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Ohio State Gets One Defensive Star Back For 2024, Is More Good News Coming? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Welcome to Buckeyes Tomorrow Morning for Thursday, January fourth. I'm your host,
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  Tom Moore. The Akron game is in two hundred and forty days. The
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  game gets Michigan in three hundred and thirty one days. We had a great
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  plan for today's show. It was all going to be about basketball. Tony
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  and I were going to be at the game tonight, and it was all
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  going to be wonderful, and then life happens, and sometimes, kids,
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  you have to call an audible. Today's show is a little bit of an
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  audible. The High State football team got some very big news on Wednesday night.
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  Ty Leek Williams is returning for the twenty twenty four season, and he
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  might not be the last Buckeye defensive lineman who makes that decision. We're going
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  to be taking a run through the whole defensive line room and what we might
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  what we might be about to hear from a couple other guys, what it
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  means that Tyler Williams is back, and much more. With our buddy Vinnut
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  If bucke Huddle dot com, Kevin is on the road right now down in
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  San Antonio at the All American Game, we'll probably talk about that on a
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  separate show. But Kevin, first of all, how big is it to
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  get ty Leek Williams back for the Buckeyes in twenty twenty four. I think
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  it's very huge for them to get Tyler Williams back. I mean, this
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  is a defense that could return most of the team potentially if the decisions go
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  the right way. It was a very veteran led team this year, and
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  it's going to be super veteran last year. Let's not forget that that team
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  up north that is playing for that title up north right now had forty four
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  seniors because of the way that it's roster backed up. And if Ohio State
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  can get a little roster back up and have a veteran led team, I
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  mean, especially off of a defense I've played quite well this year. I
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  mean that defense held Missouri off the scoreboard for three quarters. Okay, Missouri
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  spord like on the first play of the fourth quarter, but kept them off
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  the board for three quarters. Three points was going to be enough to win
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  the damn game until it wasn't. So I mean this is huge, especially
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  at a position where it looked like Ohio State could be really thin. And
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  while we do know, the decision of one guy leaving and one the decision
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  of one guy coming back. Things could look very different if point flips one
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  in the other direction. Yeah, we I don't think have heard officially from
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  ty Hamilton, but from talking to him at the ballgame, it certainly sounded
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  like he was planning on coming back. So if you have him, when
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  you have kyleik Williams in the middle of that defensive line, boy, that
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  gives you a really solid one two punch in the middle of that line.
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  TYLERK Williams. It felt like for years we were kind of waiting on,
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  boy, when is it going to happen. When is it going to happen?
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  When's it going to happen. He had five sacks as a true freshman
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  in twenty twenty one, and it was like, oh, boy, it's
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  about to happen. And then sophomore season, played in all thirteen games only
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  twenty one tackles, two and a half for loss in one sack, and
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  it was like, Oh, is this just not going to happen for him
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  junior year. This season fifty three tackles, more than his first two seasons
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  combined, ten tackles for loss, more than his first two seasons combined three
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  sacks on the year, and he is just you know, first of all,
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  he is sort of a beloved figure among Ohio State fans. But if
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  you can bring back a really solid run stopper hole plugger in the middle of
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  that line and you campair him with Ty Hamilton and then you've also got Taiwan
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  Malone and Hero Canoe and Cayden McDonald and all the rest of the guys in
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  the interior the defensive line, that feels like that's that's a spot where that's
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  that's an area where I guess a lot of the national championship caliber teams.
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  It's always seems to be a strength of the national championship caliber teams, and
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  that feels like that would be a strength for Ohio State going into twenty twenty
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  four, which is, you know, probably a good thing. And it
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  also helps bringing all these guys back when Ohio State obviously missed its number and
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  recruiting this year for defensive lineman, you know, whether it's edge or tackle,
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  they missed both numbers. So being able to keep guys back, We've
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  always talked in the past that being able to bring a fourth year, fifth
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  year player back at a positions like getting a six star recruit because physical development.
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  He's a twenty one year old, twenty two year old man at that
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  point. He's not a seventeen year old kid. He knows the system.
