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4 Young Buckeyes Who Could Make Big Moves In 2024 · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Welcome to buck Eyes tomorrow morning for Monday, June third. I'm your host,
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  Tom Moore. The Akron game in eighty nine days, the game against
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  Michigan in one hundred and eighty days. The first big official visit weekend of
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  the summer is in the books for Ohio State. They brought in some very
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  very big name players this weekend. Why are we not talking about that on
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  today's show. Well, veterans of the recruiting process, let's say, are
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  aware of the fact that there is a certain post visit shine where day or
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  two after you maybe get a better look at that what the impact of those
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  visits really were after the guys get home and kind of get back into the
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  normal life. So we're going to take another day or so and wait,
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  and we'll talk about that stuff a little later on the week. Today,
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  we're gonna talking about something completely different one with our buddy Tony Gerderman of Buckehuddle
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  dot Com. Tony's been working through a series of profile stories on a bunch
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  of young Buckeyes who could be taking on bigger roles with the team this year.
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  We're going to talking about a few of those guys on today's show.
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  You want more information on the recruiting weekend, well you can check that out
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  the Huddle Board presented by Jeff Ruby Steak House at bucke huddle dot com for
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  a bunch of that information. So, Tony, let's start with maybe the
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  player that people are most excited about outside of Jeremiah Smith in the true freshman
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  class, and that is quarterback Julian Saying. He is He was very,
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  very very briefly a member of the Alabama Crimson Tide, signed with them and
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  then transferred over to Ohio State in January. Maybe a big impression this spring.
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  How big it have been an impact do you think Julian Saying could have
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  on the Ohio State team this fall? That's a loaded question, Tom,
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  because if it's a big impact, if that could be a terrible thing or
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  certainly an interesting thing. But when you are the he was. There are
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  there only two freshmen that lost their black stripes in the spring, and Saying
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  was one of them. Boston after his twelfth practice, I believe so pretty
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  quickly among even through throughout the history of the program, the twelve thirteen years
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  that the black stripe has been and ben years since serb Meyer brought it in
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  twenty twelve. But in terms of the impact this year, and I think
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  I posted this on the Huddle message board on Sunday, is that I don't
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  expect him to start this year because there's some more experienced guys ahead of him.
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  However, we have not seen enough from Will Howard or Devin Brown in
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  this offense to think that, oh, they can keep the job. Like,
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  we haven't seen enough of them to think that they have this thing wrapped
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  up. Even you know, whoever wins the job hasn't been here long enough
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  or hasn't done enough to where you know for a fact that they're gonna be
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  able to handle it. So I expect one of those two guys to take
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  the or both of those guys to take the majority of the snaps. But
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  I'm not going to be shocked if we see Julian saying in some games this
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  year. And you know, Devin Brown injury history, who knows what happens.
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  We've seen we've seen the third string quarterback come into play for in recent
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  history, So I don't expect them to have a huge impact. But the
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  way they talk about him, if they had to turn to him, it
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  doesn't sound like they would be terribly worried. And you got to remember,
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  of course, he just did come in in January, so between now and
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  the season, he has the opportunity to basically double or more the number of
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  reps he's gotten in the offense before the season starts. I'm with you,
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  I certainly don't expect him to start Game one. I think that would take
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  probably either something remarkably good for him or remarkably bad in terms of injury or
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  play, you know, quality of play from the other two guys who are
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  you know, the more veteran guys in that room. But you couldn't.
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  You can't tell me there's no chance he starts, or no chance that he
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  makes some kind of a material impact in something other than garbage time this year.
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  So yeah, he is. He is definitely an interesting one to watch.
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  Next up, another guy who is a very very big name player,
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  five star prospect in this class who is not Jeremiah Smith, who is a
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  wide receiver. And now everyone's kind of thinking, wait a minute, wait,
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  oh, yes, Milon Graham. That's right. Graham was not in
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  for the spring, but he's coming in in June. In January and June
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  and now he's got an opportunity to potentially take on some kind of a role.
