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10 Things We Learned Talking To Ryan Day · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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Speaker 1: Welcome to Buckeyes tomorrow morning. For Friday May second, I'm
0:03
Speaker 1: your host, Tom Or the Texas game in one hundred
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Speaker 1: and twenty days, the game against Michigan in two hundred
0:07
Speaker 1: and eleven days. If you're planning your next event, make
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Speaker 1: it unforgettable with Grateful Griddle, Columbus's favorite fruit truck surving up,
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Speaker 1: Smashburger's four May sandwiches, and good vibes booker catering today
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0:21
Speaker 1: somewhere else the vibes are very good right now. That
0:23
Speaker 1: would be at Buckeye Huddle dot com. Had a pretty
0:26
Speaker 1: significant announcement on Thursday on the Huddle Board, presented by
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Speaker 1: Jeffrubies Columbus, and that is that there are a whole
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Speaker 1: bunch of news staff members coming on board. Talk about
0:37
Speaker 1: run through the you know, Tony Kevin and I over
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Speaker 1: the team, Mark overs recruiting, all that the lat list
0:42
Speaker 1: is getting a lot longer starting on Monday. So all right,
0:46
Speaker 1: here you go. Here's the big news. Jeremy Birmingham, you
0:48
Speaker 1: may know him as Burm. He is joining our staff
0:51
Speaker 1: as the director of Recruiting. He starts officially on Monday.
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Speaker 1: He's excited enough that he already made an appearance on
0:57
Speaker 1: the board on Thursday, and I guess we'll see a
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Speaker 1: litle bit of him over the weekend and then plenty
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Speaker 1: moore starting on Monday. There's gonna be lots of coverage there.
1:05
Speaker 1: He will be an active part of the board, have
1:07
Speaker 1: lots of recruiting coverage for you. There lots of insider
1:09
Speaker 1: information for you there as well as well as well.
1:12
Speaker 1: So that is all going to be at Buckeye Hudle
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Speaker 1: dot com starting on Monday. Also joining the staff Andrew Ellis.
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Speaker 1: You may know him as Teddy Heisman. He has been
1:19
Speaker 1: a mainstay around the Ohio state scene media scene for
1:22
Speaker 1: the last decade or so. At least he's gonna be
1:25
Speaker 1: on our board. He's going to be appearing on podcasts.
1:28
Speaker 1: You'll probably see a lot of him on our morning
1:30
Speaker 1: show and other podcasts from the Buckeye Hudle podcast network.
1:34
Speaker 1: So he's joining us, and also justin Whitlatch, we're adding
1:37
Speaker 1: to our team of official ex'es and o's Guruz. He's
1:40
Speaker 1: joining Ross Fultman, Devin Radcliffe on that front. So a
1:44
Speaker 1: very very big day for us at buckeyehudle dot com.
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Speaker 1: We have seen am obviously unsurprisingly a title wave of
1:51
Speaker 1: new members joining the site. You should join them as well.
1:54
Speaker 1: Going to be a lot to talk about this year
1:57
Speaker 1: and this summer, even this month, This is normally typically
2:00
Speaker 1: a quiet month on the Buckeye on the Buckeye football beat.
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Speaker 1: Not this year. We got all that going on. Plus
2:07
Speaker 1: get Mark and Kevin right now on the road for
2:09
Speaker 1: Southern Swing. So lots of great firsthand recruiting coverage coming
2:13
Speaker 1: this month as well. That is all at buckeyehuddle dot com.
2:17
Speaker 1: We hope to see you there. We are pretty sure
2:19
Speaker 1: that is going to be the place to be this
2:21
Speaker 1: year for Buckeye coverage. In your first month, as we
2:25
Speaker 1: have said before, just four ninety nine, So I'll just
2:28
Speaker 1: sign up today, get access to that whole new growing
2:31
Speaker 1: team of insiders, covering the team, covering recruiting, covering access
2:35
Speaker 1: and o's. That is all at bucke huddle dot com.
2:37
Speaker 1: All right, so now on with the show. Quick note,
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Speaker 1: real quickly. Buckey's made a transfer portal addition on Thursday
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Speaker 1: afternoon long snapper Grant Mills from the University of North Carolina.
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Speaker 1: He committed to the Buckeyes. He will have four years
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Speaker 1: of eligibility. Probably still expect John Furlman, the returning starter
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Speaker 1: at long snapper, be the starter, but now Grant Mills
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Speaker 1: on the team, potentially as his successor next year. So
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Speaker 1: all right, now onto the bulk of today's show, and
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Speaker 1: we're gonna be letting you hear a little bit from
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Speaker 1: Ryan Day. We got a chance to talk to him
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Speaker 1: earlier in the week, got some real extended answers from him,
3:10
Speaker 1: some interesting insights from a bunch of things. We've talked
3:12
Speaker 1: about it a little bit, but I'll let you hear
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Speaker 1: directly from Ryan Day on a whole bunch of this stuff.
3:16
Speaker 1: And we're going to start with another transfer from the
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Speaker 1: University of North Carolina, and that would be defensive end
3:21
Speaker 1: bo Atkinson, one of the top defensive linemen in the
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Speaker 1: portal this offseason. I was excited is Ryan Day to
3:27
Speaker 1: add bo Atkinson.
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Speaker 2: Very excited about adding Bow had an opportunity to spend
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Speaker 2: time with he and his family on their visit. You know,
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Speaker 2: you guys have seen some of the film. We think
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Speaker 2: that it's it's a great addition to the room. Somebody
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Speaker 2: who has experience, has some some real size and he's
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Speaker 2: excited about being at Ohio State.
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Speaker 3: You know great parents.
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Speaker 2: Mom is actually from from New Hampshire, where I'm from,
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Speaker 2: So there was a connection there that both parents went
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Speaker 2: to Yukon. But Bo made it very clear that he
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Speaker 2: wanted to play at the highest level. Hit it off
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Speaker 2: with Larry, which coach Patricia and so I think it'll
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Speaker 2: be a great addition to our room as we had
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Speaker 2: into the summer.