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  I mean, all of these positive so being able to get Tyler Williams,
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  who obviously is going to be playing in a contract year at this point,
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  so it is you know, this is the tape that is going to be
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  the most relevant for him. These are the weight checks that are going to
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  be the most relevant for him, So you know, it's easy to come
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  in. I mean he even admitted that, you know, have because of
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  the COVID season and everything else, he was out of shape early in his
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  career. And he's not going to be some guy who's going to be all
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  rocked up. That's just not you know, your dtackles generally aren't Charles Atlas.
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  But you've got to have the development, you've got to have the stamina,
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  and I think Tyler Williams has done a lot of things to get in
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  the right direction, and I think a guy who knows that he's in his
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  contract year, it's just going to be all the better. You mentioned him
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  in the context of being like a six star recruit. Imagine how excited Ohio
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  State fans would be if they landed a defensive tackle in the portal with fifty
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  tackles and ten tackles for loss last season. That would be the most exciting
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  thing in the world. They basically did by not losing Tyler Williams of the
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  NFL. So that is one piece of very good news. Earlier in the
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  week, the Buckeyes got a less good piece of news, and that was
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  when fellow defensive tackle Mike Hall announced it he was leaving for the NFL Draft.
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  That was not a big surprise. He was someone who had been sort
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  of widely reported was very likely to be departing, and he's leaving off of
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  it not the platform year you would have liked. Twenty four tackles, two
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  tackles for loss, a sack and a half. It's going to be impossible
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  for him to live up to the two and a half sacks and seven snaps
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  that he had against Michigan State last year and some of the big plays he
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  made against Notre Dame last year. But that's that's one spot where, boy,
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  it was you were almost certainly not going to get everyone back, but
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  it hurt. It's gonna hurt a little bit to lose my hall next season.
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  Yeah, I mean cause I think that when you, as I bought
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  my camera, you look out there and you would see fifty one and ninety
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  one out there lined up together. You kind of knew what you were getting.
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  There wasn't a lot of unknown. And when you sit there and you
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  lose my call, it does hurt, you do. I mean, because
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  again, we talked about six star guys. He would be a guy that
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  certainly had that potential in terms of being a multi year starter and everything else.
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  But remember he's a guy who's battled some injuries, and I don't know
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  if another year back necessarily would have changed things significantly for him. I think,
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  yeah, maybe he could move up a little bit, Maybe you could
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  move down a little bit. Nil is all well and good, but the
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  car dealerships want defensive ends and quarterbacks and wide receivers and guys like that.
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  Sometimes the big uglies don't get as much in terms of the way of the
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  NIL. So I understand the decision to get move in on there. I
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  mean, his injury past isn't going to suddenly clear up. He's not going
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  to suddenly have clean mriyes or whatever just because he waits a year, and
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  fans really want everybody to come back, even even on guys unlike all that
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  are non non contributors. It's like, I think it's in his best mind
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  that he comes back. No, it's in your best mind that he comes
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  back to what his decision is, his own decision. You want him back,
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  but he may not need to come back, and you know his history
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  will be the ultimate judge. And now we're waiting on the two defensive ends
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  to make their decisions. Jack Sawyer, j T. Twoey Moloau. Both
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  of those guys had very solid seasons this year. Sawyer finished with three sacks
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  in the Cotton Bowl against Missouri, finishing with six and a half sacks to
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  lead the team for the second straight year. J T. Twe moloaw five
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  sacks. That's a career high for him. Sawyer after the game, listening
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  to him talk about it, it sure seemed like he was leaning towards coming
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  back, and it sure seemed like he was sort of hinting that there were
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  going to be a whole bunch of guys who decided to come back and run
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  it back for one more year because they were not real happy with the way
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  things ended in twenty twenty three. How first of all, what are you
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  expecting from those two? Gun to your head right now? What are you
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  expecting from those two and number two? How big would it be if both
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  of them do come back and you have three quarters your defensive line back in
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  twenty twenty four? Certainly don't ever want to have a gun to my head.
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  So I'll give you an answer, Please, sir, don't shoot.
