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Ohio State Football: 4 Buckeyes With A Lot On The Line In Spring Practice · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to buck Eyes tomorrow morning for Thursday, March fifth,
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  Speaker 1: I'm your host, Tom Or the ball State game in
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  Speaker 1: one hundred and eighty four days the game against Michigan
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  Speaker 1: in two hundred and sixty eight days. Our friends are
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  Speaker 1: Grateful Griddel, Columbus's favorite food truck. They are now on Uber, each, Scrubhub,
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  Speaker 1: and or Dash. Just search for Grateful Griddle there or
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  Speaker 1: check out Grateful Griddel oh dot com for more. With
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  Speaker 1: spring football starting next Tuesday, feels like a time to
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  Speaker 1: take a look at some of the guys who have
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  Speaker 1: the most on the line this spring. These are guys
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  Speaker 1: who are probably fighting to not get passed by people
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  Speaker 1: behind them on the depth chart. Maybe this is kind
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  Speaker 1: of their last best chance to get on the field.
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  Speaker 1: As of Ohio State Buckeye and we talked about the
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  Speaker 1: guys on the offensive side of the ball who are
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  Speaker 1: sort of in that boat. Right now, I'm going to
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  Speaker 1: be doing that with our buddy, Tony Gerdamant of Buckey
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  Speaker 1: Huddle dot com. Tony, the first we got to start
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  Speaker 1: up front. This is the guys are the most on
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  Speaker 1: the line. We got to start with the line, right,
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  Speaker 1: and so I think the first name I want to
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  Speaker 1: give you is Deontae Armstrong. His twin brother, Davante. He
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  Speaker 1: transferred out this past offseason. He's at Miami of Ohio.
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  Speaker 1: Now Deontay is still at Ohio State. He is going
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  Speaker 1: to be in quite a fight this year. Probably not
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  Speaker 1: going to be a starter at tackle, but definitely give
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  Speaker 1: me in a fight to be one of those guys
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  Speaker 1: with the twos. But he's also battling a couple of
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  Speaker 1: guys who are younger than him and who are also
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  Speaker 1: extremely talented.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and one of those guys actually played more snaps
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  Speaker 2: than he did last year. So you're looking at Deantay Armstrong,
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  Speaker 2: who is a red shirt sophomore, played in just one
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  Speaker 2: game last year, which is the only game he's played
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  Speaker 2: in his career, and now he's going to be battling
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  Speaker 2: to be essentially in the too deep at tackle. But
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  Speaker 2: he's going to be doing that with red shirt freshman
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  Speaker 2: Carter Lowe who played in two games last year, andrew
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  Speaker 2: freshman Sam Greer, who is borderline five star prospect. Kind
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  Speaker 2: of guys. So you don't you never want to fall
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  Speaker 2: behind somebody that is younger than you, and this is
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  Speaker 2: an opportunity to make that move to fend off some youngsters,
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  Speaker 2: and you certainly don't want to get pased by a
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  Speaker 2: true freshman in the spring. We know that for sure.
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  Speaker 2: So there's there's a lot on the line, as the
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  Speaker 2: show title indicates, for him, because it's a very key position.
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  Speaker 2: You're talking about possibly the number three tackle and number
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  Speaker 2: four tackle. However you want to figure in Philip Daniels here,
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  Speaker 2: but somebody that could conceivably play half of the games
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  Speaker 2: this year for one reason or the other. And so yeah,
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  Speaker 2: he's going to be battling two younger guys, two very talented,
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  Speaker 2: higher ranked recruits. That doesn't necessarily, you know, I mean
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  Speaker 2: anything in an individual battle, but going to be fascinating
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  Speaker 2: to see how those three shake out because it's going
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  Speaker 2: to be an important role.
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  Speaker 1: And so you mentioned not getting passed by guys who
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  Speaker 1: are younger than you. That's certainly one of the elements
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  Speaker 1: of this conversation. The other part of this story is
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  Speaker 1: guys where they're coming back. You figure they're ready to
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  Speaker 1: take on a bigger role. And then Ohio State in
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  Speaker 1: the portal and brings in a couple guys in their
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  Speaker 1: position room. There are a couple guys in the twenty
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  Speaker 1: twenty five wide receiver class who were in that boat.
