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How Much Has The Addition Of Caleb Downs Changed The Ohio State Defense? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Welcome to Buckeyes tomorrow morning for Wednesday Pro tenth. I'm your host, Tom
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  or the Akron game in one hundred and forty three days, the game against
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  Michigan two hundred and thirty four days. We are back to football today after
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  a brief diversion to basketball a couple times in the last few days. Ohio
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  State spring game coming up Saturday, April thirteenth at noon, that is this
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  Saturday. The forecast looks absolutely perfect. Cannot wait to get back out there.
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  What football on the Horseshoe always a good thing. Spring in Ohio,
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  always a good thing. Looking forward to that. We will also be at
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  Ohio State later on today talking to Ryan Day, a new Ohio State running
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  backs coach, Carlos Laughlin. We'll be back inside practice on Friday. Lots
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  of good content coming for you this week at Buckeye Huddle and at YouTube dot
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  com slash Buckeye Huddles. So you have that all to look forward to this
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  week. Today, you're going to be hearing from a new coach who's also
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  an old coach at Ohio State. Matt Greary was on the staff for the
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  Buckeyes back in twenty twenty two. Then he left. He was the co
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  defensive coordinator at Indiana last year. Now he's back as the safety's coach for
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  the Buckeyes this year. So what has it been like for Matt Greery to
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  be back in Columbus with the Buckeyes this spring. Yeah, it's been great.
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  It's been highly competitive. I would say he's in the film room is
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  highly competitive. The field work is highly competitive. You know, You've got
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  a bunch of guys, a good mix of veterans and young guys, and
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  I think we're you know, we talk about expectation being constantly on the rise,
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  and that's what we've been able to do so far. No disrespect to
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  the Indiana Hoosiers or their players, but there is really not a close analog
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  to Caleb Downs on that Indiana roster. Rary being back in Columbus, well,
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  he has one of the best safeties in the entire nation at his disposal
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  this year. What has it been like to have Caleb Downs in your unit?
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  He's really special. He's really special. First off, he puts the
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  work in right, so you could take you know, talent is a god
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  given thing, but the disciplined skill that you develop over time in your life.
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  He's been able to do that, right, He's a really disciplined guy.
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  He's the same every day from a mentality standpoint. He's the same every
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  day from a work at standpoint. So you see that translate to the field.
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  He's probably in the film room more than anybody on the entire defense maybe,
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  you know. And he puts that type of effort in and he's done
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  a great job of, you know, pushing the envelope with other guys to
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  make sure the standards that way. One of the other projected starters at safety
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  is Leith and Ransom over at that bandit position. Now, he has really
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  not been on the field much this spring as he's working his way back slowly
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  from an injury. Real concerns about him being ready for the fall. They're
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  just sort of being cautious and that has actually allowed some of the younger guys
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  in that room because like Jade Bonzu, Jalen McLain, they get a lot
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  more early action than you might have expected this spring. Yeah, first off,
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  its great for your guys to be able to get opportunity as on those
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  guys to maximize those opportunities and me to have them ready for those right.
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  So I think it's been a good mix of that and then from you know,
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  preparation standpoint. You know, we dealt with this a little bit too
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  when Lathan was out and had missed a spring before. You know, he
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  had two years ago a really good, successful, you know, he's a
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  Thorpe semi finalist type season for him. There's a lot of metal work,
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  you know, there's a lot of work in the film room to say,
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  Okay, what does it take to be prepared to be able to cross the
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  white lines and to be ready to go, you know, because because the
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  game doesn't care if you've taken spring ball or not, right, you gotta
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  be ready to go. All right. So we've just talked about a couple
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  of different groups of guys, one being Caleb Downs, one being some younger
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  guys who really haven't played a whole heck of a lot so far. So
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  how different is it for Matt Greary to be coaching someone like Caleb Downs as
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  compared to some of the younger and maybe less experienced guys. Yeah. I
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  think everybody's health the same standard, you know, So I don't assume anything.
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  Everybody's going to be coached the same way, whether you know, It
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  doesn't matter if it's Cleed Downs coming out of a break or it's Jelen McLain
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  coming out of a break. They're coached the same way and the expectations the
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  same. But anytime that you have vets at high level players that are your
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  hardest workers, that means something right and the guys are able to follow suit
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  from that step point. Moll Lathan Ransom and Caleb Downs both known as smart
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  players, veteran players who really know the whole defense, know what they're supposed
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  to be doing, can maybe mix and match playing some different spots. Does
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  that give Garary an option to maybe be a little more flexible and put those
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  guys in different positions this fall, Yeah, you do, because you have
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  specific job responsibilities within those but they become more interchangeable and fluid in how you
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  can function with on those pieces. You know, it doesn't it's not like
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  a true strong or a free safety, you know what I mean. Those
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  guys are able to compliment each other and you have more flexibility within your packaging
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  to put those guys in a position to make place. I want to touch
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  a little bit more on the play of second year player safety Jayden Bonsu he
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  read shirt freshmen. He was the subject of some signing day drama back in
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  December of twenty twenty two, ended up signing with the Buckeyes. Had a
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  relatively quiet first year, but really sounds like he's making the most of his
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  opportunities this spring. Yeah, he's been a guy that's been on the rise,
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  you know, to me, from where he was when he started spring
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  vault to where he is now, He's made more plays at practice. His
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  eye discipline is better, his understanding of the defense is better, which allows
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  you to be able to play free and be able to play fast. So
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  that's what I've seen so far, and I can I expect that to continue.
