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How The Ohio State Quarterback Battle Could Impact The 2025 Buckeyes Team · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Buckeyes tomorrow morning. From Monday May twelfth, I'm
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  Speaker 1: your host, Tom Moore. The Texas game in one hundred
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  Speaker 1: hundred and one days. If you're planning your next event,
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  Speaker 1: catering today at Grateful Griddle, oh dot com. Right, we're
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  Speaker 1: talking about the Ohio State quarterback battle. But we've talked
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  Speaker 1: about this in a bunch of different ways over the
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  Speaker 1: course of the year, and some of it has been
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  Speaker 1: you know who's leading right now, who gives them a
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  Speaker 1: chance to do certain things on offense. This one, this
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  Speaker 1: is more of a sort of a soft factor. Look
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  Speaker 1: at what does it mean to have the quarterback battle
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  Speaker 1: go into the fall and where is it potentially going
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  Speaker 1: to be harmful, where is it potentially going to be beneficial,
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  Speaker 1: where's it going to be not make a difference at all?
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  Speaker 1: So we're gonna be doing that at all with a
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  Speaker 1: buddy Tony Gurnaman at Buckahaddle dot com. Tony, it's not
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  Speaker 1: you know, this is not a new thing for an
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  Speaker 1: Ohiostak quarterback battle to go into the fall. Frankly, it is.
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  Speaker 1: It would have been a new thing to have the
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  Speaker 1: quarterback battle all coming out of the spring, but you know,
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  Speaker 1: based on what Ryan Day said coming out of the
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  Speaker 1: spring and just a couple of weeks ago, it feels
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  Speaker 1: like this one, this one is a little bit of
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  Speaker 1: a horse race where it's been going back and forth
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  Speaker 1: a little bit and they really are genuinely unsure on
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  Speaker 1: who's going to be the starter in game one.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, kind of like the Devin Brown Kyle McCord thing
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  Speaker 2: from twenty twenty three that lasted, frankly until what the
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  Speaker 2: second or third game of the season, when Ryan Day
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  Speaker 2: is finally like, yeah, okay, Kyle McCords are starting quarterback officially.
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  Speaker 2: And this one, I don't know that it's going to
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  Speaker 2: go that far. I don't think he cared for having
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  Speaker 2: it go that far. And it was interesting last year
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  Speaker 2: when it was Will Howard and Devin Brown that he
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  Speaker 2: announced it pretty early on in fall camp and it's
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  Speaker 2: just like, yeah, Will Howard has shown it, so he's
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  Speaker 2: Ryan Day is kinda whenever I think he finally knows
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  Speaker 2: in fall camp that's when it'll be. But yes, it's Tom.
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  Speaker 2: I don't expect it to be named in July like
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  Speaker 2: a Big ten, Big ten media days in Las Vegas.
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  Speaker 2: Ryan da will be just up there doing his fifteen minutes.
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  Speaker 2: And by the way, based on what I saw this
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  Speaker 2: summer in workouts and waits, yes, we are going to
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  Speaker 2: name Blah blah for the started quarterback.
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  Speaker 1: So then the question becomes, where is this going to
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  Speaker 1: have an impact on the team if that if that
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  Speaker 1: quarterback battle remains undecided into the second, third, even fourth
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  Speaker 1: week of ball camp or potentially beyond, I don't I
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  Speaker 1: think the uh toal McCord Devin Brown thing a couple
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  Speaker 1: of years ago opening at Indiana pre Kurt Signetti Indiana
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  Speaker 1: was one thing. Opening with Texas, you do not really
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  Speaker 1: have the luxury of like, ah, we'll figure it out.
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  Speaker 1: Like That's that's kind of a different a little bit
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  Speaker 1: of a different challenge this year. So whenever that gets decided,
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  Speaker 1: what kind of an impact is that going to have?
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  Speaker 1: And there I think there are four different areas where
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  Speaker 1: I think the longer the quarterback battle drags out, it
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  Speaker 1: could potentially have an impact. The first one is just reps.
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  Speaker 1: Just the number one guy working with the number one
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  Speaker 1: offensive lineman and I'm you know, working against the number
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  Speaker 1: one defense. Potentially, it's real beneficial to get as many
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  Speaker 1: of those reps as you can. And while they've done
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  Speaker 1: i think a really good job of splitting those up
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  Speaker 1: over the course of the spring and finding ways to
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  Speaker 1: get multiple guys on the field and all that, you're
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  Speaker 1: still losing something by not having a number one guy
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  Speaker 1: in place and just being able to have this is
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  Speaker 1: the guy and he you know, this is him getting
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  Speaker 1: all of those reps during the spring and the summer
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  Speaker 1: in the fall.
