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How Ohio State's Offseason Set Them Up For A Big 2026 · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

0:04
Speaker 1: Welcome to buck Eyes Tomorrow morning for Thursday, February twelve.
0:07
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Tom or the ball State game in
0:09
Speaker 1: two hundred and five days, the Gimmi gets Michigan in
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Speaker 1: two hundred and eighty nine days. Our friends at Grateful Griddle,
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Speaker 1: Columbus's favorite food truck. They are now on Uber, Eat,
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Speaker 1: scrub Hub, and DoorDash. Just search for Grateful Griddle there
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Speaker 1: or check out grateful Griddle oh dot com. All right,
0:25
Speaker 1: on today's show, gonna let you hear a little bit
0:27
Speaker 1: from our buddy Juck. He hosts Buckeye Huddle Primetime. He's
0:30
Speaker 1: actually got another show coming up tonight. That's why we're
0:33
Speaker 1: timing this show the way we are. He's on Mondays
0:35
Speaker 1: and Wednesdays during the season. After the season now shifting
0:38
Speaker 1: to Mondays and Thursdays, you can get another Bucke Huddle
0:42
Speaker 1: primetime show on YouTube Thursday night. And then on this
0:47
Speaker 1: show you're going to hear with the show his episode
0:49
Speaker 1: from earlier in the week and his show about how
0:53
Speaker 1: between Ohio State's coaching staff hires and their additions in
0:56
Speaker 1: the transfer portal, how the Buckeyes may have set themselves
1:00
Speaker 1: to win it all next season. That sounded like a
1:02
Speaker 1: show that I thought, I know an audience that would
1:05
Speaker 1: probably enjoy hearing a little bit more about that. So
1:07
Speaker 1: here's Juck explaining why he thinks that.
1:11
Speaker 2: Hey it's Juck. We are not bemoaning the noon kickoff.
1:14
Speaker 2: We're now owning it. It's a badge of honor. We're
1:17
Speaker 2: the lunatic fringe that defines our coaches legacy when it
1:20
Speaker 2: comes to this game. They don't get to define that
1:22
Speaker 2: outside the family who we're cut from a different cloth.
1:24
Speaker 2: Bro Hiowan's he's got it all, man. He's even got
1:26
Speaker 2: the jaw. You know the jaw. You see that jaw
1:28
Speaker 2: and you're just like, yeah, man, that's a dude. Do
1:31
Speaker 2: I want Michigan to beat Oklahoma? No way in hell.
1:35
Speaker 2: I don't know what world I'm living in. This is
1:36
Speaker 2: insane to me. And if you saw my outburst, I apologize.
1:40
Speaker 2: It's showtime now. It is showtime now, and welcome in.
1:48
Speaker 2: Appreciate you so much for joining us here at Bucket
1:50
Speaker 2: Huddle on buck Huddle Primetime, where we are here every
1:53
Speaker 2: Monday and Thursday. Hope you're having a fantastic evening. Hope
1:57
Speaker 2: you're staying warm. This is getting a little bit ridiculous.
1:59
Speaker 2: It's freezing down here in Juck Eye's studios. I had
2:03
Speaker 2: to leave the house really early in the morning, like
2:05
Speaker 2: before the sun came up, and that is just I
2:08
Speaker 2: don't have to do that often. When I do have
2:11
Speaker 2: to do that, it is just it's torture for me.
2:14
Speaker 2: I cannot stand it. But I had to do it
2:16
Speaker 2: today and the car thermostat read zero, and that's just
2:21
Speaker 2: it's unacceptable. It's just totally unacceptable. But it did make
2:24
Speaker 2: me feel like less of a Nancy the way I
2:26
Speaker 2: ran those trash containers out to the curb. Man. I
2:29
Speaker 2: mean I was running those things like I was being chased.
2:32
Speaker 2: It was so cold. Anyway, hop on in here, Doug Io.
2:36
Speaker 2: Appreciate you, buddy. Get in the comments section. Let's talk
2:40
Speaker 2: some ball. Let's please like the show. If you've not
2:42
Speaker 2: subscribed yet to Buck Eye Huddle, I would encourage you
2:44
Speaker 2: to do that. It is it is the best way
2:46
Speaker 2: to support your favorite creators, no matter who they be.
2:49
Speaker 2: But of course you like buck Eye Huddle, let's support
2:52
Speaker 2: us over here at this channel. Tonight's topic actually was
2:56
Speaker 2: inspired from a conversation that we head over on the
3:00
Speaker 2: Buckeyehuddle board, and that was a conversation regarding Brian Hartline
3:06
Speaker 2: and the hiring of Brian Hartline, and it kind of
3:08
Speaker 2: kind of like spun me off into a whole different
3:10
Speaker 2: direction here as we've just seen a lot of the
3:13
Speaker 2: off season come through, and I wanted to go through
3:17
Speaker 2: this offseason and kind of comp it to the twenty
3:20
Speaker 2: twenty four and twenty twenty five off seasons. But if
3:25
Speaker 2: you want some engaging conversation with some of the most
3:27
Speaker 2: like tuned in thoughtful Ohio State fans, get over to
3:32
Speaker 2: Buckeye Huddle Buckehudle dot com. Get on that board, Me, Tom, Tony,
3:36
Speaker 2: all the guys are over there. But it's really the
3:39
Speaker 2: conversation from really tuned in Buckeye fans that spark a
3:43
Speaker 2: lot of ideas in engaging conversation, particularly when not a
3:46
Speaker 2: lot's going on. But also the articles over on bucke
3:52
Speaker 2: hudle dot com are not behind a paywall, so you
3:54
Speaker 2: can always check check us out. Appreciate you from Louisiana,
3:59
Speaker 2: Stephen Bishop, our buddy in the house there. We got
4:02
Speaker 2: a Louisiana Buckeye in the house. Anyway, go back to
4:06
Speaker 2: the off season at twenty twenty four. Of course we
4:09
Speaker 2: all remember it. It was a fantastic off season. Michigan
4:13
Speaker 2: fans trolled us all off season, telling us hang the banner,
4:17
Speaker 2: Hang the banner. It was constant. That was their that
4:19
Speaker 2: was their refrain. Hang the banner. Started off with so
4:24
Speaker 2: many of the seniors coming back for unfinished business. The
4:27
Speaker 2: seniors from the vaunted class of twenty twenty one, the
4:31
Speaker 2: best recruiting class in Ohio State history and a largely
4:34
Speaker 2: disappointing group to that point. Most of them did not
4:38
Speaker 2: want to leave, having gone oh for nine on their
4:41
Speaker 2: goals in their first three seasons, so they ended up
4:44
Speaker 2: coming back and finishing just one for twelve on their goals.
4:49
Speaker 2: But the one that they won is one that Ohio
4:51
Speaker 2: State only wins on average every ten years. So certainly
4:54
Speaker 2: it paid off, and uh, big time, man, big time.
5:00
Speaker 2: But that offseason I remember talking extensively about every single
5:03
Speaker 2: thing that happened, One because it was exhilarating, and two
5:07
Speaker 2: because I had just started my show and there wasn't
5:11
Speaker 2: a ton to talk about, so all those moves were like,
5:14
Speaker 2: all right, I can talk about this, let's get on
5:16
Speaker 2: and do some reps about this. But I just remember
5:18
Speaker 2: talking about every single thing extensively. And you had the
5:23
Speaker 2: Transfer Portal class, which literally started immediately after the National
5:28
Speaker 2: Championship game when quin Shawn Judkins tweeted two minutes after
5:33
Speaker 2: the confetti started dropping that he was coming to Ohio
5:35
Speaker 2: State and that kind of got the ball rolling and
5:39
Speaker 2: what really kind of stole their National Championship shine because
5:44
Speaker 2: all the media momentum was on what's going on in
5:48
Speaker 2: Ohio State. And I love that. I love that, and
5:51
Speaker 2: I'll always appreciate quin Sewn tweeting that out when he did.
