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The 5 Toughest Games On Ohio State's 2024 Schedule · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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Welcome to buck Eyes tomorrow morning for Thursday, July eleventh. I'm your host,
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Tom Or the Acrin game in fifty one days, the game against Michigan
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in one hundred and forty two days. We're going to be talking today about
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the toughest games on Ohio State schedule. I'm going to give you a little
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hint. One of the two games we just talked about Akron and Michigan is
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going to appear on this list. The other one, respectfully, is not.
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I will leave it up for you to figure out which one is which.
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We're going to do that today with our buddy vinnwon at bucke huddle dot
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com and Kevin. When you look at the top, you know, the
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top tier of Ohio States games this year, there are some really really significant
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national games on that list, and then you get past about five and it's
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like, oh boy, there is not a lot there. So let's focus
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on those top five. It really feels like there are five games that are
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even conceivably losable for Ohio State. The toughest one, at least in my
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eyes, got to be October twelfth at Oregon. It comes the week after
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what could be a very physical game against I Well, and Oregon and Ohio
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State both obviously projected as top three ish four ish teams in the country.
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To me, if Ohio State is going to lose one game this year,
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that is the most likely one where that could happen. Yeah, and the
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odds makers still are kind of going back and forth. I've seen Oregon as
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a favorite, I've seen Ohio State as a one point road favorite. I
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mean, it should just show the level of that type of that game,
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because Ohio State is a pretty significant favorite in lines that we've seen at this
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point. These it can still kind of considered on the future side of things.
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These are not you know, week of type of lines or anything like
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that. But you go cross country play a top team autin stadium, no
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matter what EA Sports says, is one of the most difficult places to go
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and play at. The noise just sits on top of you. So you
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know, I'm really interested in that one, that one far and away.
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I mean, that could be two versus three in the country. I mean,
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if things happen, you know, things happen, it could be one
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versus two. I mean, it's it's kind of the game of the year
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at that point. But We know that when you play the game of the
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Year in mid October, there's always going to be another game coming up later
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in the year, and it may not involve either of those two teams that
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ends up taking that title. But the crazy thing to think about is in
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this new era of the twelve team playoffs, this could be Ohio State versus
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Oregon, Part one of three. This could be the Star Wars trilogy,
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because I'm the rest of It's not cannon in my book, but this could
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be the first or three matchups, with the second coming in Indianapolis and the
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third happening somewhere in the playoffs. But you know, I'm really looking forward
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to this one. Obviously. This is you know, this makes up for
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twenty twenty where we did not get the chance to go to go out to
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go out there and see that that would not have been a conference game.
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This is a conference game. Kind of weird to think about it being a
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conference game, but I'm ready for it. On October twelve, maybe the
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best day of the entire season when you look at the entire schedule. Yeah,
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that is a That is a fantastic weekend, and we may do a
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whole show on the best weeks of this college football season at some point in
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the next few days or weeks. But yeah, that one. I just
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was pulling up the sp plus rankings, the post spring post spring sp plus
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rankings. Ohio State is just under two points better than Oregon in those,
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and then you figure Oregon gets three four ish points for home field advantage.
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It is. That is shaping up to be a fantastic, very high stakes,
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very high quality game. Very much looking forward to that one. That's
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definitely Ohio State's toughest road game and toughest game on the regular season schedule.
