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Ohio State Football Recruiting: 4 Players Who Could Be Buckeyes Soon · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Welcome to Buckeyes tomorrow morning for Tuesday, March twenty sixth, I'm your host,
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  Tom or the Akron game in one hundred and fifty eight days, the
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  game against Michigan in two hundred and forty nine days. It has already been
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  quite a busy March at bucke Huddle dot Com. Got plenty of basketball talk
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  since we recorded the last show. The women's hockey team won the National Championship.
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  Congratulations Dunadine Masarol and her whole team. The men's basketball team going to
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  play in Round three of the NIT a little later on tonight against Georgia at
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  the Shottenstein Center at seven o'clock. Will be there for that one, and
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  of course, yes spring football going on as well. Over the weekend,
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  the Buckeyes held a scrimmage at the Woody Hayes Athletics Center. Media wasn't available
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  there or it wasn't allowed there, fans weren't allowed there. Don't worry,
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  I don't worry. We've got you covered. At buckey Huddle dot com,
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  Kevin and I did a show yesterday with four players to watch coming out of
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  that position, groups to watch coming out of that game out of that scrimmage,
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  and then after we dropped that, Mark Kivler came in from the rafters
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  sixteen sixteen different notes on players, position groups, things he's learned. Incredible,
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  incredible stuff that is all on the huddleboard presented by Jeff Ruby, Steakhouse
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  member exclusive at Puckey Huddle dot com. So it would be a good time
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  to sign up if you have not already signed up. Bringing Mark in now,
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  we're going to share just one more of those things. We'd like to
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  save a lot of this stuff for our members, but Mark, I'm going
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  to have to insist the lovely people out in podcast land. I'm sure one
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  a little more. That video got a lot of attention yesterday. So we're
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  going to have you give one more piece of information that you got out at
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  that list of sixteen different pieces of information. Let people know something else that
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  they should know other than what Kevin and I have talked about in yesterday's show.
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  Yeah, I think the interesting thing about this spring is that there seems
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  to be just from the reports we've gotten from our sources and the limited viewings
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  we've had, there seems to be a balance to this team early on that
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  there hasn't been in recent years. I mean, last spring was completely dominated
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  by the defense. Every practice we went to, it was hard for the
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  offense, even going to pass off it was that bad at times. And
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  you know years before that CJ. Stroud in the offense, we're kind of
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  dominating the spring scrimmages. And that's a little alarming because usually the defense is
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  ahead of the offense in the spring. I mean, it's just the offense
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  takes time to install the chemistry everything else. And so we've had these lopsided
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  springs the last four or five years, and we've seen that play out on
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  the field. It ended up kind of foreshadowing what we saw on the field,
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  where last year the defense for the most part, was significantly better than
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  the offense, and then in previous years before that, the offense was much
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  better than the defense, and it was more of a thing where it was
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  kind of showing us where the weak points were on the roster. So,
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  you know, obviously last year was it was the offensive line, and you
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  know, they took a step back at quarterback obviously from Stroud and Fields and
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  those guys, And we were able to see that on the field in the
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  fall and previous years have foreshadowed how kind of had the defense was going to
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  be this year. The battles are super competitive. We'll get reports that,
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  you know, whether it's an offensive lineman or the defensive line having great battles,
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  or the receivers in the corners. The competition that this spring is legitimate
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  for the first time I think in probably at least five years where we're not
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  hearing these just oh, the defense just overwhelms the offense or the defense can't
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  stop the offense. We're getting really balanced reports, and I think that's encouraging.
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  Yeah, it does feel like when you go back and look at how
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  those previous years have played out and the years the offense was way ahead of
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  the defense. You probably remember those Ohio State defenses and the years that when
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  the defense was way ahead of the offense. Last spring you heard Ryan Day
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  talk with the serious, open concern about the offensive line last spring. They
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  ended up going into the portal and getting Josh Simmons and that certainly helped,
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  but it was still not a great Ohio State offensive line this year. For
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  as good as this defensive defense should be with all the guys they've got back,
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  plus the addition if Caleb downs at safety for the offense to be hanging
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  with them and maybe playing even with them. Boy, that feels like that's
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  pretty encouraging for Ohio State and Ohio State fans. We will be talking about
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  that much more on the Huddle Board presented by Jeff Ruby Steakhouse all at buckey
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  huddle dot com. We hope to see you there. That is a great
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  place for you to support us the work we do and also be part of
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  a really fun and active area, very eventful Buckeye community there online. So
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  all right, so now on to the meat and potatoes of today's show.