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  Speaker 2: You know, it's an interesting point because you've got guys splitting.
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  Speaker 2: As you said, sometimes you're the one, sometimes you're the two.
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  Speaker 2: But the entire time, it's not just the quarterbacks that
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  Speaker 2: are going through the quarterback battles. Everybody else going through
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  Speaker 2: the quarterback battle as well, and they have to be
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  Speaker 2: part of it. And it's like, you know, the receivers
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  Speaker 2: would probably just let's keep going, like let's and the
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  Speaker 2: offensive line like, let's just have our guy and go
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  Speaker 2: so that we can get ready and just build on
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  Speaker 2: being a cohesive offensive line and a cohesive offensive unit.
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  Speaker 2: But it's like instead, everybody has to take this journey
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  Speaker 2: along with the quarterbacks and they have to be part
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  Speaker 2: of it. And so yeah, I think it impacts and
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  Speaker 2: tom it even impacts the defense, Like I'm sure the
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  Speaker 2: defense would love to see the best version of the offense,
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  Speaker 2: and you don't know what that is until you know
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  Speaker 2: who the starter is. So I think everybody just has
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  Speaker 2: to kind of put up with it and go along
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  Speaker 2: with it because it's the most important position in sports.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's why you have to get it right.
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  Speaker 1: But also Ryan Day talked towards the end of Springer,
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  Speaker 1: maybe right after Spring about how you you have so
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  Speaker 1: few chances to play as a quarterback and so few
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  Speaker 1: chances to play as any kind of football player. But
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  Speaker 1: in terms of the quarterback and reading the defenses and
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  Speaker 1: all that kind of stuff, you play, you know, in
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  Speaker 1: high school you're playing about eleven twelve games a season
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  Speaker 1: something like that. He talked about basketball players getting to
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  Speaker 1: play five six games a weekend. Soccer players can play
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  Speaker 1: four or five games a weekend. Football players are playing
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  Speaker 1: maybe a dozen ish games over the course of the year.
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  Speaker 1: Those practice reps are precious as well, and getting to
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  Speaker 1: you know, in this case, we're looking at a lot
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  Speaker 1: of stuff like just reading the reading the defenses going against,
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  Speaker 1: you know, recognizing coverages, getting into the right calls, all
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  Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. Those reps you're splitting, you're still
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  Speaker 1: splitting those up, so you're losing opportunities there. Sort of
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  Speaker 1: related and you sort of talked about it there a
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  Speaker 1: little bit. With the wide receivers. Is just the chemistry.
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  Speaker 1: We talk about this all time with quarterbacks and wide receivers,
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  Speaker 1: where so much of the stuff is timing, so much
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  Speaker 1: of the stuff, and it's real fine minute detail stuff.
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  Speaker 1: If you don't know who the number one quarterback is,
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  Speaker 1: you're probably working with the number one and the number
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  Speaker 1: two guy quite a bit, and you don't have quite
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  Speaker 1: as much opportunity to just sort of build up those
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  Speaker 1: numbers they have. You know, what was the old like
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  Speaker 1: Paris Campbell was at ten thousand catches and an off
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  Speaker 1: season something like that, you know, back in the Paris
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  Speaker 1: Campbell Terry McLaurin kind of days. In the Ohio State
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  Speaker 1: Wide Receiver room right now, the meter is not spinning
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  Speaker 1: quite as fast in terms of working with specific quarterbacks
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  Speaker 1: and specific wide receivers to build up that chemistry.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know that's a lot of what the
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  Speaker 2: summer is for as well. And quarterbacks organize those things
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  Speaker 2: and you get the group text and like, hey, who
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  Speaker 2: wants to go throw? Who wants to go do this?
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  Speaker 2: Because you know time we see the receivers all the
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  Speaker 2: time that are out there with the monarch machine getting
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  Speaker 2: what they can. But that's different than working with the
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  Speaker 2: quarterbacks and even working in the summer and throwing. And
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  Speaker 2: we saw quarterbacks and receivers I think out in California
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  Speaker 2: this past week doing things and that's all great, and
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  Speaker 2: that's still you want to do that, but you also
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  Speaker 2: still need to do it in practice, and then practice
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  Speaker 2: you need to do it in games. So there's just
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  Speaker 2: this gradual leveling of building that camaraderie and that cohesiveness
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  Speaker 2: and just the understanding of I know where everybody's going
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  Speaker 2: to be, I know, and receivers knowing where the throwers
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  Speaker 2: are going to be in terms of what kind of throws.