5:54
Speaker 2: It was just perfect timing. But you know, we look
5:59
Speaker 2: at that transfer Portal class and the way that shook
6:01
Speaker 2: out in that class of twenty twenty four, the current
6:04
Speaker 2: market in the transfer portal, that transfer portal class is
6:08
Speaker 2: something we will never see again. I mean, forget the
6:10
Speaker 2: fact that it took Nick Saban retiring to make that
6:13
Speaker 2: class happen. You don't see guys like Caleb Downs entering
6:17
Speaker 2: the portal every year. But just from a financial standpoint,
6:20
Speaker 2: the portal market had not exploded in the in the like,
6:24
Speaker 2: for instance, Will Howard got a million bucks that was
6:26
Speaker 2: two years ago. Will Howard in this current market probably
6:31
Speaker 2: like a three million dollar quarterback. I mean, that's an
6:34
Speaker 2: insane jump. Caleb Downs got a million bucks, He's probably
6:38
Speaker 2: closer to three with two years of eligibility left. I mean,
6:43
Speaker 2: that's how well respected he was. Quinn Shawn Judkins, he's
6:45
Speaker 2: now over a million dollar running back in this year's portal,
6:49
Speaker 2: and Julian's saying that's the number one freshman quarterback. That
6:53
Speaker 2: dude's over a million bucks as well. So that portal
6:56
Speaker 2: class could not have happened in this market. We'll never
6:58
Speaker 2: see one like that again. You kind of caught lightning
7:01
Speaker 2: in a bottle with that. But you also had some
7:04
Speaker 2: coaching changes, right, You had some coaching changes. Tony Alfraud
7:08
Speaker 2: leaves in the spring because he's got his feelings hurt,
7:10
Speaker 2: feels disrespected, so he tries to stick and twist the knife,
7:16
Speaker 2: and he does. He leaves, misses out on a national
7:18
Speaker 2: championship doing so. Incomes Carlos Slocklin, and that certainly was
7:25
Speaker 2: an improvement for Ohio State. Then you get the big
7:28
Speaker 2: addition at Chip Kelly and Ryan Day finally gives up
7:31
Speaker 2: play calling after he had tried the year before with
7:33
Speaker 2: Brian Hartline and for whatever reason, it didn't work out.
7:38
Speaker 2: So twenty twenty four has its trials and tribulations after
7:41
Speaker 2: that offseason, but eventually they win a national championship. The
7:45
Speaker 2: question is what percentage of the national championship can we
7:49
Speaker 2: credit to the offseason moves, to those coaching hires, to
7:54
Speaker 2: the portal class. I think in today's college football, you
7:58
Speaker 2: know now more than ever, I mean obvious, that you
8:00
Speaker 2: can change the outlook of your season so much faster
8:03
Speaker 2: than you ever could before. In the off season you
8:06
Speaker 2: can get a lot better. And for most programs that
8:09
Speaker 2: can be something like from five wins to eight wins,
8:12
Speaker 2: or from eight wins to fighting for a playoff spot.
8:15
Speaker 2: At Ohio State as the program currently stands and has
8:19
Speaker 2: for the last twenty five years, that off season can
8:21
Speaker 2: be the difference between a first round playoff exit or
8:25
Speaker 2: a Final four, or a Final four versus a national championship.
8:30
Speaker 2: It's just so difficult to win it all now as
8:32
Speaker 2: teams are so close together at the top that these
8:36
Speaker 2: moves are so important, and the moves that we see
8:39
Speaker 2: made in the off season that show up in January
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Speaker 2: are the separator. Man. It's those moves right there are
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Speaker 2: that scale the difference between the guys that win and
8:49
Speaker 2: the guys that don't. And that offseason in twenty twenty
8:52
Speaker 2: four was the off season that tip the scales in
8:55
Speaker 2: Ohio States favor is as much as anything else did
8:59
Speaker 2: that year. But it doesn't happen if you miss on
9:02
Speaker 2: Chip Kelly, for instance, or someone like Chip Kelly who
9:07
Speaker 2: you hypothetically comes in and does the job that Chip
9:09
Speaker 2: Kelly does. Doesn't happen without Will Howard, and we can
9:13
Speaker 2: debate on other things that might have derailed it had
9:15
Speaker 2: you not done it, And some will say it doesn't
9:19
Speaker 2: happen without losing that final game of the regular season.
9:23
Speaker 2: I'll never admit to that. I get the point, but
9:25
Speaker 2: it's just not something I'm ever going to be willing
9:27
Speaker 2: to say. My point is here that the off season
9:30
Speaker 2: in today's college football has such outsized importance compared to
9:36
Speaker 2: what it used to. It's just so much more important.
9:40
Speaker 2: So you win the national championship in twenty four perfect
9:44
Speaker 2: offseason heading into twenty twenty four, Ohio State's offseason heading
9:49
Speaker 2: into twenty twenty five was quite the opposite, quite the opposite.
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Speaker 2: And just as an offseason can take Ohio State from
9:57
Speaker 2: a potential Final four ist type looking to the team
10:00
Speaker 2: to a national championship. An offseason can also take an
10:03
Speaker 2: Ohio State team it looks like a national championship team
10:08
Speaker 2: to a first round exit, which is what happened in
10:11
Speaker 2: twenty twenty five. Now, I think twenty twenty five had
10:15
Speaker 2: several mistakes that ultimately contributed to Ohio State's early exit.
10:18
Speaker 2: And I was even gonna do a show like the
10:21
Speaker 2: five Biggest Mistakes, but it's like, at this point, now
10:25
Speaker 2: you know enough times past that it's yeah, I mean,
10:28
Speaker 2: while I'd like to talk about it, it almost feels like,
10:31
Speaker 2: you know, at this point, it's not even worth it,
10:34
Speaker 2: you know, why do? It just just serves to get
10:36
Speaker 2: us bitter because things are going really good right now
10:39
Speaker 2: in my opinion. But twenty twenty five several mistakes, and
10:44
Speaker 2: in the off season. It started with the portal class, right,
10:47
Speaker 2: so we look at the portal class of twenty twenty
10:48
Speaker 2: four to the portal class of twenty twenty five was
10:51
Speaker 2: not good enough. They chose the wrong back in CJ.
10:54
Speaker 2: Donaldson for the same money, the same ranked backs. You
10:57
Speaker 2: could have got a Mott Hardy who was sensational. You
11:00
Speaker 2: could have got Kyron Lacy who was sensational. So they
11:03
Speaker 2: chose a guy that contributed right, not in the ways
11:06
Speaker 2: they wanted to. He did contribute, so it wasn't a
11:09
Speaker 2: total flame out, but that was the wrong back, So
11:13
Speaker 2: bad choice there. Defensive end. They get in the winter portal,
11:16
Speaker 2: Logan George he's at Washington now, couldn't play. Brought in
11:20
Speaker 2: a kicker Jason Corville who is now at Tulsa. He
11:23
Speaker 2: couldn't play. The class headliner Ethan on Janwa was a
11:27
Speaker 2: total disaster. And Phil Daniels that was a hit based
11:31
Speaker 2: on what you paid him and what you got out
11:33
Speaker 2: of him as a starter and a guy who going
11:35
Speaker 2: to come back next year, hopefully as a starter at guard,
11:38
Speaker 2: which I said after the Wisconsin game that Ian Moore
11:40
Speaker 2: is too good to take off the field and Phil
11:43
Speaker 2: Daniels should be moved to guard. Now it looks like
11:45
Speaker 2: we're going to get that. I think that move should
11:48
Speaker 2: have been made last year. But anyway, Max Claire was
11:50
Speaker 2: a hit, but not in the way we thought. And
11:53
Speaker 2: then in the spring portal you get bo Atkinson. Oh my,
11:57
Speaker 2: that did not turn out like we wanted. But there
12:01
Speaker 2: were definitely some bright spots, a whole lot of average
12:04
Speaker 2: and some total flameouts and Ultimately, as we look at
12:07
Speaker 2: that portal class, it's a loser. It's a loser because
12:10
Speaker 2: you've got to hit on the expensive guys. You got
12:13
Speaker 2: to you can't be negotiated with. You got to hit
12:16
Speaker 2: on those expensive guys in the portal. Now, then you
12:20
Speaker 2: get to your hires. Heading into twenty twenty five, Matt
12:22
Speaker 2: Patricia obviously a smashing success. I thought that Ryan Day
12:27
Speaker 2: somehow finding a way to improve the defense after losing
12:31
Speaker 2: what he lost both players and coordinator, was one of
12:36
Speaker 2: the more impressive things we've seen in the history of
12:39
Speaker 2: my life at Ohio State. I don't know how you
12:41
Speaker 2: do that, but somehow he did that. That defense got better.
12:46
Speaker 2: So smashing success with Patricia for sure. Tyler Bowen. Tyler
12:52
Speaker 2: Bowen he hires him after he has not coached. I mean,
12:55
Speaker 2: he has a coaching offensive line in ten years when
12:57
Speaker 2: he walks into Ohio State and he gets two very
13:02
Speaker 2: expensive assistants to work with him. And it was a mistake.
