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BONUS: 12 Takeaways From Ohio State Spring Practice · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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Speaker 1: Welcome to Buck Eyes Tomorrow Morning for Wednesday, April twenty second.
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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 thirty six days, the game against Michigan
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Speaker 1: in two hundred and twenty days. Our friends A Grateful Griddle,
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Speaker 1: check out Grateful Griddle oh dot com for more. On
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Speaker 1: today's show, You're getting a little bit of Juck. Everybody
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Speaker 1: loves Chuck. We had a lot of fun working with
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Speaker 1: him covering the spring game on Saturday, and in this
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Speaker 1: episode of the Buckeye Huddle Primetime show, he takes a
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Speaker 1: look at twelve takeaways as the Buckeyes close out Spring ball.
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Speaker 1: A lot of interesting stuff from him. If you enjoy this,
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Speaker 1: make sure you check out the Buckeye Huddle Primetime podcast
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Speaker 1: wherever you get. Buckeyes Tomorrow Morning.
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Speaker 2: Hey, it's Chuck. We are not bemoaning the noonkickoff. We're
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Speaker 2: now owning it. It's a badge of honor. We're the
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Speaker 2: lunatic fringe that defines our coaches legacy when it comes
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Speaker 2: to this game. They don't get to define that outside
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Speaker 2: the family who we're cut from a different cloth. Broans,
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Speaker 2: He's got it all, man. He's even got the jaw.
1:02
Speaker 2: You know the jaw. You see that jaw and you're
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Speaker 2: just like, yeah, man, that's a that's a dude. Do
1:07
Speaker 2: I want Michigan to beat Oklahoma? No way in hell.
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Speaker 2: I don't know what world I'm living in. This is
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Speaker 2: insane to me. And if you saw my outburst, I apologize.
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Speaker 2: It's showtime now, Well, welcome into Buckeye Huddle prime Time.
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Speaker 2: It's your boy, Jack. I am, in fact late apologize. Guys,
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Speaker 2: had a little microphone issue, and I'm noticing now that
1:31
Speaker 2: I have a little camera issue. This thing is really
1:33
Speaker 2: ways zoomed in on me. I don't think you can
1:35
Speaker 2: see the top of my head such as life mom.
1:39
Speaker 2: Is that you again? Did you create a new Burner account?
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Speaker 2: I don't think so, not with the end of that
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Speaker 2: end of that account number there. Appreciate you guys so
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Speaker 2: much for joining me tonight. It's it's a Monday. We're
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Speaker 2: here every Monday and Thursday live at eight pm. We'll
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Speaker 2: talk some questions, some comments, whatever you guys want to
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Speaker 2: get into. But I certainly got some things. I want
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Speaker 2: to get into the offensive line. You know, I did
2:01
Speaker 2: a postgame show. It was actually, I don't know if
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Speaker 2: you can call it a postgame show because it was
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Speaker 2: the following day after the game, but I did the show.
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Speaker 2: It was an hour long and it was a live show,
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Speaker 2: and I was talking about the offensive line, and it
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Speaker 2: was probably going on for about forty five minutes before
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Speaker 2: I went into the chat and checked the chat. And
2:24
Speaker 2: when I got into that chat, man, I didn't even
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Speaker 2: know where to start because it had it evolved into
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Speaker 2: like a half an hour of back and forth fighting
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Speaker 2: about the offensive line, which was pretty funny. But I
2:39
Speaker 2: want to talk a little bit about the offensive line.
2:40
Speaker 2: I kind of got. I got a little quite a
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Speaker 2: few things to talk about, like a line item of
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Speaker 2: kind of twelve thoughts I had. And I'm talking when
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Speaker 2: I bring these up, not just about the spring game
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Speaker 2: in specific, but the totality of Spring, all the whole
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Speaker 2: spring period. Based on going to practices, things I picked up,
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Speaker 2: things that you know, I've talked about with people and
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Speaker 2: then of course ending in the spring game, and just
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Speaker 2: some things that are fresh on my mind, some things
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Speaker 2: that I might have changed my mind on based on
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Speaker 2: where we were at, what we were thinking heading into
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Speaker 2: spring and now coming out and things I reserve to
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Speaker 2: change my mind coming out of the fall as well.
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Speaker 2: But I was just sitting down with my thoughts and
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Speaker 2: kind of reviewing everything, and I rewatched the game, of course.
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Speaker 2: And when I say rewatch the game, I'm talking like
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Speaker 2: Ian Moore, Sam Greer, Max Riley, James Smith, Carry Wilder
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Speaker 2: bo Atkinson almost I'd say seventy five percent to eighty
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Speaker 2: percent of every rep, every one of those guys took.
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Speaker 2: All the linemen did not get to the linebackers yet
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Speaker 2: in the secondary without the all twenty two, it is
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Speaker 2: kind of worthless the secondary or the receivers. But I've
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Speaker 2: watched all the big Dogs charted it eight hours and uh,
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Speaker 2: it's It's a whole lot of fun. I'd recommend you
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Speaker 2: guys do it if you haven't done it yet. But
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Speaker 2: it really helps you get a grasp on what you're
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Speaker 2: actually talking about, because you can see a guy make
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Speaker 2: a couple of bad plays and come away thinking that
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Speaker 2: guy played bad and maybe he really didn't got to
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Speaker 2: watch every rep you got to, especially if you're gonna
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Speaker 2: get behind a microphone and put your thoughts out there
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Speaker 2: that that anybody can find, maybe even that guy or
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Speaker 2: maybe even his parents. You know, I was at the
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Speaker 2: game and I got approached by a player's dad and
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Speaker 2: he was like, Hey, Hey, I'm such and such as dad.
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Speaker 2: What is it did you call my son? And that
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Speaker 2: is like a pit in your stomach moment. Fortunately he
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Speaker 2: liked what I had called his son. But yeah, that's
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Speaker 2: that's a scary one for sure. I never knew do know?
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Speaker 2: What I say sometimes just comes out of my mouth,
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Speaker 2: especially in these live shows. But anyway, I got twelve
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Speaker 2: takeaways and some pretty definitive opinions here. But number one,
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Speaker 2: I'm gonna go with the X factor. The X factor
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Speaker 2: which we heard Ryan Day talk about now. Sometimes Ryan
5:07
Speaker 2: Day talks about things they don't come to fruition. Sometimes
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Speaker 2: he installs things and they don't really happen, Like the
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Speaker 2: Lincoln Riley package last year. Who did we see in
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Speaker 2: critical moments taking quarterback sneaks not so good? It was
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Speaker 2: Julian saying maybe you could have brought in the Lincoln
5:25
Speaker 2: package in those you know, they worked on that and
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Speaker 2: never really happened. Two years ago, Caleb downs, Ryan Day
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Speaker 2: wasn't asked about it, brought it up out of the blue.
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Speaker 2: The Caleb Downs was running the ball and now we
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Speaker 2: all knew this was nonsense, but he brought it up
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Speaker 2: this year. It was the X factory. Brought it up
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Speaker 2: a couple times during spring and what was the X factor?
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Speaker 2: The X factor, Julian saying, running the ball. And I
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Speaker 2: don't want to say that I doubted that this was
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Speaker 2: actually being a point of emphasis, but I am of
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Speaker 2: the opinion that Ryan Day in the past has not
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Speaker 2: really been fond of his quarterbacks running. But there's also
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Speaker 2: some caveats there. There was not always great backup quarterbacks
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Speaker 2: and this year is certainly a much better option there
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Speaker 2: with Tavian. And we'll talk a little bit about Tavian.
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Speaker 2: But I wasn't so sure. But then we did see
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Speaker 2: it practice, Julian saying, going through some running of the
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Speaker 2: football drills. And then as we watched the spring game,
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Speaker 2: we didn't just see Julian look quicker to take off
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Speaker 2: when he saw some grass and the play was maybe
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Speaker 2: breaking down a little bit. Wasn't quick to throw it away.
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Speaker 2: He was taken off and it wasn't just him. We
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Speaker 2: saw Tavian do it. Then we saw fayhe do it.
