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How Is Ohio State Racking Up So Many Sacks This Season? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

0:00
Speaker 1: Back with another bonus episode for you now, and this
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Speaker 1: is one with a guy who started out his career
0:06
Speaker 1: as an incredibly hyped player and then feels like he
0:09
Speaker 1: might be even a little underappreciated now by Ohio State
0:12
Speaker 1: fans and college football on the whole.
0:14
Speaker 2: That's j T.
0:15
Speaker 1: Twoey Moloow, defensive end senior for the Buckeyes, came back
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Speaker 1: for one more season, has had probably the best season
0:22
Speaker 1: of his career this fall, and he's not done yet.
0:26
Speaker 1: About to head out to West to the Rose Bowl
0:28
Speaker 1: in the College Football Playoff quarterfinals against top ranked Oregon.
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Speaker 1: So going to be hearing all from JT on this show.
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Speaker 1: He had a lot of interesting things to say someone
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Speaker 1: we don't get a chance to talk to all that often.
0:39
Speaker 1: Definitely an interesting interview. So let's start with one play
0:42
Speaker 1: from the Tennessee game that might have stood out to you.
0:45
Speaker 1: He lined up at defensive tackle and was playing as
0:47
Speaker 1: a quarterback spy, so he had to be out in
0:51
Speaker 1: the open field and trying to chase down an incredible
0:54
Speaker 1: athlete like Nigo Iamaliava, the Tennessee quarterback. So what was
0:58
Speaker 1: JT's reaction when that was first presented to him?
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Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, when I first was when that first
1:05
Speaker 3: was brought up, I was just stating the coaches for
1:07
Speaker 3: trust me with that quarterback sis.
1:10
Speaker 2: It's not an easy.
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Speaker 3: Role, and I mean it was fun and I gave
1:14
Speaker 3: credit to Cody and them because I was like, man, oh,
1:17
Speaker 3: first time over field tackling, that's a that's a different world,
1:19
Speaker 3: you know, from playing defensive end and going to that job.
1:22
Speaker 2: But I think it speaks.
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Speaker 3: Volume how the coaches think of my athletic ability, and
1:27
Speaker 3: I just continue to trust them with whatever they bring
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Speaker 3: to the table.
1:30
Speaker 1: We've talked about this a bunch, but it seems like JT. Twey,
1:32
Speaker 1: Moloow and Jack Sawyer are maybe playing their best football
1:35
Speaker 1: together at the biggest time of the season. Is that
1:38
Speaker 1: something that two of them have talked about the importance
1:40
Speaker 1: of doing that.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it's non stop with the communication on
1:44
Speaker 3: that part. I think we also understand that it takes everybody,
1:48
Speaker 3: takes everybody in this wood to give the things that
1:50
Speaker 3: we need to get done.
1:52
Speaker 2: That's on our list of goals that we want to accomplish.
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Speaker 3: But we just understand that if we just continue to
1:56
Speaker 3: do our job and just continue to just trust one
1:58
Speaker 3: another and just play as fast as we can, as
2:00
Speaker 3: hard as we can, then I think everything will just
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Speaker 3: falling right in line.
2:04
Speaker 1: There were a bunch of storylines for the Ohio State
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Speaker 1: defense in that first matchup with Oregon out in Audtsin
2:09
Speaker 1: Stadium in October, and most of them were not good.
2:11
Speaker 1: One of those storylines was, hey, Buckeye's defense did not
2:15
Speaker 1: get a single sack the first time they played, So
2:17
Speaker 1: what needs to change? Make that change in Pasadena?
2:22
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think we just got to play as a
2:24
Speaker 3: click to for and just understand that. You know, their
2:28
Speaker 3: offense is an explosive offense, their talents at offense. We
2:31
Speaker 3: understand that we need to clean things up from the
2:33
Speaker 3: first game for the first time we met. And I
2:35
Speaker 3: think that's what we're doing leading up to this game.
2:38
Speaker 3: I know, taking it one day at a time and
2:39
Speaker 3: just continue to find those those areas of attacking and
2:44
Speaker 3: just just staying within the wilds.
2:47
Speaker 1: Dylan Gabriel has obviously had a fantastic season, leading the
2:50
Speaker 1: Ducks to an unbeaten regular season Big Ten championship. Him
2:54
Speaker 1: being a Heisman finalist, obviously there's a lot.
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Speaker 2: To like there.
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Speaker 1: What is it though about Dylan Gabriel that just makes
3:00
Speaker 1: him so tough to play against.