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  Speaker 2: At least both of these guys are right handed, tom
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  Speaker 2: at least you don't have to deal with the talk
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  Speaker 2: about the minutia, the different you know, the rotation and
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  Speaker 2: things like that, so at least they have that, but
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  Speaker 2: you know they are they are just college They are
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  Speaker 2: college kids, and we know college kids, you know a
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  Speaker 2: lot of things just blow off of them. But still,
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  Speaker 2: like you've got to it's a it's a new thing
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  Speaker 2: every time, it's a different quarterback, and so the sooner
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  Speaker 2: they can find that one guy, the better. But also
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  Speaker 2: Ryan Days said, you know, we're not going to rush
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  Speaker 2: it just because Texas is on the horizon. You got
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  Speaker 2: to get the right guy, and it's not just a
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  Speaker 2: decision for Texas, it's a decision for the rest of
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  Speaker 2: the season.
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  Speaker 1: The third thing that they wanted to talk about is
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  Speaker 1: one of those things that I think people may just
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  Speaker 1: kind of roll their eyes at, but that's leadership. And man,
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  Speaker 1: oh man, do we sure hear the coaches talk about
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  Speaker 1: the importance of leadership And we hear Brian Day talk
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  Speaker 1: about leadership in terms of the quarterback battle and establishing
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  Speaker 1: guys as leaders. And you know that quarterback has to
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  Speaker 1: be a leader on the team, but until that quarterback
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  Speaker 1: is officially the starter, I don't know how easy it
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  Speaker 1: is to really truly be a leader on the team.
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  Speaker 1: And then if you know one of them is, and
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  Speaker 1: then he doesn't end up winning the job. Okay, then
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  Speaker 1: what so it feels like there's you know, I don't
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  Speaker 1: know that people are going to view this as important
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  Speaker 1: as getting reps against the defense and all that kind
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  Speaker 1: of stuff, but just internally on the team, that feels
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  Speaker 1: like a big deal to not know who your starting
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  Speaker 1: quarterback is, just from a leadership perspective.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, And it was like when Will Howard came in,
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  Speaker 2: he made it a point so you get to know everybody.
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  Speaker 2: That's part of being a leader that you know, there's
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  Speaker 2: nothing going on in practice, he's making sure he knows
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  Speaker 2: everybody in the weight room and you know, just in
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  Speaker 2: workouts and volunteer voluntary throwing sessions and things like that,
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  Speaker 2: just getting to know people. We always ask quarterbacks that
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  Speaker 2: are like asking Julian san or Lincoln Keenholes back in
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  Speaker 2: the winter, back in the ball games, like can you
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  Speaker 2: can you lead without being a starting quarterback? You know,
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  Speaker 2: how do you do that? And you know they're always like,
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  Speaker 2: of course, of course you can lead. You can do
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  Speaker 2: different things, whether it's not necessarily scout team but leading
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  Speaker 2: your classes. James Lauriniis we talked about some of the
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  Speaker 2: stuff he said in the spring, be the leader of
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  Speaker 2: your class, and we know they're both in separate classes,
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  Speaker 2: So be that leader. But then also it's the idea
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  Speaker 2: of knowing that you can be relied on in third
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  Speaker 2: and two down at the goal line. That was something
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  Speaker 2: that Lincolnkeenholds said this spring, like, that's the one thing
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  Speaker 2: you want to show your team. However you do it,
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  Speaker 2: do it, show it in all facets, Julian sand said,
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  Speaker 2: first one in last one to leave that sort of
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  Speaker 2: thing where that's where the leadership where you want to
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  Speaker 2: show that you can be relied on in all situations
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  Speaker 2: and that you can come through in the clutch and
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  Speaker 2: make the play, and you can do so much in
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  Speaker 2: so much of that in practice in the football facility,
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  Speaker 2: but really it still comes down to the games. Executing
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  Speaker 2: in the games. Well, Howard was able to do that
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  Speaker 2: here and there, but that's just it's a very tough
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  Speaker 2: ask to be that leader and doesn't come natural for
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  Speaker 2: young guys. And both of these quarterbacks are relatively young.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, relatively young. Not a lot of reps as we
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  Speaker 1: talked about earlier, both in practice and on in on
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  Speaker 1: games and you know, just in the locker room as well.