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Speaker 1: Defensive end was only one of the spots on the
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Speaker 1: team where the Bluck guys were potentially looking to make
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Speaker 1: some additions during this April portal window. So is Brian
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Speaker 1: Brian Day in Ohio State. Are they still looking to
4:19
Speaker 1: add a defensive tackle now as well?
4:21
Speaker 3: We are.
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Speaker 2: We have, but you know, we wanted to make sure that,
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Speaker 2: you know, we bring somebody in, you know, it has
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Speaker 2: to you know, be an upgrade to what we have,
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Speaker 2: and so we're not just going to do it to
4:33
Speaker 2: do it. I think that we have looked and we're
4:37
Speaker 2: going to continue to look, but we're not just going
4:40
Speaker 2: to bring in someone just to do that.
4:42
Speaker 3: And so we'll continue to evaluate that.
4:44
Speaker 1: One of the big stories this spring and now heading
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Speaker 1: into the summer is the battle for the starting quarterback job. Right,
4:49
Speaker 1: it was asked how much the quarterback improved throughout spring
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Speaker 1: practice and even during the spring game.
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Speaker 2: I think so it was very generic looks, but I
5:00
Speaker 2: thought they you know, Lincoln missed a couple early but
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Speaker 2: then got into a rhythm. But over other than that
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Speaker 2: part of it, I thought both Lincoln and Julian handled
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Speaker 2: the environment well. I thought they handled the huddle well.
5:12
Speaker 2: I thought they handled everything about that well. That was
5:14
Speaker 2: a step in the right direction. You know, we all
5:17
Speaker 2: know that. You know, again, the looks were very generic
5:19
Speaker 2: and those type of things, but you still got to
5:21
Speaker 2: execute them. So I thought that was that was good.
5:24
Speaker 2: I think there has been progress made. I think the
5:26
Speaker 2: next couple of months, those guys coming in here and
5:29
Speaker 2: continue to get stronger and faster and getting on the film.
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Speaker 2: Now they have cut ups that they can watch to
5:34
Speaker 2: grow from, and then, as we all know, the summer
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Speaker 2: will be huge. So, you know, I'm encouraged with with
5:40
Speaker 2: what we saw coming out. You know, you can see
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Speaker 2: the talent with Tavian. He just needs more experience, needs
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Speaker 2: more at bats, and the more he does that, the
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Speaker 2: more he'll he'll be in the mix.
5:50
Speaker 3: But right now, it's it's a two horse race.
5:52
Speaker 1: The Buck guys were very excited to not lose any
5:55
Speaker 1: scholarship players during that spring portal window. However, they did
5:58
Speaker 1: lose four walk On. We've talked about all of those
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Speaker 1: guys on previous shows, So how difficult is that to
6:05
Speaker 1: sort of manage your roster size right now to stay
6:09
Speaker 1: within the number that they have laid out for this fall,
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Speaker 1: which is one o five. But the number keeps changing because,
6:14
Speaker 1: as we've talked about on some of these shows, the
6:16
Speaker 1: house set but has not yet officially been approved, and
6:18
Speaker 1: it sounds like the number might not end up being
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Speaker 1: at one o five, it might be higher than that.
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Speaker 1: So were those guys who left? Was that sort of
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Speaker 1: a result of trying to manage that one o five
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Speaker 1: number and sort of what's the plan to get to
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Speaker 1: whatever the number is moving forward?
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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's tough because you know, you hear about the
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Speaker 2: one oh five and you have to have real honest
6:36
Speaker 2: conversations with young men about whether they'll be guaranteed a
6:40
Speaker 2: spot or not. Then you hear that maybe there won't
6:44
Speaker 2: be a one o five and we're having these conversations
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Speaker 2: in real time, and what I don't want to do
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Speaker 2: is look a you know, a guy in the eye
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Speaker 2: and say, sorry, we don't have a roster spot for you,
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Speaker 2: you know, right before the season, when I haven't at
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Speaker 2: least had the opportunity for them to just get in
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Speaker 2: the portal and check out what their options are. And so,
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Speaker 2: you know, we were just being transparent in those those
7:03
Speaker 2: situations because these guys, you know, whether they're a scholarship
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Speaker 2: player or walk on player, they still put as much
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Speaker 2: work in and so I just felt like that was
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Speaker 2: the right thing to do in a time where we
7:12
Speaker 2: don't really know for sure how it's going to shake out.
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Speaker 1: One of the players that we talked about a bunch
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Speaker 1: during the spring was CJ. Hicks. He moved from linebacker
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Speaker 1: defense to defensive end for this spring and seemed like
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Speaker 1: he had a pretty solid spring overall. So what was
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Speaker 1: his final evaluation His final evaluation on CJ. Hicks coming
7:29
Speaker 1: out of the spring, and what does it say that
7:31
Speaker 1: c J. Hicks is still in Columbus.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, well, somebody who loves being a buck guy.
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Speaker 2: He works x you know, really really hard every day,
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Speaker 2: puts in extra work. He was even in there just
7:43
Speaker 2: when I walked in here, he was out there getting
7:44
Speaker 2: some some extra work on his own. He wants it,
7:47
Speaker 2: but I think he's made the transition well. When you
7:51
Speaker 2: make the transition from off the ball to on the ball,
7:54
Speaker 2: and you know, you watch Sonny transfer from being at
7:57
Speaker 2: the third level to the second level. When you make
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Speaker 2: that transition from being on the second level to on
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Speaker 2: the ball, you know, things change and you know it.
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Speaker 2: I was remarkable to me how quickly Sonny made that transition.
8:09
Speaker 2: I'm hoping CJ can do the same thing, but it
8:12
Speaker 2: does take time.
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Speaker 3: You know. It's as opposed to.
