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Ohio State Football: Big News About Matt Patricia For 2026 · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to buck Eyes tomorrow morning for Tuesday, February twenty fourth.
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  Speaker 1: I'm your host, Tom Moore. The ball State game in
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  Speaker 1: one hundred and ninety three days, the game against Michigan
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  Speaker 1: in two hundred and seventy seven days. Our friends are
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  Speaker 1: Grateful Brittle, Columbus's favorite food truck. They're now on Uber eats, Grubhub,
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  Speaker 1: check out Grateful Griddle oh dot com for more. All right,
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  Speaker 1: on today's show, we're talking about some news that broke
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  Speaker 1: on Monday. Wasn't really news to members of Buckeye Huddle
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  Speaker 1: dot com, of course, because our Tony gerdaman Old members
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  Speaker 1: way back in January, don't worry, Matt Patricia's going to
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  Speaker 1: be back, and the world the rest of the world. Apparently,
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  Speaker 1: Tony found out on Monday the report out of the
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  Speaker 1: Columbus Dispatch that Matt Patricia will in fact be back
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  Speaker 1: for Ohio State. This is news that I think is
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  Speaker 1: going to be very very welcome for Ohio State fans
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  Speaker 1: and for the Ohio State program. I think this is
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  Speaker 1: also very very important news for the twenty twenty six
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  Speaker 1: buck Eyes and just what they could be.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, one of the things that stands out to me
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  Speaker 2: about this decision is that it kind of informs us
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  Speaker 2: what Matt Patricia thinks about the defense that is returning
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  Speaker 2: and what he can do with that. So I think
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  Speaker 2: that should be encouraging for Buckeye fans that Matt Patricia
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  Speaker 2: is looking around and he's like, you know what, not
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  Speaker 2: so bad at Ohio State, and I'd like to see
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  Speaker 2: what else I could do here. So I think that's
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  Speaker 2: a good sign anytime you can maintain a coordinator that
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  Speaker 2: you want to maintain and continue to build that defense.
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  Speaker 2: Just think back to Jim Knowles defense is growing year
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  Speaker 2: after year. I'm not saying this defense is going to
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  Speaker 2: be better than last year's, but everybody's going to be
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  Speaker 2: a step ahead of the game and what is being
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  Speaker 2: taught and what is being.
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  Speaker 1: Done right exactly. You don't have to go back to
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  Speaker 1: square one, and we have seen what a going back
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  Speaker 1: to square one Jim Knowles's defense can look like. You
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  Speaker 1: don't have to do that. You can just kind of
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  Speaker 1: continue to build on what you already have. And yeah,
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  Speaker 1: you've got a bunch of new players and new pieces
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  Speaker 1: on that defense, but the core of guys who are back.
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  Speaker 1: They already know the terminology, they know the ideas, they
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  Speaker 1: know all that kind of stuff that gives you a huge,
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  Speaker 1: huge head start. And just kind of to spell out
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  Speaker 1: a little bit more what you were saying there, which
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  Speaker 1: I think is an important point. You don't want to,
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  Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, coming back is great, And we certainly
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  Speaker 1: have seen Matt Patricia who seems just deliriously happy to
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  Speaker 1: be at Ohio State and to be having a great time.
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  Speaker 1: Every time we see him in front of the cameras,
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  Speaker 1: away from the cameras, way off in the corner of
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  Speaker 1: the building where no one sees him, like every time
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  Speaker 1: we see him somewhere, he is just really happy having
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  Speaker 1: a great time with the players. But the fact that
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  Speaker 1: he's coming back, I want you to spell that out
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  Speaker 1: for people a little bit more. Why that's potentially a
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  Speaker 1: pretty good indication of why what he thinks is potentially
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  Speaker 1: possible for this year's Ohio State defense.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and when he looks around and he knows what
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  Speaker 2: his players can do, and he also looks at the
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  Speaker 2: players that he helped bring in from the transfer portal
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  Speaker 2: and the recruiting classes and has an idea for what
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  Speaker 2: they can do, and you know, you're losing four All
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  Speaker 2: Americans on the defense and multiple starters, and boy, you know,
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  Speaker 2: how do you replace those guys? And like, well, maybe
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  Speaker 2: maybe a little bit of his it is, you know,
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  Speaker 2: Christian Allegro from Wisconsin. Maybe some of it is Riley
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  Speaker 2: Penny John as a sophomore. Maybe it's you know, Quay
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  Speaker 2: Russa and Christian Allegro combining to be what a lot
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  Speaker 2: of rvel Reese did off the ball and on the ball.
