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BREAKING: Michigan Football Hires Ohio State Running Backs Coach Tony Alford · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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Welcome to a very very very special live episode of Bucks Tomorrow Morning for Thursday,
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March fourteenth. I'm your host Tom Moore. The Akron game in one
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hundred and seventy days, the game against Michigan in two hundred and sixty one
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days, and today's show is all about which sideline one man might be standing
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on for that game against Michigan in two hundred and sixty one days. A
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report out of Football Scoop saying that o'hius State running backs coach Tony Alfred could
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be on his way to join the Michigan Wolverines to replace Mike Hart as their
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running backs coach. I'm joined right now by Tony Gerdamant Bucke Havele dot Com.
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Tony, I guess let's start with this is not a done deal.
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The Football Scoop report just says, you know, if they can agree to
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terms, all that kind of stuff. But to me, as soon as
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this report comes out, Tony Alford kind of becomes a man without a country
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until he has a new job with Michigan. I can't fathom having this report
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come out and then Tony Alford, you know, pulling the George Costanza and
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walking back into the Woody Hayes tomorrow if they can't reach a deal with Michigan,
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Like oh oh oh you thought I was serious? Oh no, no,
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no, no, please. Yeah. You know, coaches will use
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their agents all the time to uh maybe get an extension or get a bump
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in terms of, you know, using leverage another school as leverage. Using
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Michigan as leverage against Ohio State is doesn't feel like leverage to me. That's
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just it feels like somebody ready for a change. But like you said,
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it's not done yet as far as we know right now. But boy,
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there's a bunch of things that go into this. Obviously, the timing is
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odd. The move from between Ohio State and Michigan, if it happens,
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is not unprecedented, but these are kind of unprecedented times with what's going on
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at Michigan, So it would be and Ohio State frankly, so it's it
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would definitely be a surprise. It's not a surprise. It wouldn't be a
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surprise. If Tony Alford left for somewhere, wouldn't have been a surprise.
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But Michigan isn't somewhere. Yeah, exactly what are you saying Michigan's nobody because
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that someone has said that before and it didn't work out great for them.
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Uh, just just kidding everyone, just kidding. Uh, you know the
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Football Scoop report. I'm just gonna read it. You know how people love
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when I read the read stuff on this show. Tony Tony Alford is the
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quote. The is the target to join his current employer's biggest rival. Football
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Scoop has learned a deal could be reached as early as today if the parties
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come to an agreement, sources shared. They go on to talk about the
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fact that vacancy stems from the recent exitive Mike Hart, a former Michigan star
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tailback who was not welcomed back to the program as more transition to his role
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at the Helm. You know, this is, you know, the Mike
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Hart thing. You know, broadly speaking, a lot of the reports from
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the Michigan side around the Mike Hart thing center around the fact that Mike Hart
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was not, you know, was not really seriously considered for the head coaching
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job he thought he probably should have, was not really seriously considered for the
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offensive coordinator position he thought he should have, And that was sort of the
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the general trend behind the exit. You know, I think people may look
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at the Tony Alfred side of this and go, you know, you don't
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have to look that hard at the Ohio State roster for twenty twenty five or
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twenty twenty four, the Michigan roster for twenty twenty four and say, why
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on earth would you leave Ohio State for Michigan when Ohio State is broadly considered
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one of, if not the favorite, for the national championship and Michigan seems
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like they may be poised for a little bit of a step back after their
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own national championship season last year. Tony, what the heck? Well,
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how many position coaches stay at the same school for ten years and that's that
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this is This would be Tony Alfred's tenth year. And it's a rarity.
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And so at some point if you want to you know, it's a thing
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where you've got to if you want to take that next step, you have
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to take a different step. And if you want to go be a coordinator,
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because right now at Ohio State, he might be in terms of the
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the designated survivor of coordinators, you know, he might. He's he's certainly
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behind Chip Kelly Brian Harlane is the co offensive coordinator. Justin Fry has had
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offensive coordinator experience at this point, So maybe this is an opportunity to move
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and then just begin, not begin, but continue on your quest for something
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more than just being a running backs coach. And there's nothing wrong with being
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a running his back running backs coach because from all accounts talking to all of
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the running backs we have over the years, they all love Tony Alford and
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and still love him and consider him a father figure. And he talks.
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The way he interacts with his players is the way a father interacts with his
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son. You know, he's playful, he can be strict, he can
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you know, have some digs at them, playful digs, and they all
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get along and they'll they'll do it to each other, and there's a bunch
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of give and take there. But ten years at one place, the same
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position, and you know he's had his assistant head coaching or associate head coach
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of the offense, you know, those kinds of additional titles. But I
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think at sometimes at some point you come to a realization or you come to
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a place where you need something more, you need something different. If you
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want something more. And you know he's got high school kids in the here
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I believe is his oldest son maybe or youngest son maybe maybe graduating this year.
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So like there is you know it might be that time. Yeah,
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his his uh, I know one of his kids is I think looking at
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Butler or committed to Butler or signed with Butler, who is a high school
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football player as well. So yeah, if you when you get to the
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point where your kids are out of high school, that may be the time
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you make a move. There was also some you know, there was a
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lot of scuttle but around, you know, coaching changes and who's going to
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stay and who's going to go. Over the course of the weeks after the
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Cotton Bowl loss to Missouri and Ohio State ended up turning over a couple of
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spots on their coaching staff and turning over one of them more than once.
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But you know, Tony Alford's name was one that you sort of heard as
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like, you know, they're kind of looking at him. There were you
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know, Brian Hartline was coming back, Tim Walton was coming back, Perry
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Aliano and Corey Dennis and special teams guy Parker Fleming. There we go.
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Parker Fleming all ended up, all ended up leaving Tony Alfred sounded like,
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you know, if you were going to put him into the camp of absolutely
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safe or like at least, you know, having a conversation. He was
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in the at least having a conversation side of things. And I think some
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of that stemmed from the recruiting at the running back room. They've they have
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missed on a couple guys and they've had a couple of late flips the last
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couple of years. And I think that's, you know, that's at least
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part of that conversation. And ultimately they ended up keeping him. But you
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know, if you if it's if you're at least having that conversation, then
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you know, sometimes we have seen coaches just go somewhere else to go get
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a fresh start. This this may also be a little bit of a like,
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hey, maybe just go get a fresh start in a new contract.
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Yeah, and it's if Ryan Day wasn't entirely sure or was even thinking is
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it time to make a move. There's some writing on the wall there maybe
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for both sides. And when you look at Tony Alfred's time, I believe
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he has coached four running backs in this time at Ohio State that have been
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drafted in the NFL. Two of them were signed before he got here.
