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Ross Fulton Analysis: How Will Jim Knowles Change Ohio State's Gameplan For Notre Dame? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to buck Eyes tomorrow morning for Thursday, January sixteenth.
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  Speaker 1: I'm're your host, tom Or. The National Championship game against
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  Speaker 1: Notre Dame is in four days. The game against Michigan
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  Speaker 1: in three hundred and seventeen days. Welcome back in our
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  Speaker 1: buddy rossfold exis and Nosguru at Buckeheadle dot com when
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  Speaker 1: we have Ross on the show. We are sponsored by
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  Speaker 1: Jeff Rubies of Columbus, probably offering nationally acclaimed USDA Prime Stakes,
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  Speaker 1: seafood and sushi, impeccable service, live entertainment, and an attention
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  Speaker 1: to detail that is simply unmatched. Just go to Jeff
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  Speaker 1: Ruby dot com slash Columbus to check out the menu
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  Speaker 1: and make a reservation today. So the buck Eyes have
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  Speaker 1: made their reservations for the National Championship Game, and they
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  Speaker 1: did that in large part thanks to the Ohio State defense,
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  Speaker 1: Jim Knowles and his side of the ball. They had
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  Speaker 1: a pretty darn good day against a talented and you know,
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  Speaker 1: certainly schematically pretty strong Texas offense. But Jim Knowles stood
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  Speaker 1: pretty stood pretty tall against Steve Sarkashan and his offense.
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  Speaker 1: So we're gonna be talking today about some of the
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  Speaker 1: things that Ohio State did that were consistent with what
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  Speaker 1: they did in the first couple of games, and some
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  Speaker 1: things that they maybe changed up a little bit as
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  Speaker 1: they had that sort of cat and mouse back and
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  Speaker 1: forth with Steve Sarkisian. So we're gonna welcome and Ross
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  Speaker 1: and Ross start We're just gonna run through the game
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  Speaker 1: sequentially here.
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  Speaker 2: So let's start right off the top.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly. So I think you could point to some
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  Speaker 3: of both. Uh, you know, there was definitely some continuation
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  Speaker 3: of you know, the three high Tampa looks that Ohio
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  Speaker 3: State has been using a great effect in the playoffs
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  Speaker 3: in the latter half of the season obviously, but they
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  Speaker 3: did get some change ups to that of the more
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  Speaker 3: film you build up, you know, there's more out there,
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  Speaker 3: there's more preparation for it, and so you saw some
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  Speaker 3: some you know, change ups in turn from Jim Knowles
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  Speaker 3: a lot of cover three. Some of that was carried
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  Speaker 3: over from Oregon. We talked against how they played quite
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  Speaker 3: a bit of cover three against Oregon after largely not
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  Speaker 3: using it that this year and even more so in
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  Speaker 3: this game. Different types of cover three cover three pressures
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  Speaker 3: we're gonna talk about. They use more pressure schemes than
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  Speaker 3: they've been using in recent weeks. But the first clip
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  Speaker 3: pier is actually just sort of continuation of what they've
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  Speaker 3: been doing. And you know, you could see a Texas
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  Speaker 3: response earlyer which probably caused some of that you know
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  Speaker 3: response and turn from Ohio State. But this is just
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  Speaker 3: your you know, standard three high Tampa two galeb downs
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  Speaker 3: and that pull runner. It's sometimes called an Aztec position,
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  Speaker 3: and this is just you know, a standard Texas uh
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  Speaker 3: Sarkesian RPO right where they're running sort of a mid zone.
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  Speaker 3: But what they do is they just because of the
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  Speaker 3: structure of the three high where you have the linebacker
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  Speaker 3: sort of hipped up outside the defensive end but not
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  Speaker 3: covering up the receiver, they just run this quick hitch
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  Speaker 3: to the slot receiver right and it's just like three yards.
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  Speaker 3: And as a result of that, and I'm going to
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  Speaker 3: show a direct response to it later in the game.
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  Speaker 3: Uh uh, you know, whether it's for that or just
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  Speaker 3: because of you know, overall structure of the game, it
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  Speaker 3: saw a little bit less three high and less and
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  Speaker 3: until on passing downs. Maybe some of this concern with
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  Speaker 3: the RPOs.
