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Did Ohio State Just Have The Greatest Season In College Football History? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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Speaker 1: Welcome to buck Eyes tomorrow morning for Wednesday, January twenty second.
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Speaker 1: I'm your host, tom Or. The Texas game is in
0:05
Speaker 1: two hundred and twenty days. The game we get to
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Speaker 1: Michigan in three hundred and eleven days. If you were
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Speaker 1: Tony Gridaman joins me This morning, we are wrapping up
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Speaker 1: our coverage from Atlanta. Just got a chance to talk
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Speaker 1: to Ryan Day, Will Howard and Cody Simon. Normally it's
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Speaker 1: hard when we've got to remember like eight guys for interviews.
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Speaker 1: We're both going on about three hours of sleep, so
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Speaker 1: even three names is a little bit of a challenge.
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Speaker 1: This morning, we get a chance to talk to them
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Speaker 1: before they sort of wrapped up their trip to Atlanta
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Speaker 1: and headed back to Columbus. And you know, the morning
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Speaker 1: after press conference for people are is like, you just
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Speaker 1: got a chance to talk to him, like literally six
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Speaker 1: hours ago.
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Speaker 2: What could you possibly have to say? It's different. There's
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Speaker 2: a little bit of time for reflection after the game.
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Speaker 1: You know that immediately after the game that kind of
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Speaker 1: wearing off and everyone's kind of like, all right, but
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Speaker 1: you haven't had time to kind of process the morning
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Speaker 1: after you have had at least a couple hours to
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Speaker 1: sleep on it. There were a couple of interesting questions.
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Speaker 1: One of them was one that I go back to
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Speaker 1: after the twenty nineteen Ohio State Michigan game, right where
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Speaker 1: Ryan Day You might have been the one who asked him, Yeah,
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Speaker 1: are you feeling.
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Speaker 2: More like joy or relief right now?
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Speaker 1: He got asked that same question after in the morning
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Speaker 1: after the national championship.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, that was one of the questions.
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Speaker 4: I was thinking about asking him again, but I didn't
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Speaker 4: want to bring up Michigan on this day.
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Speaker 2: You know, Oh, don't worry. There's always a national guy
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Speaker 2: willing to do that.
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Speaker 4: Yes, but yeah, again, it's both. But as the head
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Speaker 4: coach in Ohio State, the expectations create this thing where
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Speaker 4: there's going to be a relief when you do it,
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Speaker 4: but the fact that you've just done something like this
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Speaker 4: and your team has done something like this.
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Speaker 3: It's joy.
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Speaker 4: I think that the question was about like the spectrum
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Speaker 4: from relief to Joy's like, I don't know if it
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Speaker 4: was just I don't know if it's a spectrum, but
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Speaker 4: they're both. And you talked about the mix of emotions
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Speaker 4: going on, and certainly when your athletic director comes out
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Speaker 4: and puts a price tag on this team, that creates
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Speaker 4: a level of expectations that were unnecessary. Yeah, everybody talks
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Speaker 4: about the Ohio State paying twenty million as if no
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Speaker 4: other program has put a cent into into their players,
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Speaker 4: And so that creates a level of expectations.
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Speaker 3: And that's all weight that all everybody had to carry.
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Speaker 3: And so when you do.
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Speaker 4: Overcome, all not overcome, but you make it through, there's
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Speaker 4: gonna be relief from that weight being lifted off of you.
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Speaker 4: But then also you are trying to win a national
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Speaker 4: championship and you do that, there's gonna be a ton
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Speaker 4: of joy as well.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure.
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Speaker 1: And you know, you look at the pictures from after
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Speaker 1: the game and the joy is quite evident, and you know,
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Speaker 1: and that ga Abuka crying on the field, and then
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Speaker 1: you know that was sort of the immediate reaction. And
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Speaker 1: ran A talked about throwing his headset and having no
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Speaker 1: recollection of doing that and having no light what he
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Speaker 1: did that.
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Speaker 2: But it just sort of is that like.