8:14
Speaker 2: Being off the ball and running to the ball, you're
8:15
Speaker 2: constantly engaged in blocks or looking to avoid them. He
8:20
Speaker 2: did a really good job in the past game. He's
8:22
Speaker 2: growing in the in the run game, learning how to
8:25
Speaker 2: set the edge and get off of blocks. But you know,
8:28
Speaker 2: we're encouraged what we see. But again, it's gonna have
8:30
Speaker 2: to be a big, big summer for him, and I
8:33
Speaker 2: know he and Mick and Larry are talking about exactly
8:35
Speaker 2: what the right weight should be for him to carry,
8:39
Speaker 2: knowing that he's going to be on the line.
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Speaker 1: Battle for the striating quarterback job. Still not a done
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Speaker 1: deal by any means, So what did they right, What
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Speaker 1: did Brian Day tell the quarterbacks that each of them
8:48
Speaker 1: needed to work on coming out of spring.
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Speaker 3: Yeah.
8:51
Speaker 2: I won't get in all the things technically, but you know,
8:53
Speaker 2: each each guy has something like okay, throwing wise, some
8:56
Speaker 2: things they want to get better at, and so you
8:59
Speaker 2: know they'll go out and work on those things, and
9:02
Speaker 2: you know, we try to help as much as we can,
9:04
Speaker 2: you know, in terms of those improvements. But then also
9:07
Speaker 2: is just the overall understanding of the offense. You know,
9:12
Speaker 2: when you have the cutups to watch, you know, and
9:15
Speaker 2: you actually see yourself doing it as opposed to Will
9:18
Speaker 2: doing it or CJ or you know, we have years
9:19
Speaker 2: of cutups of the same plays over and over again.
9:22
Speaker 2: You can see Dwayne running it or you know, justin
9:26
Speaker 2: Field running it, but it's actually you doing it. It
9:29
Speaker 2: just it looks and feels different. So, you know, the
9:33
Speaker 2: technical parts I won't get into, but for for all
9:36
Speaker 2: three of them, it's really about understanding the offense better,
9:39
Speaker 2: understanding protections, Understanding the route structures, how the boss to
9:42
Speaker 2: come out, you know, third down, red zone, understanding of
9:46
Speaker 2: the entire offense. We put a good amount in, but
9:51
Speaker 2: there's still a lot that we haven't put in, so
9:52
Speaker 2: we need to continue to dive into that. Ultimately, they
9:55
Speaker 2: will be evaluated on how they make their routine plays
9:58
Speaker 2: routinely and then how they do on third down, red
10:02
Speaker 2: zone and two minute And you've heard me say that before,
10:04
Speaker 2: but that's that's it. And you know each guy has
10:07
Speaker 2: a different skill set and so you know we've done
10:10
Speaker 2: that before where we've adapted based on who we have,
10:13
Speaker 2: and we'll do that this year. But it's going to
10:16
Speaker 2: be exciting because we have some really good weapons coming
10:19
Speaker 2: out of the spring. We feel like, maybe even a
10:20
Speaker 2: little bit different than we've had.
10:21
Speaker 3: In the past.
10:22
Speaker 2: So fired up about that and fired up about where this,
10:25
Speaker 2: where this this offense can go, you know, and I
10:29
Speaker 2: have to make sure I remind myself that the idea
10:32
Speaker 2: of the spring again you've heard me talk about this
10:34
Speaker 2: is to get individual players better and then as we
10:37
Speaker 2: come out of the spring, figuring out what this looks
10:39
Speaker 2: like as an offense and as a defense schematically.
10:42
Speaker 3: So that's what we're all involved.
10:44
Speaker 2: With right now. Coaches are on the road recruiting, but
10:46
Speaker 2: it's also part of that. The guys in a building
10:48
Speaker 2: right now, we're starting to put that together as we
10:50
Speaker 2: head into June.
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Speaker 1: The quarterback battles certainly sounds like it's really down to
10:54
Speaker 1: the two guys that you would sort of expect, Julie
10:56
Speaker 1: and say In and Lincoln keenhols Avi and Saint Clair
10:59
Speaker 1: of course, all on the team. True freshman, very talented,
11:02
Speaker 1: but a true freshman. So what's the challenge trying to
11:05
Speaker 1: get him up to speed with just game, real game
11:08
Speaker 1: like situations.
11:09
Speaker 3: At this point, I.
11:10
Speaker 2: Try so many of those different things. And this is
11:13
Speaker 2: a long conversation, but you know, even having a son
11:16
Speaker 2: who's now a sophomore and who's a quarterback, you just
11:20
Speaker 2: realize that if you play basketball, baseball, lacrosse, all these
11:23
Speaker 2: other sports who constantly play games, you could play five
11:27
Speaker 2: basketball games on the weekend.
11:28
Speaker 3: You could play you know, I don't know how many.
11:30
Speaker 2: Lacrosse games they play, where they play a lot soccer.
11:32
Speaker 2: My daughters they play all these soccer games. How often
11:35
Speaker 2: are you actually playing eleven on eleven football and playing
11:38
Speaker 2: the quarterback position? And I think that's why you see
11:41
Speaker 2: so much, you know, back and forth confusion. Just it's
11:47
Speaker 2: just not very much a science even when you get
11:49
Speaker 2: to the NFL in the draft process, because these guys
11:52
Speaker 2: haven't played a lot of football, and so you don't
11:55
Speaker 2: know where they are. You don't know always how to
11:58
Speaker 2: compare where they've played to where they need to play,
12:01
Speaker 2: the types of throws that need to be made. So
12:05
Speaker 2: so I think about this a lot, and Tavian, you know,
12:08
Speaker 2: needs to get as many of those reps as he can.
12:11
Speaker 2: We've tried in the past. We've tried the virtual reality
12:15
Speaker 2: where when I was in San Francisco, we would actually,
12:18
Speaker 2: you know, have people, you know, simulate defenses, simulate blitzes,
12:23
Speaker 2: so they could stand in there. We'd actually put the
12:24
Speaker 2: turf down and they'd have the VR and they'd be
12:26
Speaker 2: going through the reads. And it wasn't the same. It's
12:29
Speaker 2: just not the same when a three hundred and twenty
12:31
Speaker 2: pound guys trying to rip your head.
