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Ohio State Football Preview: Buckeyes vs. Akron · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Buckeyes tomorrow morning for Friday, August thirtieth. I'm
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  Speaker 1: your host, Tom Moore. The Akron game is in one day, Yes, tomorrow.
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  Speaker 1: We're almost there, hanging there, We're almost there. The game
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  Speaker 1: against fishgan in ninety two days. When it is game
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  Speaker 1: week at Ohio State, it is Tale of the Tape
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  Speaker 1: Week at Buckeye Huddle dot com. Tale of the Tape
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  Speaker 1: a long standing, very popular, very very deep dive feature
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  Speaker 1: that Kevin Noon has been writing for years and years. Kevin,
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  Speaker 1: first of all, welcome to the show. Second of all,
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  Speaker 1: let people know a little bit about how you got
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  Speaker 1: started with Tale of the Tape and what they can expect.
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  Speaker 2: If they read it.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: I've been writing Tale of the Tape four years and years,
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  Speaker 2: as you put it, and I decided, how can I
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  Speaker 2: make myself more busy, Let's write between fifteen hundred and
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  Speaker 2: five thousand words about of the upcoming game. I try
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  Speaker 2: to bag off of it every year. I'm like, you, guys,
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  Speaker 2: don't really read this to you, and they're like, oh,
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  Speaker 2: we love it. This is like one of our favorite
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  Speaker 2: things certainly that you do. Kevin. I'm like, well, like, okay,
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  Speaker 2: I guess I can't get away from it. But yeah,
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  Speaker 2: it was really a case of I wasn't finding enough
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  Speaker 2: of a deep dive out there in the space. So
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  Speaker 2: I'm like, well, I'm going to do it. And you know,
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  Speaker 2: there are parts that if I could start it over,
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  Speaker 2: I would do a little bit differently, But I mean,
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  Speaker 2: it's a good chance of looking at when Ohio State's
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  Speaker 2: on offense and the opponents on defense, vice versa, and
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  Speaker 2: then special teams. Generally during the bowl season, I break
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  Speaker 2: it into a couple of pieces and go even deeper,
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  Speaker 2: which is hard to believe, but this is also one
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  Speaker 2: of these pieces that the first couple weeks of the
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  Speaker 2: season are not great because I mean, it's great because
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  Speaker 2: I write it, but it's not great because there are
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  Speaker 2: no data points, and especially when you're talking about like
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  Speaker 2: a lower level group of five team where the roster
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  Speaker 2: probably turns over, they're best players probably transfer out, and
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  Speaker 2: chasing that nil, chasing that you know, better opportunity, better exposure.
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  Speaker 2: You know, we're just doing a lot of identifying names
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  Speaker 2: that you're going to want to keep an eye on
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  Speaker 2: and things like that. And then generally generally by October
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  Speaker 2: we're rounding into form and then by November. These you know,
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  Speaker 2: these pieces are really humping I'm I'm I'm writing for
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  Speaker 2: three days on it just to try and make sure
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  Speaker 2: that I can deliver the best information to our readers.
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  Speaker 1: And these are all exclusive to members at bucke huddle
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  Speaker 1: dot com. We always talk about all the benefits you
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  Speaker 1: get from being a member. This is one of those
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  Speaker 1: big benefits, and a lot like this year's Ohio State schedule,
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  Speaker 1: it does get better and better as the season goes.
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  Speaker 1: So we're going to start with Acron. You probably do
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  Speaker 1: not need a deep dive to know that Ohio State
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  Speaker 1: is somewhat likely to beat Akron at the very least
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  Speaker 1: on Saturday, but you probably don't know a whole heck
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  Speaker 1: of a lot about the Zips or where they might
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  Speaker 1: be better or where they might be not so good
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  Speaker 1: this year. So we're going to be breaking that down
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  Speaker 1: into sort of four different segments of the of the game.
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  Speaker 1: Let's start with the fact that number one Ohio State.
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  Speaker 1: Everybody about seven touchdowns, so that's the number has come
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  Speaker 1: down a little bit. It started over fifty, it's down
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  Speaker 1: like forty eight and a half now, so still anyone's game.
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  Speaker 1: But let's start where you start with all of these
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  Speaker 1: games in the trenches. It's sort of a college football
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  Speaker 1: coach cliche. The games are won and lost in the trenches.
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  Speaker 1: The reason it's a cliche is because that's where games
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  Speaker 1: are won and lost. So the biggest question maybe around
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  Speaker 1: this year's Ohio State team has been the offensive line.