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  Speaker 2: Maybe it's bringing in John Walker and as a as
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  Speaker 2: an experienced guy from UCF, a big run plugging defensive tackle,
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  Speaker 2: and then pairing him with two quicker defensive tackles and
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  Speaker 2: Edric Houston and James Smith and seeing what you can
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  Speaker 2: do there and a five man front. Maybe it's the
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  Speaker 2: idea of having a bigger nickel and now what do
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  Speaker 2: you do with that with Earl Little coming in from
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  Speaker 2: Florida State and just tweaking some things, but also doing
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  Speaker 2: what worked last year and finding out how to make
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  Speaker 2: this group work, how to make Peyton Pierce operate as
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  Speaker 2: the quarterback of the defense, how to operate I also
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  Speaker 2: think there's probably a challenge here. You no longer have
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  Speaker 2: Caleb downs, So it's not quite eleven on ten, you know,
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  Speaker 2: it's just like, okay, now do something about that. You
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  Speaker 2: think you're so clever. Now try to play eleven on
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  Speaker 2: eleven like real defense, and see how you do without
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  Speaker 2: this guy who knows everything that's going to happen before
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  Speaker 2: it does. But the pieces are all conceivably there. It's
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  Speaker 2: Ohio State. You're certainly not lacking just because you might
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  Speaker 2: lack from last year that you're talking about at all
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  Speaker 2: time linebacker crew. You know, all American defensive end, all
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  Speaker 2: American nose tackle, all American safety, so's you don't expect
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  Speaker 2: it to be what it was last year. But he
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  Speaker 2: knows all of the pieces that are there, and even
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  Speaker 2: some stuff like maybe they didn't do last year because
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  Speaker 2: of who they had, maybe they can do something different
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  Speaker 2: this year and something that he wanted to do. But
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  Speaker 2: this is year two, so now he can add that in.
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  Speaker 2: And maybe at times you didn't want to throw too
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  Speaker 2: much in last year because it was working. So now
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  Speaker 2: it's like now you can just add two things and
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  Speaker 2: see what else other players can do. Like I said
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  Speaker 2: Riley Petty, John TJ Alfred, what can those guys do
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  Speaker 2: at linebacker? So there's a lot of discovery going on.
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  Speaker 2: And you know, you said it, he's having the time
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  Speaker 2: of his life at Ohio State. This is a spring
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  Speaker 2: to do some experimenting and have some more fun and
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  Speaker 2: you know, draw up on the napkins, as erb and
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  Speaker 2: Meyer would always say. I think there's still a lot
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  Speaker 2: to like about the Ohio State defense, and this is
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  Speaker 2: his return is a sign of that.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think there was a lot of question
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  Speaker 1: about Okay, great, he's back for twenty twenty six. Is
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  Speaker 1: how long is he going to stay? And I don't
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  Speaker 1: know that anyone knows the answer to that. I feel
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  Speaker 1: pretty confident saying Matt Patricia will not be the defensive
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  Speaker 1: coordinator for the twenty forty seven Ohio State defense. I
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  Speaker 1: think that's I feel pretty confident in that. I'm pretty
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  Speaker 1: confident he is in fact going to be there for
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  Speaker 1: twenty twenty six. How much it happens between then and now,
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  Speaker 1: how long is he stay? That's a little bit of
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  Speaker 1: an open question. What we saw from him again away
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  Speaker 1: from the field, Every indication is he's enjoying what he's doing.