13:06
Speaker 2: It was a mistake. He wasn't ready for it. Ultimately,
13:08
Speaker 2: I'm not out on this guy, but it wasn't good
13:12
Speaker 2: enough and it's got to get a lot better. And
13:15
Speaker 2: then what really led me into this train of thought
13:19
Speaker 2: here as before we go and grade this twenty twenty
13:21
Speaker 2: six off season, the hiring of Brian Hartline, which was
13:25
Speaker 2: kind of what kicked this conversation off. Brian Hartline. That
13:31
Speaker 2: hiring right there, I think was the biggest mistake of
13:34
Speaker 2: the off season, and in twenty twenty three, he was
13:38
Speaker 2: technically the offensive coordinator, didn't call the plays. And I'm
13:42
Speaker 2: gonna admit right off the rip here when I call
13:44
Speaker 2: this the biggest mistake of the off season, that's with
13:47
Speaker 2: the benefit of hindsight. I supported the decision. I thought
13:50
Speaker 2: it would work. I'm an Ohio State fan. My inclination,
13:53
Speaker 2: my natural inclination is to root for the good and
13:56
Speaker 2: want the good to happen. And Brian Hartline is the
13:59
Speaker 2: guy that I've you know, respected for a long long time,
14:02
Speaker 2: like all of us, and I just looked at the
14:04
Speaker 2: guy and thought, hey, man, if he thinks he's ready
14:06
Speaker 2: and day thinks he's ready, I want to believe my
14:08
Speaker 2: head coach. I want to believe him. And I've never
14:11
Speaker 2: seen Brian Hartline try anything and fail at it, so
14:15
Speaker 2: I think it'll be a smashing success. And I was
14:17
Speaker 2: pretty dug in on that because I wanted to believe
14:20
Speaker 2: it right. I was definitely wrong. I was wrong. So
14:23
Speaker 2: with the benefit of hindsight, I could say I was wrong,
14:25
Speaker 2: and I can also say that was a huge mistake.
14:29
Speaker 2: And Tony gave a different point of view to me
14:32
Speaker 2: as we kind of talked back and forth. Now, his
14:35
Speaker 2: point of view was he deserved it, He deserved the promotion,
14:40
Speaker 2: which I definitely agreed at the time, and he added
14:45
Speaker 2: some other things to it. But here's what we knew.
14:47
Speaker 2: We already knew that Ryan Day believed he wanted to
14:51
Speaker 2: take a step out of the offense right. He wanted
14:53
Speaker 2: to immerse himself in his new role as the CEO,
14:57
Speaker 2: and he was successful with it, won a national championship
14:59
Speaker 2: with it. What he didn't want to do immediately after
15:02
Speaker 2: was hop right back in. And we knew that Heartline,
15:07
Speaker 2: for whatever reason, didn't work out in twenty twenty three.
15:09
Speaker 2: And some people will say Heartline totally flamed out because
15:13
Speaker 2: he didn't know the run game and Day I had
15:15
Speaker 2: to take it over. I think it had a little
15:17
Speaker 2: bit to do with Day not quite being ready to
15:19
Speaker 2: take it over, whether that be he not being ready himself,
15:23
Speaker 2: or maybe a little bit of mistrust with how it
15:26
Speaker 2: would go with heart, maybe a little bit of both.
15:29
Speaker 2: But in twenty twenty five, Day is in a situation
15:32
Speaker 2: where he has a loyal employee who definitely deserves a promotion.
15:36
Speaker 2: I agree with Tony, but the only spot for him
15:39
Speaker 2: to elevate within the organization is to the offensive coordinator.
15:43
Speaker 2: And the way we've seen football go in the last
15:47
Speaker 2: ten years at high level college football programs like Ohio State,
15:53
Speaker 2: coordinator positions are several rungs ahead of being a good
16:00
Speaker 2: position coach. It is a very specialized field now it
16:03
Speaker 2: makes a ton of money, and while you may be
16:07
Speaker 2: a really good position coach, you may be great at
16:11
Speaker 2: what you do. If you have never coordinated an offense
16:15
Speaker 2: before and never called plays before, it's like you're skipping
16:19
Speaker 2: a few rungs on the ladder to do that from
16:22
Speaker 2: position coach to coordinator at a place like Ohio State,
16:26
Speaker 2: because it's so specialized at this point, not to mention,
16:30
Speaker 2: it's a totally different skill set than the things that
16:32
Speaker 2: make you a good position coach. I think making a
16:35
Speaker 2: good position coach actually coordinates more closely with the skills
16:40
Speaker 2: you need to be a great head coach than it
16:41
Speaker 2: does to be a coordinator. And there are some guys
16:44
Speaker 2: who are position coaches who are just like you know,
16:46
Speaker 2: they got that mind for schematics and for sequencing plays.
16:52
Speaker 2: Not everybody has that. It's not a skill set that
16:55
Speaker 2: correlates with being a great position coach, which is about
16:57
Speaker 2: being a great leader, getting guys to follow you, dudes
17:00
Speaker 2: to do what you want him to do. Like, it's
17:02
Speaker 2: just a totally different deal. And while I sympathize with
17:06
Speaker 2: Bryan Day's situation in that spot, like what do you do?
17:10
Speaker 2: You don't want this guy to walk, You don't want
17:12
Speaker 2: him to be disgruntled. You want people to want to
17:15
Speaker 2: work for you. And that's a great way to build loyalty.
17:18
Speaker 2: And we've done this in the past for years and
17:20
Speaker 2: years and years. This is the progression position coach. You
17:25
Speaker 2: spend some time working at offensive coordinator as a cooc
17:29
Speaker 2: and then you take it over. It just doesn't seem
17:33
Speaker 2: to me that that that's the normal progression. It seems
17:35
Speaker 2: like you're skipping a few steps now, a few rungs
17:38
Speaker 2: on the ladder when it comes to Ohio State or
17:42
Speaker 2: any university like Ohio State, when you're literally going out
17:46
Speaker 2: like look at this chip Kelly Arthur Smith. Look at
17:49
Speaker 2: these two dudes' resumes and then look at Heartline. You
17:53
Speaker 2: know what I mean, Like you're skipping rungs on the
17:55
Speaker 2: ladder now at this point. So while he did deserve
17:57
Speaker 2: a promotion, I feel as though you're maxed out in
18:01
Speaker 2: the organization at this point. In his situation, you're just
18:06
Speaker 2: maxed out anything but a title. Right. You can give
18:09
Speaker 2: somebody a title, but as far as taking on another responsibility,
18:13
Speaker 2: it's just too far over your head to what the
18:16
Speaker 2: job demands. And the other thing I would say is
18:21
Speaker 2: if Ryan Day, say, for instance, Brian Hartline was the
18:25
Speaker 2: cornerbacks coach right and he had had ten years of
18:29
Speaker 2: success like he had at wide receiver as the quarterbacks coach,
18:34
Speaker 2: would Ryan Day have promoted him to the defensive coordinator
18:39
Speaker 2: in that position in twenty twenty five. No, he would
18:42
Speaker 2: not have. He would not have because he would not
18:46
Speaker 2: have been able to bail him out if he wasn't
18:49
Speaker 2: quite ready or if things weren't going right. He did
18:53
Speaker 2: it on offense because he knew he could, and certainly
18:56
Speaker 2: he had to spend a lot of time doing that
19:00
Speaker 2: and teaching. And he's admitted that in his interview that
19:04
Speaker 2: he just had, you know, the reason that he wanted
19:06
Speaker 2: to thought it was important to bring in Arthur Smith
19:09
Speaker 2: and not go with Keen Bailey, though he thought about
19:12
Speaker 2: it long and hard, as he felt he needed to
19:13
Speaker 2: take a step back out of that room. Well, he
19:17
Speaker 2: had already taken that step out with Chip, So he's
19:20
Speaker 2: telling us he had to take a step back in
19:21
Speaker 2: with heart and that is not what he wanted to do.
19:24
Speaker 2: That's not what we wanted him to do. So all
19:28
Speaker 2: in all, that's a mistake. And in the end, if
19:33
Speaker 2: you don't give Heartline that position, maybe he leaves after
19:36
Speaker 2: the end of the twenty twenty five season, which turns
19:39
Speaker 2: out is what happened anyway, only it happened at the
19:42
Speaker 2: worst possible time and threw a big wrench in everything.
19:46
Speaker 2: Total distraction, et cetera. All right, so you got all that,
19:52
Speaker 2: you got the portal acquisitions, crappy portal Tyler bowen Hier
19:58
Speaker 2: didn't pan out great yet we'll see what happens the
20:02
Speaker 2: Heartline higher and all of a sudden you're a team
20:07
Speaker 2: that gets bounced out of the first round of the playoffs.
20:10
Speaker 2: From twenty twenty four is perfect offseason to twenty twenty
20:13
Speaker 2: five's not so great offseason and we see the difference
20:17
Speaker 2: in the results. There's other things that contribute, but I
20:20
Speaker 2: think this plays a really big role, which makes me
20:25
Speaker 2: feel fantastic as we roll into twenty twenty six, because
20:30
Speaker 2: what have we seen this offseason. We could start off
20:33
Speaker 2: with the Portal Class Ohio State seventeen portal guys come
20:36
Speaker 2: in and they adopted a totally different strategy, a totally
20:41
Speaker 2: different strategy which I don't think was easy at all.
