Latest / Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning / How Much Will Ohio State's 3 Freshman Receivers Contribute In 2024
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: Welcome to Buckeyes tomorrow morning for Thursday, August fifteenth. I'm
- 0:03Speaker 1: your host, Tom or the Akron game in sixteen days,
- 0:06Speaker 1: the game against Michigan in one hundred and seven days.
- 0:09Speaker 1: A little later on on Thursday, let's say late morning
- 0:12Speaker 1: eleven thirty ish, we're going to be talking to Brian
- 0:14Speaker 1: Day and both coordinators offensive coordinator Chip Kelly and defensive
- 0:18Speaker 1: coordinator Jim Knowles to kind of take the temperature of
- 0:21Speaker 1: where things stand as the Buckeyes sort of near the
- 0:23Speaker 1: midway point of the month, end of fall camp, heading
- 0:27Speaker 1: into the countdown to the twenty twenty four Ohio State
- 0:30Speaker 1: football season. Is it possible we will get an official
- 0:33Speaker 1: announcement on the starting quarterback on Thursday. Yes, it is possible.
- 0:37Speaker 1: May have a final verdict there, we will see. Best
- 0:40Speaker 1: way to make sure you are there and finding out
- 0:42Speaker 1: along with us is to be subscribed to our YouTube
- 0:44Speaker 1: channel at YouTube dot com slash Buckeye Huddle. Hit the
- 0:47Speaker 1: subscribe button, hit the bell button, make sure you get
- 0:50Speaker 1: notified when we go live, because we will have use
- 0:52Speaker 1: live streaming those press conferences for you and then have
- 0:54Speaker 1: some immediate reaction for you afterwards as well. So plenty
- 0:57Speaker 1: of stuff coming up on Thursday at pukeeyehuddle dot com
- 1:01Speaker 1: and YouTube dot com slash Pukeeyehuddle. Okay, on with the show,
- 1:05Speaker 1: going to be hearing from guys we talked to a
- 1:07Speaker 1: couple days ago. This was actually from last Friday, but
- 1:10Speaker 1: not a lot of news coming out since since this
- 1:12Speaker 1: should all be pretty much relevant now still, So I'm
- 1:15Speaker 1: going to let you hear from Brian Hartline, I'm going
- 1:17Speaker 1: to let you hear from Carnell Tate, from Jordan Hancock
- 1:21Speaker 1: and Jermaine Matthews on today's show. So a little bit
- 1:23Speaker 1: of offense, a little bit of defense, and especially some guys,
- 1:26Speaker 1: younger guys who expected to take a bigger role this year,
- 1:29Speaker 1: and guys you haven't necessarily heard a ton from, So
- 1:32Speaker 1: hopefully that'll be interesting for you. I know, people generally
- 1:34Speaker 1: like to see and hear these guys out of uniform
- 1:37Speaker 1: before the season starts, so you sort of get to
- 1:39Speaker 1: know the guys a little better. So here we go.
- 1:41Speaker 1: Let's start with someone you do know pretty well at
- 1:43Speaker 1: this point, that as wide receivers coach, Brian Hartline. What
- 1:46Speaker 1: is he like about going up against this caliber of
- 1:50Speaker 1: a defensive back every day in practice, the Ohios the
- 1:53Speaker 1: defense expected to be one of the best, if not
- 1:55Speaker 1: the best, in the nation this year. Defensive backs quite
- 1:59Speaker 1: possibly the best in Ohio State history. So what is
- 2:02Speaker 1: it like for the wide receivers to go up against
- 2:04Speaker 1: these defensive backs every single day in practice?
- 2:07Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I think that, Uh, you know, part
- 2:10Speaker 2: of coming to Ohio State is the iron on iron
- 2:13Speaker 2: iron Tirpin's iron. This that's a cliche statement, but uh,
- 2:18Speaker 2: it's really true. I mean, it's it's twofold, right, It's
- 2:20Speaker 2: it's the uh the dbasy go against every day, and
- 2:26Speaker 2: then it's the guys in your room. You know, you
- 2:28Speaker 2: can't have a bad day. So the combination of both
- 2:31Speaker 2: of those is critical. You can't have one without the other,
- 2:34Speaker 2: you know. I think that, you know, again, I can
- 2:35Speaker 2: see if they're praises. This is the best dB corps.
