, you could tell that there
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  is a quiet confidence with him that he knows that that defense is generally going
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  to be better with him than maybe not with him. So I think all
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  Ohio State fans should really be looking forward to Caleb Downs and what he's going
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  to be able to bring to the table. Just a lot of the comments
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  on the huddle board over at bucket huddle dot com, everybody was really impressed
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  with his maturity and his thoughtful answers. I mean it was everything seemed to
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  really come from a great place in terms of how he answered things, And
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  yeah, I'm looking forward to it. Yeah, And I think Ohio State
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  fans broadly are definitely looking forward to having Caleb Downs on their team as well.
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  The adjuster position that Kevin mentioned, that's sort of that deep safety free
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  safety. That's where Josh Proctor and Malik Hartford played last year. So that's
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  sort of where everyone sort of expected him to play, and then you put
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  Lathan Ransom at the bandit with the boundary safety position, and then you've got
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  your your nickel slot kind of play guy and that's Jordan Hancock probably. So
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  that's where those safety positions kind of all sort of fit together. That's sort
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  of what we expected from Caleb Downs. But good to have some confirmation on
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  that now. So from one Alabama transfer to another. Seth MacLachlan in the
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  center, we're pretty sure we know where he's going to play. He played
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  center at Alabama. If we think he's probably going to maybe be at center
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  or could he be a guard? Kevin, did we get any indication on
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  Seth MacLachlan and what he might be doing? And then the snap issues that's
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  sort of the big issue, you know, the elephant in the room from
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  the guy who transferred from the school with the elephant mass right, Yeah,
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  and it's something that certainly has to be worked on. I mean, there's
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  a comfortability level with your quarterback and just all the mechanics that go there,
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  and you know, it's it's great. I mean, and we don't know
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  and where we'll get into Will Howard here, and I mean we don't know
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  who's going to be starting at what position yet, but you know, I
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  think the presumption is that's going to be Will Howard at quarterback and Seth McLaughlin
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  at at center, and they've got this whole off season to work together on
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  these types of mechanics. And yeah, I mean, he's very excited for
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  this opportunity. He's had three different OC's over you know, his career so
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  far. I mean, he's going to be reunited with Bill O'Brien here at
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  Ohio State. Spoke highly of his relationship with Bill O'Brien, spoke very highly
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  of Will Howard and everything he's gotten to got to see there. I Mean,
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  really the focus is kind of on just this group of five guys because
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  we didn't really get to talk a lot about Juliet because he was not part
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  of this interview session. But yeah, it's it's it's going to be center,
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  and you just kind of kind of go from there. And and a
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  lot of people wanted to know with him, you know, how do you
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  deal with maybe some of the less than positive feedback he received on social and
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  he was like, well, that's you know, I'm not concerned about that.
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  That's kind of over and done with, very appreciative of his time at
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  Alabama. Has two degrees in his time at Alabama, So you know,
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  see if he can squeeze the masters in a year, I don't know about
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  that, but you know they they do. They do seem to accelerate them
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  for these guys, and I think it's going to be a huge pickup and
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  certainly a missing piece in terms of what Ohio State you know, needs on
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  that offensive line, not only somebody who's been able to do it at the
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  highest level of Alabama, but an elder statesman as well that can really kind
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  of be a leader in that group. Even though you have to earn your
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  leadership stripes and just because you had them at somewhere else, you have to
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  get everybody else on board. And he knows that it's going to be a
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  process. Yeah, grendsforring to Ohio State, you literally and figuratively have to
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  earn your stripes. You will come in with a black stripe just like everyone
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  else, and we'll have to earn the right to lose that. So Will
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  the guy he is presumably going to be snapping for, Will Howard, and
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  Will Howard had an interesting decision leaving Kansas State because he had options in college
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  and he all had also had some options at the next level. So you
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  know what was he thinking about and looking at and sort of balancing as he
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  made that decision in the transfer portal. Yeah, I mean USC and Miami
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  of Florida were both options as well, but it really sounds like it was
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  between Ohio State and the NFL for Will Howard. It sounds like Ohio State
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  was his preference to have a year you know, call it finishing school,
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  call it whatever you want it to be at at Ohio State before you know,
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  trying his hand, you know, at the next level. You know,
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  I think one of the things that I was a little surprised when I
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  saw Will Howard for the first time was, you know, we talk about
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  just what a big monster he is. He was a lot more slight than
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  I thought he was going to be. But apparently once he fills out the
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  pads well and is you know, is a beast to try and bring down
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  at times. But yeah, he's you know, he was very complimentary so
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  far of his time with with with Bill O'Brien and Ryan Day As as you
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  know, you can kind of start talking football, you can't you know,
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  there's no coaching going on right now at this point, you can't. I
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  mean that we're in winter conditioning, nothing involving a football and other rules aren't
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  even that simple anymore. That's that was how simple it used to be.