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  Speaker 1: In terms of that leadership role. So yeah, so that's
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  Speaker 1: definitely definitely the third area, the fourth one. This is
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  Speaker 1: one that I wrote down then I thought, well, this
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  Speaker 1: isn't really as big a deal now this is this
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  Speaker 1: is kind of a thing of the past where this
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  Speaker 1: is one area where you probably in previous years this
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  Speaker 1: would have been right at the top of the list,
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  Speaker 1: and that's just sort of roster management and keeping guys,
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  Speaker 1: keeping guys playing keeping not losing someone to the transfer portal.
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  Speaker 1: You have seen in the last couple of years with
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  Speaker 1: the implementation of those transfer windows. This used to be
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  Speaker 1: a boy you want to keep. You want to keep
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  Speaker 1: the quarterback battle going way into fall camp so that
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  Speaker 1: then it's too late for someone to transferring, you don't
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  Speaker 1: lose anyone. This is maybe kind of I mean, we
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  Speaker 1: have seen players walk away from teams before the season,
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  Speaker 1: even in the middle of the season without actually being
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  Speaker 1: able to go on the portal. But it does feel
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  Speaker 1: like the dynamic on this has changed quite a bit
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  Speaker 1: where this is maybe now almost an afterthought rather than
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  Speaker 1: being maybe even one of the primary concerns.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a legitimate afterthought. As you're bringing up it's like, well,
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  Speaker 2: I wouldn't expect that and the other thing is, now
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  Speaker 2: you're telling your players, we are preparing for a sixteen
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  Speaker 2: or seventeen game season and we're going to need both
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  Speaker 2: quarterbacks just so you know, and Tavian, make sure you're
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  Speaker 2: paying attention because we're probably going to need you at
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  Speaker 2: some point for something as well. So this is a
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  Speaker 2: situation where, yeah, there's going to be a starter and
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  Speaker 2: there's going to be a backup. But we saw Devin
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  Speaker 2: Brown have important snaps last year, the touchdown passed to
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  Speaker 2: Jeremiah Smith on a third and short or something like that.
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  Speaker 2: So they all have to be on alert. And that's
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  Speaker 2: what the competitive excellence that Ryan Day talks about, of
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  Speaker 2: being able to be called upon at any moment. So
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  Speaker 2: I yeah, sure, both guys want to win a job,
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  Speaker 2: but I still think both guys will be convinced and
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  Speaker 2: will be told and the coach is absolutely believe the
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  Speaker 2: backup is going to have to make some plays at
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  Speaker 2: some point this season for sure.
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  Speaker 1: Yea, you were talking about the Devin Brown play to
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  Speaker 1: Jeremiah Smith, that one hended catch against Michigan State on
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  Speaker 1: the road, and Brown, you got to remember Bill Howard
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  Speaker 1: went down in that Michigan game and he was able
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  Speaker 1: to come back in, but you could have had a
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  Speaker 1: Devon Brown getting thrown into the Michigan game in the
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  Speaker 1: first half situation. So yeah, that backup quarterback always just
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  Speaker 1: one play away from being the starter and being in
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  Speaker 1: charge of rather a significant season, which it certainly will
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  Speaker 1: be this fall in Columbus, Ohio as the Buckeyes look
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  Speaker 1: to defend their twenty twenty four at national championship. Should
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  Speaker 1: be a really fun season. It starts with that Texas game,
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  Speaker 1: as I mentioned at the beginning of the show. Regular
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  Speaker 1: season ends with Michigan, another big one. We just talked
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  Speaker 1: about this on last Friday show, But man, it is
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  Speaker 1: going to be a really, really fun season in Columbus.
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  Speaker 1: Is also a very busy recruiting season in Columbus right now.
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  Speaker 1: Buck Guy's getting have some potential commitments coming this month,
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  Speaker 1: have a bunch of visits, official visits starting in less
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  Speaker 1: than a month. Season starts in less than a month,
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  Speaker 1: and then about just over two months, we will be
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  Speaker 1: headed out to Las Vegas for Big Ten media days
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: and the unofficial start of the twenty twenty five college
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  Speaker 1: football season. We would love to have you along for
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  Speaker 1: every step of the journey with us at bucke huddle
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  Speaker 1: dot com as our Tony, Kevin and I cover the team.
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  Speaker 1: We got Mark, we got Burm, we got Andrew covering recruiting.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: We got our whole team of ex's nose gurus there
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: as well, all to make you a smarter football fan.
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  Speaker 1: All at bucke huddle dot com. We hope to see
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: you there. That'll do it for today. Thank you guys
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  Speaker 1: all for joining us. Have a great day. We'll talk
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  Speaker 1: to you tomorrow.