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One was Trey Sermon and the other is JK. Dobbins, So like in
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his nine years, and you've got to backdate this, so like in his
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first six years, the only running back he's recruited that has been drafted is
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JK Dobbins. Now next year that's going to change with Travon Henderson. But
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the amount of draft picks and he's he's recruited, and you mentioned the recruiting
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being an issue in some aspects, you would kind of expect more, but
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like I said, the number will be larger next year. And getting quinch
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Own Jenkins out of the portal, that's a pretty good get. Getting Trey
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Sermon out of the portal is a very good get. Eventually. That was
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a crazy season though in twenty twenty. But the recruiting aspect of it I
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think could have could be better, and that has been an issue over the
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years. And also nothing it's his fault, but keeping guys healthy, but
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also having a third guy that can come in because they have not had that
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depth, and depth is harder to come by nowadays. With the portal,
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but even before the portal at what maybe it was twenty sixteen when they just
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had like Mike Weber and JK. Dobbins and a little bit of Antonio Williams,
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I think, And that's you know, even in twenty fourteen, twenty
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fifteen, they didn't quite have the depth. Mike Weber was hurt in twenty
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fifteen, but overall the depth has fluctuated, and that goes back to the
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running backs coach and not having enough guys ready. But yeah, I don't
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want to put too much on it due to the injuries. You know,
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that's just some guys just can't stay healthy and sometimes you have some turf,
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bad luck, whatever. But yeah, strange days. Indeed, Sue says,
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a lot of our fans are saying, Day should fire Alfred for even
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taking this interview, FYI, And then and then I said that kind of
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off the top of the show. It feels like at some you know,
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there are certain you know, if you're if you're looking, and it's like,
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hey, I might go take the running backs coach job at Alabama,
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or I might go take the running backs coach job at you know, even
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another conference school. Hey I might go to USC like that. That I
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think is one thing. I think there is a certain, you know,
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crossing the rubicon thing here. If you're familiar with either that phrase or that
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old historical story, you know, if you if what at some point that
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the if you were thinking about taking a job at Michigan and you're an Ohio
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state person or vice versa, that is probably a crossing the rubicon thing in
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a way that even another Big ten school or another national power might not be.
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As soon as this story came out, it was kind of like,
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okay, so this is even if it's not a done deal, it feels
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like you you have probably your key card might not work, your thumbprint might
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not work on the doors at the Woody Hayes anymore. As soon as this
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story comes out, we'll see whether, you know, we'll see where this
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goes. It's not official yet. Mike Free, you know, says he
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should probably be fire for even talking to Michigan this late spring practice has already
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started. Simply unacceptable. I am O, and you know, Tony,
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we just saw this. The head coach at Georgia State just left his program
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to go take the running backs coach role at South Carolina and you know he's
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in That was another case where the guy had been there for a few years.
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It was kind of like it wasn't really working. And you know that
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that running back to coach position at South Carolina had been opened for a while.
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So you know, it's a little crappy to leave your team in the
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middle of your in the middle of spring practice. But you know, I
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guess, I guess the question is that Mike Hart will not be back.
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Thing only only came out like a week ago. Was that last week?
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Maybe, so some of the timing maybe on Michigan's end, And you know,
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if if this was if this conversation was happening on January thirteenth instead of
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March thirteenth, you know, yeah, that makes a difference. But this
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is kind of the calendar is just sort of getting stretched and pushed in ways
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that it has not in the past. Yeah, and you go back to
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Urban Meyer's first staff with Bill Sheridan as a cornerbacks coach, and he left
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for the NFL in like February, and it was like whoa, or it
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was like right before spring spring practice, and it's like this is unheard of,
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But I don't recall ever covering a team where a coach leaves in spring
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ball. We've seen I've seen it in August, but I've never never experienced
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it in the middle of camp. Now they are on spring break right now,
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but the timing is on. But yeah, the way this whole thing
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fluctuates with all of the dominoes of coaching, and this is a separate domino
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at Michigan with Jim Harbaugh taking his time and then the whole Sharon More thing
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and figuring out what he wants to do there, and things move at their
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own pace, and these things can move slowly, but it is it's really
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really surprising that you would come to this point and would be like, you
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know what, let's talk, Let's take a look, let's think about this,
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because I think if if you wanted to leave, you you could have
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left, like Tony Alfred could have left after the season. To think that
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this is the offer that he was waiting for, I think is another off
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putting things for fans and certainly for perhaps Ryan Day as well. And yeah,
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like I if he stays and the next time we talk to him,
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obviously it's like, Hey, what's going on with the Michigan thing, and
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it will become like this Greg Ciano Tennessee thing, where he add, now's
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not the time to talk about Tennessee. It's like, now's not the time
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to talk about Michigan. And I don't think it can just be let go.
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There needs to be some crystal clear clarification on this, not just obviously
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for the media, but for Ryan Day as well. Uh No, the
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super jet for Mike Farino hasn't heart not been seen with the team since the
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National Championship Game. Might not have been public, but it certainly seemed that
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he was out. You know, this is something that I think I had
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at least heard some rumblings about that. I'm guessing you have heard some rumblings
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about that. I'm guessing Kevin Newton, who joins US now, may have
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heard some rumblings about that that. You know, the Mike Hart departure was
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not It did not come just out of thin air, Kevin. I mean,
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this is something that has sort of been reported for a while, but
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it also didn't get announced publicly until last week. And sometimes that's you know,
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you're sort of work figuring out if you can bring the person back.
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Sometimes that's giving them an opportunity to sort of have a fig leaf of oh,
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you know the old Ed warrener. Yeah, I'm voluntarily leaving the offensive
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coordinator position at Ohio State for the offensive line coach position at Minnesota. Right,
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There's there's a lot to it, and certainly anybody who was following the
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situation, it just did not sound like Mike Hart was going to be part
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of the plans moving forward. How how far are we removed where Mike Hart
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was supposed to be the next Michigan head coach. I mean, and Charon
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Moore comes in and has his success and as I just said on a on
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a on an episode, a big me kickoff that I just put up there,
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Uh you know, you you have this success. But remember we nobody
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knows what Sharon Moore is going to be. He was he was the on
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field coach. Jim Harbaugh was there the remainder of the week putting all the
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game plans together and everything else. It just, uh, you know,
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with with Mike Hart, it just seemed that that burn that they burned that
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bridge a little bit, and I think it was just best for all right,
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that's all, that's all. Calm down, Let's all think this through
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a little bit. Nope, we still hate each other. All right,
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Let's let's go on with it, all right, And now it is as
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official as it gets without actually being official. We had felt like as soon
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as the first report came out, like, okay, that's not something gets
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floated without it being basically done. Pete Fammel of ESPN now reporting sources.
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Ohio State running back coach Tony Alfred is expected to be the next running backs
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coach at Michigan. He's informed OSU officials that he's leaving. Football Scoop first
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reported him as a target, So there you go. It's not official,
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but it's pretty darn official. So you know this is Here's a question from
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Sue that's interesting. Could this move be related to Alfred feeling like he's losing
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control of the run game with Chip Kelly coming in smithballing here. I mean,
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that's it's interesting. I don't get the sense, Tony that that's probably
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the primary driving factor here. But you know, if you are the running
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backs coach and you had a certain say in the run game, and now
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you're bringing in a guy who's known and you know, respected by Ryan Day
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for his impact on the running game, in particular, it seems like you
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are probably going to lose a little bit of your impact there. Yeah,
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I mentioned earlier the riding on the wall. Chip Kelly may have came in
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and highlighted that riding as well, and with more guys coming in having more
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say and Tony al for prehaps losing some of that say, Yeah, I
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think that I think those things may be pretty related. Because we were also
16:07
told as that Bill O'Brien and Chip Kelly were both gonna be able to take
16:11
a look at the offensive staff and see what they thought of it and if
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they wanted to make change. You are the offensive coordinator, so we will
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have this conversation. And not that Ohio State is getting rid of Tony Alfred,
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but Alfred may have seen that this might be his last year at Ohio
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State because last year was almost his last year at Ohio State. So I
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think, like we said earlier, it kind of just resets his clock.
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Maybe get some a co offensive coordinator bump. At Michigan, I think right
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now they just they're their quarterbacks coach Kirk Campbell is their offensive coordinator. I
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don't see anybody else in terms of a COOC there because they've got a relatively
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young staff in terms of the offensive line and running and not running backs anymore
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with my cart, but receivers, so that may also be an opportunity for
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him to get a cord job. But the the lateness of it is really
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just out and I wonder this couldn't have been easy to tell the players.
