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Ohio State Football: Will A Young Group Of Captains Impact The 2025 Buckeyes' Season? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Buckeyes tomorrow morning. From Monday, August eighteenth, I'm
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  Speaker 1: your host, tom Or. The Texas game is in twelve days,
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: the game against Michigan in one hundred and three days.
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  Speaker 1: If you're planning your next event, make it unforgettable with
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  Speaker 1: All right, so we are counting down the days till
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  Speaker 1: the start of the Ohio State football season, and that
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  Speaker 1: means you're hitting a lot of milestones as you go
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  Speaker 1: through fall camp. You know, we big ten media days
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  Speaker 1: and then the start of fall camp and then the
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  Speaker 1: first scrimmage. Then the second scrimmage was on Saturday. So
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  Speaker 1: that is one of the real traditional, like major milestones
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  Speaker 1: on the way to the start of the season. This
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  Speaker 1: generally when you get most of your positional battles resolved,
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  Speaker 1: we're gonna have a Buckeye Weekly podcast episode making some
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  Speaker 1: final calls on those positional battles. You can look for
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  Speaker 1: that in the Buckeye Weekly podcast feed. But that second
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  Speaker 1: scrimmage is also when they roll out the announcement of
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  Speaker 1: the block Oh's jersey recipient and the team captains. We're
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  Speaker 1: gonna be talking about those today what they might tell
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  Speaker 1: us about the twenty twenty twenty five Ohio State football team.
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  Speaker 1: I'm joined today by the co captain of the Buckeyes
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  Speaker 1: Tomorrow Morning Podcast, Tony Gergerman a Bucke Huddle dot com. Tony,
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  Speaker 1: this is We're gonna do this like like hockey, where
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  Speaker 1: only one person can have the C for the real captain,
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  Speaker 1: but you can be the A for the assistant captain
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  Speaker 1: or whatever else you want to aid to stand for.
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  Speaker 2: I will say I got the highest amount of votes
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  Speaker 2: for the A, So there you go.
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  Speaker 1: So all right, so we're going to talk. Let's start
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  Speaker 1: with the block O jersey recipient. And there are years
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  Speaker 1: when it's like, boy, there's so many good candidates and
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  Speaker 1: you know, you could be it could be literally anyone.
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  Speaker 1: This year, I mean, there were certain there's no shortage
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  Speaker 1: of good candidates this year. But also when we were
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  Speaker 1: at Big ten media Days, everyone was asking one person
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  Speaker 1: specifically about what the block O jersey recipient to you know,
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  Speaker 1: what that might mean to him if he was selected,
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  Speaker 1: and Lo and behold, Tony. It was, in fact Sunny
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  Speaker 1: Style selected as the BLOCKO Jersey recipient. This feels like
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  Speaker 1: one that is probably you know, it's a great honor.
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  Speaker 1: It should also be a pretty uncontroversial honor, I would
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  Speaker 1: guess this year.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and there's several ways to prove this one. I
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  Speaker 2: don't know that. I don't know if there's a single
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  Speaker 2: podcast episode by anybody saying who should be the block
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  Speaker 2: O for the Buckeyes this year? Certainly nothing on I
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  Speaker 2: don't think there's been much on our board about all
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  Speaker 2: of the different candidates, and there are different candidates. But yes,
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  Speaker 2: it was always expected to be Sonny. And we can
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  Speaker 2: even break down like the fourth wall a little bit.
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  Speaker 2: When Jerry m mcgusus i D sent out a text
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  Speaker 2: alerting some members of the media that there is going
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  Speaker 2: to be an announcement on the block oh around this time,
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  Speaker 2: he said, you all know who it's going to be. Like,
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  Speaker 2: so it's like he didn't tell us what was going
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  Speaker 2: to be, but it's like all of your suspicions, he
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  Speaker 2: can pretty much, Yes, your assumptions are going to be correct.
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  Speaker 2: Go ahead and write up the Sunny Styles. It gets
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  Speaker 2: the block oh and Yeah, I don't know that anybody
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  Speaker 2: has an issue with this, and yeah, another solid choice Tom. Interestingly, coincidentally,
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  Speaker 2: he is the sixth BLOCO recipient. He loses the number
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  Speaker 2: six on his jersey and replaces it with the block.
