Latest / Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning / Ohio State Quarterback Battle Heading Into Spring Practice

Transcript

Ohio State Quarterback Battle Heading Into Spring Practice · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

• 0:00
  Welcome to Buck Guys Tomorrow Morning for Tuesday, March fifth. I'm your host,
• 0:03
  Tom Moore. The Acron game is in one hundred and seventy nine days.
• 0:07
  The game it gets vising it in two hundred and seventy days. All
• 0:10
  right, we're just gonna start this show. I'm gona address the elephant in
• 0:12
  the room, or I guess the elephant outside, which is Yeah, it's
• 0:16
  seventy degrees. I am sitting at an ice drink right now where one of
• 0:19
  my kids is skating, and it's too loud to record the show inside,
• 0:22
  and so we're just gonna do it outside. It's seventy degrees, it's March
• 0:26
  fourth. It's fine, it's fine. Something else that's fine. Ohio State
• 0:29
  spring football officially starts on Tuesday. Finally your long long national nightmayor of I
• 0:38
  don't know, like two months or so, we're pretty much everything went right
• 0:41
  for Ohio State. Well, that nightmare is over and now Ohio State football
• 0:44
  is finally back on the field one Tuesday, and Tony Gerdaman is back on
• 0:47
  the morning show to talk all about it. We actually got a little bit
• 0:50
  of a sneak preview Tony of springball not normally seven we get, but we
• 0:55
  got kind of a bunch of interviews on Monday to sort of preview springball,
• 1:00
  and today we're just going to keep it simple. We're just going to talk
• 1:02
  about the quarterbacks. That's always, you know, everyone's biggest topic they want
• 1:04
  to hear about. So we're going to start right there. Let's start with
• 1:08
  the first quarterback that we're going to tell to discuss, the newest quarterback on
• 1:12
  the roster, at least of the veteran quarterbacks, that would be Will Howard.
• 1:17
  What did you learn from Will Howard one day before the start of springball.
• 1:21
  Well, you know, this was actually our second time getting to talk
• 1:23
  to him, because we got to talk to the transfers a month or so
• 1:26
  ago. And I think what we learned from him is that this is not
• 1:33
  his first rodeo. In fact, as a total aside, he actually took
• 1:38
  some tea, some teammates and him went to the rodeo recently. But he
• 1:42
  said he's not timid or all at all or nervous about what is about to
• 1:49
  take place, because he's he's prepared for it. He is, you know,
• 1:55
  this is he's an experienced guy. And one of the things he said,
• 1:59
  was you know, I'm not going to and I'm not going to be
• 2:00
  nervous, especially for spring ball. And as we've talked about in the past,
• 2:04
  you can't win the job in spring, but you could lose it.
• 2:07
  He certainly seems confident enough, says he has most of the offense down,
• 2:09
  so I think that's a big bonus as well. I'm sure he's been doing
• 2:15
  some like NonStop studying of the playbook as it as it progresses as well.
• 2:20
  But he seems pretty confident and what he's doing, what he's had to do,
• 2:23
  like, nothing seems too big for him to this point. Well,
• 2:25
  and that's good. I mean he's you're kind of doing your intro level courses
• 2:30
  during January and February and trying to get yourself up to speed. And you
• 2:35
  know, if he comes into spring more or less up to speed, you
• 2:38
  would figure one of the big advantages Devin Brown would have coming into the spring
• 2:42
  is has been in this Brian Day offense for a couple of years. Would
• 2:46
  seemingly have a pretty big advantage over Will Howard. If Will Howard can kind
• 2:50
  of close the gap on that front coming into the spring, that might change
• 2:53
  some of the dynamics in terms of how that race for the starting quarterback job
• 2:55
  is going to play out this spring. So now let's talk about Devin Brown.
• 3:00
  Devin Brown. Obviously there's been a ton of talk about Devin Brown.
• 3:04
  Oh, he's right on the verge of entering a transfer portal any day now.