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And it's as I said, the players are very very close with him,
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and and this is this is going to be tough for them to take.
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The players themselves, on one hand, they're going to be sad to lose
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him, but are they angry that he's that that this is the place they're
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losing him to, So maybe that makes it easier to take the fact that
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he's going to the enemy. Well, and you got to remember it,
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this is spring break week for Ohio States and none of the players are there,
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so this is not a conversation that's going to happen in person. That
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this is probably a tech story phone call or something like that, which you
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know can be what timing is a lot of is talk about the fact that
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they really much For example, I really wanted to talk to his players face
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to face, and he left c LA explain the wall the This is not
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something he can probably face to face because those guys are probably out doing the
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stuff that you do on spring break when we're in color Kid and sitting around
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the Woody Hayes most likely at least both. So you know you won't have
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that as far as you know what happens next. And it feels like it
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sort of a race between the two you guys to throw something into group text
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when has this happened? And you both throw the same Tony threw it at
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first, so I'm going to start him. Tony Odyssea says, bring home
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Eddie George as running backs coach. I would I would love to see that
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for for him for Ohio State, although Penn State I believe is offering him
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a job as the linebackers coach. I tend to get a stake there,
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Tom, that's that's a that's a that's a pretty good deep cut there.
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Yes, yes, Joe paterno one of George as a linebacker. Just just
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an FYI, but you know he is I believe fifteen and eighteen at Tennessee
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State in three years. Uh. And so that then becomes an issue.
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Does he want to reset his clock? And you know you're gonna make the
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call. You may have already made the call. Frankly, this could have
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been done a while ago. In terms of just feelers. That's one name
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they're getting be plenty. I saw somebody on our board or maybe on Twitter
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just saying like, what are we gonna do now? It's like, well,
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Ohios State just lost a position coach to Michigan. Ohio State can go
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take somebody else's position coach. It's March. It doesn't matter time, the
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calendar no longer matters anymore to anybody. You just go grab somebody, because,
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as we always say, whenever there's a job opening at Ohio State,
19:30
the applications are going to comply. In In yeah, the applications are going
19:34
to be everyone in the country outside of a few select places are going to
19:41
be. You know, you're probably lining up to take the Ohio State running
19:42
backs coach job because it is a relatively easy place to recruit, and you're
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working with a ton of talent on a very talented offense and are headed into
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a season where you're one of the favorites for a national championship. The pays
19:53
generally pretty good. You know, Eddie George is moving from the head coaching
19:56
job hypothetically at Tennessee State. I think I saw he makes four hundred and
20:00
sixty eight thousand dollars a year there. Even the special teams coach at Ohio
20:03
State made more than that last year. So you'd be looking at probably a
20:07
pay bump, which is not necessarily doesn't necessarily matter for someone like Eddie George.
20:10
But yeah, there are plenty of you know, I know Scottie Graham
20:12
is a running backs coach. He just jumped from former Ohios date running back
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jumped from Arizona to Washington this cycle. I know Pepe Pearson was on Eddie
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George's staff at one point to Tennessee State. I don't think he's there anymore.
20:25
But you know, there are a lot of interesting names. You know,
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Eddie, Eddie. You know, they jump from a head coaching position
20:32
to a position coach position. This has happened. This is this is something
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that is sort of almost a trend in some ways. And if you have
20:38
been at a place for a couple of years like Eddie George has and have
20:41
not had immediate success, and you know, maybe maybe the clock is ticking
20:45
there I have you know, I'm not going to pretend to have great sources
20:48
on Tennessee State football and the views on the coaching staff there at this point.
20:52
But you know, if you feel like you've been somewhere a couple of
20:55
years and the hill's a little steeper than you might have thought, go reset
21:00
that clock and go be the running backs coach somewhere. He would certainly be
21:03
a name on the recruiting trail. I know, this is an easy trap
21:07
to fall into, to just say, well, go get the you know,
21:08
famous former player who played this position at your school. Sometimes that works,
21:14
you know, sometimes that's Tim Walton and Brian Hartline. And sometimes it's
21:17
not. And it you know that it's not as automatic Kevin. It's that
21:21
that's not an automatic success. Sometimes it's a home run, sometimes it's not.
21:26
You know, Eddie George at least has the history in coaching that would
21:29
make you think he's interested enough in this that he's made it something of a
21:33
post playing career, so you know, maybe he's a better fit there than
21:36
the average bear. Well. The thing to remember too is you have a
21:40
couple of positions on your staff that are your designated recruiters, and running back
21:45
coach is one of those positions. So having somebody who is as charismatic as
21:52
Eddie, and I mean, let's let's remember this. That a bunch of
21:55
us, you know, forty and fifty year old dudes. You know,
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we have our memories of Eddie, the kids he be out recruiting, but
22:00
have no idea who the hell he is. Okay, mister George, Okay,
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coach George. I don't, I I don't. You know, we
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don't have any standard deaf footage of you, you know, going for three
22:10
plus against Illinois or whatever. But uh, you know, I think Eddie
22:14
would be my first call. And again I said that on my show as
22:18
I bounced from one show to the other and I and people are already giving
22:21
me grief. They're like, your show is dated. I'm like, I
22:22
know, but I had to do it. We are seeing the trend of
22:29
coaches moving, you know, allegedly taking a step down, at least in
22:33
terms of responsibilities. You know, whether or not at you're Chip Kelly and
22:37
you're you know, further along in your coaching career and you just want to
22:41
be happy again or whether or not you're any because I've seen guys who have
22:45
gone in and done fcs football and then maybe step back into a role in
22:51
FBS football, because do you sometimes get lost, you know, coaching there
22:56
in the in the Hbcuh maybe, And you know, I think at some
23:02
points you have guys too that are like, well, everything that I've accomplished,
23:07
I mean, so much of it is because of this place. I
23:10
want to go there and step in and do this. So I think it
23:15
makes a ton of sense. I never want to sit there and say that
23:18
all this is as close to a can't miss if it were to happen,
23:22
but it sure feels like it should work. Tom. Before we spend twenty
23:26
minutes on this super chat, I have a suggestion. There is a currently
23:30
a head coach at UCLA by the name of Deshaun Foster, fantastic former running
23:37
back, UCLA running backs coach for years under Chip Kelly. There is precedent
23:41
of Ohio State going and grabbing UCLA's head coach as a position coach. We
23:45
know that Ohio State likes to dabble in the familiar places. I'm just gonna
23:51
say, go and get Deshaun Foster, make him say no. You know,
23:55
there's the old bit that Ryan Day has the opportunity to do the funniest
23:59
possible thing here, and I'm not sure I had thought all along that the
24:02
funniest possible thing would be to hire Mike Hart and have Mike Hart win a
24:04
national championship with Ohio State, but Deshaun Foster winning in at you know,
24:10
hiring DeShawn hiring the second sitting UCLA head coach away in. I mean,
24:15
that's certainly like the flex that's the power moves there. I'm not expecting it,
24:18
but that is that is certainly the power move. Someone said that Pepe
24:22
is still at Tennessee State. He's actually Tarleton State in Texas. Now he's
24:26
not at Tennessee State. So the state I believe isn't ross by Org's oldest
24:30
going to Tarleton State. Yes he is. Yes, So if ross Biorca,
24:34
if we see the Ohio State private plane fly down to Tarleton, Texas,
24:38
it can only mean one of two things, college visit or new running
24:41
backs coach. We will continue to monitor flight aware and bring you any breaking
24:47
updates. What if you takes the Ohio State plane to visit his son,
24:51
but it makes it look like a coaching interview. Yeah, I mean,
24:55
I think I don't know what could possibly go wrong. I can't I can't
24:57
wait to start flight tracking position coaches like we haven't had a good old fashioned
25:02
head coaching search in a long time. I'm looking forward to an Ohio state
25:07
head coaching search, even a position coaching search in the flight tracking era.
