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Ohio State vs. Notre Dame Preview: Are Irish Corners Ready For The Buckeye Receivers? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Welcome to Buckeyes Tomorrow morning for Tuesday, September nineteenth. I'm your host,
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  tom Or. The Notre Dame game is in four days, the game against
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  Michigan in sixty seven days. I'm guessing you guys maybe have started to pick
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  up on this, but we have a typical pattern for these shows. During
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  the week Sunday show, we're typically talking about a recap of the previous day's
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  game Monday. Let you hear directly from Ryan Day, maybe some of the
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  Buckeyes about that previous game Tuesday. A lot of times we're talking recruiting,
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  maybe something like that. Today is not a normal Tuesday show because this is
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  not a normal Ohio State game week. This is Ohio State and Notre Dame,
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  Buckeyes and Fighting Irish, two of the most storied programs in history,
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  two top ten teams playing in South Bend for just the second time in close
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  to ninety years. Yeah, it's kind of a big deal. So we're
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  gonna be doing something a little different today. We're gonna be letting you hear
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  from the opposing coach, Marcus Freeman, the opposing starting quarterback Sam Hartman.
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  Again, this is not something we typically do but Marcus Freeman does his press
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  conference or did his press conference on Monday this week. Anyway, Duck Sam
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  Hartman, the Notre Dame quarterback as well as we're goodman letting you here directly
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  from those guys on the Notre Dame perspective on this week's game. We'll be
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  back on our normal schedule tomorrow, don't you worry. But let's start with
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  this for Marcus Freeman, he he was just some general thoughts on the game.
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  What is it? What are just some general thoughts. I'm getting to
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  face his alma mater in this kind of a massive matchup. Obviously, we
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  have a great opponent coming in. We're excited about, you know, the
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  chance to go against a top tier opponent for sure, and we're excited about
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  just the atmosphere, the experience that's going to be here with College Game Day
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  and the Pat McAfee show and you know NBC, and you know, we
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  get to finally wear the green uniform. So why they talked me into wearing
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  a green jack today and so I said I'll wear it. And so we
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  expect to see a lot of green in that stadium. And I think it's
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  going to be a really cool opportunity, a great opportunity on Saturday night to
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  you know, play a great opponent and uh, Notre Dame Stadium. So
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  you know, we gotta continue to focus on what it will take to have
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  success on Saturday, and that's having a great Monday and making sure that we
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  really focus on and proving today and really staying focused on the present and so
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  and and you know, I'm looking forward to seeing you know, Ryan Day
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  again. He's done an unbelievable job of leading that program. You know,
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  I've told him every time I talked to him that, you know, he
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  has just done a tremendous job of of you know, really leading that program.
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  So we know it's going to be a really good opponent with a great
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  coaching staff, and we're looking forward to that. If you've been hanging out
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  on the Ohio State section of the Internet, you might be into the impression
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  that the Buckeyes are the only team with any questions lingering so already this season.
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  But don't worry, there are some questions for Notre Dame as well.
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  Not everything is perfect on the Irish sideline, So let's talk about some of
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  the things that maybe be a little bit of concerns for the Notre Dame so
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  far through there a few games of the season, an we tackling and penalties.
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  What is a Notre Dame doing this week in practice to try and address
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  those issues? You know, I think we've worked tremendous on tackling and and
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  there's an element of safety that you can't tackle live and in practice you can
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  do drills, and we'll do drills. You know. The reality is we
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  miss I think three tackles on the one drive that they scored a touchdown.
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  Really for the rest of the game, they did a good job. I
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  think we've had one or two missed tackles after that, But the three miss
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  tackles on the one drive that leads to a touchdown is what you can't have,
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  you know. And they're good too, right, You're gonna miss tackles.
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  That's part of the game of football. But you have to continue to
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  show them how to improve with that and really work on in and practice right
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  without going live. And then as far as the penalties, right again,
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  as I said after the game, is it a selfish penalty or is it
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  a fundamental penalty? Right? And and you know Riley's penalty can't happen.