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Speaker 3: Off in front of it. It's just not the same.
12:36
Speaker 3: So what do we try to do.
12:37
Speaker 2: We try to watch as much film as we can
12:40
Speaker 2: and try to simulate the best we possibly can. But
12:43
Speaker 2: there's nothing like getting real reps. And that's why we
12:45
Speaker 2: made the guys live this this spring to feel what
12:47
Speaker 2: that was like. Because these guys haven't played a lot
12:50
Speaker 2: of football and so they don't know what that's like,
12:53
Speaker 2: so I'll go out for an hour about this, but
12:55
Speaker 2: this is this is the kind of the world we
12:57
Speaker 2: live in and something I'm passionate about. So the more
13:00
Speaker 2: these guys can play eleven on eleven football, it's better.
13:03
Speaker 1: There were plenty of new faces on the field for
13:05
Speaker 1: the buck Eyes this spring, a lot of freshmans and
13:08
Speaker 1: talented transfers, but also some new coaches. What were Ryan
13:11
Speaker 1: Day's evaluations of you guys like new defensive coordinator Matt Patricia,
13:15
Speaker 1: new offensive line coach Tyler Bowen throughout the spring.
13:18
Speaker 2: I think you look at the players and I meet
13:22
Speaker 2: with every single player after the spring and I asked
13:25
Speaker 2: them rate your relationship with your position, coach, with your
13:30
Speaker 2: coordinator one to five, five being great, one being not
13:34
Speaker 2: very good at all. And the feedback I got on
13:37
Speaker 2: both of those guys was excellent, really good. That's the
13:40
Speaker 2: first thing. Second thing is in recruiting, you talk to
13:43
Speaker 2: the recruits. You know, how's your relationship with coach Bowen,
13:45
Speaker 2: how's your relationship with coach Patricia? Again like thumbs up
13:48
Speaker 2: across the board, and I think you know, when you
13:51
Speaker 2: get around the players, you get around the recruits, you
13:52
Speaker 2: guys will hear the same thing. You can either it
13:55
Speaker 2: is or it isn't. You know, we've had coaches before
13:57
Speaker 2: what hasn't been great? And you know, I think we
13:59
Speaker 2: know that that's been the case before. So that's the
14:03
Speaker 2: first thing you look for is the relationships. And then
14:06
Speaker 2: how are you getting individual players better? I think that's
14:08
Speaker 2: been a plus. And then schematically we'll see, you know,
14:12
Speaker 2: yet to be seen, we know if we have the
14:13
Speaker 2: right scheme in place. But I like their attitudes, I
14:17
Speaker 2: like where they are. I think they fit our culture
14:20
Speaker 2: really really well in terms of how they coach. They
14:23
Speaker 2: understand it's important. They both coach in the NFL at
14:27
Speaker 2: a high level. So excited to see what the next
14:30
Speaker 2: couple of months spring.
14:31
Speaker 1: So springball is over and summer camp doesn't start until
14:35
Speaker 1: the beginning of August, and media days aren't until July,
14:38
Speaker 1: and even the camps for the high school players don't
14:40
Speaker 1: really happen until June. So what exactly is happening right
14:43
Speaker 1: now with the team.
14:44
Speaker 2: You know, we have these different phases right now. We'd
14:46
Speaker 2: like to see these guys get out of here and
14:49
Speaker 2: get get away from football for a little bit.
14:51
Speaker 3: You know. Classes started for us during the.
14:55
Speaker 2: Texas Week, so if that gives you any idea of
14:58
Speaker 2: how much break they got. So we got right into
15:01
Speaker 2: winn of workouts, right into spring practice. They did have
15:03
Speaker 2: a little bit of a break for spring break, but
15:05
Speaker 2: these guys need to get around their families a little
15:07
Speaker 2: bit and get away from football. But then once classes
15:10
Speaker 2: start up again, we gotta go. We gotta have a
15:13
Speaker 2: great summer. Everybody knows what they need to do this
15:16
Speaker 2: summer in terms of with coach making the weight room,
15:19
Speaker 2: you know, in terms of getting better individually as the players,
15:23
Speaker 2: and then you know, once August hits, I mean, it's
15:25
Speaker 2: going to be a great camp, as we know because
15:27
Speaker 2: of our first opponent, So that's gonna get ramped up
15:30
Speaker 2: real quick. So we need a great summer and that
15:33
Speaker 2: that's obviously a big part of that's in the weight room.
15:35
Speaker 2: You guys are hearing me talk about guys being gold
15:38
Speaker 2: or being Iron Buckeyes. There's a reason why Jeremiah Smith
15:41
Speaker 2: was the first Iron Buckeye ever as a freshman. You know,
15:44
Speaker 2: he saw what happened, right, So there's a correlation to
15:47
Speaker 2: the summer that they have and how they play on
15:49
Speaker 2: the field.
15:50
Speaker 3: And they know that they bought in.
15:51
Speaker 2: That's so that's I think that's really important our guys
15:53
Speaker 2: do understand how important what goes on in the summer,
15:56
Speaker 2: what goes on in the weight room, you know, impacts
15:59
Speaker 2: on the field, So that part of it, and then
16:02
Speaker 2: Mike will do a good job of creating conflict and
16:04
Speaker 2: then figuring out who the leaders are that that'll that'll
16:07
Speaker 2: be big and then having that synergy within the team.
16:10
Speaker 1: One of the things we got we wanted to talk
16:11
Speaker 1: to Ryan Day about was the NFL Draft and where
16:13
Speaker 1: guys ended up and where guys got picked and all
16:16
Speaker 1: of that kind of stuff. So what were his thoughts
16:18
Speaker 1: on the draft. Was there anyone that he looked at
16:20
Speaker 1: and thought, ah, that's that guy went way too low.
16:23
Speaker 2: Well, I don't think Seth you know, should have gone undrafted,
16:25
Speaker 2: but I think the Achilles and maybe just being center
16:29
Speaker 2: only is.
16:29
Speaker 3: Why that happened.
