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The 5 Biggest Games On The 2025 Ohio State Football Schedule · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Buckeye tomorrow morning for Friday, May ninth, of
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: your host Tom Moore, the Texas game in one hundred
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  Speaker 1: and thirteen days, the game against Michigan in two hundred
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  Speaker 1: and four days. If you're planning your next event, make
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  Speaker 1: it unforgettable with Grateful Griddle, Columbus's favorite fruit truck serving
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  Speaker 1: up smashburgers, gourmet sandwiches, and good vibes. Booker catering today
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  Speaker 1: at Gratefulgriddle, oh dot com. So we're going to take
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  Speaker 1: a little bit of a look ahead at this year's.
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  Speaker 2: Ohio state football schedule. On today's show.
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  Speaker 1: You can sort of categorize the games into enormous games,
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  Speaker 1: kind of big games, other games, and you're going to
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  Speaker 1: watch a bunch of true freshmen playing in the third
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  Speaker 1: quarter kind of games. We're really gonna be talking about
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  Speaker 1: probably the first two categories here bad look at the
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  Speaker 1: five ish biggest games on this year's Ohio state football schedule.
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  Speaker 1: We're going to be doing that with our buddy Tony
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  Speaker 1: Gerdaman if bucke Huddle dot com. Before we started the show,
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  Speaker 1: Tony and I were sort of talking through like we
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  Speaker 1: have both sort of independently put together lists and Tony.
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  Speaker 1: I have a feeling your list is going to be
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  Speaker 1: very controversial and not match up with virtually anyone in
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  Speaker 1: our audience.
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  Speaker 3: What can I say? I love in state rivalries.
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  Speaker 1: Hey, who doesn't, Tony, who doesn't? They're not playing Mount
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  Speaker 1: Union this year, but you know, I'm glad you have
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  Speaker 1: them on the list anyway. But all right, so we're
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  Speaker 1: gonna start. We're just gonna start with what's the biggest
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  Speaker 1: game on the Ohio State football schedule this year? And
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  Speaker 1: there's a lot of ways you can sort of approach this,
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  Speaker 1: but we both landed on the same answer. And it
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  Speaker 1: feels like, probably for the vast majority of the last
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  Speaker 1: seventy or so years, this has always been the answer.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, that is Michigan and on the road this year
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  Speaker 3: and Ann Arbor. That is the most important game. Would
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  Speaker 3: it be the most important game if Ohio State had
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  Speaker 3: won four in a row? Maybe? Maybe not. But I
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  Speaker 3: think if you were to pull all Ohio State fans
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  Speaker 3: in terms of not just what game do you want
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  Speaker 3: to win the most, but rather like what game losing
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  Speaker 3: which game would hurt the most? And I think that's
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  Speaker 3: the answer there for the Buckeyes this.
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  Speaker 1: Year for sure, This is not necessarily the best team
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  Speaker 1: they're going to pa, but it's probably the game that
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  Speaker 1: Ohio State fans want to win the most, probably the
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  Speaker 1: game that the Ohio State team wants to win the most,
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  Speaker 1: probably game that will change the narrative around the Ohio
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  Speaker 1: State team headed into the postseason, whether that's College Football
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  Speaker 1: Playoff or otherwise the most. So, yeah, I think this
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  Speaker 1: is a pretty clear number one, and I think there's
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  Speaker 1: a pretty clear number two this year as well, because
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  Speaker 1: Oregon is not on the schedule this year, so there's
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  Speaker 1: really not a whole heck of a lot of question.
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  Speaker 1: Who is going to be the highest ranked Big Ten team.
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  Speaker 2: On this schedule for the Buckeyes this year, and the.
