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BONUS: Catching up with former All-American Ohio State lineman Jeff Uhlenhake · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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Speaker 1: Welcome to Buckeyes Tomorrow Morning for Thursday, April tenth. I'm
0:03
Speaker 1: your host, Tom Moore. The Texas Game in one hundred
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Speaker 1: and forty two days, the immigts Michigan in two hundred
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0:23
Speaker 1: going to get a little bit of a bonus episode.
0:25
Speaker 1: This is, of course Seth Shaner's great show Buckeye Banter.
0:30
Speaker 1: Today's guest Jeff Ulnach that has a name that older
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Speaker 1: Ohio State fans will remember. When I say older, I
0:36
Speaker 1: mean like my age. He played during the end of
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Speaker 1: the Earl Bruce era. The specifically the very end of
0:42
Speaker 1: the Earl Bruce era. There's an interesting story about today then.
0:45
Speaker 1: Of course, early John Cooper as well also played in
0:48
Speaker 1: the NFL, also had a role in Ace Venture a
0:52
Speaker 1: pet detective man Oman. Is there a lot of good
0:54
Speaker 1: stuff in this episode? You are definitely going to enjoy
0:57
Speaker 1: this one. And if you do make sure you describe
1:00
Speaker 1: the Buckeye Banter podcast. You can get that wherever you
1:02
Speaker 1: get buck Eyes Tomorrow Morning and Buckeye Weekly and all
1:05
Speaker 1: the other great shows from Buckeye Huddle dot com.
1:10
Speaker 2: Hello and welcome to another edition of Buckeye Huddle. We've
1:13
Speaker 2: been telling the stories of people who played for or
1:16
Speaker 2: worked around Ohio State Athletics and it's my great pleasure
1:20
Speaker 2: today to bring in former Ohio State lineman Jeff Ful
1:24
Speaker 2: and Haik Jeff. Thanks for joining me.
1:26
Speaker 3: It's great to be here.
1:27
Speaker 2: Seth.
1:27
Speaker 3: Let's banter a little bit on the buck Eyes.
1:29
Speaker 2: There you go. That's that's the cleverness of my title. There,
1:33
Speaker 2: that's that's where we're gonna roll. Hey, so did I
1:36
Speaker 2: do research on each guy? And I saw that you
1:39
Speaker 2: were born January twenty eighth, nineteen sixty six. Were you
1:41
Speaker 2: born in Indianapolis?
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Speaker 3: I was short bit there just a year, and then
1:46
Speaker 3: my parents moved over into that Mercer County area where
1:49
Speaker 3: they're both from, and back into Salina, and then an
1:53
Speaker 3: eventual moved to Columbus.
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Speaker 2: All right, yeah, you did live in Columbus. You told
1:57
Speaker 2: me one time you were all set to go to
1:59
Speaker 2: a walk and then you moved over toward the east
2:02
Speaker 2: a little bit.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, went tar Laedi at Piece was set to go
2:06
Speaker 3: to Waterston, had gone to Orientation, and you know, that's
2:11
Speaker 3: midway through the summer, and sure enough my parents come
2:15
Speaker 3: home one day and tell us for moving. They took
2:18
Speaker 3: a venture out to New York Licking Valley area and
2:22
Speaker 3: bought a camp ground and canoeba free, which was certainly
2:26
Speaker 3: an interesting two years while we were involved in that.
2:28
Speaker 3: But went to New York Catholic. I was the one
2:31
Speaker 3: that was excited out of the three kids in the
2:33
Speaker 3: family because I knew that a New York Catholic had
2:35
Speaker 3: won a state title a couple of years before that.
2:38
Speaker 3: So it was a great time back then. The Waterson
2:41
Speaker 3: rivalry really, I thought was Upper Arlington. I loved as
2:45
Speaker 3: a kid going to Cooper Stadium and checking out the
2:49
Speaker 3: waters In Arlington game.
2:51
Speaker 2: They played at Cooper Stadium. Huh.
2:53
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was a good environment. Had to have a
2:55
Speaker 3: few more to seat the local communities.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, but you were at allstate player at NERK Catholic,
3:01
Speaker 2: and you want a state title as a player, and
3:03
Speaker 2: it's something I know we'll talk about a little bit later.
3:05
Speaker 2: Your son's Jake and Binn. They accomplished that this past
3:08
Speaker 2: year with Waters and so it runs into family.
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Speaker 3: It was a special moment to be able to do
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Speaker 3: that with your sons, It really was. It was. It's
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Speaker 3: even much more enjoyable than winning at yourself, but to
3:20
Speaker 3: see others have that success.
3:22
Speaker 2: I guess. Back then, though, can you tell me about
3:25
Speaker 2: the experience as far as being a player on a
3:27
Speaker 2: team like that.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, I was had the opportunity to play for JD. Graham,
3:32
Speaker 3: who was you know, he's in the Ohio Hall of Fame.
3:35
Speaker 3: He was well known and recognized for driving a tough team.
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Speaker 3: We had three a days. Some teams had that back then,
3:42
Speaker 3: but we did. We had three a day practices. We
3:45
Speaker 3: put a lot of time and effort into it. I
3:47
Speaker 3: was well coached at the offensive and defensive lines. It
3:52
Speaker 3: was just a great community, new or A Cavolk got
3:54
Speaker 3: a strong culture and following and every kid expected to
3:59
Speaker 3: play in the state five every year there, and it
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Speaker 3: was it was a uniqueness that I moved into and
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Speaker 3: joined that culture and it was a great experience.
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Speaker 2: That's awesome. Can you also, though, can you tell me
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Speaker 2: a little bit about being recruited to go to Ohio State.
4:14
Speaker 2: It was a little different back then, you know, in
4:17
Speaker 2: the in the early to mid eighties, right as far
4:19
Speaker 2: as recruitment goes.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, Honestly, if I'm and I don't know that I
4:24
Speaker 3: could go afford to go to a football camp. A
4:26
Speaker 3: lot of it was you went to an Ohio State
4:28
Speaker 3: football camp, they recognized you, you were there, you were
4:32
Speaker 3: at overnight camper and that type of thing. And I
4:36
Speaker 3: never ended up doing that. Uh. And so as my
4:41
Speaker 3: senior season went along, Uh, next thing, you know, Kent
4:45
Speaker 3: State and Miami Ohio really got on me hard and
4:49
Speaker 3: and then Ohio State started recruiting me. And so as
4:54
Speaker 3: that process went along, coach Bruce came to see me
4:58
Speaker 3: play basketball. Here's an interesting story with that one is
5:02
Speaker 3: that I had taken a recruiting visit the week before.
5:06
Speaker 3: I'm not sure which place, but my high school coach
5:08
Speaker 3: suspended me the first half, and so I got the
5:11
Speaker 3: head coach of Ohio State comings you play basketball. I'm
5:14
Speaker 3: not playing. Yeah, you know, that was interesting, but it
5:17
Speaker 3: was a great unique experience. Once Ohio State started recruiting
5:21
Speaker 3: me out of Michigan State offer and I was going
5:24
Speaker 3: to visit NC State as well, and I never went there,
5:26
Speaker 3: but I visited Kentucky, Ohio State, Michigan State, in Maam
5:32
Speaker 3: of Ohio, and honestly, the hardest person or coach to
5:38
Speaker 3: end up talking to and end up turning down was
5:42
Speaker 3: the Miami of Ohio coach. The guy literally lived in
5:46
Speaker 3: Newark for two months. Bob Maseros was his name, and
5:51
Speaker 3: who was the line coach there? And a little sidebar
5:55
Speaker 3: interestingly enough, you know Jake, my son, Jake wide receiver,
5:58
Speaker 3: is going to attend Ashland and played football there. Jake's
6:02
Speaker 3: defensive coordinator is Tim Rose, who was the head coach
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Speaker 3: at Minor Ohio when I took my visit.
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Speaker 2: Wow, that's something else. That's some connections there.
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Speaker 3: For sure.
6:13
Speaker 2: You n up at Ohio State. You were an All
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Speaker 2: Big Ten player in eighty six and eighty eight and
6:18
Speaker 2: first Team American and Team MVP in nineteen eighty eight.
6:21
Speaker 2: And incidentally, you were inducted to the Varso Hall of
6:24
Speaker 2: Fame in two thousand and eight. So that's really awesome.