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Speaker 1: Cathartic kind of almost release after a long year, you know,
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Speaker 1: four long years, five long years for some of these guys,
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Speaker 1: and then a real long month and a half or
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Speaker 1: so following that Michigan game where the end of November
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Speaker 1: there is a lot of you know, a lot of
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Speaker 1: you know, consternation around the team, a lot of uncertainty
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Speaker 1: about the team, and then you know, this is about
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Speaker 1: the best possible outcome. And Ryan Day has talked about
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Speaker 1: the fact that there are so many incredible stories on
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Speaker 1: this team and you only get those stories. Those stories
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Speaker 1: only get told if you win. If they if they lose,
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Speaker 1: everyone leaves and they move on for the NFL Draft
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Speaker 1: and you never see these guys again, and you don't
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Speaker 1: talk to them anymore, you know, other than randomly bumping
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Speaker 1: into people are on the sidelines or whatever.
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Speaker 2: This is is.
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Speaker 1: Ryan Day said, you know, the story of the team
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Speaker 1: is written, you know, but it only gets told if
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Speaker 1: they win the National Championship. Now can be told. And
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Speaker 1: you asked him about the stories. Okay, Ryan, let's have
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Speaker 1: let's have a an editorial meeting. What story should be told?
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Speaker 3: Yeah, do my work for me, sir. I did ask him, like.
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Speaker 2: What I don't recall you calling, what are.
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Speaker 4: The some of the under the radar stories that you
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Speaker 4: want to be told? And the thing about this team
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Speaker 4: is they're all like they should all be told.
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Speaker 3: Is the way you talk to the players you doctor
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Speaker 3: right day?
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Speaker 4: And he's like, shoot, you know, if you if you
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Speaker 4: mentioned one guy and you leave somebody else out, and
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Speaker 4: he's like, he got down to Jackson and he starts
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Speaker 4: talking about him, and then you know, you got uh
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Speaker 4: Laythan Ransom and he just then ty Hamilton and Tyler
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Speaker 4: Williams and he just kept naming names and then talking
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Speaker 4: a little bit about them, and you can see the
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Speaker 4: the the you don't want to forget somebody, but you
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Speaker 4: also want to mention people. And he just say like,
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Speaker 4: this is not this right now is not the time
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Speaker 4: to talk about all of those because what do you say.
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Speaker 4: I could talk for forty five minutes about down to Jackson,
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Speaker 4: I could talk forever about Laithe and like.
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Speaker 3: You're talking about an eighteen hour conversation.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, basically, so you just discussed the seniors basically.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, And we did kind of went through this
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Speaker 1: doing the live postgame show where we just started thinking
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Speaker 1: about like, oh Carson Hinzman boy that he had a
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Speaker 1: crazy year, and oh boy, Luke Montgomery boy stepping up
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Speaker 1: and oh man, I mean, you could just do the
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Speaker 1: offensive line. You could the six offensive lineman playing in
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Speaker 1: five spots. You could spend a whole top bunch of
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Speaker 1: time talking about that. And that doesn't get into the
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Speaker 1: two running backs or the quarterback or the wive hit.
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Speaker 1: I mean, it's just the eldest camp for the offensive Yeah. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: I mean, it's just so many stories around this team.
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Speaker 1: One of the stories about this team and about Ohio
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Speaker 1: State football history is Paul Brown, Woody Hayes, Jim Tressel,
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Speaker 1: urban Meyer, Brian Day. That is a pretty darn good
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Speaker 1: group of company to have Football Hall of Famer, Football
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Speaker 1: Hall of Famer, Football Hall of Famer, newly inducted Football
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Speaker 1: Hall of Famer, and Ryan Day, Ryan Day. That is
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Speaker 1: pretty good company for Ryan Day to be keeping. And
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Speaker 1: this is one of these questions. I forget who asked it,
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Speaker 1: but whoever it was phrased, it really will he basically said,
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Speaker 1: will Cody Ryan's going to not want to answer this
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Speaker 1: about himself, make him answer this about himself. Ryan Day
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Speaker 1: what does this mean to you to hear Ryan Day's
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Speaker 1: name in conjunction with those other names.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, it's it's a lot because you're talking about legit
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Speaker 4: Hall of famers and now you are part of that, and.
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Speaker 3: You're a pretty humble guy.
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Speaker 4: But like you also can't be so humble to have
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Speaker 4: this job, you know, like you've got to take.
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Speaker 3: Some pride in that and take some pride you work.
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Speaker 3: But it's not about him.