16:30
Speaker 2: But but I'm I'm pleased with with the location that
16:36
Speaker 2: everybody ended up with. You know, I don't think there
16:40
Speaker 2: was really anybody that got drafted where when you look
16:42
Speaker 2: at it, you say, man, that's not a good fit.
16:44
Speaker 2: And that's when I sit up in front of the
16:46
Speaker 2: personnel for our prote that was our goal. It isn't
16:49
Speaker 2: like so much.
16:50
Speaker 3: You know, getting them, you.
16:52
Speaker 2: Know, drafted early or whatever. You know, they have to
16:54
Speaker 2: decide the value, but make suing that's the right fit.
16:57
Speaker 2: Because we always say it's easy to getting the NFL,
17:00
Speaker 2: it's hard to stay in the NFL. So we need
17:02
Speaker 2: these guys and now stay in the NFL. The easy
17:04
Speaker 2: part's over. The hard part is now going to work
17:06
Speaker 2: and tearing themselves in the program and then bringing value
17:10
Speaker 2: every single day. So we've got unbelievable feedback from so
17:16
Speaker 2: many NFL personnel about our guys, and it was clear
17:19
Speaker 2: that these teams appreciated and valued how unselfish they were,
17:24
Speaker 2: how much they praised their teammates, their football IQ, how
17:28
Speaker 2: much they loved Ohio State football, the program, the run
17:32
Speaker 2: that they went on, and just you know, their overall character.
17:35
Speaker 2: And again, just got so much great feedback about that,
17:39
Speaker 2: and you can see how much the teams valued that.
17:42
Speaker 1: The new world of college football, with the long season
17:46
Speaker 1: and the potential for up to four playoff games, there's
17:50
Speaker 1: a lot to balance in terms of having guys ready
17:52
Speaker 1: to go, but not having guys too tired, too beaten
17:56
Speaker 1: up to be able to go fully towards the end
17:58
Speaker 1: of the season. Looking back at last season, how does
18:02
Speaker 1: Ryan Day think that they did in terms of balancing
18:04
Speaker 1: keeping guys fresh but also having them prepared to play
18:07
Speaker 1: at the beginning of the game for each game in
18:10
Speaker 1: that long season.
18:11
Speaker 2: No, I mean, the only thing that happened in the
18:15
Speaker 2: National champion leading up to the National Championship game was,
18:18
Speaker 2: you know, we had a really good rhythm going, and
18:22
Speaker 2: we would practice in pads on that Tuesday and Wednesday
18:24
Speaker 2: of the game week. But our d line ti leak
18:28
Speaker 2: and those guys they were banged up.
18:29
Speaker 3: I mean they were.
18:30
Speaker 2: It was late in the season, and so we did
18:32
Speaker 2: not do that on one of those days for a reason,
18:35
Speaker 2: because we wanted to be healthy and fresh going in
18:37
Speaker 2: on Saturday. But when you're into such such that rhythm,
18:42
Speaker 2: you know, sometimes when you get to Saturday, it takes
18:44
Speaker 2: a little while to get your feet underneath you. And
18:47
Speaker 2: I felt like that that hurts a little bit in
18:49
Speaker 2: that first drive. But then again, you look back, you
18:52
Speaker 2: need those guys to be fresh late in the season.
18:54
Speaker 2: We're talking about week sixteen and other than that, you know,
18:59
Speaker 2: I thought we hit the sweet spot.
19:00
Speaker 3: But I thought our guys were playing fast.
19:01
Speaker 2: I thought the way that we handled the season the preseason,
19:07
Speaker 2: you know a lot of us. I mean, you look
19:08
Speaker 2: at the way the running backs played late in the season.
19:10
Speaker 2: You know they were playing fast, and so I mean
19:14
Speaker 2: we have a lot to learn from a lot of
19:15
Speaker 2: information how to go back on because it was the
19:17
Speaker 2: first time ever, so we'll at least have something to
19:19
Speaker 2: look back on. But I think a lot of it
19:22
Speaker 2: went the way we wanted to.
19:24
Speaker 1: One of the big questions going into the spring was
19:27
Speaker 1: exactly how the offensive line would sort itself out after
19:30
Speaker 1: losing three starters from last year's team. So where do
19:34
Speaker 1: things stand right now with the offensive line and in
19:37
Speaker 1: particular the battle for the right tackle job.
19:40
Speaker 2: I thought our guys appreciated the way that you know,
19:44
Speaker 2: we have Tyler, Marcus and Charlie all working together with
19:48
Speaker 2: the old line, and I think it's important when you
19:51
Speaker 2: have three guys with three different backgrounds come together, they
19:53
Speaker 2: have to have one voice if they're going to work
19:55
Speaker 2: like that together. Again, in the post spring meetings, all
20:00
Speaker 2: the offensive linemen what they thought, and it was unanimous,
20:04
Speaker 2: like excellent. They loved it, so that that was great.
20:08
Speaker 2: So I feel like they got better this spring. I
20:10
Speaker 2: feel like they're getting coached well, you know, they made
20:14
Speaker 2: improvements across the board. You know, the idea of playing
20:18
Speaker 2: a primary position and then a secondary position has been
20:22
Speaker 2: has been really good. I thought Austin did a nice
20:24
Speaker 2: job moving around. I think he really took a big
20:26
Speaker 2: step for us. And so yeah, I don't think we're
20:30
Speaker 2: in a position to really get into like who's starting
20:33
Speaker 2: and who isn't, but you know, he really, you know,
20:36
Speaker 2: and at what positions Austin Saarel is gonna be a
20:39
Speaker 2: starter for us. He's he's an excellent player and really
20:42
Speaker 2: had a good spring for us, and you know, we
20:45
Speaker 2: can talk about them as we had closer to the preseason.