6:27
Speaker 2: But you end up being a four year starter after
6:29
Speaker 2: a red shirt season. What take me through coming to campus?
6:34
Speaker 2: And you know, certainly now these guys come in January,
6:37
Speaker 2: they're here for spring practice. I'm assuming, since that really
6:40
Speaker 2: didn't happen back then, that you reported with the rest
6:43
Speaker 2: of the freshmen during the summer.
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Speaker 3: It's a little bit different. The freshman came in early,
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Speaker 3: and at first I signed to be an offensive lineman
6:51
Speaker 3: and they were light on d lineman, so I was
6:55
Speaker 3: myself and another lineman that were one on one with
7:00
Speaker 3: coach Randy Hart, the defensive line coach, and I can
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Speaker 3: tell you that was probably the hardest four days of
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Speaker 3: my life, let alone that first camp. When you go
7:08
Speaker 3: through when it's unexpected, you know that anxiousness and nervousness.
7:12
Speaker 3: But I would tell you that it really benefited me
7:15
Speaker 3: as a football player. So I spent a year on defense,
7:18
Speaker 3: and coming in after my first year, I was in
7:23
Speaker 3: number two defensive tackle, expected to play a lot. And
7:27
Speaker 3: then they had an offensive line and Tim James leave
7:30
Speaker 3: the program, and so they asked me, this is about
7:34
Speaker 3: three days before camp started, hey, you want to switch
7:36
Speaker 3: to offense. And you know, I'm going to do whatever
7:38
Speaker 3: the coaches asked me to do, and I ended up
7:41
Speaker 3: alternating our first game against pitt it was a first
7:45
Speaker 3: night game at Ohio Stadium in nineteen eighty five, and
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Speaker 3: ended up playing well and then became the full time
7:53
Speaker 3: starter at left guard.
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Speaker 2: That's an amazing story as far as like being able
7:58
Speaker 2: to do it as long as you did. Tell me,
8:01
Speaker 2: tell me about the first year starting at Ohio State,
8:04
Speaker 2: and that was a you know you're there and what
8:06
Speaker 2: eighty four? It was eighty four the Brose Bowl year.
8:09
Speaker 3: Eighty four was the Rose Bowl year, my red.
8:10
Speaker 2: Shirt, so you read shirt that year. You're coming back
8:13
Speaker 2: the next year and all of a sudden you're starting
8:14
Speaker 2: at guard. You know what, what's it like kind of
8:20
Speaker 2: running out of the tunnel knowing you're starting as I mean,
8:22
Speaker 2: I know you've been there for a year by then.
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Speaker 3: But well, you know, I tried to be calm about everything.
8:27
Speaker 3: I think I have a somewhat of a calmer nature,
8:29
Speaker 3: and you've got to ramp it up when it's time
8:31
Speaker 3: for the first snap. So I tried to. There was
8:34
Speaker 3: obviously a lot of anxiety, you know, and that you know,
8:37
Speaker 3: you've got a lot of friends there watching you play.
8:39
Speaker 3: You've got your relatives, you've got you know, I let
8:42
Speaker 3: your teammates down, and uh so you know it's all
8:47
Speaker 3: kind of an afterthought now, but I would tell you
8:50
Speaker 3: that I was fired up to play. And back then
8:55
Speaker 3: it was you know, ten eleven regular season games and
8:59
Speaker 3: you didn't have many warm up opponents. So our off season,
9:04
Speaker 3: our non conference schedule, I'm sorry, it would be like
9:07
Speaker 3: in Oregon, Oregon State, Washington State, LSU, Syracuse.
9:12
Speaker 2: You know.
9:12
Speaker 3: So, and never to degrade a lower level program, but
9:17
Speaker 3: we were going against you know, better teams at that time,
9:20
Speaker 3: and and you know, so I knew I had to
9:23
Speaker 3: be at my best. I was a lighter weight alignment,
9:27
Speaker 3: so I weighed probably two hundred and forty pounds. Yeah,
9:32
Speaker 3: and so there was a couple of times I placed
9:35
Speaker 3: some bigger offensive line or defensive alignment. Excuse me a
9:38
Speaker 3: guy from Washington. You know, we played the Huskies. That
9:43
Speaker 3: probably gave me a few fits that day. But I,
9:46
Speaker 3: you know, I just battled. As a smaller alignment. I
9:49
Speaker 3: was able to execute and we had a lot of fun.
9:53
Speaker 1: We had.
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Speaker 3: We had a decent year of that year. I ended
9:56
Speaker 3: up playing in the sister school against by U. Both
9:59
Speaker 3: of their defensive ends were first round picks. So it
10:04
Speaker 3: was I was, well, as I said, lighter, but I
10:07
Speaker 3: used that to my advantage as best as I could.
10:10
Speaker 2: Well in this time. So you played three years under
10:13
Speaker 2: coach Bruce and in this time you're playing with certain people.
10:16
Speaker 2: I mean, you're on the same offense with Chris Carter, right,
10:19
Speaker 2: So I guess if you could take me through that,
10:22
Speaker 2: because it was the offense probably looked a little different
10:25
Speaker 2: than it did maybe even five years earlier.
10:28
Speaker 3: You know, one of the things about the coach Bruce believement,
10:32
Speaker 3: you know, we're gonna run, We're gonna run the power scheme.
10:35
Speaker 3: You know, you didn't have the quarterback rge game back then.
10:39
Speaker 3: But we lived a little bit off the play action,
10:41
Speaker 3: maybe a little bit even too much when it was
10:43
Speaker 3: third and eight, speaking as a as a coach now too,
10:48
Speaker 3: but our we were lying on our running game. We
10:51
Speaker 3: had Keith Buyers, who was obviously up for the Heisman Trophy,
10:55
Speaker 3: that was been the Rose full year and with a
10:57
Speaker 3: strong line in front of him. And then and I
11:00
Speaker 3: would just say, like our coach, Bruce was a demanding coach.
11:04
Speaker 3: He was pretty hard on his assistant coaches. But if
11:07
Speaker 3: you look at his his coaching tree, it's remarkable. So
11:13
Speaker 3: one of the schools that I mentioned that recruited me
11:16
Speaker 3: was Michigan State. Well, Nick Saban did work at Ohio
11:20
Speaker 3: State before that, and Nick Saban was the guy who
11:24
Speaker 3: recruited me when I was being recruited in Michigan State.
11:27
Speaker 3: So you know that, Dom Capers, you know, I'm trying
11:32
Speaker 3: to think of all of them, but Glenn Mason, Jim Trussell,
11:34
Speaker 3: all these people were under coach Bruce, so he was
11:38
Speaker 3: hard on him, but obviously a great job of grooming
11:40
Speaker 3: a lot of people, including Urban Meyer.
11:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, he certainly did. That's yeah, that's an underrated part
11:45
Speaker 2: of coach Bruce's tenure. At some point, you switched to center.
11:52
Speaker 2: What year was that?
11:54
Speaker 3: I switched to center after my sophomore year, so you know,
11:58
Speaker 3: I played two years at center. I would tell you
12:01
Speaker 3: that the first game I played was West Virginia at
12:04
Speaker 3: home and played against the guy David Grant, who played
12:08
Speaker 3: it end up. I think the Bengals drafted him, and
12:11
Speaker 3: David was a fine player and he definitely gave me
12:15
Speaker 3: some fits in my first outing. We won the game
12:17
Speaker 3: pretty handily, but but you know, it was a good
12:21
Speaker 3: learning lesson for me. I was coming off. I didn't
12:26
Speaker 3: do much in the spring. I had two arthroscopic knee surgeries,
12:29
Speaker 3: one eah knee coming off my sophomore year, so uh,
12:34
Speaker 3: you know, that did hold me back. So I had
12:36
Speaker 3: two weeks or three weeks of practice before facing a
12:39
Speaker 3: pretty solid opponent. So I felt like I got a
12:41
Speaker 3: lot better throughout the year. But I would tell you
12:46
Speaker 3: that my big steps came when I when Coach Cooper
12:50
Speaker 3: came and I played Jim cloy ran a little more
12:53
Speaker 3: of a pro style offense. So we had we had
12:56
Speaker 3: a rough year. We didn't have a lot in a
12:58
Speaker 3: tank there at times. Uh, you know, which would have
13:02
Speaker 3: if you looked at the draft the following you know
13:04
Speaker 3: that following year, you know, we didn't have a lot
13:06
Speaker 3: of players draft, but it was a little low. Coach
13:09
Speaker 3: Cooper certainly loaded up as the years went on, but yeah,
13:12
Speaker 3: he did. He built off of that. You know, you
13:14
Speaker 3: got maybe a little bit of too much guff for
13:19
Speaker 3: his comment about the cover being bear. It wasn't a
13:22
Speaker 3: little bear, quite honestly, it was. So Anyways, we had
13:28
Speaker 3: a an offense where I learned how to pass, protect
13:33
Speaker 3: identified defenses, really understanding a passing game concept that was
13:40
Speaker 3: more in depth than what we did under coach Bruce.
