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Ohio State Adds SEC Defensive Back Through Transfer Portal · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Welcome to buck Eyes tomorrow morning for Saturday May eighteenth, IM your host Tom
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  Moore. The Akron game in one hundred and five days, the game against
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  Michigan in one hundred and ninety six days. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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  We don't normally do weekend shows this time of year unless there's news, and
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  well, friends, there is news. Ohio State has added a defensive back
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  out of the SEC via the transfer portal. Just when you thought the transfer
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  portal was done for the spring, more news is here. Keenan Nelson Junior,
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  a secondary player from the University of South Carolina and also from Saint Joseph
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  Prepp the same high school that produced Marvin Harrison Junior and Jim Knowles and Tom
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  McCord. Well, he is now following basketball player Michi Johnson from South Carolina
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  to Ohio State this offseason. So let's talk about Keenan Nelson Junior what he
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  might bring to the buck Eyes. We're doing that with our buddy, Tony
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  Gerdaman of Buckeyhuddle dot Com. Tony, this is one where this is not
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  necessarily a move that I think is going to make a massive difference on the
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  twenty twenty four Black Eyes but this might long term be a really really impactful
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  addition. Yeah, because you're talking about a red shirt sophomore who doesn't necessarily
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  need to play this year, but with how much the coaches have talked about
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  wanting to play as many players as possible, should still get some good action
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  this year and then compete for a starting job next year. And you look
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  at a size six went to South Carolina as a corner, has played nickel,
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  and I think could transition continue to that, that transition to safety.
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  And when we look at what Ohio State has been trying to do into portal,
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  they've been trying to replace the departure of Jahad Carter. Basically, when
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  they're bringing in safety is looking for somebody to just fill that role as a
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  guy that can play, doesn't necessarily have to play, but also special teams,
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  but a guy that has some experience. And even though Keenan Nelson is
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  a red shirt sophomore, he played four games as a true freshman, starting
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  the ball game and also started three games last year as a red shirt freshman,
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  so has some experience. But we'll get more experience in the lead up
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  to competing for a starting job next year. And this is a spot where
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  if it's Nickel, you're losing Jordan Hancock after the season, and you have
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  guys who they may feel comfortable with and like Lorenzo Styles for example, could
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  be there. That just brought in Miles Lockhart this year as potentially a slot
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  kind of corner guy, so you know, you could see him slot in
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  there. You could see him at the safety position. Because safety. They
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  feel very, very good about the top line of their safeties right now with
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  Lathan Ransom and Caleb Downs, and I think they feel pretty good about Moli
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  Hartford. And you saw some you know, encouraging stuff out of guys like
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  Jayden Bondsu and Jail and McLain. They've also had a ton of turnover there
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  over the last few years, and just a little bit of depth there wouldn't
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  hurt. And it gives you another opportunity to another guy to play there in
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  the net in the next year or two. As you said, he did
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  start the Gator Bowl against Notre Dame that was at Nickel. He started three
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  games last year at Nickel as well. So you know, I don't want
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  to make this sound like, oh here comes Caleb Down's Part two, but
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  this is a guy who's now played I mean, South Carolina is a pretty
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  solid team. They were kind of a I think they were a bowl team
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  each of the last couple of years. And you know this, this feels
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  like this is a no risk, potentially fairly significant reward move for Ohio State.
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  Yeah, I would, I would agree with that. And you're talking
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  about a four star recruit who had offers from Georgia, from Miami, from
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  Notre Dame, Oregon, Penn State, Tennessee schools like that. So you've
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  got that frame, that ability to cover, and if it does end up
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  at nickel or safety, now you're talking about an additional skill to a guy
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  that can just drop back or defend the run as a strong safety. So
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  I think there's some versatility to his game that they can explore over the next
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  over this course of this year and see where he does fit in best you
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  look at you're talking about the depth that they've lost at safety. They've also
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  dealt with injuries the past, however, many years at safety. So just
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  bringing in more guys because while everybody's healthy right now, everybody's you know,
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  that's that's doesn't mean they're going to be healthy in October or November or January,
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  So you want to as many guys as you can afford to have,
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  basically, and we know they've got a couple of spots remaining of their eighty
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  five and so this gives you some insurance. Also sounds like pretty talented insurance.
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  I was trying to trying to watch a little bit of the North Carolina
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  game from this past from last year before we jumped on, just to see,
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  you know a little bit, and you know, like, like I
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  said, he's six one, one ninety five as of last year, has
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  that frame that you like for any those positions. And when you talk about
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  the nickel, I mean that's basically what we talked about with John Carter last
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  year. You know, like a guy who was coming in and could compete
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  for that nickel spot, but has also played the other spots. And I'm
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  not expecting to have Nelson compete for the nickel this year. That's Jordan Hancock's
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  job. But we've seen Jermaine Matthews there in terms of depth and of course
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  Lorenzo styles, So you're not gonna want Jermaine Matthews there next year. You're
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  gonna want him outside. So this kind of moves moves Nelson in there to
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  perhaps compete with with everybody Lorenzo Styles, Miles Lockhart, like you said,
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  in that spot, and so there's some different things they can do with them.
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  It just depends they'll obviously learn a lot more about him this year to
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  figure out how they best want to use them. But I like the potential,
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  you know, I think there are two interesting things you said sort of
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  separately there that I want to kind of swish together here for a minute.
