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Is Ohio State Prepared For The Challenge They'll Get From Penn State? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Welcome to buck Eyes tomorrow morning for Monday, October sixteenth. I'm your host,
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  Tom Moore. The Penn State game is in five days, the game
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  against Michigan in forty days. We're going to start our sort of gradual turn
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  from the Perdue game to the Penn State game. Today, we're going to
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  take one more little look back at that that Perdue game with the help of
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  the help of Ryan Day. He is, of course, the head coach
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  of Ohio State football. He had some interesting answers during the postgame show on
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  Saturday. I wanted to run through some of those with you because I think
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  there's some stuff to learn that maybe answer some questions about Dalan Hayden. Why
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  isn't he playing more? The new red zone package? Is Devin Brown much
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  much more? So We're going to run through a bunch of that stuff.
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  You're going to hear direct here, straight from the horse's mouth, directly from
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  Ryan Day. Let's start with the fact that, hey, for the first
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  time in several weeks, Ohio State got off to a fast start, the
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  first time they scored in the first quarter since the Western Kentucky game. But
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  they got off to a very fast start at perdue and really never looked back.
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  So how big was that for that team just to finally get a good
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  start for the first time in a while. Yeah, exactly right, you
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  know, especially you know this game this place. You know, everyone was
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  talking about some of the games that happened in the past and eighteen in particular,
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  and we all know we have a big game next week. So you
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  know, some people call it a trap games. Some people call these,
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  you know, different games. And looking at the weather about you know,
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  four or five days ago, you know, you look at it and you
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  say, kind of have visions in Northwestern last year. And so we had
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  to have a plan for that. But I talked to the team all week
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  about how if you want to be a championship team, you got to be
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  a competitive standley. You got to be a competitive excellence. You got to
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  bring it every week. And that's that's playing in the Big Ten. And
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  you know, whether it's Purdue or Northwestern or you know, Iowa or you
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  know some of the games in the past where we you know, we struggled
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  on the road in Nebraska that one year, it's it's playing on the road
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  in October November. In this conference, it's not easy, and you got
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  to bring it. And one of the big things you have to do is
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  you have to start fast on a road. You have to run the ball,
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  and you got to stop the run. And you know, there was
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  there was some really good points today. One of the big changes that we
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  saw on Saturday was the red zone package with backup quarterback Devon Brown coming in
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  running some running the ball a little bit, throwing the ball a little bit,
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  just trying some something new to try and get that short yardage and red
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  zone offense to work. And sometimes it worked. He didn't score on the
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  rushing touchdowns and sometimes it didn't where he fumbled the ball on the one yard
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  line. But what was the thought behind that in the implementation of that new
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  red zone package with Devon Brown, Well, you know, we started off
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  with the weather just looking you know, it was rain, that was wind,
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  and certainly, you know, didn't want to have the same situation that
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  happened last year and wanted to make sure that, you know, we had
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  a good plan. And Devon it is very explosive with his feet. He
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  is strong, he's big, he's powerful, he's athletic, and we feel
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  like he gives us a little bit of something there. He also throws the
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  ball really well. But but that's that's that's something that we you know,
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  we we've looked at, we've been working on a little bit, and we
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  felt like this was the right time on the road to do that. I
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  think it did give us something. It quate numbers in the red zone,
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  and but we can't turn the ball over in the one yard line. I
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  mean that, you know, in a close game, that could have been
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  the difference. So you know, Devon's doing everything for the first time,
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  just like Kyle was doing. So I'm glad we're able to do that in
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  this moment here. Get him going with that. You know, it's good.
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  He took a couple of shots, so I'm sure he'll be a sore,
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  but I thought he threw a nice ball. You know, they loaded
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  up the box and we took a shot down there to Brandon. That was
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  good to get another his belt, you know, to make that throw that
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  was that was a big time throw. So you know, we'll keep looking
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  at it, keep building his package, you know, and and you know,
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  because we do feel like it gives us a little bit of a different
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  change up. This next question sounds kind of generic. But it actually sometimes
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  you end up getting some interesting information out of it. And the question was
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  essentially just Ryan Day's assessment of the play overall and how prepared they are for
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  the challenge to the wait's next week. Yeah, so I thought the first
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  half, you know, overall, we came out strong. Certainly the fumble
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  was something that you know, we wish we had back. And then the
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  defense man it goes the wall goes down the two yard line. Is keep
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  fighting? Is keep playing with the one yard line? Yeah? So great
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  job. And then then they get the penalty and then hang in there and
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  they missed the field goal. It was like wow, And then it started
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  to rain a little bit, and second half we came out right down the
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  field and that was important. We wanted to come on the second half and
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  play well in the first drive and we did that, came right down the
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  field and scored, and then there was then there was a kind of a
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  point in there where you know, we just kind of you know, flopped
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  around a little bit. You know, I don't know if we took the
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  foot off the accelerate a little bit, but certainly don't want to do that.