20:45
Speaker 2: For Ryan Day, I don't think it was easy at all,
20:49
Speaker 2: similar to bringing Julian Sayan in in twenty twenty four
20:53
Speaker 2: on top of Aaron Nolan after already telling Eron Nolan,
20:56
Speaker 2: you'll be the only quarterback in the class. Wasn't easy.
21:00
Speaker 2: Ruggle with it for days, but he knew it was
21:02
Speaker 2: the best thing for the team, so he did it anyway.
21:05
Speaker 2: But in the comments the other night, when asked about
21:07
Speaker 2: the Portal Class, right, he was asked about the Portal Class,
21:10
Speaker 2: and the first thing he said was a five minute
21:16
Speaker 2: diatribe on why they are a recruiting and developing program
21:22
Speaker 2: that will always be important recruiting and developing at a
21:25
Speaker 2: high level. Kids pouring into the program for years and
21:29
Speaker 2: years and years five minutes. He went on, Remember the
21:32
Speaker 2: question was about the portal class, and he's talking immediately
21:36
Speaker 2: about recruiting. When somebody asks you how that cheesecake was,
21:41
Speaker 2: and your immediate answer is, you know, it's very important
21:44
Speaker 2: to eat a healthy dinner and track your macros every day.
21:47
Speaker 2: And why that all matters to you? It tells me
21:49
Speaker 2: you didn't feel great about eating the cheesecake, or you're
21:52
Speaker 2: defensive about eating the cheesecake, one or the other. Nonetheless,
21:56
Speaker 2: whether Ryan Day is defensive about it or doesn't feel
21:58
Speaker 2: great about it, he knew that that was what the
22:01
Speaker 2: best thing was for the organization was to handle the
22:04
Speaker 2: portal class like they did, and I think they did great.
22:07
Speaker 2: I think they did a phenomenal job. And this is
22:10
Speaker 2: one of the things I love about Ryan Day, whether
22:13
Speaker 2: or not he feels good about it or not, he
22:15
Speaker 2: wants to win more than anything. He wants to win
22:18
Speaker 2: more than anything. And when he is convinced or someone
22:22
Speaker 2: that he trust convinces him that it's time for a change,
22:25
Speaker 2: you need to tweak the direction to win, he'll make
22:28
Speaker 2: that change immediately and he'll go all in. It's what
22:32
Speaker 2: he does and I love it. Now when it comes
22:35
Speaker 2: to the selection of these particular portal players, I think
22:39
Speaker 2: that a year from now we're going to be sitting
22:41
Speaker 2: here having this conversation talking about another smashing success of
22:46
Speaker 2: a portal class. That's my thought on it. Because what
22:49
Speaker 2: they did was take out as many possible variables as
22:52
Speaker 2: there could be, took out all the variables. They didn't
22:55
Speaker 2: just go with old guys, the majority of them in
22:59
Speaker 2: year four, five, six, or seven, the majority, vast majority
23:04
Speaker 2: of them. There's only a couple of them. One of
23:08
Speaker 2: them's Connor Hawkins with a couple more years of eligibility,
23:10
Speaker 2: The long snapper has a couple more years of eligibility,
23:13
Speaker 2: and Dominic Kelly the one single guy they took that
23:16
Speaker 2: was kind of like an extension of recruiting. That's the
23:18
Speaker 2: cornerback out of Georgia who just finished his freshman year.
23:21
Speaker 2: All the rest of these guys are fourth, fifths, six,
23:23
Speaker 2: seventh year guys. So you take those variables out. You've
23:26
Speaker 2: seen a ton of film on them. Not just that,
23:30
Speaker 2: but they go after guys who have played at the
23:32
Speaker 2: very highest level. They don't want more Logan George's. They
23:35
Speaker 2: go to the SEC and get three dudes from Alabama,
23:38
Speaker 2: Georgia Florida LSU out of the ACC, Duke Florida State,
23:43
Speaker 2: out of the Big ten, Marylyn, Wisconsin, Northwestern Big twelve,
23:46
Speaker 2: UCF Baylor. Only two guys didn't come from the Power four,
23:51
Speaker 2: and that's McEwan out of UTSA, the wide receiver and
23:55
Speaker 2: the tight end from OU, who is such a spitting
23:59
Speaker 2: image of Wilkes Eric Down to come and write from
24:01
Speaker 2: OU that it just looks like a perfect fit. Then
24:04
Speaker 2: we get to the hires. When we look at these hires,
24:11
Speaker 2: Cortes Hankton just coached wide receivers for the last ten
24:15
Speaker 2: years at Vanderbilt Georgia LSU. Not only that, he was
24:21
Speaker 2: also the cooc When we look at Tyler Bowen, Tyler
24:26
Speaker 2: Bowen hadn't coached offensive line in a decade. So you
24:31
Speaker 2: also take the variables out with your coaching higher with
24:33
Speaker 2: Cortes Hankton, this guy who's been doing this right now,
24:37
Speaker 2: I think that was intentional. Arthur Smith just spent the
24:41
Speaker 2: last seven years straight as either a head coach or
24:45
Speaker 2: offensive coordinator in the NFL. Brian Hartline never called plays
24:51
Speaker 2: and had a shaky start in twenty twenty three as
24:54
Speaker 2: the OC I mean, when we compare those hires, it's
24:58
Speaker 2: really not comparable. So by the way, when we look
25:04
Speaker 2: at Arthur smith Man, we'll talk we'll get back into that.
25:07
Speaker 2: We'll get into I want to talk about what Day
25:09
Speaker 2: said about some of the players the other night. But anyway,
25:16
Speaker 2: then Ryan Day goes in and in an attempt to
25:18
Speaker 2: fix one of the biggest issues that has plagued his
25:20
Speaker 2: entire tenure at Ohio State Special Teams. A lot of
25:24
Speaker 2: it his own fault because he didn't care. He recognizes
25:28
Speaker 2: now that he has to care. And it is fantastic
25:33
Speaker 2: because he now wants to do this. Go get a
25:36
Speaker 2: special Teams coach who's a guy that is a really
25:39
Speaker 2: good special teams coach, and he has the ability to
25:42
Speaker 2: do this without wasting one of his accountable coaches now
25:45
Speaker 2: as the rule change. Now this is the third season
25:47
Speaker 2: since the rule change where you can have as many
25:49
Speaker 2: coaches as you want. Remember in the past, he had
25:53
Speaker 2: to waste accountable coach on Parker Fleming. So he goes
25:58
Speaker 2: out and he gets Robbie Disher, steals him from Brett Beelman.
26:01
Speaker 2: Now Robbie Disher important to note, wasn't just the special
26:04
Speaker 2: teams coach at Illinois, Robbie Disher was also coaching the
26:08
Speaker 2: tight ends, which means Robbie Disher drops down in title
26:12
Speaker 2: to leave Illinois and come to Ohio State. Arthur Smith
26:17
Speaker 2: dropped down from the NFL to come to Ohio State.
26:21
Speaker 2: Cortes Hankton was the wide receivers coach and co offensive
26:25
Speaker 2: coordinator at LSU. He loses that co oc comes to
26:29
Speaker 2: Ohio State as just the wide receivers coach. All three
26:33
Speaker 2: of these dudes dropped down to come to Ohio State.
26:37
Speaker 2: Robbie Disher the last three years at Illinois. In his
26:40
Speaker 2: first year, PFF ranked their special teams units seventh in
26:44
Speaker 2: the nation S and P plus his best unit was sixteenth.
26:49
Speaker 2: His punter one of the best in the nation. In
26:51
Speaker 2: twenty four and twenty five, we tried to get his kicker,
26:54
Speaker 2: David Alano, one of the best in the country. Long
26:57
Speaker 2: snapper all big ten back to back. I mean it
27:00
Speaker 2: just goes on and on. His kicker in twenty twenty
27:02
Speaker 2: three was all big ten. His return man Isaiah Williams
27:06
Speaker 2: was all big ten. This dude had three straight seasons
27:09
Speaker 2: with all big ten kickers and all big ten returnment
27:12
Speaker 2: the entire time He was there, But it's the block
27:15
Speaker 2: punts that I can't get over. Man, this guy's had
27:17
Speaker 2: two seasons where his units have blocked six or seven punts.
27:24
Speaker 2: That's insane. It's just insane, six or seven kicks and
27:28
Speaker 2: punts combined. It's just driven me nuts. Not because I'm
27:33
Speaker 2: some special teams junkie. In fact, coaches who consistently and
27:39
Speaker 2: this happened more when I was young, but they would
27:41
Speaker 2: just beat it home and just talk about it non
27:43
Speaker 2: so I'd be like, Okay, shut up, we get it.
27:46
Speaker 2: And then you get a coach who does not care
27:48
Speaker 2: about it, and boy does it burn you up because
27:53
Speaker 2: there's just no excuse when ninety nine percent of the
27:55
Speaker 2: time your team walks on the field and you're the
27:59
Speaker 2: team that does not get the edge and doesn't get
28:01
Speaker 2: those hidden yards and special teams because the coach doesn't care,
28:04
Speaker 2: doesn't care, don't care. Give me the ball, fair catch,
28:10
Speaker 2: give me the ball, kick back, it doesn't matter. Just
28:13
Speaker 2: give my offense the ball. It's all he's ever cared about.
