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What Made Ohio State The Pick In The Transfer Portal For Caleb Downs? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Welcome to Buckeyes tomorrow morning for Saturday, February third. I'm your host,
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  Tom Moore. The Akron game is in two hundred and ten days. The
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  game against Michigan in three hundred and one days. All Right, we're gonna
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  be hearing more from some of the newest players on the ohiship football team.
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  We're gonna start with Caleb Downs today. He's obviously probably the highest profile transfer
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  the Buckeyes have landed this year. Would be the one also that brought in
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  the biggest amount of excitement among Ohio State fans, and it doesn't take a
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  lot of thinking to figure out why that might be. He was a freshman
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  All American started twelve games as a true freshman in the secondary for Nick Saban
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  last year at Alabama. Yeah, that pretty much is all you need to
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  know. So, how surprised was Caleb Downs when Nick Saban announced that he
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  was retiring. I was. It was a huge surprise. Barkin and c
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  and A meeting him, saying that my heart dropped for sure, But at
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  the end of the day, if that's what he felt was best for him,
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  I love him for and as you do. We actually talked a little
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  bit about Caleb Downs on yesterday show as well, with Mark Givler talking about
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  how the twenty twenty two Ohio State defense and the struggles that they had played
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  a role in Caleb Downs picking Alabama over the Buckeyes coming out of high school.
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  So what were his impressions of the twenty twenty three Ohio State defense and
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  how much they had really improved. That's definitely true. They played great defense
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  last year and just seeing how watching the film and seeing how they progressed and
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  seeing how their defense played last year definitely helped me make a more sound decisions
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  and having more facts about what it would be getting into. One consistent thread
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  in a lot of the secondary recruiting success both through the portal and in the
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  high school ranks for Ohigh State recently has been cornerbacks coach Tim Walton. He's
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  a name that you hear from a lot of guys, and you hear kind
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  of consistent things about Tim Walton from those recruits as well. But here's what
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  Caleb Downs had to say about Tim Walton. Very genuine person. He always
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  keeps it straight with you everything that he's as he has come to Fluiia,
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  So I can't knack him on anything. He's very close to my pops too.
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  They grew up together. So just knowing that relationship with him and our
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  relationship together is I trust in him now? Walton, of course, will
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  not be Caleb downs position coach at Ohio State. Walton coaches the corners and
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  the safety's coach this year, replacing Perry Aliano is Matt Gerary. So what
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  are Caleb Downs' initial impressions of his position? Coach? Matt Garary great guy,
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  variant, intelligent, A lot to learn from him. He knows this
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  defense very well. Just being able to learn from him and see how he
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  sees the game, will I think that'll progress? Minds. It's my development
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  mentioned off the top of the show that Caleb Downs started every game last season
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  as a true freshman as a safety for Nick Saban in a Nick Saban defense.
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  Nick Saban, of course famous for his defense, famous for specifically his
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  focus on the secondary. So it takes a lot. So how the heck
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  did Caleb Downs do that? How what prepared him to take on that kind
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  of role in that defense as a true freshman. I think the development from
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  when I was a kid, I've been training with my dad and my brother
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  since I was four or five years old. So I don't want to say
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  I was built for this, but I mean, at the end of the
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  day, I've been doing this since I was a kid, so there's really
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  been no change. Nick Saban was one of a kind. The people want
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  to throw around goat all the time with you know, everyone's the goat.
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  You win two games in a row, you're the goat. It's amazing everyone
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  is everyone is simultaneously the greatest of all time at whatever they do. However,
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  with Nick Saban, it was probably deserved. Nick Saban probably going to
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  go down as the greatest modern college football coach, maybe greatest ever college football
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  coach. So in Caleb Downs's mind, what made Nick Saban so special?
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  Very disciplined person. He was committed every single day to being his best sope
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  and not many people can actually say that and be truthful with that. He
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  was the same person every single day, and he taught me a lot about
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  commitment, about being disciplined, consistency, everything that goes with that, and
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  being great. I feel like that's what he embodies. Once Downs went into
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  the portal, he had his pick of just about anywhere he could have possibly
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  wanted to transfer. So what made the Ohio State defense appealing to him?
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  I feel like it's being a part of a bunch of moving parts that have
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  to work together. The offense has to do their own thing, but the
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  defense, everybody has their own responsibility. And when everybody can do their own
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  responsibility, everybody's going to make plays and everybody's going to be able to succeed.
