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How Will Tony Alford's Move To Michigan Impact Ohio State Recruiting? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Welcome to buck Eyes tomorrow morning for Friday, March fifteenth. I'm your host,
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  Tom Or the Akron game in one hundred and sixty nine days, the
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  game against Michigan in two hundred and sixty days. All Right, we got
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  to talk about the big news that broke on Wednesday. We talked about it
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  on yesterday's episode for about an hour extended live episode to tell me offered leaving
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  Ohio State to go be the running backs coach at Michigan, certainly something that
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  was certainly not expected news. I keep hearing from folks inside of the Woody
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  that, you know, I keep hearing the phrase caught off guard, blindsided.
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  Sounds like this was definitely not something they knew about, which think about
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  it, it makes a lot of sense. So today we're gonna be talking
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  about some of the impacts. Okay, we've processed the news. Now what
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  is it going to mean this year? What is it going to mean beyond,
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  especially in terms of recruiting. I'm going to bring on our buddy Mark
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  Gifler buckey huddle dot com to talk about that. He has a bunch of
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  interesting information he's been sharing with our members at Buckeye Uddle dot com about potential
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  candidates for the next you know, to replaced Tony Alford, but also some
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  thoughts on the recruiting impact and all kind of stuff. That's going to be
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  talking about all that stuff. But I guess Mark, before we get to
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  that, I talked about the fact or a second ago. You know,
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  this this really did catch people off guard. I think, not news you
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  were expecting to hear Wednesday, and that news at any when impact you know,
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  involved with the program was expecting to hear on Wednesday. How big a
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  deal is this just for the twenty twenty four buck Eyes, you know,
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  I don't think it's a huge deal as far as the actual team on the
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  field this fall. This this is a run game that was largely going to
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  be coordinated by Justin Frye and Chip Kelly. They've got two veteran running backs
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  who are going to be drafted in the NFL in the next spring, so
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  it's not like they're trying to develop a young player to kind of be the
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  bellcal back this year. It's bad timing. I think it's really strange and
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  unusual timing. But I don't see this as a huge detriment to what they're
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  trying to accomplish on the field this fall. All right, So now you're
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  going to have a new running backs coach at some point between now and this
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  ball could be very soon. We'll see. But you had been hearing you
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  heard a name that that was I think an intriguing one. We had sort
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  of heard. You know, everyone's initial reaction was Eddie George, and then
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  Tim May talked to Eddie George and sort of swatted that one down. But
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  you're hearing now a different name and certainly an intriguing and potentially exciting one.
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  Yeah, the name Robert Gillespie's from Alabaia is running back coach Alabama started to
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  circulate on shortly after the Alford news came out. I couldn't get anything confirmed
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  there that I'd been any contact there. But Thursday morning I was able to
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  confirm that there's there's been interest expressed on Ohio states end. And from what
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  I was told, it wasn't immediately shot down. I mean, we saw
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  Eddie George immediately come out and say Nope, not interested, not doing it.
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  That's not happened here to my knowledge. I've been told they're somewhat optimistic
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  that that Gillespie's actually listening here, and and I think that's gonna be the
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  guy they you know now at Eddy I mean Eddie, Eddie, George being
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  out of it. I think that'll be the guy who has to say no
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  next and that would obviously be interesting on a lot of fronts, just you
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  know, with his experience at Alabama. Well, and for folks who don't
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  know him, I mean he is you know, every everyone if you did,
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  you did not work for Nick Saban without being a pretty darn good recruiter,
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  any pretty darn good developer. So that in and of itself is a
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  you know, two thumbs up kind of recommendation, even before you dive into
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  anything. But Gillespie himself, I mean he has he has been a big
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  part of that recruiting operation down there for a while, hasn't he. Yeah,
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  he's been there. I believe this would be his fifth year he's so
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  he's been He's been a part of a lot of their their success running the
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  football with with recruiting five star running backs, top one hundred type running backs,
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  very well respected in the business. And I think the the initial thought
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  was, well, you know, Alabama to Ohio State, that's you know
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  it's kind of a would be a lateral move, but you know the Kalin
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  de Boor things interesting. Is Washington or is Alabama going to run the ball
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  as much as they have been with Klein to Boor now coming from Washington and
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  the run game maybe not being as big of a piece of the puzzle there
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  as it has been at Alabama. And then obviously it has to be enticing.