- 2:39Speaker 2: I want to say, you know, depth wise or top
- 2:43Speaker 2: of the line wise that I think probably I've seen
- 2:45Speaker 2: since I've been here. We've had great players, you know,
- 2:49Speaker 2: over the last six seven years, eight years. So, but
- 2:54Speaker 2: as a core, as a group, you know, the quality
- 2:58Speaker 2: of you know, the coaching that's happening day in and
- 3:01Speaker 2: day out. How early. These guys are meeting to get
- 3:04Speaker 2: job descriptions and execute a high level. It's been different.
- 3:08Speaker 2: So I can't say enough about the competition we have
- 3:12Speaker 2: day and day out against b I A.
- 3:14Speaker 1: All right, that was one question. We've made you wait
- 3:16Speaker 1: long enough for what you're all here for. Jeremiah Smith.
- 3:18Speaker 1: Let's talk Jeremiah Smith. Brian Hartline. Have you ever seen
- 3:22Speaker 1: a freshman wide receiver like Jeremiah Smith before?
- 3:25Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 3:25Speaker 2: I would say every guy that comes in, they're all different,
- 3:27Speaker 2: and they're all in their own path. I would say,
- 3:31Speaker 2: some gotta grow here or others got to grow there.
- 3:34Speaker 2: And and the end goal isn't to you know, start
- 3:39Speaker 2: at Ohio State. That's just one of the goals along
- 3:41Speaker 2: the journey. So you know, once you start, then you
- 3:44Speaker 2: have you productive. And then once you're productive and you
- 3:46Speaker 2: have a name, you gotta justify that name. And then
- 3:48Speaker 2: you know, then you become a first round pick, and
- 3:49Speaker 2: you got to show your work to be on a
- 3:50Speaker 2: first round pick. So h the end, the main goal
- 3:54Speaker 2: is where we're at. He has a lot of tools,
- 3:58Speaker 2: he works extremely hard, and I'll say this, I would
- 4:01Speaker 2: say that we've never had an iron Buckeye from coach
- 4:05Speaker 2: Mick as a freshman, I don't know about ever or
- 4:09Speaker 2: I know definitely since I've been here, So a lot
- 4:11Speaker 2: of credit to him. Where as far as Jeremiah goes,
- 4:14Speaker 2: he you know, embodied everything that is a part of
- 4:19Speaker 2: that conversation. Right, It's not just lifting numbers, speed numbers.
- 4:23Speaker 2: It is the way you carry yourself, the way you train,
- 4:26Speaker 2: the way you you know, the edge to you, it's
- 4:28Speaker 2: all of that. And so he's the first one that's
- 4:31Speaker 2: ever earned that, and you know, all to kind of
- 4:33Speaker 2: leave you.
- 4:33Speaker 1: With that, Jeremiah Smith not the only talented freshman wide
- 4:36Speaker 1: receiver on this year's Ohio State team. We're gonna be
- 4:38Speaker 1: talking about two other ones now. First, how about Mylon Graham.
- 4:41Speaker 1: Mylon Graham also a five star wide receiver, but he
- 4:45Speaker 1: was not in force the spring. He just showed up
- 4:47Speaker 1: in June, so a little behind, you know, a little
- 4:50Speaker 1: behind schedule, maybe because he arrived on time and not
- 4:54Speaker 1: early like everyone else that everyone else seems to these days.
- 4:57Speaker 1: So with the idea that he only right in June,
- 5:01Speaker 1: what has Brian Hartline seen so far from Mylon Graham
- 5:04Speaker 1: this year?
- 5:04Speaker 4: Yeah?