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  We're going to talk. When we have Mark on, we're generally talking recruiting.
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  We're to be talking recruiting here today. This is not necessarily four guys
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  who are on commitment watch for Ohio State, but it is for guys who
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  I think safe to say probably Mark has a close eye on in terms of
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  top prospects nationally, who could have Ohio State right at the top of their
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  list right now. So let's start Mark with the guy who is announcing soonest.
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  It is Tarvo's Alfred Colp one hundred linebacker out of Vero Beach, Florida.
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  He's actually announcing on the thirtieth, So a little later on this week.
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  What are you hearing about Tarvo's Alford right now? The Ohio State had
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  him on campus over the weekend a few days ago, and I think they're
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  in great shape that for that March thirtieth announcement. That's not going to stop
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  the Florida's and Florida States and Miami's and everybody else in the world from continuing
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  a pursuit if he does commit to a High State on the thirtieth. But
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  I like where O High State stands to get that commitment on the thirtieth.
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  He's been up several times. The relationship are very good. As I mentioned
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  on previous shows here on the channel, the retention of James Laura Nidas and
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  kind of making him the permanent linebackers coach. I think was going to play
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  very heavily here. And so that's a guy that I think, again,
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  if you're asking me, I think is going to commit to Ohio State on
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  the thirtieth and be their next big name commitment in this class. All right,
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  So that's an imminent one. We'll find out if Marcus right or not
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  about that in just a couple of days. Now guys are maybe a little
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  further out and other you know, there have been concerns about recruits pulling out
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  of Florida and getting guys actually stick with their commitments out of Florida. Winton
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  drama around there generally not quite as much drama for guys from the state of
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  Ohio. Guys from Winton Woods generally have done a pretty good job meeting to
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  Ohio State, sticking with that commitment and then turning into pretty good football players
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  over the years. But have the next one in Justin Hill. He is
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  a twenty twenty five edge rusher out of wint Woods High School down in Cincinnati
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  and Mark this is another one where this is I mean, this is a
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  top national player. He's ranked as the twelfth edge in the country, one
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  hundred and nineteenth and the two four to seven composite overall. Right now,
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  so this is a very very very highly ranked player. What are you hearing
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  about Justin Hill in the Buckeyes. I think those rankings are too low,
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  by the way. I think he's a top fifty national player. And I
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  think actually one site, actually I think I don't know, I don't know
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  which one. It was I can't remember now, but someone actually did put
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  him the top fifty finally, So this is a guy who I think is
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  just a must get for them. I spent some time with him about two
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  weeks ago, maybe down in Cincinnati, and he came back up for a
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  visit last week, so they are full court press there. It's looking like
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  a July decision for him. I would expect him to get back up to
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  Ohio State maybe at some point to spring again and then again for an official
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  in June. But both him and his mom have birthdays in July, so
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  he's like going back and forth. I think between those two dates early ones,
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  early July ones late July. But love where Ohio State's at right now.
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  I think Oregon is the school that has made the biggest impression on him
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  among the other contenders. But at the end of the day, you know
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  what Jermaine Matthews is doing right now, and just his his efforts on the
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  field, combined with his relationships with those guys that went in Woods and coming
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  back to the high school all the time, and between that and just Hill's
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  relationship with James Laura Nitis. Again, we've talked about this with Alford.
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  Laura nightis being retained here, I think is big in this one. That's
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  been as kind of as primary recruiter because they're recruiting him for that jack position
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  and not as like a pure hand of the dirt defensive ends. So yeah,
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  I think they're in great shape for him. They've prioritized him, he's
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  he's an elite edge rusher, and I think everything has moved even more in
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  their direction here in the last month or two, and you are correct on
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  three has him now as the forty ninth player in the entire class. So
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  yeah, so you may you may be ahead of the head of the game
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  there on some of the national sites in terms of the where Justin Hill's recruiting
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  ranking may end up. So all right, we have talked about in Alfred
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  here, we have talked about the importance of retaining coaches, so that will
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  make a real smooth transition to the running back room. Where Ohio State did
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  not retain Tony Alford as the running backs coach. Then they have a running
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  back coming in in about a week or so, Bo Jackson, another in
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  state recruit, someone that you and I have seen at camps, and seven
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  on seven several times over the last couple of years. Where where are things
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  with bo Jackson and how much did the Tony Alfred departure maybe impact things there.