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  Speaker 1: One of the things that we talked about in the
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  Speaker 1: lead up to the game as a potential opportunity for
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  Speaker 1: Ohio State was confusing Quinn Yours and just making him
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  Speaker 1: hold the ball too long, and that being something that
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  Speaker 1: Ohio State could potentially take advantage of in terms of
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  Speaker 1: the pass rush. This next one is definitely one where
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  Speaker 1: quin Yours is holding on to the ball in the
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  Speaker 1: pocket for quite a while and it ends up in
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  Speaker 1: a sack.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, he saw a lot of coverage variety from Ohio State,
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  Speaker 3: and you know, especially like this cover three, as I said,
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  Speaker 3: like it takes away a lot of you know, Texas
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  Speaker 3: straights likes around like deep post routes, deep corner routes,
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  Speaker 3: you know, cap those routes. This has like become a
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  Speaker 3: kind of an Ohio State staple.
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  Speaker 1: Here.
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  Speaker 3: They're running three Maple, which we've talked about before. That's
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  Speaker 3: just like a cover three check it gets trips. You
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  Speaker 3: can see Ohio Texas has three receivers to the to
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  Speaker 3: the top of the screen and they're you know, that's
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  Speaker 3: basically just a term for pushing the coverage to the
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  Speaker 3: trip side and you're going to basically then just man
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  Speaker 3: up to the bottom. And so you know, David Seniingbudez
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  Speaker 3: as the boundary corners just playing man coverage on the
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  Speaker 3: tight end, and Sunny Styles has the running back in
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  Speaker 3: man coverage, which we'll come back to here in a second,
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  Speaker 3: but you can just see again, like Jim Knowles was
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  Speaker 3: asked this week about like, you know, what's made the
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  Speaker 3: defensive line, like what's made their stats pop out more
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  Speaker 3: basically in the end of the year, and he's like,
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  Speaker 3: the coverage, and it's that is very true. And it's
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  Speaker 3: because like they're matching routes now, whereas like we've you know,
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  Speaker 3: made this point add nausea, and it used to be
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  Speaker 3: like quarterbacks had some easy answers in the mix the
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  Speaker 3: zone drop. But here you see like Texas runs this
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  Speaker 3: wheel route with kind of like these deep double digs,
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  Speaker 3: and you have Jordan Hancock as the uh nicol played
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  Speaker 3: the you know, curl flat zone and cover Ford, you know,
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  Speaker 3: to the to the top of the screen. He matches
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  Speaker 3: that wheel route and covers it right, and then Denzel
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  Speaker 3: Berg picks up the first dig you have as I said,
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  Speaker 3: Davis name Panosa already and man on the bottom one.
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  Speaker 3: And then the linebackers pick up this sort of like
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  Speaker 3: little sit route. So you've just got everything covered. That
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  Speaker 3: gives time for the pass rush to get home, as
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  Speaker 3: you noted, and so Ohio State got a third down
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  Speaker 3: stop here.
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  Speaker 1: Watching some of the Notre Dame games already from the
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  Speaker 1: College Football Playoff, it feels like the safeties might get
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  Speaker 1: involved in the run fit a decent amount in this game,
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  Speaker 1: because Notre Dame just doesn't have a ton of downfield
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  Speaker 1: passing ability, at least from the couple games that I've
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  Speaker 1: watched already. And this next one is one of the
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  Speaker 1: safeties getting involved in the run fit.
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  Speaker 2: This is Laythan Ransom actually coming on.
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  Speaker 1: A blitz and he doesn't make the he doesn't make
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  Speaker 1: the tackle, but he gets into the backfield and really
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  Speaker 1: disrupts the time and really blows up this play.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, you saw Penn State against Notre Dame, for instance,
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  Speaker 3: play a ton of just cover one, bring a safety down,
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  Speaker 3: bring a nickel off the edge. Ohio State is a
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  Speaker 3: little bit more varied than that. And you saw in
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  Speaker 3: this game too, right, like the safeties are very involved
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  Speaker 3: against the run. It comes about in different ways at times,
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  Speaker 3: like sometimes it was Caleb Downs playing in that nickel role,
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  Speaker 3: and you know Texas tried to account for him in
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  Speaker 3: the blocking scheme and that left Cody Simon free to
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  Speaker 3: scrape over the top. Sometimes they just use pressure and
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  Speaker 3: as I said, there's more more pressure packages in this game.