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  You can't do anything with a football right now. But you know, they're
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  all, you know, all in the hands of Mickey Muratti and you know,
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  the strength team. We saw a practice you know, not practice,
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  but you know, a workout session going on. Toward the end of interviews.
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  We were kind of held out of the indoor facility as in morning session
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  was going on. But you know, Will Howard certainly recognizes the opportunity that
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  he has here, uh like, along with everybody else. Just seems to
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  be somebody who is already buying into the culture of Ohio State, somebody that
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  you know, everybody will be able to root for it. And you know
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  going in that the job is not just being handed tea. You're not going
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  to come in and be like, well, I'm only going to go to
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  your school if I get the if I get the position, and and you
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  know, maybe we see some of that kind of stuff nationally at some places,
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  but that's not the case here. You're going to have to go out
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  there and you're going to have to compete, and you're going to hear all
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  of the nice you know, all the niceties at this point of I'm just
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  you know, I'm just here to compete. And but you can tell,
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  you can tell he's a competitor. And and you want somebody who kind of
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  feels like it's going to be their job, because you know that. You
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  don't want a timid quarterback of oh gee, I just you know, I
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  hope I don't get in the way or anything like that. You want somebody
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  who's going to be the leader, who's going to come out there, who's
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  decisive, who can do all of these things. And you know, I
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  see this in Will Howard. It's interesting you say he looked kind of slight.
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  He's listed at six five, two forty three, which is a big
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  dude for a quarterback at Ohio State. So we'll see, we'll see what
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  it looks like when he's got the pads on and all that coming up later
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  this spring. But yeah, five guys in that quarterback room right now,
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  Will Howard, Devin Brown, Lincoln Keenholes, Julian Saying and Aron Noland all
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  in that quarterback room this spring, so that is going to be a very
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  crowded and very talented quarterback room that he's going to have to earn that starting
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  job out of another room with some talent, and it is the running back
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  room. Bravan Henderson is back, Dallan Hayden is back, and now quin
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  John Judkins is there from Ole miss What do we learn about quin Shawn?
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  That's the player I got to spend the most time with because that was the
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  one I was most curious about and was able When Caleb Downs was out there,
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  everybody and their uncle was around his table. When quin Shawn came out,
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  two other players are out as well, so you're able to start sta
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  some questions together. But I think he definitely understands modern running back management at
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  this point and that you can't be a thirty five carry back. And the
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  talk of tread on the tires was was was at length and he's excited to
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  get out there and compete with Trevion Henderson. It was you know, it
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  was brought up about maybe that with the addition of Dallan Hayden, the most
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  talented running back trio in the nation, he's like, oh, yeah,
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  definitely, definitely. He's like, well, what happens if you only get
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  ten carries in a game? And you know, he's saying the right things
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  at this point, I'm just you know, I just want I'm here to
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  help the team. I want to win games. You know, they won
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  a lot of games that Ole miss as well, but they weren't able to
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  get over the hump there, and this Ohio State team certainly has a lot
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  of lofty expectations going into this season. We had a chance to kind of
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  talk to him about how quickly has he studied the Big Ten. He's like,
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  yeah, I didn't know a lot about the Big Ten. I didn't.
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  I didn't. I didn't realize how big it was before. You know,
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  before I got here. It'd never been to Ohio before. It's certainly
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  a lot older. But you know, you you looked at him and he
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  had some biceps on him, and he's you know, he wasn't sitting there
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  flexing just trying to show off. I mean, this is just a big
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  kid, and I can understand why some defensive backs make business decisions and just
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  kind of olay that because I wouldn't want to sit there and have him running
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  at me seventeen eighteen twenty one times a game, or or or or whatever.
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  But one one other thing too it was kind of alluded to, you
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  know, was that people said that maybe he was getting a little too demanding
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  of of how he needed to be utilized at Ole Miss and that there was
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  a postseason conversation. He's like, that's don't that's just a rumor that didn't
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  exist whatever, But you know that certainly was something that was asked about because
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  people have talked about that, and I, you know, I figured it
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  a baired mentioning. And then last up better off the least heralded of the
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  six transfers so far for the buck Eyes the tight ends, which is always
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  you know, someone who's gonna fly a little bit under the radar in Columbus.
