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Ross Fulton Analysis: Ohio State Offense vs. Michigan Defense Preview · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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Speaker 1: Welcome to Buckeyes tomorrow morning for Wednesday, November twenty sixth.
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Speaker 1: I'm your host, Tom Moore. The game against Michigan is
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Speaker 1: in three days. On today's show, we're welcoming it. Welcoming
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Speaker 1: in our ex's and nose Guru, Ross Fulton. And when
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Speaker 1: a reservation today. All right, So before we get into
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Speaker 1: we're sorry, but it is. It is what it is.
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Speaker 1: So now on today's show, Ross, we're going to be
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Speaker 1: talking about the Ohio State defense. This is like a
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Speaker 1: supersized episode, remember when NBC used to do those in
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Speaker 1: the nineties, Like oh, it's a supercised episode of Friends,
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Speaker 1: Like this is a supercised episode of Ross Fulton Analysis.
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Speaker 1: We're going to be talking about the Ohio State offense,
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Speaker 1: some things to be watched for this weekend when they
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Speaker 1: take on Michigan. We're also going to be taking a
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Speaker 1: look at Michigan's defense and some things to watch for
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Speaker 1: out of them, what might be that might mean this
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Speaker 1: weekend as well. We're going to start with the Ohio
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Speaker 1: State run game, and that's something that is definitely feels
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Speaker 1: like it's improved quite a bit, and we'll find out
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Speaker 1: probably this weekend whether that was a function of playing
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Speaker 1: bad run defenses or whether it was really a function
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Speaker 1: of Ohio State's run game getting better. This first one,
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Speaker 1: they're going to motion into a full house backfield. Bennett
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Speaker 1: Christian picks up a really big block here and Bojackson
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Speaker 1: ends up running for a touchdown.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, so I thought Ohio State well to back up
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Speaker 2: for a second. Rutgers probably knowing or expecting that they
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Speaker 2: were not getting Jeremiah Smith and Colonel Tay sort of
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Speaker 2: had a bifurcated game plan where against twelve or heavier personnel,
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Speaker 2: they've played a lot of Cover one, a lot of
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Speaker 2: man versus eleven. You got a lot of Cover two,
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Speaker 2: and a lot of stunts and loopers, which we'll get to.
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Speaker 2: But the the good thing was that Ohio State sort
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Speaker 2: of figure that out and took advantage of it. And
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Speaker 2: you know, some of what you'll see here is you know,
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Speaker 2: we've talked about this is gh counter. It's an unbalanced
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Speaker 2: look and so they're gonna you know, Brandon and this
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Speaker 2: is covered up there.
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Speaker 3: They're gonna motion and run counter.
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Speaker 2: The Ohio State as we've talked about it, like I's
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Speaker 2: had some struggles this year blocking counter, particularly like where
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Speaker 2: there's movement and the guard has to log, which by
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Speaker 2: log I mean he's gonna get you know, the design
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Speaker 2: if you draw it up on a board, is he's
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Speaker 2: gonna kick out the defensive end and then the second
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Speaker 2: poler is going to lead through. But if the end
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Speaker 2: crashes in which they get a lot to spill it,
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Speaker 2: you have to log it or just block him in
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Speaker 2: and then the Titan has to work around that.
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Speaker 3: Uh.
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Speaker 2: This is the first game where I saw them I think,
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Speaker 2: consistently execute this correctly.
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Speaker 3: Uh.
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Speaker 2: That's a good sign, because Michigan has really struggled, uh
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Speaker 2: defending gap schemes this year.
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Speaker 3: You know, they move.
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Speaker 2: Jayshon Barnum from linebacker down to edge. He's a little
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Speaker 2: bit undersized. Uh, and they just haven't fitted very well.
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Speaker 2: And so you know, it was sort of for a
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Speaker 2: while like the movable force versus the what like unmovable
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Speaker 2: or object in terms of like Michigan didn't handle it
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Speaker 2: very well. But I say it hasn't run this play
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Speaker 2: very well and much better on Saturday. So you know,
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Speaker 2: regardless of like opponent ability level, like, you still have
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Speaker 2: to show the execution right, Like, so they they handled
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Speaker 2: this much better.
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Speaker 3: This is really well done.
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Speaker 2: Adjusting and bo Jackson hit the hole obviously, like you're
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Speaker 2: seeing you know, running backs, particularly Jackson but also James.
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Speaker 2: People's start to make secondary defenders misk the second level,
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Speaker 2: which is why again you know, like opponent caveats aside,
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Speaker 2: like why you're starting to get you know, runs going
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Speaker 2: ten or more yards because you know there's just none
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Speaker 2: of that explicitness earlier in the season and now you're
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Speaker 2: starting to see more confident running backs at the second level.