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  Speaker 3: You know, this is like a Jim Nole's favorite, right,
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  Speaker 3: this boundary safety B gap blitz. He uses it all
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  Speaker 3: the time. Here Texas is trying to run a wham scheme.
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  Speaker 3: So they're basically this this bottom tight end and this
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  Speaker 3: is twelve personnel from Texas. Like they use a decent
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  Speaker 3: amount of twelve. Ohio State largely did not match it
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  Speaker 3: with the four to three a few exceptions to that,
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  Speaker 3: which will be interesting against Notre Dame as well. But
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  Speaker 3: they're trying to use that tight end to basically trap
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  Speaker 3: Tyler Williams's who's doing that, you know, cab or or
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  Speaker 3: you know three technique to the A gap technique that
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  Speaker 3: we talked about against Oregon. But Lathan Ranson just blows
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  Speaker 3: up that block so he can't get to Tyler Williams.
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  Speaker 3: So as you said, like he redirects the running back,
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  Speaker 3: then the defense is able to make the play in
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  Speaker 3: the backfield. All that's to say, And like we'll get
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  Speaker 3: to it again towards the end of the game. Like
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  Speaker 3: high steed safeties as we know, are very active and
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  Speaker 3: in a variety of ways, have you know, impacted the
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  Speaker 3: run game. And you know, Texas had like a little
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  Speaker 3: bit of a success maybe you could say squint hard enough,
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  Speaker 3: like with some like why like some split zone or
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  Speaker 3: insert stuff in the second half, but like really this
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  Speaker 3: this came down to like Texas's success or lack thereof
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  Speaker 3: in the passing game well.
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  Speaker 1: And one of the things that led to Texas not
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  Speaker 1: having a lot of success in the passing game at
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  Speaker 1: times was that pass rush getting home. But guys I
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  Speaker 1: think had four sacks. This next play was one of them.
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  Speaker 1: This is Sunny Styles coming off the edge. Not only
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  Speaker 1: does he get a sack, he also forces a fumble
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  Speaker 1: on this one.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, as I said, like they were chymnalls gout of
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  Speaker 3: some aggressive concepts, particularly compared to the last couple of
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  Speaker 3: weeks at least, like a lot of corner blitzes in particular,
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  Speaker 3: as you'll see here, like this is bringing a five
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  Speaker 3: man pressure, so like a lot of a lot of
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  Speaker 3: zone pressures. I'd say, where they're bringing five people, so
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  Speaker 3: they're uh, you know here, you're bringing both setting styles
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  Speaker 3: and you're bringing a corner and they're dropping into this.
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  Speaker 3: It's it's kind of like it's a cover two zone pressure, right,
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  Speaker 3: So you're like two deep defenders. So Caleb Downs is
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  Speaker 3: acting like he's at the second level and then he
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  Speaker 3: drops deep and you have you know the other it's
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  Speaker 3: uh safety to the deep half and four on earth right,
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  Speaker 3: and so you have rolling down you're kind of like
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  Speaker 3: doing it. It's called a two rolls sometimes. And then
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  Speaker 3: you kind of have Cody Simon as a spy as well.
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  Speaker 3: But you're just picking up so Caleb Downs able to
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  Speaker 3: pick up that corner route, uh, pick up the corner
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  Speaker 3: rocks of the opposite side, and as I said, there's
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  Speaker 3: just nowhere to go over with the ball. So different
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  Speaker 3: types of as I said, like to cover two and
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  Speaker 3: cover three fire zones, a lot of which were successful,
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  Speaker 3: will show once or twice where they were not successful.