3:03
Speaker 3: Uh, he's he's very wide. I mean he's Uh, he's
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Speaker 3: been in the game and he knows what to do.
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Speaker 3: He's a very talented quarterback, a left handed quarterback, and
3:14
Speaker 3: he's very smart. He doesn't really take too many chances.
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Speaker 3: He knows what he wants to do and he goes
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Speaker 3: through his wheeze really well.
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Speaker 2: So that's a very talented quarterback and you know, he's
3:25
Speaker 2: having a very talented year.
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Speaker 1: The buck Gys had to deal with the fallout from
3:29
Speaker 1: that Oregon loss. It was not a super fun time
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Speaker 1: around Columbus, Ohio, and it lasted more than a week
3:34
Speaker 1: because got to remember the buck guys had a week
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Speaker 1: off after Oregon and then after that they played Nebraska
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Speaker 1: and that wasn't a whole lot of fun either. So
3:42
Speaker 1: what was that like that period of time, that couple
3:44
Speaker 1: of weeks after that Orgon loss where they figured out, Hey,
3:47
Speaker 1: we got to change some stuff if we want to
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Speaker 1: get to the where we want to get to with
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Speaker 1: the goals for this season. What was that like to
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Speaker 1: have to change things and what was it like inside
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Speaker 1: that building as people went through that process. You're going
3:59
Speaker 1: to hear that and then a quick follow up from
4:00
Speaker 1: Austin more.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it's just uh, care being simple, trusting
4:04
Speaker 3: the guys, and you know, I think we have so
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Speaker 3: much trust in the coaches that they're gonna make the
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Speaker 3: right uh you know, the changes for us to being
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Speaker 3: the best position possible.
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Speaker 2: And I think they did just that.
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Speaker 3: And I think for us, we just had to go
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Speaker 3: out there and just accomplished the plan and whatever play
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Speaker 3: was called, whatever may be, just go out there and
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Speaker 3: execute it. One thing we've been preaching is execution is
4:25
Speaker 3: is really the motive.
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Speaker 2: You know, anything they can be called.
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Speaker 3: But as long as everybody's mindset is has one mentality,
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Speaker 3: which is, uh, just go get in and you know,
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Speaker 3: make sure there's no yard gain, I think that that
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Speaker 3: changes the mindset of everybody on the Siper Bullet defense.
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Speaker 2: Did they feel like big changes to you all as
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Speaker 2: they were ongoing or uh?
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Speaker 3: I mean at first, like you know, it was a
4:46
Speaker 3: tough loss, so you know, I think it felt like
4:48
Speaker 3: everything was big. But then when you kind of just
4:50
Speaker 3: take your time and look at everything and analyze everything,
4:52
Speaker 3: it was just like, man, we just we just need
4:54
Speaker 3: to keep everything simple, make everything and just just just
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Speaker 3: about us, and you know, not like feel like we're
5:01
Speaker 3: you know, making everything about them. It's you know, we
5:03
Speaker 3: we can con dictate what they do. And I think
5:05
Speaker 3: that was the mindset.
5:07
Speaker 1: Jim Knowles always talks about his defense being a safety
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Speaker 1: driven defense and with Caleb Downs and lath and Ransom
5:12
Speaker 1: and yeah, we can include Jordan Hancock in this conversation.
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Speaker 1: The Buck guys have three really really good difference making
5:19
Speaker 1: safeties back there to drive that defense. So what stands
5:22
Speaker 1: out about those three safeties? You're gonna hear that and
5:25
Speaker 1: then a follow up from Tim May.
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Speaker 3: They're relentless man, I mean, Lathan, Caleb, and I mean
5:30
Speaker 3: everybody in that BIA corps. Yes, they could cover, but
5:34
Speaker 3: you know, when it's time to you know, stop the round,
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Speaker 3: they'll come down twelve yards out. However, however, they're however,
5:39
Speaker 3: far off the front of line of scrimmage and coming
5:41
Speaker 3: you know, throw the nose in there. And you're not
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Speaker 3: respect them for that because you know there's gonna be
5:44
Speaker 3: times where we need them make them tackles in.
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Speaker 2: I mean they're displaying it this whole season. Yeah, how
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Speaker 2: critical were they in a game of this magnazine?
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Speaker 3: Obviously everybody's critical but you know what I mean that, Yeah,
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Speaker 3: sort of the last line of defense, but sometimes the
5:54
Speaker 3: last line of defenses in the middle of it.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean they play a huge role.
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Speaker 3: I mean, like you said, it takes everybody from the
6:00
Speaker 3: front flour It's like a check reaction. The front four
6:02
Speaker 3: don't do their job, then you know falls, you know,
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Speaker 3: off the back end.
