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Ohio State Scheme Insider: How Will Luke Fahey Change The Offense? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Buckeyes Tomorrow Morning for Tuesday, October 20th. I'm
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  Speaker 1: your host, Tom Moore. The USC game in 11 days,
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: the game against Michigan in 39 days. Today's episode presented
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  Speaker 1: by our friends at Jeff Ruby's of Columbus, proudly offering
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  Speaker 1: nationally acclaimed USDA prime steaks, seafood and sushi, impeccable service,
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  Speaker 1: live entertainment, and an attention to detail that is simply unmatched.
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  Speaker 1: Just go to jeffruby.com slash Columbus to check out the
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  Speaker 1: menu and make a reservation today. All right, on today's show,
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  Speaker 1: we're gonna be talking to Justin Whitlatch. He is one
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  Speaker 1: of our scheme insiders, and the topic is Hoo boy,
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  Speaker 1: what the heck did the Ohio State Buckeyes do now?
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  Speaker 1: Julian Sane is going to be out for at least
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  Speaker 1: a few weeks. That's what Ryan Day said after the game.
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  Speaker 1: We may get a little more detail from Ryan on
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  Speaker 1: Tuesday evening after the Buckeyes have practice. But right now,
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  Speaker 1: it is the welcome to the Luke Fahey era, at
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  Speaker 1: least for a little while. Welcome in Justin Whitlatch from BuckeyeInsiders.com.
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  Speaker 1: And Justin, you have a background in coaching. So I
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  Speaker 1: guess the first question, before we get into some of
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  Speaker 1: the specifics, what is going on in the building? What
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  Speaker 1: has been going on in the building as that staff
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  Speaker 1: tries to start to address the question of, okay, steering
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  Speaker 1: the ship to go from a Julian saying offense, the
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  Speaker 1: one that Luke Fahey can run. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: And that's a great question. Um, I feel like you
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  Speaker 2: have to have that kind of game plan in your
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  Speaker 2: mind as a head coach before the season starts. Like, Hey, if,
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  Speaker 2: if let's say Julian goes down in week two, what
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  Speaker 2: is our backup plan? Um, So I would assume they've
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  Speaker 2: already got some ideas of how they want to proceed
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  Speaker 2: with that moving forward. Um, but typically you find out
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  Speaker 2: what a, he can do well. He's a true freshman,
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  Speaker 2: really young kid. Um, just cut out of high school football,
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  Speaker 2: not even a year ago. So you got to find
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  Speaker 2: out quickly what can he do well. And it sounds
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  Speaker 2: like during camp and throughout practice this year, they have
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  Speaker 2: kind of figured some of that stuff out of what
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  Speaker 2: he actually does well. Um, and I know everybody wants
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  Speaker 2: to talk about the Indiana game and how he was
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  Speaker 2: thrown in there under fire. And, um, and how he
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  Speaker 2: struggled so much in the pocket. But I don't care
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  Speaker 2: who you are. You're going to struggle in that situation.
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  Speaker 2: It doesn't matter who that is. You didn't game plan.
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  Speaker 2: You weren't the quarterback they game plan for. You're getting
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  Speaker 2: thrown into the fire with a game plan they've prepared
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  Speaker 2: for with Julian. So I think Fancy to realize that
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  Speaker 2: wasn't the Fahey game plan that they proceed to run
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  Speaker 2: moving forward. They've got to figure out, A, what he
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  Speaker 2: does well. And to start, I think you've got to
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  Speaker 2: kind of watch some of his high school tape. What
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  Speaker 2: are the schemes that he ran at the high school level?
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  Speaker 2: How do we implement that? And do we even do that?
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  Speaker 2: Is that in our toolbox? Typically, offenses have everything in
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  Speaker 2: the toolbox, but have you worked it enough to be
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  Speaker 2: able to be successful at it? And watching some of
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  Speaker 2: the film, I do think there's some things to be
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  Speaker 2: had to be able to make him successful. But first
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  Speaker 2: of all, you've got to figure out what he does well.
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  Speaker 2: And they've seen it in practice. And you've got a
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  Speaker 2: game plan moving towards that. And you've got to get–
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  Speaker 2: the biggest thing for me is receivers and quarterbacks timing.
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  Speaker 2: It's everything in football, especially in the passing game. So
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  Speaker 2: how many reps can they get with Jeremiah, with all
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  Speaker 2: those guys in the receiver and tight end room to
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  Speaker 2: be able to really be timed? Because Ohio State runs
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  Speaker 2: so many like vertical stem, vertical concepts where it's a
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  Speaker 2: read-based game. Does he have the time to work that
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  Speaker 2: in practice to be able to run some of those concepts?