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  I would think, not that Alabama doesn't have good running backs, but
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  would have to be enticing. I would think to work with Quinn, Shawn
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  Judkins and Trevion Henderson, that combination this year probably the best Tanama backs in
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  the country. So there's at least one name to really keep an eye on
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  moving forward, we will probably be talking about other names on the huddle board
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  at buckey Huddle dot com presented by jefferby Steakhouse. That is where we talk
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  talk to our members and answer questions and all that kind of stuff, and
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  then tend to go a lot deeper there than we can on YouTube. So
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  you can if you're interested in taking a little bit of a deeper dive on
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  that, you can do that at bucke Huddle dot com. So now let's
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  move on to really the heart of today's show, which is recruiting. Mark
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  of course, is our recruiting guy at bucke Huddle dot com, so of
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  course we're having him on the talk recruiting and really specifically the recruiting impact here
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  because you're obviously you know, you mentioned the timing's not great in terms of
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  the twenty twenty four season. Its timing also not great for the twenty twenty
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  five recruiting cycle because now you've got you know, they were planning on taking
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  probably two running backs at least in this class, and these are guys who
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  have been building relationships with Tony Alford, and now Tony Alfred is you know,
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  about one hundred and eighty or two hundred miles up the road in ann
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  Arbor instead of being in Columbus. So you know, this is not you
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  know, recruiting has not always been great under Alfred. They have had some
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  successes, and they've had a couple pretty big bad misses the last couple of
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  cycles as well. So how much do you think this impacts Ohio State.
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  Let's start with the twenty twenty five targets at the running back. Yeah,
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  and obviously that's you know, some of this is going to depend on who
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  they hire for. For Byron Lewis out of South Florida, who I briefly
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  spoke to yesterday, he said he didn't really want to dive into it too
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  much. He hadn't really talked to anyone at Ohio State to kind of see
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  where things were going. I think that one's gonna sting a bit now.
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  Byron's got some buddies up in Columbus already. If you know former teammate Brandon
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  Innis, who's some bunch of South Florida guys he's pretty close with. So
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  I think they'll have a chance to regroup, just because I don't see Byron
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  committing anywhere soon, and this will be a long, probably a November December
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  kind of thing with him, So I think immediately it's gonna sting a little
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  bit there. I think it stings immediately With Jordan Davison. Here's the interesting
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  thing though, If they are able to get Gillespie, Alabama is among Davison's
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  probably top three or four schools, that would probably be the one guy that
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  could I think would save this for Ohio State. When we talk about Jordan
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  Davison, I think if they don't get Gillespie, if it's someone that Davison
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  maybe doesn't have much of a relationship with, that could get difficult. Texas
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  obviously a huge competitor there Oregon and Alabama, so that's going to be I
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  think the most interesting one is Jordan Davison based on who they hire with Lewis
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  obviously having a great relationship with Alford, but also kind of having his guys
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  up there in Columbus already, so maybe they can mitigate that a little bit.
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  And the en State guys get interesting because it's been kind of the thought
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  process that they're not going to get both of the Inn State guys. They're
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  not going to take both of the Inn State guys, assuming they could get
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  a Jordan Davison. Do they have to go back and try and get both
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  in state guys? Does this take them out of the picture for an in
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  state guy? Does this put him in better position for an in state guy?
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  My personal opinion is that it hurts for Marquise Davis and helps for Bo
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  Jackson. But we will see. I mean, Bo Jackson's supposed to be
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  on campus on March thirtieth. Obviously, Jordan Davison is supposed to be on
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  campus here twenty seventh through April second, but Jordan told me they're still up
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  in the air on that now. With the Alford News, I think they
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  want to digest this first, so stay tuned on that one. So I
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  think there's a lot of different ways this could go depending on who they hire.