28:17
Speaker 2: But he understands that he cannot only care about that
28:21
Speaker 2: anymore because he's changed the way he plays offense and
28:24
Speaker 2: the way he wants to play offense now is a
28:26
Speaker 2: way that requires good special teams. In Ohio, State's special
28:29
Speaker 2: teams units are kind of rocking in the eighty two
28:32
Speaker 2: to eighty five range, you know, just a little below
28:36
Speaker 2: the median line in college football, and that shouldn't happen,
28:41
Speaker 2: not with the talent you have, and it's just drived
28:44
Speaker 2: a lot of people mad. They've tried a lot of
28:46
Speaker 2: different ways to fix it. You make silly decisions, just
28:51
Speaker 2: super safe decisions like Brandon Innis returning fourteen of twenty
28:56
Speaker 2: four punts last year. Holds onto the job even after
28:59
Speaker 2: fun at Washington. You know, you get a special teams
29:03
Speaker 2: coach that comes in and actually cares, like cares about returns.
29:10
Speaker 2: Brandon Innis is not returning punts. He doesn't got the
29:14
Speaker 2: jews for it. Somebody's getting back there that's got some jews.
29:18
Speaker 2: And Dan knows that he has to do this, He
29:20
Speaker 2: has to lean into this. And I love the guy
29:23
Speaker 2: that he brought in, Love Disher. Now, efficiency football, quality,
29:30
Speaker 2: special teams things are lining up. Arthur Smith as the
29:35
Speaker 2: offensive coordinator, I think is perfect for what Ryan Day
29:39
Speaker 2: wants to do and the way he is envisioning the
29:41
Speaker 2: offense moving forward. I don't personally like the direction. In fact,
29:45
Speaker 2: I can't stand it. However, I think it can win
29:48
Speaker 2: a national championship if they're excellent at it, and that's
29:51
Speaker 2: all that really matters. I just don't like the style
29:53
Speaker 2: of football. I can't stand this slow football. I think
29:57
Speaker 2: you're not taking advantage of your athletic wins and your
30:00
Speaker 2: recruiting wins when you are rolling with a bunch of
30:03
Speaker 2: heavy personnel. By the way, the heavy personnel that you
30:06
Speaker 2: brought in it isn't that great. It just doesn't stack up.
30:10
Speaker 2: So I don't like it, but they can win with it.
30:15
Speaker 2: I did a show the other day, you can check
30:17
Speaker 2: it out over on juck on Books, playing Arthur Smith
30:21
Speaker 2: talking about kind of the tenets of his offense and
30:24
Speaker 2: he breaks down some of his film talks about his
30:27
Speaker 2: overall philosophies, and the dude got me fired up. Man,
30:31
Speaker 2: I really really like him. Not only do I like him,
30:34
Speaker 2: do I like him? I think that he's also going
30:36
Speaker 2: to bring in some excellent wide receiver blocking, which is
30:41
Speaker 2: something that totally has sucked forever. We had one good
30:45
Speaker 2: year Chips year twenty twenty four, where the wide receiver
30:49
Speaker 2: blocking was on point and here comes Arthur's going to
30:52
Speaker 2: fix that too. So this offseason you bring in three
30:58
Speaker 2: coaches Robbie, Arthur Smith, Robbie and Cortez Hankton, all of
31:05
Speaker 2: whom are totally qualified or overly qualified. Remember each of
31:10
Speaker 2: them drop down a title to come to Ohio State
31:14
Speaker 2: to come to work for Ryan d A in the
31:18
Speaker 2: portal class, I think will be a smashing success. So
31:23
Speaker 2: my grade for this off season it's it's an absolute A.
31:27
Speaker 2: It's an absolute A. And you know they can make
31:30
Speaker 2: fun of us again for hang the banner, hanging the
31:33
Speaker 2: off season banner. The last time Ola State won the
31:37
Speaker 2: off season banner, they won the national championship. Now the
31:41
Speaker 2: class when you combine the recruiting class and the transfer
31:45
Speaker 2: portal class currently and actually this is probably the way
31:48
Speaker 2: it's gonna end number two in the country now was
31:50
Speaker 2: number three. It's now up to number two in the country.
31:53
Speaker 2: So it's not just you know, me hanging the banner.
31:58
Speaker 2: It's right there, verifiable by folks that you know, break
32:02
Speaker 2: down such stuff. So absolutely an A. I really love
32:06
Speaker 2: the hires, I really love the guys they brought in.
32:09
Speaker 2: I love the philosophy. I love that they told a
32:12
Speaker 2: lot of guys that, you know, it's I hate the
32:15
Speaker 2: thought of it. But dudes that were eating up money
32:18
Speaker 2: that they knew they weren't going to start, and guys
32:21
Speaker 2: that wanted more money and they weren't positive they were
32:23
Speaker 2: going to be great starters. It's time to move on
32:27
Speaker 2: because you can get caught up in you know, doing
32:30
Speaker 2: what you think is always best for the morale, et cetera.
32:36
Speaker 2: And let's keep in mind these guys left. You got
32:42
Speaker 2: guys in seventeen versus eleven portal guys in from last
32:48
Speaker 2: year to this year. And I got a lot of
32:51
Speaker 2: questions or comments like this is going to kill the brotherhood,
32:54
Speaker 2: and I'm just like, listen, the guys that left left
32:58
Speaker 2: because they wanted to be some or else more, whatever
33:01
Speaker 2: the reasons are, they wanted to be somewhere else more.
33:03
Speaker 2: And the guys that came in wanted to come in
33:06
Speaker 2: and be part of that brotherhood for whatever reasons. And
33:09
Speaker 2: that's the bottom line. So the dudes that are here
33:12
Speaker 2: want to be here more. So I don't think it's
33:16
Speaker 2: gonna hurt the brotherhood at all. Now, they did talk about,
33:18
Speaker 2: you know, you got to rebuild from scratch, which I
33:22
Speaker 2: don't know that that. Well, let's see, you've got what
33:24
Speaker 2: seventeen transfer portal guys. Currently, twenty eight of the twenty
33:28
Speaker 2: nine freshmen have come in for spring, so you know
33:34
Speaker 2: it's less than half your dudes. You got plenty of
33:36
Speaker 2: guys that can walk these guys through what we do.
33:40
Speaker 2: So fantastic. Also, twenty four to seven completed their their
33:47
Speaker 2: final grades, and Sam Greer, our offensive tackle out of
33:51
Speaker 2: a hobe in Here down the Street, finishes at two
33:53
Speaker 2: four seven as the number thirty five overall player in
33:56
Speaker 2: the country, just three spots out of five star. Hurts me,
34:01
Speaker 2: hurts me to my heart. But congratulations to my dude,
34:04
Speaker 2: big Sam. That's a that's an awesome ranking. And I
34:09
Speaker 2: really wanted him to get that fifth star from somewhere.
34:12
Speaker 2: That'll be the last. That was the last opportunity to
34:14
Speaker 2: get it, and he did not end up getting it
34:17
Speaker 2: at Rivals or ESPN or either of the composites. And
34:21
Speaker 2: now at two four seven, so a little bummed out,
34:24
Speaker 2: but thirty five, damn good man, damn good and a
34:28
Speaker 2: great job on Tyler Bowen for that. And Max Riley,
34:31
Speaker 2: who finishes as the number nine offensive guard interior offensive
34:37
Speaker 2: lineman in the country. And that was a good one too.
34:43
Speaker 2: Now let's please all like the show. I'm gonna hit
34:47
Speaker 2: on a couple of your questions and then I want
34:48
Speaker 2: to talk a little bit about what Day had to say.
34:50
Speaker 2: But you guys had a couple of comments that I
34:52
Speaker 2: started when I was going on there. What team will
34:56
Speaker 2: we face this year that'll give us the toughest battle? Ooh, man,
35:02
Speaker 2: I'm gonna go with Texas. I'm gonna go with Texas.
35:05
Speaker 2: Their portal class is just ridiculous. Man. They brought in
35:09
Speaker 2: some really great talent. Arts was playing really good to
35:12
Speaker 2: end the season, and we're gonna be playing down there
35:15
Speaker 2: at night and they've lost to us two times in
35:20
Speaker 2: a row. And you want to talk about a fired
35:21
Speaker 2: up group, Listen, it's very possible Ohio State could just
35:25
Speaker 2: have their number and now it could be in their head.