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  Speaker 1: Answer is almost certainly going to be Penn State. This
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  Speaker 1: is a year when the law has lined up correctly
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  Speaker 1: for the Nitney Lions. One of the few things that
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  Speaker 1: is not is that they have to come to Columbus
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  Speaker 1: and when they do, boy, you know, you want to
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  Speaker 1: talk about what the Michigan game narrative is going to
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  Speaker 1: do for the Buckeyes. What is the Ohio State game
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  Speaker 1: narrative going to be one way or the other. For
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  Speaker 1: James Franklin, This year.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, and Penn State fans are just so tired of
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  Speaker 3: the many different ways that James Franklin and the Nittney
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  Speaker 3: Alliance have found ways to lose to Ohio State. They
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  Speaker 3: can be they could be up by ten with two
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  Speaker 3: minutes to go, and there's still going to be nervous
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  Speaker 3: as all hacked, like watching the clock. Please hurry up,
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  Speaker 3: please hurry up, because Ohio State has just found as
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  Speaker 3: much as Ohio State has found ways to win, Penn
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  Speaker 3: State has also found ways to lose. And so I
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  Speaker 3: still think this is this is one where a lot
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  Speaker 3: of people are projecting Penn State as Big ten champs
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  Speaker 3: or they're following in the footsteps of Ohio State, who
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  Speaker 3: followed in the footsteps of Michigan. You're bringing players back.
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  Speaker 3: So this is obviously what's going to happen, right, and
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  Speaker 3: it's they're going to be very, very highly ranked. Presumably
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  Speaker 3: that they'll come in highly ranked. But yeah, this is
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  Speaker 3: one that both teams would love to have.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, both teams would love to have, and it's going
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  Speaker 1: to be one that for sure is going to shake
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  Speaker 1: up what the college football playoff conversation is. Because that
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  Speaker 1: game's on November first, So that's very early in those
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  Speaker 1: college football playoff ranking shows. That's probably what week two
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  Speaker 1: or so of those after that. So it is going
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  Speaker 1: to be one that's gonna be a game that gets
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  Speaker 1: talked about a whole lot leading up to that game.
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  Speaker 1: After that game, it is going to be the game
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  Speaker 1: that Penn State has circled on their calendars. It's been
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  Speaker 1: the game that Penn State has had to circle on
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  Speaker 1: other calendars a lot of times. That has not worked
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  Speaker 1: out real well for Penn State. But they have a
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  Speaker 1: chance to write that this year with a pretty impressive team. Overall,
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  Speaker 1: they've added, you know, they've solved a lot of their problems,
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  Speaker 1: it seems like potentially in.
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  Speaker 2: The transfer portal.
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  Speaker 1: But we none of that will matter if they lose
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  Speaker 1: in Columbus on November first. There will probably be plenty
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  Speaker 1: of grumbling about James Franklin.
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  Speaker 2: If they if they cannot win that game.
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  Speaker 1: And so number three, this is where our paths diverge
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  Speaker 1: because I looked at this and said, well, boy, the
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  Speaker 1: Texas game is going to be pretty important. It's not
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  Speaker 1: you know, it's not going to impact the Big ten race,
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  Speaker 1: and it's early enough that you know a loss is
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  Speaker 1: not going to be fatal, but it's still going to
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  Speaker 1: be a big game. It's going to be a You
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  Speaker 1: win that game and you're probably more or less in
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  Speaker 1: unless you lose three other games. So that's a pretty
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  Speaker 1: big one to you though you didn't even have that
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  Speaker 1: one on the list, So, I you know, I think
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  Speaker 1: the you know, why people would think the Texas game
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  Speaker 1: is an important one is probably fairly self explanatory. I'm
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  Speaker 1: interested in your thoughts on why the Texas game is
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  Speaker 1: not one of the five biggest games on the schedule.
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  Speaker 3: I think it's arguably the biggest game nationally in terms of, oh,
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  Speaker 3: everybody's gonna want to watch it. Hopefully it's one versus two,
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  Speaker 3: and the voters decide to manipulate things and and have
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  Speaker 3: that be one versus two. So it's a big thing.