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  Speaker 2: So they will become simpler only because of the situation
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  Speaker 2: at hand. In my mind, I think they're going to
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  Speaker 2: run a ton of pure progression concepts, a lot of
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  Speaker 2: RPOs to move forward. You know, they're going to be
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  Speaker 2: really simple. And I think that's obviously the best thing
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  Speaker 2: to do, but like, what can they do timing wise
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  Speaker 2: to really get him going to have a shot to
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  Speaker 2: have some success moving forward?
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  Speaker 1: I know right after the game on Saturday, Jeremiah Smith
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  Speaker 1: was asked about his relationship with Julian and his, his
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  Speaker 1: chemistry with Julian. And then how quickly you can get
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  Speaker 1: sort of on that page with Luke Fahey and kind of,
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  Speaker 1: he kind of said like, yeah, it's going to be
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  Speaker 1: a little while. Like that is not an immediate thing
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  Speaker 1: you can, you can fix right away. So, Yeah, it
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  Speaker 1: is going to be a little bit of a progression
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  Speaker 1: for Luke Fahey and the Ohio State offense in general now.
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  Speaker 1: But you watched a bunch of his high school footage,
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  Speaker 1: a bunch of his high school film. So just based
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  Speaker 1: on what you saw there, obviously a different system and
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  Speaker 1: a different level and all that kind of stuff. But
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  Speaker 1: based on what you saw there, what are some things
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  Speaker 1: that you would sort of assume he's probably going to,
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  Speaker 1: you know, areas where he may be stronger right now?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I'll start in the run game and
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  Speaker 2: then I'll go to the pass game. Definitely an athletic quarterback.
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  Speaker 2: I think you've got to take care. You've got to
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  Speaker 2: use that skill set. Knowing what defenses will do, they're
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  Speaker 2: going to outnumber you in the box. They're going to
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  Speaker 2: dare the young quarterback to beat you. So how do
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  Speaker 2: you even up those numbers? It's kind of some acute
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  Speaker 2: run game, being able to read first-level defenders. He also
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  Speaker 2: ran a ton of RPOs at the high school level,
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  Speaker 2: so he's been able to read the B. um, or
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  Speaker 2: the second level and third level defenders. And he's been
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  Speaker 2: able to do that successfully. So I think that's where
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  Speaker 2: you start. You start, Hey, how can we equate numbers? Um,
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  Speaker 2: and to me, don't put all those tight ends in
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  Speaker 2: the box because I think for him, that's going to
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  Speaker 2: confuse them. There's going to be so many guys in
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  Speaker 2: the box defenses in general at the college level will
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  Speaker 2: give you so many looks. How do we clean it
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  Speaker 2: up for the young guy? How do we equate the numbers?
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  Speaker 2: So I think you've got to be able to have
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  Speaker 2: a clean box, um, It doesn't matter if it's a 4-2-5,
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  Speaker 2: you've got a 4-1 box, 34. How can we clean
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  Speaker 2: it up for him to be successful in the run
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  Speaker 2: game and make sure we can execute? So I think
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  Speaker 2: that's first. You equate numbers by key run game, and
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  Speaker 2: you don't have to do it 20, 25 times, but
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  Speaker 2: you've got to do it enough to where defenses are
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  Speaker 2: going to kind of play and know in the back
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  Speaker 2: of their mind we might have some key run game,
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  Speaker 2: and they're going to try to equate numbers. So how
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  Speaker 2: do we game plan off of that? Secondly, RPO-wise. He's
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  Speaker 2: ran it. I mean, every high school quarterback now, I
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  Speaker 2: would say 90, 95% of high school quarterbacks are running
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  Speaker 2: some type of RPO in their system. And he's no
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  Speaker 2: different at the high school level. I saw him reading
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  Speaker 2: glance routes in the third level, being able to read safeties,
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  Speaker 2: which Ohio State does. I saw him read inside and
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  Speaker 2: outside backers. And so I think those are high percentage
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  Speaker 2: completions that he can throw to boost his confidence. And
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  Speaker 2: I think you start there. And then you can also,
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  Speaker 2: I mean, continue to build upon it. But I think
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  Speaker 2: you've got to simplify the offense enough just to help
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  Speaker 2: him out. I know they run, Ohio State does a
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  Speaker 2: really good job of running base concepts, but from a
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  Speaker 2: ton of different looks, the motion trade, give you a
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  Speaker 2: whole bunch of different formations. I think you're going to
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  Speaker 2: have to throw that out of the window as well.
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  Speaker 2: You've got to give him stationary receivers so he can
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  Speaker 2: kind of get a look pre-snap of what he's seeing.