• 3:07
  It's you know, it feels like you've kind of heard that from a
• 3:09
  lot of people. He had to burn the boats thing before the you know,
• 3:15
  before the Cotton Bowl, so that obviously strongly suggests no, he's not
• 3:17
  going to transfer. And Devin Brown was asked, you know, his thoughts
• 3:21
  on people who think he's going to transfer and had, you know, I
• 3:23
  pretty let's call it a pointed answer. Yeah, there was a pointed part
• 3:28
  to it where he said, they don't know blank, they don't know crap
• 3:30
  and said a lot of that stuff comes from people in their basements and their
• 3:34
  mom's basements, and so he went that whole route, but also said when
• 3:38
  he decided on Ohio State, he didn't care who was at Ohio State in
• 3:42
  terms of who was in the quarterback room. And he still doesn't care.
• 3:45
  And this is a job that he wants to win. He's going to do
• 3:46
  whatever he can to win it and doesn't matter who's in. And you know,
• 3:52
  Ryan Day told all of the quarterbacks before he brought in all both of
• 3:54
  the quarterbacks before he brought in Will Howard that we just need depth to bring
• 4:00
  in another guy. And obviously the job is going to be open, as
• 4:02
  everybody knew it would be. And it's not something that seems to have bothered
• 4:09
  Davin Devin Brown to this point. And so when he throws out that comment,
• 4:13
  you know, I tweeted that out, and I guess some people saying
• 4:15
  that you got you get some Tate Martell vibes from the don't swing twice,
• 4:18
  don't miss twice type of thing. And now when you say something like that,
• 4:24
  when Devin Brown comes out and say it, says, you know,
• 4:25
  they don't know crap, now you have to kind of back that up or
• 4:29
  live that. And and it doesn't seem like he has any problem doing it.
• 4:32
  That doesn't face him at all. And there is definitely a a like
• 4:38
  a sharpness to him that I think is not bad for a quarterback to have,
• 4:45
  especially in a competition. Whether you win it or you don't, you
• 4:47
  go you want somebody that kind of has that edge it doesn't feel like the
• 4:51
  Ohios State quarterback position is one you're gonna win by playing it safe and just
• 4:56
  well, you know, just don't make a mistake, and that that's not
• 5:00
  how this is going to probably get decided. Yeah, they don't want you
• 5:04
  to throw interceptions, but they also want you to go out and see what
• 5:08
  you can do and not just be captain checked down. And I you know,
• 5:12
  if you're going to come out swinging, like if you're going to go
• 5:14
  down, go down and swinging, and if you're going to win the job,
• 5:16
  win the job. Swing And it feels like that might be how that
• 5:19
  plays out this spring, and we'll see how that all happens. We'll get
• 5:23
  our first look at where they stand and what those two guys look like next
• 5:26
  to each other on Tuesday morning. Cannot wait. We'll be there for practice.
• 5:30
  That'll be a lot of fun. We will also get a chance to
• 5:31
  see Lincoln Keenholes for the first time since the Cotton Bowl. He talked on
• 5:35
  Monday. You said your big observation on Lincoln keen Holes is, you know,
• 5:40
  it's only been two months in a few days since the Cotton Bowl,
• 5:43
  but I mean it sounds like he has you know, started to you know,
• 5:46
  he has made the most of his time with coach Mick over those two
• 5:48
  months or so. Yeah, I think I'm looking through my notebook right now
• 5:51
  and the uh, the first note on the top of my page is he
• 5:57
  looks bigger. And the first question that he got when he sat down,
• 6:00
  I was like, are you Lincoln, are you taller and heavier than you
• 6:03
  were the last time we saw you, because he definitely looks filled out.