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  He's got to be smarten. He is. He knew right after he did
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  it. He was smart enough. But you know, Josh Burnham, he's
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  turning run to the ball. He was like, coach, I was just
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  turning running the ball and I didn't know that was a quarterback. I just
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  hit whoever I saw. You know, when I'm running to the ball.
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  The holdings on offense have to Those are fundamentals that we had to keep working.
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  We have bad technique that can lead to a penalty, you know,
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  and so we just have to continue to keep working on the fundamentals and playing
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  with good technique and that should eliminate some of those penalties. Marcus Freeman was,
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  of course a former Ohio State linebacker. He was a defensive coordinator at
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  Cincinnati and Notre Dame and now of course they head coach there, but a
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  defensive guy by trade. Ryan Day of course worked his way on the offensive
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  side of the ball, from a quarterback to quarterback coach to Ohio State's head
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  coach. So what is Marcus Freeman expecting from the Ohio State offense this week
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  and how much does that change if Ohio State ends up shuffling their quarterback for
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  some reason. You've seen their offense kind of evolved over the first three games,
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  and it's explosive. You see a lot of tembo, you know,
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  I think I've seen more tembo recently, but but this and they have playmakers,
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  They can run the ball. They got a stable of running backs that
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  that truly can can do some things in a run game. As far as
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  a quarterback, you know, we plan on sehm Acord, right, we
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  think he's named the starter and that's who we plan on. See him,
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  but well, you have to have a plan, you know, you have
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  to have a plan for anybody. You might see the same thing that happened
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  last Saturday. So you know, I still think their offense is very similar
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  no matter who's at quarterback, you know, And so we'll have a plan
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  for for both guys. But it's really not going to change based off who's
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  got into game. Now. I'm guessing most Oldhi State fans are not expecting
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  a change at quarterback this weekend. But sometimes opposing teams reporters will have catch
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  with a different view on things than you might have following the Oldis State team
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  a little more closely. And this might be another example of that. Freeman
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  was asked if there was any change in his mind this year with Brian Hartline
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  now officially named offensive coordinator in terms of what that might mean for the Olhi
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  State offense this week. I'm sure coach day Is is extremely involved with their
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  offense and heart Line has done a great job. And so again, they
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  find ways to be innovative. Right. You can look at as far back
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  as since Ryan Day's been in Ohio State. So now it's a very innovative
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  offense that that will find different ways to get their playmakers the ball. And
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  to me, it's all starts with the run game, right. They want
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  to run the ball, and very similar mindset that I have, right is
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  the ability to run the ball will create openings in the past game, and
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  that's what I've seen on two. On the other side of the ball,
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  the Buckeyes have had a pretty okay but not necessarily statistically overwhelming years so far
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  out of the defensive line. But Freeman was asked about his impressions of JT.
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  Tooy Molo out in specific. You'll hear him refer to number forty four
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  here in his response, and then also just the Ohio State defensive line on
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  the whole. It's impressive. They got they got guys, and it's deep,
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  and they rotate a lot of guys in there. And so forty four
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  is an impressive football player. He's big, he's powerful, explosive, all
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  those big words that you like to say about your d lineman. He's got
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  a lot of those traits. But they got a bunch of guys that are
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  are really disruptive. So we have to be good up front. We got
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  to make sure we're good at the line of scrimmage. Anytime you're facing Ohio
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  State, one of the big concerns is how on earth do you control those
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  wide receivers. So last year Marcus Freeman had some young cornerbacks who were tasked
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  with that, with trying to do that on the road in Columbus and the
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  season opener. So how have those corners grown and improved since the last time
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  they faced Ohio State at the beginning of last year. You look back to
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  that game and the playmakers Ohio State has it wide out. A lot of
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  them are back, you know, And so that was a way for our
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  guys in the first game of the year to measure themselves versus some of the
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  best in the country and so to where they are now, They've continue to
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  grow and get better and better because of experience, because of the opportunity to
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  continue to practice, to continue to build skill. And that's something that we
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  have to continue to do and it will never stop. Now. Whether those
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  corners are that much better or not, it is still not going to be
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  easy when you're facing a pair of wide receivers like Marvin Harrison and Ameca Abuca.