13:43
Speaker 2: Well, if we go backwards just a little bit before
13:45
Speaker 2: Coach Bruce was like go or when he was like, go, hey,
13:48
Speaker 2: did you wear an little headband? I did? I did
13:52
Speaker 2: you know?
13:52
Speaker 3: There's some rumors flying around. I'll settle it with wherever
13:56
Speaker 3: it started. But the actual idea of the headband was mine. Oh,
14:03
Speaker 3: Joe Staysniak is the one that kind of engineered it. I, however,
14:09
Speaker 3: I took a little more of a negative stance and
14:12
Speaker 3: I wanted to put Jennings President Jennings name on it.
14:16
Speaker 3: So it was similar to the whole Jim McMahon Roselle
14:19
Speaker 3: thing back in the eighties. And and then someone said,
14:22
Speaker 3: let's put a more positive spin on it, which is
14:24
Speaker 3: about idea. Yeah, and decided on Earl to be on it.
14:28
Speaker 3: So it was a little combination effort. And the secretary,
14:32
Speaker 3: Julie BONFIENI was her name, was Coach Bruce's secretary, and
14:35
Speaker 3: she engineered it, got the headbands gone up, and it
14:39
Speaker 3: was great to surprise him and supported a great coach.
14:42
Speaker 2: I loved the video and it might I don't remember
14:45
Speaker 2: if it's in Yeah, it might be in the Rivalry
14:47
Speaker 2: documentary about High State Michigan on HBO. And and you
14:51
Speaker 2: can just picture Coach Bruce the way he would get
14:54
Speaker 2: but he get that little grit in his like side
14:57
Speaker 2: of his mouth. Then he says he turned around and
14:59
Speaker 2: saw all you guys, and he says, I don't let
15:01
Speaker 2: them do this, you know. And then he said he
15:04
Speaker 2: saw that was his name, and he felt cried. I mean,
15:07
Speaker 2: that's just the explanation was just so beautiful to hear him,
15:11
Speaker 2: you know, break down a little bit about it.
15:13
Speaker 3: Well, it was a tough week when they let us
15:16
Speaker 3: know on I guess, mon Sunday or Monday after the
15:19
Speaker 3: team up North game and you're finding out you're gonna
15:22
Speaker 3: lose your position coach. You know a lot of guys
15:25
Speaker 3: jobs are going to be gone. And and you know,
15:28
Speaker 3: just the guy recruited you. It came in your home.
15:31
Speaker 3: He h, you spent a lot of time. It's harder.
15:34
Speaker 3: You know, you respect those who demand a lot from you,
15:37
Speaker 3: and and he was. He demanded a lot from everyone,
15:41
Speaker 3: every player, every coach, and he held everyone accountable. And
15:46
Speaker 3: so I would just say, like he was the person
15:49
Speaker 3: that offered me a scholarship to a high state and
15:53
Speaker 3: I'm grateful for that. At that point in time, I
15:57
Speaker 3: could see that it was time for maybe us to
16:00
Speaker 3: move on. Quite honestly, I could see that, but that
16:03
Speaker 3: didn't make that any easier with losing your position, coach
16:07
Speaker 3: and everyone else that you've built so many close relationships.
16:10
Speaker 2: With and people don't always understand, especially back then maybe
16:14
Speaker 2: with you know, it's not as like much of a
16:16
Speaker 2: microscope on the program as there is now. But but
16:19
Speaker 2: what was it like was it evident that even around
16:22
Speaker 2: the program, as far as facilities and different things like that,
16:25
Speaker 2: that the higher state had some work to do, like
16:27
Speaker 2: beyond just whether you're you know, the coaching staff is
16:30
Speaker 2: getting the job done.
16:31
Speaker 3: Well, I would tell you that. You know, if you
16:34
Speaker 3: look at that year that he got fired, it's, uh,
16:38
Speaker 3: you know, we thought we were going to be pretty good.
16:40
Speaker 3: We had Chris Carter coming back and Nate Harris, so
16:44
Speaker 3: we had two players. You know, Chris ended up you know,
16:48
Speaker 3: taking illegal benefits and so he was eligible. So you're
16:51
Speaker 3: missing a key future NFL Hall of Fames. Absolutely, that's
16:55
Speaker 3: a big deal. And then we are second wide out
16:57
Speaker 3: ended up being eligible. Passing game really struggled that year,
17:02
Speaker 3: and so you know that's players or whatever however you
17:06
Speaker 3: want to phase it. The program let Ohio State down
17:09
Speaker 3: that year. We didn't get it done, and so ultimately
17:14
Speaker 3: the hell coach Broust responsible. But but you know, we
17:18
Speaker 3: had high expect expectations going into that year. We were
17:21
Speaker 3: coming off the Texas A and m bolwin where you
17:25
Speaker 3: know he had he wore the fedora and the whole thing.
17:27
Speaker 3: I mean it was great. I mean he was he
17:30
Speaker 3: was possibly going to go to Arizona as the highest
17:32
Speaker 3: paid coach in college football. Right, So imagine that he
17:36
Speaker 3: turned that down to stay, to be a buck Eye
17:38
Speaker 3: and then things turned backwards, and then you know, a
17:41
Speaker 3: year later he's coaching out West at a smaller school.
17:45
Speaker 2: Yeah, that whole life comes at you fast type slogan comes.
17:49
Speaker 2: But tell me a little bit before you move off this.
17:51
Speaker 2: Like the Michigan game, you go out and win it
17:54
Speaker 2: and you hoist them up on your shoulders as a group, Like,
17:58
Speaker 2: how gratifying was that? And what was the game itself
18:00
Speaker 2: like for you?
18:02
Speaker 3: Well, let me start with the game. It's it's always
18:04
Speaker 3: the toughest, hardest hitting. I think it's a clean, hard
18:08
Speaker 3: hitting game. It's just unique in that way. But we
18:12
Speaker 3: had some fantastic plays by our defense in that game,
18:16
Speaker 3: causing some turnovers when maybe our offense wasn't getting it done.
18:21
Speaker 3: Early in the game, and then you know, one of
18:24
Speaker 3: the great players at Ohio State that ended up being
18:27
Speaker 3: injured a lot is Carlos Snow. Carlos Snow was a
18:31
Speaker 3: talented football player that ended up suffering some injuries, but
18:35
Speaker 3: he was so dynamic in many ways. And I think
18:38
Speaker 3: he took the screen pass for seventy yards down the
18:41
Speaker 3: sideline and you know, you know, no one was going
18:44
Speaker 3: to catch Carlos, but in the end, you know we
18:48
Speaker 3: weren't going to be denied that day. There was something
18:51
Speaker 3: special in the air in the locker room throughout the week,
18:55
Speaker 3: and yeah, I get choked up about it too a
18:58
Speaker 3: little bit. He was just like I said, you respect
19:02
Speaker 3: those that demand a lot from you, and that's the
19:04
Speaker 3: way Coach Bruce was. And everyone was bonded that day
19:09
Speaker 3: to get it done that week and that day.