- 5:05Speaker 2: Yeah, Milon came in as a as a lead June.
- 5:08Speaker 2: Uh and uh, but man, he's really done a good
- 5:11Speaker 2: job of learning uh the offense, learning what I want,
- 5:15Speaker 2: you know, what we want. I would say that there's
- 5:18Speaker 2: a lot of pride in his work. He does not
- 5:20Speaker 2: like having MS, almost to the point where he tries
- 5:24Speaker 2: to justify himself and why he did things like violin
- 5:26Speaker 2: you know, Sandy breath. But I appreciate that edge. I
- 5:29Speaker 2: really do you know he's jumping in and trying to
- 5:32Speaker 2: take reps. He's really doing a good job, you know.
- 5:34Speaker 2: And I think right now he's just chasing building a
- 5:38Speaker 2: body of work to justify where he's at. Right, that's
- 5:41Speaker 2: the hardest part about coming to June. I mean, what
- 5:43Speaker 2: body of work did you really you know, developed or
- 5:46Speaker 2: proven to your peers, your coaches, to really justify what
- 5:50Speaker 2: you want to accomplish, right, you guys know that? So uh,
- 5:52Speaker 2: that's what he's chasing around now. He's trying to stack
- 5:54Speaker 2: days and just show and and and uh, you know,
- 5:58Speaker 2: develop his identity as a fallall player here at.
- 6:01Speaker 1: High SKay do that? And then someone you were probably thinking,
- 6:03Speaker 1: wait a minute, they only signed two wide receivers in
- 6:05Speaker 1: the twenty twenty four class. What is he talking about Well,
- 6:08Speaker 1: how about de Maurian Witten. He technically was list he
- 6:11Speaker 1: was listed as a tight end and all the recruiting
- 6:13Speaker 1: sites he was listed as a tight end I think
- 6:15Speaker 1: when Ohio State released the roster. But he's been working
- 6:17Speaker 1: in the wide receiver room this year, so I'm going
- 6:20Speaker 1: to count him with the wide receivers at least for
- 6:22Speaker 1: the moment. So what has Briton Hartline seen from Demarian
- 6:25Speaker 1: Witten so far in his Ohio State career.
- 6:27Speaker 2: It doesn't matter if it's him or anybody. I mean,
- 6:29Speaker 2: we're all trying to learn football at a high level.
- 6:31Speaker 2: You're competing with your peers. The standout that I learned
- 6:36Speaker 2: things quicker or I you know, I make more plays,
- 6:39Speaker 2: whatever those are. You're trying. You're always competing with your
- 6:41Speaker 2: peers initially and then obviously the whole room, and then
- 6:45Speaker 2: it's nationally. You get the idea, right, So you know,
- 6:47Speaker 2: it's competing with all the other guys, you know, Dorian
- 6:51Speaker 2: and Mylin and you know, so I JJ. You know
- 6:55Speaker 2: he's got a head start. You know, I think that
- 6:58Speaker 2: he's got strong hands, your body guy. He's got to
- 7:02Speaker 2: make sure he's not you know, getting you know, a
- 7:05Speaker 2: tight end body. Right, he's a skilled athlete. He's definitely,
- 7:08Speaker 2: you know, got some skills. He's working on his footwork,
- 7:10Speaker 2: he getting his mechanics and a lot of boxes he's
- 7:12Speaker 2: working to check. And again, I think he's been doing
- 7:14Speaker 2: that in attacking that with purpose each day, you know. So,
- 7:19Speaker 2: but you see a flash year and there. We're just
- 7:22Speaker 2: looking for consistencies, right, and that's just that's with all
- 7:24Speaker 2: these guys, and you know, he kind of fits that mole.
- 7:27Speaker 1: Another guy who did not get to show a whole
- 7:29Speaker 1: heck of a lot this spring was Brandon Innis. He was,
- 7:31Speaker 1: of course on campus for his second year with at
- 7:34Speaker 1: with the Buckeyes, but he missed most of the spring
- 7:37Speaker 1: with a foot injury. So what did Brandon Innis do
- 7:41Speaker 1: to show you that he still belongs in the picture
- 7:44Speaker 1: for a lot of playing time this fall with Ohio State.