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Speaker 2: Then we saw Justin Martin do it, and to me,
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Speaker 2: now I'm pretty convinced this is not coach speak. Ryan
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Speaker 2: Day really believes that this is the way they should
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Speaker 2: be running the offense now from the quarterback position, and
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Speaker 2: it feels like a pretty big change. When we saw
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Speaker 2: all four quarterbacks, things start breaking down. They looked much
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Speaker 2: quicker to take off and run the football. Then we
7:08
Speaker 2: heard Julian talking in the press conference about I mean,
7:12
Speaker 2: they asked him almost as a joke, and we're expecting
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Speaker 2: Julian to kind of laughter. They thought that he was
7:17
Speaker 2: joking in his answer. It was the play where he
7:20
Speaker 2: I think he scored the touchdown in the scrimmage, but
7:23
Speaker 2: he would have had a collision, and they talked about
7:27
Speaker 2: him and Peyton Pierce having the collision, but it actually
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Speaker 2: would have been an allegro who would have hit him
7:32
Speaker 2: in a real game and probably would have put a
7:35
Speaker 2: real good lock on him. But Julian said, I'm scoring,
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Speaker 2: And you know, it's the attitude. It's the tough guy
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Speaker 2: attitude you want to hear out of a competitor. I'm
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Speaker 2: not so sure I'd have wanted to see him put
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Speaker 2: his shoulder down in that situation even in a real game,
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Speaker 2: unless it was I don't know, a playoff game or
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Speaker 2: the game. But it's that kind of attitude when it
7:54
Speaker 2: comes to running the football that I think that has
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Speaker 2: been embraced in the quarterback room this year and I
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Speaker 2: think we're really going to see it, and I think
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Speaker 2: that that is a big deal for the offense. We
8:06
Speaker 2: also heard Ryan Day talk about designed runs with Julian. Now,
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Speaker 2: I don't think we're going to see much of that
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Speaker 2: at all, but a couple of games, you know that
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Speaker 2: you put that in a few times down at the
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Speaker 2: goal line, at least keep him honest. It'll be a
8:19
Speaker 2: big help. Number two Tavian Saint Clair. This is the
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Speaker 2: first time we've seen tav In Saint Clair and any
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Speaker 2: kind of you know, length since last year in the
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Speaker 2: spring game, and you can't really take much out of
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Speaker 2: that one. But this one, I think we can take
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Speaker 2: some things out. He's not a rote routine, play routinely
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Speaker 2: type of guy. I just don't think that this is
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Speaker 2: ever going to be the type of guy that you
8:48
Speaker 2: would want to even try to mold into that style
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Speaker 2: of quarterback. And that is a very safe, very efficient
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Speaker 2: game manager, point guard type of quarterback very naturally wants
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Speaker 2: to push the ball down the field. In fact, we
9:03
Speaker 2: got the stats here, the box score, and Tavian Saint
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Speaker 2: Clair through eleven balls between ten and I'm sorry, he
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Speaker 2: threw eleven balls total over ten yards. Five of those
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Speaker 2: were over twenty yards. He completed eight of them. He
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Speaker 2: completed three or five over twenty. Julian saying, on the
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Speaker 2: other hand, only throw seven balls over ten yards and
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Speaker 2: none of them were over twenty yards. So they were
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Speaker 2: working off a script, and Tavian certainly had more opportunities
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Speaker 2: to maybe take those deep shots, but Julian had some.
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Speaker 2: And generally it seems like, I don't want to say,
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Speaker 2: shy it away from him. He'll take them, but it
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Speaker 2: feels like it's got to be like kind of planned.
9:56
Speaker 2: All right, we're going into this play, I'm probably looking
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Speaker 2: for this shot where Tavian just kind of he'll see it,
10:03
Speaker 2: he'll sling it, and it just feels like that's the
10:05
Speaker 2: kind of guy he is. Man, He's a quarterback that's
10:07
Speaker 2: going to push it down the field. And it's just
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Speaker 2: a totally different style and it was really kind of
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Speaker 2: fun to watch, and like I'm Obviously we got to
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Speaker 2: cut down on these interceptions because he threw two in
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Speaker 2: practice on Friday, could have thrown two in the spring game.
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Speaker 2: And I think it's just the type of guy that
10:26
Speaker 2: after another year, we'll see those interceptions go down. And
10:30
Speaker 2: the way he pushes it down the field, he's going
10:32
Speaker 2: to be an exciting quarterback. But I don't know if
10:34
Speaker 2: you've noticed. I did kind of look over YouTube today.
10:39
Speaker 2: There's a whole lot of national channels talking about Tavy
10:43
Speaker 2: and Saint Clair and it's kind of funny, man, Like,
10:47
Speaker 2: you know, you can't take a whole lot out of
10:49
Speaker 2: the spring game other than this is the kind of
10:51
Speaker 2: style a quarterback he is, and he's not ready. He's
10:55
Speaker 2: clearly not ready. I mean, anybody thinking that he's ready
10:57
Speaker 2: is I think a little off base. You know, there
11:00
Speaker 2: was a lot in that game plan that was this
11:03
Speaker 2: is exactly what you're gonna do. He wasn't improvising at
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Speaker 2: all other than I'm picking between this route and this
11:08
Speaker 2: route right here, and the defense was extremely vanilla like,
11:12
Speaker 2: he's nowhere near ready, but in another year he's gonna be.
11:16
Speaker 2: And you know, if he did have to come in
11:18
Speaker 2: this year and they had to kind of gear that
11:22
Speaker 2: offense more towards He's gonna run and we're gonna do
11:26
Speaker 2: a little bit of this and a little bit of that.
11:28
Speaker 2: They could win a lot of games, they could beat
11:30
Speaker 2: a lot of teams, and hope that he grows over
11:32
Speaker 2: the course of the season if by you know, there
11:35
Speaker 2: was an injury and he had to come in. But
11:37
Speaker 2: I wouldn't be too surprised either if that happened that
11:41
Speaker 2: you had to kind of go to Justin Martin to
11:43
Speaker 2: kind of ready the ship for a little bit too.
11:45
Speaker 2: But at any rate, man super exciting. I know everybody
11:49
Speaker 2: was was really feeling happy that we got to see
11:52
Speaker 2: him come out and rip it. It just makes you feel
11:54
Speaker 2: really confident about next year. And I did hear some
11:56
Speaker 2: talk about, well, what if what happens if Julie and
12:00
Speaker 2: doesn't enter the draft, what's that situation look like? And
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Speaker 2: in my opinion, there's zero chance that this team is
12:07
Speaker 2: not Tavian Saint Clair's in twenty twenty seven. You know,
12:10
Speaker 2: if that means Julian Saying goes to another team in
12:14
Speaker 2: college football, if it played college FOOTBA, if he's not
12:16
Speaker 2: ready to go to the NFL, I think that's what
12:18
Speaker 2: it means I think it's Tavians. It's Tavian Show next year.
12:21
Speaker 2: So number three, I think that the benefit of Chris
12:29
Speaker 2: Henry not having the limelight on him all spring, the
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Speaker 2: limelight that brock Boyd kind of took over. Brock Boyd
12:36
Speaker 2: comes over, catches all this attention that otherwise would have
12:39
Speaker 2: been heaped on Chris Henry, who's by nature a really
12:42
Speaker 2: shy kid. I think that it helped him a lot,
12:46
Speaker 2: and I think that it showed throughout the Spring as
12:50
Speaker 2: he just kind of kept growing and growing and getting
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Speaker 2: better without any pressure and without a lot of limelight
12:56
Speaker 2: on him, which is just amazing when you think about it.
12:58
Speaker 2: We're talking about a guy that and I see Mark
13:01
Speaker 2: Gibler in the highlights tonight or in the comments section tonight.
13:05
Speaker 2: So Mark Gibler covered Jeremiah Smith down at Shamanad a
13:10
Speaker 2: couple of times, and then he told me, you know,
13:13
Speaker 2: I was down at I forget what kind of showcase
13:17
Speaker 2: it was last year, but Modern Day had come down
13:20
Speaker 2: and they were playing at Saint Thomas Aquinas down in
13:23
Speaker 2: Fort Lauderdale, and he said, the amount of celebrity, just
13:28
Speaker 2: the amount of attention in the state of Florida around
13:32
Speaker 2: Chris Henry Junior was a different level of celebrity than
13:35
Speaker 2: Jeremiah even had in Miami when he was a senior.
13:39
Speaker 2: So we're talking about a kid who's a mega celebrity already,
13:43
Speaker 2: and we're going to see this really pick up with
13:46
Speaker 2: that spring game right there, and that kind of celebrity.
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Speaker 2: He doesn't love the attention, so he got to kind
13:52
Speaker 2: of work and not get a whole lot of questions
13:56
Speaker 2: asked about him, not a lot of attention on him
13:58
Speaker 2: because it was going to Bronc and I think that
14:01
Speaker 2: was the best thing for him. And then we see
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Speaker 2: him just break out in that game, and I don't
14:07
Speaker 2: want to say there was questions about him, but once
14:10
Speaker 2: you see him do it, once you see him out
14:12
Speaker 2: there moving, you see how fast he is out there
14:15
Speaker 2: with Ohio state starters, and he just looks like, Yeah,
14:19
Speaker 2: he's that dude, He's that good right now? Who's keeping
14:22
Speaker 2: him off the field? So ask myself this and I
14:26
Speaker 2: run through this. We're talking about Devin McEwen right now.
14:29
Speaker 2: Is the slotted starter across from Jeremiah Smith and Devin
14:33
Speaker 2: McEwen coming in from UTSA. I think we're all looking
14:36
Speaker 2: at him like, hey, man, that's a good pickup, all right.
14:39
Speaker 2: I feel comfortable with that guy starting across from Jeremiah.
14:43
Speaker 2: He could be a yack monster. This could actually be
14:45
Speaker 2: a really cool combination. But then I asked myself the
14:49
Speaker 2: age old question, if I'm the defensive coordinator, who do
14:53
Speaker 2: I want to see out there across from Jeremiah Smith?