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Speaker 1: So you mentioned Jashon barhim. My theory watching Michigan basically
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Speaker 1: since the Nebraska game in late September is you should
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Speaker 1: be running directly at Jashn Barham. Do not run away
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Speaker 1: from him because he is fast and he will run
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Speaker 1: you down from the backside. You should be running the
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Speaker 1: bolt directly at him because he said he's a little undersized.
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Speaker 1: When you get your thoughts on that and then go
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Speaker 1: ahead with that next play.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean he's undersized, and he switched in the
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Speaker 2: middle of the season to a new position. So it's
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Speaker 2: sort of reminded me of watching CJ. Hicks play defensive
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Speaker 2: end in the spring game where he can just he
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Speaker 2: started like kind of just running upfield and not really
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Speaker 2: you know, knowing the position. Well, So I think I
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Speaker 2: agree with your assessment, and as I said, like particularly
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Speaker 2: where you make him execute some of these techniques where
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Speaker 2: you're gonna, you know, if they want him to wrong
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Speaker 2: arm and spill it as opposed to box it. You
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Speaker 2: can you can catch them, catch him in particular off balance.
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Speaker 1: All right, so let's get to that next one. Now,
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Speaker 1: this is a nice poll from Luke Montgomery to sort
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Speaker 1: of seal the edge and to set up a nice.
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Speaker 3: Run for Bo Jackson. Yeah.
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Speaker 2: I mean, so again this is like taking advantage as
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Speaker 2: I said, of what Rutgers has giving you, and so
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Speaker 2: as I said, eleven personnel, particularly where Max Claire is
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Speaker 2: the single tight end and here he's in this nasty split,
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Speaker 2: so I just he's like three yards off the tackle. Right,
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Speaker 2: You got a lot of cover two, cover two man
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Speaker 2: match consopts from Rutgers. Again, like relate that to Michigan. Like,
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Speaker 2: as we will discuss further, Michigan's base concept is to
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Speaker 2: play quarter quarter half, which we've talked about. So you know,
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Speaker 2: you're playing cover four to the field, cover to the boundary,
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Speaker 2: so split safety fits right, and so you know, just
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Speaker 2: like anything else like Ohigo States run game. You know,
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Speaker 2: we've talked about getting getting safeties in particular out of
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Speaker 2: the box, and so this was a nice concept they
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Speaker 2: showed a few times, you know, to take advantage again
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Speaker 2: using a gap skiing, so they're running. It's a one
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Speaker 2: back power and so you're just trying to have your
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Speaker 2: you don't have like a kickout and lead, you just
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Speaker 2: have your base blocking and then you're pulling to lead through.
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Speaker 2: And so again nice job adjusting here by Luke Montgomery.
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Speaker 2: The same concept to log it, uh, and you're able
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Speaker 2: to get downfield with you know, two deep safeties and
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Speaker 2: so again you know you're sort of taking advantage, you know, Michigan.
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Speaker 2: And again we're going to get into this historically, at least,
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Speaker 2: I'm I'm very interested to see how Wink Martindale handles
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Speaker 2: it because when Ohio State is in eleven, they will
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Speaker 2: play nickel. When teams play go twelve against them, they
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Speaker 2: play a three four and a very heavy three four
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Speaker 2: at that, with basically three defensive tackles. And so we'll
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Speaker 2: have to see how he treats Ohio States. Obviously o
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Speaker 2: High State really likes to use twelve thirteen this year.
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Speaker 2: You know, whether he distinguishes twelve with Max Claire versus
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Speaker 2: twelve with the other tight ends or how they handle that.
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Speaker 2: But again, these are things like you know, we've we've
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Speaker 2: had four years basically ever since Mike McDonald came to
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Speaker 2: Michigan of this sort of Ravens Tree Fangio esque way
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Speaker 2: that Michigan has defended Ohio state. So there's like a
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Speaker 2: lot on film now and there's some like so now
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Speaker 2: it's all about for a state, like using what Michigan
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Speaker 2: has done against them to your advantage, right, Like knowing
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Speaker 2: the tendencies and then being able to take use those
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Speaker 2: tendencies your advantage.
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Speaker 1: All right. And one of ohio states tendencies this year
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Speaker 1: in goal line has been just pack them in, throwing
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Speaker 1: some extra tight ends and try and ram the up
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Speaker 1: the middle. And that has sometimes worked and sometimes very
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Speaker 1: much not worked. And this next one is an example
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Speaker 1: where they get an eye formation and it just gets
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Speaker 1: stuffed at the goal line. So what went wrong here?
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Speaker 3: Yeah?
