Latest / Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning / How NIL & The Transfer Portal Have Changed Ohio State's High School Recruiting

Transcript

How NIL & The Transfer Portal Have Changed Ohio State's High School Recruiting · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to buck Eyes tomorrow morning for Saturday, February seventh.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: I'm your host, Tom or the ball State game in
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: two hundred and ten days, the game against Michigan in
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: two hundred and ninety four days. Our friends at Grateful Griddle,
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Columbus's favorite food truck that we're on. They are now
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: on Uber, eed, scrub Hub, and or Dash. Just search
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: for Grateful Griddle there or check out Grateful Griddle oh
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: dot com. All right, today, we are continuing our conversation ABT,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: a conversation that Ohio State Director of Personnel Mark Pantoni
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: had about his role on in the program, his role
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: in terms of high school recruiting, how high school recruiting
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: has changed the recipe that the buck Eyes are sort
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: of following right now, and a whole lot more. There's
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: been a very tumultuous time in the player personnel business,
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: but Pantoni, I think has done a very good job
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: steering the ship and keeping Ohio State sort of on
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: track to be have a pretty good twenty twenty six
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: season and beyond. Can welcome in Tony Gerderman of Buckeyehudle
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: dot com. And I thought Tony one of the most
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: interesting pieces of that is how there's been a lot
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: of change, certainly in the personnel business, but one of
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: the biggest, most dramatic changes is Pantoni's relationship to the
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: players in that recruiting process. Because of all the stuff
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: that's changed, that might be one of the single most
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: dramatic changes over the last few years.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that was really interesting because when Mark Pantoni started
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: at Ohio State in twenty twelve and before then back
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: at Florida, he was one of the first points of
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: contact for a lot of these high school players. And
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: you're writing letters, and you know, handwriting letters, it's a thing.
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: Google it and it'll explain what that means. But doing
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: that and getting to know players and building relationships with them,
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: I still remember hearing players talk about, you know, you know,
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: it's great talking with coach Pantoni. You know, it's like
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: I've talked with you know, coach Drayton and coach Pantoni
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: or whatever, and like that. He was very involved and
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: building relationships with these players, and that was when he
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: was director of Recruiting whatever title it was and now
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: is GM. He has to basically have no relationship with
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: the players because he is now very I guess, you know, emotionless,
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: You've got to take that out of that as you
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: decide how much money to allocate to this player to
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: this position. And he doesn't want to be swayed by
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: I really like this kid, I like their family, so
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: you know, why not an extra one hundred and fifty k.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: And it's like, well, you can't operate that way. So
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: it's been interesting for somebody who has always seemed so
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: personable with players and is like always talking to them,
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: texting whatever, like, and now it's like you've got this
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: wall that you've got to put up. And it's I
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: wonder what kind of adjustment that was, because I mean,
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: it's it's two completely different jobs. You know. I'm sure
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: the work address has stayed the same, but the require
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: permits are completely different.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: Now. Yeah, even the office location within the woody has
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: not changed. But his line was, he's Switzerland. Now he
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: has to be neutral on these guys. He can't have
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: a personal feeling. It has to be just business, nothing
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: personal at this point. So that is definitely quite a change.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: He was asked about sort of the change in approach
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: that some teams are taking that guys teams may be
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: taking a little bit more of a hard line with
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: some of their you know, Jeremiah Smith, Jeremiah Smith, but
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: some of the guys who are a level or two
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: down from Jeremiah Smith, you may be taking a little
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: bit of a different approach. And that's not just an
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: Ohio State thing, but that kind of folds in with
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: what the recipe for a recruiting class maybe looks like
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: right now, where before it was just I mean, when
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: Mark Pantoni was working with Urban Meyer at Florida, they
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: stacked some of the greatest classes in the history of
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: any recruiting service, and it was just five stars upon
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: five stars upon five stars. That's not necessarily exactly how
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: you have to do it now.