19:11
Speaker 2: I think, I think one of the best things about
19:15
Speaker 2: especially as you're growing as a as a young person,
19:17
Speaker 2: and then even as a young adult, one of the
19:20
Speaker 2: best things you could have happened to you is have
19:22
Speaker 2: somebody challenge you in a certain way that initially you
19:25
Speaker 2: might really dislike that person for it, but then in
19:28
Speaker 2: the long run, you see why we just had a
19:32
Speaker 2: coaches meeting with my son's possible like high school soccer coach,
19:37
Speaker 2: and he talked to all the parents and he played
19:40
Speaker 2: for the program that he's coaching now, and he says,
19:42
Speaker 2: you know, this is what our coaches did for us,
19:45
Speaker 2: and we didn't like it. We understand our boys now
19:48
Speaker 2: don't like it, but we're going to work hard. And
19:51
Speaker 2: he says, now as I look back on I respect
19:53
Speaker 2: my coach more, you know, And I think that's I
19:55
Speaker 2: think everybody should go through that at some point.
19:58
Speaker 3: You have to be ready for ad situations and what
20:01
Speaker 3: life's going to bring you. And you hope that's what
20:03
Speaker 3: sports teach you. You know, as you go through that crucible,
20:06
Speaker 3: you get stronger. And sure, I would say that many
20:10
Speaker 3: of the things in my life, any adverse situations as
20:15
Speaker 3: I'm a grown up, or my marriage or whatever, I
20:17
Speaker 3: definitely relied on my sporting events. Maybe not so loud
20:23
Speaker 3: and vocal, basically rely on some of those things. Yeah,
20:27
Speaker 3: a little more hard nos going through some of these
20:29
Speaker 3: obstacles later on in life, which is just really what like,
20:33
Speaker 3: even for my own kids, that I want them to
20:35
Speaker 3: learn and understand. I would add, like in high school
20:40
Speaker 3: sports and college sports having coached at Ohio State. I mean,
20:44
Speaker 3: anxiety in these days and age. This day and age
20:49
Speaker 3: is definitely a little higher than it was back when
20:52
Speaker 3: I was younger. There's just a lot put on these kids.
20:55
Speaker 3: And I'm sure a lot of it's the social media
20:57
Speaker 3: and all these other aspects, But I have found that
21:01
Speaker 3: about a little more anxiety with some of the younger
21:04
Speaker 3: people in the world in this day and age. And
21:07
Speaker 3: you know, you hope that some of the situations from
21:10
Speaker 3: sports and coaches nurturing them and putting them in the
21:14
Speaker 3: right and tough situations will help them later on as
21:17
Speaker 3: they go through things.
21:18
Speaker 2: Before we turn the page on that era, you spark
21:21
Speaker 2: something in my mind. I was born in seventy nine,
21:25
Speaker 2: so don't I don't have the recall of some of
21:29
Speaker 2: the things like even buyers or Chris Carter has a
21:31
Speaker 2: buckut and things like that. Tell me, is there anybody
21:34
Speaker 2: Carlos Snow would compare to in the last ten, fifteen,
21:37
Speaker 2: twenty years, like running back wise, Like who would you
21:40
Speaker 2: compare him to? What kind of back was he?
21:43
Speaker 3: Well, Carlos maybe five eight two o five Okay, so
21:47
Speaker 3: he's more of the you know, similar build to like
21:52
Speaker 3: the kid out of Boise State. Now, I don't know
21:53
Speaker 3: if he was as shift he as a kid from
21:55
Speaker 3: Boise State or say Kauant Barkley, but what his ability
21:59
Speaker 3: was is to go from zero to sixty like that,
22:02
Speaker 3: like okay, no time at all. Sure, So his acceleration
22:05
Speaker 3: to get up, I would say it was better than
22:07
Speaker 3: those guys. You know, Carlos maybe could throw a spin
22:10
Speaker 3: on you, but that one his strength. It was his
22:12
Speaker 3: sheer acceleration and his lower body strength to try, you know,
22:16
Speaker 3: run through tackles and sure, you know he'd make a
22:19
Speaker 3: guy miss too, but it was mostly the breakaway speed,
22:22
Speaker 3: but the acceleration to get this, to get the sixty.
22:26
Speaker 2: That's awesome. Okay, So take me through meeting John Cooper
22:30
Speaker 2: as your head coach and kind of seeing what that
22:33
Speaker 2: was starting to look like, because it had to be
22:34
Speaker 2: a radical change from Earl who had coached under Woody.
22:38
Speaker 2: You know, you had that whole era basically, and I
22:41
Speaker 2: know Earl did some different things maybe than what he did,
22:44
Speaker 2: but it's still it's a lot different when you bring
22:45
Speaker 2: in the guy from the outside.
22:47
Speaker 3: I would say that Coach Cooper was a was a
22:50
Speaker 3: coach's coach. I know that his coach has really liked
22:53
Speaker 3: coaching for him. You hired them, they let them do
22:56
Speaker 3: their jobs, and you know, I think that that was
23:01
Speaker 3: the big aspect that he did. He was a recruiter
23:03
Speaker 3: and he really promoted me. He really put it out
23:09
Speaker 3: there that Jeff Yuell and A can play football. And
23:12
Speaker 3: and you know, I appreciate that. Obviously I had to
23:15
Speaker 3: do the work as I went along, but you know,
23:19
Speaker 3: for the NFL scouts and everyone, he's like, don't miss
23:22
Speaker 3: this guy. Make sure that you're on top of it.
23:24
Speaker 3: And so I generally I really appreciate that from coach.
23:28
Speaker 3: He's a kind man. He lives here in Columbus, such
23:31
Speaker 3: a good guy. Uh you know, you know, obviously he's
23:35
Speaker 3: from Tennessee, all the southern stuff and the southern charm
23:39
Speaker 3: of his family, but he's he's a Buckeye through and through.
23:45
Speaker 3: You know, he brought in great coaches. We just didn't
23:50
Speaker 3: quite get it done. We had our opportunities maybe to
23:52
Speaker 3: have a little better year, but obviously it was I
23:55
Speaker 3: don't like to talk about it. You know, it was
23:57
Speaker 3: losing season my senior year. So I'm the captain of
24:01
Speaker 3: a losing season and it was a tough year. It
24:03
Speaker 3: could have gone a little better. I don't know that
24:05
Speaker 3: we won a lot more games because we were a
24:08
Speaker 3: little less talent than many teams that we played, but
24:12
Speaker 3: we could have you know, got it, got it going
24:15
Speaker 3: a little quicker.
24:17
Speaker 2: How big a change was the offense? Did it? Did
24:20
Speaker 2: it completely change? And what all? What all goes into that,
24:23
Speaker 2: especially as a center.
24:24
Speaker 3: Well, I would tell you that we probably under coach
24:27
Speaker 3: Bruce I would say we ran one or two drop
24:30
Speaker 3: back protections and a couple of play actions that were similar.
24:35
Speaker 3: And now I would tell you that we ran six
24:38
Speaker 3: drop back protections. And so there's a big difference in
24:42
Speaker 3: the way things are id'd as a center, the way
24:45
Speaker 3: you might adjust re Id who the center is working
24:49
Speaker 3: to or the running back is working to. And so
24:52
Speaker 3: there's just things that go into that That helped me
24:56
Speaker 3: going into my rookie year for sure that I was
24:59
Speaker 3: able to take my what I learned at Ohio State
25:02
Speaker 3: and apply it quickly. You know, oh, this was forty
25:05
Speaker 3: protection in Ohio State. This is seventy protection with the
25:08
Speaker 3: Miami Dolphins. But you just you know, understanding concepts in
25:13
Speaker 3: terms of pass protection.
25:15
Speaker 2: I remember the buzzwords even into the mid nineties were
25:17
Speaker 2: that it was more of a pro style offense, and
25:19
Speaker 2: you know, I do remember that.
25:21
Speaker 3: Yeah, I would tell you that. You know, back then
25:25
Speaker 3: gun was on third down and in two minutes. So
25:27
Speaker 3: now gun is you know, every play, you know, So
25:30
Speaker 3: it's a different it's every line and back then had
25:34
Speaker 3: their hand in the ground on first and second down. Yes,
25:38
Speaker 3: and you know when your quarterbacks and gun, your tackles
25:41
Speaker 3: can be up. But it was it was a different,
25:44
Speaker 3: different era. The rules were different. The quarterbacks weren't protected
25:50
Speaker 3: quite as much. Obviously the defensive I don't know all
25:54
Speaker 3: the rules for defensive back coverage rules and contact areas
26:00
Speaker 3: and all that.
26:01
Speaker 2: But.
26:03
Speaker 3: I know that a lot of those quarterbacks go like
26:05
Speaker 3: they'd throw them for a lot more yards if they
26:07
Speaker 3: played in this era.