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But the second toughest game, well that's probably also on the road. That
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is to me at least at Penn State November two. And I know I
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can hear the Michigan people in the comments already. Well yeah, I was
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saying it hasn't beatn Michigan three years. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we
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know everyone is aware that is a home game. JJ McCarthy is not walking
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through that door. Korum is not walking through that door. They're basically the
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entire twenty twenty three offense is not walking through that door. So we'll get
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to the Michigan game in a minute. But me Kevin number two at Penn
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State November second, And this is another one where Ohio State does not have
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a ton of very difficult games. But the Oregon game comes the week after
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Iowa. This Penn State game comes the week after a home game against Nebraska,
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where which you know, the Huskers are not incredible, the Huskers are
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not national championship contenders. But that's we're going to be talking about that Nebraska
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game in a minute. And anytime you go to state college, Ohio State
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has had a lot of success there, but it has generally not come very
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easy. No, it's not come very easy. I mean that you know,
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that's the kind of game where JT. Twamolo al needs to stand on
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his head and go nuts or something like that. Ohio State does have a
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very nice lead in that series, especially in wide out games, which we
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don't know if it's going to be a wide out I mean, we're with
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who's going to carry the game? I mean, are we're still talking about
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the World Series being on? Does does that end up falling into a big
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noon type of game? But I mean it still gets really you know,
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really loud there and uh Ohio State getting into into early November that's around the
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time that the first CFP rankings come out. You have to wonder if they
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start buying into their own press clippings at that point and you know, Stubb
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their toe. You know, on the other side, Drew Alar has not
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necessarily emerged into the quarterback that everybody in state college has hoped to see out
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of them. But you know, time, time will tell. Julian Fleming
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will be playing in that game, but he'll be wearing blue and white instead
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of scarlett and gray. As what appears to be Penn State's number one receiver
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at this point after KeAndre Lambert Smith transferred out. You know, you're still
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talking about a team that is strong in the running game with with ca Tron
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Allen and Nick Singleton. But really the biggest thing for me is on the
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defensive side. Abdul Carter there, you know, fantastic linebacker. I mean,
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that's going to be the guy that Ohio State's going to have to account
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for. On paper, I still see Ohio State being two score favorite.
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But let's go back to what was it twenty eighteen, and I thought that
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Ohio State team was significantly better and things happened, and then Ohio State came
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out with the al so you just don't know. That was twenty sixteen and
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that took a lot. And that is the only time Ohio State has lost
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two Penn State in state college since what twenty eleven, I believe, and
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I can remember a number of Penn State games though that ended up very very
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close, where you know, Ohio State was probably the better team. I
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even go back to two thousand and three where they survived a big, big
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scare. Penn State had a long field goal right at the gun, maybe
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a fifty five or sixty yarder at the gun to win it, and Ohio
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State ended up winning something like twenty one to twenty. But you go through
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over the years and they needed the Ben Victor and kJ Hill touchdowns in twenty
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eighteen, and then twenty twenty was kind of a weird one because you didn't
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have the crowd. Twenty twenty two, Ohio State was down in the fourth
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quarter I believe, before you had the a long touchdown run from Trey Van
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Henderson and as you mentioned, the JT. Twee Molwell plays, So yeah,
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I was. That is never a really fun easy place for Ohio State
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to play. They have had pretty good success ultimately, you know, when
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the clock hit zero. But we will see whether that continues this year.
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A team that Ohio State has not had a ton of success against in the
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at least very recent past is Michigan. Surprise, surprise, It is the
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last game on the regular season schedule November thirtieth, one hundred and forty two
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days from now. You know, I know, Michigan is losing a lot
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of guys. They have basically almost an entirely new offense, Colston Lovelin the
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only returning starter on offense, but that defense should be pretty darn good.
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And you got to remember this is it is so strange to say, after
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Ohio State just basically owned that series for close to two decades, there are
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basically no Buckeyes who have played in a win over Michigan who are on the
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roster now. So that is that is a just a remarkable turn in the
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series. And yes, it took a global endemic in an a three year
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stretch for that to happen, but here we are, Michigan, Kevin number
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three on that list. Will the n C two A serve a notice of
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allegations before that game? I mean, I'm putting a lot of months of
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runway up there. Obviously, there's you know, a lot floating up there
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in the ether. But once foot meets leather, nobody's really going to be
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thinking about that at that point. But you know, it's it is what
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it is. Ohio State's going to have to deal with a tremendous front for
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Michigan, with with with their defensive tackles. I mean, obviously, Will
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Johnson is a incredible player. You know, I've not even the most staunch
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Ohio State fans out there have not been able to do anything really to detegrate
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the abilities of those types of players. But you have to wonder about the
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Michigan offense. I mean, Alex org is much more of a runner than
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a thrower. So what does that mean when you're only starter is a tight
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end that you're supposed to throw it to in coastal Lovelin As you mentioned,
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well, you know we're going to see a reworked offensive line. We're going
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to see Donovan Edwards, you know, really tote the rock a lot for
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them. He has certainly given Ohio State some fits. But you know,
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yeah, but yeah, but Ohio State we're in situations of where it had
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to completely sell out and it took one move for him to go for big
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touchdowns. So we're going to hear about that one a lot. But ultimately,
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for me, the biggest thing there is going to be if Ohio State
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navigates eleven minds in the minefield and gets up to this game, does you
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know, does the enormity of it? Does you know, haven't have not
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beat Michigan in the last three attempts, being able to get in and potentially
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be a one seed in the College Football Playoff? Does that you know?
