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Ohio State Football Insider: Carlos Locklyn Arrives, Young Safeties Stand Out · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Welcome to buck Eyes tomorrow morning for Thursday or fourth I'm your host, Tom
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  or the Akron game in one hundred and forty nine days the game against Michigan
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  in two hundred and forty days. The Ohio State Buckeyes are now officially two
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  thirds of the way through spring football. They held practice number ten on Wednesday,
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  and there was a new face inside the Woody Hayes Athletic Center was Carlos
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  Lachlan, the new running backs coach for the buck Eyes. He arrived late
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  Tuesday night into Columbus and then was on the practice field on Wednesday with the
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  buck Eyes. Tony Gurdiman was there as well on Wednesday. He joins me
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  now to talk about what we learned from some of the interviews after that practice.
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  Tony, I guess let's start with Carlos Lachlan. Did not get a
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  chance to talk to him, but we did will get a chance to do
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  that apparently sometime next week. We did get a chance, however, to
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  talk to a couple of running backs. So what was what are the first
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  impressions of Carlos Lachlan, Ohio State running backs coach? Well, I think
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  maybe the most important thing is that these weren't first impressions because all of the
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  running backs knew him. I already knew him from recruiting from Oregon or when
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  we talked with Dlan Hayden. He was familiar with him from when Lachlan was
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  in Memphis, because that's where Dylan Hayden is from. So more first impressions
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  on the field as a coach were that he was pretty quiet today, and
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  I think when you look at Carlos Lachlan, you're like, I don't that
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  dude probably isn't quiet during practice, and he was today, and I think
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  it's just a matter of soaking things in, watching, getting a first hand
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  view, and you know, you want to see what you've got there.
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  And so he did obviously offer some feedback here and there, but was relatively
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  quiet throughout. And so I asked Quinn Shawn Judkins, is that pretty disconcerting
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  because you're looking for feedback? And he's like, yeah, it was a
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  little odd, but to be expected, I guess, And Dallan Hayden said
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  it was to be expected based on the fact that you're just he's coming in
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  and assessing the situation, seeing what he's working with before really getting into the
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  nitty gritty. But as we've talked about on this show and Buckeye Weekly,
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  Lachlan takes this position very seriously and has talked about how it's the worst coach
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  position in football. So he's doing some studying right now of his players.
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  Yeah, if you figure there's probably a little bit of a ramp up time
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  in terms of figuring out the playbook and the players and how they do things
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  and how they run practice and all that kind of stuff. You're also if
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  you flew in last night jet lag, it's a real thing. I can
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  I can sympathize with the West coast to East coast late night flight and having
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  to get up and be a functional adult in the morning. It is not
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  the easiest thing in the world. So yeah, So that is Carlos Lachlan's
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  first practice at Ohio State. We will get a chance to talk to him
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  next week when he is probably a little better situated in the building and with
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  the players and in terms of all of that stuff, probably any more normal
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  sleep schedule as well, So we'll have more on him next week. We
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  got the chance to talk to Ohio State safe he's coach Matt Greary as well
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  on Tuesday Wednesday. Goodness, it has been a week and a half already
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  on Wednesday, and you can they have had a couple you know, Caleb
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  Downs is one thing, and we'll get to Caleb Downs in a minute.
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  But some of the younger guys in that room, Jaden Bondsu, Jayleen McLain
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  have made the most of their opportunity to spring. With leyth and Ransom still
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  kind of working his way back, there have been more snaps available in that
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  room, and with Malie Cartford kind of on the shelf as well. So
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  what did Matt Greary have to say about some of those younger safeties. Yeah,
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  we saw Jayden Bonsu with the ones on Saturday, so he was asked
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  about and similar to what Ryan Day had said that he he doesn't make the
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  same mistake twice. He learns from it. And now he's just getting a
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  ton of really good raps. So he's really learning from stuff and going against
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  really good players and the whole iron sharpening iron things. So he is growing
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  from that and he already looks like a college football player. He's like he's
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  listened to like six two two oh seven, so like this is a a
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  good sized safety who they're not necessarily hitting very hard right now, but can't
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  eventually do that, and so they like what he's doing and he's continuing to
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  do it. He's, like I said, getting really good reps with Lathan
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  Ransom just coming back slowly. Jalen McLain. He said that freshman playing free
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  safety is the number two free safety right now most of the time when we
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  see them behind Caleb Downs and I remember the first time we saw him in
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  spring. He's he's calling things out, he's running, he's doing things that
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  is that the free safety has to do. But it's a tough ask for
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  a free safety to be doing that. So Garary said that McLain is one
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  of the guys who scores highest on just getting to the football, and that's
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  not necessarily making plays on the football. It's just tracking the football, running
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  to the football. He's always he's just an effort guy and he's always heading
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  for the football. So they like that about him as well. So good
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  spring for both of those guys. Bonsa redsher freshman, l the true freshman,
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  someone else who is going to score pretty well. Another second year player
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  with a little more experience than those two guys, Caleb Downs, but of
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  the star of the Ohio State Safety room this spring. Matt Greary probably pretty
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  darn happy to be working with a Caleb Downs after being the codc at Indiana
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  last year and working with a bunch of Indiana players who you know were Big
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  ten caliber but are notably not Caleb Downs. So what did Greary have to
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  say about getting a chance to have someone like Caleb Downs in his room?