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Speaker 2: So we off to work as a collective unit.
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Speaker 3: And I think there's a reason that there's eleven of
6:09
Speaker 3: us out there, and you know, it's crazy. If one
6:11
Speaker 3: president is doing their job, then you know something go wrong.
6:14
Speaker 3: But if we just all continue to stay communication with
6:17
Speaker 3: one another, continue to just lay each other, know we
6:20
Speaker 3: have each other's backs, and just trust one another, and man,
6:22
Speaker 3: I think that that performance is gonna be off the charts.
6:26
Speaker 1: It has been five years since the Buckeyes have gotten
6:28
Speaker 1: a chance to play the same team twice in one year.
6:31
Speaker 1: The last time it was Wisconsin back in twenty nineteen,
6:34
Speaker 1: played them in the regular season and then again in
6:36
Speaker 1: the Big Ten championship game. Buckeyes won both of those.
6:40
Speaker 1: This year a little different because they lost their first
6:42
Speaker 1: match up with Oregon out in Austin Stadium back in October,
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Speaker 1: so now this is a chance for a rematch, a
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Speaker 1: chance for revenge for the buck Eyes. What's the mentality
6:51
Speaker 1: for the team coming into this second chance against the Ducks.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, hungry and thankful. I mean, we know how the
6:58
Speaker 3: last last time went. You know, we uh we had
7:00
Speaker 3: a chip on our shoulder. I mean, we were riding
7:02
Speaker 3: high before that game, and we took that loss, and
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Speaker 3: we came back, had to make a couple of changes.
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Speaker 2: But I think we understand what you know, everything's.
7:08
Speaker 3: At stake right now, you know, uh, just fighting to
7:10
Speaker 3: where another Hollo stage jersey for the next game, That's
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Speaker 3: what's gonna sake and just to be able to represent
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Speaker 3: this this uh, this state and this uh this team.
7:18
Speaker 3: I mean we understand what's that uh, what's on the line,
7:21
Speaker 3: and you know, we're just hungry and blessed that we
7:22
Speaker 3: get this opportunity of playing in the Rose Bowl.
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Speaker 1: That loss out in Eugene still kind of fresh in
7:27
Speaker 1: some Buckeye fans minds and clearly probably fresh in the
7:30
Speaker 1: minds of Ohio State players and coaches as well.
7:33
Speaker 2: What does J. T.
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Speaker 1: Twoey mlwell remember about what he was feeling and thinking
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Speaker 1: as he was walking off that field at Oregon.
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Speaker 3: I don't think anybody imagine it, imagine us losing. You
7:44
Speaker 3: know I didn't, that's for sure. And I think after
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Speaker 3: that it was a kind of hit deep understanding that man,
7:51
Speaker 3: we still there's still a lot of ball left to
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Speaker 3: be played. I mean, you can let it sting for
7:55
Speaker 3: a little bit, but you know, if you let it
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Speaker 3: carry over too long, then you know, there, there goes, there.
8:00
Speaker 2: Goes your whole season.
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Speaker 3: But I think we did a great job of just understanding,
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Speaker 3: coming together in this room right here, not being afraid
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Speaker 3: to display or hold accountability for one another. And you know,
8:13
Speaker 3: as as that happened, we came back, we grouped, and
8:16
Speaker 3: you know, we're just we're just going right now. And
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Speaker 3: I'm just blessed for those specific moments, you know, losing,
8:24
Speaker 3: I mean, no one wants to lose, but the testimonies
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Speaker 3: and the things you're taught within those little situations speaks volume.
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Speaker 1: It seems like just yesterday that J. T. Twoey Moloow
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Speaker 1: was the young, promising defensive end and now he's the crafty, veteran,
8:39
Speaker 1: long time sage in that room who's really had the
8:42
Speaker 1: long distinguished career. Now he can look back at the
8:45
Speaker 1: young guys who are just starting to come on and
8:47
Speaker 1: build their own careers, and one of those guys is
8:49
Speaker 1: Kenyata Jackson. He feels like he's coming on very strong
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Speaker 1: this year, especially towards the end of the year. What's
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Speaker 1: JT seeing from Kenyata in that room?
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, that's that's my boy in the R
9:00
Speaker 2: two X club too.
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Speaker 3: But you know Kiyata, I mean, every time his numbers called,
9:06
Speaker 3: he goes out there and makes the most of it.