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Speaker 2: I would say that this continues to be a I
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Speaker 2: hesitate to say an issue. I don't think it's like
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Speaker 2: a glaring problem. It's also like not the they're not
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Speaker 2: the most efficient at it either, right, so we obviously
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Speaker 2: I don't I don't have any clips of it. We
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Speaker 2: saw a more extended linking Keynolds package on Saturday. I
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Speaker 2: think partly that's just because they're you know, you're trying
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Speaker 2: to do things in that game they don't obviously, we
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Speaker 2: like they were down. They were not only down Jeremia
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Speaker 2: Smith and Colonel Tate, you're also down Quincy Porter Milon
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Speaker 2: Graham was basically a healthy scratch for a lack of
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Speaker 2: a better term. I mean, you're down to playing David
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Speaker 2: eight off forty eight snaps a game, and so you're
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Speaker 2: just you know, you're pretty limited in what you can do,
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Speaker 2: so you got to churn out some yards. But I
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Speaker 2: do think they probably want to put on film. They
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Speaker 2: kind of wanted to like test test the waters. So
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Speaker 2: still would not be surprised, if you know, I think
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Speaker 2: King Holmes was a little inaccurate. He missed them open receivers.
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Speaker 2: You know he had Jelanie Thurman on that fourth and
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Speaker 2: Tuesday in there wide open.
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Speaker 3: Uh. He had obviously threw.
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Speaker 2: It behind Brandon in this but he's a pretty effective runner,
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Speaker 2: right you Like, he's a much better runner than Devin
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Speaker 2: Brown was when they tried something similar. So you know
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Speaker 2: you may see that at the goal line. But that's
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Speaker 2: all long wind up to say. Like this part of
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Speaker 2: what continues to be a problem with the goal line
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Speaker 2: is just like when you don't have a run thread
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Speaker 2: at quarterback, like you're getting these I formations as we
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Speaker 2: talked about, like the defense can always plus one you,
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Speaker 2: and so here they try to run down g Week
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Speaker 2: to the weak side. So again like away from the
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Speaker 2: wing right we've talked like I like this goal line play,
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Speaker 2: you pull the place I guard to kick out. They're
9:49
Speaker 2: just out numbered though, like Austin Sarah Bell gets beat
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Speaker 2: across his face here, and maybe if he sustains that
9:56
Speaker 2: block on fifty five, you know CJ. Donaldson has enough
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Speaker 2: momentum going that those two linebackers are like he'll be
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Speaker 2: able to run through them for that last half a yard.
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Speaker 2: But like you just don't have enough blockers for that. Like,
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Speaker 2: those guys are not going to be accounted for no
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Speaker 2: matter what you If everything is blocked correctly here, you're
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Speaker 2: never going to get to them. So this continues. You know, there's,
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Speaker 2: like anything else limitations. They did try to throw the
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Speaker 2: one in this from this look, you know, saying through
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Speaker 2: to away. I would still like to see them maybe
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Speaker 2: throw it on first down from these looks, but again,
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Speaker 2: I'm not sure they were going to do that against ruckers.
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Speaker 2: You know, that's sort of one of those things you
10:35
Speaker 2: maybe say for this week.
10:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was gonna say. It feels all year I
10:40
Speaker 1: have been thinking, Man, you put Jeremiah Smith out wide
10:43
Speaker 1: in those goal line situations, and if there's two guys
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Speaker 1: over him, you have a numbers advantage.
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Speaker 3: If there's one guy over them, you throw it.
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Speaker 1: You just slant it, you know, slant fade almost doesn't
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Speaker 1: matter with him. I am fully expecting to see that
10:55
Speaker 1: this weekend. Last rep was not a good rep for Austin's.
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Speaker 1: This next one, this is a really solid rep for
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Speaker 1: Austin Saraveld kind of get gets two guys up blocked
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Speaker 1: on this one. This is a toss play to Bo
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Speaker 1: Jackson for a touchdown.
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Speaker 3: Yeah. Again, we just see like a lot of run
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Speaker 3: game diversity.
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Speaker 2: So as we said, you know, very limited in the
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Speaker 2: past game with basically no wide receivers left. This is
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Speaker 2: a nice again breaking tendency. So we talked about like
11:22
Speaker 2: how Rutgers was super aggressive against multi tight end sets.
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Speaker 2: Obviously you're setting and they're coming, you know, when you're
11:31
Speaker 2: in the shotgun, like we've talked about, like you have
11:33
Speaker 2: tendencies based on where the half back's aligne Like the
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Speaker 2: ball is going to tend to go to the side
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Speaker 2: of the halfback and so here they though they run
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Speaker 2: this pin and pool toss to the half back side.