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  Tony and I did basically an entire episode of the Buckeye Weekly podcast about
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  Milon and Graham and what he might do this fall last week. So we
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  want to hear a little more down, you know, deep dive on Mile
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  and Graham. You can do. You can find that in the Buckeye Weekly
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  podcast feed. But Tony, you know, he's Milon. Graham's another one
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  where I don't expect him to be an immediate impact day one starter by any
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  means. But if you you know, by the end of the year,
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  I don't think you could tell me he's definitely not going to be an impact
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  player for them. Yeah, I'm I'm with you on that one. I
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  think he has ability to make an impact. Plus, when you consider that
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  three members of the four member twenty twenty two recruiting class are no longer here
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  at Ohio State at Receiver one of the four twenty twenty two or twenty twenty
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  three signees has gone as well, and Noah Rodgers. So there's there's four
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  guys out of the picture that would normally be in the picture and creating a
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  more difficult depth chart to traverse, and so now there's an easier quote unquote
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  easier path relative to what it could have been for playing time. So,
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  you know, myle and Graham coming in in June hurts him and hurts his
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  ability to help right away, but it's a very long season. They're gonna
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  want to get him in there when they can and put him in good situations
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  to succeed. They're not gonna want to put him in situations that he can't
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  handle. But you've got to get him in as early as possible so that
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  if you do need him later on, it's not the first time he's out
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  there. Yeah, it definitely would not say there's a clear path of the
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  playing field there, but this may be, you know, with the number
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  of guys that have left over the last couple of years, and as as
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  that depth chart is at wide receiver, maybe you're going from running the Berkeley
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  Marathon, which is the one that they run through the woods in North Carolina
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  that only a handful of people have ever finished, to maybe running a regular
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  marathon where it's not no one's saying it's easy, but there is a way
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  to potentially get there that more than one person might be able to do in
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  a year. So you know, we'll see whether Myle and Graham and get
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  there or not. But you know there is a path there for him to
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  get to the to get on the depth chart. You know that. On
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  that Bucky Weekly show, we talked about maybe you know, the Chrysal Lave
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  path where it's kind of a middle of the season, late season you start
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  making a little bit more of an impact. We will see if he follows
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  follows that path or blazes his own we will see next up. You know,
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  the other three guys we're talking about our true freshman. But with offensive
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  linemen, you always kind of have to build in one year where you know,
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  your your red shirt freshman year as an offensive lineman is really kind of
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  essentially the equivalent of everyone else's true freshman year because there's so much development that
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  goes in in that position. So we're talking about a second year player here,
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  and that is Luke Montgomery. He's someone who came in with the recruiting
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  pedigree. You saw him out there in some moments and some situations last year
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  that were kind of okay. You know, we talked about the Chris A
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  Lave path a minute ago, kind of the Donovan Jackson path, the Paris
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  Johnson path where you see guys out there situationally in it as a true freshman.
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  Josh Fryer did it as well, kind of that same you know,
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  the extra blocker, that buffalo package. You saw enough of Luke Montgomery on
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  that path last year, on that path last year that it feels like he
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  could be someone who there's still some questions at that right guard position, feels
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  like Luke Montgomery could very well end up being the answer there. Yeah,
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  he played in eleven games last year. Nine of those games he saw snaps
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  on offense, which is that's rare for a true freshman, and so when
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  you're able to do that bodes well for the future. And then we saw
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  him open up the spring at right guard this year, and so you're like,
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  well, he's their first option there. We'll see if he can hold
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  on to it. And he was there with the ones pretty much all throughout,
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  and you know, fluctuated in terms of who else got reps with the
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  ones, but he was always there. And then the spring game, I
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  believe was Carson Hinsman who got the start instead. So now now there's clearly
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  a competition there. And it's not just those two taker Shabolas in there as
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  well, but a guy that was getting his first work at guard. And
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  remember in high school he was a tight end, a defensive end, and
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  a tackle and so this is like his real first work at guard. And
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  what he said back in the spring is you're doing this knowing that you're going
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  to make mistakes. You're doing this to make mistakes so that you can learn
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  from them and grow from them. So it wasn't a pretty spring for him,
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  and it wasn't. It's never gonna be. And you're going against TYLERK
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  Williams, ty Hamilton, you know, dealing with some defensive ends here and
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  there, and some rushman packages and their five man fronts that they're doing.
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  So you're throwing a lot at these guys. And so Luke Montgomery getting his
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  first time, first opportunity at guard, and you grow from it, you
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  build from it. It's not gonna be pretty. And then what happens in
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  fall camp you use those experiences from the spring to help you combat and compete
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  for the job. And we'll see where he is. But a guy that
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  has a ton of versatility, and like you said back in the spring,
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  like he played tackle last year, and as you mentioned, some tight end,
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  and I think the question was, you know, do you feel kind
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  of like are you upset that you get moved to guard? He's like,
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  I could play all five positions. I don't care where it is. I'll
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  play wherever. And with his athleticism and his size, he's not the you
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  know, he's six four threeho eight I think at this point, so not
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  ideal tackle size, but also not too big to play other positions. So
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  the guy that is your could be your fifth guy, could be a sixth
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  or seventh guy, could be a swing guy in there, and can play
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  now pretty much any of the four positions because they'll have some experience there.