14:55
Speaker 2: Do I want to see Devin McEwen Or do I
14:58
Speaker 2: want to see Chris Henry Jr. And the answer, of
15:01
Speaker 2: course is please. I hope you play Devin McEwen, not
15:06
Speaker 2: Chris Henry Jr. I don't want to deal with that.
15:10
Speaker 2: And now I'm just like, are we really thinking that
15:13
Speaker 2: Devin McEwen is going to be the guy that keeps
15:16
Speaker 2: Chris Henry Jr. On the bench throughout the course of
15:18
Speaker 2: the year. I don't think he is. I don't think
15:22
Speaker 2: he is. And I certainly don't think it's going to
15:24
Speaker 2: be Kyle Parker either. Nice slot weapon. He's five foot
15:27
Speaker 2: ten right now, they got him at the Y. I
15:30
Speaker 2: just I think that he can be a guy who
15:33
Speaker 2: can be advantageous. But really that kind of leads me
15:36
Speaker 2: into Brock as well. Man, that leads me into Brock
15:39
Speaker 2: because Brock looks so polished out there, and the catch
15:44
Speaker 2: that Brock made on the sideline, I don't think Devin
15:47
Speaker 2: McEwen or Kyle Parker make that catch. You know, we
15:52
Speaker 2: go back to conversations about and I mean Tony and
15:55
Speaker 2: I have had him in the offseason, like, look what
15:58
Speaker 2: Carnell did as a fresh but colonel good freshman year,
16:01
Speaker 2: and he made like nineteen or seventeen grabs, right, and
16:04
Speaker 2: then we compare these kids now coming in to Carnell
16:08
Speaker 2: as a freshman. But the truth is, every room is different,
16:12
Speaker 2: and I don't think that this particular room has as
16:16
Speaker 2: much high end talent. I think that if Carnell was
16:19
Speaker 2: the freshman in this room, Carnell plays more, Just like
16:23
Speaker 2: I think Chris Henry Junior and Brock are going to
16:25
Speaker 2: play more coming out of this spring than actually coming
16:29
Speaker 2: out of this spring game. Specifically, I think that I
16:33
Speaker 2: was pretty convinced that both of them are going to
16:34
Speaker 2: play quite a bit, But coming out of this spring game,
16:37
Speaker 2: it just looks a little different when they're out there,
16:40
Speaker 2: and I think they're gonna play more than we thought.
16:43
Speaker 2: So when it comes to Brock, watching him come off
16:46
Speaker 2: the line, he is explosive with his routes off the
16:51
Speaker 2: line in a way that I mean, he's already passed
16:55
Speaker 2: Philip Bell right. That to me was huge and we
16:59
Speaker 2: could see it on Saturday. He's just a smooth operator
17:02
Speaker 2: in the middle of the field. Again, the catch on
17:05
Speaker 2: the sideline was insane. Tavi and Saint Clair looks to
17:08
Speaker 2: him automatically, and we heard about that all spring. But
17:13
Speaker 2: it just seems to me like this is going to
17:15
Speaker 2: be a very different look on the field to come
17:18
Speaker 2: halfway or so through the season. At the wide receiver
17:21
Speaker 2: position number five, The secondary is absolutely loaded and it's
17:29
Speaker 2: not going out on a limb to say that Devin
17:31
Speaker 2: Sanchez is going to be the superstar that he was
17:35
Speaker 2: projected to be. Now I am hearing people say it
17:37
Speaker 2: like this, making these big, bold predictions about what Devin
17:41
Speaker 2: Sanche is going to be, Devin Sanchez number five player
17:44
Speaker 2: in the country, and you know the fact that maybe
17:47
Speaker 2: he didn't look like that in year one, and now
17:50
Speaker 2: all of a sudden, you think it's a bold take
17:52
Speaker 2: to say that a guy people thought was going to
17:54
Speaker 2: be an NFL top ten pick people that are in
17:57
Speaker 2: that business is going to actually maybe reached that ceiling.
18:01
Speaker 2: It's not bold, but I think it is pretty likely
18:05
Speaker 2: that Devin is taking that next step. He looked like
18:08
Speaker 2: a blanket on anybody he was covering, including Jeremiah Smith
18:12
Speaker 2: breaking up a pass, and you just got to think, Man,
18:15
Speaker 2: He's talked to us over the course of the spring
18:19
Speaker 2: and talked about his confidence in the way that he
18:22
Speaker 2: approached everything as a freshman. How different it is now.
18:26
Speaker 2: And it's just like people say that stuff and to me,
18:32
Speaker 2: a lot of times it goes in one ear and
18:33
Speaker 2: out the other. How much can that really make a difference? Boy,
18:37
Speaker 2: I don't know if it's that or I don't know
18:38
Speaker 2: if it's just learning from the mistakes he made as
18:41
Speaker 2: a freshman, which I loved. I loved that he was
18:44
Speaker 2: out there, and I said at the time, I don't
18:46
Speaker 2: care whatever mistakes he makes this year. I actually preferred
18:50
Speaker 2: that he was out there making mistakes in the UCLA game, like, go,
18:54
Speaker 2: get them all out of your system, learn from him.
18:56
Speaker 2: Then when we need him next year, he's already got
19:00
Speaker 2: these mistakes under his belt. Now he feels much better
19:02
Speaker 2: and more confident, and that's the way it's worked out.
19:05
Speaker 2: But he looks like he's going to be that type
19:08
Speaker 2: of dude that we all thought he was going to be,
19:11
Speaker 2: and that's tremendous. And then you get the ultimate hit
19:14
Speaker 2: in the transfer portal, which is Dominic Kelly, who we
19:18
Speaker 2: can now just kind of count as our number two
19:20
Speaker 2: corner in that class of twenty twenty five. They're in
19:23
Speaker 2: the same class we only had Devin and then Jordan Woods,
19:28
Speaker 2: who is kind of a project guy. You're looking maybe two, three,
19:32
Speaker 2: four years out you can make him into something. But
19:35
Speaker 2: dominic Kelly has looked tremendous. And I think dominic Kelly
19:39
Speaker 2: when we talk about the defense, the first half a spring,
19:42
Speaker 2: or maybe a little more than half was like Earl
19:44
Speaker 2: Little Junior was the story in the secondary. The second
19:47
Speaker 2: part of it belonged to dominic Kelly, and for good reason.
19:52
Speaker 2: You look at those two together, they are two big,
19:54
Speaker 2: long corners that can play. By the way, dominic Kelly
19:57
Speaker 2: super intense and every time we went down for interviews,
20:00
Speaker 2: he was one of the last dudes on the field.
20:03
Speaker 2: He was talking to Walt super serious, and he looks
20:06
Speaker 2: like that on the field as well. But those two,
20:09
Speaker 2: to me, like they look like the top two corners.
20:12
Speaker 2: And you got Jermaine who has all the experience and
20:16
Speaker 2: is one of the leaders setting the tone there. That
20:20
Speaker 2: is one heck of a three pack. And then you've
20:23
Speaker 2: got freshman Jordan Thomas who's just getting better and better,
20:27
Speaker 2: faster and faster, and I think he's your next stud
20:30
Speaker 2: boundary cornerback. You know, people talk about he got beat
20:34
Speaker 2: by Chris Henry Junior for the touchdown he did, but
20:38
Speaker 2: I've seen those two go up against each other a lot,
20:40
Speaker 2: and JT usually is right with him. He also made
20:45
Speaker 2: a really nice IGB style tackle where he was in coverage,
20:50
Speaker 2: so he's press man coverage with the receiver and then
20:52
Speaker 2: the receiver turns to block in him. He sees a
20:55
Speaker 2: run and he sheds the block and knife's in from
20:59
Speaker 2: the side and makes a tackle that lit up the
21:02
Speaker 2: running back. And It's like, this is who he is man.
21:04
Speaker 2: He's a physical type of dude like IGB, which I love.
21:08
Speaker 2: Then Tony brought something up to me when we were
21:10
Speaker 2: sitting in the press box. Tony said to me, in
21:13
Speaker 2: the press box, where do you think Aaron Scott would
21:17
Speaker 2: be right now in the depth chart on this team?
21:20
Speaker 2: And I mean I'm sitting here thinking like geez, when
21:24
Speaker 2: I'm looking at this now and then I'm watching Inky Jones,
21:29
Speaker 2: who's probably like your number six corner who's six foot
21:33
Speaker 2: two and a half. And Jeremiah Smith. When asked who
21:36
Speaker 2: are the biggest freaks on the team, was the first
21:39
Speaker 2: name he said out of his mouth Inky Jones. And
21:42
Speaker 2: he said that because Inky Jones is faster than him,
21:45
Speaker 2: the fastest guy on the team in miles per hour.