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Speaker 4: He'll continue to say that, But look at those names,
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Speaker 4: Paul Brown, Woody Hayes, Jim Trussell, Urben Meyer, and now
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Speaker 4: Ryan Day.
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Speaker 3: And that's forever. And some of.
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Speaker 4: The discussion this week was if Rian Day wins it
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Speaker 4: like what is what is the Ohio State mount Rushmore
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Speaker 4: of coaches?
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Speaker 3: And it's like, you know what, let's just let's just.
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Speaker 4: Make it five. Yeah, let's just go five. There's room.
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Speaker 4: It's a big mountain. And with this now like seventy
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Speaker 4: and ten career record, eight seventy five winning percentage better
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Speaker 4: than any of those guys on that list.
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Speaker 2: Yeah.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, And and this is one of these things where
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Speaker 1: now you do this and now you know twenty seventy
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Speaker 1: five or whenever you're writing the Ryan Day obituary. The
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Speaker 1: first paragraph is National championship winning head coach Ryan Day.
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Speaker 2: That's it.
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Speaker 1: And that's one of the things that you know, you
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Speaker 1: have your family who knows you better publicly, you were
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Speaker 1: going to be known now as national championship winning head
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Speaker 1: coach Ryan Day forever.
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Speaker 2: That's it.
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Speaker 1: Like you know the these sports memorabilia shows where the
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Speaker 1: guys are signing their name and it's like Hall of Famer,
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Speaker 1: that's it.
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Speaker 2: You can sign it.
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Speaker 1: Ryan Day, National championship winning head coach. He probably doesn't
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Speaker 1: need to do to memory winning memorabilia shows because he's
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Speaker 1: he's getting paid just fine. But you know, if he
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Speaker 1: chooses to, he is forever National champion winning head coach
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Speaker 1: Ryan Day.
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Speaker 2: Will Howard is.
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Speaker 1: Now National championship winning starting quarterback Will Howard. He's another
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Speaker 1: one of those stories where he came from Kansas State
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Speaker 1: to Ohio State and left Kansas State because well, Kansas
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Speaker 1: State had a better officer. They were going to play
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Speaker 1: the young guy. You know what you have with Will
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Speaker 1: Howard and it's just not good enough for Kansas State.
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Speaker 1: It's good enough for Ohio State. Good enough for Ohio State.
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Speaker 4: And this wasn't just this is prior when they Will
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Speaker 4: Howard Kansastate went out and got Adrian Martinez and then
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Speaker 4: they went with the they were thinking to going with
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Speaker 4: the young guy this year, and so well every side
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Speaker 4: decided to leave and it's like all right, and then
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Speaker 4: he comes to Ohio State and the reaction was pretty
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Speaker 4: mixed among media and fans, and yet he got the
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Speaker 4: lessons of a lifetime with Ryan Day and becoming a
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Speaker 4: much better quarterback than he was. And Ryan Day is
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Speaker 4: so complimentary of Will Howard when somebody asked him about
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Speaker 4: his pro prospect and he said, Will Howard, ninety percent
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Speaker 4: of the plays that they throw in there, there are
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Speaker 4: two to three plays in there for him to check
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Speaker 4: and make right.
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Speaker 3: And that's a lot to handle. Not everybody can handle it.
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Speaker 4: And so he's already a professional in terms of what
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Speaker 4: he can handle. We've talked before about Chip Kelly starts
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Speaker 4: to play in the in the mic, in the helmet,
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Speaker 4: and Will Howard is finishing it. So he's got this
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Speaker 4: offense and he picked it up pretty quickly. You know,
9:24
Speaker 4: he's only been here a year now. Yeah, probably exactly, Yeah,
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Speaker 4: pretty much exactly. But he picked up the offense and
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Speaker 4: then was able to metch with essentially two new offensive coordinators,
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Speaker 4: you know a little bit there with Bill O'Brien and
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Speaker 4: then the Chip Kelly.