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  And there's also someone who could play one position this year in a different position
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  next year. That's something that we saw. I mentioned Paris Johnson earlier.
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  Paris Johnson played guard when needed as a freshman and then ended up moving out
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  to and moving out to tackle later in his career. So yeah, that
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  is definitely a possibility as well. You may end up playing one spot now
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  one spot later being all over this place. This year. We'll see they're
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  still sorting out that offensive line to a certain degree. That's gona be one
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  of the stories we were following quite closely over the summer and into fall camp.
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  So we'll keep an eye on that one for you. Last on last
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  up, we're talking about a running back and I'm sure people are saying,
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  ah, James, people's aha, not so fast, my friends, get
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  a figure, you know, the Ohio State the path to the starting play,
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  the starting running back role, or a material number of carries at running
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  back this year not going to be quite so easy. This is kind of
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  the opposite of the wide receiver room. Boy, the top of that Ohio
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  State running back depth chart is robust. It is. It's really just two
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  names quin Shawn Judkins and Trey Henderson. But those are guys who are you
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  run to expect to get a lot of work and a lot of carries.
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  So probably not gonna be a real easy path to the running back to get
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  a bunch of carries at running back. However, Tony feels like Sam Williams
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  Dixon may have an opportunity to take the road less travel to get onto the
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  field this fall. Well, yeah, I mean you said it. There
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  are two established guys at running back and then it's Sam Williams Dixon, James
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  People's both true freshman and richer sophomore walk on TC Caffe and those are your
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  five guys. They'll also be losing carries to the quarterbacks. You know,
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  maybe four or five six carries a game, something of that nature. So
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  it's always been difficult for that third guy to get carries when there are no
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  injuries involved. Now Trevon Henderson has the last two years, there have been
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  injuries involved, So that third guy gets moved up once spot closer. And
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  when you're the second guy, you're going to be playing, and so you've
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  got to get these guys prepared. Sam Williams Dixon is transferred from West Holmes
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  High School, where he spent his first three years in Northeast Ohio small school
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  Small division, really lighting things up. I think he scored like seventy six
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  touchdowns in his last two years, you know, as a sophomore and junior
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  combined. And then he moved transfers to Pickerington North, gets to play five
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  games there, but opens the season with like one hundred and seventy five yards
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  rushing against Cincinnati Elders. So you're wondering, like can he go from small
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  school to big school I think Division one, and he did it pretty well,
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  sharing the load with two other to three other quality running backs at Pickerington
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  North. But then you know, Ohio State's a much different picture. And
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  I know we always talked about him being an all purpose guy, a third
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  down back, you know, a H BAC type where he can line up
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  everywhere anywhere and really just a very good pass catcher. And so people might
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  pigeonhole him, and I think what they need to understand is he's a running
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  back first. That's what he is. And as I wrote this maybe this
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  weekend when I did a closer look as high school highlights and things like that,
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  just because he can catch the ball, don't pedalize him and call him
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  like label him as something other than a running back. And you can call
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  him an athlete, you can call him an all purpose back. And as
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  I mentioned, Ezekiel Elliott was the number five all purpose back in his recruiting
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  class in twenty thirteen, and he was every bit the workhorse that we've come
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  to. Now, well there you go. There are four names young buck
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  guys who have a chance to play a potentially a bigger role this fall.
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  Make an impact this fall, not necessarily starting, maybe starting, but not
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  necessarily starting, but guys who might be playing a bigger role by the end
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  of the year than they are right now. Guys who are going to be
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  playing a big role this weekend or this week, well, that's going to
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  be all of us at bucke huddle dot com. A very busy week got
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  the fallout from the big recruiting weekend, also got the start of summer camps
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  at the Woody Hayes FLIC Center. We're all going to have We're gonna have
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  the full crew out at the Woody this week, covering a couple camps on
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  Wednesday and Thursday. We'll probably be talking about those in one of the upcoming
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  shows here as we get ready for the start of summer camp season. Of
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  course, all those visits as well, lots of news, lots of stuff
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  happening, and it's all happening this week at bucke huddle dot com. That's
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  where you can find Tony, Kevin and I covering the team, Mark covering
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  recruiting, our whole team of x's no scurus, making you a smarter football
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  fan all at buckehuddle dot Com and of course, at YouTube dot com slash
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  buckeyehuddle. That'll do it for today. Thank you guys all for joining us.
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  Have a great day. Was okay tomorrow