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Are Sonny Styles And CJ Hicks Ready To Take On A Bigger Role For Ohio State? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Welcome to Buckeyes tomorrow morning for Monday, March eleventh. I'm your host,
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  Tom Moore. The Akron game is in one hundred and seventy three days.
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  The game against Michigan in two hundred and sixty four days. The Ohio State
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  Buckeyes are enjoying spring break right now. We get a one week break between
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  practices two and three of the spring. So today we're gonna be taking a
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  look back at week one. Some of the things we learned. We're doing
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  that directly talking with Jim Knowles. You're in here directly from Ohio State defense
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  coordinator Jim Knowles on today's show, answering questions about the linebackers, answering some
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  questions about some new stuff they might be willing to try this year, and
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  much much more. Let's start with one of the biggest names on that defense,
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  Caleb Downs. What is Jim Nills's early impressions of the transfer safety from
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  Alabama's cool? It's great. You know, Caleb is has got great football
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  intelligence, picks things up quickly. You know, it plays like a veteran.
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  The thing you notice about a player like Caleb is, yeah, I
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  still make mistakes, but he corrects them immediately, you know, and that's
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  what you're always looking for out of players. They you're going to make mistakes,
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  but can you correctly by the next player, And that's what I've seen
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  so far. This is going to be the most veteran defense that Jim Knowles
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  has had in his three years with the Buckeyes. And that's because they got
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  so many veteran players back, Guys who had the option to leave for the
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  NFL Draft and who chose to come back for one more season with Knowles and
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  the Buckeyes. So what is that like for a defensive boarding. You know,
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  it's it's humbling because you know you're in it because you want to have
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  an effect on the players and their development. And when they come back,
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  when they have a chance to move on, it shows you that they're you
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  know, they're happy to be here, and we'll take everything out of the
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  equation. It means they're they're happy to be here, and they believe in
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  me and their coaches and the defense, and they they think that we can
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  make them better and keep growing them and you know, they got unfinished business.
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  But all of that, you know, that overused word culture. I
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  think one of the examples is when guys like that come back, you know,
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  because they want to still be a part of it, and they also
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  think it can help them. When Jim Knowles looks at all the guys he's
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  gotten back and all the guys he's added to this year's defense, does he
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  feel like he's got everything he needs to do to reach his goals? Yeah?
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  Yeah, absolutely, you know, And now you know I took that
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  for granted when I came to Ohio State. Is that, you know,
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  the expectation is, you know, I'm gonna have everything I need. And
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  I think that's just got better now going into year three where you can really
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  look at it and say, we have veteran players who understand the defense and
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  understand the position. Plus they're great athletes. One of the big stories of
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  Week one of spring football was the move of Sunny Styles from the safety room
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  to the linebacker room. So what does Jim Knowles like about Sunny Styles being
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  with the linebackers. You're going to hear several answers. He got asked a
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  bunch of follow up questions. They were all pretty much related. So we're
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  just gonna butt several answers back to back. Here, you know it's a
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  it's a change for Sunny because he's playing in the box, you know,
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  from a low position instead of dropping in, so things happen a lot faster.
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  But you know, he's reacted superbly. I mean he's he's a guy
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  who's got football intelligence. He understands the scheme, played a lot of positions.
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  I think he's gonna be great because one of the biggest parts of being
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  a linebacker is you have to know every all the pieces around you so you
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  can play fast and uh, you know, Sonny's showing a lot of that
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  in the first two days. Yeah, I feel it's it's permanent, but
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  you know, in terms of face and nickel packaging, you know it's permanent.
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  But there may be other things where he'll still have multiplicity. You know,
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  there's gonna be packages. Yeah, a little bit of both. I
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  mean, anytime you make a move, you want it to be right for
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  the player and for you know, the defense and the team. And I
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  think that fit up naturally. You know, Sonny. Sonny had to fight
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  to stay lean as a dB and now he now you know, he gets
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  to eat you know, and and uh and but I think it worked out
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  for both of us. Well, you know when you when you when I
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  first met him, or when I first got here. You know, I
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  think every everybody talks about you know, he's going to be a linebacker,
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  he's going to be a linebacker. But I really wanted to see him at
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  safety first. That's what he wanted to do. That's what I wanted to
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  see, you know. I felt long term in my vision for him that
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  playing safety early in his career was going to give him a better perspective of
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  the defense. You know, had Malcolm Rodriguez, who was is it with
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  the Lions at Oklahoma State. Now, he's about half a Sunny size,
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  but he started as a safety and when he became a linebacker he understood things
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  a lot better. So my for Sonny it was the you know, start
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  him out of safety and then eventually move him down. Well, Sunny Styles
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  has been one of the big names that we always get asked about with the
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  linebackers. Another one is CJ. Hicks. What is how is Hicks doing
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  now in his third year with the Buckeyes And are CJ and Sonny competing for
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  the same spot? Once again, You're gonna hear a couple of different answers
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  here back to back. You know, part of the time they are you
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  know, part of the time we'll have all three of them on the field
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  with cold, so there's balance there and that they're competing and they also can
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  be in the same package. But CJ's got a great attitude. You know,
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  I've always felt that CJ has a lot of pressure on, you know,
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  being from Ohio, but he's coachable, and he understands growth and our
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  plan for him, and he's got a great attitude. CJ's moving around too,
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  you know. So you know, you get into a three linebacker package.