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Speaker 1: And he's another guy who, like you said, he's been
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Speaker 1: here a year a year ago. Will Howard is a
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Speaker 1: little bit of a hoodat among Ohio State football fans,
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Speaker 1: and now he's going to go down in you know,
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Speaker 1: he's national championship quarterback winning quarterback Will Howard. And you
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Speaker 1: look at Greg Frenzel, Craig Crenzell has made a little
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Speaker 1: bit of a career of being Ohio State national championship
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Speaker 1: quarterback Greg Krenzel. Cardile Jones certainly has Rex Kern is
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Speaker 1: you know, Rex Kern is not not local anymore, but
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Speaker 1: he is certainly a name that everyone knows. Will Howard,
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Speaker 1: from Pennsylvania, spent most of his career Kansas State, is
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Speaker 1: now going to be one of those names that Ohios
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Speaker 1: Date football fans are going to be talking about forty
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Speaker 1: years from now, fifty years from now.
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Speaker 2: That's that's pretty remarkable.
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Speaker 1: What did you do with the last twelve months, Well,
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Speaker 1: probably not as much as Will Howard. And then the
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Speaker 1: last guy who was up there, another guy who is
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Speaker 1: a remarkable story in and of himself.
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Speaker 2: Cody Simon out of Jersey City, New Jersey.
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Speaker 1: You know, we did a show talking about Mitchell Melton
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Speaker 1: and you know his kind of long and winding path
10:43
Speaker 1: and there's a mite Milton Mitch Moultain transfering to Virginuated
10:46
Speaker 1: a breaking news show on that if you want to
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Speaker 1: hear about that. Cody Simon had kind of a long
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Speaker 1: and winding path as well. He was a little bit
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Speaker 1: he was a starter at least part of the twenty
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Speaker 1: twenty what one season, yeah, one season as sophomore and
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Speaker 1: then didn't play much and lost his starting role. And
11:02
Speaker 1: when he came back this year, I think a lot
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Speaker 1: of that, you know, it was during that whole like
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Speaker 1: this guy's coming back and this guy's coming back, and
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Speaker 1: when Cody Simon came back, I think it was kind
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Speaker 1: of met sort of with a little bit of a
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Speaker 1: shrug by out house date fans because it's like, well,
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Speaker 1: I mean he's been around, but he's you know, he's
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Speaker 1: never been really that good, So like, you know, whatever,
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Speaker 1: you know better I guess to have him than not.
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Speaker 1: And then he turns in a remarkable year. I mean, captain,
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Speaker 1: where's the blocout statistically just constantly at the top of
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Speaker 1: the statuet every game in terms of tackles, just.
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Speaker 2: Rock solid at linebacker.
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Speaker 1: He was asked about the best moments of his career,
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Speaker 1: and you know, this is always one of those things
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Speaker 1: that's really telling where it's like you'd think, like, oh,
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Speaker 1: standing up on the stage with my teammates and like.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm sure that was up there for him.
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Speaker 1: But what was What is voice interesting me is it's
11:54
Speaker 1: all the little stuff. It's all the stuff that you
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Speaker 1: don't see that that is what really means a lot
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Speaker 1: to these guys.
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Speaker 3: Yeah.
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Speaker 4: I just talked about the time with his teammates, whether
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Speaker 4: it's in the locker room and the way room you mentioned,
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Speaker 4: the cafeteria, like all of that. That brotherhood, the camaraderie
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Speaker 4: where you get close to each other. And he's been
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Speaker 4: around forever, so he's gotten close, really close with the
12:14
Speaker 4: twenty twenty two class as well because he's been around
12:18
Speaker 4: with them and it's just that brotherhood. And that's why
12:21
Speaker 4: they try to keep They try to give put so
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Speaker 4: much in the woody in the whack, like they don't
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Speaker 4: want the players necessarily leaving for anything other than the
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Speaker 4: classroom at home. Yeah, and they try to have everything
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Speaker 4: there for them and build that brotherhood and this over
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Speaker 4: this last month, Sarande said, they've been together pretty much
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Speaker 4: twenty four to seven and they're not really sick of
12:40
Speaker 4: each other.
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Speaker 3: Yeah.
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Speaker 1: Well, as long as you're winning, that helps, and buck,
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Speaker 1: guys did it. Just keep winning and the final AP
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Speaker 1: Pole is out. You can set your faces to stunned.
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Speaker 1: Ohio's date. He's number one in the AP Pole. Well done, writers,
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Speaker 1: you got it right, and you know. But what's interesting
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Speaker 1: is some of the other teams in the APE Pole.