9:08
Speaker 3: No matter where we're at in the game. When he
9:12
Speaker 3: goes out there, he's just hungry. He wants to go
9:14
Speaker 3: make plays, and and you know, we see it in practice,
9:17
Speaker 3: so it's not surprising to us.
9:19
Speaker 1: Dylan Gabriel presents a lot of challenges as Oregon's quarterback.
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Speaker 1: He's so talented, throws the ball so well, so accurately,
9:26
Speaker 1: so elusive when he's running around. He's also not very tall,
9:30
Speaker 1: so you can kind of lose him behind the offensive
9:32
Speaker 1: line at times. So does that just sort of accentuate
9:35
Speaker 1: the importance of staying in your lane and not trying
9:38
Speaker 1: to do too much and trying to keep him sort
9:40
Speaker 1: of hemmed in in there in the pocket.
9:42
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it just comes out being disciplined, knowing
9:45
Speaker 3: who you're playing against. Like you said, Dylan, he's a
9:47
Speaker 3: he's short, but he's very elusive. I mean he can
9:50
Speaker 3: he is making throws. I mean he get out the pick.
9:52
Speaker 3: He can do everything. So I think for us, we've
9:54
Speaker 3: got to say discipline and just continue to just meet
9:58
Speaker 3: with coach Jay, with the coach No, and understand how
10:00
Speaker 3: we can just eliminate that.
10:03
Speaker 2: JT.
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Speaker 1: Twey Molowell and Jack Sawyer kind of always linked in
10:06
Speaker 1: people's minds. They came in in the same class as
10:08
Speaker 1: a pair of five star defensive ends and very different
10:12
Speaker 1: guys in some ways. Tuym Molowell obviously from the state
10:14
Speaker 1: of Washington, Sawyer from Pickerington, very close Washington, obviously very far,
10:20
Speaker 1: but also very different personalities in some ways. But they
10:23
Speaker 1: always seem to get along pretty well. What are they like?
10:26
Speaker 1: The pair of them? And this is normally I tell
10:29
Speaker 1: you that if there's like a follow up question, there's
10:30
Speaker 1: like a whole conversation here that sort of follows along with.
10:33
Speaker 3: That man's that's my brother. Like you said, we're different
10:37
Speaker 3: but very alike. I think outside, like you said, he's louder,
10:41
Speaker 3: I'm quiet, but you know, once we're on that field,
10:43
Speaker 3: we're like the same person. We'll do anything for this team.
10:47
Speaker 3: You know, we'll die for our players and we'll give everything.
10:49
Speaker 2: We got room together for four years, correct.
10:52
Speaker 3: Yeah, fall camps, Yeah, sometimes go over there over there,
10:58
Speaker 3: So yeah.
11:00
Speaker 2: Mess one.
11:01
Speaker 3: We have our sheriff days when we when I'm neat,
11:03
Speaker 3: he's neat, or you know, we might both.
11:05
Speaker 2: Be messy, but we do we do a good job. Yeah,
11:09
Speaker 2: I probably have a better pick the jack. Though.
11:12
Speaker 1: When you face a team like Oregon for the second
11:14
Speaker 1: time in the season, do you kind of have to
11:17
Speaker 1: go back to square one since it's been a couple
11:19
Speaker 1: of months already two and a half months, almost three
11:21
Speaker 1: months since you last played and they've obviously changed a
11:24
Speaker 1: lot of things since then, or do you maybe have
11:26
Speaker 1: a little bit of a head start on scouting because
11:28
Speaker 1: you've already seen them on the field once this season.
11:31
Speaker 3: I say it's it's pretty fifty to fifty. I mean
11:33
Speaker 3: that game, like you said, it was, it was a
11:35
Speaker 3: while ago. But at the same time, they elevated as
11:37
Speaker 3: a team, and so do we, So we understand that
11:39
Speaker 3: they they had they made some changes.
11:41
Speaker 2: For sure.
11:42
Speaker 3: You know, there's team, there's a certain industry we can
11:45
Speaker 3: take back from that game, but we also understand that
11:48
Speaker 3: they went on a little run after that, and we
11:50
Speaker 3: can see that they elevated as an offense. So we
11:52
Speaker 3: just got to continue to watch those games, dissect the
11:55
Speaker 3: other games, and just continue to see what stands out
11:58
Speaker 3: and what they changed from the from the past.
12:00
Speaker 1: Game players and coaches always talk about being able to
12:03
Speaker 1: learn their lessons and turn your losses into lessons, and
12:06
Speaker 1: also being able to learn from your wins so you
12:08
Speaker 1: don't have to suffer those losses to learn your lessons. Well,
12:12
Speaker 1: what has allowed the buck Eyes to maybe take advantage
12:14
Speaker 1: of both their wins and their losses to continuing to
12:17
Speaker 1: improve this year?