26:09
Speaker 2: That's true. It's kind of like the three point line
26:11
Speaker 2: in basketball. Like it's like I remember they had it
26:14
Speaker 2: in the eighties, you know, especially in the NBA. But
26:16
Speaker 2: it just I remember watching some of the Celtics games
26:18
Speaker 2: from the mid to late eighties and it's like they
26:20
Speaker 2: only used it when the shot cluck was almost out.
26:23
Speaker 2: You know. Yeah, it just was totally different. Before we
26:27
Speaker 2: move on to your pro career. Tell me about who
26:29
Speaker 2: are some of your favorite teammates, some of your you know,
26:32
Speaker 2: the guys you really bonded with and and really have
26:34
Speaker 2: great memories about.
26:36
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, and you're talking about how State. Yeah,
26:40
Speaker 3: well I would tell you that one of my best
26:43
Speaker 3: friends is Derek Eisman. Derek was a line background of
26:46
Speaker 3: Fremont Ross. And Derek's uniqueness was he ended up as
26:50
Speaker 3: a golden glove boxer.
26:51
Speaker 2: Wow, he was.
26:53
Speaker 3: He was well known when he got to al State.
26:54
Speaker 3: He had fought Mike Tyson when he was sixteen. Okay,
26:58
Speaker 3: this is not a guy that took up box when
27:00
Speaker 3: he got done, but sure, I believe Derek was the
27:03
Speaker 3: MVP in eighty nine for the buck Eyes. Derek is
27:08
Speaker 3: lives north of Pierce, so I get to see him
27:11
Speaker 3: every once in a while. Just the guy that I
27:13
Speaker 3: really bonded with, and he took off his senior year,
27:16
Speaker 3: so we did not play together. He took off and
27:19
Speaker 3: he won the national gold gloves and then he tried
27:22
Speaker 3: out for the Olympics, which I think he got beat
27:25
Speaker 3: by Ray Mercer, who ended up, you know, he winning
27:28
Speaker 3: the gold medal. So one of the unique talented guys
27:32
Speaker 3: that I was around at Ohio State. Obviously, my roommate
27:35
Speaker 3: was Tom Tupa. We were one of the all time
27:37
Speaker 3: great punters, had a very long career. And and then
27:44
Speaker 3: a guy named Frank Coak who lives here locally didn't
27:46
Speaker 3: play a lot, but Frank and Chris Bielman, Tom and
27:49
Speaker 3: I roomed together for a year. So that was certainly
27:51
Speaker 3: a unique year. That is, you know, and Chris Bielman
27:56
Speaker 3: is one of the all time great leaders, uh, motivational
28:02
Speaker 3: guy for your team, like he was going to call
28:04
Speaker 3: it out when something went right, and he was going
28:06
Speaker 3: to make sure things got directed in the right way.
28:09
Speaker 3: And Chris was one of my lifting partners.
28:14
Speaker 2: You know.
28:14
Speaker 3: He pushed you in the weight room, he pushed you
28:17
Speaker 3: on the field, He challenged you at all times. And
28:20
Speaker 3: so I would say those are really the unique guys
28:23
Speaker 3: that and it's a shame that I don't name out
28:29
Speaker 3: because it all it took everybody, you know. I would
28:32
Speaker 3: also say that one of the great things was my
28:34
Speaker 3: red shirt year, is that I was playing defensive tackle
28:38
Speaker 3: going up against Kirk Laudermilt Jim lachem Zach was the quarterback.
28:43
Speaker 3: Keith Buyers is the running back. Sure you know, so
28:46
Speaker 3: you know that day in and day out, taking a
28:49
Speaker 3: little bit of a beating buy some you know, two
28:51
Speaker 3: hundred and eighty five ninety five pounds offensive linemen was
28:56
Speaker 3: a great lesson in life for me.
28:59
Speaker 2: I hear a national guys bring up the Doug Flutie
29:02
Speaker 2: game and then the fact that he won the Heisman,
29:04
Speaker 2: and I always just I yell, and again I wasn't
29:08
Speaker 2: quite old enough to appreciate it back then, but I
29:09
Speaker 2: always yell, know that was Keith Byers Heisman. You guys,
29:14
Speaker 2: as players being on the team, you probably had to
29:16
Speaker 2: feel that way that it kind of got stolen from
29:18
Speaker 2: him a little bit.
29:19
Speaker 3: Yeah the hill Mary, Yeah, but yeah, that was a
29:23
Speaker 3: great play by Flutie. But I mean, Keith is such
29:26
Speaker 3: a dominating guy that year. Some of the stuff that
29:30
Speaker 3: he did was just so incredible. And you know one
29:35
Speaker 3: thing about Keith, because I played with them with the Dolphins.
29:37
Speaker 3: He sure he came to the Dolphins for a year
29:39
Speaker 3: when I was there, and just remarkable hands, just such
29:44
Speaker 3: a great back out of the backfield. Yeah, and I
29:48
Speaker 3: don't know who had better hands, Chris or Or or Buyers.
29:52
Speaker 3: I'm not sure that's interesting. That's hard to our buyers.
29:54
Speaker 3: Let's a toss up. Both guys had great hands.
29:57
Speaker 2: Well, you mentioned the Dolphins. You're the fifth round pick,
30:00
Speaker 2: eighty nine draft by the Dolphins. Here you go, you
30:03
Speaker 2: go play for Don Shulin with Dan Marino.
30:07
Speaker 3: Pretty uh, pretty cool stuff. For sure. I thought I
30:11
Speaker 3: was gonna get drafted higher. I was coming off some
30:14
Speaker 3: knee problems and the Dolphins called me and said, well,
30:18
Speaker 3: we we think you're gonna have to have surgery right away. So,
30:22
Speaker 3: you know, they waited till the fifth round to take me.
30:26
Speaker 3: And you know, I knew I had some knee problems,
30:28
Speaker 3: but you know, back then you went to the combine.
30:31
Speaker 3: I didn't run or do any combine. I'd hurt my
30:33
Speaker 3: knee in the Senior Bowl, okay, And so you know,
30:36
Speaker 3: then I had my pro date at Ohio State, which
30:39
Speaker 3: back then wasn't quite the festivity. That is, there were
30:43
Speaker 3: no cameras other than maybe my mom if she was there,
30:46
Speaker 3: I don't know, but it was, you know, a situation
30:51
Speaker 3: where I knew I had some interest and I ended
30:53
Speaker 3: up going to the fifth round and what a cool
30:56
Speaker 3: place to go, ayes, Miami, Florida, you know, all right,
31:00
Speaker 3: So it took a little while.
31:03
Speaker 2: To get used to that heat.
31:05
Speaker 3: Ended up being a long snapper, you know, as well
31:09
Speaker 3: as playing center for nine games my rookie year, starting
31:13
Speaker 3: starting long snapper broke his thumb. I'll tell you what.
31:16
Speaker 3: You stall out in Miami after a ten play drive
31:19
Speaker 3: and then snap the ball run down on a punt.
31:22
Speaker 3: It's an let me tell you. I'm just telling you,
31:25
Speaker 3: you know, in September. That's a tough one. So, uh,
31:30
Speaker 3: you know, it was just remarkable to play with Dan.
31:33
Speaker 3: You know, he was really really good in the fact
31:37
Speaker 3: that he understood that, Okay, I got a guy here
31:40
Speaker 3: that can identify a defense, can pass protect you know,
31:44
Speaker 3: probably need to work on my run game run game
31:47
Speaker 3: blocking a little bit. But to be able to protect
31:50
Speaker 3: him and get us some good circumstances, know who to help,
31:54
Speaker 3: who do id what to do? That was a big deal,
31:57
Speaker 3: especially to Dan.
31:58
Speaker 2: Yeah.
31:59
Speaker 3: So, like a lot of people would see Dan on
32:01
Speaker 3: TV and he's a fiery guy, sure, but he was
32:04
Speaker 3: never upset that someone made a physical mistake. He was
32:08
Speaker 3: upset about mental stuff. Okay, so that was what most
32:12
Speaker 3: earth Dan when you see him being made all upset
32:16
Speaker 3: on film.
