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4 Buckeyes On Defense With A Lot On The Line This Spring · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Buckeyes tomorrow morning for Friday, March sixth. I'm
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  Speaker 1: your host, Tom Moore. The ball State game in one
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  Speaker 1: hundred and eighty three days, the game against Michigan in
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  Speaker 1: two hundred and sixty seven days. Our friends are Grateful Grittle,
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  Speaker 1: Columbus's favorite food truck. They are now on Uber, Eatch, Scrubhub,
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  Speaker 1: and or Dash. Just search for Greatful Brittle there or
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  Speaker 1: check out Grateful Griddle oh dot com or more. All right,
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  Speaker 1: on yesterday show, we've had a look at four guys
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  Speaker 1: on the offensive side of the ball with the most
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  Speaker 1: on the line this spring at Ohio State. Today we're
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  Speaker 1: going to be doing the defensive side of the ball.
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  Speaker 1: Welcoming back in our buddy, Tony Gerderman of Buckeye Huddle
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  Speaker 1: dot com. Tony, I think this is an easy one.
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  Speaker 1: We'll start up front and some of these you know,
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  Speaker 1: I thought, you know, I had to think about it
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  Speaker 1: a while in terms of, you know, how many years
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  Speaker 1: of eligibility does this guy have left or all that.
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  Speaker 1: This was the first name I wrote down on my
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  Speaker 1: list for either of these shows. Defensive tackle Jason Moore.
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  Speaker 1: If this is his time to do it, do.
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  Speaker 2: It or don't at this point four year top one
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  Speaker 2: hundred recruit, big guy sixty six over three hundred pounds
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  Speaker 2: as everything you would want. And I remember talking to
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  Speaker 2: Larry Johnson, defensive line coach back at the Cotton Bowl,
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  Speaker 2: about Jason Moore, and not so much about Jason Moore,
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  Speaker 2: but about Taiwan Malone and the influence that Malone has
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  Speaker 2: and can have that even if it doesn't happen in
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  Speaker 2: the first three years or you know right away, it
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  Speaker 2: can happen in your last go round or your your
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  Speaker 2: next last go round. And so they see that possibility
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  Speaker 2: with Jason Moore. And I remember, I don't know if
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  Speaker 2: it was last year or the year before, Larry Johnson
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  Speaker 2: was talking up Jason Moore in the spring like he's
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  Speaker 2: been doing this, he's been off season, was great, he's
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  Speaker 2: ready to go, and it just hasn't happened. And some
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  Speaker 2: of that is say maybe because the players in front
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  Speaker 2: of him, but for whatever reason, it hasn't happened. And
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  Speaker 2: now you're in a situation where I don't know that
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  Speaker 2: he's in the top four of the defensive tackles. I
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  Speaker 2: think he's a pretty good chance of being number five.
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  Speaker 2: I wonder what that chance would be if they hadn't
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  Speaker 2: seen all three of their true freshmen defensive tackles last
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  Speaker 2: year transfer out, what would a situation be then. But
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  Speaker 2: it's like the receiver thing. You don't have to just
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  Speaker 2: have four defensive tackles in a rotation. You know, you
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  Speaker 2: can have more. Whoever belongs will play. And that process
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  Speaker 2: began in January and February and it continues through March.