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  Speaker 3: So it was definitely much more of a a little
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  Speaker 3: bit more of a feast or famine plan for gym
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  Speaker 3: Knowles against Texas, certainly compared to what they did against Oregon. Obviously,
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  Speaker 3: this is you know teams Georgia in particularly had success
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  Speaker 3: against Quinn years in Texas with pressure uh, and so
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  Speaker 3: you know, it's Ohio State's gotten to the point now
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  Speaker 3: where they like have a lot of tools in the toolbox,
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  Speaker 3: like you know, unlike when we like Notre Dame we
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  Speaker 3: talked about this week, is like very much like a
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  Speaker 3: cover one, cover three, middle of the field cover team,
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  Speaker 3: Like that's what they do. I have State that's less
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  Speaker 3: the case. Like they're pretty balanced in their coverages, and
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  Speaker 3: like there's some games where like Jim Knowles amps up
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  Speaker 3: the pressure like this one or in Indiana, there's some
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  Speaker 3: games where he dials it back, you know, and maybe
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  Speaker 3: this is gonna be won by comparison against Notre Dame,
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  Speaker 3: or they dial it back a little bit because of
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  Speaker 3: Riley Leonard's mobility, if Oregon is any guide. But certainly
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  Speaker 3: see like a variety of different you know, a lot
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  Speaker 3: of the sim pressures and fire zones that like I've
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  Speaker 3: we've talked about, like I called for for years. Like
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  Speaker 3: certainly see more of those type of concepts when they
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  Speaker 3: do bring pressure.
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  Speaker 1: Right now, this next one, this is this is a reception,
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  Speaker 1: but this was I thought, really really good aggressive play
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  Speaker 1: by Jordan Hancock on this next one. You know it's
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  Speaker 1: a three high, three deep, three under is what the
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  Speaker 1: notes say. So, uh, ross walk us walk us through
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  Speaker 1: this one. Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: So again this is like the counter to the counter
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  Speaker 3: that I only did to you earlier. Right, So you're
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  Speaker 3: showing the three high Tampa two. So again Texas is
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  Speaker 3: running basically the same thing like mid zone with this
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  Speaker 3: hitch route, right, but Ohio State's like changing it up.
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  Speaker 3: And so this is like we're partially all this cover
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  Speaker 3: three is coming from. Like you're showing too high and
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  Speaker 3: you roll down, so you're bringing Cody Simon off the
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  Speaker 3: edge again against like against the trips. Look like Texas
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  Speaker 3: a lot of times ran this kind of trips where
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  Speaker 3: the tight end is as attached to the line of scrimmage.
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  Speaker 3: And my guess is from like scouting that Jim Moles
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  Speaker 3: didn't think he really needed to teach the tight end,
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  Speaker 3: like treat the tight end when he was in that
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  Speaker 3: position as a receiving threat. But you're so you're bringing
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  Speaker 3: the pressure off the edge aletting Jordan Hancock roll down
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  Speaker 3: to match this route and then bumping back to cover three.
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  Speaker 3: And so again this is just making it so that
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  Speaker 3: teams can't expect when Ohio State's in their Tampa two
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  Speaker 3: that those are like just free access throws all the time,
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  Speaker 3: right Like quin yours obviously thinks he's got the same
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  Speaker 3: thing he had earlier, but Ohio State really limits it here,
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  Speaker 3: and so you're just seeing this kind of mix of
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  Speaker 3: cover two with cover three.
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  Speaker 1: All right, This next one is a cover three look,
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  Speaker 1: and it's one that you were sort of hinting at
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  Speaker 1: earlier in the show, where earlier they kind of had
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  Speaker 1: some good pressure and got a sack and then it
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  Speaker 1: was like, well, hold that thought, we're going to get
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  Speaker 1: to one later in the game. I think this is
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  Speaker 1: probably the one you were talking about, and this is
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  Speaker 1: the first Texas touchdown.
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  Speaker 3: Yeap. Obviously Steve Skarkesian is a good offensive coach. They
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  Speaker 3: they're smart too. As I said, Ohio State increasingly likes
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  Speaker 3: to run three mabel against trips and man up on
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  Speaker 3: the backside right because you're again you're you're it's just
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  Speaker 3: a way of saying your role at pushing the coverage
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  Speaker 3: of trips, you're using the mic to sort of match
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  Speaker 3: the number three receiver to that side or help carry it.