21:49
Speaker 2: I don't know where Aaron Scott would be in this
21:52
Speaker 2: depth chart, but he wouldn't be on the field. He's
21:55
Speaker 2: not in the top three, and I don't know what
21:57
Speaker 2: he's doing in Oregon. But the level of upgrade that
22:01
Speaker 2: the Buckeyes had from the class of twenty twenty six
22:05
Speaker 2: and the transfer portal in the secondary versus the guys
22:08
Speaker 2: that left is pretty severe. I think it's a massive upgrade.
22:12
Speaker 2: I mean, you lost for him, Delane you bring in,
22:15
Speaker 2: or a little you bring in. Obviously, the freshman class
22:19
Speaker 2: is just loaded with dudes. Blaine Bradford looked really good,
22:22
Speaker 2: Cayden Gephart looked good, Sime and Calwell look good. The
22:26
Speaker 2: only one of those freshmen that I've not seen make
22:28
Speaker 2: any plays this entire was Kamari Bing. I haven't seen
22:31
Speaker 2: Kamari Bing make many plays at all, but Terry Moore.
22:36
Speaker 2: First time I got to see Terry Moore really in action,
22:39
Speaker 2: and I thought he looked fast, didn't really make any plays,
22:42
Speaker 2: but you know, there wasn't really a ton of opportunity
22:44
Speaker 2: for him either. My point is the secondary is just loaded.
22:48
Speaker 2: It's absolutely loaded, and it's probably the strongest unit on
22:53
Speaker 2: the defense. Number six, moving down to edge, I don't
23:00
Speaker 2: think we learned anything about Kenyata Jackson. Kenyata Jackson did
23:04
Speaker 2: whatever he wanted, and I actually think that Kenyata played
23:08
Speaker 2: way too many snaps. More on that topic on Tomorrow's
23:12
Speaker 2: Tomorrow Morning, He's chuck on Bucks because it kind of
23:14
Speaker 2: irritated me a little bit. We're not going to know
23:18
Speaker 2: how much Kenyata has improved or taken a next step
23:22
Speaker 2: until we see it on the football field this year.
23:25
Speaker 2: But if it was a big jump, would you be surprised?
23:29
Speaker 2: I sure wouldn't. I mean, he looks fantastic. Hard to
23:33
Speaker 2: judge from Saturday. I just mean throughout the entirety of
23:36
Speaker 2: the spring, he's looked fantastic, and you know, he's clearly
23:42
Speaker 2: the number one guy by a good margin. How about
23:46
Speaker 2: the other side, though, you know, we look at bo
23:48
Speaker 2: Atkinson now and he's apparently the starter on the other side,
23:53
Speaker 2: and those of us like me and you who talk
23:56
Speaker 2: about this kind of stuff all spring long, I think
23:58
Speaker 2: we came into the spring thinking, okay, well, Zion Grady
24:02
Speaker 2: passed bo Atkinson by the end of last year, his
24:05
Speaker 2: freshman year, and then you bring in Quayrusaw, and kind
24:10
Speaker 2: of the talking point here was, Okay, is it going
24:12
Speaker 2: to be Quay Rusaw or Zion Grady Who's going to
24:15
Speaker 2: be that number one guy. Then after a couple of
24:18
Speaker 2: practices and the student appreciation practice, start to take notice
24:23
Speaker 2: of bo Atkinson, who not only looks a lot better,
24:27
Speaker 2: looks heavier than the press conference where he's talking about
24:32
Speaker 2: he's worked on his flexibility, gotten more flexible. Larry Johnson
24:36
Speaker 2: says the same thing about him and says he's done
24:39
Speaker 2: a whole three sixty and he definitely needed to because
24:44
Speaker 2: he wasn't near good enough last year. Remember, got passed
24:46
Speaker 2: by a freshman At the end of the year. Snaps
24:48
Speaker 2: went from thirty five against Texas to five against Indiana
24:53
Speaker 2: and just dropped slowly the entire year. I thought he
24:57
Speaker 2: did look a little more explosive. I definite think he
25:00
Speaker 2: looked a little more powerful. However, I just find it
25:05
Speaker 2: hard to believe that there's going to be that much
25:07
Speaker 2: of a jump from the bow we saw last year
25:09
Speaker 2: to the bow we're going to see this year. And
25:11
Speaker 2: I think, if he's your number one, I'm sorry you're
25:15
Speaker 2: number two, then I just don't feel so confident about
25:20
Speaker 2: that position until I see it against a real team,
25:24
Speaker 2: And until I see it, I'm going to be pretty
25:26
Speaker 2: nervous about it if he's the starter, because what does
25:29
Speaker 2: that say about Zion Grady? For instance, what's to say
25:34
Speaker 2: about Zion Grady that towards the end of the year
25:36
Speaker 2: he was able to beat him out and then you
25:40
Speaker 2: had the offseason and you head into the spring here
25:43
Speaker 2: and Grady's not able to seize that momentum and take control.
25:46
Speaker 2: We all know Grady is a more talented football player.
25:49
Speaker 2: By all rights, he should absolutely be that starter between
25:55
Speaker 2: him and Atkinson. Absolutely he should have taken command to that.
25:59
Speaker 2: He still has time, You still got fall. But it
26:03
Speaker 2: was Atkinson who dug himself out of the hole and
26:06
Speaker 2: took back over that position from Zion Grady. Zion Grady
26:10
Speaker 2: who looked pretty damn good on Saturday when he wasn't
26:14
Speaker 2: getting hands to the face on Ian Moore, which I
26:17
Speaker 2: saw people saying that was a or Ian Moore got
26:19
Speaker 2: whooped that play. You know he didn't. You cannot put
26:22
Speaker 2: your hands up under somebody's face mask and stiff arm
26:25
Speaker 2: it up like that and run. You can't do that.
26:28
Speaker 2: That's not allowed. That's against the rules. So I'm gonna
26:31
Speaker 2: be pretty nervous about Atkinson just based on last year
26:35
Speaker 2: until we see it in a game, and again a
26:38
Speaker 2: little bit disappointed that Grady wasn't able to seize that.
26:41
Speaker 2: And then you got Rusau. Now I have a pretty
26:47
Speaker 2: definitive opinion now on Quay Rusau that I didn't before
26:51
Speaker 2: I came into this thinking there's no way that they're
26:54
Speaker 2: just going to play him like all the other defensive ends.
26:58
Speaker 2: No way, just too light, gonna be like a CJ.
27:03
Speaker 2: Hick situation where you just can't play him like that.
27:06
Speaker 2: He needs to have a guy that has a special role.
27:09
Speaker 2: You need to do the Patricia deal with him, where
27:12
Speaker 2: you figure out where you're gonna get him and put
27:15
Speaker 2: him in. It's gonna be most advantageous. It's not what
27:18
Speaker 2: they did. They put him in and apparently they want
27:21
Speaker 2: to use him just in the rotation. Do you want
27:23
Speaker 2: to use him in the rotation like all the rest
27:25
Speaker 2: of the defensive ends? All right? Talk to Larry Johnson
27:29
Speaker 2: last week. Larry Johnson says, yeah, he's he's so strong,
27:34
Speaker 2: and he brought up the words strong three times, and
27:38
Speaker 2: all right. I mean, I guess if the guy's this strong,
27:40
Speaker 2: maybe he can overcome being two hundred and forty pounds.
27:43
Speaker 2: If he's that strong. I don't think that we're going
27:47
Speaker 2: to see any level of consistency from Quay Rusa this
27:50
Speaker 2: year because I just don't think he has it in
27:54
Speaker 2: him to do that, because he's out of position. I
27:57
Speaker 2: watched Deontay Armstrong just with pure strength, just put him
28:01
Speaker 2: down to the ground, and I watched him get smashed
28:06
Speaker 2: and kicked out by Brody Lennon and then maybe the
28:10
Speaker 2: worst of all, Simon Lorenz, a walk on guard put
28:14
Speaker 2: a devastating kickout block on him. That can't happen. That
28:19
Speaker 2: cannot happen. A walk on guard cannot do that to
28:22
Speaker 2: you and some people I see coming out of that saintment.
28:26
Speaker 2: This dude's gonna be No, he's not gonna be great.
28:29
Speaker 2: He has the ability to make flashy plays, but that
28:32
Speaker 2: is not a recipe for a winning football team. If
28:36
Speaker 2: that guy is just in your rotation on first and
28:39
Speaker 2: second and third down, that's not gonna work. So it's
28:43
Speaker 2: not his fault. He's out of place. He's out of position,
28:47
Speaker 2: So they're gonna they're gonna have to fix that. I
28:50
Speaker 2: just don't think he's got the weight behind him to
28:51
Speaker 2: do it. So unfortunately, Eppie was a little bit bottled
28:56
Speaker 2: up on the day. And my most definitive opinion coming
29:01
Speaker 2: out of this period is that it is wide open,
29:05
Speaker 2: wide open for Carrie Wilder, who is, without a doubt,
29:08
Speaker 2: the most talented kid in that room, without a doubt.
