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Ohio State Tight End Enters Transfer Portal: How Will Buckeyes Replace Him For 2024? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Welcome to a special bonus episode of Buckeyes tomorrow morning. There is some transfer
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  portal news, and this time it involves a tight end. Joe Royer of
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  the Buckeyes entered the transfer portal on Thursday night. I'm joined by Tony Gerderman
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  of bucke Huddle dot com to take a look at what it means, how
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  it all, what it could mean for the twenty twenty four buck Eyes and
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  beyond, and Tony, I guess let's just start with Joe Royer's career at
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  Ohio State. It just it felt like between injuries and you know, the
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  tragic passing of his mom last year, it just felt like there was just
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  a bunch of stuff working against him where he just he could never really get
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  on the field and stay on the field, and you know it might just
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  at this point be get a fresh start and you know go from there.
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  Yeah, a guy who in his three years caught four passes for the buck
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  Eyes for twenty four yards and it was on the verge a couple of times
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  of maybe becoming that Mber two tight end, but it just never happened.
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  And then Ohio had their tight ends this year with Chief Scott and Kate Stover
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  and really didn't deviate too much from that. And so now he's going to
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  head to the Portal look for a new home, a more a better landing
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  spot for him in terms of what he's going to do in the offense,
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  a busier offensive player hopefully down the road for him. And so another one
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  for the buck guys where somebody else looking for opportunity. And really that's the
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  gist of all of this is you want to go somewhere where you can get
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  the ball. You want to go somewhere where you can be on the field
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  to make tackles, like whatever your position is. As Marvin Harrison told us
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  on Thursday, you got to go find a place. Everybody's looking for a
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  place where they can make their mark and get time on the field. After
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  all, that's why they all come to play college football, is to actually
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  play. And so Joe roy will go look for that opportunity. And Royer
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  did, like like you said, he really did feel like he was right
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  on the cusp of taking that step and getting that opportunity to Ohio State a
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  few times during the Peach Bowl last year, after Cad Stover went down with
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  a game ending injury, Joe Royer was playing in there. You saw Joe
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  Royer getting like, you know, the most meaningful of meaningful snaps in that
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  game, and you know, so you sort of assume, okay, well,
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  certainly next year he no just and you know, injury missed a bunch
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  of time. This year again, it just it just seemed like it just
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  was not working out for him for whatever reason. So now he is off
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  to the portal and that leaves Ohio State with a really interesting tight end room
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  for next year because you know, we can run through the guys who could
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  theoretically come back. Kate Stover theoretically has another year. We looked him up,
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  you know, and in terms of like mock draft projections, and you
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  can find him anywhere from like a third round or to a fifth round or
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  something like that. So you're kind of right in that at theoretically you could
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  come back and you know, do a year of nil and then go to
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  the draft a year from now. I don't know that he's someone who materially
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  changes his draft stock in a year, but you could have some of the
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  same motivations that Marvin Harrison talked about, I guess in terms of coming back
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  and giving it one more run at Michigan and you know, a Big ten
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  championship and beyond. Yeah, and that's something that I wonder how much more
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  we will hear. But also, Kate Stover is not your typical college athlete
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  like looking for a bag. I think he's looking for basically stuff for the
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  farm. You know, if the best way to keep him would maybe you
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  know, lend him some equipment for the for the semester or something like that
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  and for the family farm, and you know, not too big of equipment.
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  That was a complaint last year or the year before where some of the
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  stuff that he was given to use it was too big for the farm.
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  So maybe the right sized equipment might be something that keeps him in the fold.
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  But he's he is technically he technically has a win over Michigan, but
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  he was a true freshman and did not see the field in that game.
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  And being a two time captain, now you'd think you'd want like, yeah,
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  sure you've got a pair of gold pants, but you know, what
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  did you do in that game to earn those gold pants. I'm sure he
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  would like to have something that he can put around his neck that he is
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  responsible for. But that as we see, from the time of that game
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  until whenever they make their decision, the pain either lessons or it grows in
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  terms of what you're really truly focused on, what you're truly thinking about.
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  And I know it's hard for guys to let that go, but also you
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  have to because at some point you have to move on. And now do
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  you just pull the band aid off and move on or do you keep it
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  on there and let it faster and come back next year to try and really
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  get fully healed. Well, we'll see what Caate Stover decides to do with
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  that band aid. We'll find that out probably in the coming weeks. But
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  if he does decide to go, and now Joe Royer is gone, ge
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  Scott would be the top returning tight end. And you know, he seemed
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  like he sort of established a nice role for himself and they used him a
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  bunch of that twelve personnel package this year, so that feels like, okay,
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  there's one tight end for you. I know they're very, very high
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  on Jelannie Thurman, the true freshman who did not get to play a ton
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  but you saw when he came in in the closing minutes of for example,
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  the Michigan State game. I think he had two receptions out of three completed
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  passes or three attempted passes in the closing minutes there. That's sort of what
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  we have seen out of him in the little bits of practice that we've gotten
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  to watch this this year, especially even going back to the spring. He
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  feels like he might be, you know, the next possible solution there at
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  tight end behind g Scott. Yeah, and he seems to be like the
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  most typical of the tight ends Ohio States. Broster obviously very athletic, good
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  size six five, two fifty or whatever he is, and who knows what
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  he'll be next year at this time, but he is your prototypical tight end.