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Does that get into their minds? So I think this one is much more
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of a mental test than maybe a physical test. And I can hear my
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comments going nuts right now, but I think it's much more of a mental
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test. Ohio State. It really has to get that nine hundred pound gorilla
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off its back. And you know, on paper, Ohio State is a
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significant favorite in my book, but I lived through the Cooper years, so
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I know things happen. Yeah, things definitely can happen in that series.
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Just looking at the st plus rankings, it looks like it's more of a
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like a touchdown or so favorite, give or take for Ohio State. In
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that game touchdown to eight nine points something like that, including a home field
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advantage. So you know, definitely definitely not the twenty twenty what thirty point
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spread or whatever that was. But yeah, i should be a favorite coming
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in this year and we'll see how that goes when we get there. Plenty
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of football that happened though before then, including you know, I think there's
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a big drop off here between games three and four on this list. You've
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got Oregon, You've got Penn State, You've got Michigan. All three are
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teams that you've seen predicted to make the college football Playoff by a number of
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you know, credible national sources. Now you're kind of getting more into the
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college football Playoff dark horse kind of well if everything goes right kind of range.
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And that's with Iowa and you know Iowa, you kind of know what
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you're getting with Iowa on defense. Iowa now has a new offensive coordinator,
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so maybe we don't know what you're getting with Iowa on offense. This is
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one where Ohio State should just be able to out talent them, but Iowa
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just has a way of just making things just kind of a little more difficult
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than they maybe need to be for opponents. Sometimes I'd be a lot more
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concerned about this one if it were in Iowa City rather than Columbus. We
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know that Iowa is good for at least one crazy upset at home a year
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on the road. It's a little bit of a different story. Iowa on
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defense does lose Cooper to Gene, which is a big loss for them,
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but they have such a fundamental system in place that you know, it's just
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kind of plug and play. And I'm not saying that somebody's going to step
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up and be the next Cooper to Jene. You know, he was a
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talented athlete on it his own. But yeah, you have to wonder offensively
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what the Hawkeys are going to be able to do. They certainly had to
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hit the portal and try and maybe wash off some of the Brian Farrens stink
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of lack of offense. You kind of have to wonder how Kirk parents feels
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about all of this. I mean, it's not like he's going to sit
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there and submarine his own team or anything like that. But it wasn't necessarily
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his choice to send his son to the breadline. Yeah. I have a
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hard time putting this game in the same conversation with the other three games,
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but we also have memories of Iowa, you know, playing spoiler for Ohio
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State again. Granted it was at Iowa City, but you know, I
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guess it goes to just show where Ohio State schedule is and how top heavy
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it is with three games and then we're kind of having to to pick through
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the crumbs right now to fill out the list. Yeah, this feels like
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you might kind of have three tiers where you've got the top tier and then
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you have tier number two, which is Iowa. So that's the fourth most
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difficult game, and then we're probably taking another jump down out of the College
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Football Playoff dark horse level down to the you know, probably going to be
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much better than they have been recently, but that could mean anything from eight
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to four to ten and two kind of tier. And that's Nebraska. Buckeyes
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get them at home as well. So this is three of the five are
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at home, which is beneficial for Ohio State. This is a cover twenty
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six. This is the week before Penn State, so maybe you got a
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little bit of a look ahead there if you go through Nebraska's schedule, though,
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Kevin, it feels like the Huskers could come in with one loss,
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maybe undefeated, Like there's there's not a definite loss on their schedule before you
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before they get to Columbus, And you know, I feel like there is
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a certain amount of you know, every year we're waiting and this is the
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year that Nebraska's finally going to get out, you know, get over the
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hump and make it back to a bowl game. From the first time since
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what twenty sixteen, twenty seventeen, it has been a for the Huskers.