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  Yeah, so he's an elite player, which we would come to expect that,
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  But when you have a player like Caleb Downs who is at the top
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  of his game, it requires the coaches to be at the top of their
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  game as well, and so it's challenging and it's a good thing for the
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  coaches to have to be to be challenged by your players to get the most
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  out of yourself, get the most out of your players. And I have
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  found it interesting whatever we have. I think we've done two interviews now with
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  Caleb Downs. Action for people are like, does he not like this?
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  Is he not having any fun? And he looks like he's just short with
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  his answers at times, and that's just how serious he is. And Denzel
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  Burke was always a very serious guy. He's kind of lightened up, but
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  he still is a truth teller and he's serious about the business. Caleb Downs
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  is like that to me, just a serious guy. He's gonna give you
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  some matter of fact answers. And I would really like to just I got
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  to get back and watch some film if we could just speed this along.
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  And so I think that's kind of I don't think you mind that with the
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  quarterback of years secondary. If you can cross the honesty of a Denzel Burke
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  with the can I just go please watch some film of Tommy Eikenberg. Boy,
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  that is like an incredible vultron of Ohio state football interview styles over the
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  last few years. All Right, So kilea downs HILLO Downs truth teller,
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  Caleb Downs telling it like it is what he goes up against these wide receivers
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  every day in practice. What are his impressions of the Ohio state wide receiver?
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  Yeah, I asked him about Jeremiah Smith because we saw them going at
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  it a little bit in some of the clips or some of the plays when
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  we were there at practice. But I asked him his impressions and he said,
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  he's a very elite athlete, a very instinctual player, he has great
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  ball skills and he should have a big impact this year. So then I
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  said, is there anybody that you could compare him to that you've seen before?
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  And he said, no, JJ is his own self. JJ is
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  his own man Tom. And then somebody else asked him, is there anybody
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  else in that receiver room that is elite? And he said, ah,
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  Mecha Buka, who he watched in high school, watched last year as well,
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  and said he's an elite receiver, then an elite receiver now. And
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  then he also said that Carnel Tate has had a great spring as well.
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  Good a chance also on Wednesday to talk to James Laurnidis, who is He's
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  turning into one of my favorite interviews because he'll give you stuff that's just it's
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  just a little twist on what you're sort of expecting them to talk about,
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  and he just has a different perspective on things. And give you a couple
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  examples here Tony can spell things out a little bit for you. One of
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  them that I thought was really interesting was how you know you talk about it's
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  you know, ohigh stage recruiting. These really top players, really elite players,
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  best high school football players in the nation every year at all these position
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  groups, So you know, you're kind of if you're a veteran guy and
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  you're trying to win a job or keep a job, you're always kind of
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  looking over your shoulders, like, boy, you got all these five star
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  guys coming out of high school trying to take your job. He talked about
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  though, the fact that that mentality having to sort of win your job every
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  day in practice and defend your job every day in practice kind of prepares you
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  for the NFL. Yeah, and he being a former three star linebacker out
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  of Minnesota, talked about how I O'thio State. They were trying to recruit
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  over him every year, And I think that's the case for most positions because
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  you're trying to get better and you're not trying to get worse, So you're
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  not just I won't try to get another James Lord ninis. Now you're going
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  to try to get a four star from Minnesota next time. And so that
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  mentality of the school recruit trying to recruit over you, then it takes you
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  to the NFL where teams are trying to draft over you, and James Lornis
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  being like I think a second round pick, like the all time leading tackler
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  in Saint Louis Rams history, but still, you know what if you can
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  upgrade that position. And he just carried that mentality with him the entire time.