- 7:47Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean we made the decision to get him
- 7:50Speaker 2: healthy with his foot this past spring, so we missed
- 7:53Speaker 2: a lot of spring. But I would say the way
- 7:55Speaker 2: he carried himself, in the way he was a leader,
- 7:57Speaker 2: and then I would say once he was back, you know,
- 8:01Speaker 2: Coach Mick does a lot of things to great guys
- 8:03Speaker 2: and give feedback and help guys accountable. So he was
- 8:07Speaker 2: a guy that you know, impressed his teammates through the summer.
- 8:10Speaker 2: He was a guy that was all gold. He was
- 8:12Speaker 2: a guy that the leaders wanted to vote him onto
- 8:16Speaker 2: the leadership council. So he earned all that without him
- 8:19Speaker 2: playing football. So how do you stand out? It was
- 8:22Speaker 2: everything of the non talent issues, everything off the field
- 8:26Speaker 2: he stood out in and you know he's got to
- 8:28Speaker 2: continue bringing that day in and day out. But that
- 8:31Speaker 2: was probably what he did through the summer to you know,
- 8:34Speaker 2: get back on track and stay on track.
- 8:37Speaker 1: With all the hype around Jeremiah Smith and all the
- 8:40Speaker 1: excitement around a Meccabuka coming back for one more season,
- 8:43Speaker 1: it feels like Cardinal Tait is kind of getting overlooked
- 8:46Speaker 1: in a way. He is someone who is set to
- 8:49Speaker 1: be enter his second season now, and that's a year
- 8:51Speaker 1: when we've seen guys really take a big step Jackson
- 8:56Speaker 1: Smith and Jay but going from his first year of
- 8:57Speaker 1: his second year, it looked like a completely different wide
- 8:59Speaker 1: receive Marvin Harrison Junior very much the Sames. This is
- 9:03Speaker 1: a position where you often will see guys take a
- 9:05Speaker 1: big leap from year one to year two. So all right,
- 9:07Speaker 1: let's hear from Carnal Tait. We've seen guys kind of
- 9:10Speaker 1: explode in year two of their careers. Where do you
- 9:13Speaker 1: think you are entering year two? And then you're gonna
- 9:16Speaker 1: hear a couple of follow ups from our buddy Tony
- 9:18Speaker 1: Gerderman and Patrick Murphy. I fuck nuts dot com.
- 9:21Speaker 4: Yeah, I feel like I'm on that project you. I
- 9:23Speaker 4: feel like it's my time, No now, gon win. I
- 9:26Speaker 4: feel like I'm ready to embrace that.
- 9:27Speaker 3: Bigger road as we go on.
- 9:29Speaker 1: What does that look like making plays?
- 9:32Speaker 4: Go out there, hopefully have a thousand yards and make
- 9:34Speaker 4: plays for the team we needed and beat that go
- 9:36Speaker 4: to guy.
- 9:37Speaker 3: Is that a target ten thousand yards?
- 9:39Speaker 4: Oh yeah, definitely.
- 9:40Speaker 3: How many guys could have a thousand yards?
- 9:43Speaker 4: All three of us before of us can have a
- 9:45Speaker 4: thousand yards? Right, we got two great round They're gonna
- 9:47Speaker 4: have a thousand yards. So it just we gonna come
- 9:49Speaker 4: together as office execute.
- 9:51Speaker 1: Carnel Tate has been singled out as having the softest
- 9:54Speaker 1: hands on the team, the best hands on the team, whatever,
- 9:56Speaker 1: however you want to categorize that. His hands very good,
- 10:00Speaker 1: very good catcher of the football. Carnel Tait, So, how
- 10:03Speaker 1: do you develop that skill?