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Speaker 2: They ran this a few times on Saturday, and so
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Speaker 2: you get that nickel pressure or safety pressure from Rutgers
11:48
Speaker 2: off the backside, but their Rutgers is probably expecting the
11:51
Speaker 2: ball to go that way, but it's going to the
11:53
Speaker 2: half back side. And then as you said, this is
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Speaker 2: a really nice job by Sarahveld, Like you know, I've
11:57
Speaker 2: seen a few times this year o highly offensive linement.
12:00
Speaker 3: If someone doesn't show they'll sort of turn or stop.
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Speaker 2: Like just keep going right, like keep going on, whether
12:05
Speaker 2: on a screen on this situation and like he picks
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Speaker 2: up good cut by Bo Jackson. But like you know,
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Speaker 2: they they executed a slow screen to the running back
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Speaker 2: on Saturday for maybe the first time this year successfully,
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Speaker 2: So that was a good sign. You know, they ran
12:18
Speaker 2: wind back well that we've shown in the past, so
12:21
Speaker 2: you know, there's there's definitely tools in the toolbox. And
12:25
Speaker 2: like you know, at some points this year I thought
12:27
Speaker 2: maybe there's been too much volume that sort of inhibited
12:30
Speaker 2: some of the execution. But as we said, like whether
12:32
Speaker 2: it's counter or this Pinn and Poll. They seem to have, like,
12:36
Speaker 2: you know, you do see improvements happening. I thought Tiger
12:40
Speaker 2: Shibola had probably his best game he's had in a while.
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Speaker 2: I thought he, you know, again not showing this year,
12:46
Speaker 2: but like handled the all the loopers that Rutgers were
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Speaker 2: sending out them at pass Pro pretty well. So I
12:52
Speaker 2: do think you're seeing, you know, it's not just opponent specific.
12:55
Speaker 2: I think the backs and offensive line have are improving.
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Speaker 1: All right. So now we're going to move on to
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Speaker 1: the passing game, and we're gonna start with We're gonna
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Speaker 1: be talking a lot about the Ohio State tight ends
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Speaker 1: and specifically Max Claire here because without Jeremiah Smith and
13:11
Speaker 1: without Carnel Tate, Claire had his best game as a buck.
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Speaker 1: Eye really was a big part of the passing game,
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Speaker 1: kind of the game We've been waiting all year to
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Speaker 1: see from him, and you got it on Saturday. The
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Speaker 1: first play we're gonna be looking at this is one
13:21
Speaker 1: that Greg Ciano talked about in the postgame press conference.
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Speaker 1: He was really not happy. This is if you were
13:27
Speaker 1: on offense, this is just hey, it's a rub route.
13:29
Speaker 1: You know, football, these things happen and if you're on defense, boy,
13:32
Speaker 1: this is in illegal pick play and it should have
13:34
Speaker 1: been offensive pass interference tail as old as time. This
13:38
Speaker 1: is the this is the touchdown pass to Max Claire
13:40
Speaker 1: where I'm sure people on TV watching on TV were going,
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Speaker 1: how did he get so open? And the answer is
13:44
Speaker 1: David Adolf.
13:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, David Adolph's pretty good at setting picks. I honestly
13:51
Speaker 2: disagree with Greg Ciano here. I think he's Adolf running
13:55
Speaker 2: out like if you're a receiver and you don't put
13:57
Speaker 2: extend your hands out, you're not going to get called.
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Speaker 2: Like he's just trying to run through the route, and
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Speaker 2: like that's this on Ruckers in my opinion, for not
14:04
Speaker 2: getting on different levels. But I do want to point
14:07
Speaker 2: this out because you know, I we'll discuss like Michigan
14:12
Speaker 2: is not a good man coverage team, like they when
14:14
Speaker 2: they try to runcover one.
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Speaker 3: It has not gone well this year. I do not
14:17
Speaker 3: expect it.
14:18
Speaker 2: But with Martin Dale, he can't really help himself. Like
14:21
Speaker 2: we were talking about, like you know, he loves running
14:24
Speaker 2: cover zero on third down like third like this, like
14:27
Speaker 2: this situation exactly right, like third and goal, third and seven,
14:31
Speaker 2: And we saw that from UCLA, right and they use
14:34
Speaker 2: a similar concept against Ucla, but like they didn't get
14:37
Speaker 2: the rub and so they didn't stack the routes correctly.
14:40
Speaker 3: Like this is well done.
14:41
Speaker 2: Like I personally think like the position to Claire helps
14:44
Speaker 2: with this because that that you know in line Nicol
14:49
Speaker 2: isn't able to get to a deeper level.
14:51
Speaker 3: And so they stack it well, they throw it.