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  But we have played in four quarter games this year, So I know,
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  I don't think that's an issue. You know, there's been sometimes where
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  or one time, you know, our starters hadn't have been in four quarters,
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  you know, halfway through the season. That's not the case in the
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  situation. So yeah, we just got to keep pushing and keep growing.
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  But I M feel much better about the way that we ran the ball,
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  although you know, we were down three running backs in the game, so
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  that certainly did play, you know, a factor in all this, you
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  know, and then we then ever't win in the game. You know,
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  we took Marvin out you know too, Kate out in a little bit of
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  that stretch there, so you know, it was it was, you know,
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  a job well done. But but you know, like you said,
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  there's always things we got to get better at. We're certainly a work in
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  progress, you know, and we're we're continuing to grow and build and we
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  have to be at our best football next to next Saturday. The next question
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  for Ryan Day was about the Ohio State defense and how they played, and
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  the short answer on that is pretty darn well. But Brian Day also took
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  the opportunity to talk about produced defense under new head coach Ryan Maltz a little
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  bit as well. So here's an answer. Here's both of those answers together.
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  You're talking about our defense. Yeah, because I thought their defense is
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  good too. I thought they do some really good things. I think,
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  you know, coach you know, really has a good plan and he's he
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  does a nice job. He doesn't make it easy. But but no,
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  I think, you know, it starts with our with our leaders on defense.
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  You know, there's a lot of guys who have fended a lot of
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  battles before, so you know, they they got to bring it and they
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  keep fighting and they make you know, making teams you know, get it
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  all the way, you know, all the way into the end zone.
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  You know, they're fighting down the one two yard line and continue to fight
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  like that, And that's that's a good sign. I know, coach Knowle's
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  and the defensive coaches are going to see things they want to get better at
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  and keep growing because they know the challenges are going to get bigger. And
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  so the issues are there, they're they're you know, they have to be
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  addressed on both sides of the ball three phases, and we got to keep
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  doing that. So we nowhere near where we need to be but but that's
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  that's part of growing. You know, you want to be playing your best
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  football at the end of the season. You find a way to go,
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  want to know on Saturday night, and and that's the goal. So we
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  know we got a big challenge ahead of us, and the preparation starts now
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  all season long, going back into the spring and the summer, and of
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  course the first half or so of the regular season. The offensive line has
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  been one of, if not the biggest question marks for this year's Ohio State
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  team. But Saturday against against Purdue, they were able to run the ball
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  well, even when it seemed like Perdue was looking for it and even sort
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  of stacking the box against it. So how encouraging was that for Ryan Day
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  to see the offensive line kind of moving people off the ball. Well,
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  yeah, and when when you know you're down Trey, you're down my in
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  and chips your guy and then all of a sudden you lose them in the
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  game, it's like, okay, how we're going to run the ball here?
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  So we got down in there and down started to run well. But
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  I thought, you don't have to look at the film, but it seemed
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  like we were walking off the ball pretty good, even though it was a
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  pretty loaded box at times. Again, you know, and and then then
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  it started to rain, and you know, we started getting that, and
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  then and then there was like two extra guys. You know, they were
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  there bringing the safety down real low, and so you know, it forced
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  us to kind of push the ball down the field on a couple of throws,
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  which which is fine, but but uh yeah, and then and then
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  Ever went in the game. Xavier took a couple of handoffs two coming out
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  of the you know, as a receiver, that can give us a little
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  something. But we certainly didn't have, you know, three of our running
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  backs, and that makes a big difference. So to be able to run
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  the way we did without having three of our guys was a good sign.