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  And from one New Jersey native safety to another. Let's talk about Jalen
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  McLay brew freshman this year. He's another guy who it's early. He's only
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  out there in a lot of cases because of some of the older guys who
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  maybe aren't playing as much. But another guy who maybe is making the most
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  of his opportunities. So far, he's been great. He's been great.
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  He first off, we do a thing where we track how well you run
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  to the ball if you practice. One of the things that we grained right.
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  So you can talk about all the schematics that you want. Coach Knowles
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  has all that, but if you're not running to the ball, you're not
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  playing good defense, right, So we track that and he's one of the
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  guys that every single practice is one of our highest grade guys running to the
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  ball. So he's been awesome from an efforts standpoint, first attitude, he's
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  in early, he puts the work in and he's made a bunch of plays
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  out here. So now I'm excited about Jenile McLain. For sure. There
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  are some new faces in the safety unit. You've got guys missing time.
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  There's always a lot of stuff, a lot of moving parts this time of
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  the year. So how confident is Matt Greary in that safety unit even given
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  all of those different pieces? Yeah, I do. I do, And
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  you know, it's been an opportunity if you have a couple guys that are
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  are not out there, so you're able to continue to grow the depth and
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  be able to see what guys can do and you have increased reps from that
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  standpoint. So I do feel confident, you know, I feel confident in
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  the guys that you know, how they've performed so far. The spring and
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  the guys that haven't been out there, I feel confident from what their abilities
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  are, what I've seen on film, and then the mental preparation. From
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  that standpoint, now, I would go back to refer to you know what
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  late it was like a couple of years ago and taking that same blueprint.
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  When the buck Geys added Caleb Downs, that obviously was a huge addition for
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  this year's team, bringing one of the top players in the entire nation to
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  the Ohio State defense. But can coaching someone like that maybe be a little
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  bit of a challenge at times? What kind of challenge does it bring to
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  bring in someone like that who's not only one of the best athletes in the
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  nation, but also one of the headiest players as well. I wouldn't say
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  weird, I'd say it's great, right, And because his preparation is so
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  high level, it challenges you as a coach to be an elite teacher,
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  right, because he's going to be on his game, he said, coaching
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  a professional player, right. He understands the concepts in the game so well,
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  he's put so much time into it. As a coach, you better
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  be matching or equoing that, right. Going above and beyond that, because
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  if not, he's going to be a step ahead of the coach, right.
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  So it's been awesome to be able to push each other to make each
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  other better. He's got a great understanding and feel for the game. He's
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  a great young man. The work ethic is really high level. So every
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  value that you would look for, not just for skill or intangible seeing that,
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  but who he is as a person. I can't say enough about who
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  Caleb downs has been awesome. Mentioned off the top of the show that Greary
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  was a co DC at Indiana last year. You're in the same division as
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  the Buckeyes, or you were at least before they got rid of the divisions
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  in the Big Ten. But you're kind of in a little bit of a
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  different world there too. Different level of athlete, different level of resource,
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  different level of everything. So what did McCrary learn from his year at Indiana.
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  I think that you learn different ways to be able to do things,
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  whether it's taking the ball away or tackling methods, or you know the way
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  that it's taught from other defensive coaches. So to learn from a different tree
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  and thought process in philosophy, I try to I pride myself on being a
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  teacher, which means that you better always be learning right or you're getting behind.
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  So I would say, yeah, just different ways to be able to
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  maybe do similar techniques or things that have to be done from a defensive principal
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  standpoint, and then you know, bringing that to the table as you step
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  back and you say, Okay, here's how I've always done it, or
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  I've done it in the Jym Knowles system, right, and then you're in
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  a different defensive system and how does that get executed? And then you can
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  blend some of those or pick what you know what you like from there.
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  So a chance to reflect, I'd say sometimes when you see something every day,
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  it can be harder to notice changes than when you go away for a
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  while and then come back. You maybe see your kids every day and doesn't
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  seem like they're growing, and then the grandparents show up and go, holy
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  cow, you've grown three inches. It's the last time I saw you.
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  Well, it can be kind of the case with a football team as well.
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  How different and how much better does this defense look for Matt Greary than
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  it did when he left a year ago? Yeah? Yeah, I mean
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  I think anytime that you're no matter where you're coaching, right, you have
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  principles of defense and a way to be able to play defense, whether you're
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  how you tackle or how you play the red zone or different things like that,
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  and there's metrics to be able to track that, and some improvement was
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  made, not enough in my opinion. You know, I move there.
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  There were strides from that standpoint, and then yeah, when you come back
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  into it, you say, Okay, the system here has developed in a
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  year that I was gone, right, and then maybe I'm able to develop
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  a little bit as a coach too, and from a positional coach or a
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  coordinator mindset, things like that, and then you're able to mesh ideas and
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  come back and you learn, hey, what's the new that's happened over a
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  year. And then I was able to see the Big ten from a different
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  lens as well, you know, so I think that's valuable. Well,
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  I mentioned off the top of the show. We will be back at the
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  Woody Hayes Athletic Center later on today, Wednesday, probably eleven A. M
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  Ish will be streaming interviews with Ohio state head coach Ryan Day. New running
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  backs coach Carlos Locklet will be streaming those live at YouTube dot com slash Buckeye
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  Huddle. When you've coverage at buckeyhuddle dot com, probably do a live episode
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  of the Buckeyes Tomorrow Morning podcast. I'm going to guest tomorrow from the Woody
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  Hayes Athletics Center. Lots of exciting stuff coming for you. That's just Wednesday
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  Friday. We got a whole practice. Be in there for practice on Friday
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  morning and then Saturday the spring game. Lots of Ohio State football coming.
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