14:53
Speaker 2: It's it's an easy catch and throw, but you know,
14:57
Speaker 2: and again they pick up the pressure pretty well here
15:00
Speaker 2: you can see from the backside, you know, they they
15:02
Speaker 2: bring that again. Number eight loops around. Carson Hansman comes
15:07
Speaker 2: off to get just enough of it. So like guys
15:08
Speaker 2: were keeping their eyes up, you know, if someone was
15:11
Speaker 2: leaving them, they knew that someone was coming. So I
15:13
Speaker 2: thought the past protection was well done. I thought that,
15:19
Speaker 2: you know, obviously limited sample size, but Julian saying like
15:23
Speaker 2: I was hardened by like he seemed a little bit
15:25
Speaker 2: more comfortable in the pocket. I really thought he's he was,
15:27
Speaker 2: you know, as I showed last week, a little bit
15:29
Speaker 2: rattled in that second half, and a little bit he
15:31
Speaker 2: was sped up against Ucla. I thought, despite not having
15:35
Speaker 2: a lot to work with here, you know, he handled
15:38
Speaker 2: the pressure well.
15:39
Speaker 3: The offensive line handled it pretty well, but this is
15:41
Speaker 3: nicely done.
15:42
Speaker 2: So again, I don't expect a lot of man from Michigan,
15:45
Speaker 2: but like you definitely in these situations have to have.
15:48
Speaker 3: Your cover zero beaters ready to go.
15:50
Speaker 2: So helps if you have Jeremiah Smith to do that
15:55
Speaker 2: with to throw these fate you know, slot fades too
15:58
Speaker 2: or Carnel Tait.
16:00
Speaker 3: But this was a nice execution.
16:02
Speaker 1: Next one, and this is another Max player play, and
16:04
Speaker 1: this is one where he you know, I always think
16:06
Speaker 1: these block and go routes for tight ends, like, I
16:08
Speaker 1: don't know how this is ever. You know the old
16:10
Speaker 1: saying the wheel route is undefeated, Like, I don't know
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Speaker 1: how the block and go routes for tight ends ever
16:14
Speaker 1: ever get covered. And this is one where it does
16:16
Speaker 1: not nice crosser. This is if you're just listening and
16:19
Speaker 1: not watching. This is the one where he tries to
16:22
Speaker 1: hurdle the defenders at the end. I award him zero
16:24
Speaker 1: point six on the James People scale. Did not get
16:26
Speaker 1: up high enough, did not do the James Peoples. But
16:29
Speaker 1: still a really nice, really nice game and nice design
16:32
Speaker 1: here he.
16:32
Speaker 3: Jumped too early.
16:34
Speaker 2: You know, this is again so like I'm sort of
16:37
Speaker 2: looking at all this like an I for it, right,
16:39
Speaker 2: So this is cover five for Rutgers or the two
16:43
Speaker 2: man you know, two deep sfetys with man under again,
16:45
Speaker 2: like we see we're gonna see lots of brackets doubles
16:50
Speaker 2: of Jeremiah Smith, and so it's like, what are you
16:52
Speaker 2: doing to take advantage of that or use that against them?
16:54
Speaker 2: Like I really like this concept here, as you said,
16:57
Speaker 2: like tight end delays, tight end leak. They ran it
16:59
Speaker 2: a bunch. Obviously, again we have very limited tools in
17:02
Speaker 2: the toolbox in this game in the past game, so
17:05
Speaker 2: doing everything they can to feature Max Claire, who's the
17:08
Speaker 2: one guy left. But you know, so this is a
17:10
Speaker 2: nice concept against you know, you're running off the two
17:13
Speaker 2: man coverage and the two deep safeties, forcing those linebackers
17:16
Speaker 2: who are getting the play action to stay home, which
17:19
Speaker 2: they don't do. And so I just I do think that,
17:23
Speaker 2: you know, when you know, when I think back, you know,
17:27
Speaker 2: obviously they tried the one play a couple of years
17:30
Speaker 2: ago to Kate Stover like the delay, and Michigan stuck
17:33
Speaker 2: with it. But like, I just think that this will
17:36
Speaker 2: be an additional tool they have against some of these
17:39
Speaker 2: combo coverages that they haven't had as much in the
17:42
Speaker 2: past with Claire.