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  But he's still just finishing up his freshman season, and tight end at
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  Ohio State has always been a developmental position. Rarely do freshmen come in and
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  make an impact. Rarely do second year guys even come in and really make
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  an impact. So this is a situation where they would need him to be
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  one of those rarities, and we know that he is, but how rare
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  can he be? He lost his blacks ripe pretty quickly. He has impressed
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  people all throughout when we get to see him in practice back in the spring
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  and then maybe even in the fall, using him as a red zone guy,
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  just looking for him in those situations. He is a unique weapon.
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  But is he ready? The reps are going to be there to get him
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  ready. So this Bowl prep is going to help him, The spring is
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  going to help him. You're going to have you know, thirty out of
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  practices whatever to really propel yourself into a twelve personnel role in twenty twenty four.
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  And then behind them you got a couple kind of mystery boxes. Almost
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  Bennett Christian sat out the twenty twenty three season after testing positive for a banned
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  substance. Sam Hart has really never seen the field in any meaningful way.
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  Zach Herb Street, the walk on son of course of Ohio State, former
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  Ohio State quarterback and current TV broadcaster kirkurb Street. He missed the season with
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  a heart ailment, So it has just been a you know, beyond those
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  guys, and then you know, you have a couple tight ends coming in
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  this year, but as you said, that usually takes a year or two
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  to bring someone up to speed in that tight end room, so you're not
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  probably expecting them to be you know a part of the twenty twenty four picture.
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  If you don't get CAD's doverback, you're really looking at g Scott,
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  maybe Jilani Thurman, maybe been at Christian Sam Hart. We don't really,
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  you know, I don't. We don't know what they have there with either
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  of those guys at this point. And you know, you haven't really seen
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  any indication that those guys are close to the field at least at least Heart
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  and you know, Christian, who knows what you got there? Do they
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  have to look at the portal at this point? Is that something? Is
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  that? Is this a position where if you don't get Kid's do overback,
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  you got to look at the portal? And if that's the case, does
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  that just make it really important that they get Kid's overback? Well? I
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  at this point now you would think their number one priority would be to keep
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  cagsed over When you look at what's behind them, like there's it's a decent
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  sized room in terms of numbers. You know you've got you've got some bodies
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  there. But outside of g Scott, you have two career catches that'll be
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  on the roster next year, and both of those belong to Jilanni Thurman.
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  I think g Scott has about nineteen career catches. So even with them,
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  it's not like there's a ton of experience and a ton of production certainly,
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  And so I think you go into next year if there is no cased over,
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  you're feeling pretty good about Giscott and Jilanni Thurman in terms of those are
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  the guys that you'll you can roll with. But also what else is there?
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  And I'm thinking, yeah, they go to the portal. They've tried
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  to go to the portal for what's the last two or three years now at
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  tight End and it hasn't worked out. Now maybe there's more motivation to do
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  so if they don't keep katesed over. And so yeah, before the show
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  we looked through the through the transfer portal at tight End. It's not a
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  it's done a very deep It's not a robust list right now, not a
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  lot of big names or familiar names. There are some familiar names though,
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  but yeah, I mean they're looking at every position. I think now you
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  have to look even harder unless unless, of course, Tom the Joe Royer
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  departure is a sign of cad Stover's decision that could be as well. And
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  that's an interesting, interesting set of tea leaves to read as you're talking about
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  the fact that they had looked for tight ends in the portal, I just
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  went back and looked at Austin Stagner because they did not take they did not
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  take Tate Martell's advice. They swung and miss twice at Austin Stagner. He
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  went from Oklahoma to South Carolina to Oklahoma. If I have done the scholarship
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  math or the eligibility math correctly, he is out of eligibility, so no
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  longer no longer an option. So yeah, I the idea that it could
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  be related to Cad Stover's decision is an interesting one, and we'll find that
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  out. Because Tommy Eichenberg, who is in the same situation as Cad Stover
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  in terms of years of eligibility and could theoretically come back for one more year,
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  he is in a fellow captain as well, close friend as well.
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  You know, he has already announced that he's going to the Senior Bowl,
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  which you know, you could theoretically take that back and decide to return for
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  one more year, but you know, Kate Stover has not made that announcement
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  yet, so that is an interesting sort of an interesting question. We'll keep
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  an eye on that one. And that you know, the solution to Ohio
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  States, you know, potential shortage at tight end next year, could already
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  be within the program. That would be you know, the call coming from
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  within the house, but in potentially a good way in this case. So
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  we'll keep an eye on that as well as a bunch of other stuff.
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  I'm guessing this will not be the last Transfer Portal show that we do in
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  the short to medium term. Lots of news potentially in terms of Buckeyes who
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  may be headed into the portal to leave. Lots of news in terms of
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  Buckeyes who you know, potential future Buckeyes who maybe had you know, already
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  in the portal and headed to Columbus at some point in the future. We'll
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  be here to talk about all of them. And we'll be there as well
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  at buckeyehuddle dot com to talk about all of them. Lots of stuff to
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  talk about right now between the Transfer Portal, the last the closing what twelve
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  days of the early signing period right now, as we count down to early
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  Signing Day on the twentieth and Oh yes, Ohio State playing in the Cotton
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  Bowl against Missouri. All of that stuff, much more to talk about at
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  bucke Huddle and of course at YouTube dot com slash pucke Huddle. We talk
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  a bunch there. You can find us there. Make sure you were subscribed
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  to our channel there so you don't miss anything. Hit that bell, get
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  notified when we go live. All that good stuff all at YouTube dot com
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  slash Buckeye Huddle. That we'll do it for now. We'll be back with
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  a normal episode a little later on today. We'll talk to you then