32:17
Speaker 2: If you take me back a little bit, we talked
32:18
Speaker 2: earlier about you. You had both knees scoped while you're
32:21
Speaker 2: in college. I meant to ask you then, getting a
32:24
Speaker 2: knees scope now is kind of fairly routine, even, I mean,
32:27
Speaker 2: I remember even what you two. Maurice Clerett had a
32:30
Speaker 2: knees scope then he missed one game. What's it like
32:34
Speaker 2: in the mid eighties to get a knee scope? And
32:37
Speaker 2: I guess obviously it's better than the alternative going completely
32:40
Speaker 2: under the knife, so to speak.
32:41
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, while we think about it, you remember who
32:44
Speaker 3: got scoped?
32:44
Speaker 2: Was JT?
32:46
Speaker 3: Before the before the Big ten Championship.
32:48
Speaker 2: That's right, he played the next week after the Michigan
32:51
Speaker 2: You're a very.
32:52
Speaker 3: Incredible yeah, JT. Well, back then it was. And I
32:59
Speaker 3: had other things with my surgery, and I I know
33:03
Speaker 3: you talked to Greg before you can ask sorry all
33:05
Speaker 3: the names of him. I don't know what I had
33:07
Speaker 3: a slack tear or what it was, but I had
33:11
Speaker 3: some to teller tendon issues with all my arthroscopic surgeries
33:17
Speaker 3: where I was never a quick recovery from arthroscoptic surgeries.
33:22
Speaker 3: And I had you know, probably eight to ten surgeries
33:25
Speaker 3: on my left knee, two acls on my lap, which
33:29
Speaker 3: ultimately ended up ended my NFL career. The right K,
33:34
Speaker 3: he's pretty good, had a couple of surgeries on the right,
33:36
Speaker 3: but you know it's U yes, I never had that
33:40
Speaker 3: quick recovery. Let's just sare that way. It's always a
33:44
Speaker 3: two month or more recovery for me.
33:48
Speaker 2: Sure. Well, hey, I've known you a little bit over
33:51
Speaker 2: the last couple of years, and I got to tell
33:53
Speaker 2: you you might be the most unassuming person to have
33:55
Speaker 2: his own IMDb page in Miami. He played a vital
34:01
Speaker 2: role with Jim Carrey and The Eastman through a movie.
34:04
Speaker 2: Even had a bathroom scene with them, Take me through this,
34:09
Speaker 2: And I know Dan Marino was was kind of the
34:11
Speaker 2: key to that whole caper. But what was it like
34:14
Speaker 2: to be in this movie? Well?
34:16
Speaker 3: Dan came to us and asked if we knew he
34:19
Speaker 3: was going to be in this movie, and he said, hey,
34:22
Speaker 3: you know they're willing to have you know, dolphin players
34:25
Speaker 3: and coaches be in it. So I was like, Okay,
34:28
Speaker 3: we'll do it. And so my role at first started
34:31
Speaker 3: out I was going to ride a Harley Davidson, Right, Okay,
34:36
Speaker 3: cool part in the movie. Yeah, let's do this. And
34:40
Speaker 3: so I get a call later on Jim Carrey. They
34:44
Speaker 3: just don't think it's going to work. I don't know
34:47
Speaker 3: if he couldn't ride, or how it would work, you know,
34:49
Speaker 3: the setup for it. So then they told me about
34:53
Speaker 3: my new role, and so I'm like, okay, maybe a
34:56
Speaker 3: little hesitant, but I'll.
34:58
Speaker 2: Still do it.
34:59
Speaker 3: And so I just remember the director was Tom Shadiak,
35:03
Speaker 3: who was fairly well known director. Now, no one really
35:06
Speaker 3: knew how that movie was going to turn out.
35:09
Speaker 2: No, no, it was.
35:12
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was. It was. It's shown all over now.
35:15
Speaker 3: I get calls all the time about it. But then,
35:18
Speaker 3: you know, so I found out my role, which I'm
35:20
Speaker 3: not going to say today. People can watch it and
35:22
Speaker 3: they can figure it out. But I remember that the
35:26
Speaker 3: director asked me, can you bat your eyes like you know,
35:30
Speaker 3: like olive oil and you know, a popeyre. I wish
35:33
Speaker 3: she bat her eyes. And I was like, nope, I
35:36
Speaker 3: cannot do that. So I said, do it all advise,
35:40
Speaker 3: I'll do something, all right. So I kind of made
35:44
Speaker 3: it work on my own. Obviously there's no speaking part,
35:47
Speaker 3: but I just kind of improvised and went with it.
35:50
Speaker 3: We had fun. But what a what a unique experience
35:53
Speaker 3: for me to figure out like what goes into that,
35:57
Speaker 3: Like just most people don't know what goes into football games,
35:59
Speaker 3: like all the hard work behind the scenes in the
36:02
Speaker 3: movie set. I was the second scene of the day.
36:06
Speaker 3: They only did two that day, maybe did three, And
36:09
Speaker 3: so I was there at seven thirty in the morning,
36:12
Speaker 3: you know, where they were concerned that this pro athlete
36:14
Speaker 3: is going to be late. But we didn't start filming
36:16
Speaker 3: in mine till like one o'clock. So and it wasn't
36:20
Speaker 3: so much the film, and it's the lighting and the
36:22
Speaker 3: setup and doing all these various things. So for my part,
36:25
Speaker 3: it was filmed at Dan Reno's Bar down in Coconut Grove, Miami.
36:29
Speaker 3: And and so I'm just sitting at the bar while
36:33
Speaker 3: they're doing lighting with Jim Carrey and he's, you know,
36:36
Speaker 3: he was interested in football and had questions about football,
36:40
Speaker 3: and I'm like, hey, can you do some in living color?
36:43
Speaker 3: Impressing fire Marshall Bill and you know Vanila Iceer. You know,
36:49
Speaker 3: it was okay, I'm sitting here talking to Jim Carrey
36:52
Speaker 3: and at the time he wasn't you know, his big
36:55
Speaker 3: at story in the being. After after that, though, I
36:58
Speaker 3: get calls all time, Hey, your movie's on.
37:03
Speaker 2: What do your kids think about it?
37:05
Speaker 3: Uh? Yeah, they get you know, they're I don't know,
37:11
Speaker 3: I don't know, you know, I don't know that I've
37:13
Speaker 3: ever asked them about it, quite honestly, you know, I
37:16
Speaker 3: think their dad. Are they proud of their dad for it?
37:19
Speaker 3: I'm not sure I'll ask.
37:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, maybe that's something i'd ask them about something.
37:24
Speaker 3: I don't know. How to be for the NFL career
37:26
Speaker 3: and absolutely playing a hot state and proud of proud
37:30
Speaker 3: of their dad.
37:31
Speaker 2: So do you ever think while you're doing this, like,
37:34
Speaker 2: what what would my high school football coach think of me? Now?
37:38
Speaker 3: I see him every once in a while. Jade Graham, Yeah,
37:41
Speaker 3: he's still around, so good question.
37:45
Speaker 2: So you played for the Dolphins. He played for the
37:46
Speaker 2: Saints and the Redskins as they were known then. I
37:49
Speaker 2: don't know we're allowed to say that anymore. What were
37:52
Speaker 2: some highlights of your professional career as you look back on.
37:56
Speaker 3: Well, honestly, in Miami we made the AFC Chanmampionship game
38:01
Speaker 3: and we lost to Buffalo, and interesting enough, I think
38:05
Speaker 3: we were the best team. We just got banged up
38:07
Speaker 3: at the wrong time and didn't play well in that game. Overall,
38:11
Speaker 3: I thought we would have given the Cowboys a game
38:13
Speaker 3: and won the Super Bowl. You know, that's when Buffalo
38:17
Speaker 3: had lost I don't know how many years the span
38:20
Speaker 3: of their four losses were, but they lost four Super Bowls.
38:23
Speaker 2: Yeah right.
38:25
Speaker 3: We had beaten them in Buffalo by close to twenty
38:29
Speaker 3: thirty points, probably a month month and a half before
38:32
Speaker 3: they came into Miami and beat us. We had won
38:35
Speaker 3: the We beat a pretty good San Diego team in
38:40
Speaker 3: Miami by thirty in our first playoff game, and but
38:45
Speaker 3: we were banged up. We were banged up pretty good,
38:48
Speaker 3: and Buffalo got after us and lost the beat us
38:50
Speaker 3: in Miami and handily too. You know, I had surgery
38:55
Speaker 3: after the game. Marino had. We had a bunch of
38:58
Speaker 3: guys have surgery. It's a little more beat up than
39:01
Speaker 3: we let people know about. But that would have been
39:05
Speaker 3: neat to get to the Super Bowl. I've never been to one,
39:08
Speaker 3: and I've got plenty of friends that have Super Bowl rings.