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  Speaker 3: It's an event. But you just said it doesn't impact
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  Speaker 3: the standings. You have eleven games, twelve games after that
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  Speaker 3: to overcome that loss. So to me, like, you can
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  Speaker 3: win it, but it doesn't mean you've done anything for
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  Speaker 3: your big ten hopes. You can lose it, it doesn't mean
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  Speaker 3: you've done anything for your big ten hopes. So this
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  Speaker 3: is these games are done with the understanding of a
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  Speaker 3: loss doesn't kill you, doesn't doesn't it doesn't it would
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  Speaker 3: hurt you. It's the losses after that where the law
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  Speaker 3: they hurt actually comes. So that's why I don't have
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  Speaker 3: it on my list, you know. And as i'm you know,
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  Speaker 3: putting this list together, it's like, well, where where's Texas?
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  Speaker 3: And then I just keep talking myself out of it
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  Speaker 3: because it doesn't keep it. Ohio State can still like this.
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  Speaker 3: I think the other thing, Tom is this is a
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  Speaker 3: very difficult Big Ten schedule, and you look at it
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  Speaker 3: and if they were to lose all of the games
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  Speaker 3: that they could lose into Big ten, like there are
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  Speaker 3: five losable games and a Big Ten to me. So
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  Speaker 3: I think that's why that's maybe the main reason why
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  Speaker 3: Texas is not on my list. It's just because there's
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  Speaker 3: there are some interesting and difficult road games and difficult
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  Speaker 3: road environments. And I'm always a I'm a I'm a
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  Speaker 3: road you know, home home crowd of absolutist basically, so
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  Speaker 3: it's going to be difficult for me to side away
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  Speaker 3: from these difficult road Big ten matchups.
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  Speaker 1: What are the first ever road homer in college football history?
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  Speaker 2: But I get it.
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  Speaker 1: I understand, and I think this is this is not
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  Speaker 1: a right or wrong thing. It's just kind of a
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  Speaker 1: little bit of a how do you view the game
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  Speaker 1: and how are you approaching this question thing more than
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  Speaker 1: anything else to me, if they lose to Texas, they
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  Speaker 1: can you know, and I think that's entirely possible that
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  Speaker 1: they lose to Texas. But if they lose to Texas close,
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  Speaker 1: if you lose to Texas twenty four to twenty one,
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  Speaker 1: that doesn't really probably hurt you all that much, and
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  Speaker 1: you have the you know, you could lose another game
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  Speaker 1: later and still comfortably make it, and you know, depending
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  Speaker 1: on how things check out, you could potentially lose two
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  Speaker 1: more and make it potentially, but we have seen that
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  Speaker 1: three losses was kind of a little bit of a
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  Speaker 1: barrier to entry for Alabama last year, so you know,
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  Speaker 1: there certainly is a potential downside. But boy, if you
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  Speaker 1: win that game, you have basically two free losses and
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  Speaker 1: you can still make the College Football Playoff, because that's
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  Speaker 1: going to be You're going to be right near the
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  Speaker 1: top of the list you would assume in terms of
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  Speaker 1: quality wins. Where you know, if we go we'll go
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  Speaker 1: through the is the full five big ten games, and
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  Speaker 1: as you said, for them on the road, you have
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  Speaker 1: the opportunity to build a pretty good resume and have
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  Speaker 1: a real good building block for that resume before Labor
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  Speaker 1: Day if they can beat Texas. So that's why that
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  Speaker 1: was on my list. So next up would be number
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  Speaker 1: three for you, number four for me, and that is
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  Speaker 1: a trip to the windy confines of Champagne, Illinois for
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  Speaker 1: the Buckeyes to take take take on old friend Bert
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  Speaker 1: bi Lama and the Illinois fighting a lineup Illinois.
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  Speaker 3: You're seeing them as a popular pick to make the
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  Speaker 3: playoffs this year. They've returned a lot as well, and
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  Speaker 3: most importantly, as we all know, they have a starting
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  Speaker 3: quarterback coming back. And as long as you've got that,
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  Speaker 3: anything can happen for you. But this is a place
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  Speaker 3: that I think we've most of us have seen some
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  Speaker 3: ugly games there, and it's not the scary place that
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  Speaker 3: that Purdue is, which we're not even discussing, which is
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  Speaker 3: probably the craziest mistake that we've ever Made's like, oh yeah, pretty,
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  Speaker 3: that's no big deal. That's ross aid what goes on there.