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  Speaker 1: Bob pin Miller left, He's at Washington, Quincy Porter left,
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  Speaker 1: He's at Notre Dame, Which means that Philip Bell and
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  Speaker 1: Dez Jones are the only two twenty twenty five wide
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  Speaker 1: receivers left for the buck Eyes just one year after
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  Speaker 1: they signed. And with those two guys coming in in
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  Speaker 1: the portal, Kyle Parker and Devin McEwan, it feels like
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  Speaker 1: Ohio State, you know, felt like they needed to sort
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  Speaker 1: of bolster their wide receiver depth. But with a couple
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  Speaker 1: of talented freshmen also on the roster, a bunch of
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  Speaker 1: talented freshmen also coming in, they are kind of probably
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  Speaker 1: looking both directions, the transfer portal direction and the true
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  Speaker 1: freshman direction in terms of what they've got at the
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  Speaker 1: guys they've got to try and beat.
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  Speaker 2: Out this year. Yeah, and both of these guys were
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  Speaker 2: primarily in the slot last year, and as Jones at
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  Speaker 2: his size is going to be essentially limited to that
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  Speaker 2: spot from the majority of his play time. And yet
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  Speaker 2: you go into the portal and you get Kyle Parker,
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  Speaker 2: who has spent much of his time at LSU in
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  Speaker 2: the slot, and you add him and Brandon Innis together
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  Speaker 2: and where are those snaps coming? And then of course
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  Speaker 2: you know that Jeremiah Smith will move in there as well.
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  Speaker 2: So I think what's interesting for both Philip Bell and
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  Speaker 2: des Jones is that they need to begin to show
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  Speaker 2: this spring that snaps need to be carved out for them,
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  Speaker 2: that they need to be able that they're going to
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  Speaker 2: factor in to the offense. And des Jones is unlike
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  Speaker 2: anybody that is returning. He may be similar to maybe
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  Speaker 2: a legend Bay in a sense, true freshman who has
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  Speaker 2: you know, just an athlete kind of guy. But des
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  Speaker 2: Jones was Malachai Tony in the playoffs and on the
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  Speaker 2: scout team, So there's that. I wonder how much of
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  Speaker 2: that has informed OSU of like is it going to happen?
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  Speaker 2: Is not going to happen, because I'm sure they they
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  Speaker 2: tried to feature him on the scout team to see
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  Speaker 2: how the defense reacts to that. So it'll be interesting
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  Speaker 2: to see what he does this spring. And then Philip
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  Speaker 2: Bell is a guy that can play inside or outside,
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  Speaker 2: which we just talked about with Kyle Parker is a
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  Speaker 2: guy that can play insider outside. Jeremiah Smith insideer outside,
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  Speaker 2: Brandon Innish, So you know it's he's a different kind
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  Speaker 2: of guy, but not so different from anybody else on
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  Speaker 2: the Ohio State roster, and which means you've got to
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  Speaker 2: differentiate yourself somewhere else or show that you can be
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  Speaker 2: relied upon. And I assume the good news is that
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  Speaker 2: there's not gonna be a lot of Jeremiah Smith this
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  Speaker 2: spring running a whole bunch of routes and taking up
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  Speaker 2: a bunch of reps. So there's gonna be reps for
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  Speaker 2: more reps around for some of those receivers to show
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  Speaker 2: that they belong because we know they've got they feel
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  Speaker 2: pretty good about four, right with the four veterans, I'm
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  Speaker 2: sure they want to know more about everybody else and
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  Speaker 2: how deep this rotation can go.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, you've got the four veterans, you've got the four
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  Speaker 1: true freshmen coming in, and you got the two guys
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  Speaker 1: kind of in the middle there, and they've got to
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  Speaker 1: sort of figure out are they with the top group,
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  Speaker 1: are they with the with the lower group? Where do
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  Speaker 1: they where do they sort of slot in there? And
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  Speaker 1: you know, again, this is just the second spring for
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  Speaker 1: these guys. Des Jones did not play at all last year.
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  Speaker 1: Philip Bell played just twenty one snaps across three games,
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  Speaker 1: so not a ton of experience there, but not a
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  Speaker 1: lot of you know, just not a lot to base
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  Speaker 1: any kind of an opinion on for anyone outside of
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  Speaker 1: the coaching staff at this point. So we'll be definitely
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  Speaker 1: watching those guys pretty closely this spring to see where
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  Speaker 1: they where they fit because there was a lot of
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  Speaker 1: potential as they came in and then we got it,
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  Speaker 1: you know. Now, now now's the point where you got
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  Speaker 1: to start to see it on the field. Last guy
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  Speaker 1: I want to talk to you about was Bennett Christian.