29:11
Speaker 2: The motor, the aggression, nobody's matched it, the physicality. He
29:18
Speaker 2: doesn't quite know everything he's doing yet, but he's gonna
29:23
Speaker 2: end up out playing quite a few of these dudes,
29:26
Speaker 2: and he's absolutely, in my opinion, still going to double
29:29
Speaker 2: the snaps that Grady played as a freshman. Originally, I
29:33
Speaker 2: was thinking, like, there's so much depth here, more than
29:36
Speaker 2: Grady had to deal with that he might not be
29:38
Speaker 2: able to get his shot. But he's just better. That's it.
29:43
Speaker 2: He's just better. You can see it plain as day,
29:48
Speaker 2: and he's gonna climb, Absolutely gonna climb. That's the most
29:52
Speaker 2: definitive thing I came out when we're talking about edge
29:55
Speaker 2: that Kenyata. We don't know how much of the jump's
29:58
Speaker 2: gonna be Atkinson, eh Rus saw inconsistent Zion Grady should
30:05
Speaker 2: have been able to pass Atkinson, should have been able
30:08
Speaker 2: to hold him off because he already passed him. At
30:11
Speaker 2: He got a little bit bottled up. Karrie Wilder is
30:15
Speaker 2: the absolute dog in there. Man, he's the dog. He
30:20
Speaker 2: was scary. So as far as the interior, nothing to
30:25
Speaker 2: worry about there, you know. I heard the same people
30:29
Speaker 2: talk about the offensive line sucking also say that they
30:34
Speaker 2: were worried about the uh the interior of the defensive line.
30:37
Speaker 2: Which is it? Man? Which is it? Uh? I thought
30:42
Speaker 2: they did a damn good job. They shut down the run,
30:45
Speaker 2: and I don't know what people are expecting. I saw
30:48
Speaker 2: some people saying, okay, well you had, you know, some
30:51
Speaker 2: of your starting defensive linemen going up against some of
30:53
Speaker 2: your younger offensive linemen. They should have been absolutely dominating
30:58
Speaker 2: and blowing that. Well, they did dominate the running game.
31:01
Speaker 2: I don't know what kind of pass rush you're looking
31:04
Speaker 2: for here from interior guys. There's two interior guys. One
31:07
Speaker 2: of them is getting double teamed every time, and they
31:11
Speaker 2: probably got about one thousand and one one thousand and
31:14
Speaker 2: two to beat their man if they're going to record
31:17
Speaker 2: a sack. And they got a couple just off of
31:20
Speaker 2: pure pure strength. John Walker was back there. He got
31:24
Speaker 2: hit a really nice one. I thought James Smith had
31:26
Speaker 2: a couple of really nice plays. I thought Will Smith
31:29
Speaker 2: looked real good. Edrick was the only one who didn't
31:31
Speaker 2: really flash anything good. And uh, John Walker, man, my
31:37
Speaker 2: opinion started a change on him. Originally I was very
31:40
Speaker 2: excited about bringing him in, and then watching him through practice,
31:44
Speaker 2: I was like, I don't know, man. You know, you
31:46
Speaker 2: got James Smith, who's got power and he's got burst,
31:51
Speaker 2: and he plays with both of them. And then you
31:52
Speaker 2: got Walker who's kind of just got power and he
31:55
Speaker 2: tries to win with that power. But he had some
31:58
Speaker 2: juice on Saturday, and he certainly is one strong dude.
32:04
Speaker 2: So I think it's a really solid group on the interior.
32:08
Speaker 2: There's no km AX in there. You know, that's okay.
32:12
Speaker 2: You don't need a km ACT to be a really
32:14
Speaker 2: solid group. But I don't think that Edric Houston is
32:19
Speaker 2: ever going to live up to the five star hype.
32:23
Speaker 2: I think he's gonna be really good, solid player. I
32:25
Speaker 2: think he's that type of guy. I don't think he's
32:27
Speaker 2: going to be a superstar type of dude, and that sucks.
32:33
Speaker 2: I want it for him. He's probably the best guy
32:35
Speaker 2: on the team just personality wise, way he treats everybody.
32:37
Speaker 2: I love him, but I'm just not sure it's there, man,
32:41
Speaker 2: I'm just not sure it's there, all right. Number ten
32:50
Speaker 2: Jason Moore. I went into this thing. I was really
32:54
Speaker 2: rooting for Jason Moore. Jason Moore won the Silver Bullet
32:59
Speaker 2: of the Week two weeks ago, and to me, when
33:01
Speaker 2: I saw that, I'm thinking, Okay, Jason Moore wins the
33:03
Speaker 2: Silver Bullet of the Week, what's that tell us? It
33:05
Speaker 2: tells us he's trying really hard. And it also tells us,
33:10
Speaker 2: you know, they use those as motivating factors, motivating tools.
33:13
Speaker 2: It tells us they've not given up on Jason Moore.
33:16
Speaker 2: So we're heading into the spring game. Jason wins this.
33:22
Speaker 2: We're looking for a big spring game from Jason, and
33:25
Speaker 2: I think that we saw Jason play as hard as
33:28
Speaker 2: I've ever seen him play. He played so hard. He's
33:33
Speaker 2: also slow footed. He leans his weight forward like tegra
33:39
Speaker 2: On engagement, just leans forward. Got tossed on his keyster
33:42
Speaker 2: a couple times because of it. And he's not ever
33:46
Speaker 2: going to be somebody that plays between five to ten
33:51
Speaker 2: snaps at Ohio State. I just don't see it. I
33:53
Speaker 2: don't think it's going to happen for him. And people
33:56
Speaker 2: can compare him to Taiwan Malone all they want, and
33:59
Speaker 2: Taiwan broke out his senior year. Look, Taiwan Malone was
34:03
Speaker 2: a pretty twitched up dude compared to Jason Moury was
34:07
Speaker 2: a twitch monster, and that was evident the year prior
34:10
Speaker 2: to the year he broke out when he played against Marshall.
34:13
Speaker 2: You could see it. It was all over. We've still never
34:15
Speaker 2: seen Jason Moore make a play, never made a play
34:20
Speaker 2: on the flip side. Tomori Simeon, who I believe is
34:25
Speaker 2: scrapping with him for that number five defensive tackle spot
34:28
Speaker 2: Larry City wants five. Damari Simeon did look good enough
34:33
Speaker 2: to play, and he did look good enough to take
34:35
Speaker 2: that number five spot, and that's great news. We'd much
34:38
Speaker 2: rather it be a young dude. So I think that
34:44
Speaker 2: we are going to see Demory Simeon take that role
34:47
Speaker 2: over at some point, because I think at some point
34:50
Speaker 2: it's time to just admit that this is just not
34:51
Speaker 2: happening with Jason Moore and we got to get the
34:53
Speaker 2: younger dude ready. Unfortunately, not everybody is going to make
34:58
Speaker 2: it at Ohio State, even the guys you root for,
35:01
Speaker 2: even guys that came in as a top sixty recruit
35:04
Speaker 2: and six foot six, three hundred and seven pounds. It
35:07
Speaker 2: just doesn't work for everybody. And that's kind of where
35:09
Speaker 2: I'm at with Jason, and that sucks, but you know,
35:11
Speaker 2: it is what it is. Number eleven, I think the
35:15
Speaker 2: drop off in the linebacker room is going to be
35:18
Speaker 2: a little more stark than I gave it credit for. Obviously,
35:21
Speaker 2: you look at the guys that you lose, you look
35:24
Speaker 2: at the guys that you got, and you say, okay,
35:27
Speaker 2: there's going to be there's gonna be a drop off, right,
35:32
Speaker 2: but how big of a drop off. We've got a
35:34
Speaker 2: guy in Peyton Pierce who's played a ton of football.
35:35
Speaker 2: Now he's the leader. He's really smart, got that Cody
35:39
Speaker 2: Simon leadership and in brains and tough. You bring in
35:46
Speaker 2: a leg ro he can do a lot of what
35:49
Speaker 2: Rvel can do, not at Rvel's level, but he's got
35:52
Speaker 2: that kind of versatility. Then you've got tj. Alford who's
35:58
Speaker 2: just getting better and better. And you got Riley, who,
36:02
Speaker 2: my gosh, do they need Riley?
36:03
Speaker 1: Man?
36:03
Speaker 2: They need Riley? You know, here's the thing you don't
36:06
Speaker 2: take into account. Now, Peyton Piers for instance, Peyton Piers
36:12
Speaker 2: with incredible instincts like Sonny eventually had towards the end
36:16
Speaker 2: of his career Ohio State. And what you don't factor
36:21
Speaker 2: in is Peyton Pierce and Sonny styles can read a
36:25
Speaker 2: play and get themselves in the same exact position and
36:30
Speaker 2: then comes a blocker. Now Peyton needs to wrestle and
36:34
Speaker 2: spin himself off this block, whereas Sonny could just blow
36:39
Speaker 2: that son of a gun up man, just blow him
36:41
Speaker 2: off of him. And that's the difference. But they'll both
36:43
Speaker 2: make the tackle, only Peyton will be two or three
36:46
Speaker 2: yards down the field further in this instance. And I
36:50
Speaker 2: watched it on a couple plays and I'm just thinking, Man,
36:53
Speaker 2: Sonny would have blown that up at the spot right there.