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's different because you know, I think in
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: twenty ten at Florida, maybe the highest ranked recruiting class
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: of all time. I think maybe at a seven or
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: eight five star guys and that's great, you go do that. Now,
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: how many of them are sticking with you for a
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: second year if they're not playing, and how much of
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: that those resources would have been wasted and how much
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: of the money would have been wasted. So you have
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: to think about that and you still go after your
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: five stars, but you can't build your entire recruiting class
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: out of them. One you can't afford it, basically, and
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: two the more you bring in and don't play, then again,
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: like I said, those are lost. So you have to
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: just just know now that as they put it, you're
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: still going to go after your your first round draft picks,
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: but the bulk of the class is going to be
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: Day two guys, your second and third round draft picks,
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: where it's still very good, maybe some more development than
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: the just right away Day one type of starter, and
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: those are rarities anyway. And then the back half of
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: the class would be your later around draft picks. You're
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: undrafted guys, guys that are willing to be developed and
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: will take some time. And now what they brought in
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: what class of twenty eight, I think in twenty five
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: and maybe in twenty twenty six it went more than that,
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: but maybe dialing back maybe down the road the size
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: of the recruiting class because of a more of a
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: more of a focus on the transfer portal. Still the
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: most focused on recruiting high school recruiting, but big classes
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: maybe going away.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: And one thing that's kind of fun about this is
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: we're talking about all this stuff that's new and I've
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: never seen it before. There is a little bit of
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: a back to the future kind of thing going on
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: with where they're doing some recruiting, because you went from
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: in the if you go through the rosters of what
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: he Hayes and Earl Bruce and all that it is,
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: they barely bothered putting the state on most of the
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: names because it was like, well, obviously, all these kids
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: are from Ohio. And then John Cooper showed up and
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: he took more of a national approach and you brought
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: in a bunch of really talented players and that went great,
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: and Jim Tressel and Evern Meyer and all that stuff.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: But now it's not going quite back to the Woody
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: and Earl days, but it does feel like there is
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: a renewed focus, maybe at least to the Jim Tressel
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: sort of level of focusing closer to home.
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: Well, and we've talked about this. We've been doing this
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: show for this is what our ninth or tenth year,
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: and seemed like every year there'd be a topic of
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: some some point, maybe around February or December signing day,
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: and does Ohio State needs to sign more Ohio State,
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: more Ohio guys, because there have been years where I
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: just looked up at random yere twenty seventeen, which was
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: a great Texas class, there were six Ohio guys in there,
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: and you know, a bunch of talented Texans. But in
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: twenty twenty six eleven guys. And that's that's probably pushing
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: some Jim Trussel numbers in terms of how many Ohioans
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: in twenty twenty five and twenty twenty four just eight
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: Ohio guys. But now, in this world where you got
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: to do whatever you can to keep players around without overpaying,
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: the lure of staying home and playing for the hometown
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: the home state, Ohio State Buckeyes is something that they
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: can sell. It's just a matter of players buying it.
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: And we've talked about this in the past. It's, you know,
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: the idea of taking the best Ohio quarterback every year,
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: you know, the best high school Ohio quarterback every year,
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: just because they're more likely to stick around. And so
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: they're probably applying the approach that we suggest that they have.
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: They're applying that approach in a more broad manner across
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: the board.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: And one thing that is kind of interesting is it
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: used to be you finished second for a recruit and
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: it didn't matter. You could finish second, you could have
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: finished seventh, you could have finished thirty seventh, It didn't
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: matter if you're not first or last. That also is
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: changed a little bit over the course of the last
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: few years, where the relationships built in recruiting, even if
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: they don't work out first, you know, the first time through.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: Sometimes you get Caleb downs on the rebound.
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: And Julian's saying and you know Antoine Jackson, you know
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: a few years ago. So yeah, finishing second is not bad,
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: especially when I don't know what the persentage is. Is
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: it forty percent players transfer? Now? So like Tom, you
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: do the math. If you finish second for somebody that's
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: forty percent likely to transfer, what are the chances that
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: that person is actually eventually part of your teams at
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: seventeen percent. I don't know all of the math. There
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: do some Steiner math on that one, if you can, Tom,
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: but there's there. There is a lot of worth to
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: it and fighting down the stretch and if you lose
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: out because of cash, you know, that's just the way
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: it is. But pretty decent chance, like there's it's not
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: unheard of that somebody's gonna end up back in the
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: portal and boom, You've already got the connection, you know
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: about them, You've vetted them, I think is another big key.
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: All of these people that you finished second for, you've
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: vetted and so that saves some time as well, and
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: you can maybe waste not waste as much time with
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: players like that because you already know them and know
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: what the parents and all of that stuff.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a little like basketball where if you if
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: you follow your own shot because you know, hey, I
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: missed that right, I missed that short, I missed that long,
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: and you have a pretty good idea where the rebound
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: is going. You can kind of crash, uh, you know,
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: crash the crash the goal if you're a hockey player,
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: crash the glass if you're a basketball player, and and
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: try and cash in that rebound. So there you go.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: In a little bit of an update on Ohio State recruiting,
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: just thought that was a really really interesting conversation. You
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: can find that on THEE the WOGE podcast. It's called
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: The Pro A really really interesting conversation with Mark Pantoni.
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: But there you know, the update on Ohio State recruiting,
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: Ohio State Transfer Portal, all that kind of stuff. We'll
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: have much more coming up for you in the coming
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: days and weeks as we count down to the start
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: of spring practice on March tenth, and then of course
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: the Ohio State Spring Game on April eighteenth. Can have
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: a lot to talk about all month long at bucke
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: huddle dot com and at YouTube dot com slash Bucky Huddle.
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: That'll do it for today. Thank you guys all for
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: joining us. Have a great day. We'll talk to you tomorrow.