25:11
I can't wait. Speaking of things, I can't wait for, Jordan Kapler
25:14
joins us, Jordan always so good to see it. In the chat,
25:17
he says, how could Tom do this to us? I don't know which
25:21
one of you wants to take how this is actually my fault? Well,
25:26
I think one of the reasons Tom could do this to us is because he's
25:29
a bad person and he enjoys hurting Ohio State fans. I think we all
25:33
know that he is a known hater. He is a great a pessimist and
25:40
just enjoys he revels in the misery of Ohio State fans. I think as
25:44
everybody knows. And that's just one of the reasons that Tom did this.
25:48
Kevin, any other reasons Tom is Eric Cartman and Jordan Kapler and Buckeye Nation
25:55
are Oh God, the kid? I mean this is I know I had
26:00
it up there, Tony talked too long or whatever, Scott Todd, Scott
26:06
Scott Tennerman, and and he is sustained by the tears of Scott Tennerman after
26:11
well he makes it silly. So so basically you are worse than Cartman Row
26:19
Kevin is Kenny what happens to him? Well, I'll guess we'll find out
26:22
later in the episode. Anyway, they're not doing that anymore. They ran
26:26
out of it that. Uh. Melo says, thanks for going live,
26:30
needed the chat, I was going crazy yet is an interesting uh, definitely
26:33
an interesting move here. Eric Montoya says, I'm wondering what Tony Alford was
26:38
making here at Ohio State because we may be able to pay Eddie more even
26:41
though he was the head coach at Tennessee State. I said earlier, I
26:44
think I saw that Eddie George is making four hundred and sixty eight thousand dollars
26:48
at Tennessee State. I don't know if that's the all encompassing number. If
26:51
there's a you know, there's sometimes there's a shoe money or media appearances or
26:56
whatever that bumps the base salary up. So I don't know if that's the
26:57
base salary or the kind of the ol incomeing number. But either way,
27:00
he's not making a million bucks a year down at Tennessee State, Tony.
27:04
Do you know what Tony Alfred was making last year? Seven hundred and seventy
27:08
two thousand dollars and this yes, so this is this would be a bump.
27:15
Yeah, And I would expect maybe a bump for Alfred too. He
27:18
might be a seven figure guy now as a position coach and maybe perhaps a
27:22
co offensive coordinator. So the interesting part of this, other than all the
27:26
stuff we've already talked about, the interesting part of this is, Okay,
27:29
now you have a guy jumping from Ohio State to Michigan in the middle of
27:33
spring practice. Ohio State brought on a Michigan walk on Joey Velasquez, he
27:37
was a player at a scholarship player at Michigan walking on as a linebacker at
27:41
Ohio States. You have someone kind of going the other way earlier this year,
27:45
and at the time I think we all thought, boy, that's that's
27:48
an interesting move to make, given where this rivalry is and maybe even the
27:52
most heated time of this rivalry over the last century in what has been a
27:56
century of very heated rivalry. So now you have a guy going from the
28:02
coaching staff at one to the coaching staff at the other. You know,
28:07
just to start with, well, he knows what the first pieces of the
28:11
spring the spring install is. I guess who says Michigan boars are saying Alfred
28:17
is leaving because the ncdadly is dropping the hammer on us. Omg irony is
28:21
dead. Tony mods be the one saying this bull craft? Please want those
28:26
mods o whe there be the one saying this bull craft? Tony. How
28:32
much of this do you think has to do with private Eyes in New Hampshire?
28:36
First of all, yeah, all of it or more than that,
28:38
No, at least eighty percent. Once you know, nobody likes to be
28:42
monitored, and I'm assuming the New Hampshire private Eyes probably monitoring everybody. And
28:48
so though I don't know why you would leave for Michigan, if you're trying
28:52
to get away from the monitors of the day, private detective agency, I
28:57
think get away from Michigan, then you get away from the private eyes.
29:02
Move to Michigan, you're just going to be under the private eyes. Private
29:07
eyes, in the words of an old song, are watching you. So
29:11
in terms of the on field impact this year, I mean I guess,
29:15
you know, I don't know how much I really think, you know,
29:18
Tony Alfred is going to turn you know, Michigan's running backs into you know,
29:23
nine yards per carry running backs or anything like that. I think it's
29:27
interesting though, to look at Okay, they've started installed, they've started,
29:30
you know, Chip Kelly has brought his playbook in all that kind of stuff.
29:33
Tony Alfred has seen all of this stuff. I'd love to talk to
29:37
Ross cross by Ork Ross Fulton, to ross yorke about it as well.
29:41
Probably have a better chance of having Ross Fulton on the show later this week,
29:45
but to talk about to talk about, you know, how much does
29:47
this matter? How much have they brought in at this point? How much
29:48
have they shown at this point? It feels like you've probably you've been there
29:52
a while. You've probably sort of you know, been to the fair and
29:55
seen the bear, as Kevin likes to say. So you know how big
29:59
an impact does that potentially have? That? Okay, now you've got to
30:02
you've spent your only two practices in so you haven't done a whole heck of
30:04
a lot of install But you know, how much how much does that needs
30:07
to change now now that you have a guy who's going to Michigan because Tony,
30:11
can you imagine Michigan having inside information about Ohio State football going into an
30:18
Ohio State Michigan game. Let me jump in quick. Will Ohio State finally
30:21
change its signals? Well, Ohio State finally change its signals? I know
30:26
we're getting the green dot or whatever, but you're still gonna have to have
30:29
signals. I guess wouldn't this be the case of finally saying, hey,
30:33
maybe we should completely refresh all of this and that way you know, it's
30:40
it's it's it's off the table. Yeah. I think, in fact,
30:45
no longer, don't don't even go with hand signals anywhere, go with leg
30:47
signals. Just change everything about it, even change the body parts that you
30:51
use. Uh. In terms of the logistical aspect of this, I believe
30:56
it's Riley Larkin, who helps with the running backs, who's like the graduate
31:02
assistant, not necessarily graduate assistant, but the program assistant and has been with
31:07
Alfred in practice. So I guess he becomes the the new position coach maybe
31:12
until they get this all figured out. And boy, I wonder how quickly
31:17
they have to move on this, just you know, it is still still
31:21
just spring. But you you bring in somebody new, they're they're learning the
31:27
offense as the players are. The timing of it is terrible. And but
31:34
you also like you've got you've got recruiting going on, you've got official visits
31:38
coming up, Like you can't just chill and be like, well, let's
31:41
just get through spring. And then, as Ryan Day says, we'll lift
31:44
up, we'll get our heads above water at that point and see what's going
31:48
on. You got to get this guy in. You've got to get him
31:51
learning the offense. You've got to get him knowing the players, you've got
31:52
to get him knowing the recruits. So this is it's never great to lose
32:00
a coach, but this is just really bad timing. And then, as
32:01
you said, like with the with the practice aspect of it, it's it's
32:05
completely different, and you know they can still operate, but the new guy,
32:13
whoever that's going to be, has to come in and I don't know,
32:15
maybe just run like sixth in the reps as as he's trying to learn
32:19
everything and just spending a ton of time with with players after practice as well,
32:24
going over things. And still better now than August of course, and
32:30
so, but yeah, it's not ideal and just the logistical part creates some
32:36
issues, not aside from the Michigan Ohio State thing, right, Yeah,
32:40
mikahnnon wants to know. Does Ohio State lose the new signers that would be
32:44
James People's and Samuel Williams Dixon or Dallan Hayden. I don't. I mean,
32:49
this is not This is not the kind of thing that opens up a
32:52
thirty day transfer portal window. So this was this would have to happen after
32:55
spring. That's only a head coach leaving opens up that thirty day an instant
33:00
transfer portal window, not a position coach, so there would have to happen
33:04
after spring. I don't think this impacts any of those guys directly. You
33:10
know, if if you lose someone, it's probably not based solely on Tony
33:15
Alford is the only human being on earth I want to play running back for
33:20
If someone leaves and immediately goes to Michigan, sure I will I will say,
33:23
okay, that was because of Tony Alford. I don't really see that
33:28
happening. I think there's plenty of opportunity. The stuff that you know,
33:30
the stuff that brought Sam Williams stickson to Ohio State. I think is not
33:34
really related to Tony Elford. So you know, we'll we'll, we'll see
33:37
how that goes. But I'm not anticipating that's ah, you know, that's
33:43
anything that would is anything to be too imminently worried about. M zuel says
33:46
did he get fired? Kevin and I jump in really quick with that was
33:51
talking about those You obviously, as a player don't want to see your position
33:58
coach move on, but could you sit there make an argument that you know,
34:00
for Dallan Hayden, this is a chance for him to get in front
34:05
of a position coach who maybe calls his number a little bit more. For
34:08
whatever reason, he was not getting in in the last couple of years,
34:12
even though the small glimpses we saw were of a pretty impressive back. And
34:17
again that's you know, I'm not trying to whistle through the graveyard or anything
34:22
here, but I mean, it's just one way of looking at things.