36:55
Speaker 2: Peyton was right there to do it. You just can't
36:58
Speaker 2: physically do it. All that stuff adds up, man, It
37:01
Speaker 2: all adds up those two three yards here and there
37:03
Speaker 2: throughout the course of the game in a leegro. Yeah
37:08
Speaker 2: man to me, honestly, he was most impressive in coverage,
37:10
Speaker 2: which is a good sign. But they need they're they're
37:16
Speaker 2: lacking some dynamic explosion to them, and clearly Riley's the
37:23
Speaker 2: guy that has that. The fact that he's missing spring sucks,
37:27
Speaker 2: but I think he's so smart and he's so good
37:30
Speaker 2: that it's not going to really hold him back. And
37:32
Speaker 2: I just hope that when the fall comes, he's working
37:36
Speaker 2: his way into that rotation heavily because they need him. Also,
37:40
Speaker 2: big props to my hometown boy, Eli Lee, Jucky Egli Lee.
37:44
Speaker 2: That's my guy from magad Or. You know, we have
37:46
Speaker 2: two players on this team from teeny tiny little Magador, Ohio.
37:52
Speaker 2: How about that. We got Mason Williams and Eli Lee
37:56
Speaker 2: from Magador, though Eli went to Hoban. So finally, the
38:03
Speaker 2: offensive line, the offensive line as a whole, got a
38:06
Speaker 2: ton of crap. And I saw people giving me sack figures,
38:10
Speaker 2: and you know, let's just remember here that a sack
38:14
Speaker 2: is not actually when you touch the quarterback, Right, you
38:16
Speaker 2: got to bring that dude down. And in a lot
38:19
Speaker 2: of those instances they weren't in any position to bring
38:21
Speaker 2: him down. They got a hand on him while they're
38:23
Speaker 2: flying by. Right, that's not going to be a sack.
38:28
Speaker 2: But here's the truth about the offensive line. If it
38:30
Speaker 2: were not for Carter Low, that would have looked totally different,
38:34
Speaker 2: totally different. So I think we got to have the
38:37
Speaker 2: Carter Low discussion in a totally separate box from the
38:41
Speaker 2: rest of the line. And I'm going to have that
38:44
Speaker 2: conversation about Carter tomorrow because I think if you take
38:48
Speaker 2: him out of the equation, you have a totally different
38:51
Speaker 2: complexion of how the offensive line played on the day.
38:56
Speaker 2: So when we talk about the offensive line, let's talk
38:59
Speaker 2: about the player specifically, because really, that, to me is
39:03
Speaker 2: always what the spring is. It's a it's a player
39:07
Speaker 2: specific segment of the year where we're talking about each
39:11
Speaker 2: individual player their development. We can't really talk a ton
39:15
Speaker 2: about the offense or the defense because there's no scheme
39:19
Speaker 2: to it. It's just about the players. Carson Heinzman, Luke
39:24
Speaker 2: Montgomery both played very good. I thought gave Van Sickle
39:28
Speaker 2: played very good. Ian Moore played good. Ian Moore gave
39:33
Speaker 2: up a couple of plays. I watched everyone in his snaps.
39:36
Speaker 2: You got to be eighty three percent to grate out
39:39
Speaker 2: a champion, and I bet money that he was between
39:42
Speaker 2: seventy five and eighty five on the end of the day.
39:47
Speaker 2: Those four are let's see, gave Van Sickles probably your
39:52
Speaker 2: number six guy, right and then you've got the other
39:56
Speaker 2: three your starters. You're missing Austin Seahbell, You're missing Phil Daniels,
40:02
Speaker 2: so you're also missing Padilla. That's your top seven right there.
40:07
Speaker 2: So that's four of your top seven guys all played. Well,
40:11
Speaker 2: you're missing three of your top seven guys. Who's your
40:13
Speaker 2: eighth guy, Jake Cook? Jake Cook, You're also missing Jake Cook.
40:20
Speaker 2: So they're literally missing four of their top eight dudes.
40:23
Speaker 2: We're talking. There was and I wrote this down the
40:26
Speaker 2: other day on my live show. The dudes that we
40:30
Speaker 2: saw playing in the second quarter, Simon lorenz Ian, getcha
40:37
Speaker 2: Jackson Powell, Julian Jackson knows four walk Ons, bro four
40:43
Speaker 2: walk Ons. And that's why we can't judge them as
40:45
Speaker 2: a unit. We've got to sorry about that. We've got
40:49
Speaker 2: to judge them individually and individually, the four guys that
40:54
Speaker 2: are gonna play this year, they all played good. Now,
40:58
Speaker 2: in addition to that, what's the biggest thing you gotta
41:00
Speaker 2: do in recruiting. You got to hit at the top
41:02
Speaker 2: of your board. You hit your top tier dudes that
41:04
Speaker 2: is priority number one in your recruiting class. And both
41:08
Speaker 2: Sam Greer and Max Riley were excellent, not good, excellent
41:13
Speaker 2: for dudes that should be in high school right now.
41:15
Speaker 2: Eighteen year old Max Riley was squaring up on three
41:19
Speaker 2: hundred and fifteen pound twenty three year olds plural, John
41:23
Speaker 2: Walker and James Smith, and he was holding his own.
41:27
Speaker 2: I don't know what more you could ask for a
41:28
Speaker 2: kid who's been at Ohio State for just a couple
41:31
Speaker 2: of months. It was amazing. I was really really impressed.
41:36
Speaker 2: Eighteen year old Sam Greer was chipping those three hundred
41:41
Speaker 2: and fifteen pounders and getting up, climbing to the second level,
41:45
Speaker 2: swallowing up tj Alford, taking on all comers at edge. Yeah,
41:50
Speaker 2: there was a couple that got him, but he got
41:52
Speaker 2: him back way more than he got got And the
41:56
Speaker 2: level of the trajectory on those two guys is straight up, man,
42:01
Speaker 2: And that's your top two and that's a damn good feeling.
42:05
Speaker 2: And in addition to that, Mason Wilhelm, who came in
42:09
Speaker 2: ranked outside the top one thousand, looks way ahead of schedule.
42:13
Speaker 2: He doesn't look like that type of guy. He looks
42:16
Speaker 2: more like a top five hundred type of guy. The
42:19
Speaker 2: only kind of project guy that really looks like a
42:21
Speaker 2: project guy in that class so far of the four
42:24
Speaker 2: that we've seen is Landry Breed, and that's fine, that's
42:27
Speaker 2: what he projected to be. So you got two of
42:30
Speaker 2: the five offensive linemen that came in looked like surefire
42:34
Speaker 2: high level starters at Ohio State at some point. One
42:37
Speaker 2: of them and Mason Wilhelm looks ahead of schedule, and
42:40
Speaker 2: one of them, the developmental guy, Landry Bred looks right
42:43
Speaker 2: where he's supposed to look. And then the guy that
42:46
Speaker 2: we never have talked about all spring because he's the
42:48
Speaker 2: only guy in the entire class that hasn't been there,
42:51
Speaker 2: Tucker Smith, who was at the game who I talked to,
42:55
Speaker 2: is now three hundred pounds and it looks lean as hell,
43:00
Speaker 2: ready to roll arms like this get the best physique
43:04
Speaker 2: all of them, and dude's a dog. Remember this is
43:09
Speaker 2: a guy that Tyler Bowen went down to Arizona to
43:13
Speaker 2: get a three star guard for what obviously he doesn't
43:17
Speaker 2: feel that's what he is. Well, he did a damn
43:21
Speaker 2: good job choosing the guys in this class that we
43:24
Speaker 2: can see, So I'm go go ahead and give him
43:26
Speaker 2: the benefit of the doubt and say that Tucker Smith
43:29
Speaker 2: probably gonna be pretty good as well. So when we
43:33
Speaker 2: look at all that in totality, I know that there
43:37
Speaker 2: are a lot of people who hate this offensive line
43:40
Speaker 2: and wish they'd have gone out and got a couple
43:42
Speaker 2: multimillion dollar transfers and got a bunch of five stars
43:46
Speaker 2: and they did it overnight. But the way they've gone
43:49
Speaker 2: about this so far, getting bigger classes, which we've got
43:54
Speaker 2: another one coming four in the class already gonna be
43:57
Speaker 2: five soon with David Seaman, which would make four. We're
44:00
Speaker 2: out of five four star linemen. This is on a
44:03
Speaker 2: very upward trajectory. The talent level is raising as we
44:07
Speaker 2: speak for the younger guys. That raises the floor. That
44:11
Speaker 2: gives you an opportunity to miss on a couple and
44:13
Speaker 2: they go and they leave, and that's fine because you
44:16
Speaker 2: got you got your core and it's getting better. Man,
44:20
Speaker 2: It really is getting a lot better. And somebody told
44:23
Speaker 2: me the other day I was carrying water. I was
44:26
Speaker 2: carrying water for the program by not acknowledging how horrible
44:30
Speaker 2: it was that they're not out getting five stars. And
44:33
Speaker 2: I just like, do people understand that there are like
44:37
Speaker 2: seven five star linemen in every class? Like there's not
44:40
Speaker 2: program like I think some people think that there's just
44:44
Speaker 2: like forty five star offensive linemen in Ohio state's not
44:47
Speaker 2: getting any of There's seven of them, seven and they
44:51
Speaker 2: all cost multi millions of dollars to come in. And
44:55
Speaker 2: by the way, we do got one in Sam Greer,
44:58
Speaker 2: who is probably playing just as good as Jackson Cantwell,
45:03
Speaker 2: who cost Miami eight million bucks. But we don't got
45:08
Speaker 2: to play Sam this year because Sam's not eating up
45:11
Speaker 2: a big, massive chunk of the player payroll. I think
45:14
Speaker 2: you could play Sam this year. I think you could,
45:17
Speaker 2: which brings us to the other point here, Carter Loewen
45:20
Speaker 2: year two was clearly that number four tackle no more.