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  Speaker 3: But I think Illinois a lot of people are. They're
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  Speaker 3: a popular pick right now, and so maybe that's a
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  Speaker 3: good thing, maybe that's a bad thing. Like Brett Bielima
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  Speaker 3: usually does better when he's under the radar. But still,
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  Speaker 3: this is this might be the biggest game in Illinois
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  Speaker 3: football since I don't know, like sime and Rice was
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  Speaker 3: on the field.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, this is definitely a potentially very very big game
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  Speaker 1: for Illinois because this is one where if they beat
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  Speaker 1: Ohio State, that gets you most of the way into
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  Speaker 1: the College Football Playoff probably where you would probably have
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  Speaker 1: to lose three games to not be in. If you're
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  Speaker 1: ten and two and one of your wins is over
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  Speaker 1: Ohio State, that's gonna that's going to carry a lot
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  Speaker 1: of weight, I would guess with the College Football Playoff Committee.
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  Speaker 1: So yeah, that definitely definitely a big one for both
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  Speaker 1: of them. And then just two weeks before that, this
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  Speaker 1: is It's interesting because these games are kind of spread
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  Speaker 1: throughout the season. You start with Texas on August thirtieth,
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  Speaker 1: you have Michigan on November twenty ninth, but in between,
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  Speaker 1: it's just kind of there's just a long stretch between
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  Speaker 1: September twenty seventh, which is at Washington, which is the
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  Speaker 1: next one.
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  Speaker 2: We're gonna be talking.
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  Speaker 1: About and then Michigan. It's pretty evenly spread throughout the season.
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  Speaker 1: So let's talk about that next one. September twenty seventh
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  Speaker 1: at Washington the Huskies two years ago national runners up.
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  Speaker 1: The Huskies last year really kind of a dumpster fire
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  Speaker 1: in the first year under a new head coach, Jed Fish.
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  Speaker 1: They had a lot of guys that they lost both
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  Speaker 1: to the NFL and to the transfer portal, had a
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  Speaker 1: ton of turnover on their coaching staff, So you can
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  Speaker 1: kind of handwave a rough first season. But man, they
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  Speaker 1: have a talented young quarterback. And that is another stadium
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  Speaker 1: where a lot like going to Austin Stadium last year
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  Speaker 1: where we always heard like, oh, this stadium is so loud,
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  Speaker 1: and it's like how loud could it possibly be? And
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  Speaker 1: then it was like, oh, yeah, this stadium's really loud.
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  Speaker 1: I have not been to Husky Stadium before. I'm really
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  Speaker 1: looking forward to that trip. That's another one where it
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  Speaker 1: is supposed to be a very hostile environment and between
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  Speaker 1: you know, very promising quarterback, long trip across the country,
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  Speaker 1: potentially hostile crowd. This definitely is going to be a
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  Speaker 1: big and potentially challenging.
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  Speaker 2: Matchup for Ohio.
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  Speaker 3: State, and I if you've got to watch quarterback demand
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  Speaker 3: Williams at all last year, he's he's an exciting player
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  Speaker 3: and anytime you throw one of those guys in the
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  Speaker 3: mix in an environment like this, again, this is gonna
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  Speaker 3: be one of the biggest games they've had in a while.
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  Speaker 3: And basically the biggest games they've had in the past
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  Speaker 3: have been against Oregon two years ago, number six. Oregon
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  Speaker 3: came in there and Washington won, but they don't. Gosh, Tom,
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  Speaker 3: this might be the biggest game for what Washington's at
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  Speaker 3: Ohio State was last back there in two thousand and seven.
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  Speaker 3: So this is gonna be one where everybody's amped up.