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  But I think again, I think the actual person they hire will impact
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  Jordan Davison the most, and I think from Ohio State's perspective, the new
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  guy will need to come in and evaluate the end State backs and decide what
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  direction they're kind of going to move with the Ohio guys. All right,
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  So that's the twenty twenty five recruiting impact. There one other thing I did
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  want to ask you about. Everyone loves to play Instagram detective, so let's
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  talk about James. People's a little bit. There were people freaking out that
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  James Bills had removed some reference to Ohio State on his Instagram bio and had
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  followed Michigan football on Instagram. What's your sense there? I mean, I
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  kind of get the sense that this is an eighteen year old who's pretty far
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  from home, and you know, just kind of got blindsided by something along
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  with everyone else around him, And I wouldn't necessarily press the panic button just
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  yet. Transfer portal is not open. You know, the portal is not
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  open if your position coach leaves. That's a coach thing. So James People
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  is going to be at Ohio State at least through the end of spring football.
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  Do you have any sense, whether People's or anyone else among the current
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  running backs, whether this news might really change the picture for them any of
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  that. So, all that I've been told so far is that this won't
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  impact Henderson and Judkins. There were several reasons obviously offered was a big part
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  of getting Trayvon Henderson here out of high school. But at this point in
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  Travon Henderson's career, you know, he's playing for national championship, He's playing
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  this his money year. He's got a good thing going right now. Quin
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  Shawn Judkins reached out to Ohio State to transfer there. So I just none
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  of that would make any sense based on anything I've heard. So I think
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  they're safe on that. I don't think this impacts This has not been told
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  me, but I just know that it's you know, Dallan Hayden. I
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  don't expect will leave over this. In fact, this may help Dallan.
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  I think Dallan's been a little frustrated with playing time that maybe a lot of
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  people feel he maybe had earned the last couple of years, and that Alfred
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  was a big part of deciding that. So I don't think this hurts them
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  from the outside looking in on Hayden. This shouldn't hurt them on Hayden.
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  You're right, People's is the guy you got to look at right now,
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  Cleveland area guy initially, but you know, move to San Antonio. You
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  know, it doesn't it doesn't feel to me like they'll lose him. But
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  it is one of those things where, yes, you build a relationship with
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  Tony Alfred, you're gonna play for Tony Alfred. You're coming all the way
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  from San Antonio to Columbus and you get there and you're already kind of going
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  through it as a freshman, because every true freshman right now is like,
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  oh my gosh, what I get myself into. And your coach leaves.
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  I would imagine that's very shocking to lose your coach a week in the spring
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  ball. I would imagine it's very shocking. Cooler heads, I would think
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  we'll prevail here, but that that would be the one I guess I would
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  keep the closest eye on here the next month or two. But again,
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  we'll see you they bring in, all right, Well, we will see
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  who they bring in. We will be talking about the names that we're hearing
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  and the guys, you know, the people we're hearing connection with this job.
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  I've heard the name of a different former Ohio State running back in connection
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  with this job. We'll be talking about that on the huddle board as well.
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  So lots of stuff to talk about. There, lots of stuff to
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  talk about with the recruiting piece of things. It is, as Mark said,
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  there's he talked about a couple of guys coming in for visits, but
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  there are a lot of businits coming up. This is a very busy time
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  of year for visits. As the Buckeyes are in spring football. They will
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  be back on the field next week minus Tony Alford, but with all the
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  guys that we're there last week as far as we know, as far as
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  players and all of that kind of stuff. So there's gonna be plenty to
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  talk about next week, Plenty to talk about all spring long. At Buckey
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  Huddle dot com. We hope you will join us there, Donnie, Kevin
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  and I covering the team, mark on recruiting our whole team of exes,
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  and those gurus making you a smarter football fan all at Buckey Huddle dot com
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  plus the Huddle Board presented by Jeff Ruby Steakhouse, where we talk about it
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  all with you. It can be a little more open with you on some
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  of this stuff there than we can on YouTube, so make sure you join
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  us there for all of that and much much more. That'll do it for
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  today. Thank you guys all for joining us. Have a great day.
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  We'll talk to you tomorrow.