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  Speaker 1: So what does that look like? What does this matchup
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  Speaker 1: look like between the Ohio State offensive line and Akron's
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  Speaker 1: defensive line.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, Akron actually has a relatively decent defensive line all
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  Speaker 2: things considered. Now, am I saying like it's a big
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  Speaker 2: ten defensive line? Oh no, no, no, no, but this
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  Speaker 2: is you know, this is not you know, if Akron
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  Speaker 2: is like one twenty eight out of one thirty four
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  Speaker 2: in Division One, their defensive line and their linebackers say otherwise.
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  Speaker 2: You know, when we talk about Akron's offense, you're going
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  Speaker 2: to understand why they're like one twenty eight out of
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  Speaker 2: one thirty four or something like that. That CJ. Nunneley
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  Speaker 2: is like the main weapon that they have on the
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  Speaker 2: defensive line. He's a talented edge. I mean, I'm not
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  Speaker 2: going to go so far as to When Ohio State
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  Speaker 2: opened the season, several several years ago against Buffalo and
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  Speaker 2: the world was in introduced to Khalil Mack. But I
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  Speaker 2: think CJ. Nunneley is somebody that you're going to have
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  Speaker 2: to keep an eye on. I think he's somebody that
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  Speaker 2: Josh Bryer and Josh Simmons are going to have to
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  Speaker 2: battle for a while because I think he's pretty good.
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  Speaker 2: And then you look at the rest ben at adler
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  Speaker 2: Lejoshua Jackson, and then they got a transfer from University
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  Speaker 2: of New Hampshire, No, not a day, not a Kelly
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  Speaker 2: Nathan Kapongo. I think that it's probably if it's not
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  Speaker 2: the best unit on Akron, it's the second best unit.
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  Speaker 2: I think honestly, when you look at the front seven
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  Speaker 2: for the Zips, that is going to be where the
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  Speaker 2: challenge is and that's going to be the difference between
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  Speaker 2: Ohio State winning this game by thirty five and Ohio
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  Speaker 2: State winning this game by sixty.
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  Speaker 1: And to talk mostly about the front four, there a
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  Speaker 1: little bit getting into the linebackers, which are not bad.
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  Speaker 1: I mean it's a decent unit there. This is also
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  Speaker 1: the you know, the back seven of this defense, especially
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  Speaker 1: the secondary. There's been a bunch of transfers in that
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  Speaker 1: have sort of impacted the roster. There's been a lot
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  Speaker 1: of roster turnover there, like a lot of schools have
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  Speaker 1: gone through. Who are the names to know really in
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  Speaker 1: the back seven?
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  Speaker 2: Well, you know, we'll start at linebacker, and Antavius Fish
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  Speaker 2: and Brian McCoy are both of the main guys at linebacker.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, I think between the two of them, I
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  Speaker 2: think one hundred and eighty combined tackles. One hundred and
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  Speaker 2: ninety combined tackles. I didn't put that in there, but
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  Speaker 2: they are going to be the guys you're going to
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  Speaker 2: want to keep an eye on there. Yeah, the secondary
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  Speaker 2: itself is going to be very fluid. You know, they've
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  Speaker 2: picked up transfers from Syracuse and from Cornell. But I
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  Speaker 2: think that the guy that you want to look at
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  Speaker 2: there is Darien Lewis. He's not a huge corner, only
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  Speaker 2: at five foot ten. Acron probably not going out and
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  Speaker 2: getting a lot of talented six foot one corners. You know,
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  Speaker 2: if you're a talented six foot one corner, there's a
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  Speaker 2: program in Columbus I would probably want to talk to
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  Speaker 2: you more so than the program in Akron. They they're
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  Speaker 2: bringing in Paul Lewis a third from Cornell, So once
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  Speaker 2: again Akron having to go into a smaller classification to
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  Speaker 2: be able to get its guys. He's a safety six
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  Speaker 2: two two twelve, and I mean and he is somebody
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  Speaker 2: that is a ballhawk and just you're gonna want to
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  Speaker 2: keep an eye on him, all right.
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  Speaker 1: So that's the defense. That's the good side of the conversation.
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  Speaker 1: In terms of Akron. The offense, boy, it's going to
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  Speaker 1: be a little bit of work in progress, and this
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  Speaker 1: Ohio State defense should be at least pretty darn good
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  Speaker 1: this year. So probably looking and we'll start again in
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  Speaker 1: the trenches. Made a much bigger mismatch in the trenches
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  Speaker 1: potentially there between the Akron offensive line and the ohis
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  Speaker 1: Date defensive line. It feels like the Zips may not
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  Speaker 1: be working with a whole lot of time to make
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  Speaker 1: things happen before they are getting swallowed up in the
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  Speaker 1: backfield by someone wearing someone very big and very fest
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  Speaker 1: and wearing a red jersey.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. I think Acron's really only notable returning starter on
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  Speaker 2: the offensive line is the center, Tyler Williams. They bring
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  Speaker 2: in Lauren Seymour from Miami, but again this is a
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  Speaker 2: line that is going to be very much in flux,
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  Speaker 2: and people will be like, yeah, well, lots of programs
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  Speaker 2: have to to you know, go around and make changes yearly.