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  Oh yeah, there's Julian Fleming, There's Cardinal Tap, There's Avier Johnson.
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  They've got some running backs to they've got some tight ends. But what
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  is the challenge of defending an offense, especially with a pair of wide receivers
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  as talented as Marvin Harrison Junior and a Mecca abucare good players, man,
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  or you just got to turn on the film. Mean Harrison's body type,
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  skill set. He's fast, he can go up and get the ball.
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  You're a great route runner, great hand, well coached. I mean,
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  heartline is in a great job of developing that wide out room. You know,
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  a year after year, I got first rounders and first rounders and and
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  Bouquet's the same way. You know, he's again a playmaker more utilizing the
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  s dangerous returner. You know, so I go on and on. Man,
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  those guys are good football players. Mentioned the defensive line a little bit
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  earlier in the fact that they haven't necessarily been statistically overwhelming so far this season.
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  You have, if you have been on the internet, noticed Ohio State
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  fans being concerned about the lack of sacks. Well, guess what, Hio
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  State fans are not the only ones with that particular concern. Notre Dame fans
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  are a little concerned about their lack of productivity in the sack department from the
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  defense as well. Here was Marcus Freeman's response to that. It's listen,
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  I knew somebody's gonna ask me about it. But like sacks, every keeps
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  talking about sax sex sex a toll coach going in. Man, we're number
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  one in the country and past efficiency defense, and so that's the stat I'm
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  worried about. I'm not worried about sacks. The pressure that we're getting is
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  great, Like sacks will come, and I don't want our players overly concerned
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  about sacks because that's an individual, true individual stat that really doesn't matter.
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  Like I want to be number one in past efficiency defense. I don't know
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  who's number one in sacks, but I want to be number one in past
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  efficiency defense. That's a great stat And so they've been working and doing really
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  well. And you know, sacks are are a result of a lot of
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  different things, you know, but I was really happy with the way our
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  defense performed in the past game, you know, to limit that that offense
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  to what we did, it was really really good pleased to see last year
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  in that season opener at Notre Dame held the Buckeyes to just twenty one points,
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  partly through good defense and partly by being very deliberate on offense, really
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  trying to hang on to that football, keep it away from the Ohio State
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  offense. So, with Sam Hartman now playing quarterback instead of Tyler Buckner,
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  does that stay the plan this weekend? Yeah, you know, I don't.
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  Coach Coach Golden and the defensive staff had a great game plan last year
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  and really did a good job of executing it, you know, for the
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  first game of the year, trying to figure out who we were defensively,
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  Yeah, I'm part of that. The mindset going in that game was was
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  trying to control the ball as long as we could right limit their offensive possessions,
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  you know. And again it's still got to be complimentary football as we
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  go into this Saturday. But I don't want to play not to lose,
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  all right, I don't want to play that way. I want our guys
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  to be aggressive and our guys to be attacking, and so we will play
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  complimentary football. But our objective isn't just to hold the ball and huddle every
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  single play, kind of what my mindset probably was last year. Ohio State
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  fans have a history of traveling pretty darnwell. You have heard more than one
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  Ohio chant going around the four corners of an opposing stadium on a road game.
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  But that doesn't happen very often at Notre Dame, but when it does,
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  it is very noticeable. For example, Georgia did it a few years
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  ago. Nebraska pack in two thousand really took over Notre Dame stadium. So
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  how important is it for Marcus Freeman to have this be a very pro Notre
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  Dame crowd? Yeah, we want to see a lot of green in here.