17:44
Speaker 1: All Right, so now we're going to move on to
17:46
Speaker 1: the Michigan defensive side of the ball. And if you
17:48
Speaker 1: have watched basically any of our Michigan Monday shows that
17:51
Speaker 1: Tony Gerdaman and I do every week where we go
17:54
Speaker 1: back and we'll watch the previous weekend's Michigan game, it
17:56
Speaker 1: feels like every week we say, boy at Michigan's secondary
18:00
Speaker 1: I have concerns there. The corners have been just kind
18:04
Speaker 1: of okay. Jay or Harrell feels like he gets beat
18:07
Speaker 1: deep once or twice a week. Sometimes it's completed, sometimes
18:10
Speaker 1: it's not. Zeke Berry on the other side, is just
18:12
Speaker 1: kind of fine. Tony I thought made an interesting point
18:15
Speaker 1: this weekhere. It feels like Michigan has nothing but strong safeties,
18:18
Speaker 1: like they've got Brandon Hellman Man. Brandon Hillman will absolutely
18:21
Speaker 1: hit you. Do they have a you know, do they
18:22
Speaker 1: have a free safety on this team? Like it for
18:24
Speaker 1: free safety like Rod Moore has been banged up a
18:27
Speaker 1: bunch this year that has probably hurt them a lot
18:29
Speaker 1: in past coverage. But you know, as you said, you
18:31
Speaker 1: almost see no man coverage, but you do see a
18:35
Speaker 1: lot and especially against Ohio State of a concept called ZEUS.
18:38
Speaker 1: You've been talking about that a bunch on the Buckeye
18:40
Speaker 1: Hudle message board. So explain what ZEUS is and what
18:43
Speaker 1: they're going to try and do with it against Ohio State.
18:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, So, as I said Michigan, if I was going
18:48
Speaker 2: to say, their base coverage scheme term cover three and
18:52
Speaker 2: quarter quarter a half and you know quarter quarter a half,
18:54
Speaker 2: as we talked about, is cover four to the field,
18:57
Speaker 2: cover to the boundary, or you'll get some half quarter
19:00
Speaker 2: quarter as well, which is just flipping that. You know,
19:02
Speaker 2: cover two to the field, cover four to the boundary.
19:04
Speaker 2: But like one thing that they will do a lot
19:07
Speaker 2: of is when you have a they've done it. You know,
19:09
Speaker 2: they did it against Marvin Harrison, Uh, they did it
19:12
Speaker 2: this year against David Boston UH from Washington, or against
19:18
Speaker 2: Michigan State. Like they'll play the ZEUS coverage, which is
19:21
Speaker 2: within quarter quarter a half. So you you decide which
19:24
Speaker 2: side you're playing based on where you know the identified
19:27
Speaker 2: receiver is. So like if Jeremiah Smith, for instance, if
19:30
Speaker 2: he's the number one outside receiver to one side, they'll
19:32
Speaker 2: play cover two to that side, and they'll play cover
19:35
Speaker 2: four opposite so you basically with cover two, you're trying
19:38
Speaker 2: to get a bracket on that guy. If Jeremi Smith
19:41
Speaker 2: lines up in the slot, they'll play cover four across.
19:43
Speaker 2: So again you're trying to bracket then the inside receiver.
19:45
Speaker 2: So Washington though, you know again like you got to
19:50
Speaker 2: use that to your advantage, right, So like Washington knew that, uh,
19:53
Speaker 2: and so they had some nice concepts right to attack
19:56
Speaker 2: Cover two, particularly like to to that side. And so
20:01
Speaker 2: you know, here you get a big you know, basically
20:03
Speaker 2: this Yankee concept that Day loves. You know, you get
20:05
Speaker 2: the deep cross with the deep post that they hit.
20:08
Speaker 2: And so you know, you just got to be ready
20:10
Speaker 2: with your your cover two and cover four beaters to
20:13
Speaker 2: each side. And as I said, like try to take
20:15
Speaker 2: advantage both. You know, you don't want to let them
20:18
Speaker 2: take away Smith instead, you got to like you got
20:21
Speaker 2: to use concepts to that side and then but also
20:23
Speaker 2: use the rules to free other people.
20:27
Speaker 1: All right, This next one another long shot down the
20:29
Speaker 1: middle against Washington. This is one where you can tell,
20:32
Speaker 1: I think it's Zegberry on the far side, number ten,
20:34
Speaker 1: and he just you can tell he just kind of
20:36
Speaker 1: gets lost. Does he can't find the ball, and sort
20:38
Speaker 1: of overruns the play and it turns into a really
20:40
Speaker 1: nice gain from it for Washington here.
20:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly same thing, right, So you're getting covered two
20:45
Speaker 2: to that. So this is half quarter quarter because they're
20:48
Speaker 2: playing cover two to the field side right, they're on
20:50
Speaker 2: the right, hash to the left, and then cover four
20:53
Speaker 2: to the boundary and again so they you know, they
20:56
Speaker 2: run this the seam right route Michigan in particular, like
21:00
Speaker 2: they also like to play Tampa, Like, I think they've
21:03
Speaker 2: struggled with these team routes. They've struggled with like the
21:05
Speaker 2: pole runner, getting depth with with re routing these routes.
21:11
Speaker 2: So I think that's an area you've got to target,
21:14
Speaker 2: you know, whether it's with Smith, Tate, Max Clair, all
21:17
Speaker 2: the above, but like you know, I I.