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  Speaker 2: But again, Akron is the quintessential have not and they
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  Speaker 2: don't really have a lot of depth. And it's not
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  Speaker 2: like that if you're an Acron that you or if
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  Speaker 2: you are Akron, that you can develop players and stash
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  Speaker 2: them and then be able to have them later. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: if you show any promise, I guarantee you in this
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  Speaker 2: portal era, you're going to have you know, thirty people
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  Speaker 2: ring in your high school football coach asking if you're
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  Speaker 2: happy where you're at right now and you know. And
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  Speaker 2: so I think that is one of the biggest differences
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  Speaker 2: in a Power five or Power four team and a
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  Speaker 2: group of five six we want to put the Pac
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  Speaker 2: twelve there with its two teams. I don't know, I
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  Speaker 2: haven't really landed on my on my my verbiage there,
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  Speaker 2: but I think that's one of the big differences is
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  Speaker 2: that you know your your your lesser teams unless you're
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  Speaker 2: at the very top echelon of group of five, if
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  Speaker 2: you're a Boise State or somebody like that, and you know,
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  Speaker 2: we haven't been talking about Boise for a couple of years.
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  Speaker 2: Maybe you are able to develop a little bit more,
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  Speaker 2: maybe you're in a better position to cannibalize other schools.
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  Speaker 2: But you know, the amount of Division I football programs
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  Speaker 2: in excuse me, in the state of Ohio, there are
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  Speaker 2: no secrets. You can't you can't hide a player, you
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  Speaker 2: can't stash a player for a couple of years. So
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  Speaker 2: this is wash Rents repeat, This is going to be
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  Speaker 2: This is accron This is accurate until we have some
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  Speaker 2: sort of change in how college football works.
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  Speaker 1: Sorry, the transfer portal does kind of go both ways.
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  Speaker 1: It's like one of those doors on a kitchen in
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  Speaker 1: a restaurant kind of goes both directions. And the Zips
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  Speaker 1: have benefited from bringing in some folks the portal. I
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  Speaker 1: have not just lost talent. This is a little bit
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  Speaker 1: this game, we're sort of looking through the roster. I'm like,
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  Speaker 1: oh yeah, you get to the quarterback and the rosters.
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  Speaker 1: It was the same thing a couple of years ago
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  Speaker 1: when James Blackman, the former Florida State quarterback was playing
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  Speaker 1: for Arkansas State. It was like, oh yeah, that guy,
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  Speaker 1: I remember him. You have one of the Oh, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: that guy's playing quarterback for Akron. So let everyone know
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  Speaker 1: who they can keep an eye out for on Saturday
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  Speaker 1: at the Horseshoe.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Their quarterback is Ben Finley, previously of n C
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  Speaker 2: State and Cal and so he's on his third school,
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  Speaker 2: which once again means that he hasn't been able to
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  Speaker 2: really win the job anywhere. I mean, he's certainly won
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  Speaker 2: the job at Akron. You know, I have seen Finley
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  Speaker 2: on the field before. I think I seem to remember.
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  Speaker 2: Sometimes you do this long enough and you kind of
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  Speaker 2: like force yourself to remember things that maybe didn't happen.
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  Speaker 2: But I seem to remember him playing with the wolf Pack.
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  Speaker 2: He had some numbers with Cal, So I mean he
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  Speaker 2: he has played. He's not somebody who who has just
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  Speaker 2: kind of been fourth team and is just on his
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  Speaker 2: third school. So you know you're gonna you're gonna have
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  Speaker 2: to see that. But you know, one of the weakest
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  Speaker 2: points of a two to ten Akron team in twenty
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  Speaker 2: twenty three was quarterback. And Ben Finley is going to
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  Speaker 2: be a dramatic upgrade. Now is that going to be
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  Speaker 2: enough to be able to beat Ohio State? Hell? Now,
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  Speaker 2: is that going to be enough? To beat any of
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  Speaker 2: the other, you know, Power four teams on their schedule. No,
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  Speaker 2: But your your hope is is that Ben Finley rounds
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  Speaker 2: into shape when you get into league play and maybe
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  Speaker 2: you can make a little noise. But when you're a
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  Speaker 2: team that has won six games in three years, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: you know, that's kind of difficult.