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Is this a year that Nebraska could at least make things somewhat interesting in Columbus
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Or is this really should this have really just been the fore most difficult games.
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I don't how it ed schedule year in and year out. I have
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been way too bullish on Nebraska except for maybe last year. Last year,
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I'm like, I'm not falling for the trick again. I'm not falling for
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it this year. I'm not falling for it again. But you're absolutely right,
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Nebraska could come into Columbus undefeated at worst, probably one loss. I
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think a lot of it's going to be on the arm and legs of Dylan
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Roola, the quarterback. Nebraska did go out and pick up a tremendous Naia
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quarterback, and you have to wonder if that was just more of a having
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a veteran quarterback in the room, or maybe Dylan Reola isn't necessarily setting the
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world on fire. I'll have a step up from Naia to not only Division
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one A, but Power two. Let's be honest, you know, apologies
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to the ACC and the Big twelve, but Power two in that type of
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situation, I think really one of the biggest things that's going to determine the
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success the team is going to be just how quickly that defense comes along.
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Nebraska has played a lot of close games over the last couple of years.
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I think it's going to I think Nebraska is going to be hard press though,
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to play Ohio State close. Though then again, though we we said
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that at the end of the Scott Frost era, the year that they only
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were I mean that they were losing games by nine points or less. And
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I think they're going to be better offensively, but I don't know just how
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great they're going to be defensively. I think that that one probably, as
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you said, falls into the third tier of games, and when people do
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try to defend Ohio State schedule. I mean it's going to be pretty thin.
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It's going to be like, well, look at the top three games
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on the list. Don't look at the other nine behind the curtain, because
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they're not they're not so much. Yeah, there's definitely I think Nebraska might
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be all by itself in that third tier because once you get past them,
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that's five regular season games. They have three bad non conference games this year
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Acran Western, Michigan and Marshall and you know, let's this is you got
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to put sort of the same caveat that you put on you know, some
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of the other some of the I think twenty nineteen they had one weird year
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where they didn't have a power conference opponent to Cincinnati with the best opponent that
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year non conference. This year, they were supposed to be playing Washington and
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that obviously got taken off the schedule because that was that became a conference game
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that you know that so you could not play them out of conference, So
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that got taken off the schedule. So you had there's an asterisk behind this
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is a terrible non conference schedule. But it's a terrible non conference schedule.
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And then if you look at the other four conference games that they're playing.
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Purdue is ranked fifteenth out of eighteen in the Big Ten in SP plus coming
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out of the spring. Northwestern is sixteenth out of eighteen, Michigan State is
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seventeenth out of eighteen, and Indiana is eighteenth out of eighteen. That just
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there is just not a lot of There's not a lot of there there behind
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the top level schedule. But man, you put those you put those five
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games we just talked about on there, and you put a game at Wrigley
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Field on there, that's half the regular season. That is pretty darn interesting.
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That is not a bad batting average for this day and age in college
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football. When those games happen, good or bad, Kevin and I will
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be there along with Tony as we are with Bucky Huddle dot Com. That's
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where we cover the team, got Mark Covery recruiting, get our whole team
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of excess and those grows there to make you a smarter football fan. It's
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a really fun and active forward. The Huddle Board presented by Jeff Ruby Stakhouse
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It's a great way to support the work that we do and also have a
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great some great insight and analysis into this year's Buckeye team during what should be
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a pretty interesting season. So that'll do it for today. Thank you guys
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all for joining us, have a great day. We'll talk to you tomorrow