35:29
Speaker 2: I think there's a chance, you know, you still win
35:30
Speaker 2: the game, but it's the only game that Ohio State
35:33
Speaker 2: is going to be the underdog. I think. I don't
35:36
Speaker 2: think they're going to be the underdog against Indiana. We'll see,
35:39
Speaker 2: could be, but not if you win that game. But
35:44
Speaker 2: I'm gonna go with that one. What do you guys
35:46
Speaker 2: think Dug says, I hope Arthur Smith can help the
35:50
Speaker 2: offensive line. I think Arthur Smith will absolutely help the
35:54
Speaker 2: offensive line man, and I think that him and Tyler
35:58
Speaker 2: Boehm are gonna get along great. These are two real meatheads,
36:01
Speaker 2: I mean real meatheads. They like the same thing. They're
36:04
Speaker 2: both tight end and offensive line coaches and offensive coordinators.
36:08
Speaker 2: They literally held the same three possession positions both former
36:13
Speaker 2: college offensive linemen. I mean, they're just two p's in
36:16
Speaker 2: a pod. So they're gonna get along great. The only
36:20
Speaker 2: thing they don't share is philosophically. Bowen prefers more gap
36:27
Speaker 2: scheme and Arthur Smith real big into zone, so you
36:33
Speaker 2: know they'll have to work work that out there. Sage
36:36
Speaker 2: says Turbo and legend for returners abs of flipping lootely,
36:40
Speaker 2: absolutely no doubt about it. Man, Put them young dudes
36:43
Speaker 2: back there, trust them to do their job. And if
36:47
Speaker 2: you weren't going to bench Brandon Innis for fumbling against
36:53
Speaker 2: Washington and getting you only three possessions in the first half,
36:58
Speaker 2: which don't get me star on why this is not
37:01
Speaker 2: a good idea to play so a few possessions because
37:04
Speaker 2: one little fumble like that and all of a sudden,
37:06
Speaker 2: you've got a three possession half. But if you're not
37:09
Speaker 2: going to pull him, then you got to let the
37:11
Speaker 2: kids grow up to Dave. Are you live on other platforms? Dave,
37:16
Speaker 2: We're on YouTube, Facebook X. I can't figure out the
37:22
Speaker 2: Instagram without having to like set it up every single
37:25
Speaker 2: time on its own. But yes, yes, in watching on
37:31
Speaker 2: Oh I'm sorry, I'm not on YouTube tonight. I'm on
37:33
Speaker 2: YouTube when I'm on my I'm not on Facebook tonight.
37:38
Speaker 2: That's what I'm on. Juck on Bucks. But Instagram sometimes,
37:46
Speaker 2: I have tried in the past, and it's a real pain.
37:50
Speaker 2: Stream Yard makes it a lot easier for you to
37:53
Speaker 2: do it to multi platforms, but it can still be
37:55
Speaker 2: a pain in the ass, pain in the butt. Sorry,
37:59
Speaker 2: got your says pull question, Assuming you were you were qualified,
38:03
Speaker 2: would you rather be an offensive coordinator or defensive coordinator
38:07
Speaker 2: in college or the NFL. I think that I would
38:13
Speaker 2: rather be an offensive coordinator or defensive coordinator in college
38:17
Speaker 2: because in college you've got talent advantages that you don't
38:23
Speaker 2: usually have in the NFL, where the talent is mostly
38:26
Speaker 2: even which is I mean, it's just I guess it
38:30
Speaker 2: depends what kind of program you're at. But there's also
38:33
Speaker 2: so much more you can do in college, right, Like,
38:36
Speaker 2: there's so much more you can do to be successful.
38:38
Speaker 2: You can pick one of you know, five different ways
38:42
Speaker 2: to play offense in college and go win. In the NFL,
38:49
Speaker 2: it's very trendy, which we are seeing these trends trickle
38:52
Speaker 2: down to college football, which we are seeing trickle to
38:55
Speaker 2: Ohio State football, which I cannot stand because you don't
38:59
Speaker 2: need to do that. In college football. You don't need
39:02
Speaker 2: to follow trends. You can do whatever you want to do.
39:05
Speaker 2: You can do what suits your personnel the best. And
39:10
Speaker 2: you know that's why I hate it. That's why, and
39:13
Speaker 2: it's why I hate especially hearing this is where the
39:16
Speaker 2: NFL is going. As if that means a fiditally doodle
39:20
Speaker 2: to college football, it means absolutely nothing, nothing at all.
39:25
Speaker 2: I'd also like to see if I was an offensive coordinator, man,
39:29
Speaker 2: there is no chance that I would ever ever recruit
39:35
Speaker 2: or play a quarterback and I did not have him
39:38
Speaker 2: run the ball at all. That would never happen. I
39:40
Speaker 2: think you are giving up such a huge element and
39:44
Speaker 2: making it so much easier on the defense when you
39:46
Speaker 2: have no run threat from the quarterback. At all. I
39:50
Speaker 2: wouldn't even consider it, not for a second. But that's me.
39:56
Speaker 2: Anyhows Ryan Day talks the other day on his radio
39:59
Speaker 2: show on Friday, I want to go through a few things,
40:02
Speaker 2: he had to say as he ran through the position group,
40:04
Speaker 2: starting on the defense with the defensive line, said, he
40:09
Speaker 2: feels again his really he's got a really good group
40:11
Speaker 2: with Kenyata bo Atkinson, Zion Grady now bo Atkinson he
40:16
Speaker 2: mentioned him second, there's no chance that dude is the
40:19
Speaker 2: number two Zion Grady, ePIE Satani Lay. My hope is
40:24
Speaker 2: both take him over. But I know that Cary will
40:28
Speaker 2: when Cary comes in. Did not bring up Cary on
40:31
Speaker 2: the interior. He said, Will Smith Junior and Edrick Houston
40:35
Speaker 2: got to step up for us at d T and
40:37
Speaker 2: they absolutely do. Much of the season success on defense
40:41
Speaker 2: is going to depend on those two man, really it is.
40:44
Speaker 2: And both of them guys who have underperformed to five
40:48
Speaker 2: star dudes who have not played up to their not
40:51
Speaker 2: played up to what they should have been. What they
40:54
Speaker 2: they got. You know, a couple of years for baby Huey,
40:58
Speaker 2: but James Smith on his last year here been inconsistent
41:02
Speaker 2: ton of penalties. We shall see man, but I'm excited.
41:07
Speaker 2: He's certainly got He's got the juice. He's been playing
41:11
Speaker 2: for Kaitlin de Boor and Kane Womack. A crappy defensive coordinator,
41:16
Speaker 2: we'll see. Same with kway Rusau. You know, certainly not
41:19
Speaker 2: lived up to his potential, which Ryan Day said he
41:22
Speaker 2: brings us a ton of pass rush ability, versatility, being
41:25
Speaker 2: able to play defensive end and linebacker. But this is
41:31
Speaker 2: a dude with just two sacks in his career. So
41:34
Speaker 2: these are guys that absolutely got to got to get
41:37
Speaker 2: better at linebacker. He was so impressed with Christian Aliegro
41:42
Speaker 2: when Ohio State played Wisconsin and the dude came back
41:45
Speaker 2: with the broken arm. I was just talking to my
41:47
Speaker 2: brother the other day and he was like, I didn't
41:49
Speaker 2: even realize that he was that dude. Yeah, he was
41:51
Speaker 2: that dude. So that's pretty cool. Cornerback Cam Calhoun, who
41:56
Speaker 2: played at Winton Woods with your main But he was
41:59
Speaker 2: really excited to bring up Georgia transfer Dominic Kelly, who
42:03
Speaker 2: can cover at a high level, very intelligent player with
42:05
Speaker 2: three years of eligibility left. And again the only dude
42:09
Speaker 2: like that. That is kind of the extension of recruiting
42:11
Speaker 2: that you needed because along with Jay Timmins and Jordan Thomas,
42:16
Speaker 2: who he said are off to a good start, you
42:18
Speaker 2: really wanted a third cornerback in this class or the
42:22
Speaker 2: class of twenty twenty five to go with Jordan Woods
42:25
Speaker 2: and Devin Sanchez. And now you got him. You got
42:27
Speaker 2: Dominic Kelly, so boom All's well that ends well. You
42:31
Speaker 2: get yourself your dude, and cornerback room looking a lot
42:35
Speaker 2: better with him at safety, he said. Terry mooris dynamite,
42:39
Speaker 2: great range. I think Terry Moore is my favorite player
42:42
Speaker 2: in this portal class, and I think he's going to
42:44
Speaker 2: be an All American or a little junior. A lot
42:47
Speaker 2: of versatility, nickel safety specials, he said. Connor Hawkins came
42:52
Speaker 2: highly recommended from those who live in the kicking world,
42:54
Speaker 2: which sounds fantastic, and he thinks he's got the best
42:58
Speaker 2: long staffer in the country. And Alton Riggs from UCF
43:02
Speaker 2: said Julian saying needs a huge offseason and he's the
43:06
Speaker 2: best quarterback in the country. Tavi in Saint Clair is
43:09
Speaker 2: someone who's really got to step up for us quarterback
43:13
Speaker 2: Justin Martin. That's fifth year dude out of Maryland big kid.