39:13
Speaker 3: Maybe didn't play as much football, but they accomplished the
39:16
Speaker 3: ultimate team goal to win that Super Bowl. It's it's
39:19
Speaker 3: not easy to do. It's just really not so.
39:22
Speaker 2: It really isn't a professional football fans here in Ohio
39:26
Speaker 2: know that I.
39:26
Speaker 3: Mean, it's neat for me to say that I played
39:30
Speaker 3: with Dan Marino. It's that I played with well, you
39:33
Speaker 3: gonna Keith Buyers or a Darryl Green in Washington, thought
39:37
Speaker 3: about playing with the Hall of Famer there, and just
39:40
Speaker 3: some really great players around the around the league, played
39:45
Speaker 3: with a few Hall of famers, So that's just a
39:47
Speaker 3: neat experience. You know, I coach high school kids now.
39:51
Speaker 3: I love coaching high school I enjoy the experience of
39:55
Speaker 3: being with a great program. Coach Kennedy at Waterston High
39:59
Speaker 3: School just does a phenomenal job. Obviously, we have some
40:02
Speaker 3: other Buckeyes on the staff. You do in itself, but
40:07
Speaker 3: I'm way past that old stuff. It's good to remins here, yeah,
40:11
Speaker 3: but I'm all about high school ball, high school well
40:14
Speaker 3: entergy and rankings and growing kids.
40:17
Speaker 2: We've said it many times that the Waterston staff this
40:21
Speaker 2: past couple of years has been among if not the best,
40:24
Speaker 2: in the state of Ohio. And it's it's obviously you
40:27
Speaker 2: got the players too, But you know, let's talk a
40:29
Speaker 2: little bit about after your playing career, you did coach
40:32
Speaker 2: little high school ball back then, You're even with Jim
40:34
Speaker 2: Tressel's staff, I'd like you to tell me what you
40:36
Speaker 2: did there.
40:38
Speaker 3: Well, I coached high school over at Layman Catholic in Sydney,
40:42
Speaker 3: Ohio after moving back from d C. And I had
40:48
Speaker 3: a two year stint there and I taked to coach
40:50
Speaker 3: Trussell after the first year, and he asked me about
40:54
Speaker 3: coming over, and I had said, well to your commitment here.
40:57
Speaker 3: So I honored at the high school and the next
40:59
Speaker 3: year it went over and I was the offensive quality
41:02
Speaker 3: control guy. So you weren't allowed to do so much
41:05
Speaker 3: on the field that you learned the backbones of a
41:08
Speaker 3: college program, how to breakdown film and do stuff that
41:11
Speaker 3: I'd never done before, you know, drawing cards and everything
41:15
Speaker 3: else to help out with that behind the scenes stuff.
41:18
Speaker 3: And there was a great learning lesson and Mark D'Antonio
41:23
Speaker 3: ended up taking me to UC and I went down
41:27
Speaker 3: to the bear Cats spent a year there, and I
41:29
Speaker 3: was kind of at the time, to be honest with you,
41:31
Speaker 3: I was searching, Hey, what do I want to do?
41:35
Speaker 3: Angie and I at the time, we're just starting to date.
41:37
Speaker 3: My wife. Angie don't want to make and so we
41:43
Speaker 3: were trying to figure that out. So I actually jumped
41:46
Speaker 3: to the NFL, went to a good friend Jeff Davidson.
41:48
Speaker 3: I played with Ohio State. Jeff left the Patriots and
41:53
Speaker 3: went with Romeo Cornell for the Browns, and I became
41:56
Speaker 3: an assistant on line coach there, and I just quickly
41:59
Speaker 3: realized that I did not want to be moving around
42:02
Speaker 3: like this, so talked to coach Dreussell wanted to raise
42:05
Speaker 3: a family here locally in Columbus, Ohisle, and became a
42:08
Speaker 3: string coach. So that's how that evolved and grew into it.
42:13
Speaker 3: Quite honestly. I had a pretty strong background and lifting
42:17
Speaker 3: techniques and from all types. At the time, I wasn't certified.
42:21
Speaker 3: I became certified and grew into training Buckeyes. And there's
42:28
Speaker 3: a whole lot that goes into that because it's not
42:31
Speaker 3: all about bench and squat and how to do that.
42:35
Speaker 3: It's about how to teach kids to be disciplined, do
42:39
Speaker 3: all those things day in and day out, and not
42:41
Speaker 3: always on their schedule. So that's the uniqueness of becoming
42:47
Speaker 3: a totally conditioned football player.
42:50
Speaker 2: I got to talk to Curtis Grant recently and he
42:54
Speaker 2: talked about even as Urban came in, like they didn't
42:56
Speaker 2: even do anything with weights for a little bit of
42:59
Speaker 2: what you know. It was it was start from the
43:02
Speaker 2: ground up basically, and get in shape with only your
43:05
Speaker 2: body in the ground and what you could do.
43:07
Speaker 3: That had a little bit to do with the whole culture.
43:11
Speaker 3: We had some players that came in late sure I
43:13
Speaker 3: heard about this meeting with coach Meyer. So we had
43:17
Speaker 3: them come outside. They had to wear their own shorts
43:23
Speaker 3: and T shirts.
43:24
Speaker 2: No special nak gear.
43:25
Speaker 3: Yep, not using any of the laundry, not going to
43:28
Speaker 3: use the Ohio State equipment. You haven't earned it yet.
43:31
Speaker 3: So the process was after about ten two weeks worth
43:37
Speaker 3: of workouts outside. This is cold weather. We're all in it,
43:41
Speaker 3: coaches too, a little bit of snow on the ground,
43:46
Speaker 3: you know. Finally we started letting them in as they
43:49
Speaker 3: earned it. So it was complete meritocracy in terms of
43:52
Speaker 3: earning their way back in. And we had a couple
43:55
Speaker 3: of players that didn't get in there till June and
44:00
Speaker 3: quite aligned with the programs, goals and values at the time.
44:04
Speaker 3: And then there were a few that left credit credit
44:08
Speaker 3: to the kids that they get in there. Finally in
44:10
Speaker 3: jam because there was quite of it.
44:12
Speaker 2: Is that kind of where the black stripe started to
44:14
Speaker 2: kind of like.
44:14
Speaker 3: The little bit that the black stripe was more when
44:18
Speaker 3: you come into camp, and you know, for for t
44:21
Speaker 3: c yes, it came from coach Meyer, and it was
44:24
Speaker 3: to earn it and see what a player can do.
44:28
Speaker 3: You know, sometimes they get a little rushed with that
44:30
Speaker 3: black stripe. I'm not gonna lie. There's a couple I'm like, yeah,
44:36
Speaker 3: no way and uh so, but it's part of coaching.
44:40
Speaker 2: It seems as though Jeremiah Smith earned his as quick
44:42
Speaker 2: as he did. So. Uh you mentioned you brought up
44:47
Speaker 2: Jake t Bert yourself earlier with the knee surgery, but
44:51
Speaker 2: being where you were as a street coach, his reputation
44:55
Speaker 2: was it pretty well earned as far as even as
44:57
Speaker 2: a very early on with his leadership and things like that.
45:01
Speaker 3: Yeah, Tom Herman is the one. He's like, hey, don't
45:04
Speaker 3: discount this kid when he comes in. And I was
45:06
Speaker 3: just amazed at JT's maturity at such a young age
45:11
Speaker 3: or as a coming out of high school where yeah,
45:14
Speaker 3: you're getting padded on the back, and his maturity to
45:16
Speaker 3: do everything precise and toughness, and he was a strong kid.
45:20
Speaker 3: And I think that he had maybe an acl or
45:22
Speaker 3: a broken leg as a senior year in high school,
45:25
Speaker 3: but prevented him from you know, maybe being recruited a
45:29
Speaker 3: little bit harder. So it was his leadership to lead
45:35
Speaker 3: in the weight room and lead at other times when
45:39
Speaker 3: things were tough or there was adversity. He was exceptional
45:42
Speaker 3: in that area.