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  So, you know, we really got to get healthy this week. In
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  the middle of the last week, Ryan Day talked about the fact that their
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  plan for Dallan Hayden was to red shirt him and just have him play in
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  the four games he's allowed to and maintain that year of eligibility and just use
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  him if they needed him it needed to. Well, you got to Saturday,
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  you had no Travian Henderson, you had no mind Williams. Then Chipraining
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  went down, well, then they needed to use him. So Dellan Hayden
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  has used one of his games of eligibility now and he used it quite well,
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  quite efficiently. Eleven carries seventy six yards a touchdown. What does Dlan
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  Hayden bring to the offense even when he's just coming in kind of cold right
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  off the bench. Yeah, I think he's got really good feet. I
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  think he and when the ball's in his hands, that's when he's at his
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  best. And and you know he's got good vision, good quickness, and
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  but but I think to your point, it shows his mental preparation because he
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  hasn't played a bunch this year and and so be able to go do that
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  is you know, says a lot about his preparation. And you know the
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  things that we did today are things that you know, our Day one installation
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  kind of plays. Had the stretch play going, we had the counterplay going,
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  and a few other things, a couple of tosses. But but but
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  he put it on the field. He took care of the ball. That's
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  the number one thing. Certain things in protection that you know we need to
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  get better at. But but but ran the ball hard, and it was
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  good to see him step up in this moment on the road. Now,
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  that part there at the end where he talked about having to work on protection,
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  that's notable. That actually kind of answers a question that a lot of
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  people have been asking. Why isn't Dalen Hayden playing more. It seems like
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  he handles the carrying the ball portion of the running back job just fine.
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  Sounds like, you know, that is the coaching speak way of saying,
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  well, a little concerned about how he handles blitz pick up. But if
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  he can't trust him to handle blitz pick up at the level they need him
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  to, that is something that might limit the number of carries a number of
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  opportunities he gets. So it didn't quite come out and say it, but
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  you could sort of read between the lines there that that might be the issue
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  kind of holding him back a little bit. But even with that being said,
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  how does Dalan Hayden's play on Saturday change how Ryan Day looks at what
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  Dallan might be able to bring to this year's team. Yeah, I think
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  we got to look at and just see, you know what that room's looking
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  like, you know, and we'll kind of play it week to week.
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  You know, we didn't know how the season was going to play out,
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  but we wanted to at least have the choice to be able to save his
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  red shirt if possible. But you know, we'll sit down and talk.
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  If it's something that you know, we got to go play and do it's
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  best for the team, and there's opportunities to go play, then then we'll
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  go from there. And finally, let's talk about Cad Stover. For years,
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  we have kind of had a bit that it is the year of the
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  tight end, and the joke is it never actually is the year of the
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  tight end. This year, boy Kate Stover really is kind of making it
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  the year of the tight end. He was targeted four times on Saturday,
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  caught all four passes for fifty three yards a pair of touchdowns. He is
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  just he just seems like he is a difference maker on this year. Year's
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  Ohio State offense does a bunch of other stuff well for them as well.
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  What does does Cad Stover mean to this year's Ohio State offense? Well,
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  he does a lot for us. I've said it before. He does a
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  lot of the dirty work for us. You know, in the run game,
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  and then that creates play action passes. But the catch he had in
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  the one on one situation on I don't know if it was a third down
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  or second long was a heck of a throw and catch. Then he did
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  a nice job, you know, kind of you know, snatching the ball
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  quickly. On the touchdown pass, the ball was kind of thrown a little
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  bit outside of his frame and he snatched them with his hands. And then
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  and then the last one that was a play action off of a counterplay that
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  you know, when when you're running hard and the defense is showing up on
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  the line of scrimmage, you know you can get open down the field if
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  you're blocking inside and doing all the dirty work. And that's really him.
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  You know, he's a great captain, and you know he's a weapon for
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  us, both in the run game and in the past game. With the
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  perdue game in the rearview mirror and the Buckeyes now six and zero, they
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  are heading into one of the biggest games on the entire college football schedule this
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  weekend at home noon against Penn State. This is not just one of the
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  biggest games in the Ohio state schedules, not just one of the biggest games
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  on the Big Ten schedule. This is one of the biggest games in college
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  football this year, period, full stop. It should be a dynamite game.
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  Buck Guys and Nitney Lions, both unbeaten, both looking to sort of
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  give themselves a leg up in the race for the Big Ten East title and
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  the Big Ten eat Big Ten potential championship, and then of course the College
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  Football Playoff as well. A lot on the line this weekend, a lot
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  of interesting storylines that we'll be breaking down all week long at bucke huddle dot
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  com, so make sure you join us there. Have our team of insiders
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  covering the team and recruiting, ex's knows, all that good stuff. That's
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  a real fun community on our huddle board at bucke huddle dot com, so
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  join us there, and if you are not subscribed to our YouTube channel at
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  YouTube dot com slash Buckey Hudle, this would be a great time to do
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  it. We have a lot of stuff coming this week. Going to be
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  a very busy weekend Columbus as we look ahead to the Buckeyes and Nitny Lions
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  coming up on Saturday, and of course we'll have our usual postgame coverage afterwards
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  as well. It should be a lot of fun stuff this weekend. Should
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  be a really exciting game. I am very much looking forward to it.
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  I'm guessing you are too, so thank you guys all for joining us.
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  Have a great day. We'll talk to you tomorrow