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  Speaker 2: And I've said this before about Jason Moore. If this
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  Speaker 2: is Jim Tressel or maybe Urban Myers team, he may
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  Speaker 2: have already been switched to the offensive line. But I
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  Speaker 2: think the offensive line has been recruiting has been better
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  Speaker 2: than it was back under those two coaches.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely the offensive line. I think they're feeling real
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  Speaker 1: good about this year. But the defensive line, you know,
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  Speaker 1: the top four at the tackle position, it feels like
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  Speaker 1: they should be in decent shape. And then just and
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  Speaker 1: Jason Moore work his way into that group. The opportunity
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  Speaker 1: is there. When I think this time last year we
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  Speaker 1: were talking about Taiwan Malone, Oh boy, is it ever
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  Speaker 1: going to happen for Taiwan Malone, And then Taiwan Malone
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  Speaker 1: ended up winning the starting job kind of late in
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  Speaker 1: the year, so the opportunity once again is there. But
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  Speaker 1: you know, as we said on the show yesterday, you know,
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  Speaker 1: when they're bringing in new guys, bringing guys in the
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  Speaker 1: transfer portal, that is an indication that they're not one
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  Speaker 1: hundred percent sold on the fact that they they have
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  Speaker 1: what they need on the roster. So, yeah, this is
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  Speaker 1: an opportunity for Jason Moore to to finally earn a
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  Speaker 1: bigger role because we've been hearing about him for a
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  Speaker 1: while and he ken he finally pushed through and make
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  Speaker 1: an on field impact. That all starts next Tuesday. Someone
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  Speaker 1: else who's sort of in that conversation linebacker Garrett Stover,
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  Speaker 1: and we talked we've talked about that the incredible young
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  Speaker 1: depth at linebacker, and you know, they have all sorts
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  Speaker 1: of talent and they have you know, he came in
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  Speaker 1: the same year as Peyton Pierce, and we're talking about
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  Speaker 1: Peyton Pierce as being a starter, and then we're talking
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  Speaker 1: about Riley, Petty John or tj Alford who were a
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  Speaker 1: year behind Garrett Stover. So he's got that, you know,
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  Speaker 1: the younger guys on the roster. Pressure. They also brought
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  Speaker 1: in Christian Alegra through the transfer portal, so you also
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  Speaker 1: have the Ted transfer portal kind of conversation there. And
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  Speaker 1: they're bringing in some talented linebackers this year as well
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  Speaker 1: who are true freshmen. So it feels like if Garrett
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  Speaker 1: Stover is going to be more than a special teams
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  Speaker 1: assassin for the Ohio State Buck guys, it should. You
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  Speaker 1: know that's going to have to start happening pretty soon
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  Speaker 1: because there is a lot of talent in James Lorenidis's room.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and he's played maybe five or six games in
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  Speaker 2: his in his two years defensively twenty three total snaps
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  Speaker 2: and he's been passed by TJ. Alfred and Riley Petty
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  Speaker 2: John already last year and they're they're a year year
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  Speaker 2: younger than he is. So at this point you've got
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  Speaker 2: to put your foot down and let that experience in
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  Speaker 2: your age and your your three years at Ohio State
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  Speaker 2: to two plus years at Ohio State now do something
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  Speaker 2: for you. And you know he came in undersized, but
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  Speaker 2: that's that can slow some players down, but you just
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  Speaker 2: you keep f and certainly he's not stopped fighting. It's
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  Speaker 2: just you run into a situation where sometimes you get
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  Speaker 2: recruited over then then you have to find your niche
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  Speaker 2: and what you can do. So I think maybe even
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  Speaker 2: more than trying to bypass or climb back to get
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  Speaker 2: where tj Alford and Riley Penny John are, it's maybe
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  Speaker 2: finding something that you do well and then owning it
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  Speaker 2: and doing that to the best of your ability, and
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  Speaker 2: then seeing where things go from here. But also you're
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  Speaker 2: gonna have to hold off some talented freshman, namely since
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  Speaker 2: Here Johnson, who's five star arguably the number one linebacker,
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  Speaker 2: and a twenty twenty six recruiting class. So it never
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  Speaker 2: gets easier when you're a linebacker, and James lauren Niis
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  Speaker 2: will tell all of his guys, I'm trying to recruit
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  Speaker 2: your replacement because that's how life was for him, and
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  Speaker 2: that's how life is any significant, big time college football program.
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  Speaker 1: And when you have two linebackers who are going to
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  Speaker 1: get their names called as early as Sunny Styles and
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  Speaker 1: Rvel Reese are during the NFL Draft this year, that
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  Speaker 1: is only going to make things more difficult in that
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  Speaker 1: room when the twenty twenty seven linebacker recruiting class ends
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  Speaker 1: up showing up. Next up, we're going to go to
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  Speaker 1: the secondary. Miles Lockhart. This is a name that we've
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  Speaker 1: been seeing him in spring ball several years now, and
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  Speaker 1: it's a name that we have not talked about a
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  Speaker 1: ton on these sort of positional preview shows that we've
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  Speaker 1: been doing. He's someone who has the experience. But they
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  Speaker 1: went to the portal brought in Earl Little to play
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  Speaker 1: that kind of Nickel position. They've got other you know,
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  Speaker 1: you had he was behind some other guys. He was
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  Speaker 1: behind Bryce West, he was behind Devin Sanchez last year.