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  Speaker 3: So what do they do? They purposely get in trips
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  Speaker 3: and they know they got manned to the bottom right,
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  Speaker 3: and particularly they got a fast running back on Sunny
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  Speaker 3: Styles you know as a good athlete, but it's still
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  Speaker 3: not a great matchup. Particular, like he's had some struggles
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  Speaker 3: in man coverage this year we talked about. And so
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  Speaker 3: you run this kind of like snag concept to the
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  Speaker 3: field from Texas to the trips and then this post
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  Speaker 3: that sort of creates interference and that Styles has to
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  Speaker 3: get over the top of and then this this wheel
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  Speaker 3: route and so I think Styles could have done a
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  Speaker 3: better job here capping the route or getting on top
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  Speaker 3: of it. Like he sort of bites on, you know,
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  Speaker 3: the running back gives a little bit of like maybe
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  Speaker 3: I'm going to go out and up and it's like,
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  Speaker 3: you know, you're a linebacker and coverage with no help
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  Speaker 3: like stay over the top of the route and if
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  Speaker 3: you give up five yards on and running back out
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  Speaker 3: like live to fight another day. But again, so like
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  Speaker 3: anything else, right, Like I like that they've run these
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  Speaker 3: these match concepts. You know, that's stuff I've been calling for.
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  Speaker 3: But like everything, if you're predictable by formation, you know,
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  Speaker 3: teams are eventually going to get you. So good mix
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  Speaker 3: here this is just sort of this one in particular,
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  Speaker 3: I think you kind of just tip your tap tap
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  Speaker 3: to Texas for a good play call. But you know,
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  Speaker 3: just like anything else, when you're manned up to that
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  Speaker 3: side with not a lot of help, you just got
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  Speaker 3: to be kind of conservative and how you play the coverage.
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  Speaker 1: And the next play is the second touch at Texas
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  Speaker 1: touchdown of the game. This is also a pass to
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  Speaker 1: a running back out of the backfield. Jayden Blue got
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  Speaker 1: both of these for the Longhorns run through this one,
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  Speaker 1: But is the covering running backs out of the backfield
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  Speaker 1: that seems like something Notre Dame is somewhat limited on offense,
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  Speaker 1: But that feels like somewhere that Jeremiah Love or one
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  Speaker 1: of their other talented running backs coming.
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  Speaker 2: Out of the backfield.
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  Speaker 1: Is that something that you would expect Notre Dame to
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  Speaker 1: kind of look at this and go.
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  Speaker 2: You may be able to work with something here.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I would think they would try to
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  Speaker 3: do the same thing here. I mean, this is the
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  Speaker 3: exact same play, right, So you're getting trips from Texas
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  Speaker 3: at least you get trips. You're on sort of this
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  Speaker 3: like snag concept and a post wheel. This is a
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  Speaker 3: different concept from Ohio State, which we'll get to, but
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  Speaker 3: I'm sure they'll try it. I do not think in
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  Speaker 3: general that like this has been some like glaring issue
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  Speaker 3: for Hio State this year covering backs out of the backfield.
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  Speaker 3: I think that that they generated by formation and this
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  Speaker 3: is sort of an interesting call. So this was like
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  Speaker 3: I would call this one like it's the training concept
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  Speaker 3: that we've talked about, except with cover one. Right, So
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  Speaker 3: you're like bringing your showing that you're bringing everyone for
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  Speaker 3: all six guys on the line, but the two defensive
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  Speaker 3: tackles are going to drop after like fainty coverage and
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  Speaker 3: try to take away like is it underneath robbers. So
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  Speaker 3: generals must have expected some sort of underneath route here.