21:22
Speaker 3: Just generally like I think that.
21:24
Speaker 2: You'll see some on early downs like from Wink Martindale,
21:27
Speaker 2: like some fire zones trying to like get you know,
21:30
Speaker 2: five guys at the ball, uh, you know against the
21:33
Speaker 2: high state run game. Maybe like play some trap two
21:35
Speaker 2: behind it. But I think it's just gonna be a
21:37
Speaker 2: lot of this sort of you know, cover two, cover
21:41
Speaker 2: cover six, you know, trying to keep two deep safeties
21:45
Speaker 2: trying to limit Jeremiah Smith because this is just what
21:48
Speaker 2: Michigan's done better. Like when he's been super aggressive this year,
21:51
Speaker 2: it's it's kind of bit Michigan. And so they've been
21:54
Speaker 2: better at the last month or so with him being
21:56
Speaker 2: much more conservative, uh, keeping the two deep safety.
22:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, and but before he got a little more conservative,
22:04
Speaker 1: they got absolutely roasted at USC. That was one where
22:08
Speaker 1: it almost felt watching that game, it almost felt like
22:11
Speaker 1: Don Brown was back. You had the doctor Blitz thing
22:13
Speaker 1: going for them, and they brought a ton of pressure
22:15
Speaker 1: in that game, and it just it really did not work.
22:18
Speaker 1: This is also an example. I mean you talked earlier
22:20
Speaker 1: about some of the stuff you can do formationally and
22:21
Speaker 1: what Michigan's going to do, what their answer is going
22:24
Speaker 1: to be in different personnel packages. But then you can
22:27
Speaker 1: if you get in one personnel package and spread them out,
22:29
Speaker 1: you can probably create some mismatches. And that is sort
22:32
Speaker 1: of what USC is doing here.
22:34
Speaker 3: Yeah.
22:34
Speaker 2: I mean, as I said, so Wink really likes to
22:38
Speaker 2: play that three four when he sees twelve personnel, and
22:40
Speaker 2: so USC had two good tight ends, played a lot
22:43
Speaker 2: of twelve and then spread them out, and so you
22:46
Speaker 2: got guys just playing in space who aren't comfortable doing it,
22:49
Speaker 2: you know, like unlike o High State's Penny Front where
22:52
Speaker 2: they bump a defensive end inside and an Argo Reese
22:55
Speaker 2: on the edge, like they're playing like legit defensive tackles
22:58
Speaker 2: at these three down line and then so the edge
23:01
Speaker 2: guys are more like defensive ends, and so you just
23:03
Speaker 2: get these guys in space, and again you know no
23:05
Speaker 2: one then is handling the seam here and cover three,
23:09
Speaker 2: you know you just hit the tight end. So again,
23:11
Speaker 2: I like I would expect Ohio State to certainly test.
23:15
Speaker 2: I mean, if I were if my opening series, I'd
23:19
Speaker 2: be using a lot of twelve if I'm Ryan Dan
23:21
Speaker 2: Brian Hartline to test how Michigan's going to play at
23:24
Speaker 2: twelve thirteen. And you want to use a lot of
23:26
Speaker 2: personnel groupings early to see how they're going to handle it.
23:30
Speaker 2: You know, you want it between that you want to
23:32
Speaker 2: put assuming he's there, Jeremiah Smith, like you want to
23:35
Speaker 2: put him out wide as a single receiver, you want
23:37
Speaker 2: to put him in the slot. Again, I want to
23:39
Speaker 2: test like their's USU rules and if that's what they're
23:40
Speaker 2: going to be doing, And you.
23:43
Speaker 1: Know, I think that's an interesting kind of broader conversation.
23:45
Speaker 1: We've talked a little bit about those sort of opening
23:47
Speaker 1: drives and what you're trying to do. I think that
23:50
Speaker 1: I'm going to have you sort of explained that a
23:52
Speaker 1: little bit what what specifically you're looking for there, because
23:56
Speaker 1: I think people go, you know, opening drive and scripted
23:58
Speaker 1: and okay, we're going to you're gonna have all sorts
24:00
Speaker 1: of different tricky stuff off of it. But you're not
24:03
Speaker 1: just trying to score on that drive. You're also trying
24:05
Speaker 1: to sort of figure stuff out for you know, everything
24:08
Speaker 1: else moving after that exactly.
24:10
Speaker 2: So like if I'm Ohio State, let's say I you know,
24:13
Speaker 2: it depends how many plays you have to do it.
24:15
Speaker 2: It might take a couple of drives. But like I
24:17
Speaker 2: want to do twelve personnel with Max Claire, then I
24:20
Speaker 2: want to do twelve or thirteen personnel without Max Claire.