- 10:05Speaker 4: Oh, just concentration. You can't get in your hand, you
- 10:07Speaker 4: can't get to your head about it catching coming from
- 10:09Speaker 4: like the mice and mindset game. You when you start
- 10:12Speaker 4: dropping the ball, you can get into your head and
- 10:13Speaker 4: stuff like that. So you got to build confidence by
- 10:15Speaker 4: keep catching the ball.
- 10:16Speaker 1: And of course, whenever we're talking to players on the offense,
- 10:18Speaker 1: we've got to hear about the quarterback. Will Howard. He
- 10:21Speaker 1: came in in the spring, seemed like he was okay,
- 10:25Speaker 1: but not necessarily there. And it feels like he's taking
- 10:28Speaker 1: a big step between the spring and fall camp.
- 10:32Speaker 4: Now.
- 10:32Speaker 1: So how different is Will Howard now compared to how
- 10:34Speaker 1: he looked in the spring.
- 10:36Speaker 4: Oh, he's he's way more relaxed this time. Morale, he's mad.
- 10:39Speaker 4: He go out there making his mistakes that he learned
- 10:41Speaker 4: from next player and there bounce back the song to
- 10:44Speaker 4: usbout what he saw out there, how we can be
- 10:47Speaker 4: better and this and that.
- 10:49Speaker 1: Now, let's flip over under the defensive side of the
- 10:51Speaker 1: ball and cornerback Jordan Hancock. He's been playing nickel last year,
- 10:55Speaker 1: played nick gonna be playing nickel this year. The defense
- 10:59Speaker 1: had a lot to feel good about last year but
- 11:02Speaker 1: never created quite as many turnovers as I think they
- 11:04Speaker 1: probably would have liked. So is that sort of a
- 11:07Speaker 1: point of emphasis this year, not just getting stops but
- 11:10Speaker 1: getting turnovers as well.
- 11:11Speaker 5: Yeah, we want to make some big time plays this year.
- 11:14Speaker 5: We didn't really have too many last year. We need
- 11:17Speaker 5: some more turnovers. So that's really the point of emphasis,
- 11:20Speaker 5: whether that's getting punch outs on the ball or making
- 11:23Speaker 5: new subjects.
- 11:24Speaker 1: The Ohio State cornerback room has branded themselves BIA or
- 11:27Speaker 1: Best in America. That's been true for a number of
- 11:31Speaker 1: years that they've branded themselves that way, but it hasn't
- 11:33Speaker 1: necessarily always been true on the field. You probably remember
- 11:37Speaker 1: the twenty twenty and twenty twenty one Ohio State defenses.
- 11:39Speaker 1: So now with Jim Knowles in town, the defense has
- 11:43Speaker 1: gotten steadily better over the last couple of years, and
- 11:44Speaker 1: it feels like BIA really does live up to the
- 11:47Speaker 1: Moniker Now. So what does it mean to Jordan Hancock
- 11:51Speaker 1: to hold that room to that standard.
- 11:54Speaker 5: It means everything that is back to us, means everything
- 11:57Speaker 5: to the school, the people that came before us, Coach
- 12:01Speaker 5: walk I mean, we literally had talks like I remember
- 12:04Speaker 5: in twenty twenty two season, like we're going to bring
- 12:07Speaker 5: this thing back, like we talked about it so many times,
- 12:10Speaker 5: like the revival of BIA, Like we really talked about
- 12:13Speaker 5: this before it happened last year. So, I mean we
- 12:17Speaker 5: just seen it have a infruition. It's crazy, but we
- 12:19Speaker 5: kind of knew it was going to come back to
- 12:22Speaker 5: the standard and with those guys left behind us.