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  Speaker 3: The problem is someone has to have peel responsibil like
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  Speaker 3: one of the I'm pretty sure it's Sunny Styles. As
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  Speaker 3: the linebacker to that side, when he sees the running
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  Speaker 3: back release, he's got to he's got to peel off
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  Speaker 3: and take the running back. It's not Tyler Williams. Is
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  Speaker 3: the defensive tackles job that this is Sunny Styles. He's
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  Speaker 3: supposed to You got to keep your eyes up and
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  Speaker 3: peel off. This is unlike the other trains where it's
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  Speaker 3: cover zero. You have a deep safety here, but you know,
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  Speaker 3: hard for Lathan Ranson to get over there to help,
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  Speaker 3: especially when there's no one covering the running back. So
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  Speaker 3: this is just a bust again, Like, this is sort
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  Speaker 3: of an interesting call here. I've never seen them run
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  Speaker 3: this concept. I don't know if they thought this would
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  Speaker 3: be a change up to getting this sort of open
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  Speaker 3: trips look from Texas, but I so I do think, like, yeah,
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: you'll probably see Notre Dame try something similar with the
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: running back to the boundary. You know, I would expect
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: to high stay will adjust, like as I said, like
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: anything else, like you got to just change up what
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: you're doing when you get trips or anything else you.
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: Talked earlier, right, how they've been much more aggressive and
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: bringing five a decent amount. This next one and this
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: they just bring three and they drop eight, which is
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: a little bit of a change up.
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and they did this some against Texas too, Like
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: so they were giving yours a lot of looks. And
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: this is actually a concept we've seen a few times,
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: which part of one I partially why I grabbed it,
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: partially because this is like a big third down stop
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: in between when it's still fourteen all but they've run
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: this cover two inverts, so like, not only are they
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: running cover two, they're giving these different looks. And by invert,
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: I mean the two deep half players instead of being
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: the safeties, are the corners, so they're both dropping deep
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: battle out Davison abunosen to drive on this corner concept
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: like Texas uses a cover two beater with like the
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: smash concept. Right, We've talked about that from their High
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: State offense, like get sort of the corner route and
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: then like an underneath h route. But because you're doing
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: this invert, you have a corner already with depth over there.
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: And you saw some of this eight, you know Drop
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: eight from Ohio State where you're only rushing free again
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: just like change up looks. As I said, you're getting
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: a lot of variety from Jym Knowles in out of state,
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: some of which worked a couple of times, did not
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: as we've already shown, but this one was pretty effective
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: where you get these kind of non traditional cover twos
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: where you you know, roll a corners one of the
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: DPAF players or to invert where they both are all right, we.
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: Got two more.
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: They're both from that last drive and you're thinking, I
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: bet we're going to get the Jack Sawyer play.
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: No, you're not getting the Jack Sawyer play.
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: That was very That was Jack Sawyer runs past the
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: defensive the offensive, bright tackle and forces that. We don't
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: need Ross to break that one down for us. We
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: got two more here. One of them, the first one
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: is that Matthew Golden play where he has that he's
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: wide open, Like this is very clearly this was not
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: what the play, but how this was supposed to work.
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: Wide open sets Texas up on that drive where it
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: looked at the end like they were going to tie it.
• 17:51
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean this is sort of the downside of
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: mixing up coverages and yeah, you know with Jack Sawyer,
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: I feel like that's been discussed at nauseam and I'll
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: get to in a second, but this one is just
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: it's not gonna work. So I just talked about two roll,
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: Like this is two roll where you're Latham Ransom is
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: trying to go from the boundary of hashmark to the
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: basically be the dpath player to the field. You're rolling
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: back the corner and you're rotating Caleb downs down as
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: the underneath player. You're actually again bringing this is another
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: corner blitz. As I said, there's been a lot of
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: corner blitzes, so another five man pressure, so it's a
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: two deep four under right, the promise is coming as
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: opposed to that last one. This is all coming to
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: the field. There's a lot of ground to cover, and
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: like the only way this has any chance of working,
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: especially against this like bunch trip set to the field
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: is like a Leatham ransom needs to cheat over to
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: begin with, Like that's just too much ground. No one's
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: going to be able to get there and or be
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: like Caleb Downs kind of has to just split the
• 18:59
  Speaker 3: difference between those two the corner route and that out
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: route and just try to again like mitigate the damage.