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  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, and he's someone who you know, if you're
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  Speaker 1: wondering why is he so logically the recipient this year,
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  Speaker 1: you look at his history. Son of a former buckuye,
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  Speaker 1: the brother of a current black guy, grew up in
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  Speaker 1: Pickerington as an Ohio State fan, very much an Ohio
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  Speaker 1: State family. Enrolled at Ohio State a year early. He
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  Speaker 1: was an early enrolllye and one of the people for
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  Speaker 1: whom that has worked out probably the best. You know.
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  Speaker 1: So you have seen the quinn Ewers thing where it
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  Speaker 1: didn't really work out, and this is one where, boy,
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  Speaker 1: it really worked out well for him. Came in early,
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  Speaker 1: contributed as a true freshman, was playing in a college
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  Speaker 1: football playoff game at a time when he should have
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  Speaker 1: been still going to high school. I don't know what
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  Speaker 1: do you take as a senior physics class, chemistry class,
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  Speaker 1: whatever it is. He should have still been in high school.
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  Speaker 1: He was playing in a college football playoff game, and
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  Speaker 1: then just continued to be take on a bigger and
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  Speaker 1: bigger role, continue to move closer to the line of scrimmage,
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  Speaker 1: change changed positions when the team felt that that was
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  Speaker 1: in everyone's best interest. Just a selfless individual. Really, you
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  Speaker 1: can you can have the true Buckeye conversation and know
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  Speaker 1: who's a true buck guy. And are you more of
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  Speaker 1: a buck Eye if from Ohio, Ohio as opposed to
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  Speaker 1: from somewhere else. But I think it would be hard
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  Speaker 1: to say anyone is more of a true buck Eye
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  Speaker 1: than the son of a son of an Ohio state player,
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  Speaker 1: brother of an Ohio state player, four year Ohio State player.
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  Speaker 1: We'll get to the fact that he's also a captain
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  Speaker 1: in just a minute. But you know, it's it's like
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  Speaker 1: which which box does he not check on this list?
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  Speaker 1: And I feel like, I think I think they are
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  Speaker 1: all checked.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. I think it also goes back to the selfish
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  Speaker 2: selflessness of whatever he's done, playing whatever position needed and
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  Speaker 2: being able to do several things. And he is now
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  Speaker 2: the of the six. He is the four Ohioan, the
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  Speaker 2: non Ohioans, no offense, you know, no discrimination, but Cam
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  Speaker 2: bab from Missouri and Cody Simon, last year's blockover recipient
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  Speaker 2: from New Jersey and in the list of names, Jonathan
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  Speaker 2: Cooper was the first in twenty ten, then Theer Munford,
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  Speaker 2: then Cam Babb, then Xavier Johnson and Cody Simon. A
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  Speaker 2: lot of names in there that would do whatever was needed,
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  Speaker 2: and one who wanted to do whatever was needed, but
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  Speaker 2: his knees wouldn't allow him to do that. So a
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  Speaker 2: good company to bear.
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  Speaker 1: It, for sure. And as the Ohio state captains for
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  Speaker 1: this year, he's in good company there as well. Four
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  Speaker 1: captains this year, two on offense, two on defense. We'll
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  Speaker 1: start on defense. The first one is Sonny Styles. We've
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  Speaker 1: already said all the nice things we need to say
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  Speaker 1: about Sonny Styles, So there you go. He's number one.
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  Speaker 1: Number two. This is another one where, yeah, you could
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  Speaker 1: probably figure out who was maybe going to be the
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  Speaker 1: you know, if there were only two captains on defense,
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  Speaker 1: Sonny Styles and Caleb Downs would have probably been my
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  Speaker 1: two guesses.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, those are the two guys that went to the
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  Speaker 2: Big ten media days. Sunny was the top vote getter.
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  Speaker 2: I'm guessing Caleb Downs wasn't too far behind because we
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  Speaker 2: know the amount of respect that everybody offense and defense has.
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  Speaker 2: Four Caleb Downs. And we've heard Brandon Nis talk about
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  Speaker 2: trying to play against Caleb Downs and a difficulty there,
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  Speaker 2: and Caleb Downs somebody that when he arrived he had
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  Speaker 2: respect immediately. Remember talking to Malie Hartford last year, who
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  Speaker 2: was going to be competing with Caleb Downs, and he's like, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: he's great. We've been friends for a while and he's
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  Speaker 2: fitting just fine and is now a captain, an underclass,
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  Speaker 2: I guess, still an upper class, but a junior captain.