34:27
I do also think nowadays players being professional and doing things for money and doing
34:35
things and making business decisions. When we talk to players, they talk about
34:38
this is a business now and when players under the portal. How many times
34:43
have we heard buck guys this this last past year say they had, you
34:47
know, my call, had to do it was best for him. They
34:51
understand that the business aspect of things better than they ever have. So a
34:54
move like this, it's like, well, you know, you got to
34:57
do it's best for you. So I don't necessarily. I think it takes
35:00
some of the emotion out of it. And if the emotion is out of
35:02
it, then the desire to leave, like you are still in the same
35:07
situation you thought was best for you more. You know, obviously you come
35:12
for a coach and that coach leaves, but you're still in that same situation.
35:15
So the opportunities are still there. Everything you came in terms of bettering
35:21
yourself is still there. So I don't. And if they lose somebody,
35:25
they lose somebody, But I don't see that happening, and like I said,
35:31
it can't happen until spring anyway. So that's another reason why you've got
35:34
to get somebody in here, just to reforge these relationships or forged the relationships.
35:40
Yeah, and you know, in terms of the playing time, you
35:44
know not you know, if Dllan Hayden feels like he's not getting enough playing
35:46
time. The guy who makes the decision on which running back is playing and
35:51
when is the running backs coach Tony Alfred talked about that a bunch over the
35:53
course of his time at Ohio State and had a pretty memorable quote where he
35:59
kind of whip his head around when when he was asked, you know,
36:01
how do you keep all these guys happy? And he kind of whipped his
36:04
head around, what would you ask me? How did you ask that?
36:06
You know? And basically said, you know, it's their job to keep
36:08
me happy. He's the one who's delineating playing time. So if you're not
36:12
happy with your playing time and you're playing, you know position coach leaves,
36:15
that might actually make it more likely you stay at a place rather than leave.
36:20
Wingman Ted likes Kevin's new glasses. I always punch up. Wingman Ted
36:22
comments just because he has the classic classic hungover Rob Gronkowski slash probably not hungover
36:30
Jeff Swoboda picture from recruiting Days of your one of my all time favorites.
36:37
As far as how relevant Eddie George is, I didn't think about this one.
36:39
John Moore says, the kids see Eddie and the Doctor Pepper Heisman House
36:44
commercials. I think there's a Nissan Heisman House commercials, not Doctor Pepper.
36:47
But was he in was he in a Doctor Pepper commercial as well? He
36:52
might have been in one of those Fansville commercials at one point he was he
36:55
gets an acting Bayo. I'm well, that's true. I'm always thinking of
37:01
Scott Bayo. If I'm not thinking of Buddy Ames, I'm thinking of Scott.
37:06
Sorry, Willy Ames, who played Buddy runback. Sorry, little I
37:09
was for someone who spends as much of his time thinking about Charles in charges
37:14
of me. That was a really, really embarrassing Freudian slip. That's my
37:16
bad. Sorry, the restraining order against you again, that's Willie Aimes,
37:23
not Nicole Eggert. You know so. And this is wing Man's head.
37:29
In terms of Hayden, was it Alfred or daykeeping off the field? I
37:30
think Alfred controlled who went in, so I doubt he'd follow someone actively blocking.
37:35
Maybe chip Kelly said to play more. I don't think you know chip
37:37
Kelly's opinion on Dallan Hayden. I doubt Chip Kelly has a very strong opinion
37:42
on Dllan Hayden after two practices. But if he does. I doubt you
37:45
know that that's not gonna be the driving force behind this kind of decision.
37:49
I think we talked off the top of the show about the fact that,
37:52
you know, there was some conversation around Tony Alfred's job security following last season,
37:55
and also, you know, maybe you're getting more money, maybe you're
37:59
getting more saved. Maybe it's you know, there's a bunch of possible explanations
38:02
here in terms of the true reason why, you know, I don't.
38:06
I don't think Dalan Hayden's playing time is going to be the driving factor there.
38:09
Mike Frino says, funny, funniest narrow ucl As head coach who was
38:13
a running back coach last year, Deshaun Foster comes to a highest state to
38:15
be the running backs coach. I know it's not happening, yes, Mike
38:19
Frino, on the same wavelength as Tony Gerderman. It's the meanest thing I've
38:22
ever said to anyone who was super chatted us. I'm very sorry. I
38:27
meant I should have directed that at Jordan Kapler somehow, I'm sorry, one
38:30
of us, one of me, one of me. Mika Handa does suggest
38:36
her as a good question is this going to screw U scrow High State over
38:39
with Marquise Davis and other running backs and Kevin This is a year where they're
38:44
in on like, I don't know, thirteen twenty twenty five running backs who
38:46
are all talented, and at one point it was looking like they could grab
38:52
three if they wanted. Then it was like, well maybe just one or
38:54
two or is all they're going to have room for. You got to hope
38:58
that all of that, all of those fish in the barrel will still be
39:00
there once everything settles with the running backs coach well, Bo Jackson and Marcus
39:07
Davis are still both from Ohio, so there is something about Ohio State recruiting
39:14
them. I'll be curious to see where Ohio State has gone and gotten South
39:21
Florida quarterback or running back commits, only to lose them to Miami. There's
39:27
a situation of where they're highly eight on one there too. Do they have
39:30
a little bit of a philosophical change. I'm most interested in what this means
39:34
to Jordan Davison, the running back out out of modern day, who's supposed
39:38
to be taking a multi day trip to Columbus. Mark and I on a
39:44
recent episode of the school Session recruiting podcast. Both kind of agreed that maybe
39:47
Ohio State was the leader there. Now now you've got to wonder as Texas
39:52
has really been pushing there, and Texas will push its stability, So Ohio
39:57
State probably needs to make sure that it makes a splash hire. I'll keep
40:01
track on what is the status of that Davison visit, if they if they
40:06
follow through with it, if they push it back for when Ohio State has
40:09
somebody in place, How quickly does Ohio State feel like it has to act
40:14
with us being in spring practice, I mean and getting ready to put everybody
40:17
out on the road for recruiting. I mean, we're certainly not going to
40:21
get to the you know, beyond the spring game without a running back coach.