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  Speaker 1: You know, the Devin Sanchez moving outside, Bryce West moving
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  Speaker 1: on to Wisconsin. You've got you know, there is potentially
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  Speaker 1: a spot there for him, but it is getting late early,
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  Speaker 1: it feels like for him.
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  Speaker 2: It's funny because if you take Jermaine Matthews out of
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  Speaker 2: the situation, nobody has more snaps returning at Nickel than
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  Speaker 2: Miles Lockhart. But it's three snaps, you know, so there's
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  Speaker 2: not a lot there. But that being said, if Jermaine
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  Speaker 2: Matthews stays at Nicol, your most experienced Nicol is Miles
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  Speaker 2: Lockhart in terms of backing up or a little so
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  Speaker 2: in that way, what's on the line. He's going to
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  Speaker 2: be fighting to be that backup, and he's going to
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  Speaker 2: be fighting players who have not necessarily done this at
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  Speaker 2: Ohio State. So you know, this is his third year,
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  Speaker 2: he should have a lot of advantages. He's not the
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  Speaker 2: biggest guy, so that's always going to maybe, you know,
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  Speaker 2: limit what he can do. But when you're talking about
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  Speaker 2: Jay Timmins or perhaps we always talk about, you know,
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  Speaker 2: Deshaun Stewart the retiro freshman safety just because we don't
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  Speaker 2: know anything about what he what he can do, like,
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  Speaker 2: there are going to be some names that are going
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  Speaker 2: to show up at Nickel and that's one of the
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  Speaker 2: things I'm going to be watching for on Tuesday at
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  Speaker 2: the first practice to see, Okay, who's battling for this position,
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  Speaker 2: because they're gonna be names that we thought were safety
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  Speaker 2: or that we thought we're at corner. So we're gonna
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  Speaker 2: have some more information. And Miles Lockhart through all of this,
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  Speaker 2: is going to go from two to two wherever throughout
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  Speaker 2: the course of the spring, and frankly, if you're with
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  Speaker 2: the twos, you're gonna get some snaps with the ones.
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  Speaker 2: So this is a huge opportunity to show that he
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  Speaker 2: can do that.
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  Speaker 1: And the last guy to talk about is Leroy Roker,
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  Speaker 1: and he feels like he's in a little bit of
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  Speaker 1: a different category than some of the guys we've talked about.
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  Speaker 1: A lot of the guys we've been talking about are
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  Speaker 1: guys who have just really not played a whole heck
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  Speaker 1: of a lot at all. Leroy Roker played seventy seven
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  Speaker 1: snaps and felt like he was maybe carving out a
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  Speaker 1: spot for himself at least with the Two's a really
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  Speaker 1: solid spot with him for himself with the twos. And
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  Speaker 1: there's a lot of guys. There's a lot of turnover
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  Speaker 1: in that safety room this year. Dylan McLain, who had
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  Speaker 1: the most snaps at safety, he's back, but Caleb Downs
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  Speaker 1: is gone, Lorenzo Styles Junior is gone, Fahim Delane has gone,
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  Speaker 1: Malie Hartford is gone, Leroy Roker is back. So it
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  Speaker 1: feels like, Okay, well there should be a clear path
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  Speaker 1: of the playing field. Well not so fast, my friends.
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  Speaker 1: They brought in a couple of guys to the portal.
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  Speaker 1: You got some really talented players. You watched our Black
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  Speaker 1: Stripe draft. You know, I am very high on Blaine Bradford.
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  Speaker 1: But there's there's some very talented young guys coming in
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  Speaker 1: there as well, and it feels like this is this
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  Speaker 1: is going to be the spring where Leroy Roker has
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  Speaker 1: a little bit of a head start on those guys
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  Speaker 1: and on all the different different flavors of new guys.