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  Speaker 2: So post-snap, he has a really good idea as well.
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  Speaker 2: So I think you just got to, again, and this
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  Speaker 2: is pretty common knowledge. You've got to simplify everything for
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  Speaker 2: the young kid. And I think you got to take
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  Speaker 2: advantage of the legs equating numbers. Um, and I did see, um,
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  Speaker 2: in his high school tape, he was running a ton
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  Speaker 2: of Y cross, which Ohio state does, um, a ton
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  Speaker 2: of four verticals, son to play action shots. So he's
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  Speaker 2: running everything at the high school level. It's just now,
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  Speaker 2: can we translate it to Saturdays where looks are different, um,
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  Speaker 2: more athletic. And so you kind of build off from there,
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  Speaker 2: but I would say the first two, three weeks he starts,
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  Speaker 2: it's going to be, it's going to be very base.
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  Speaker 2: I know Ohio state fans are going, you're going to
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  Speaker 2: be frustrated. It's going to be very simple. Um, And
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  Speaker 2: it's going to frustrate me as well. But you've got
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  Speaker 2: to realize what the situation at hand and if you
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  Speaker 2: can be able to control the clock, control the box
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  Speaker 2: and keep pushing the sticks with high percentage throws. I
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  Speaker 2: think there's a chance to come out with some of
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  Speaker 2: these games.
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  Speaker 1: And I think it's probably worth sort of level setting
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  Speaker 1: for how much you can really change in two weeks.
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  Speaker 1: Fortunately for Ohio State, this is the off week. So
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  Speaker 1: you have two weeks instead of one week. to get
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  Speaker 1: some new stuff installed and, you know, not just installed
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  Speaker 1: for the whole team, but sort of installed into his
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  Speaker 1: head because I'm sure he's going to be swimming in
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  Speaker 1: stuff to stuff that he's going to have to take
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  Speaker 1: on now as they're throwing a bunch of new stuff
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  Speaker 1: at him. How much can you realistically install? I mean,
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  Speaker 1: he's obviously been working in the existing Ohio State offense,
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  Speaker 1: but it's not necessarily tailored to him. So how much
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  Speaker 1: new stuff can they realistically put in or adjust or
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  Speaker 1: just sort of are they kind of throwing at him
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  Speaker 1: over the span of the next week and a half?
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  Speaker 2: In terms of installing new at the game plan, it
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  Speaker 2: won't be much. I think, at least in my opinion,
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  Speaker 2: they got a really game plan third down. They're going
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  Speaker 2: to be in third medium a ton with a new quarterback.
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  Speaker 2: They're going to be in third medium, third and long,
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  Speaker 2: just because defenses will load the box. He's a young kid.
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  Speaker 2: They're going to force you to beat him. So they're
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  Speaker 2: going to add to the box and it's going to
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  Speaker 2: create more third and medium, third and long. That's where
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  Speaker 2: Ohio State has to win the ball game. Can they
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  Speaker 2: at least install enough or get to a point where
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  Speaker 2: he's successful at knowing what his read is and it
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  Speaker 2: being really quick? I think it's going to be a
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  Speaker 2: lot of half field concepts, which I think is a
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  Speaker 2: smart move. It's going to be half field concepts on one,
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  Speaker 2: two read. That second read isn't there. Find an avenue
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  Speaker 2: to escape. Extend the drive. And so I think if
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  Speaker 2: you continue building, I just think you add more to
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  Speaker 2: his plate. So that will be what they install. They're
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  Speaker 2: not going to install any new scheme or new like
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  Speaker 2: any new formations. I think you're going to continue adding
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  Speaker 2: more to his plate the longer he plays this year.
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  Speaker 2: And so that's and I agree with that thought process.
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  Speaker 2: You're going to have to win with your defense. You're
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  Speaker 2: going to have to be really good on special teams
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  Speaker 2: and you're going to have to be really good up front.
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  Speaker 2: And if you can give him time to build his
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  Speaker 2: confidence and build his skills at the end of the year,
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  Speaker 2: you give yourself some time to maybe install new schemes.
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  Speaker 2: He's built that confidence. He knows the offense. He's had
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  Speaker 2: some of those reps now built in where now, okay,
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  Speaker 2: we run smash really well. We run those three-level flood concepts.
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  Speaker 2: How can we make it look a little bit different
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  Speaker 2: to the defense, but we can still trust our young
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  Speaker 2: quarterback to be able to execute? So those are some
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  Speaker 2: of the conversations they're having right now is, hey, what
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  Speaker 2: does he throw well?
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  Speaker 1: What can we start to build upon, and what can
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  Speaker 1: we do moving forward?