45:43
Speaker 2: And he got there in thirteen and Braxton goes down
45:46
Speaker 2: in one of the last practices before the season starts
45:48
Speaker 2: in fourteen, and I guess from your perspective, you know,
45:53
Speaker 2: like he jumped right in, didn't you. I mean, he
45:55
Speaker 2: just he just that leadership was really what he what
45:58
Speaker 2: the team needed at that point.
46:00
Speaker 3: He was focused. It was it was never too big
46:03
Speaker 3: for him. You know, there wasn't You know, you have
46:06
Speaker 3: the focus that's narrowed down and you're not looking at
46:09
Speaker 3: all the extra things, like hey, what is this coach
46:13
Speaker 3: thinking me? What is my teammate think of me? What
46:16
Speaker 3: are they thinking about me back home? He's able to
46:18
Speaker 3: focus in and do his job. And you know, he
46:22
Speaker 3: was a kid who worked at it, and he worked
46:27
Speaker 3: at it past the time he was supposed to work
46:30
Speaker 3: at it. So you know, you think everybody does that,
46:33
Speaker 3: but everybody doesn't do that. There are other times to
46:37
Speaker 3: work on things and do extra things. So he always
46:40
Speaker 3: found a way and he was ready. And certainly when
46:43
Speaker 3: you have a quarterback and run the ball and make
46:46
Speaker 3: good decisions. You know, JT dismissed a few throws. You know,
46:50
Speaker 3: that's all his difference from him playing on Sundays. It's
46:54
Speaker 3: maybe just not quite accurate enough. But when you needed,
46:57
Speaker 3: you need it first down, you're going JT, You're gonna, Hey,
47:01
Speaker 3: you're gonna run his own read and let him get
47:03
Speaker 3: it that way. And he proved it time and time
47:07
Speaker 3: in and time out that he's your guy.
47:09
Speaker 2: Third and seven or less. I mean it just it
47:11
Speaker 2: was out pretty. He had such a knack. That's right. Well,
47:15
Speaker 2: before I let you go here, I really appreciate your time.
47:17
Speaker 2: We've talked a little bit about it. You're working now
47:21
Speaker 2: in part coaching these these high school kids, two of
47:23
Speaker 2: which are your own sons. Jake, as you mentioned, he'll
47:26
Speaker 2: play wide receiver beginning at Ashland. He'll be a freshman
47:30
Speaker 2: this fall. And and Ben, he just finished a sophomore
47:33
Speaker 2: season where he played starting linebacker and was a key
47:36
Speaker 2: running back as well for the Eagles on the way
47:38
Speaker 2: to an undefeated state championship. Take me through a kind
47:42
Speaker 2: of the experience you've had in these last couple of years.
47:45
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, you know, we were runner up the
47:48
Speaker 3: year before, Yeah, and I was just I was pleased
47:54
Speaker 3: that we made it, But we did have opportunities in
47:57
Speaker 3: that game to want a lot of people thought we
47:58
Speaker 3: didn't have a chance, but I don't know that. We
48:01
Speaker 3: just totally believed in our program that we could get it.
48:04
Speaker 3: I thought maybe there was a call with the official
48:07
Speaker 3: that could have gone the other way, actually a touchdown
48:09
Speaker 3: that Jake would have had. But anyways, going into this year,
48:12
Speaker 3: we had loss of key leaders. Let's just say Don Purcelle,
48:17
Speaker 3: who was up with mister Aisle and so who was
48:22
Speaker 3: going to fill that? And Ben took his spot, But
48:24
Speaker 3: who's going to fill that leadership role that day in
48:27
Speaker 3: and day out leadership role when it's April, May, June
48:32
Speaker 3: and you're working through all those times where hey, you know,
48:37
Speaker 3: even if you're not going to be at at be
48:39
Speaker 3: at Waterson, are you going to do something somewhere and
48:42
Speaker 3: work be able to work on because we do. We
48:45
Speaker 3: have so many multi sport athletes who are working in
48:47
Speaker 3: different directions and we have the six am workouts but
48:51
Speaker 3: for our for our players over the summer, but sometimes
48:54
Speaker 3: it takes more I mean, I know it takes more.
48:57
Speaker 3: So we have a off more class that had a
49:02
Speaker 3: lot of kids that played on defense for US this
49:04
Speaker 3: year and some contribute on offense as well.
49:08
Speaker 2: And it's it's a special.
49:10
Speaker 3: Classes class coming up as juniors, and they've been doing
49:13
Speaker 3: stuff together for a while now, even from different parochial
49:17
Speaker 3: grade schools. They did a lot of things growing up
49:20
Speaker 3: together that made that class unique. You know, they're not
49:24
Speaker 3: all going to play, they're all going to compete and
49:27
Speaker 3: help in some way, and it's it's a unique class.
49:31
Speaker 3: But then of course you've got a quarterback coming back, Gregson, who's.
49:36
Speaker 2: Drew.
49:37
Speaker 3: You have a returning quarterback this year who last year
49:41
Speaker 3: you know, was a first year starter and the year
49:44
Speaker 3: before he had gotten hurt so he didn't get a
49:46
Speaker 3: lot of reps at quarterback. So his growth and maturation
49:50
Speaker 3: has been really cool to see a really talented kid. Obviously,
49:54
Speaker 3: Pete Glidas, you know, our left tackle. He's going to
49:58
Speaker 3: be a senior. You know, we have you know, a
50:00
Speaker 3: couple of sophomores that are pretty good too. It was
50:03
Speaker 3: again name and a lot of players. But I would
50:06
Speaker 3: tell you that coach Kennedy's just done a phenomenal job
50:09
Speaker 3: with the culture. Yes, he's brought in some good coaches,
50:13
Speaker 3: but he takes heeds advice, He does what he needs
50:16
Speaker 3: to do to run the program. He's got a great
50:19
Speaker 3: relationship with the players and that he can ride him
50:22
Speaker 3: and he can also pat him on the back and
50:24
Speaker 3: he knows when to do that. So that's a real
50:26
Speaker 3: credit to coach in the way he's handled the whole situation.
50:30
Speaker 3: And uh so last year to go sixteen and I
50:33
Speaker 3: have as many running clocks as we did. We definitely
50:37
Speaker 3: have great talent there. We put a great year together,
50:39
Speaker 3: and the next year's coming up, there's gonna be no surprises.
50:42
Speaker 2: Everybody knows what that's right, thirteen and sixteen games, you're
50:45
Speaker 2: running clocks.
50:46
Speaker 3: That's a lot of challenges to come next year.
50:50
Speaker 2: Well, hey, it's been fun to see that unfold. And also,
50:53
Speaker 2: like as a highest State fans, you already started to
50:56
Speaker 2: see some of these names you mentioned Peter Gleidis, there's
50:59
Speaker 2: even Drew and always been to the Woody Hayes facility
51:01
Speaker 2: and you know, unofficial visit type situations and uh you know,
51:07
Speaker 2: you've you've got Ryan Radzinski, who's who's on the Ohigh
51:10
Speaker 2: State football team. He's a watersome grad. So uh, it's
51:13
Speaker 2: it's starting to pump out some players here and it's
51:15
Speaker 2: pretty fun to watch. But Jeff, it's been so fun
51:18
Speaker 2: to go down through the years with you. You you've
51:21
Speaker 2: had you've had a hand in the Ohio state teams,
51:23
Speaker 2: even as a player, as a as an assistant coach,
51:25
Speaker 2: as a strength coach. Getting some of these memories was
51:28
Speaker 2: really great, So thank you.
51:30
Speaker 3: It's fun to reminez. I'm glad I can remember most.
51:34
Speaker 3: That's a lot of stories there, so it was fun.
51:37
Speaker 3: Thanks for having me so well.
51:38
Speaker 2: Thanks for tuning in to Buckeye Banter on Buckeye Huddle.
51:42
Speaker 2: Please like and subscribe wherever you see fit and you
51:45
Speaker 2: can get us on all podcasting platforms for Jeff Yill
51:50
Speaker 2: Nate Think. Thanks so much for your time again, have
51:52
Speaker 2: a great day, everybody, go back