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  And you know, they've brought in a bunch of guys from the SEC
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  and especially from Alabama and all miss Locasmerk has come from Ohio University down in
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  Athens. So coming from the MAC versus coming from the SEC, you're gonna
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  be a little more under the radar. We've talked a lot about him in
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  terms of being a blocking tight end. He had twenty two catches for two
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  hundred and forty three yards in a couple touchdowns last year. So he is
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  not just purely an extra offensive lineman, but six six fifty six he's probably
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  going to fit that blocking role for Ohio State a good amount. He's someone
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  who I think he fits the Ohio State tight end role absolutely perfectly. Where
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  no one's really talking about him, it's very easy to you know, get
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  caught up in all the five stars and just sort of forget about him,
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  but you also know he's gonna end up playing a pretty significant role for the
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  Buckeyes this fall. Will said and I quote I love blocking end quote and
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  that's really where we could just even end this at this point, but I'll
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  go a little bit further. Welcome to Columbus. I mean, you,
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  sir, have made a wise decision. You know, he picked the right
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  chalice over there, you know, for the for the Raiders of the Lost
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  art Last Crusade whatever I mean. He he chose wisely because Ohio State certainly
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  needs a blocking tight end out there, whether or not, you know,
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  in twelve personnalities accompanied by de Scott Junior, Jelanie Thurman, and Christian whatever
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  that may be. Then of course they've got the incoming freshman with Max LeBlanc
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  and Damarion Whitten. Uh, you know, there's always going to be a
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  need for that blocking tight end. And of course I've already had friends reach
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  out to me. He's like, can you teach the receivers how to block?
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  I mean, I guess, but yeah, it's going to be a
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  blue collar position for him, and he is totally fine with it. This
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  is not a case of well, I wanted to do a bunch of different
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  things on the field. He genuinely wants to get out there and block and
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  hit people and do stuff like that. And you need those types of guys.
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  I mean, yes, we all look at the star ratings and they're
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  like five stars across the board. That's what you need. Now, Sometimes
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  you do need the guy that maybe a little unheralded. And you know,
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  rightly or wrongly is the matter of just because he played in the MAC and
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  God bless maxin on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and Thursdays and everything else. But sometimes
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  you can't watch them all and you just don't necessarily think about the The ou
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  Ohio University, not to be confused with Oklahoma tight end. But I think
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  he's going to be a good fit there, and it seems that, you
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  know, he's already really bonding well with Keenan Bailey. He's like, you
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  know, Keenan not only a coach, but you know, just somebody that
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  you can just sit there and and talk with. I'm very I'm very comfortable.
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  But yeah, I think he is going to bring a difference into that
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  tight end room, especially with the departure of Cave Stover, Farmer Gronk,
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  if you will, I think that having Will cast American there is going to
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  make that room and everybody involved that much better. Well, there you go.
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  So there is the sort of cliff notes on the five guys we got
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  to talk to on Tuesday. We're gonna end up doing a little bit of
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  a deeper dive on several of those guys a little later on this week.
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  Let's you let you get to hear directly from them, you know, new
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  guys on the new guys on the team. Let's don't you see him.
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  Lets you hear them. Let you get the unfiltered view of what what brought
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  them to Ohio State, what they're expecting this fall, and much much more.
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  So we'll have that coming up on shows a little or later on this
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  weekend, maybe this weekend as well as we sort of space those out a
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  little bit and I have we're going to supposed to be supposed to allegedly allegedly
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  going to be talking to some of the younger guys as well coming up in
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  the coming weeks as well. So that should be fun. Always look forward
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  to that because again, these are people that you've probably heard the names,
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  you maybe have seen the recruiting rankings, and then get to put a little
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  you know, put a face to it, put a voice to it,
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  and start getting to know the next group of Ohio State Buckeyes is a very
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  talented team coming back, and there is some very talented group coming to Columbus
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  to join that talented group that is coming back, which means it is probably
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  going to be a pretty fun football season in Columbus, Ohio, a great,
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  great year. Be a member of buckeyehuddle dot com. That's where we
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  o's, we talk about the transfer portal, we talk about it all.
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  you there. Thank you guys all for joining us. Have a great day.
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  We will talk to you tomorrow.