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  That's the cool thing about Saturday is we've got green jerseys and I don't
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  know if they're calling it a green out, but we want to see a
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  lot of green, and I think our players notice it and appreciate that,
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  especially pre game. As you just said, we want to make sure there's
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  as many Notre Dame fans as we can, and I think they're doing some
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  cool things for the fan experience, and so I'll encourage our fans man,
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  make sure that you guys are here and let's get as much green in a
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  stadium as we can. All right, now, we're gonna let you hear
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  just a couple of things from Sam Hartman, and we'ren in advance. The
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  audio is not quite as crisp as it was for Marcus Freeman. There's a
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  whole technical reason behind that. We're not going to get into it. Just
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  no, we recognize. Sorry, well, we're only giving you a couple
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  of things here from from Sam, just because we want to let you hear
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  a little bit from him. So he's someone who's through for nearly two thousand
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  yards and sixteen touchdown passes back in twenty eighteen, Remember when Urban Meyer was
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  still the head coach at Ohio State. Yeah, Sam Hartman sixteen touchdown passes
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  that season. He has now played in fifty two games already in his college
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  career sixth year. But after all that time and all those games, has
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  he ever played in the game quite like this? I mean, yeah,
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  it's it's a big game obviously, you know, any game, college game
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  day, whatever you want to call it. I mean, I think it's
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  huge opportunity for us as a as a program and as a team, you
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  know, to go out there and show what we got and obviously a really
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  challenging opponent, a historically great opponent, great football program, and another like
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  ourselves as a great football university. So it's just a clash of two football
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  grades that growing up, you know, you you kind of think about and
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  look at those games of you know, how to State and all the other
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  big ones that you're like, you know that that'd be a cool game of
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  playing. And so it's exciting. It is a big game. I think
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  the shy away from that is foolish. But I think it's it's gonna be
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  like every week. Is it going to be about aspects chieting at the highest
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  level and in like coach we probably already said, reaching our full potential.
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  Whenever you're on a big stage, basing a really highly ranked opponent, the
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  temptation can be to try and do just that little bit extra, just push
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  yourself make a play you might not normally try to make in a lesser game.
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  How do you try if you're Sam Hartman and then notre dame offense,
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  to just not to do too much, sort of stay with the game plan,
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  stay calm when it could be a very very big moment. I mean,
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  I think it starts, uh, you know, with the confidence and
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  our coaches, our confidence and and the schemes that we're going to get into,
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  and then and then players around me. I think, you know,
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  we have an unbelievable alan. I'm that have a lot of confidence in our
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  running backs have been all been playing incredibly well. Tight ends have been doing
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  great. And outside, I mean, we've showed we have some explosive capabilities
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  and the ability to you know, spread the ball around when you need to
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  and be able to run the ball and we can, so that that's really
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  where it is. And in our defense, we've been playing a lot of
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  complimentary football. You know, you look at the MC State game. There's
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  times where we get shut out or they let up a score and we kind
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  of bounced back off each other. So you know, it's always going to
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  be about doing my job as the best I can do, and the plays
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  are going to come when they need to be. But it's a lot of
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  it just the trust, the trust and belief that you know, everybody around
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  me is doing their job, which they've been doing all year and we've been
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  doing since the spring. So it's it's just exciting. It's an exciting opportunity
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  to go out as a team and play a complete game that will do it.
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  From the Notre Dame side of things, you'll be hearing from the Buckeyes
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  a little bit later on today. Ohio State head coach Ryan Day will be
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  meeting with the media starting at noon. Then we'll be hearing from Ohisty defensive
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  coordinator Jim Knowles just after that, and then tomorrow will be talking to some
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  of the players. As the Buckeyes shift their focus ahead to this Notre Dame
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  game, I'm going to guess the focus has maybe been a Notre Dame a
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  little longer than they might have been willing to admit publicly. Very big game
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  coming up this Saturday, and a very good place to watch all of the
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  excitement this week. Follow along with all the news, see all the interviews,
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  here. All the analysis is at Buckeye Huddle dot com. Our team
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  of insiders covering all the news this week and there is a lot of it
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  as we count down the days too. That Notre Dame game, it is
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  going to be a big one in South Bend this weekend. We will be
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  there. We're starting having content from South Bend. The plan is on Friday
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  for you, so make sure you are subscribed to our YouTube channel at YouTube
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  Facebook dot com slash Buckeye Huddle, and of course at Buckeye Huddle dot
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  com where we bring you all sorts of content about the team and recruiting and
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  NeXT's Nose and all that good stuff. I'll come into you all week long,
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  all at Buckeye Huddle dot com. So thank you guys all for joining
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  us. Up a great day. We'll talk to you tomorrow.