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  And he mentioned when he was probably a freshman in two thousand and five
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  watching Marcus Freeman and John Kerr sharing reps and sharing snaps at an outside linebacker
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  position, and his mentality was like, if those guys would have to share
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  reps and battle for a spot, Marcus Freeman being like a former high four
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  star guy and John Kerr being a former starter at Indiana and transferring to ohiostate,
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  of course, what James do I have of holding on to a spot
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  without really really doing my best? And so I think he's carried that mentality
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  into the NFL and then probably now as a coach somehow. And now as
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  a coach, he's trying to recruit the players to trying to hold onto those
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  jobs or to try and win those jobs out from the other guys. And
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  you mentioned he was a three star, very unheralded prospect out of Minnesota.
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  He is not recruiting a lot of three stars to Ohio State. The Ohio
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  State typically is fishing in the deeper end of the pond where the four and
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  the five star guys live. And Laura and I just talked about the fact
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  that most of the guys he's recruiting are way more athletic than he is,
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  which gives him this really unique opportunity because he had to do stuff the hard
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  way. So some of these guys, you know, it doesn't it's not
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  like the old Staples easy button exactly, but it's you know, you don't
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  necessarily have to scratch and claw quite as much as James Lerni did, But
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  if he can get them to do that, that just raises the ceiling even
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  more. Yeah, kind of the best of both worlds type of thing.
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  And I did ask him, you know, how do you marry that kind
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  of mentality that you had but you needed it and you're recruiting four star,
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  five star guys that are talented enough maybe they don't need to claw for it.
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  And he said, you figure that out during the recruiting process, because
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  through dealing and talking with players, you'll find out Ohio State is too big
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  for them and so you move on. And so that's something that you have
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  to find out in recruiting. But then if you can get that mentality to
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  the players that you've now landed and that are at Ohio State where they are,
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  the effort is always there. As he said, I'm not coaching effort.
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  That shouldn't have to be something I coach. That should be coming,
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  that's easy. That's one of those no talent things that Ryan Day talks about,
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  and the no talent things of the other coaches talk about. I'm not
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  coaching effort that should just be there. That is a given, and you
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  coach everything else up if you don't have to coach up the effort and that's
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  already there, and the playbook aspect of it, like if you are a
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  smart player, not just not necessarily just the playbook, but don't be a
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  dumb player. And if you are a smart player and you have effort,
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  that's half the battle. They'll coach you up on everything else. And that's
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  what set him apart, was the effort and the knowledge of the defense as
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  a player, because as he said, there are a lot more athletic guys
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  than he was. He was never the most athletic guy, but he did
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  everything else he could to raise his level. And that's what he's trying to
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  pass on to better athletes now, well, he will continue trying to pass
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  that on to the better athletes for the next five spring practices, ending in
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  the Spring game next Saturday, April thirteenth, at noon inside Ohio Stadium.
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  I just pulled up the long range forecast then, delighted to inform you it
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  is currently calling for sixty six degrees and mostly sunshine. Boy, I hope
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  that's it, because that would be a lovely day inside Ohio Stadium. Always
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  look forward to the spring game, has chance to get outside and see some
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  football and see see everyone in person again. Nice if it was sunny,
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  is sunny and warm as well. We will be there covering all of that
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  for you at Buckeye Uddle dot com. You can get tickets at Ohio statepuckeyes
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  dot com ten dollars a ticket right now. Tickets still available, and you
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  can watch it on national TV. I keep saying that because at some point
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  I will believe that it is true. Nationally televised Spring game on Fox next
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  Saturday from Ohio Stadium. We'll be covering all sorts of stuff in the lead
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  up to that game for the next week or so. Week and a half
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  at Buckey Huddle dot com and YouTube dot com slash Buckeye Huddle. A lot
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  to talk about. We talked on yesterdays show about some of the unresolved position
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  battles. A lot of these young guys make it it getting a chance to
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  step up and make a bigger impression on the coaching staff, perhaps win a
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  bigger role this fall. Lots of interesting stuff happening there. It's been a
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  very busy week for the Ohio State basketball program, men's and women's actually as
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  well, with people going into the transfer portal, people saying they're gonna take
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  it around for another year at transfer portal. Addition, for the men's basketball
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  team, we're going to get to that at some point this week. We
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  have a lot of stuff to talk about all at pucke Huddle dot com.
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  Hoo will you will join us there talk about all of that and much more
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  bub Blue for today. Thank you guys all for joining us. Have a
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  great day. We'll talk to you tomorrow.