- 12:25Speaker 1: And finally Jermaine Matthews. He's someone who if a couple
- 12:29Speaker 1: of those guys who could have gone pro did go pro,
- 12:31Speaker 1: you probably would be hearing a lot about Jermaine Matthews
- 12:34Speaker 1: being a potential breakout player as a starter as a sophomore. Instead,
- 12:38Speaker 1: he is probably going to be maybe the fourth corner
- 12:41Speaker 1: something like that, behind Davison Aigunosen and Denzel Burke and
- 12:45Speaker 1: Jordan Hancock. No great shame in being behind those guys
- 12:47Speaker 1: as a second year player. But we have seen him
- 12:50Speaker 1: working both at the nickel and outside this fall at
- 12:53Speaker 1: various times during practices. So where has Jermaine Matthews been
- 12:56Speaker 1: playing more this fall?
- 12:58Speaker 3: I think the first Cup I was more of a nickel.
- 13:02Speaker 3: I think I've been more more outside. A couple of
- 13:05Speaker 3: players came back and so we got more depth now,
- 13:08Speaker 3: so I can just go back and forth and just
- 13:11Speaker 3: I think I think it's been a good mix of
- 13:13Speaker 3: fifty to fifty right now.
- 13:14Speaker 1: Matthews had a very impressive freshman season, getting on the
- 13:17Speaker 1: field early, looking impressive while he was out there, not
- 13:20Speaker 1: looking at all like a true freshman when he was
- 13:22Speaker 1: out there last fall. So what has he been working
- 13:25Speaker 1: on since last season to prepare himself for an even
- 13:27Speaker 1: bigger role this year?
- 13:29Speaker 3: Just being more valuable to the team, just like the
- 13:32Speaker 3: nickel thing. I didn't play nickel last year and I
- 13:34Speaker 3: started just letting it in the spring and just growing
- 13:36Speaker 3: more with it now. So I think just getting more
- 13:39Speaker 3: value for the team and just finding my way and
- 13:41Speaker 3: just buying into my role.
- 13:43Speaker 1: And finally, Jermaine Matthews was asked about a guy who
- 13:45Speaker 1: was in the same position that Matthews was this time
- 13:48Speaker 1: last year. So this time it's Aaron Scott, who's the
- 13:50Speaker 1: true freshman hoping to earn, you know, some snaps, earning
- 13:54Speaker 1: a little bit of a role on the defense this
- 13:56Speaker 1: year as a true freshman. Obviously probably not going to
- 13:58Speaker 1: be a Day one starter like that, but has a
- 14:01Speaker 1: chance to be a meaningful contributor to this team. So
- 14:04Speaker 1: what is your main Matthew seen out of Aaron Scott.
- 14:07Speaker 3: So far, Aaron has a big frame and he has
- 14:10Speaker 3: just a knack for just a position, and he's been
- 14:13Speaker 3: growing since he's got here. He's been growing a lot.
- 14:15Speaker 3: He's been showing improvement. So that's always a great science.
- 14:19Speaker 1: And again we will be back at the What He
- 14:21Speaker 1: Hates Athletic Center a little later on on Thursday, sort
- 14:23Speaker 1: of late morning early afternoon. Should have those live interviews
- 14:26Speaker 1: for you at YouTube dot com slash Buckeyehuddle. Planning to
- 14:29Speaker 1: probably do a little bit of a live episode after
- 14:33Speaker 1: that if time and space permits and we have the
- 14:35Speaker 1: ability to do that, we will try and do that
- 14:37Speaker 1: as well. So make sure you are subscribed to us
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- 14:44Speaker 1: do live shows, and make sure you're subscribed at Buckeye
- 14:46Speaker 1: Huddle dot com as well. That's where we have twenty
- 14:49Speaker 1: four to seven coverage of the Ohis Date Buckeyes, not
- 14:52Speaker 1: just on live here and there, we are there all
- 14:55Speaker 1: the time. Tony Kevin and I covering the team, Mark
- 14:57Speaker 1: cover recruiting our whole team of x's and those gus
- 15:00Speaker 1: there to make you a smarter football fan, all at
- 15:02Speaker 1: buckeyehuddle dot com. We hope to see you there. That'll
- 15:05Speaker 1: do it for today. Thank you guys all for joining us.
- 15:07Speaker 1: Have a great day. We'll talk to you tomorrow