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  I think they're both coming back. To be honest, I think Sawyer was
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  the one that seemed to be the more obvious answer, even though he blew
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  up in that Missouri game. He had, you know, played the game
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  of his Ohio State career, tuym molo aw. I mean when he plays
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  Penn State goes off. I mean, you know, still has games where
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  he's really on and other games where he's not as impactful in terms of just
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  production numbers. But he's also held more than anything than a newborn baby.
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  I mean, he is held all the damn time. How big would this
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  be? Would be huge? It would be huge because once again, you
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  look at what's in the pipeline and Ohio State, it has still you know,
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  got some young guys Kenyata Jackson's of the world and guys like that.
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  I mean, you know, when when is it going to be the chance
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  for Kayden Curry to finally step up and see meaningful playing time. But then
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  again, you look and they're only bringing in one true freshman defensive end at
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  this point in Edric Houston, and he's really darn good, but he's also
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  really darn young. So bringing back a couple of veterans like that, I
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  think is huge. You especially look at Ohio State has kind of done it
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  both ways in terms of it has rotated a lot of alignemen, and you
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  know, and people, oh, I wish our best guy's played more.
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  It is kind of ridden with the horses that have got them there. Oh
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  I wish they'd rotate more. So I guess there's no real true answer when
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  it comes to that, but the reality is getting guys like that back is
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  going to be huge, especially when you look at a team that is still
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  going to be looking for its offensive identity after a twenty three season that always
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  felt like it was not able to get into fourth and fifth gear, has
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  lost its quarterback to Syracuse and everything else that's going on to that point.
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  This is a team that going into the eighteen team Big ten is going to
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  probably need to be led by its defense a little bit more out of the
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  gate while its offense gets its footing, whether or not it is with Devin
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  Brown or Lincoln Greenholtz or transfer quarterback or whatever whatever that may be, all
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  right, And we're gonna have a separate episode where we talk about a potential
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  transfer quarterback who's visiting Ohio State this week. That'll be in the Buckeye Weekly
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  podcast feats. You can look for that later. Just to and just before
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  we wrap it up, I do want to just kind of clarify something that
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  I think a lot of people have been confused about about the transfer portal.
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  Is the transfer You know, there's been a letter of reporting the transfer portal
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  closed on January TEWOD, So that's you know, everyone who's who is in
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  the portal already who you know about? That's it right? Not so fast,
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  my friend. So this is just just FYI in case people are confused
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  about this. You could have Ohio State players entering their names in the transfer
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  portal as late as eleven to fifty nine pm on January third, which is
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  Wednesday, and even then they just have to have the paperwork in. They
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  do not necessarily have to be publicly declared to be in the transfer portal,
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  so we won't officially know as Ohio State lost anyone else in the portal until
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  possibly a day or two after that deadline on January third. That's because the
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  buck Eys played a bowl game on the twenty ninth of December, and you
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  have the deadline was January second, unless you played a bowl game on or
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  after January twenty ninth, in which case you have five days after that bowl
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  game to ender your name. So Ohio State players have until the end of
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  the day on December third, and it might even take a day or two
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  for that paperwork to process, So you're all gonna have to hold your breath
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  a little, you know, a day or two longer, just to make
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  sure they haven't lost anyone else in the portal. But that's where things stand
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  out as of right now. We'll make sure we keep the updated tomorrow's episode
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  as well of Buckeyes. Tomorrow morning, we'll have a Buckeye Weekly episode for
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  you as well, talking about some of the existing drama and changes and transactions
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  in the transfer portal. Couple top targets visiting Ohio State this week, a
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  couple former buck Eyes have found new homes. You can find that on the
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  Buckeye Weekly podcast speed or of course on our YouTube channel YouTube dot com slash
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  Buckeye Huddle, and of course Kevin and Mark are down at that All American
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  game down in San Antonio, franking out a ton of great content. There
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  are lots of future buck Eyes there, including Yes, Jeremiah Smith, James
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  Peoples, Ian Moore, many others you can find in some of the just
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  some of the top prospects in the whole country. Lots of great content coming
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  out of there as well, so make sure you check out all their stuff
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  on our YouTube channel, YouTube dot com, slash bucke Huddle, and of
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  course at Buckeye Huddle dot com. That will do it for today. Thank
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  you guys all for joining us. Have a great day. We will talk
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  to you tomorrow.