20:47
Speaker 2: But but yeah, at right tackle, Phil Daniels I thought
20:51
Speaker 2: got better from practice one all the way to to
20:54
Speaker 2: the to the end. And that's an example of somebody
20:56
Speaker 2: who's you know, playing against Kenyatta Jackson and Kayden Curry
21:00
Speaker 2: and c J. Hicks every day in practice. He just
21:01
Speaker 2: continually got better, especially in his past protection. So big
21:06
Speaker 2: summer for him as well. But I thought Tegra you know,
21:10
Speaker 2: Carson Luke Ethan got better. I mean, if Josh Padilla
21:16
Speaker 2: got better, There's a lot of guys there that I
21:19
Speaker 2: felt like we're really improving on on a day to
21:21
Speaker 2: day basis. So you know, I feel like, you know,
21:27
Speaker 2: sometimes you look at it and you're like, Okay, if
21:28
Speaker 2: Tyleek and ty were in there, what would that look like?
21:31
Speaker 2: You know, so you have to compare that part of it,
21:34
Speaker 2: you know, on on each side. You know, I think
21:36
Speaker 2: the defensive line did you know, did win some battles
21:39
Speaker 2: in there. But I would say overall, you know, the
21:42
Speaker 2: offensive line probably won more than they lost.
21:44
Speaker 3: Over over the spring.
21:45
Speaker 2: And so that's that's a big emphasis going into the summer,
21:48
Speaker 2: is you know, with that D line is suing up
21:50
Speaker 2: that depth and making sure those guys are playing at
21:52
Speaker 2: a high level. So sometimes again in the spring, you're
21:55
Speaker 2: not sure you know where to give the credit or
21:57
Speaker 2: the blame, but but I thought they competed over all
22:00
Speaker 2: and got better.
22:01
Speaker 1: One of the things that's going on right now. While
22:03
Speaker 1: the players are taking a little bit of time off,
22:05
Speaker 1: the coaches, most of them are on the road right
22:08
Speaker 1: now in many cases doing some evaluation of players in person,
22:11
Speaker 1: not just meeting but also watching spring football happening in
22:14
Speaker 1: other states. So how big is this period in terms
22:17
Speaker 1: of evaluating guys before they even have a chance to
22:20
Speaker 1: get to those camps that I mentioned earlier at Ohio
22:22
Speaker 1: State that start in June.
22:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think we have to do a better job
22:27
Speaker 2: now than ever of evaluating. I think maybe in the
22:31
Speaker 2: past we've selected quite honestly, but we got to evaluate
22:35
Speaker 2: now more than ever because of the way things are structured.
22:38
Speaker 2: So this is a very important time for our staff.
22:42
Speaker 2: We've got to get out there and make sure that
22:43
Speaker 2: we're evaluating these guys at a high level to come
22:46
Speaker 2: in and play all types of different roles. You may
22:49
Speaker 2: have a guy who's coming in to make an impact
22:51
Speaker 2: day one. You may have a guy that's coming in
22:53
Speaker 2: to be a developmental guy that maybe you know, we're
22:55
Speaker 2: expecting to see on the field in year two or three.
22:58
Speaker 3: All just as important.
23:01
Speaker 2: Just like when you're in the NFL Draft and you're
23:04
Speaker 2: drafting a guy in the sixth and seventh round, you know,
23:06
Speaker 2: those are important decisions when you're bringing in undrafted free agents.
23:10
Speaker 2: So we all know that we got to hit on
23:13
Speaker 2: the first rounders, but but then you know there's all
23:15
Speaker 2: these other guys along the way, and so that's kind
23:18
Speaker 2: of how we're looking at It's becoming more and more
23:20
Speaker 2: like the NFL so evaluations are critical and we've got
23:23
Speaker 2: to make sure we're on point with that.
23:25
Speaker 1: Next up is a question. It's something we've talked about
23:27
Speaker 1: on several of our shows recently, and it's something that
23:29
Speaker 1: Tony Gerdaman asked Brian Day about earlier in the week.
23:32
Speaker 1: How are they planning to manage things with the house
23:35
Speaker 1: case still up in the air where you don't really
23:37
Speaker 1: know what's the number actually going to be. Is it
23:39
Speaker 1: going to be one hundred and five, is going to
23:40
Speaker 1: be one hundred and twenty, is it going to be
23:41
Speaker 1: something in between there? How do you manage your scholarship
23:45
Speaker 1: numbers and your roster numbers without knowing what that final
23:48
Speaker 1: number is and what is the actual number of scholarships
23:51
Speaker 1: they're planning on giving out. You can have up to
23:53
Speaker 1: one hundred and five guys, or maybe it'll be more,
23:55
Speaker 1: but you don't have to give them all scholarships that
23:58
Speaker 1: you don't have to. It's really up to each individual school.
24:00
Speaker 1: So what's the plan for Ohio State in terms of
24:03
Speaker 1: their scholarship number and how is that all being managed
24:05
Speaker 1: right now?
24:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, so we're looking at, you know, increasing it to ninety.
24:10
Speaker 2: That's you know what the conversations have been and then,
24:13
Speaker 2: like you said, you know, it's it's difficult when you know,
24:16
Speaker 2: you think it's going to be a one o five
24:18
Speaker 2: and now they're saying, maybe we won't go to one
24:19
Speaker 2: o five, but if it does, we better make sure
24:21
Speaker 2: we can pivot quickly, so.
24:23
Speaker 3: We'll operate, you know, if if it if.
24:26
Speaker 2: The one oh five cap is and put into play,
24:28
Speaker 2: we'll operate right around one twenty one one like we've been.
24:32
Speaker 2: So yeah, those those are kind of the parameters that
24:35
Speaker 2: we're working with right now, know, and we might have
24:36
Speaker 2: to pivot quickly, which I know is tough for a
24:39
Speaker 2: lot of those guys who are on the fence. So
24:41
Speaker 2: that's kind of why we want to make sure we
24:43
Speaker 2: are transparent.
24:45
Speaker 3: Again, you know.
24:46
Speaker 2: But but this is kind of the way it is
24:47
Speaker 2: in college football right now. You've got to be able
24:49
Speaker 2: to adapt quickly and move on on the run. And
24:51
Speaker 2: the easy thing to do is throw up your hands
24:52
Speaker 2: and get frustrated. But you know, we'll just adapt and
24:56
Speaker 2: try to you know, communicate well and make sure we.