45:27
Speaker 2: That's over. Sam is definitely that guy. And that's great news, man.
45:32
Speaker 2: It's great news because it means Sam is who he's
45:35
Speaker 2: supposed to be. He's a five star, he's a dog.
45:39
Speaker 2: So I feel really good about this, but as far
45:42
Speaker 2: as carrying water like Tyler Bowen, I just ripped a
45:46
Speaker 2: part last week. And straight up, man, if this offensive
45:51
Speaker 2: line doesn't handle what he's calling elite movement. Now you
45:55
Speaker 2: can say that about Miami, you can say that about Indiana.
45:59
Speaker 2: But wisconsinin Preue certainly didn't have to lead anything and
46:03
Speaker 2: they whipped his offensive lines. But whatever, that's four games
46:10
Speaker 2: his offensive line looked like trash against teams with what
46:14
Speaker 2: he's calling elite movement. If that same problem isn't rectified
46:19
Speaker 2: this year, we got a real problem, man, real problem.
46:23
Speaker 2: And he's got to go straight up because he was
46:27
Speaker 2: brought in here, don't forget because he was the run
46:30
Speaker 2: game coordinator. In addition, because he was an offensive coordinator
46:34
Speaker 2: and you needed him at that point to help heartline.
46:36
Speaker 2: That's not necessary anymore. So now he's just got to
46:39
Speaker 2: learn how to be the best offensive line coach. And
46:44
Speaker 2: if you can't cut it in two years at Ohio State,
46:49
Speaker 2: we got an issue here and I had some people
46:51
Speaker 2: come back and say to me, well, listen, we got
46:56
Speaker 2: you know, we had this guy in Fry who was
46:59
Speaker 2: such a great and everybody wanted to run him out.
47:02
Speaker 2: Don't you feel stupid. Now we'll know he left your
47:05
Speaker 2: room depleted. You had to go get Ethan on Yonwan
47:07
Speaker 2: and Philip Daniels. The truth is it's one of the
47:10
Speaker 2: best jobs for any position coach in the country, and
47:14
Speaker 2: we can get a guy who does both. In fact,
47:16
Speaker 2: we can do that. They exist out there. A lot
47:19
Speaker 2: of schools have them, haven't been so lucky. I bet
47:23
Speaker 2: Ryan Day would have got the perfect guy if he
47:25
Speaker 2: didn't have to hire a guy that needed to be
47:27
Speaker 2: the run game coordinator to help Brian Hartline last year,
47:31
Speaker 2: and you wouldn't have any doubt this year. But I
47:35
Speaker 2: do like the way the talent's being built, so there's
47:38
Speaker 2: one thing that is on point, and if he can
47:41
Speaker 2: fix the elite movement, everything looks really good. I think
47:46
Speaker 2: it's really good. But we're trying to win national championships
47:49
Speaker 2: here in Ryan Day's prime coaching window at Ohio State.
47:54
Speaker 2: That's not like carrying water to you, I don't think so.
47:57
Speaker 2: Of course I'm not carrying water. I get my honest
47:59
Speaker 2: opinion here. But the offensive line class of twenty twenty
48:03
Speaker 2: seven also looking really good. I was down on the
48:06
Speaker 2: field talking to three of them on Saturday and Kellen Wimer,
48:13
Speaker 2: Mason Wilt and Jimmy Pancakes. Our newest recruit, who is man.
48:18
Speaker 2: I don't even think he's six seven. I think he's
48:20
Speaker 2: six seven and a half. And this kid is enormous.
48:23
Speaker 2: He made the other ones look tiny. That was a
48:27
Speaker 2: big time pickup. So things are on the up and
48:32
Speaker 2: up as far as that goes. Now. The other thing
48:36
Speaker 2: that I talked about today, and I'll get to your
48:37
Speaker 2: guys' comments here in a minute, the stripes the Nike
48:44
Speaker 2: refers to as the heritage stripes that I won't call
48:46
Speaker 2: the heritage stripes because that's a marketing term that they
48:49
Speaker 2: made up. And they're the ones that put us in
48:51
Speaker 2: this mess in the first place. Twenty years ago. The
48:54
Speaker 2: two thousand and five buck guys, the last Buckeye team
48:58
Speaker 2: to wear our proper jersey. Two thousand and six is
49:03
Speaker 2: when they rolled out with the helmet stripe on the sleeve.
49:07
Speaker 2: And I think that twenty twenty five was the last
49:13
Speaker 2: year that we are going to see the helmet stripe
49:16
Speaker 2: on the sleeve. I think that this year when the
49:19
Speaker 2: Buckeyes roll out on the field, in fact, the next
49:21
Speaker 2: time we see them roll out on the field. We
49:25
Speaker 2: will be back permanently to our roots with the proper
49:29
Speaker 2: sleeves on the jerseys, so that I'm really stoked about.
49:34
Speaker 2: But watching them come out of the tunnel with those on,
49:40
Speaker 2: and yeah, those jerseys looked terrible, right They were practice
49:44
Speaker 2: style jerseys where they looked like I made it at
49:46
Speaker 2: the print shop. But it's what it represents. That wasn't
49:52
Speaker 2: just something cool and neat for the spring game. By
49:54
Speaker 2: the way, if it was, they would have teased it
49:57
Speaker 2: ahead of time to try to generate interest in the
50:00
Speaker 2: spring game. Didn't care about generating interest in this spring game.
50:04
Speaker 2: That wasn't a thing that happened. They would have teased it.
50:08
Speaker 2: The truth is that was the teas. That was the
50:12
Speaker 2: teas right there, and there will be more from not
50:15
Speaker 2: of the time the season starts. But we're going back
50:18
Speaker 2: and I am jazzed about it. So anyway, let's get
50:22
Speaker 2: to your comments. Catchkee Heartline was a bozo of and
50:31
Speaker 2: OC and he was as much to blame for the
50:34
Speaker 2: issues up front as Bowen. Arthur Smith isn't leaving bowing
50:38
Speaker 2: on an island, no chance, Doug. If the offensive line
50:42
Speaker 2: doesn't improve Ohio State, we'll have a different offensive line
50:44
Speaker 2: coach in twenty twenty seven. Absolutely totally with you. I'm
50:50
Speaker 2: more interested in seeing who plays over who starts. Yeah, yeah,
50:54
Speaker 2: for sure starting. You know, if you're rotating a lot,
50:57
Speaker 2: it doesn't really matter who starts, right. Timo says, I
51:04
Speaker 2: think we will run block Okay, not elite, but solid
51:07
Speaker 2: past block. He's not so sure. Marcus Baker thinks Henry
51:17
Speaker 2: will be wide receiver number three. Yeah. I think I'm
51:22
Speaker 2: with you, buddy, I think I'm with you. I just
51:25
Speaker 2: I don't know, man, I'll just be surprised at this
51:27
Speaker 2: point if all year long, Devin McEwen is gonna be
51:31
Speaker 2: the guy, Like who's Devin McEwen? You know what I mean? Like, Yeah,
51:36
Speaker 2: we can get ourselves as pumped up as we want
51:39
Speaker 2: about Devin McEwen, but the guys A three year player
51:43
Speaker 2: for UTSA, Chris Henry Jr. Is a six foot six
51:48
Speaker 2: monster that runs like that and catches like that in
51:52
Speaker 2: spaces in areas that other people just can't get to
51:55
Speaker 2: because he's just a large man. Harris says Juck thoughts
52:01
Speaker 2: on Exercusman's performance. I still think he looks a bit stiff,
52:04
Speaker 2: but I don't know it wasn't great. I mean, it
52:08
Speaker 2: was solid. He is stiff, He's not a fluid athlete.
52:15
Speaker 2: I just I just think for me, it's time for
52:18
Speaker 2: me to readjust I'm not telling anybody else to, but
52:21
Speaker 2: for me, I think it's time for me to readjust
52:24
Speaker 2: what my expectations of Edric taking the next step will
52:28
Speaker 2: look like, because I just don't think his ceiling is
52:31
Speaker 2: as high as I once hoped it was going to be.