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Speaker 1: His wins over number two Notre Dame, number three Oregon,
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Speaker 1: number four, Texas, number five, Penn State, they have defeated
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Speaker 1: the entire rest of the top five. They also beat
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Speaker 1: number nine Tennessee. They also beat number ten Indiana. That
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Speaker 1: is six of the top ten teams in the final
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Speaker 1: AP Pole. I have not gone back and done a
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Speaker 1: deep dive on any other team's resume, and this may
13:22
Speaker 1: become something close to the new norm in the future.
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Speaker 1: Ohio State got a good head start by playing a
13:27
Speaker 1: couple of those teams in the regular seasons as well.
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Speaker 1: But I look at that and it's like, boy, show
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Speaker 1: me a better resume of any team ever.
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Speaker 3: Can't and no better resume, no better run.
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Speaker 4: And again, this is the first time somebody's had to
13:41
Speaker 4: do this, but it's nothing has even come close to that.
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Speaker 4: And we know they've beaten more top five a top
13:49
Speaker 4: five teams than anybody else in history. And then to
13:52
Speaker 4: just see like two, three, four, five, nine, ten, other
13:57
Speaker 4: teams are fortunate that they did run into the Ohio
13:59
Speaker 4: State bus.
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Speaker 3: But I don't think that that's going.
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Speaker 4: To be equal and it may be approached just because
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Speaker 4: of the system that we're now in, but good luck
14:07
Speaker 4: besting that one or even equaling it.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean again, they had two of those wins
14:12
Speaker 1: before the playoffs started, which that's a remarkable headstart. They
14:16
Speaker 1: played a tough schedule this year, and you know, I
14:19
Speaker 1: know that there were a lot of folks who were, oh, well,
14:21
Speaker 1: you know, if they played in the NCC, they'd be
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Speaker 1: six and five.
14:24
Speaker 2: He's sure, sure, sure they would, Tony, Sure they would.
14:27
Speaker 4: And there may be one versus two start next year
14:31
Speaker 4: against Texas. Yeahing, So probably a top five matchup Ohio
14:36
Speaker 4: State Texas, because Ohio State, even though they're losing a
14:38
Speaker 4: ton there's still gonna be one of the most talented
14:40
Speaker 4: teams in the Big Ten, and they'll get some credit
14:43
Speaker 4: and respect and probably why not hype them up.
14:46
Speaker 3: Yeah, when you've got a season opening match against.
14:48
Speaker 1: Texas, Yeah, for sure that'll be That'll be one we're
14:50
Speaker 1: gonna be talking about.
14:51
Speaker 2: We'll be talking about literally every day on this.
14:53
Speaker 1: Show as we count down to the countdown to the
14:55
Speaker 1: Texas team. Two hundred and twenty short days a way.
14:58
Speaker 1: But between then and then and now, there's a celebration
15:00
Speaker 1: to be had this weekend in Columbus, Ohio. There's probably
15:03
Speaker 1: a trip to sixteen hundred Pennsylvania Avenue in the making
15:06
Speaker 1: at some point for the Buckeyes. Spring ball is going
15:09
Speaker 1: to be happening at some point, we don't know. Ryande
15:11
Speaker 1: said that there were going to be probably some changes
15:13
Speaker 1: to that just because the season went turns out, the
15:15
Speaker 1: season if you keep playing, the season goes a little longer,
15:17
Speaker 1: and there's probably a little bit of an adjustment to
15:19
Speaker 1: the schedule to be made there. What's that all going
15:22
Speaker 1: to look like, Well, we will figure that out all
15:24
Speaker 1: with you at bucke Huddle dot com.
15:26
Speaker 2: That's where Tony Kevin and Nike cover the team.
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Speaker 1: Mark Curfus recruiting, got our whole team of ex's and
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Speaker 1: those gurus there to make you a smarter football fan.
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Speaker 1: We are also mailing out confetti from the National Championship
15:37
Speaker 1: game to our members. If you are not a member,
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Speaker 1: you should get on that real quick because we're not
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Speaker 1: Columbus all at buckey Huddle dot com. That will do
15:55
Speaker 1: it for today. Thank you guys all for joining us.
15:57
Speaker 1: Have a great day. We'll talk jit tomorrow