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  Number One, they have the roster spots. They are probably at least a
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  little under eighty five right now, so you're a little short in terms of
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  numbers. And also, how many times have we talked this offseason about the
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  amount of depth they're going to need this year to get through the potentially sixteen
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  games or seventeen games of what the college football season could be if you get
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  to the national championship game. So you're going to need more depth. You
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  have a bunch of guys who are, you know, second year type players
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  who have transferred out, third year type players who have transferred out, so
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  you do need to fill some of those spots. Were talking about where he
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  might fit on defense, they might need him on special teams this year because
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  a lot of the guys who might be the sort of traditional not necessarily true
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  freshman, you know, red shirt freshman, red shirt sophomores, those kinds
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  of guys who tend to be sort of your stalwarts on special teams, a
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  lot of those guys have left now. And he blocked a punt, blocked
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  his first career punt in the first quarter against Vanderbilt and took it to the
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  house for an eighteen yard touchdown, according to the South Carolina website. So
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  you know, you may have you know, this may be someone who is
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  a real contributor on special teams this year and then it's more of a defensive
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  look moving forward. But you know, this is the kind of this is
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  the kind of profile Tony that that's you know, that a secondary player that
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  can be a punt coverage guy, that can be a gunner on punts.
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  We can see, you know, we'll see what it looks like on kickoff
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  returns or whatever. But you know, this is the type of player who
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  could fit a lot of different spots on special teams as well as on defense.
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  Yeah, and that's also something you have to replace with losing Jahad Carter
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  who was involved in special teams. So, yeah, an athlete that can
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  do some different things for you. And yeah, that special teams is something
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  we don't often talk about, but it's something that the coaches are always talking
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  about. And they've got the different units and how are we looking there and
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  what's the too deep They're like, we've never put together I don't know how
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  many people have ever put together too deep of every special teams unit because nobody
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  does. The coaches do and so when they talk about, well, we
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  don't really have depth charts stuff. If you ask him about special teams,
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  I'll probably be like, well, we've got some stuff there, you know,
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  We've we've got got some we know what we've got there. But that's
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  also a bunch of guys where that's your first opportunity to get on the field,
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  and that's where you're trying to show yourself. So you get a lot
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  of really good effort there. And this is gonna be a guy coming in
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  trying to prove himself. He'll have to do it in the weight room initially,
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  and that really that's what's going on. And maybe some some throwing and
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  things like that, some voluntary stuff put together by the players. But then
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  once you you know, once they get into practice, you're trying to prove
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  yourself anyway you can. You're trying to earn your way onto the field,
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  and it's it's if you've kind of been brought up with special teams, it's
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  a lot easier to bake that in as they come into Ohio State. It's
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  like, we're gonna need you on special teams, no problem, coach,
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  That's what I'm used to when you get them in young like this. Now,
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  Caleb Downs probably do whatever you ask him to do. But if you're
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  like Caleb, we just we really just need somebody to cover kicks, you
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  know, we don't even like that's not actually going to have be a conversation
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  that they have. But this one with Keenan Nelson, like, this is
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  what we're looking for, and I think it's interesting that he's you're finding players
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  that are open to that, Like, we don't have a starting spot for
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  you defensively, we have a role that you can fill if you can handle
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  it, and then perhaps next year there's a wealth of opportunity. And the
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  kid is like, sounds good to me. Well, and you can also
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  with the relationship that I'm sure Jim Knowles has with his alma mater, Saint
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  Joseph's PREPP in Philadelphia, which is the same high school as I mentioned earlier.
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  As Keenan Nelson, you probably have a decent sense for what kind of
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  kid is this and is this someone who would be willing to do that,
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  and you know, maybe have some of those conversations with the coach and sort
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  of understanding who who you're talking to and who you're potentially bringing onto the team
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  before you have any actual conversations with the player, so that you know that
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  can help maybe you sort of shape that conversation as well. So well,
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  we will be following any other transfer portal developments in the coming days. Michigan
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  added a safety in the transfer portal on Friday as well, so still some
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  action there in the portal for a number of teams in the Big Ten.
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  We're also going to be having a live show special live stream. Instant reaction
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  to the EA Sports College Football twenty five trailer revealed they finally are putting out
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  the trailer with some gameplay that's coming out on Friday morning. Tony and I'll
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  have a live stream as soon as that drops probably eleven thirty ish on Friday,
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  but we'll see what time the trailer actually comes out, so you can
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  look for that at YouTube dot com, slash bucka Huddle, and of course
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  we still have our South Southern Swing going on. Mark and Kevin driving all
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  over the South talking to some of the best football players in the country about
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  where they stand with Ohio State, where they stand with the recruitments in general,
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  and much more. All of that is at buckeheddle dot com right now.
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  Lots of great insider content for you members only. If you want to
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  sign up today get access to all of that great content. You can do
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  that at bucke huddle dot com and take advantage of our annual subscription sale that's
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  going on right now. That's about that window is about to close, so
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  if you want to slide in there before that closes, get about forty percent
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  off the cost of an annual membership. Get access to our whole team of
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  insiders, Tony, Kevin and I covering the team, Mark covering recruiting,
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  and of course our whole team of excess and O's Guruz making you a smarter
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  football fan. All at buckey Huddle dot com. That'll do it for today.
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  Thank you guys all for joining us. Have a great day. We'll
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  talk John Monday.