• 6:08
  And if you look at the roster as of Monday, which is the old
• 6:12
  roster, he was six two one ninety five and he said he's put on
• 6:15
  about seven pounds of muscle. He looks more solid. He does not look
• 6:18
  like a high school or anymore. And you know that's that's part of the
• 6:23
  process of getting ready for the competition, to be able to withstand whatever is
• 6:28
  coming your way, and knowing that you have to be prepared because you might
• 6:31
  be called upon at any moment, just as he was last year. And
• 6:35
  now he'll be more prepared now, obviously. But it was interesting to talk
• 6:40
  to him because now anytime you talk to a quarterback who may not be the
• 6:43
  starter, it's like, so, have you thought about transferring yet? And
• 6:46
  he's going into this with the mindset of I'm going to compete for the job.
• 6:50
  But also, hey, everybody, I'm a red shirt freshman. You
• 6:55
  know there are guys it takes time. We're eighteen, nineteen years old.
• 6:59
  It takes time I'm to develop. So if it doesn't happen for me this
• 7:02
  year, there's next year. And it's really refreshing. I don't know that
• 7:09
  you've got somebody who has patients but is not being patient in terms of buying
• 7:14
  for the job. But he realizes the best guy is going to play and
• 7:17
  I know I still have a much higher trajectory than I am right now.
• 7:21
  And I think one of his comments was that, you know he's going to
• 7:26
  trust He trusts Ryan Day, Coach Day's plan for him. It's philosophy for
• 7:30
  him. So if he's not ready yet and you know, he's going to
• 7:34
  give it everything he has to get there, but he knows that he is
• 7:39
  not a finished product, and nobody should be a finished product as a redshirt
• 7:43
  freshman, right It's hard to be a finished product when you were just about
• 7:46
  to take on the field for your very first spring practice. Ever, that
• 7:49
  is not typically a point when you are talking about guys as finished products.
• 7:54
  You know, this is he's going to be trusting in Ryan Day this year.
• 7:57
  He's also going to be trusting in the new offensive coordinator, Chip Kelly.
• 8:00
  All three quarterbacks were asked about the chip Kelly difference, and you know,
• 8:03
  what is what is life going to be like with Chip Kelly and what
• 8:05
  is it you know, what has it been like working with him so far?
• 8:07
  So what is the what is the kind of the early word on working
• 8:11
  with Chip Kelly as a quarterback at Ohio State. One of the interesting things
• 8:16
  is Devin Brown has said he told a story about how I mean he mentioned
• 8:20
  too we were sitting in the office with Chip Kelly and Justin Fryes, like
• 8:24
  he recounted the time that they were in his living room. Basically those two
• 8:28
  recruiting him to UCLA and obviously he chose Ohio State, chose USC at the
• 8:31
  time in Ohio State, and so he's got the familiarity there with them.
• 8:35
  I think Will Howard said he's very down to earth. His offense is very
• 8:39
  quarterback friendly. It's not asking you to do too much. It plays into
• 8:43
  your strengths. So I think that's kind of music to Buckeye fans ears when
• 8:48
  they're talking about quarterback friendly offense. That's what Ryan Day has been. Sometimes
• 8:50
  it's a little complicated for some quarterbacks. Maybe this is a nice marriage between
• 8:56
  the two. Of course, Lincoln Keyholes a younger guy who you hear the
• 9:01
  name Chip Kelly and it still resonates, and so everybody's been speaking really really
• 9:07
  well of him. Obviously you would expect them to. I would not expect
• 9:11
  thinking Kenoles or anybody be like to be like, you know, we're not
• 9:13
  it's just not working for me. So we're gonna have to do something about
• 9:16
  that. But he is, you know, obviously they're communicating now. It
• 9:22
  has been interesting that I think all of the quarterbacks said that Brian Day told
• 9:26
  him I'm gonna be stepping back from the quarterbacks now. And so it is
• 9:30
  a different quarterback room, and it is a different meeting room because you no
• 9:33
  longer have Ryan Day, you no longer have Tot Fitch you left for LSU,
• 9:39
  and of course Cory Dennis is gone. So this is Chip Kelly's room.