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  So I just feel like being a part of that and trying to help
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  myself and help my team be better. In terms of that, that's a
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  big thing for me. Downs was a five star prospect coming out of high
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  school, so he was very very highly touted and very very highly sought coming
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  out of high school, just as he was in the transfer portal. So
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  how was the transfer portal recruiting process different from the high school recruiting process?
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  Recruiting on steroids, I say, I got like one hundred and two calls
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  in one day, so it's just well not in one day, probably seven
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  eight hours, but just being able to minimize what my mind was going through
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  that that was a big thing for me. And being able to make a
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  sound decision off of what I knew. You heard him mention They're getting over
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  one hundred calls in like seven or eight hours in the span of one day.
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  How do you avoid getting overwhelmed by that amount of communication? Pretty much,
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  you have to go silent. You have to be able to control your
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  circuit in terms of getting your opinions from people that you trust in, people
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  that you know you can count up. So that was the biggest thing for
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  me, just being able to understand what the people around me were thinking and
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  how I wanted to go about it. And IL is part of the conversation
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  around pretty much every high school worker, meant, every transfer, portal change,
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  all of that. Now it is just sort of an ever present part
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  of the conversation around college football. So how did the NIL piece of this
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  factor into Caleb Downs's decision? At the end of the day, I love
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  playing football and that's what I'm here to do. I'm not here to make
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  money or do anything like that. I know there's a lot of opportunities here
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  in terms of the city of Columbus, but at the end of the day,
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  I'm here to help this team with football games and I'm here to do
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  my best and try to develop as far as a position at Ohio State I
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  think you can at least pencil in Caleb Downs at the adjuster position. That
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  sounds like where he's going to start. That's the free safety, deep safety,
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  the Josh Proctor position, what however you want to think about it,
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  that's where they're thinking they're going to at least start him. Lathan Ransom he
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  played the boundary safety, the bandit position for Ohio State a bunch last year.
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  Probably where he's going to be back. Sunny Styles could be in the
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  mix somewhere as well, could be playing a little closer to the line of
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  scrimmage. We will find that out during the course of springball. But how
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  does Caleb Down think those guys are all going to fit together? I feel
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  like more than just late Than and Sunny can accompliment each other. A lot
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  of people in the secondary can work together to be cohesive and be a brotherhood.
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  So but Lathan and Sonny they welcome me and I appreciate them for that.
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  So I think us working together we can do some real damage. You
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  hear a lot about guys talking about all their preparation, off field preparation,
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  film study, all that kind of stuff. How that factors into their play
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  on the field. So what does Caleb Downs think about his off field preparation
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  film study? How does that all factor into his game? I would say
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  I'm elite at that being able to watch film and determine what are the keys
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  to look at each pay play, being able to determine which guys I need
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  to change up my techniques. For being able to determine what I'm looking at
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  in terms of before to play and what my teammates need to look at before
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  to play. I would say I'm a lead at that in being able to
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  make those differences each week a big thing for me. And finally, Caleb
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  Downs has not gotten to do a lot at Ohio State just yet. Obviously
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  spring practice doesn't start for another month or so, but he has gotten to
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  do some strength and conditioning. So what has he seen out of the Mickey
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  Muraudy strength and conditioning program at Ohio State so far compared to what he did
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  at Alabama? There's a lot of similarities. Coach Blue runs a great program
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  and I love everything that he did for me there and those guys that worked
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  there, like Coach you J So I'm appreciative of how they worked and they
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  did great things there. Coach and make does a great job here, so
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  I can't really say one's better than the other, but coach, he's a
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  very antest person. Well there you go. You have heard a little more
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  than you probably have before from Caleb Downs. You know a little bit more
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  about him. We're going to be telling you much more about him and the
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  rest of the Ohio State defense and the rest of the Ohio State team coming
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  up this spring as spring football kicks off in about a month. Season not
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  all that far away. We're getting closer every day. There's a lot to
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  talk about though, about the season, about spring football, about some positional
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  battles, and much much more. And the place to do it is all
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  at bucke huddle dot com. That's where Tony Kevin and I cover the team,
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  Mark covers recruiting, get our team of ex's, and nose gurus making
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  you a smarter football fan. All at Buckeye Huddle dot com. That will
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  do it for today. Thank you guys all for joining us. Have a
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  great day. We will talk to you tomorrow.