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  This is the one I think is most interesting to watch in terms of
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  maybe positive for Ohio State. Look, Tony Alfred's departure will be something Ohio
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  State will overcome long term. It's not going to be a thing that just
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  decimates them long term. But it has kind of thrown running back recruiting into
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  a little bit of chaos here the last few weeks, and so, you
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  know, moving forward, it's gonna kind of interesting to watch which direction things
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  move. Do they do they prioritize some different targets, do they you know,
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  do they lose out on some guys? Do you guys pick up steam
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  with them? I think bo Jackson will maybe could pick up steam. Look,
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  I know Ryan Day really likes bo Jackson. Was Bo Jackson at the
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  top of Tony Alfred's board? Probably not? Uh So, I think this
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  gets very interesting on the thirtieth and with uncertainty now, not that not that
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  there was certainty I guess before with Jordan Davison and Byron Lewis and those guys,
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  but there's even more uncertainty there. Now you're really I think rolling the
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  dice, kind of putting all the eggs in those baskets. At this point,
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  I could see Ohio State really pushing for bo Jackson on the thirtieth,
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  assuming he makes it down, and I think that becomes a very interesting player
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  to watch in the running backs rotation of the revolving door of running back recruits.
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  And you know, I think people are hearing you talk about some of
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  the national guys and well, you know, maybe you make get the in
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  state guy, and oh is he a fallback plan? Bo Jackson currently in
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  the two four to seven Composite rated two spots ahead of Jordan Davison as a
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  running back. And you know this is this is someone who is He's what
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  nine spots ahead of Byron Lewis, So you know this is this is not
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  a plan B fallback guy. Great player, great player? Yeah, and
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  he is. We saw him play in a in a seven on seven camp
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  and playing on defense and covering some like really good, really good receivers and
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  looking really impressive by just a very impressive player overall, another very impressive player.
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  Twenty twenty five tight end Nate Roberts. He's coming out of Oklahoma.
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  That is not a place Ohio State has pulled a ton of guys. I
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  think Josh Procter was probably the most recent Oklahoma native to play for the buck
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  Eyes. And you know they have a little bit of a battle with the
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  in state Sooners the land Nate Roberts as a tight end. Where are things
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  trending right now for Ohio State? Yeah, so Nate's down to five schools.
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  Obviously, I think Ohio State and Oklahoma or the two to watch.
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  I know Oregon's kind of, you know, making a push there, but
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  I think this will be ultimately Ohio State or Oklahoma. Roberts has been up
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  to campus a couple times. I think he's coming back from spring game.
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  I got to check the check our check our viseral list. I did it
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  all runs together. I'm pretty sure he's on the pretty sure he's on the
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  spring game visitoral list for the buck guys. That's a that's a decision I
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  could see coming next couple months. I mean, look, the hot zone
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  here is going to be mid June to the end of July. That's going
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  to be the commitment hot zone. That's when we're going to see maybe six,
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  seven, eight nine kids commit to Ohio State and maybe some guys commit
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  elsewhere that they're targeting right now. I mean, we're going to see a
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  flurry of commitments at that point in the calendar. I could maybe see Roberts
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  being on the early end of that. I suspect he'll be back in June
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  for I suspect he'll do a round official visits in June. I think he's
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  going to be doing that with it's five. So we'll see if Ohio State
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  can get them off of that with the spring game visit. But I like
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  the way they're trending. Oklahoma was very slick. They got his brother in
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  the transfer portal from Baylor. I think that's given him maybe a little extra
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  something to think about. But I don't think that's something that's concerning Ohio State
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  too much at this point, so that'll be something to watch. I do
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  think Oklahoma can still make a push there, But I like where Ohio State's
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  at right now, like what I'm here and there all right, So could
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  have some recruit news on the recruiting front a little later on this week.
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  Could have a bunch of news on the recruiting front at least for visits and
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  stuff coming up in a couple weeks for that spring game, and then,
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  as Mark said, potentially a flurry of action with official visits and potential commitments
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  coming up June July. There's a whole bunch going on right now with Ohio
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  State football, and there's a whole bunch going on right now at Buckey Huddle
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  dot com. As I said at the beginning of the show, you want
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  the real inside information on what's going on inside spring practice, Well, Mark,
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  Mark brought the goods this week. You want to check that out.
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  it for today. Thank you guys all for joining us. Have a great
• 14:05
  day. We'll talk to you tomorrow.