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  Speaker 1: And in case you're wondering if you remember anything about
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  Speaker 1: the last Ohio State Acron game, well it's probably the
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  Speaker 1: Kyle McCord starting, But if you remember anything about the
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  Speaker 1: Akron side of things, they had a quarterback named DJ
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  Speaker 1: Irons who was running around and made some players with
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  Speaker 1: his legs and just kind of made things just a
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  Speaker 1: little more interesting than Ohio State fans probably would have
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  Speaker 1: wanted Ben Finleys two career yards rushing, So probably not
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  Speaker 1: going to be the same issues this week that they
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  Speaker 1: faced against dj Irons. This is not necessarily the single
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  Speaker 1: most compelling game on the Ohio State football schedule. But
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  Speaker 1: what to you, Kevin, is maybe the most interesting thing
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  Speaker 1: you're going to be watching for or the most interesting
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  Speaker 1: not I'm not going to limit you to the Akron
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  Speaker 1: side of the gate of the ledger, but what is
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  Speaker 1: maybe the most interesting thing you're going to be watching
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  Speaker 1: for on Saturday.
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  Speaker 2: Honestly, I mean, we we write for Buckeye fans, so
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  Speaker 2: I'm going to be interested in substitution patterns, how much
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  Speaker 2: time players get, things of that nature. Sure, I could
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  Speaker 2: talk about Charles Kellum, who is going to be the
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  Speaker 2: leading returning rusher for Akron, who had four carries for
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  Speaker 2: five yards last year. I mean, nobody's going to want
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  Speaker 2: to read about that, But I think everybody's going to
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  Speaker 2: want to know about what what Will Howard did. I
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  Speaker 2: think everybody's going to know what JJ Smith did. I
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  Speaker 2: think people were going on to see how the linebackers,
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  Speaker 2: you know how with three line and two positions, because
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  Speaker 2: certainly Acron is not a team that's going to warrant
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  Speaker 2: a four to three from Ohio State. I mean, how
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  Speaker 2: much how much does Sunny play? How much does CJ.
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  Speaker 2: Hicks play? How much does Cody Simon play? I think
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  Speaker 2: all of that is really going to be the case.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, this is going to be a situation of
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  Speaker 2: where even if Ohio State wins this game sixty to zero,
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  Speaker 2: they're going to be people disappointed that it wasn't seventy
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  Speaker 2: to zero or eighty to zero. Or whatever. So this
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  Speaker 2: is a game that it's going to be nice to
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  Speaker 2: get out there, hit somebody a different color jersey, be
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  Speaker 2: able to you know, put some things on tape. We
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  Speaker 2: know that one of the biggest improvements a team makes
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  Speaker 2: is from week one to week two, So I kind
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  Speaker 2: of want to see all of those types of things.
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  Speaker 2: And then, you know, outside of that, you know, you
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  Speaker 2: just kind of want to. You just want to. You
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  Speaker 2: just want to see what happens when they're going against
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  Speaker 2: a team that maybe doesn't know what plays you're going
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  Speaker 2: to be running. Oh and I also want to see
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  Speaker 2: how helmet communications work. And you know, whether or not
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  Speaker 2: we get a real answer in the post game. I
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  Speaker 2: don't know if we will, but I'll be curious. I
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  Speaker 2: want to look at I want to look at total plays,
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  Speaker 2: I want to look at total drives. I want to
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  Speaker 2: see how those numbers stand up to other years. Because
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  Speaker 2: this is, you know, a pretty seismic change in how
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  Speaker 2: you know, in how the sausage is made.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, there been. There are going to be a number
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  Speaker 1: of seismic changes in college football this year, starting with
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  Speaker 1: the helmet communication that he just mentioned, but of course,
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  Speaker 1: lots of other things new teams and new conferences. It
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  Speaker 1: has a conference game out in Eugene, Oregon in just
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  Speaker 1: over a month. As crazy as that is to say,
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  Speaker 1: both team playoff all that fun stuff, I can't wait.
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  Speaker 1: It is going to be so great to have the
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  Speaker 1: college football season. We've waited nine months for this college
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  Speaker 1: football season to start. It is finally here. We will
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: be there on Saturday, Kevin, Tony and I out there covering, pregame,
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: covering post game, covering the game, photo galleries, player interviews,
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: pregame show, postgame show, probably some behind the scenes features
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: if we can make that happen again this year, Lots
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: of different stuff for you. That's all gonna be a
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: Buckey Huddle dot com and YouTube dot com slash Bucke
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: Huddle should have a very fun and active game thread
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: as usual on the huddle Board, presented by Jeff Ruby Steakhouse.
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  Speaker 1: That is all at bucke Huddle dot com. We hope
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: you'll join us there. That is where Kevin, Tony and
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: I cover the team, Mark covers recruiting our whole team
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: off ecsus and those gurus there it as well to
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  Speaker 1: make you a smarter football fan. All at Buckey huddle
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  Speaker 1: dot com. That'll do it for today. Thank you guys
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: all for joining us. Have a great day. We'll talk
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  Speaker 1: to you tomorrow.