24:23
Speaker 2: I want to see if they respond differently to that, right,
24:25
Speaker 2: Like when you get the more like Bennett, Christian Wolcasmeric
24:29
Speaker 2: like heavy run look tight ends on there, Like are
24:31
Speaker 2: they going to handle all the same you know what,
24:34
Speaker 2: how are they going to respond if I get in
24:35
Speaker 2: twelve and I spread out Claire? You know, as I said,
24:39
Speaker 2: I want to put Jeremi Smith in a bunch of
24:41
Speaker 2: different positions and see how they test their rules on
24:44
Speaker 2: what they've decided to do on that, because you know
24:49
Speaker 2: they're going to regardless of Jeremi Smith not playing against
24:52
Speaker 2: Rutgers like they're gonna you have to assume if you're Michigan,
24:54
Speaker 2: that both Jeremiah Smith and Cardinal tat a plane and
24:57
Speaker 2: so I want to test like how are they going
24:59
Speaker 2: to handle that? And so you know, I think it's
25:01
Speaker 2: a lot of feeling out. These are the questions I have.
25:03
Speaker 2: So this is what do I This will be the
25:05
Speaker 2: information that I would want to obtain if I'm in
25:07
Speaker 2: Ohio State pretty quickly.
25:10
Speaker 1: And you mentioned that Michigan has to assume that Jeremiah
25:12
Speaker 1: Smith and Carnell Tate are playing. At some point this week,
25:14
Speaker 1: Ohio State is going to know whether Jeremiah Smith and
25:16
Speaker 1: where Carnell Tate is playing. How much does that whether
25:20
Speaker 1: it's you have neither of those guys, you have one
25:22
Speaker 1: of those guys, or you have both of those guys,
25:25
Speaker 1: how much does that change what the game plan is
25:27
Speaker 1: for this weekend? Or is it just I mean they
25:29
Speaker 1: always say next man up, is it really just the
25:31
Speaker 1: game plan is what the game plan is, and it
25:33
Speaker 1: is next man up? Or does that maybe change your
25:35
Speaker 1: approach this weekend?
25:36
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean you can't do that because like we've seen,
25:39
Speaker 2: like without it's it's just the drop office so severe,
25:42
Speaker 2: particularly without you know, Quincy Porter as well, who I'd
25:45
Speaker 2: probably put is like the third best outside guy. I mean,
25:50
Speaker 2: if you have neither of them, you're trying to win
25:52
Speaker 2: a game twelve to nine, you know, I mean really
25:56
Speaker 2: like you're trying to scheme up some stuff to get Max,
25:59
Speaker 2: like basically what you did Truckers, Like, you're trying to
26:01
Speaker 2: scheme up some stuff to get Max Claire open. You
26:04
Speaker 2: may have to use some Lincoln keyen Holst run packages.
26:07
Speaker 2: You know, you're just trying to grind it out. If
26:12
Speaker 2: you have one, let's just say you have just Jeremiah Smith.
26:15
Speaker 2: I mean you're gonna you know that you're going to
26:17
Speaker 2: get a lot of again doubling, a lot of combo coverages,
26:22
Speaker 2: and so then you're just trying to again, as I said,
26:24
Speaker 2: like you're trying to use those rules to your advantage,
26:26
Speaker 2: whether that's moving Smith around so that you can make
26:29
Speaker 2: sure he gets his touches or there's times you want
26:31
Speaker 2: to get him, you know, doubled up on purpose so
26:34
Speaker 2: that you can you know, free Max clear up or
26:37
Speaker 2: Brandon Innis and then both obviously, then you're then you're
26:41
Speaker 2: really testing how Michigan's going to handle that, like are
26:44
Speaker 2: they going to really play like Zeus when they've Tate
26:46
Speaker 2: on the opposite side and cover four?
26:48
Speaker 3: Like are they going to too?
26:49
Speaker 2: And you know, we've talked about some of those trap
26:51
Speaker 2: coverages Michigan's using the past, where you like, you know,
26:53
Speaker 2: fire zone and you invert the boundary, like are you
26:56
Speaker 2: going to really play trail technique with Tate to the boundary?
26:59
Speaker 3: Like feel comfortable?
27:00
Speaker 2: So that that obviously is the ideal position for I
27:03
Speaker 2: State because it makes a lot harder to play those
27:05
Speaker 2: kind of coverages if you have two guys you have
27:07
Speaker 2: to worry about.
27:09
Speaker 1: All right, So there you go. There is your Ohio
27:11
Speaker 1: State offense versus Michigan scheme preview with our buddy Ross Fulton.
27:14
Speaker 1: Thank you again to Ross, and thank you again to
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27:29
Speaker 1: Thank you guys all for joining us. Have a great day.
27:31
Speaker 3: We'll talk tomorrow.