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  Speaker 1: But that doesn't last that long.
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  Speaker 2: You know. It was interesting when Ryan Day did his
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  Speaker 2: radio show like a month ago and he was talking
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  Speaker 2: about the transfers and he said to Terry Morrill, do
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  Speaker 2: a good job complimenting Leroy Roker, and I assume just
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  Speaker 2: meaning finishing out that free safety position. But then what
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  Speaker 2: does that even mean anymore? Because Jalen McLain was generally
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  Speaker 2: the deep safety last year and Caleb Downs was the
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  Speaker 2: was the line of scrimmage safety. So just I view
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  Speaker 2: Leroy Roker as a free safety in terms of like
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  Speaker 2: a center older type and whatever that is in this
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  Speaker 2: defense it is and then obviously Jayleen McLain is the
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  Speaker 2: other guy. But you know, so Rokery, I mean, he
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  Speaker 2: played in a handful of games, like you said, he's
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  Speaker 2: he was he was basically he was the dime when
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  Speaker 2: Jermaine Matthews or when Lorenzo Styles went out, so that
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  Speaker 2: would have made him, you know, essentially what like the
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  Speaker 2: seventh in line to play, and so you lose Lorenzo Styles,
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  Speaker 2: then Jermaine Matthews goes to nickel, Devin Sanchez, who was
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  Speaker 2: the starting dime, then goes to corner, and then the
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  Speaker 2: backup dime, Lee Roy Roker got time even played against
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  Speaker 2: Miami there after styles injuries, So he's he's seen action
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  Speaker 2: in big time games. They the the athleticism is something
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  Speaker 2: that everybody's enticed about, and he finally got to do
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  Speaker 2: some things last year. But yeah, this year, I mean
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  Speaker 2: as they work in Terry Moore, you could see some
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  Speaker 2: fifty to fifty type of snaps between him and Moore
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  Speaker 2: at at the deep safety or wherever it's going to be.
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  Speaker 2: And so this is a huge opportunity for him to
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  Speaker 2: show that I don't need to be a backup. I
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  Speaker 2: can rotate in, I can do this, I can be
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  Speaker 2: a viable help on this defense.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, he's someone of all the guys we've talked about here,
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  Speaker 1: feels like he has the clearest path to at least
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  Speaker 1: earning at least a rotational spot, if not a co
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  Speaker 1: starting spot or whatever, you know, however they want to
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  Speaker 1: designate it. It feels like he has a path there.
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  Speaker 1: But that path really starts this spring because, as I said,
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  Speaker 1: he has a head start, but you know, not that
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  Speaker 1: much of a head start, and there's some very very
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  Speaker 1: talented players in that room who are going to be
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  Speaker 1: running up behind him pretty pretty quickly as the spring
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  Speaker 1: rolls on. So there you go. You're looking at four
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  Speaker 1: guys on the defensive side of the ball with a
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  Speaker 1: lot on the line. This spring be a lot on
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  Speaker 1: the line for Tony and I as well as we'll
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  Speaker 1: have all sorts of time to cover the Buckeyes, all
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  Speaker 1: sorts of new stuff to talk about. Speculation season ends,
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  Speaker 1: actual seeing player on the field season starts, and not wait,
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  Speaker 1: that starts next Tuesday at the Woody Hayes Athletics Center.
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  Speaker 1: A couple of practices next week, and then they have
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  Speaker 1: the week off for spring break before they come back
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  Speaker 1: and resume spring practice. Sort of a traditional ish spring
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  Speaker 1: schedule for the Buckeyes, and all wrapping up with the
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  Speaker 1: spring game on April eighteenth. We'll be there for as
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  Speaker 1: much of it as we can, and we'll be telling
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  Speaker 1: you about it, all about it at bucke Huddle dot
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  Speaker 1: com and YouTube dot com slash Bucky Huddle. That'll do
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  Speaker 1: it for today. Thank you guys all for joining us.
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  Speaker 1: Have a great day. We'll talk to you tomorrow.