24:59
Speaker 3: Have everything we need.
25:01
Speaker 1: With the addition of bo Atkinson, who we mentioned earlier,
25:03
Speaker 1: the Buck guys now have at least five guys who
25:05
Speaker 1: I think they feel pretty good about in that defensive
25:08
Speaker 1: end rotation. So how are you going to manage that?
25:11
Speaker 1: How do you manage having five guys in that kind
25:13
Speaker 1: of rotation, getting enough guys, snaps, keeping everyone fresh, keeping
25:17
Speaker 1: it you know, how are all five of those guys
25:19
Speaker 1: going to sort of coexist in those two roles.
25:21
Speaker 2: We've always done that and we've always rolled guys. I
25:25
Speaker 2: even think when I first got here in like seventeen,
25:27
Speaker 2: we had all those guys Taekwon. I mean, just you
25:30
Speaker 2: know bos, we still roll those guys. And the more
25:32
Speaker 2: we can do that, especially with the length of the season,
25:34
Speaker 2: we're going to need to do that.
25:36
Speaker 3: You know.
25:37
Speaker 2: I'm sure you know, Larry wants to be able to
25:39
Speaker 2: do that, so that'll be important. And I also think,
25:44
Speaker 2: you know, there are different, you know, skill sets of
25:46
Speaker 2: those guys that we can try to be creative, and
25:48
Speaker 2: that's one of the reasons why Matt's here is to
25:51
Speaker 2: you know, find out what they do best and then
25:53
Speaker 2: get them on the field and do that. And I
25:55
Speaker 2: think that's that's exciting as we head into the summer
25:57
Speaker 2: to figure out what that looks like. Just like on offense,
25:59
Speaker 2: you know, you try to put the guys in the
26:01
Speaker 2: right position to be successful. It's our job to do
26:03
Speaker 2: that now because numbers wise, when you look at the
26:07
Speaker 2: guys on the defensive line, I think we're now at
26:12
Speaker 2: like eighteen, so that's a big number. So we've got
26:15
Speaker 2: plenty of guys to work with. So now we've got
26:17
Speaker 2: to figure out what they can do well, and that's coaching.
26:19
Speaker 1: We start every show, but let you know how many
26:21
Speaker 1: days it is until the Texas game. And this time
26:24
Speaker 1: last year we were talking about the Akron game. That
26:26
Speaker 1: is a very different thing, opening with Texas versus opening
26:29
Speaker 1: with Akron. So how much has it change the sense
26:31
Speaker 1: of urgency for Ryan Day to start with Texas As
26:34
Speaker 1: opposed to a non power conference team like they've done
26:37
Speaker 1: in most recent years.
26:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, I had a chance when I took my son
26:40
Speaker 2: down to the Clemson and I spent all the time with Daba.
26:41
Speaker 2: Last year they were opened up with Georgia, and then
26:43
Speaker 2: we're just talking about how different that preparation is. You
26:46
Speaker 2: know that preparation for that game starts in June, and
26:49
Speaker 2: then you know it goes into July, and then you
26:51
Speaker 2: know August you're cracking pads because you've got to be
26:53
Speaker 2: ready to go in that first game. That's just how
26:56
Speaker 2: it goes. So it does certainly start the preparation earlier.
27:00
Speaker 2: Everything's you know, ramped up sooner and well you can tell.
27:05
Speaker 2: I mean, I've been talking about it now since you know,
27:07
Speaker 2: we started spring ball, you know, because you just know
27:09
Speaker 2: so especially when you have some new guys, new faces,
27:12
Speaker 2: you know, they've got to be ready and it's a
27:14
Speaker 2: job for the coaches and the leaders to make sure
27:16
Speaker 2: that that urgency is in place.
27:18
Speaker 1: Does the fact that they have Texas on the schedule
27:20
Speaker 1: on August thirtieth, that does that change the timetable that
27:23
Speaker 1: they have to pick a starting quarterback.
27:26
Speaker 2: No, because you still have to have the idea, the
27:28
Speaker 2: focus on the long term.
27:30
Speaker 3: This is a long season.
27:32
Speaker 2: But that that being said, we're going to do everything
27:33
Speaker 2: we can to make sure we have the right person
27:35
Speaker 2: in that place to go win that first game and
27:37
Speaker 2: then we'll go from there.
27:38
Speaker 1: Now, this is one of these questions where you hear
27:40
Speaker 1: the kick question and you kind of go, yeah, you're
27:42
Speaker 1: going to get the same answer you always do, but
27:44
Speaker 1: you did this is a different answer. You got a
27:46
Speaker 1: lot more detail on this one from Ryan Day than
27:49
Speaker 1: I expected. So the question was in your mind, you
27:51
Speaker 1: have a front runner at quarterback.
27:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, we'll kind of see. I felt like Lincoln
27:58
Speaker 2: going into the spring game was a little bit ahead
28:00
Speaker 2: to Julian, And then I thought, if you just watch
28:02
Speaker 2: the game, Julian probably performed a little bit better than
28:05
Speaker 2: Lincoln during the spring game. And here we are, you know,
28:08
Speaker 2: so gone back through, watch the spring practices, look at
28:11
Speaker 2: the grades. They're very similar. So we'll take it into
28:15
Speaker 2: the summer, you know, and we'll let them play. The
28:19
Speaker 2: more you play, the more these things find a way
28:21
Speaker 2: to you know, work themselves out. So who knows, who
28:25
Speaker 2: knows how it's gonna shake. I my My guess is
28:27
Speaker 2: are gonna need each other. You know, we're gonna need
28:29
Speaker 2: Tavian to come as well. He's got he's got to
28:31
Speaker 2: be able to help. It's gonna be a long season.
28:35
Speaker 2: And we're not we're not talking. We're not talking about
28:37
Speaker 2: you know, someone like Will, who's you know, a fifth
28:39
Speaker 2: year senior, who's you know, twenty two, twenty three years old,
28:43
Speaker 2: who's just been around who you know? That was a
28:45
Speaker 2: long run, he went on, you know, so we need
28:48
Speaker 2: depth in that room.