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  Speaker 1: He's enjoying having a little bit of a talent advantage
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  Speaker 1: over the teams that he's playing and having players who
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  Speaker 1: can do things that just that a lot of players
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  Speaker 1: this level just simply cannot do, which lets him be
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  Speaker 1: a little bit more more creative and do more different stuff.
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  Speaker 1: That that all sort of points to, Okay, you you know,
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  Speaker 1: one more reason to be happy to stick around, just
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  Speaker 1: the fact that, you know, I don't think he's going
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  Speaker 1: to be here forever, but the fact this kind of
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  Speaker 1: at least gets him into. Ryan Day used to ask
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  Speaker 1: coaches to stay for at least two years, assistant to
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  Speaker 1: stay for at least two years, and that happened until
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  Speaker 1: it didn't and Jeff Hafley came in and wasn't wasn't
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  Speaker 1: that urban Meyer thing too? Two years at least? Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: it was an urban Meyer thing too. And then you know,
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  Speaker 1: year one, Jeff Hafley comes in and is the defense
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  Speaker 1: cornator under Ryan Day, and it's great, and then he
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  Speaker 1: leaves after one year. And you've seen guys sort of
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  Speaker 1: shuffle in and out at times, but just to have
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  Speaker 1: a guy back for year or two just it just
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  Speaker 1: gives you so much of an advantage in terms of
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  Speaker 1: just not having to start from square one and all
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  Speaker 1: that kind of stuff.
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  Speaker 2: Even Matt Patricia not having to start off on square one,
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  Speaker 2: which he did last year, having to learn the defense
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  Speaker 2: because you remember, like he wasn't going to change everything.
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  Speaker 2: He was gonna you know, be a sponge off of
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  Speaker 2: what everybody else could tell him and then do some
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  Speaker 2: things from that. So like he's ahead of the game
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  Speaker 2: this year as well, and he's not learning what players
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  Speaker 2: can do, he's not learning what he can add to
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  Speaker 2: this defense. Now he's in his comfort zone, I think
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  Speaker 2: right now. And it's like, now it's about progressing the
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  Speaker 2: defense instead of just catching up to all of the
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  Speaker 2: other coaches on the staff and catching up to the players.
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  Speaker 2: Now they're all moving at the same speed and I
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  Speaker 2: think that should be an exciting thing for Ohio State fans.
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  Speaker 2: And again, like I say, you're not going to replace
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  Speaker 2: everybody and be on an inline, but overall, like I'm
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  Speaker 2: not expecting any kind of, you know, massive drop off
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  Speaker 2: in this defense. But they may go from number two,
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  Speaker 2: number one to seven or eight something like that. I
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  Speaker 2: don't think that's a terrible thing.
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  Speaker 1: You say that now, but they're going to give up
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  Speaker 1: a first down at some point in that Week one
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  Speaker 1: game and then we'll see, we'll see how happy everyone
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  Speaker 1: is with Matt Patricia then. But until then, I think
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  Speaker 1: Ohio State fans should be very happy to have Matt
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  Speaker 1: Patricia back for season number two with the Buckeyes. That
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  Speaker 1: spring practice we'll skick off on March tenth, we will
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  Speaker 1: be there for that one spring game wrapping up spring
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  Speaker 1: practice on April eighteenth. Be there for that one as well.
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  Speaker 1: I'm sure we'll be there for a bunch of practices
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  Speaker 1: in between there as well, and we'll be talking about
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  Speaker 1: it with you at bucke huddle dot com and at
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  Speaker 1: YouTube dot com slash Buckeye Huddle. That'll do it for today.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you guys all for joining us. Have a great day.
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  Speaker 1: We'll talk to you tomorrow.