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  Speaker 1: He's another guy who he's been around forever. We were
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  Speaker 1: kind of doing these the scholarship math on when his
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  Speaker 1: when his time would run out, because he had the
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  Speaker 1: one year that he missed with the suspension, also had
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  Speaker 1: a red shirt year. This would be his fifth year,
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  Speaker 1: so as far as we can tell, this should be
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  Speaker 1: his last year as a Buckeye. And this is another
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  Speaker 1: year another guy where they lost a couple tight ends.
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  Speaker 1: It was three tight ends actually, two to the NFL
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  Speaker 1: and one to the Portal in Johnnie Thurman and you've
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  Speaker 1: got Nate Roberts coming back. But they also brought in
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  Speaker 1: a couple tight ends in the portal as well. So
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  Speaker 1: now you know, this is Bennett Christian's opportunity to potentially
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  Speaker 1: be tight end one at the school. But there's a
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  Speaker 1: lot of other guys who are going to be in
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  Speaker 1: that conversation.
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  Speaker 2: All of a sudden. Yeah, you go in and you
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  Speaker 2: get Hunter Welson from Northwestern, a seventh year guy who
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  Speaker 2: had twenty eight catches last year. So he's a guy
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  Speaker 2: that has been accustomed to catching the ball and is
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  Speaker 2: happy to be involved and has shown that he can
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  Speaker 2: be reliable. And then you go to Ohio and you
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  Speaker 2: get Mason Williams, who has also been involved at catching
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  Speaker 2: the ball twenty six catches last year. So together those
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  Speaker 2: two guys with fifty four catches, that's that's that's Max
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  Speaker 2: Claire and and uh Will Cosmeric type type of stuff.
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  Speaker 2: So when you lose two guys to the NFL and
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  Speaker 2: you bring in two guys from the portal, the guys
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  Speaker 2: returning have to be like, well, what does this mean
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  Speaker 2: for me? Now? The good news for Bennet Christian is
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  Speaker 2: that Ryan Day has called him the leader of the room.
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  Speaker 2: And of course he is a fifth year guy. He's
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  Speaker 2: nobody has seen more, been through more at Ohio State
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  Speaker 2: than he has and that goes for the entire team,
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  Speaker 2: and so he'll be able to show the new guys
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  Speaker 2: the ropes and we'll see how things shake out. But yeah,
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  Speaker 2: they brought in two guys who have played. They brought
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  Speaker 2: them in to play. Now we know that Ohio State
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  Speaker 2: won't just be playing two tight ends, and Bennett Christian
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  Speaker 2: knows that as well. Nate Roberts knows that as well.
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  Speaker 2: So he's been interesting under Keenan Bailey's watch and tuteligit
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  Speaker 2: tight end that they have been able to bring in
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  Speaker 2: guys and keep guys because it's that's a tough ask
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  Speaker 2: to continue to bring in guys. But he also showed
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  Speaker 2: he'll play five guys. It doesn't have problem doing that.
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  Speaker 2: I wonder if they can get to five this year.
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  Speaker 2: I know they'll certainly be at least at four.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, Keenan Bailey has done a really, really good job.
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  Speaker 1: That's one of those things we probably don't talk about
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  Speaker 1: enough what a good job he's done in terms of
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  Speaker 1: stacking that room and keeping that room stacked with talent
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  Speaker 1: and with different types of players there. So then then
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  Speaker 1: it's just a matter of what kind of a role
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  Speaker 1: can Bennett Christian carve out for himself this year in
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  Speaker 1: that pretty well stocked and stacked room. So there you go,
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  Speaker 1: a list of guys to keep an eye on this
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  Speaker 1: spring in terms of guys who could have a lot
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  Speaker 1: on the line. When spring practice kicks off on Tuesday,
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  Speaker 1: we will be there for that. We will be there
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  Speaker 1: all through the spring. Whenever they let us in, we'll
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  Speaker 1: be there all leading up to the Spring game on
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  Speaker 1: April eighth. That'll do it for today. Thank you guys
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  Speaker 1: all for joining us. Have a great day. We'll talk
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  Speaker 1: to you tomorrow, Okay.