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  Speaker 1: A junior captain indeed, and just a second year on
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  Speaker 1: the Ohio State team. But as you said, as universally
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  Speaker 1: respected a player as you're going to find. And it's
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  Speaker 1: one of those things where everybody says the same stuff
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  Speaker 1: about him that he is, Yeah, he's a freakish athlete,
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  Speaker 1: but also the amount of work that he puts in
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  Speaker 1: and how intelligent he is, that's what makes him really
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  Speaker 1: special separates him. Where As a defensive player, he's calling out,
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  Speaker 1: here's what's going to happen. He's pointing, you know, he's
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  Speaker 1: he's and you hear this from everyone. You hear there's
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  Speaker 1: some players, you hear there's some coaches. He's pointing stuff out.
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  Speaker 1: He's saying look at this, watch this, here's this, you
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  Speaker 1: know this is where this is going to go. And
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  Speaker 1: from the offensive side of the ball, you you get
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  Speaker 1: the you know, all Hamburgers, Caleb Downs has foiled our
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  Speaker 1: plans again. Whatever the play is, Caleb Downs sees what's
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  Speaker 1: going on and he knows and he's calling it out
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  Speaker 1: and it's and we heard this from last week from
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  Speaker 1: players on offense just you know how frustrating it is
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  Speaker 1: to have Caleb Downs across and going, well, here's what
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  Speaker 1: they're doing because Caleb Downs just you know, it is
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  Speaker 1: that sixth sense where guys talk about, well, if you
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  Speaker 1: watch enough film, the game really slows down. It feels
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  Speaker 1: like Caleb Downs is like has got has the ability
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  Speaker 1: to like pause time, and you know, he's watched so
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  Speaker 1: much film that he can like rewind time at this
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  Speaker 1: point and kind of see stuff and then go back
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  Speaker 1: in time and say, oh, here's what's about to happen.
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  Speaker 1: I know it because I've already seen it. And that's
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  Speaker 1: that's sort of where he is. So yes and choice
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  Speaker 1: there on the defensive side of the ball. You just
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  Speaker 1: mentioned Brandon Innis, and Brandon Innis is a really interesting captain.
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  Speaker 1: This year, because Brandon Innis has never even started a
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  Speaker 1: game for Ohio State yet, and there are plenty of
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  Speaker 1: good choices on the offensive side of the ball, and
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  Speaker 1: we'll get to another one in a minute. But to
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  Speaker 1: be a captain before you've been a starter at Ohio State,
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  Speaker 1: that's I have not gone in back and look, but
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  Speaker 1: I'm going to guess that's going to put him in
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  Speaker 1: pretty rare company.
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  Speaker 2: Well, and to do it in year three, I think
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  Speaker 2: is even more impressive. Cam babb was a two time captain.
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  Speaker 2: Year four, year five, Court Williams was a captain, I believe,
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  Speaker 2: and I'm just trying to scroll through here quickly. Maybe
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  Speaker 2: in twenty twenty three or twenty twenty two, and that
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  Speaker 2: was in twenty twenty two he was a captain, So
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  Speaker 2: that was what the year after the Rose Rose Bowl
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  Speaker 2: or so two years after the Rosebull So I guess
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  Speaker 2: maybe that was a fourth year for him. They all
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  Speaker 2: run together. But still, like you said, it to be
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  Speaker 2: disrespected and again he's Brandon Innis has been an energy
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  Speaker 2: guy the entire time. So you see the players appreciate
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  Speaker 2: what he brings to not just the offense but the
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  Speaker 2: team as a whole because he'll fire up the defense
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  Speaker 2: just as much as he fires up the offense because
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  Speaker 2: he's chattering at the defense and getting them going. So
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  Speaker 2: another guy that I think we all expected a pretty
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  Speaker 2: good season from, and I admittedly I was a little
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  Speaker 2: surprised by this just because he hasn't played. But then
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  Speaker 2: you're like, well, what would the alternatives be? Well, Jeremiah
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  Speaker 2: Smith went to Big Ten media days. I don't know
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  Speaker 2: the last time they had a sophomore captain. People were
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  Speaker 2: mentioned to me on Twitter, what about J T. Barrett.
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  Speaker 2: It's like, no, he was not a second year captain.