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  You know, Sonny, Cody and CJ. You're you're pretty good right
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  but now, but you can't just have one guy. So you know,
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  if Sonny's not there at the sam, then CJ's got to know how to
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  play it too, you know, so that you could be and gave in
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  and Mike and Cody can play well, you know, and you still have
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  a great lineup. So you always have to plan for you know, Okay,
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  we'll start out this way, but who's who's in next? So CJ
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  has to know both positions too, all right. So that's CJ Hicks.
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  Now, how about the other third year linebacker on the team, gave powers
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  Powers has much like CJ. Hicks, not played a whole heck of a
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  lot on defense his first two seasons, But if you listening to Jim Knowles,
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  sounds like that could be about to change. Probably and it didn't.
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  You didn't see it because he didn't play a lot in the games. But
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  in our opinion, gave you know, the second half of the season,
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  what we see in practices, it was probably one of the most important guys
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  he really was. So he made a huge jump second half of the season
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  in terms of what he was doing in practice and when he got into the
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  game, a huge jump, you know. So I feel like he is
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  a guy that is going to compete. He's a guy that's going to be
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  ready. You know. I feel like he's made tremendous improvements and we can
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  start to count on him. You've heard Noles talk a little bit about different
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  packages and different looks they might throw at at opposing offenses this year. Does
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  that mean that they're no longer a four two five? Is this defense still
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  a four to two five defense in his mind? Yeah, we're still four
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  to five. Yeah, no, absolutely, absolutely, we're still four two
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  five but multiple, multiple deployments at times, you know, we can be
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  four three. But he still got Sonny, right, So now you got
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  yeah, you got Sonny at a Sam Becker who's who's has experienced playing safety,
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  you know what I mean. So that that that really creates more multiplicity.
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  In addition to all of the players who are returning and some of the
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  new guys there are, the spring football is also a time when we spend
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  a lot of time looking at guys who are maybe ready to take that next
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  step in their careers. Young players may be ready to take on a bigger
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  role. One of the guys we're keeping an eye on the spring is Rvel
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  Reese. He's sort of a little bit of a linebacker, maybe a defensive
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  end. They've kind of worked him in a couple of different spots so far.
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  What he played on special teams last year. So what has Jim Knowles
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  seen from him and where could he maybe fit this season? Yeah, Rvel.
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  You know, we kind of experimented with Rvel at the d end last
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  year a little bit, and uh, you know, I keep getting asked,
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  you know, can he be a linebacker? Can he be a linebacker?
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  And I think he can be a great linebacker. You know, he
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  just needs growth and learning. So I would like to just continue to grow
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  Rvel mentally in football intelligence, you know, at the linebacker position. So
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  will there be a role for him this year? I don't know because he
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  is so athletic. You know, he's a guy you kind of look at
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  and say, I can do different things with you know, when we get
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  to the season. You know, that's a guy you can always create something
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  for that doesn't involve as much thinking, you know, so he can just
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  go but out here. I want to keep growing him as a linebacker because
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  his time will come. Another player who is back was a transfer last year
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  was cornerback Lorenzo Styles. He played wide receiver for most of his time at
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  Notre Dame. What switched over to cornerback at the very very end of spring
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  ball last year before entering the transfer portal and becoming a Buck Eye. He
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  just worked on special teams really last year. So he is now working at
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  nickel behind Jordan Hancock. So what does Jim Noles like about Lorenzo Styles being
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  at the nickel. Yeah, he's got great speed, you know, good
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  size. He's just that he looks like a nickel you know, his skills
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  are his skill are like a nickel. So you know he's still learning.