28:50
Speaker 1: And finally, this is a really good one as well.
28:52
Speaker 1: Ryan Day was asked if he believes in guys rising
28:55
Speaker 1: to the occasion in big moments. This is one of
28:58
Speaker 1: these questions that you could go and do a bunch
29:00
Speaker 1: of different ways, and Ryan Day had a really interesting
29:03
Speaker 1: answer on it.
29:04
Speaker 3: So here was that.
29:04
Speaker 2: So I did this study when I was with the Eagles,
29:09
Speaker 2: when I was with Sam Bradford, and it's called the
29:11
Speaker 2: Roy Hobbes myth, which is really interesting because he ever
29:15
Speaker 2: watched The Natural. You know, the story of the Natural
29:17
Speaker 2: is that you know, he hits his home run, breaks
29:19
Speaker 2: the lights and he's running around the bases. But the
29:22
Speaker 2: true story of Roy Hobbes, if you read it, is
29:24
Speaker 2: nothing like that. And so you know, I did a
29:27
Speaker 2: study on that because you know, for quarterbacks, you're trying
29:30
Speaker 2: to get them to rise to the occasion. But the
29:34
Speaker 2: truth is that like nobody really rises to the occasion.
29:37
Speaker 2: You really fall back on your training. When you look
29:39
Speaker 2: at you know, mister October, Reggie Jackson, and he pretty
29:46
Speaker 2: much hit his career average during those moments. When you
29:49
Speaker 2: watch Jordan or Lebron when they're in those moments, people
29:53
Speaker 2: who are clutch, they're pretty much just operating under their
29:57
Speaker 2: career average, they're not.
29:59
Speaker 3: Doing anything ordinary in those moments. Now there's the other
30:03
Speaker 3: side of it.
30:03
Speaker 2: Sometimes the moment can be too big and you can
30:06
Speaker 2: do quote unquote, you can choke, you can struggle. But
30:09
Speaker 2: if you can just sink to the level of your
30:11
Speaker 2: training and be at your career average during those moments,
30:15
Speaker 2: you're going to be better than the majority of them.
30:17
Speaker 2: And so I think, like that's what it comes down
30:21
Speaker 2: to when you're playing a quarterback, Like whatever we see
30:24
Speaker 2: in practice, if we can see that in a game,
30:26
Speaker 2: good things are going to happen. If we start to
30:28
Speaker 2: see like crazy play all of a sudden on the
30:30
Speaker 2: field that we haven't seen in practice, now there's something
30:32
Speaker 2: else going on.
30:33
Speaker 3: There's their anxiety, is there.
30:35
Speaker 2: Whatever those things are, we have to get other people
30:36
Speaker 2: involved and figure out what those things might be. So,
30:40
Speaker 2: again the long answer, but like that's it. We just
30:43
Speaker 2: want to see the same things we're seeing in practice
30:44
Speaker 2: on the field during the game. And it's our job
30:46
Speaker 2: as coaches to make practice really hard. I think the
30:49
Speaker 2: quarterbacks would tell you, like I try to make practice.
30:51
Speaker 3: Like almost brutal for them, like they miss a.
30:54
Speaker 2: Throw and like I I'm just undressing them on the
30:57
Speaker 2: field not personally, but I mean I'm hard on them
31:00
Speaker 2: because I want them to feel it, and then when
31:01
Speaker 2: they get on the field, they feel like, Okay, this
31:03
Speaker 2: is it, you know, And I think that's the sign
31:05
Speaker 2: of a good coach. So I don't know where we
31:08
Speaker 2: start with the conversation, but but yeah, I think I
31:11
Speaker 2: think Julian is in the game. You saw what we
31:15
Speaker 2: see in practice, and that's a good sign.
31:18
Speaker 1: All right, that we'll do it for today's show. But
31:20
Speaker 1: oh boy, is there a lot going on at bucke
31:23
Speaker 1: Huddle right now. We talked about it all at the
31:25
Speaker 1: top of the show, so you know, all the new
31:27
Speaker 1: characters headed to Buckeye Huddle dot com.
31:29
Speaker 3: We would love to.
31:30
Speaker 1: Have you head there as well. Mentioned we've picked up
31:33
Speaker 1: a whole bunch of new members just in the last
31:35
Speaker 1: day or so since that news broke. We're very excited.
31:38
Speaker 1: We have a we always talk about it it's very fun,
31:41
Speaker 1: drama free community, and say that about everywhere on the
31:44
Speaker 1: on the internet these days, but it is a really fun,
31:47
Speaker 1: end pretty much drama free community. We would love to
31:50
Speaker 1: have you there as a part of it. At is
31:51
Speaker 1: at Buckeye Huddle dot com. Also, if you were just
31:55
Speaker 1: joining us and following some of the folks that we
31:57
Speaker 1: just just added to the site. You should also make
32:00
Speaker 1: sure you're subscribed to our YouTube channel that's at YouTube
32:02
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32:06
Speaker 1: subscribe to our podcast as well. We do this show,
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Speaker 1: the Buckey's Tomorrow Morning Show. We do Buckeye Weekly, We
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Speaker 1: do the Skull Session recruiting podcast, we do the Big
32:14
Speaker 1: Meat Kickoff. But we have a whole bunch of other
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32:19
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Speaker 1: one of my favorite Sess shannered interviews former Ohio State players.
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32:27
Speaker 1: bonus show in one of these feeds at some point
32:29
Speaker 1: in the next couple days. That was really good interview.
32:31
Speaker 1: But we have so many great shows around the Big ten.
32:34
Speaker 1: Just search Buckeye Huddle wherever you get your podcasts, or
32:37
Speaker 1: just check them out. Check them all out at Buckeye
32:39
Speaker 1: Huddle dot com. That'll do it for today. Thank you
32:42
Speaker 1: guys all for joining us. Every great day, have a
32:44
Speaker 1: great weekend. We'll talk to John Monday