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  Speaker 3: And you mentioned New Orgon crowd last year was crazy
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  Speaker 3: and just constant noise, and I'm expecting something similar here
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  Speaker 3: unless Ohio State can get them to quiet. But this
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  Speaker 3: is one I just don't know exactly what to expect.
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  Speaker 3: I think it's gonna be a little bit wild, and
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  Speaker 3: it's gonna be up to Ohio State to maintain their composure.
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  Speaker 1: And this is also going to be the first real
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  Speaker 1: road test for whichever Ohio State starting quarterback it is,
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  Speaker 1: and that's going to be a little bit of a
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  Speaker 1: challenge to play, you know, not just having to go
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  Speaker 1: across the country, but also having to go across the
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  Speaker 1: country into probably a loud environment where're dealing with a
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  Speaker 1: lot of silent counts, and how are things going to
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  Speaker 1: go in that in.
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  Speaker 2: That first real true road start.
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  Speaker 1: So that'll be that'll be another potential storyline for us
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  Speaker 1: to watch that week at Again, very very much looking
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  Speaker 1: forward to that trip. Should be a really good game.
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  Speaker 1: So that's my top five. Your top five, and round
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  Speaker 1: it out with the one that I had number six
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  Speaker 1: on my list, and that is October eighteenth at Wisconsin,
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  Speaker 1: another place known for a rather loud and rowdy crowd.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, soon enough top Ohio State teams lose there to
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  Speaker 3: know that it's no easy thing. And no matter how
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  Speaker 3: ordinary Wisconsin can look from from year to year or
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  Speaker 3: week to week, you go in there and bad things happen,
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  Speaker 3: and bad things can happen, And I think it just
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  Speaker 3: depends on how injured Wisconsin is by the time Ohio
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  Speaker 3: State gets there. If they're beaten up, then the buck
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  Speaker 3: Eyes will be fine. But I don't think you can
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  Speaker 3: ever go in there and just assume things are going
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  Speaker 3: to go well. So that's why I had them number
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  Speaker 3: five on my list and time. The last thing I'll
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  Speaker 3: say on the Texas thing, if Ohio State loses to Texas,
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  Speaker 3: all of these games become much more important as well.
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  Speaker 3: But like you said, I completely agree, you beat Texas
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  Speaker 3: and then you can pick two of these games, just
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  Speaker 3: take them. You know they don't matter. But if you
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  Speaker 3: lose to Texas, then things start to get a little
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  Speaker 3: bit concerning.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure.
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  Speaker 1: That's and you know, this is the benefit of scheduling
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  Speaker 1: a big non conference game early and you have a
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  Speaker 1: little bit more leeway, a little more more room for
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: error than you would have in previous years. And if
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  Speaker 1: you win it, boy you're in really good shape. But man,
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  Speaker 1: if you lose it, you're a little bit behind the
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: eight ball relatively early. So we're gonna be We will
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: be there for all of those games this fall. Tony,
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: Kevin and I on the road with the Buckeyes, of course,
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: but we have an ever growing team at Buckeye covering
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: all facets of the Ohio State football program in Ohiostate
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: Athletics on the whole.
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: Just added Burm to our team.
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: He and Mark covering recruiting, got Andrew Ellis there on
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: our board as well, doing a bunch of recruiting chat.
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: There got our whole team of ex'es and o'sguruz there
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: as well. That is all to make you a smarter
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: football fan. And that is all on the huddle board
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: presented by Jeff Ruby's Columbus at buckeyehuddle dot com. We
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: hope to see you there. First month just four ninety nine,
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: and there has been an absolute boatload of content for
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: you there just over the last week or so since
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: we added those new folks to our team. We got
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  Speaker 1: Kevin and Mark on the road for our Southern Swing
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  Speaker 1: recruiting trip.
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  Speaker 2: Tons of content.
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  Speaker 1: We hope to see you there at bucke huddle dot com.
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: That'll do it for today. Thank you guys all for
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: joining us. Have a great day. We'll talk to you tomorrow.