40:23
But is this something a position that they can fill in the next I
40:28
don't know, seventeen days before, you know, before the end of the
40:30
month. Yeah, well, then the Jordan Davison visit is currently scheduled for
40:36
fourteen days from now March twenty seventh through April first, So that's in long
40:39
that's an extended visit, and you know, so you would obviously if you're
40:44
going to keep him on that schedule prefer to have someone else in at that
40:46
point, and with Spring Bowl already being two practices in, I'm sure you
40:52
know you kind of have a list. You always kind of have a list
40:54
for just about any possible scenario. So I'm sure that was not something that
40:59
Ryan was necessarily thinking about doing this week. But you know, this is
41:04
this is something where they were evaluating all of the coaches at the end of
41:07
last season. Alfred was one of the coaches they were evaluating, and you
41:09
know, there was at least a conversation that he might not return. He
41:13
ended up returning, But you know, if you had that conversation, you're
41:16
probably you probably have a list in a desk drawer somewhere, And if you
41:21
were Ohio State, you were kind of at the top of the food chain
41:22
in terms of bringing in someone else's running back coach at this point in the
41:25
cycle. So well, we'll see where they end up going with that.
41:30
In case, you're just joining us, Pete damilre reporting that this is this
41:34
is happening, This is not a this is no longer it started. We
41:36
started the show with this is being reported, and we think it's going to
41:39
happen because it would be pretty silly to get to this point and then be
41:44
like, i might leave for the school's most bitter rival, but I'm not
41:47
sure yet, so I'll let you know if I'm going to be back tomorrow
41:50
or not. So we figured this was pretty much a done deal as soon
41:52
as that report came out, Pete Thamill saying, now it is a done
41:55
deal. An interesting question from heat point here they have the running GME coordinator
42:02
job to Justin Fry last year, or have stated the worst running game in
42:06
twenty years. I'm sure that didn't set well with with Tony Alfred. I
42:09
don't know, Tony, how much of that is? You know, Tony
42:12
Albert was the assistant head coach for the offense. Like sometimes you're just kind
42:16
of handing out titles and it allows you to pay guys more to keep guys
42:21
on staff. So I don't know, you know, do you think do
42:24
you think Justin Fry got like a special crown or scepter or something, or
42:28
like a special talking stick for the run for the running back, you know,
42:30
running game meetings or how much how much of that do you think means
42:35
something? And how much of that is just like and now we can pay
42:37
you one hundred thousand dollars more every year. Right well, as the running
42:38
game coordinator, you do hold control of the talking stick. And if you're
42:43
a position coach and you don't get the talking stick what you've been asking for
42:45
the talking stick, you will get frustrated. So I would assume the uh
42:50
one of the the qualifications or the requirements for Tony Alfred if he's leaving for
42:54
Michigan as hey, I need I need a talking stick. So but no,
42:59
it's it's everybody has their own jobs. Everybody. You know, you
43:02
focus on your position, you get that going. Obviously, you got to
43:05
recruit, well, you have those things and you all contribute. It's all
43:09
communal in terms of the game plan. And you know Tony Alfred has third
43:15
and shorts and second and shorts, and you know Justin Fry has first and
43:19
ten and things like that. Everybody has their own little things that they work
43:22
on. And I think everybody has enough to do, you know, the
43:25
way things are right now. So, you know, clamoring for more,
43:30
I don't know if that's necessarily a thing other than wanting to be higher.
43:34
You know, I don't need more as I am, But if you want
43:37
to bump me up, then you know I will I will take it,
43:40
and it seems like this would be an opportunity for him again nine years going
43:45
into a stenth year at the same school. It's rare, rare, rare
43:47
for an assistant coach to do that, and so this is why you eventually
43:52
got to move on to move up. Odysseus says that Trey anderson injuries had
43:58
a lot to do with the running game issues. And you know the fact
44:00
that when he has been healthy, he has looked like Trevian Henderson. When
44:04
he has not been healthy, the running game has not been quite as good.
44:07
The offensive line last year was also not necessarily up to the standards of
44:09
a typical o'high sted offensive line that goes into it as well, they didn't
44:14
have a quarterback who uses legs. That is going to be a little different
44:16
this year as well. That gives you more options in terms of the running
44:20
game. So I think last year's running game is probably only going to bear
44:24
a very slight resemblance to this year's running game for all of those reasons before
44:29
we even get into the Chip Kelly impact there, Mellow Number seven says Maurice
44:32
Clarett, just tagged Ryan Day saying, do you have room for me on
44:36
your staff? I know you have love for me, lol, Kevin.
44:39
My assumption is if they do go former Buck Eye with the running game,
44:44
you know, with the running back position coach, you're more likely to look
44:46
at someone like Scottie Graham or Pepe Pearson or Eddie George. I would probably
44:52
have at the top of that list if he's available, as you guys have
44:53
both talked about before, rather than someone who is not in the coaching game.
44:59
And you know this, you don't generally go from not in the college
45:02
football coaching game to immediate ten man you know, ten man ten major assistant
45:07
kind of position. Well, MC thirteen certainly was a vocal critic last year
45:14
certain issues, and then you know, I'm only getting this from from Florette's
45:19
side, from what he puts out on social media. Ryan Day wasn't certainly
45:22
addressing this. I guess there was a conversation and he got on board,
45:25
So I know that the love for me is kind of kind of comes from
45:30
there. But you know, I think I think Moe is doing really great
45:34
work being an inspirational speaker and working with it. Sounds like he's doing some
45:37
stuff with that risk youth. I think that's probably where he's going to stay
45:44
at this point. And as Tom had said, there are probably some other
45:47
names out there that you can still get a former Buckeye running back who also
45:52
has some experience coaching, because even Brian Hartline, who everybody you know loves,
45:59
is recruiting and what do you know, The development is he didn't walk
46:02
right into the ten man rotation. I mean he had to sit there and
46:06
he had to earn his stripes in a support role. So you know,
46:10
when you just sit there and start grasping at straws or thinking, oh,
46:14
I'm going to make the biggest splash hire in terms of name, and there's
46:16
you know, there's not really any experience or proof of results to to base
46:22
that off of. That's where you get yourself in trouble. Can I vote
46:24
for the brother of a former Ohio state running backs coach Jim Tressell? Mm?
46:31
Yeah, Dick Tressell. Of course, Jim Tressel's brother was the former
46:35
was the former Ohio state running backs coach in the early to mid two thousands.