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  But you saw Jordan make just cement tremendous progress with that last year, So
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  we gotta we gotta bring Lorenzo on there too. Another young guy whose name
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  is one you should know is Hero Canoe in defensive tackle. He look seems
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  like he is poised to take out a much bigger role this year. Mike
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  Hall gone, that means there's an open spot inside you know, what is
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  the role for Hero Canoe look like this year? And this is an interesting
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  answer because he'll start talking about Hero a Canoe, but then he talks about
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  potentially a very different look for the Ohio State defensive line as well. Yeah,
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  Hero really flashed last year at times when you go back and watch the
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  film. So the fact that we play a lot of Rushman, I mean,
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  that's a that's a guy who who needs to have a good spring for
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  us because he's gonna be, uh, he's going to be next man in,
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  you know. And you know with a guy like Hero, if he
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  starts to really come along, you know, you start to look at some
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  uh you know, double eagle type of packaging. You know, my thoughts
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  are, you know, with with Jack and j T. You know that
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  at some point I want to train them as outside linebackers. You know,
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  so if you got hero Tie League of Tie and you get to you can
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  get to more of you know, uh, you know, five five guys,
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  five d linemen in the game, you know, with training guys like
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  Jack and and j T and Kenyata, you know, it's just kind of
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  in my thoughts like if we're strong inside those those guys can become more multiple,
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  you know, I think it's techniques and things that they can use when
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  they get to the next level. So that's kind of been my thoughts too,
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  all right. So you heard them there talking about j T, Twumolowow
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  Jacks or maybe being in something of an outside linebacker role maybe at times,
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  and you know, not as a base defense, but at least maybe you
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  know, look something like that for at some point this year. So what's
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  the thinking behind that kind of a move? Well, you know, you're
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  always looking to get the best eleven on the field, right, So when
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  when you look at a twelve personnel set, you say, okay, I
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  got you know, Sonny, Cody and CJ. With the four down you
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  know, you know, could we have another component with you know, Jack
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  and JT and three tackles and Cody and Sonny or Cody and CJ. You
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  know, I think you know who's going to be who's going to be the
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  best eleven, you know against bigger sets. Could it possibly be hero,
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  you know, versus having a third linebacker? Could it be three tackles?
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  You know, that's in my thoughts. We haven't installed that yet, but
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  but I I'd like to get to that just to see. And like I
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  said, I've I feel like what those guys, the more they know of
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  how to really be an outside linebacker, it's better. It's going to help
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  them when they get to the next level. So it's something I'd like to
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  do for them too. And finally, we've talked about new guys. We've
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  talked about guys playing in different roles. We've talked about transfers, We've talked
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  about young guys. Let's talk about a veteran who is going to be back
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  in the same spot he was last year. That is Leathan Ransom. He
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  was the bandit last year until he hurt his foot. Have touched on a
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  list frank injury in the Wisconsin game, missed the rest of the season,
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  Bucks really missed him towards the end of the year. He is healthy,
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  he is back. What does it mean to Jim Knowles to have Leathan Ransom
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  back at that banded position. Yeah, I expect. I mean Leathan was
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  making very good progress. You know, always loved the way he played,
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  his attitude, his physicality. First year, you know, he had some
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  eye violations. You know, he was he was improving on that until he
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  got hurt. So you know, he goes down. You know, you
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  think, you know, maybe we're going to have a problem, and then
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  what develops is really to me, he goes he goes down. You know
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  Jordan's development at Nickel is it really came because of that. I feel like,
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  you know, when you had to move Sonny out of that Nickel position
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  to get back to take Lathan's place, well, and Jordan got a lot
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  better, you know, so you never know when those things happened. You
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  know, you look at I just feel bad for Lathan first, and then
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  if you start looking at the defense, you know, I think that when
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  that happened, it helped Jordan develop. Well. We will be back tomorrow
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  with another show. Lots of interesting stuff to talk about, a bunch of
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  recruiting news potentially coming for the Buckeyes soon, a bunch of interesting stuff we
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  still haven't gotten a chance to talk about from last week. There was a
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  ton of news, ton of interviews that we are going to be going through
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  this week, letting you hear a little bit more from a bunch of different
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  players and talking recruiting. We'll probably be talking about some other stuff as well.
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  It should be a very fun, busy week. It is going to
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  be an eventful spring in Columbus, Ohio, which means it would be a
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  great time to become a member of Buckeyehuddle dot com. That's where we talk
• 15:16
  about the team to Kevin and I Mark covering recruiting, our whole team of
• 15:20
  ex's and nose gurus. A really fun active message board, the huddle Board,
• 15:24
  presented by Jeff Ruby Steakhouse. That is all at Buckeye Huddle dot com.
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  We hope to see you there. Ut'll do it for today. Thank
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  you guys all for joining us. Have a great day. We'll talk to
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  you tomorrow.