52:35
Speaker 2: It's kind of how I put it. I hope I'm wrong, because,
52:40
Speaker 2: like I said, probably maybe the most likable guy in
52:44
Speaker 2: the damn building always has been. I met him when
52:48
Speaker 2: he was a recruit and then again talk to him
52:54
Speaker 2: his first spring at the Woody, and every time I
53:00
Speaker 2: see him like the type of guy that not just
53:03
Speaker 2: remembers everyone everyone's face to shake their hand, O. I
53:07
Speaker 2: see it like he remembers people's names. He talks to
53:10
Speaker 2: the media, people that come in there. He's just a
53:13
Speaker 2: great dude, man, great dude like would represent us and
53:18
Speaker 2: always will great in the NFL, and you will. I
53:21
Speaker 2: just had hopes, like, man, I hope this guy is
53:23
Speaker 2: a first rounder, and I'm not sure he has that ceiling.
53:25
Speaker 2: I don't know. I hope I'm wrong. Teama says last
53:30
Speaker 2: year we could not risk Julian getting hurt. TSC might
53:34
Speaker 2: do fine, so saying can take some more risks, maybe
53:37
Speaker 2: not the first three weeks. Yeah, I'm with you, man,
53:40
Speaker 2: I'm with you. It's a much different situation now, Brandango,
53:44
Speaker 2: what's up, brother, Appreciate you for popping in. Doug says
53:51
Speaker 2: Edwick was a five star defensive end. It's a bit
53:53
Speaker 2: much to expect him to play like a five star
53:55
Speaker 2: defensive tackle. No, not really, they I mean, you're five
53:59
Speaker 2: star athlete. He played end in an end's body, and
54:02
Speaker 2: now he's in a tackle's body, which they transformed successfully.
54:05
Speaker 2: He's a tackle. He's everybody's big, and he's I mean
54:09
Speaker 2: he's bigger. He's bigger than James Smith, he's bigger than
54:13
Speaker 2: John Walker, He's longer than them and weighs just as
54:16
Speaker 2: much as them. So no, I don't think that's an
54:19
Speaker 2: unreasonable expectation, to be honest, Ryan says Chuck wide receiver
54:23
Speaker 2: recruiting is very peculiar right now. We don't really need
54:26
Speaker 2: to spend big this cycle, but very odd there's been
54:29
Speaker 2: barely any names on the boards. Thoughts. I would agree
54:33
Speaker 2: with you peculiar, and you know, he's only offered a
54:36
Speaker 2: couple of guys, but the guys that he's offered like
54:39
Speaker 2: Benny Easter East and Royal five star dudes from Louisiana
54:45
Speaker 2: and Texas one committed to Texas one committed to Texas Tech, which, okay,
54:51
Speaker 2: what does that tell us? It tells us you're going
54:53
Speaker 2: to need to really come with some big dollars to
54:55
Speaker 2: get him out of there. And then guys that Ohio
54:58
Speaker 2: State was in on Dakota Grant right up in Michigan
55:02
Speaker 2: who visited o'huse ate nine times, five star like communication
55:07
Speaker 2: has kind of been zapped there. He's not on the
55:10
Speaker 2: Bucks board anymore. A couple more have dropped off. Matthew
55:15
Speaker 2: Barrell from Chicago is now supposedly going to go to Michigan.
55:19
Speaker 2: We were getting some inroads there and not really seeing
55:22
Speaker 2: any positive momentum anywhere. Manshin sales that ship has sailed.
55:27
Speaker 2: Eric McFarlane now does not look very positive for us,
55:29
Speaker 2: and that one looked really positive for a very long time.
55:33
Speaker 2: I'm not feeling him at all so far. I mean,
55:35
Speaker 2: maybe he's just got a different style and we'll all
55:38
Speaker 2: see it in the end. The biggest piece of good
55:42
Speaker 2: news I can say about him as a recruiter is
55:44
Speaker 2: that he stayed on Blake Wong and Blake Wang. We're
55:48
Speaker 2: still in it for Okay, that's great. Blake Wang is
55:53
Speaker 2: not going to be like you know, Blake Wang could
55:58
Speaker 2: potentially be really surprise people like Brock Boyd. But he's
56:04
Speaker 2: not quite as fast as Brock. So but yeah, it's
56:08
Speaker 2: a mystery. I'm waiting before. I'm not going to criticize
56:11
Speaker 2: him before we see results, but like right now, like normally,
56:16
Speaker 2: as when you see coaches like going out of their
56:18
Speaker 2: way when they first come in to schedule a lot
56:21
Speaker 2: of visits, you see a lot of offers go out,
56:23
Speaker 2: You see them try to put their imprint on the class.
56:26
Speaker 2: And we're not seeing any of that from him thus far.
56:29
Speaker 2: And I guess I'm not surprised because he's not. It
56:33
Speaker 2: didn't come in here with a great recruiting record. It
56:36
Speaker 2: wasn't great for the places he was at, you know,
56:40
Speaker 2: LSU and Georgia. There was nothing impressive about it, you know,
56:46
Speaker 2: like below below normal standards for the program when he
56:50
Speaker 2: was there in recruiting. So I was never like super
56:54
Speaker 2: jazzed about it, but I do figure, Yeah, it'll be
56:57
Speaker 2: better at Ohio State. You know, I'm waiting to see,
57:02
Speaker 2: Like it's tough to judge. Obviously number one their first class,
57:08
Speaker 2: but Tyler Bowen was able to come in and land
57:11
Speaker 2: what the top two players on the board the must
57:14
Speaker 2: gets from Ryan Day? Who would that be this year? Well,
57:17
Speaker 2: number one, you got to keep Jamia Brown and he's
57:21
Speaker 2: done good with that. But let's be honest, Ryan Days
57:24
Speaker 2: did that, and then you had Eric McFarland or monshun
57:28
Speaker 2: sales and we don't know how much they're going to
57:30
Speaker 2: want to invest in that particular spot this year. But
57:32
Speaker 2: when we look at the wide receiver room, you know
57:37
Speaker 2: you lose your right now starting three all are gone
57:41
Speaker 2: next year. And then you go down to your young guys.
57:45
Speaker 2: You got Chris, you got Brock, you got your Quaton.
57:49
Speaker 2: I think that's the starting crew next year. And then
57:53
Speaker 2: what does that do? Well, you just made the starting
57:56
Speaker 2: crew jump above two guys that were older than them,
58:00
Speaker 2: Philip Bell and Desi Jones. Do they stick around? Probably not?
58:03
Speaker 2: And now where you at, you do need a good
58:06
Speaker 2: class this year. These guys will be playing before we
58:09
Speaker 2: know it, Like we know how fast this change is
58:11
Speaker 2: now so it's like the one thing and I've done
58:15
Speaker 2: like four recruiting shows since I've been able to have
58:19
Speaker 2: any kind of update about a wide receiver. We've talked
58:23
Speaker 2: about basically every other position and haven't had any updates
58:25
Speaker 2: on wide receiver. So that's where we're at. That great
58:29
Speaker 2: doesn't sound great, but at the same time, can't really
58:32
Speaker 2: bag on it until we see something, Doug, it's an
58:47
Speaker 2: easier position to play bro like. Its considerably easier when
58:51
Speaker 2: you got the build and he's got the build. Like
58:53
Speaker 2: the builds already there. That's the hard part, changing the
58:57
Speaker 2: physical part. When you're making that transition, and then you
59:01
Speaker 2: still expect, Okay, you're still gonna have that explosion that
59:04
Speaker 2: you had at edge that made you a good edge.
59:06
Speaker 2: It'll be a little lower because you weigh a little more.
59:08
Speaker 2: But the truth is he was never that explosive as
59:10
Speaker 2: an edge. He was, you know, a little overrated at
59:16
Speaker 2: the edge position. Honda Rider Jack, do you remember twenty
59:21
Speaker 2: nineteen we ran a lot of crossing routes against scum
59:25
Speaker 2: the wide receivers eight. I think if we went back
59:30
Speaker 2: to that type of offense with these wide receivers, with
59:32
Speaker 2: that work, Yeah, I think We're gonna see a lot
59:34
Speaker 2: more of that. I think we already are seeing a
59:36
Speaker 2: lot more of that. I think we are, and I
59:40
Speaker 2: think it's going to be a damn good thing and
59:43
Speaker 2: go really well with Arthur Smith. So all right, friends,
59:49
Speaker 2: I do appreciate you. My little Nanni is waiting on me,
59:53
Speaker 2: you know. She likes to watch a program with me
59:56
Speaker 2: before she goes to bed or something, so I'm gonna
59:59
Speaker 2: go snuggle up on the con up with her. I
1:00:00
Speaker 2: do appreciate you, guys so much. Thanks for joining us
1:00:03
Speaker 2: here at bucke Huddle. If you have not subscribed, please
1:00:06
Speaker 2: do so. We'd really appreciate that, and of course always
1:00:08
Speaker 2: please like the show and I'll talk to you soon.
1:00:10
Speaker 2: Buck Huddleoud