46:39
So I think Jim Tressell may be a little overqualified at this point and
46:44
also a little bit retired, which you know, listen, his history is
46:52
on the defensive side of the ball. However, he does have ties to
46:54
the state of Ohio, so you can never say never. Wing went my
46:58
vote my rather famously, although it sounds like he's not that interested in recruiting
47:04
anymore, what with the kids today and their baggy jeans and their YadA YadA
47:07
YadA. According to what he said in front of Congress yesterday, we'll move
47:12
on from that. Wing Wanted says, what would be for beating Well,
47:14
so I believe is also not doing coaching stuff right now. So yeah,
47:19
I think you're you're looking for. You're generally not bringing someone in from completely
47:23
outside the coaching business to have him jump right back in to be you know,
47:30
Brian Hartlin came on staff and was getting coffee for a while and then
47:34
moved up slowly. James Lurren at the same thing. Yeah, yours as
47:37
a GA. So yeah, did you guys happen to see the Denzel Burke
47:42
tweet that just went out, which was a quote tweet of a report about
47:45
Tony Alfred leaving and it just has five thumbs down emojis. Yeah, So
47:50
We always talk about how Denzel Burke is the arbiter of truth and he always
47:53
tells how it is. That is how he is feeling right now. And
47:59
Tony, we have done the interpret what Denzel Burke says, or interpret what
48:02
someone else had a good like it was, oh, it was a Jim
48:05
Knowles quote and it was like, but what do you think he meant by
48:06
that? And it was like, you can interpret this five ways. So
48:08
is that thumbs down that they're losing Tony Alfred? Is that thumbs down that
48:13
someone from that building could dare to go jump to Michigan. I'm open to
48:19
anyone's interpretation on that the ladder. Maybe Tony just wants to be the only
48:24
coach there that doesn't have a show cause against him. Christohresti says, could
48:30
this have anything to do with how recruiting is going for the twenty twenty five
48:34
recruits and beyond? I mean, Kevin, you have talked about running back
48:37
recruiting quite a bit. This feels like a psychle world. Hio State's in
48:39
actually pretty decent shape on the running back recruiting trail. Yeah, Ohio State's
48:45
not struggling with its running back recruiting I think Ohio State could fill itself up
48:49
right now at running back if it wanted to, if it really you know,
48:52
applied pressure and made that happen. But when you are after so many
48:57
different backs, and obviously Jordan Davis and who we talked about a little earlier,
49:00
is kind of the the back that I think that they've really targeted as
49:06
you know, a priority. Get We're only in mid March. I don't
49:10
think that anybody is necessarily looking at their recruiting board, at least in a
49:15
major program and going, oh my god, we are just absolutely hosed at
49:17
this position or that position of of what things are are are are shaping up
49:22
for so now, I don't think that. I don't. I don't think
49:28
there's a situation of that. I don't. I mean, how how is
49:30
he going to go to Michigan and start recruiting there? In terms of what's
49:37
going on. I mean, obviously they had like Quorum last year. I
49:40
mean, he had a very nice year. Donovan Edwards was largely absent until
49:46
he wasn't. But you know, they're having to rebuild their offensive line.
49:51
I mean there's a lot of stuff that is that is going on there.
49:53
I'll be interested to see how he starts walking into some of these homes wearing
49:59
a a uh, you know, a second hand mazing blue jacket until they
50:04
can get his wardrobe in and and say, well, remember all those things
50:07
that I said before, We'll scratch that. I'm I've got a completely different
50:10
message for you, and boy, are you gonna like it? Uh?
50:15
Can I just jump in real quick? I just got confirmation from Ohio State
50:19
that Tony Alfred is no longer with with that with Ohio State. So Ohio
50:22
State is now confirming that. All right, So there you go. Officially
50:25
Tony Alfred no longer at Ohio State, headed to Michigan. Mike Frino says
50:30
that Alford know the now the only offensive coach on Michigan staff who was coached
50:34
at another P five school. I don't know the answer to that. Well,
50:38
Tony furiously googles to save us from not remembering where Michigan coaches have coached.
50:45
Uh we can, uh, we can keep moving along through the through
50:50
the the other comments. Uh, David Chapmans has probably Chip Kelly wants control
50:53
over the running game. I don't, I mean Kevin, I don't think
50:57
that Chip Kelly there was any question who was gonna have roll over the running
51:00
game. One of them was the offensive coordinator and one of them was a
51:02
running backs coach. This is not one of those who you know, who
51:06
outranks the other one. That's pretty It was pretty clear as soon as Ship
51:09
Kelly came on board that this was going to be Chip Kelly having a lot
51:14
more say over the running game than anyone other than maybe Ryan Day. I'm
51:17
fbi, I'm in charge, not anymore. I mean, yeah, it's
51:22
uh, it's I mean, coaching the offense is kind of a group thing.
51:29
I mean, obviously Chip Kelly is coming in to run the Ohio State
51:32
offense. I don't know if it got into a turf war or an elbow
51:37
measuring contest or anything else whatever body parts you want to use there. No,
51:42
Tony, don't worry. I'm not going to take this. Yes,
51:45
yes, it's it's it's going to be interesting to see. You know,
51:52
we heard about when when Jim Knowles came in and he's going to be in
51:58
charge of the defense and hiring and firing decisions and everything else, and well
52:02
we didn't necessarily see all of that. I'm I'm gonna be really interested to
52:06
see if if there was a philosophical difference in terms of how Chip saw things
52:13
and Tony saw things or whatever. But again, I don't think that Tony
52:17
is necessarily doing a ton of the play calling. So I don't know.
52:23
I don't know. I still have not had a chance to sit down and
52:27
really think all of this through. I mean, this is you know,
52:30
this is. I started the day noticing that Trev Alberts was going to Texas
52:35
A and M to be the ad there, and I'm like, wow,
52:37
Wow, there's there's the topic of the day. And then twenty minutes later,
52:43
nobody's talking about that anymore unless you're in Lincoln or College station. Yeah,
52:50
go ahead, I would say, do we want to touch back on
52:52
the shrund Moore coaching staff on offense. Let's let's do it so. Kirk
52:57
Campbell, who is the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, has been at Michigan
53:00
since twenty twenty two, when he was an offensive analyst. Before that,
53:04
he was an Old Dominion and then he spent three years at Penn State as
53:07
an offensive analyst before he was Yeah, he's been at really small schools.
53:14
Steve Casula, who is their tight ends coach, was at UMass as OC
53:19
and QBS in twenty twenty two and twenty twenty three, was an analyst at
53:22
Michigan in twenty nineteen through twenty twenty one and before that some small schools Colgate,
53:27
Davenport, Farris State, stint at Western Michigan. Grant Newsom at the
53:31
offensive line coach at Michigan, the former Michigan offensive lineman who was a student
53:36
assistant, then a graduate assistant, then he was the tight ends coach at
53:40
Michigan and last year and the year before that, and is now the offensive
53:44
line coach. Ron Bellamy is the receivers coach who was the head coach of
53:50
West Bloomfield High for a decade before becoming the safeties coach at Michigan in twenty
53:53
twenty one and then receivers in twenty twenty two and twenty twenty three, and
53:58
now the offensive passing game coordinator. So yeah, not a lot of experience
54:04
outside the realm of Michigan or certainly no other Power five coaching experience. So
54:10
this right away, like he Tony Alfred moves right up the ladder and I
54:15
would be at this point pretty shocked if he is not co offensive coordinator,
54:20
run game coordinator, all of that, and and Michigan has the money to
54:24
play with now in terms of their coaching staff. So, like I said
54:28
earlier, I wouldn't be shocked if you know, he's seven figures plus plus
54:34
the political aspect of it, just the it looks like another win for Michigan
54:37
over Ohio State. That kind of you know, kick to the gut that
54:40
I think would make Michigan feel pretty good about their program right now, you
54:45
mean propaganda. John Moore wants to know was Tony's Alfred's contract extension ever announced?
54:52
And Tony, you were looking at this before we started recording, And
54:57
I think the answer is no, because his was his deal up after last
55:00
year and he's coming back. But I don't think there was ever anything official
55:04
on that. Right right a year ago we got our every year every outlet
55:09
sons of FOI request Freedom of Information Act request on the coaching contracts. You
55:16
send it after the season, and we got last year's on March I think
55:22
sixteenth, and that was so we're a few days out from getting this year's.