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: Like you got got here. But that's sort of so
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: you know, as I said, like you're getting more variety,
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: a lot of which worked a couple of times though
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: these pressure schemes did not work. And this just as
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: you said, like this led to a massive play because
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: you're just really sort of prioritizing disguise over maybe like
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: what can be sounded as I said, maybe, but one
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: thing if it was rolling towards the boundary, but because
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: you're rolling towards the field to get strips, it's just
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: a lot of ground to cover.
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: And the last one we have is that second in
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: goal play. This is where with second and one second
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: goal from the one and Sark calls for that toss
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: play and at the time, you know, after it gets
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: stuffed for a huge gain.
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: It was very easy.
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: And you know, I did this as well to sort
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: of Monday morning quarterback and say, why would you run
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: a play where you could have a lot, you know,
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: a big loss and set yourself way back? And I've
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: seen a lot of discussion about the fact that the
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: play itself was not a bad play call and they
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: were potentially it was potentially a win for Texas. But
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: Caleb Downs just made an incredible play in the Ohio
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: State safeties on the whole made an incredible play. What's
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: your takeaway on you know, good call, bad call? Just
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: tip your cap to Caleb Downs. What's your breakdown on
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: this one?
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I think somewhere in between, right. So,
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: like Jim Noles talked about this during this press conference too.
• 20:25
  Speaker 3: So like you can see Ohio State's in a five
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: man bare front, that's what they were in a first
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: down as well. They've used that a lot in the
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: goal line situation. And they obviously stopped the first down run.
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: And so as Jim Noles talked about, like a good
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: play against this front is this like quick truck toss
• 20:43
  Speaker 3: right where you're you're cracking and you're pulling the tackle
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: around or high state runs is playing a bunch you
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: because you have so many bodies inside. So I don't
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: have a problem like theoretically with it. I mean this
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: is but as Jimdalls said, like they were prepared for this,
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: and this is just like great recognition, great pick play
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: by klen Downs, Like you don't really have anyone to
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: block him in here is the problem for Texas. But
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: and so he just blows it up and then you know,
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: fantastic play by Leithan Ranson also, who is accounted for
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: by the left tackle fighting over the top of that
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: block to make the play and you know, keeping to
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: string it out to the corners. I just this one
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: to me was like really what set up everything else?
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: Because like you go from very different being in this
• 21:31
  Speaker 3: short yardage situa with goal line situation too, then third
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: and seven, now you're in a passing situation on the
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: next two plays in clearing the Jack Swayer saction Noel's
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: talked about the sort of a different coverage he hadn't
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: used before in those situations. They kind of like kept
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: a box like a four over three over the trips
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: and doubled to the boundary with a cone, you know, uh,
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: with a safety in a corner, and it just made
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: things very difficult on Texas obviously. Then Jack Swayer made
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: two great plays really back to back on third out too,
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: like it was a three man rush and he brought in,
• 22:03
  Speaker 3: he spiked inside and batted the ball down. But I
• 22:07
  Speaker 3: just think like this this sort of set everything up,
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: and it just again like Ohio State safeties are really
• 22:13
  Speaker 3: like what makes everything go, and they're just they're so
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: good against the run and they can just be used
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: in so many ways. It just makes them really hard
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: to move the football against, particularly on the ground, in
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: addition to the defensive line and you know, goody Simon,
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: but it's it. They just they give a lot of
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: flexibility and so you know, I think that that is
• 22:36
  Speaker 3: really sort of makes teams, you know a lot of
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: times have to play them through the air to the
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: best they can.
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: And now looking ahead at this noted aame game and
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: you you sort of mentioned earlier, you thought they might
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: dial back the aggressiveness a little bit just because of
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: the elusiveness and Riley Leonard's ability in the run game,
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: sort of similar to what Dylan Gabriel brought for Oregon.
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: To me, it's an interesting conversation because, yeah, this is
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: not a team that's going to beat you over the
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: top necessarily. With just the games that I've watched so far,
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: they have not had any kind of deep threats in
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: the passing game. And they had the one long run
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: against Indiana out of that goal line with Jeremiah Love
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: for ninety eight yards, and that's kind of been it
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: as far as big plays go. But it's also an
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: offense where because they don't throw the ball down the
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: field very well, if you get them behind the sticks,
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: it feels like, boy they are you know, second and thirteen,
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: third and nine. Those are not good situations for this offense,
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: even more so than you know, no one wants to
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: be in third and nine, but this offense really doesn't
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: seem doesn't want to be in third and nine.