43:17
Speaker 2: He said, he's an interesting guy, really good athlete. He
43:21
Speaker 2: knows we got depth in that room. He understands his position.
43:23
Speaker 2: But at the same time, he's not going to take
43:25
Speaker 2: a back seat to anybody. And then he broke the
43:28
Speaker 2: news that bo and Isaiah both going to miss spring,
43:30
Speaker 2: Isaiah his second spring in a row, undergoing shoulder surgeries.
43:36
Speaker 2: I've neither of them are serious, but that puts you
43:40
Speaker 2: in the situation where you know, you bring in Jacoby
43:44
Speaker 2: Jackson from Florida, We're gonna see a lot of him.
43:47
Speaker 2: We're also going to see a lot of Turbo. Turbo
43:49
Speaker 2: was a top one hundred back coming out of high school.
43:52
Speaker 2: We didn't really hear the word boo from Turbo all
43:55
Speaker 2: last year. Now we get to see Turbo. We get
43:58
Speaker 2: to see favor of Key as a tree freshman. We
44:00
Speaker 2: didn't get to see him at all last year. He
44:03
Speaker 2: was injured for almost his entire senior year. And then
44:06
Speaker 2: we get to see how they use Legend, who he
44:09
Speaker 2: called a poor man's Tyreek Hill. I could not believe
44:11
Speaker 2: he said that, because I don't Legend loves the Tyreek
44:16
Speaker 2: Hill thing. But but poor Man's I don't know that
44:20
Speaker 2: that needed to be I don't know if he could
44:22
Speaker 2: reword that. I think he would. I think he would.
44:24
Speaker 2: They probably said that behind closed doors, and then that
44:26
Speaker 2: just kind of slipped out. Kyle Parker wide receiver Devin
44:32
Speaker 2: McEwan a couple of dudes in their third and fourth year.
44:36
Speaker 2: He said, we wanted to get older at Z, and
44:38
Speaker 2: they certainly did. He talked about McEwen and some of
44:41
Speaker 2: the wild plays he made against Texas A and M
44:44
Speaker 2: and Parker had some real wild plays too. I really
44:47
Speaker 2: like these guys. I think that McEwan's going to be
44:50
Speaker 2: a stud at Z. I think Parker is going to
44:52
Speaker 2: end up moving into the slot if they ever played
44:55
Speaker 2: the slot, and and take some of the as far
45:01
Speaker 2: as BI he said, Brandon Innis needs to take the
45:04
Speaker 2: next step for us, and he knows that, and I'm
45:08
Speaker 2: just I don't know how much more of a step
45:10
Speaker 2: he can take. Plays his butt off hard as he can.
45:14
Speaker 2: I think there are some physical limitations that he has
45:18
Speaker 2: that don't suit that playing that position at a super
45:22
Speaker 2: high level not the way we are used to seeing
45:25
Speaker 2: in Ohio state slot play that position, and that's, you know, unfortunate.
45:29
Speaker 2: Love the guy, but it is what it is. As
45:31
Speaker 2: far as the second year guys, he said, Philip Bell
45:33
Speaker 2: has shown a lot of promise and thinks that's somebody
45:36
Speaker 2: who can help us. And man, I'm big on Phil Bell,
45:39
Speaker 2: big on Phil Bell. Dez Jones also a slot receiver
45:44
Speaker 2: who the way we're going will never see the field.
45:48
Speaker 2: But he said he played Malachai Tony Roll on the
45:50
Speaker 2: scout team and looks the best he has since coming
45:54
Speaker 2: off his injury. David Adolph, big former walk on wide receiver,
45:58
Speaker 2: is back again for another year, and Chris Henry Junior,
46:01
Speaker 2: Jaquid and Gil for both really talented. Brock Boyd going
46:04
Speaker 2: to come in here and compete his tailoff. No mention
46:07
Speaker 2: of Jayden. Ricketts so brought up three wide receivers on
46:12
Speaker 2: his own, and we've talked about Art Smith and that
46:16
Speaker 2: Art is not a three wide receiver guy. Just why
46:18
Speaker 2: we're not going to see a ton of the slot receiver.
46:23
Speaker 2: But he said, you know, when you play with three
46:25
Speaker 2: wide receivers in a game, it's just it's harder and
46:27
Speaker 2: harder to do. Remember, we used to have five first
46:30
Speaker 2: round picks and now you've got to decide where to
46:33
Speaker 2: invest your resources. So essentially playing like, yeah, well, you know,
46:36
Speaker 2: saying we want to play three wide receivers, but we
46:38
Speaker 2: just don't have as many good wide receivers as we
46:40
Speaker 2: used to. So he said, we're going to mix it
46:43
Speaker 2: in as much as we can, but also mix in
46:46
Speaker 2: the tight ends. So yeah, not going to see as
46:51
Speaker 2: much of that, that's for sure, and just kind of
46:53
Speaker 2: reinforced that we are, you know, doubling down on this
46:57
Speaker 2: tight end the tight end bananza. That is what the
47:01
Speaker 2: Ohio state offense is now, and we're going to see
47:04
Speaker 2: a lot of it. The good news about that, I
47:07
Speaker 2: don't think they're garbage tight ends. And he talked about
47:10
Speaker 2: the tight ends and the guy I really like. I
47:12
Speaker 2: didn't pay much attention to these two transfer portal tight
47:15
Speaker 2: ends when they came in because I didn't think we
47:19
Speaker 2: were going to see this tight end thing again. But
47:22
Speaker 2: the hiring of Art Smith, the way he's been talking,
47:26
Speaker 2: since I've studied more Art Smith, it's absolutely here to
47:30
Speaker 2: stay and might even be it'll be just as much
47:33
Speaker 2: as last year. In my opinion, Hunter Welsing is an
47:36
Speaker 2: absolute dude. That's the seventh year guy out of Northwestern.
47:40
Speaker 2: I think this guy is going to be a real revelation.
47:43
Speaker 2: I actually think because he can block better than Max
47:46
Speaker 2: Clair in totality, I think he might just be just
47:52
Speaker 2: as good for the team as Max Clair was. And
47:55
Speaker 2: that is really exciting for some dude from Northwestern you
47:59
Speaker 2: just happen to sign on the cheap. He tore up Michigan,
48:02
Speaker 2: had a really good game against Michigan. Mason Williams said
48:06
Speaker 2: he's got the right mentality and a toughness to him,
48:08
Speaker 2: and he certainly does. That's a kid for Mogador. They're
48:10
Speaker 2: tough in Magador. But he's a lot like Kasmeric said
48:15
Speaker 2: Nate Roberts is as talented a young tight end as
48:18
Speaker 2: we've had in a while, and there's no doubt about that.
48:20
Speaker 2: Brody Lennon Max LeBlanc need to prove they can play.
48:25
Speaker 2: And that was like, yeah, man, you need to prove
48:29
Speaker 2: you can play or get the hell out, which I loved.
48:32
Speaker 2: Then he said Christian Bennett Bennett Christian is a tremendous
48:35
Speaker 2: leader for us, So that's good. I'm glad he's a
48:38
Speaker 2: tremendous leader. The singular lowest graded player on the entire
48:44
Speaker 2: team last year. If he does not improve, I really
48:49
Speaker 2: hope he's not a guy who plays another two hundred
48:50
Speaker 2: and fifty snaps like he did last year, because there
48:53
Speaker 2: was a you know, liability, a liability a lot of
48:57
Speaker 2: the time out there offensive line, and obviously brought in
49:01
Speaker 2: no transfer portal players on the offensive line. That was
49:04
Speaker 2: a big discussion point continues to be. They said that,
49:09
Speaker 2: you know, you had to retain the guys you had,
49:11
Speaker 2: and it really wasn't even on the board, you know,
49:15
Speaker 2: for them to go out and bring in any offensive line.