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  Speaker 2: Braxton Miller was still a captain on that twenty fourteen team.
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  Speaker 2: Is that would have been super rare. But Brandon Innis
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  Speaker 2: can't fault them, fault this decision because it was made
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  Speaker 2: by the teammates right exactly.
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  Speaker 1: This is you know, it's the same way that Ryan
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  Speaker 1: Day talked about the locker room knows who the starting
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  Speaker 1: quarterback should be. You know, when the locker room is
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  Speaker 1: going to tell you who the starting quarterback should be,
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  Speaker 1: the locker room literally tells you who the captains are
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  Speaker 1: going to be. And they voted Brandon Ennison. And you know,
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  Speaker 1: as I said, there's plenty of good choices there. This
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  Speaker 1: was not a oh boy, this is a real warning
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  Speaker 1: sign that a guy who's never started. It's no, this
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  Speaker 1: is how he is seen in that room, and it was.
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  Speaker 1: It's a little unusual, but it wasn't shocking to see
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  Speaker 1: his name there because you know, you've heard people talk
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  Speaker 1: about him, mean, you've seen him in action within the
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  Speaker 1: team dynamic in terms of how he is and how
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  Speaker 1: he what kind of a verbal and vocal leader he is.
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  Speaker 1: So yeah, that's a good one. Another one that was
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  Speaker 1: not at all shocking. Maybe if you go back to
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  Speaker 1: coming out of high school, this would be shocking that
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: in a third year Austin Seerveld is the captain. But
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  Speaker 1: after seeing Austin Siriveld on the field last year, and
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  Speaker 1: they're not seeing Austin Seerveld named an iron Buckeye not
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  Speaker 1: once but twice during this offseason. This has gone from wow,
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  Speaker 1: I never would have thought that was the case to wow,
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  Speaker 1: I couldn't imagine this possibly not being the case.
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  Speaker 2: Another good one, and I will just say, of the
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  Speaker 2: four captains, he's the only one without a Wikipedia page yet,
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  Speaker 2: so I think somebody needs to fix that. I do
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  Speaker 2: also think at some point we're gonna have to every
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  Speaker 2: recruiting class go through and take a do a third
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  Speaker 2: year captain draft. Now again, we'll have to remember to
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  Speaker 2: check these things in three years. But certainly would not
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  Speaker 2: have predicted and he wouldn't have predicted himself to be
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  Speaker 2: a left tackle captain as a red shirt sophomore rechid sophomore.
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  Speaker 2: Now is about the time you're battling for a job,
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  Speaker 2: whether that's you. You're fighting to get into the too
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  Speaker 2: deep and maybe earn a starting spot if the roster
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  Speaker 2: allows it, and the depth chart is a little shaky's
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  Speaker 2: he moved himself in last year and was part of
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  Speaker 2: that rotation and then has just never stopped. And it's
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  Speaker 2: the way that Ryan Day talks about him. Boy, if
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  Speaker 2: his teammates putting voted for him, Ryan Day would put
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  Speaker 2: the decide, I think, vote down for.
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  Speaker 1: I bet yeah, but put his thumb on the scale like, well, good,
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  Speaker 1: good news, there's five captains this year instead of four. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: So there you go, your four Ohio state captains for
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  Speaker 1: twenty twenty five and your block o Jersey recipients, all
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  Speaker 1: very deserving, maybe more the more predictable than others, but
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  Speaker 1: all guys definitely deserving of that honor. The following those
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  Speaker 1: captains and that block O jersey recipient, as well as
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  Speaker 1: the rest of the game coming up. As we count
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: down the days to the Texas game, less than two
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: weeks away from the start of the season, less than
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: one week away from Week zero, college football is here
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  Speaker 1: literally this week. Super excited for all of that. We
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  Speaker 1: will have plenty to talk about as we count down
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  Speaker 1: the days to that kickoff against the Texas Longhorns, number
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  Speaker 1: one versus number two in the nation. The best place
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: to talk about all of it is at Buckeye huddle
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: dot com. That's where we've got our whole team of
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: insiders covering the Buckeyes, covering recruiting, covering x's and o's,
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: and much more. All at Buckeye huddle dot com. We
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  Speaker 1: hope to see you there. We'll do it for today.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you guys all for joining us. Have a great day.
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  Speaker 1: We'll talk to you tomorrow.