12:19
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, like you said that, we went through
12:22
Speaker 3: a lot of trials to trials, but there's also there's
12:24
Speaker 3: a lot of things we can take away from all
12:26
Speaker 3: the wins and losses, and from those those wins, we
12:29
Speaker 3: understood that, hey, we can be the best defense of
12:31
Speaker 3: the country. And from those losses, we understand that there's
12:33
Speaker 3: still things that may be fixed. And I think when
12:36
Speaker 3: you take all that in at once, that it comes
12:39
Speaker 3: down to the common goal or the common topic, which
12:42
Speaker 3: is you can there's always learning points everywhere and depend
12:45
Speaker 3: on how we dissect those games or how we just
12:48
Speaker 3: continue to come as one and elevate, you know, we
12:51
Speaker 3: continue to just collect all those those learning points and
12:55
Speaker 3: just continue to grow from them.
12:57
Speaker 1: Mentioned earlier that the bluck Eyes did not record a
12:59
Speaker 1: single against the Oregon Ducks when they were playing out
13:02
Speaker 1: in Eugene earlier in the year. So now that they
13:04
Speaker 1: are getting to the quarterback quite a bit and they've are
13:07
Speaker 1: among the nation's leading teams in sacks, what has helped
13:10
Speaker 1: them get to the quarterback more as a unit later
13:13
Speaker 1: in the season.
13:14
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it was more just understanding the defense
13:17
Speaker 3: as a whole, understanding everybody's job. I think as the
13:21
Speaker 3: season went on, we had to understand that, you know,
13:23
Speaker 3: we have to know what's going on in the back end.
13:24
Speaker 3: We have to know what's going on with the linebacker
13:26
Speaker 3: crew to understand what plays, we have a room with freedom.
13:30
Speaker 3: And I think once we understood that and got a
13:32
Speaker 3: better understanding of the of everybody's job, I mean it
13:36
Speaker 3: showed display because you know, everybody knows what each other's doing.
13:38
Speaker 3: It's not like the linebackers know what they're doing, uh,
13:41
Speaker 3: and the corners and bi they know only their job.
13:44
Speaker 3: I think we all know each other's job, and we
13:46
Speaker 3: continue to ask each other questions on you know, if
13:49
Speaker 3: they're b listing on how they can get to the quarterback,
13:51
Speaker 3: and you know, if I'm dropping playing quarterbacks.
13:53
Speaker 2: By I can ask Cody on how to open field tackle.
13:56
Speaker 3: So you know, we just we just kind of lean
13:57
Speaker 3: on each other's understanding because, uh, you know, like I said,
14:01
Speaker 3: like Dezel knows how to play corner, Bennett and than
14:04
Speaker 3: I know how to play corner, So you know, he
14:06
Speaker 3: has more more wisdom at that position than I do.
14:09
Speaker 1: Well, that's it from JG. Twemlowe. I hope you guys
14:11
Speaker 1: enjoyed that. He's one of those guys you hear a
14:13
Speaker 1: lot about, but you don't typically hear a lot from.
14:15
Speaker 1: We don't get a chance to talk to him all
14:16
Speaker 1: that often. Wanted to share that with you. I thought
14:19
Speaker 1: he had some interesting stuff to say there. There's gound
14:21
Speaker 1: be a lot more interesting stuff to say coming up
14:22
Speaker 1: later this week as we head out to California. Were
14:25
Speaker 1: the Rose Bowl Buckeyes and Oregon Ducks, kicking off at
14:29
Speaker 1: five o'clock on New Year's Day. We will be out
14:31
Speaker 1: there on the twenty ninth, that'd be Sunday. We'll be
14:34
Speaker 1: out there, Buckeyes and Ducks also arriving on the twenty ninth,
14:37
Speaker 1: we were playing and have coverage of that, and then
14:39
Speaker 1: of course we'll have coverage of media days with both
14:42
Speaker 1: teams coming up on the thirtieth, at head coach press
14:45
Speaker 1: conferences on the thirty first, and then the game on
14:47
Speaker 1: the first. That's all at puckehuddle dot com and YouTube
14:49
Speaker 1: dot com slash Buckeye Huddle.
14:51
Speaker 2: We hope to see you there.
14:52
Speaker 1: That'll do it for now, Thank you guys all for
14:53
Speaker 1: joining us. We'll back with another episode later on