49:18
Speaker 2: Of course, you did bring in the kid from Dartmouth,
49:19
Speaker 2: but that's just you know, I think he is competing
49:22
Speaker 2: for your number four tackle spot with Carter Low and
49:26
Speaker 2: that's not really what anybody wanted to see. But you
49:30
Speaker 2: retained all of your offensive linemen and that's great. They
49:35
Speaker 2: really wanted to make a point of kind of reinforcing
49:38
Speaker 2: to the fan base that we don't quite factor in
49:43
Speaker 2: as much how difficult it is to retain the roster,
49:47
Speaker 2: how much these guys are worth. Everybody wants them, and
49:51
Speaker 2: you know, in the ultimate twist of irony, they are
49:53
Speaker 2: worth more. They're worth more. Ohio State is bidding against
49:56
Speaker 2: Ohio State's own success because the guys are worth more,
50:00
Speaker 2: because they've come to Ohio State and been developed by
50:04
Speaker 2: Ohio State. So it's pretty interesting that that is the
50:07
Speaker 2: situation they find themselves in, but it is the situation
50:10
Speaker 2: that they find themselves in. So anyway, I thought it
50:16
Speaker 2: was a really insightful interview. As Ethan lets us know
50:22
Speaker 2: here that our new guy from Dartmouth seven hundred snaps
50:26
Speaker 2: at Dartmouth only one sack, which is fantastic. Chroma says,
50:33
Speaker 2: I'm no expert when it comes to OL, but I
50:35
Speaker 2: know the good ones pick up short yardage. That's a
50:38
Speaker 2: darn fact. Buddy Geigert worries a little bit about quarterback
50:43
Speaker 2: of saying gets hurt being so slight a frame. I
50:46
Speaker 2: think Tavian will take several games to get up to speed.
50:48
Speaker 2: I was talking about this the other day, Geiger I'm
50:51
Speaker 2: with you. I actually think in a pickle in a pinch,
50:55
Speaker 2: let's say, if it's game like four or five, it's
50:58
Speaker 2: it's Justin Martin who's coming in off the bench, and
51:03
Speaker 2: they're going to go hea a run game, utilize him
51:07
Speaker 2: in the run game, and keep it minimal like that.
51:11
Speaker 2: But I think it's probably him. Just just my guess
51:15
Speaker 2: at this point, you know, Tavian, I believe in him
51:20
Speaker 2: for sure, but you know it's still a ways off.
51:25
Speaker 2: You know, he's like this wouldn't if this was a
51:27
Speaker 2: year where he needed to step into it, like Julian
51:29
Speaker 2: needed to step in here two, I'd be really uneasy.
51:33
Speaker 2: I'd be really uneasy. Though at least he does have
51:35
Speaker 2: the athleticism to go out and use his legs. But anyway,
51:44
Speaker 2: someone just brainwashed us into being obsessed with the O line.
51:46
Speaker 2: Don't get me wrong, they need to get better. But
51:49
Speaker 2: the same defense as we struggle with. I saw the
51:51
Speaker 2: best O line struggle with. And that's a fact, Todd,
51:54
Speaker 2: that is an absolute fact. I'll also say that the
51:57
Speaker 2: game plan didn't do any thing to assist those guys,
52:02
Speaker 2: that's for sure. Doug hoping Terry Moore is a completely
52:08
Speaker 2: healthy Thorpe candidate. He's got the skills, got the skills,
52:11
Speaker 2: I really hope, you know, and we'll be able to
52:14
Speaker 2: know when we see when we see him out there early,
52:17
Speaker 2: see him move, if he's if he's got the same
52:19
Speaker 2: juice as he used to. Geiger says Chuck last year
52:28
Speaker 2: was your biggest concern for position group of the offensive line?
52:32
Speaker 2: What is your biggest group concern this year, I am
52:38
Speaker 2: actually working on an episode where I'm gonna go over
52:41
Speaker 2: that confidence level in each in each unit. But last
52:50
Speaker 2: year I was fairly confident in the offensive line. I
52:56
Speaker 2: was a little more concern about the defensive line, primarily
53:01
Speaker 2: because I wasn't sure what to expect out of bo Atkinson,
53:06
Speaker 2: and I wasn't convinced that Cayden Curry was a guy
53:09
Speaker 2: who could handle thirty to fifty snaps a game boy.
53:14
Speaker 2: Was I wrong about that? You know, we'd seen Kayden Curry,
53:18
Speaker 2: but we'd seen him in short spurts. He's a little undersized. Well,
53:21
Speaker 2: I loved him as a player, mad dog. I just
53:25
Speaker 2: didn't know, if you know, he's a little undersized. I
53:28
Speaker 2: didn't know if he could handle that fifty to sixty
53:32
Speaker 2: snap load a game boy. He sure could. I had
53:35
Speaker 2: no reason to worry about that, So I actually thought
53:37
Speaker 2: that we might see kind of a split between him
53:39
Speaker 2: and bo Atkinson, and I wasn't sure what to expect
53:41
Speaker 2: out of Atkinson. Thankfully, you didn't need to use Atkinson.
53:44
Speaker 2: He gets passed by Zion Grady by the end of
53:45
Speaker 2: the year because he was not that guy. Totally trusted Kmak,
53:51
Speaker 2: but Edric I was a little bit concerned about that,
53:56
Speaker 2: and you know, I was right. He lost his starting
53:59
Speaker 2: job right on that one did end up getting it back.
54:03
Speaker 2: I didn't see Taiwan Malone blossoming, though I knew he
54:06
Speaker 2: had it in him because he had showed it to
54:07
Speaker 2: us against Marshall showed it to us against Marshall at
54:11
Speaker 2: the beginning of twenty twenty four, that he had the
54:13
Speaker 2: dog in him. Now this year, Jason Moore and people
54:19
Speaker 2: are saying, you know, maybe he'll be that Taiwan Malone guy.
54:22
Speaker 2: Jason Moore has never shown us the dog ever, never, ever, ever,
54:26
Speaker 2: So you know, I just can't. I can't buy into
54:29
Speaker 2: that until I see it at least once. And in fact,
54:32
Speaker 2: just the opposite is all I've ever seen on a
54:34
Speaker 2: Jason Moore. But I was really confident in just about
54:39
Speaker 2: every group. So I think my lowest confidence level was
54:42
Speaker 2: in the defensive line. And it wasn't you know, it
54:45
Speaker 2: wasn't a low, low, low level. It was just like
54:48
Speaker 2: the offensive line. To me, we saw them together, go
54:53
Speaker 2: through the playoffs and play against the best of the best,
54:57
Speaker 2: and then you got the guy coming in who's supposed
55:01
Speaker 2: to be your starting left tackle, a million dollar tackle.
55:04
Speaker 2: You expect that guy to come in and forget about
55:07
Speaker 2: that spot. Man, that's plugged, that's done. That's money. Well,
55:14
Speaker 2: you know we're all wrong on that, dude. I'll tell
55:18
Speaker 2: you what. The Rice film looked really good, guys. The
55:21
Speaker 2: film at Rice looked really good for me. Certainly did
55:29
Speaker 2: to the Buckeyes too. Man. But the fact that this guy,
55:31
Speaker 2: could you believe they invited this dude to the Senior Bowl.
55:34
Speaker 2: He got the ninth most snaps of Ohio State linemen
55:38
Speaker 2: this year, So they knew that Ohio State, a team
55:41
Speaker 2: that likes to win football games, paid this turkey a
55:45
Speaker 2: million bucks to come play on their team, gave him
55:48
Speaker 2: the ninth most snaps throughout the course of an entire year,
55:51
Speaker 2: and thought he's probably better than that. They just didn't
55:55
Speaker 2: want to play him. Let's invite him to the Senior Bowl,
55:57
Speaker 2: which is a very exclusive invitation. Unbelievable to me. And
56:01
Speaker 2: of course he had a very very poor showing tough stuff. Man,
56:08
Speaker 2: playing offensive line ain't easy, buddy, not easy. Doug says.
56:15
Speaker 2: I love Kaden Curry, but I was concerned about his size.
56:17
Speaker 2: I thought he would wear down. I did two thumbs up.
56:21
Speaker 2: Everyone thumbs up. Let's go, let's get those thumbs up.
56:24
Speaker 2: Let's make sure we subscribe for our buddies at Buckey Huddle.
56:28
Speaker 2: You know we care about you guys. We are your
56:30
Speaker 2: pals over here at Buckeyehuddle. I really do appreciate you
56:34
Speaker 2: guys joining me tonight on Buckehudle Primetime. Of course, remember
56:37
Speaker 2: we are gonna be back here on Thursday. During the season,
56:40
Speaker 2: we go Monday to kind of recap the weekend's games. Tuesday,
56:46
Speaker 2: we go down to the press conference. Wednesday, we recap
56:49
Speaker 2: what Ryan Day said Tuesday and start to kind of
56:53
Speaker 2: roll into the next week's games. But during the offseason,
56:57
Speaker 2: Monday Thursday just makes more sense because Monday Wednesday it's
57:02
Speaker 2: kind of like, all right, you know, what do we
57:03
Speaker 2: talk about Wednesday? We just talked Monday and in an
57:06
Speaker 2: hour long single guy format where there's not really a
57:09
Speaker 2: back and forth until I talk to you guys. It's
57:11
Speaker 2: just a lot of you know, like that extra day
57:14
Speaker 2: of news helps me put together a better show. So
57:18
Speaker 2: Monday Thursday for the off season, and of course eight
57:22
Speaker 2: o'clock is always so we will be back here on Thursday,
57:25
Speaker 2: and I will look forward to seeing you guys, then
57:28
Speaker 2: I do appreciate you again. Please hit the like button.
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