55:27
So could you assume it was just a one year deal? But you
55:31
know, obviously he was extended because he was still coaching, so like,
55:35
but we never we I think we would have heard if it was longer than
55:37
one. We heard some other names that were extended that were longer than one.
55:43
So this was a situation where clearly I'm guessing this is probably a three
55:46
year deal for Alfred and time more security. So you figure he would have
55:52
made probably eight hundred this year and without any any knowledge that he's coming back
55:59
or like I'm guessing three million for three years or something like that. Yeah,
56:04
can you blame the guy? Guys, can the chat blame a guy
56:07
for doing that? Just scrolling through the chat, the answer appears to be
56:12
yes, they can blame him. This is going to be such a fascinating
56:15
year. And this is well, first of all, this is the last
56:19
time Ohio State brought a couple of Michigan coaches over. It was Al Washington
56:22
and Greg Madison. Greg Madison had pulled off the Midwestern triple coaching at Michigan
56:30
and the Notre Dame and then back to Michigan and then Ohio State. Tony
56:34
Alfred went from Notre Dame to Ohio State and now to Michigan. So interesting
56:37
that two of the guys who've made this jump have also done the Notre Dame
56:40
stint during the burns. Is that what? And he got an Emmy globe
56:47
whatever a NOMA. I don't know what the hell it's called. Yeatnam mom.
56:54
Yeah, I think Tom is also suggesting that James lord Niis will be
56:59
headed to again in the near future. Yeah, rest assured. I don't
57:04
I'm not. I don't see that one happening. I saw someone also at
57:07
one point asking if you know if this meant that Brian Hartline, Brian Hartline
57:12
was in danger of jumping. I would be very surprised if Brian Hartline jumped
57:15
anywhere else. I think Brian Hartlin's doing just doing just fine at Ohio State
57:21
right now. Okay, here's let's let's address this real quick because of the
57:27
uh, because of the misconception that I think is being put forth here,
57:31
Michigan has more money than Ohio State. Look at the endowment has compared to
57:35
Michigan has compared to Ohio State. That's first of all, you're not spending
57:38
endowment money on a running backs coach for one thing. Uh, it's athletic
57:45
department money. I think I think Ohio State is it's like Ohio date in
57:50
Texas, I think are generally one two for the biggest athletic department budget every
57:54
year. And you know, if you listen to folks on mission message boards,
58:00
the only thing that has kept Michigan from winning the last thirty national championships
58:04
is a refusal to spend money in areas in football where other people are so
58:08
yeah, probably not refusal to spend money, and online classes, not necessarily
58:17
in that order. Yes, yeah, boy, this is going to be
58:22
so fascinating because you know, the reception for the whole Michigan team is not
58:27
going to be great when they show up in Columbus, much as the reception
58:30
for Ohio State was not real great when they showed up in Ann Arbor last
58:32
fall. I said earlier, this is, you know, in a century
58:36
of a very heated rivalry, this is maybe the most heated portion of it
58:39
where you know, for years and years and years it was a rivalry built
58:44
on respect. Both head coaches were asked about that last fall, about you
58:49
know, respect for their opponent, and let's just say they demurred in terms
58:53
of not you know, not exactly saying no, but sort of like answering
58:58
a different question, which is really never been the case before. What is
59:02
the reception for Tony Alfred like at Ohio State next year? You know,
59:07
are there big handshakes and hugs at the fifty yard line during pregame warm ups
59:10
next year? I'm not expecting that really. Maybe as players maybe maybe maybe
59:21
maybe after the game, maybe winning the winning side will seek out the losing
59:24
side. I don't know what the losing side will really be seeking out the
59:28
winning side. I think everybody knows, even more so now that it is
59:34
more of a of a of a business with nil and everything else that you
59:37
know, guys get guys get traded and everything else. But at least if
59:42
you're traded, that may not have been of your own doing or whatever.
59:45
I mean, leaving for a job against your rival is something else. And
59:51
I don't know how you guys have been doing with your Twitter, dms and
59:53
text messages. But yeah, I've had to provide a lot of like mental
1:00:01
health services. We'll just put it that way for people, because there's been
1:00:06
a lot of anger. And I just told everybody to come to this show
1:00:09
where Tom could piss you off. Instead. What did I do? I
1:00:14
didn't do any I'm not it didn't, not making anyone angry. Come on,
1:00:17
correctly, he never counts until next year. Then he'll count again.
1:00:22
Counted last year, count next year. This year not so much. That's
1:00:27
all right, Well we're reaching a uh now we have people explaining endowments in
1:00:31
the comments. Yeah, we get it. You're not using your endowment to
1:00:35
pay for running backs coaches, So it's really not relevant to this conversation.
1:00:38
Tom. It's either like, hey, do we want to we could send
1:00:43
this to the do some cancer research, or I'll hear me out, give
1:00:49
the running backs coach a couple of hundred extra thousand dollars. And you know
1:00:54
you're telling me you're gonna take money away, Like you're not going to do
1:00:58
that, Tom, this is football we're talking about out It sure is.
1:01:01
And now it's football we're gonna be talking about in the past tens. We've
1:01:05
been down here for an hour. I think we've kind of addressed all of
1:01:07
the addressed all of the big topics here. I'm gonna guess this will not
1:01:10
be the last time we discussed this and or a bunch of other stuff related
1:01:15
to Michigan football this year on the Buckeye Huddle YouTube channel. YouTube comm slash
1:01:20
bucke huddle. Make sure you hit that thumbs up. If you're watching us
1:01:22
live right now or if you're watching us later, leave us a comment if
1:01:24
you have other other stuff you want us to talk about. On some of
1:01:27
these shows, we're gonna be talking about a bunch of it. Have one
1:01:30
more super chat just to get in here under the wire. Willser says,
1:01:32
that's like a coach going from Deafi Dogs to the Napcats. Shameful, Tony.
1:01:40
I think maybe from the Defiance Bulldogs to the Napoleon Wildcats. Okay,
1:01:45
wet Ohio. I figured it was an nWo reference, and I'm not talking
1:01:50
the cool one. I'm talking about the although I will say this is very
1:01:54
reminiscent of AWO as Tony Alfred playing the role of Paul Cogan turn is back
1:02:00
on America to become a bad guy. Per O highs the Michigan. Michigan
1:02:07
players will be taking their vitamins and saying their prayers and then they will come
1:02:12
down to Columbus in two hundred and hang on two hundred and sixty one days
1:02:16
as of the date of this podcast, Ohio State. We'll be facing former
1:02:22
O highest State coach Tony Alford and the Michigan Wolverines. Finally something to be
1:02:27
interested about about this year's Ohio State Michigan game. I was so worried it
1:02:30
was gonna be like, what are we going to talk about for two hundred
1:02:32
and sixty one days? Oh friends, there's always something. When will the
1:02:37
Michigan notice valigations come out? And that's supposedly coming soon ish. We'll see
1:02:40
how serious that ends up being. Ohio State spring practice resumes next week with
1:02:45
maybe not a running back to coach for a while, and then maybe you
1:02:49
do running back to coach shortly after that. Michigan spring practice going on Michigan
1:02:52
Spring game one week after Ohio State Spring game. That's on April twentieth,
1:02:55
so plenty to watch there as well. We've been talking about all of it
1:03:00
huddle dot com. That's where Tony Kevin and I cover the team, Mark
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pucke huddle dot com. Thank you guys all for joining us for this very
1:03:23
special live edition that we did not necessarily expect to do when we got up
1:03:28
this morning. Have a great day. We'll talk to you tomorrow.