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  Speaker 2: But if you've watched Ohio State's offense or days throughout
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  Speaker 2: the years, they start with the smash concept. They still
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  Speaker 2: run it a ton. They run it three level flood concept.
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  Speaker 2: So I think they're going to build off of those
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  Speaker 2: two and kind of go from there. And you can
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  Speaker 2: still run your shot concepts because anytime you're running your
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  Speaker 2: shots where you're you're really only reading two receivers, you're
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  Speaker 2: reading a deep shot play to the check down. So
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  Speaker 2: there's still an offense to be had. It's just can
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  Speaker 2: they get an excuse?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, you sort of figure Jeremiah Smith down there somewhere
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  Speaker 1: is still in the playbook. They're going to lean on
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  Speaker 1: that one at times. One last question. Looking at this
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  Speaker 1: from the defensive coaching perspective, Gary Patterson, the longtime TCU
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  Speaker 1: head coach, he's the USC defensive coordinator now. You kind
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  Speaker 1: of know what you're getting out of him. A lot
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  Speaker 1: of 4-2-5, a lot of sim pressures and zone blitzes
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  Speaker 1: and disguising coverages and all that kind of stuff. From
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  Speaker 1: his perspective... Is there any kind of a challenge to
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  Speaker 1: having someone who is kind of a little bit of
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  Speaker 1: an unknown and you're not sure exactly what Ohio State's
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  Speaker 1: going to be? I mean, I assume he's going back
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  Speaker 1: and watching all the high school footage too, but is
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  Speaker 1: that any kind of a challenge for the defensive coach
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  Speaker 1: to just kind of go in with a little bit
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  Speaker 1: of an unknown in terms of what they're going to
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  Speaker 1: be sort of trying to do? Yeah, no doubt.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, you got to go into those in these
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  Speaker 2: situations with almost two game plans of, hey, are they
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  Speaker 2: going to be more of a pass centered or what
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  Speaker 2: they've been in the past, I should say. or are
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  Speaker 2: they going to go more to like zone run game?
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  Speaker 2: What's going to be my plan for that? How am
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  Speaker 2: I going to adjust? So I think he's going to
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  Speaker 2: go into it with two game plans. Um, realistically, I
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  Speaker 2: think a lot of DCs will, um, be plus one
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  Speaker 2: in the box. They'll probably play some type of man
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  Speaker 2: and then double Jeremiah, um, kind of what Indiana did
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  Speaker 2: on third down, um, versus Ohio state. So I think
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  Speaker 2: that's how people will play it. They're going to be aggressive. Um,
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  Speaker 2: they're going to force the quarterback to beat you. And so, um,
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  Speaker 2: In my mind, I think most defenses will come out
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  Speaker 2: with two different game plans. Should we pressure the quarterback?
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  Speaker 2: If he's successful, then how are we going to counter that?
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  Speaker 2: How are we going to play off of that? So
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  Speaker 2: I definitely think for them, there's a lot of unknown.
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  Speaker 2: But at the end of the day, you pressure a
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  Speaker 2: young quarterback, make him beat you.
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  Speaker 1: All right. Well, will he be able to beat them? Well,
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  Speaker 1: we'll figure that out in about a week and a
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: half out in Los Angeles. Don't worry, we have our
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: plane tickets. We now know what time that game is.
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  Speaker 1: It is a 7.30 Eastern game, NBC, Ohio State and USC.
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  Speaker 1: Buckeyes have this weekend off. It is going to be
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: a busy week inside the Woody Hayes Athletic Center as
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  Speaker 1: they try and figure out what the heck do they
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  Speaker 1: do now with Luke Fahey as their starting quarterback as
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: they head out to take on Lane Kiffin. Lincoln Riley
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: and the Trojans. It's been a while since Lane Kiffin's
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: been out there. Lincoln Riley and the Trojans next Saturday,
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: Halloween night, 7.30 on NBC. So Want to talk about
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: this with our staff and our scheme guys? Oh boy,
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: there's gonna be a lot to talk about the next
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: couple weeks before that Buckeyes and Trojans matchup. You can
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: find us at BuckeyeInsiders.com. We got our whole team covering
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: the Buckeyes, covering recruiting, covering scheme and X's and O's,
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: covering basketball. We're gonna have some new basketball coverage for
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: you on Tuesday evening as well. And then interviews, live
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: interviews with Ryan Day, Arthur Smith, and Matt Patricia. all
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: Tuesday evening. It'll be live on our YouTube channel at youtube.com
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  Speaker 1: slash at Buckeye Insiders. And thanks again to our friends
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  Speaker 1: That'll do it for today. Thank you guys all for
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: joining us. Have a great day. We'll talk to you tomorrow.