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: So how do you.
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: Balance, Hey, you want to get them behind the sticks,
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: you want to keep them off schedule being aggressive to
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: do that versus you don't want Riley Leonard to be
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: able to do the things that you don't want Leonard
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: to be able to do with his.
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: Legs to pick up those first downs.
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I think it's like, you know, run
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: blitzes are one thing to me, bringing Lathan rans and
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: like that, bringing Caleb downs off the edge, that's I
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: mean that playing cover three behind like that makes sense.
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: I doubt you'll see some of these like more exotic
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: third down concepts a because you can scramble and be
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: I just don't think you need them, like you know,
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: like it's not what Texas schematically presents or you know,
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: Quinn yours for some of the criticisms we can make
• 24:22
  Speaker 3: of him as a passer presents and they don't have
• 24:26
  Speaker 3: the wide receivers that Texas does. So like I think
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: you'll see aggressiveness more in the sense of like we
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: can put eight in the box, we can play cover one,
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: we can play cover three. You know, we can put
• 24:40
  Speaker 3: you behind this change running the football, and then like
• 24:44
  Speaker 3: on third down, we can just play cover one and
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: get off the field. Like we don't need to get
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: as exotic if we don't want to, you know, I don't.
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: I'm not even sure how I see it will necessarily
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: consistently though stack the box. I mean, I think you'll
• 24:58
  Speaker 3: still see a mix of some of this Tampa you know,
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: three high stuff with the uh you know, single high
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: coverages and then becaus. I said, I think it's like,
• 25:09
  Speaker 3: you know, it would Notre Dame if they want to
• 25:11
  Speaker 3: use two tight ends. You know, it'll be interesting to
• 25:13
  Speaker 3: how much how much do you change things up by
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: playing three linebackers after having a lot of success in
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: this playoffs largely not doing so, you know, probably that's
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: probably a down and distant situational thing. That's a little
• 25:26
  Speaker 3: bit what it was against Texas. But I you know,
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: I think you tend not to do it unless you
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: feel like you have to.
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: At this point, well, we will try and have one
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: more breakdown if we can between now and the National
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: Championship game.
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: Give you a little more schematic talk for you.
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: We have a lot of stuff coming between now and
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: the National Championship Game, and it is coming quick, so
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: you want to stay up with everything and perhaps kill
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: a little bit of the time between now and kickoff
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: on Monday night. A great place to do that would
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: be at buckey Huddle dot com. That's where Tony, Kevin
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: and I cover the team. Our cover is recruiting and
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: we got our whole team off ex's and nos gurus,
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: including Ross, making you a smarter football fan there. That's
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: all at bucke Huddle dot com. Also, make sure you're
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: subscribed to you our YouTube channel at YouTube dot com
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: slash Buckey Huddle. We're gonna have a ton of content
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: coming for you there as well. We also if you
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: have you're guessing you have seen this in your feed already.
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: We dropped some of the shows from previous Ohio State
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: Notre Dame meetings that Ross and I did looking at
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: the Ohio State offense and defense against a Notre Dame
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: in twenty twenty two in twenty twenty three. There's a
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: lot of common threads there and some things that are
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: going to be kind of interesting, probably looking forward to
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: that national championship game. So that's all in the Buckeyest
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: Tomorrow Morning podcast feed if you if you're watching this
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: on YouTube and you want to hear those again, that's
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: a great place to find those. And finally, we got
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: to thank our friends a Jeffruby Steakhouse the award winning
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: upscale steakhouse in downtown Columbus, name one of the top
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: fifty steakhouses in America by Food Network. You can check
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: out the menu and make a reservation today by going
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: to Jeffruby dot com slash Columbus. That'll do it for today.
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: Thank you guys all for joining us.
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: Have a great day. We'll talk to you tomorrow.