• 9:41
  And so it's a new relationship for all of these guys, and it's
• 9:43
  a new process of how they're doing things. So in that sense, It's
• 9:50
  almost put everybody kind of on the same footing in terms of how they learned
• 9:52
  from Chip Kelly. And it'll be interesting to follow this spring, for sure.
• 9:58
  And I did want to ask you just about Todd Fitch, because I
• 10:01
  think that's a name that if you just pulled the average Ohio State fan on
• 10:05
  the street or just you know, we're talking to someone at the water cooler
• 10:07
  tomorrow and said, hey, what do you think about Todd Fitch, you'd
• 10:11
  probably get a lot of blank, blank looks and blank stares. But that's
• 10:15
  someone who was pretty significant, a pretty significant part of that quarterback room the
• 10:20
  last couple of years. Was you know, did anyone have anything to say
• 10:24
  about him leaving for LSU? He kind of took a similar role with LSU,
• 10:30
  you know, he's he's been a real part of some of the quarterback
• 10:33
  development that's happened there. Yeah, And when I was around the quarterbacks just
• 10:37
  floating back and forth, didn't hear necessarily anybody talking about the loss of Todd
• 10:43
  Pitch. But I think you only have to listen to c. J.
• 10:45
  Strout talk about his impact on Fitch's impact on him that you get an idea
• 10:52
  of what he's meant to the quarterbacks, and now it is. You know,
• 10:56
  he'll go off to LSU and do his thing there, but that's a
• 10:58
  role the the analyst, special advisor to the the head coach type of thing,
• 11:05
  where not supposed to have any on field coaching, but you can watch
• 11:07
  film, you can do things of that nature. But he has made them
• 11:13
  better quarterbacks, smarter quarterbacks, more aware of technique and follow through and just
• 11:20
  whatever their their job is at that moment. And so you you do still
• 11:24
  have to fill that. I think you're gonna like, who is going to
• 11:28
  be Chip Kelly's assistant, you know, the assistant to the assistant type of
• 11:31
  thing, because they'll have to get somebody, I would assume because there's so
• 11:33
  much change going on right now. And then maybe that'll be something we talked
• 11:39
  to Chip today about as well. Well, that is one thing to look
• 11:43
  forward to. We also have our first look at the twenty twenty four Ohio
• 11:46
  State football team that'll be coming right nearly Tuesday morning. We're supposed to get
• 11:50
  in there about eight forty five. Well, no tweeting from practice, Tony,
• 11:54
  that's the rule. We talked about that on yesterday's show. But I
• 11:58
  have that to look forward to. Wait, get to get our first look
• 12:01
  at the new rosters, the new heights, the new weights, the new
• 12:03
  Jersey numbers, all the freshmen showing up, all that fun stuff, the
• 12:07
  new Ohio state kind of the official turn the page, turn the calendar to
• 12:11
  the next year. That's always a really fun, really fun morning. We
• 12:16
  will be there and we'll get some interviews afterwards. We may ye, I
• 12:18
  don't know. We'll see if we can do a live show or some kind
• 12:20
  of post event show of some kind. We'll try and figure it out.
• 12:26
  It's springball for us too. We're all kind of we're figuring out. It's
• 12:28
  the first day of spring ball. We'll get there, but you can find
• 12:31
  us all at Buckehuddle dot com. Whatever we're doing, we'll be doing it
• 12:35
  there. Tony, Kevin and I covering the team. Mark has been down
• 12:37
  in Florida. Just go back from Florida. Really really great information, great
• 12:41
  video from some really top prospects down there. Good stuff from him. You
• 12:46
  can find that on the Huddle Bard of Buckey huddle dot Com. And of
• 12:48
  course our team effects is knows guys. X's nose Guruz making you a smarter
• 12:52
  football fan all on the huddle board, presented by Jeff Ruby's Takhouse all at
• 12:56
  bucke huddle dot com. We hope to see you there. That'll do it
• 12:58
  for today. Thank you all for joining us I regret Day. We'll talk
• 13:01
  to you tomorrow