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BONUS: Ohio State vs. Illinois - Gameday Preview · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome inside Ohio Stadium, site of today's Ohio State versus
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Illinois game. Kicking off at noon on Fox, I'm joined
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: by Tony Gerderman, Jack Mileti of BuckeyeInsiders.com. Jack, we've got
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: to start with the big storyline of the day. Of
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: all the games you've ever covered that are being played
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  Speaker 1: with a wooden turtle on the line, where does this
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  Speaker 1: one rank?
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  Speaker 2: I think this is right up there at the top.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: There's not too many, but this one certainly, and this one.
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  Speaker 3: This turtle is so.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, so epic and so iconic that Ohio State
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  Speaker 2: literally was going to throw out the last one they
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  Speaker 2: won before they got the new one. I saw that,
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  Speaker 2: and somebody just happened, a former player, it ended up
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  Speaker 2: in his den, which is just like, okay.
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  Speaker 3: Honestly, it's the only trophy game. I think we should
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  Speaker 3: promote it more.
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  Speaker 1: I love it. It is one of those fun, weird,
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  Speaker 1: quirky college football things where you go, why do— Of
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: all the games that Ohio State plays, why is the
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  Speaker 1: trophy game with Illinois? And the answer there is it
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: was for a long time the longest running series between
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Ohio State and any other school, even longer than Michigan.
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  Speaker 1: But then it was like, why is it a wooden turtle?
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  Speaker 1: And the answer, as with so much in college football
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  Speaker 1: these days, is why not?
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  Speaker 4: Well, it used to be a real turtle.
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  Speaker 1: Briefly.
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  Speaker 4: And then that turtle died of alcohol poisoning after spending
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  Speaker 4: time at a frat?
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  Speaker 1: Yes. It turns out fraternity is not necessarily great at
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  Speaker 1: animal husbandry, which I'm as shocked as anyone.
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  Speaker 4: And who knew turtles couldn't hold their liquor? Yeah. Honestly.
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  Speaker 4: But a wooden turtle does much better. Maybe that's where
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  Speaker 4: the whole, like, I'm not even going to get into it.
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  Speaker 4: But I like it just because it's one of those
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  Speaker 4: random things, like the slab of bacon thing. Florida Rosedale,
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  Speaker 4: like all these just random, odd pieces of chair trophy.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: The $ 5 bits of broken chair trophy. Yes.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: And it's one of those fun things where you can
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  Speaker 1: take the sort of traditional weird stuff and iterate it on,
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  Speaker 1: iterate on it. The $ 5 bits of broken chair trophy
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  Speaker 1: was amazing. created by the fake Bo Pelini Twitter account
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  Speaker 1: about 10 years ago and then is like actually a
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  Speaker 1: thing now because you can just do that in college football.
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  Speaker 1: It's one of those wonderful, stupid college football things.
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  Speaker 4: Speak it into existence.
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  Speaker 1: Exactly, exactly. So, boy, the weather today. I know everyone
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: wants to talk about weather on these shows. The weather
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  Speaker 1: today is the– I think I spoke this into existence.
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  Speaker 1: This is the perfect college football Saturday in my mind.
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  Speaker 1: Like 28 and snowing sideways is also a perfect college
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  Speaker 1: football Saturday today. But, man, 71 degrees is the projected
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  Speaker 1: high today.
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  Speaker 3: Sunny.
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  Speaker 1: It was 48 degrees this morning. I got to put
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  Speaker 1: on my new Buckeye Insider sweatshirt for the first time outdoors.
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  Speaker 1: I was very excited. This is one of these days
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  Speaker 1: you just live for in college football.
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  Speaker 3: It's beautiful.
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  Speaker 2: The temperature's perfect. It's starting to smell a little more
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  Speaker 2: like football in the air.
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  Speaker 3: I shouldn't have worn shorts, but whatever.
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  Speaker 4: We'll get through it.
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  Speaker 3: Luckily, I'm up here with Tony most of the day.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, no, we'll be fine up here. It'll be okay.
• 2:53
  Speaker 4: It's climate-controlled. And then when we're down on the field,
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  Speaker 4: it's going to be 70, so it'll be short weather.
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  Speaker 3: It's okay.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's going to be 70 outside. It's going to
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: be 70 inside. It is just an absolutely perfect day
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  Speaker 1: in Columbus, Ohio. And it's going to be probably a
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  Speaker 1: reasonably good day for Ohio State. This is a game
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  Speaker 1: where before the season you look and you thought, well,
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  Speaker 1: this is maybe plausibly a losable game. I don't know
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  Speaker 1: how much of Illinois you've watched this year. Tony and
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  Speaker 1: I went back and re-watched the Duke game, and I
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  Speaker 1: got through about a quarter of that and went, Oh, okay,
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  Speaker 1: and mentally adjusted my score prediction for Ohio State up
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  Speaker 1: by about 10 points.
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  Speaker 2: You know, it was kind of like one of those
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  Speaker 2: back-and-forth teams entering into the season. Are these guys going
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  Speaker 2: to do what they've done the last couple years, or
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  Speaker 2: is there going to be a little bit of a fall-off?
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  Speaker 2: And I did watch, you know, the 20-minute synopsis of
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  Speaker 2: each three games, right?
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  Speaker 1: That was enough.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, that was enough, but they've got some real flaws.
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  Speaker 2: They don't look nearly as tough as they have the
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  Speaker 2: last few years under Brett Bielema, and what he's.
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  Speaker 3: Done with the program I think has been awesome. Mm-hmm.
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  Speaker 3: You know, he can potentially win eight, maybe nine games
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  Speaker 3: in any given year.
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  Speaker 2: And that's really good for Illinois based on their budget
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  Speaker 2: being in the bottom quarter of the Big Ten. So
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: good for them, but they just don't have the athletes,
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  Speaker 2: I don't think, to compete here. Shout out Colin Dixon,
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  Speaker 2: their top wide receiver from Talmadge, Ohio.
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  Speaker 3: A Northeast Ohio kid.
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  Speaker 4: How'd he get away?
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  Speaker 3: I think he's going to get shut down. They're linebackers.
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  Speaker 2: I think Ohio State's run game should have a feast
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  Speaker 2: on these guys today.
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  Speaker 4: It will be interesting to see because they are going
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  Speaker 4: to force feed Colin Dixon, and it's going to be
• 4:24
  Speaker 4: against Jermaine Matthews, Devin Sanchez, and Jay Timmons because he'll
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  Speaker 4: line up everywhere. So I'm fascinated to see how that
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  Speaker 4: goes and who has a good day against him, who
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  Speaker 4: maybe doesn't have a good day against him. And you know,
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  Speaker 4: when Jay Timmons is on them, they're going to attack
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  Speaker 4: Jay Timmons, and that's going to be fun to watch.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and Jay Timmons, when you're trying to play find
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: the fish with the opposing defense, you're going to naturally think, okay,
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  Speaker 1: true freshman, how good can he be? And it feels like,
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  Speaker 1: you know, the Ohio State secondary has not been bad
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  Speaker 1: this year. They've had some not great moments, but on
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  Speaker 1: the whole, it feels like the secondary has been pretty solid.
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  Speaker 1: And Jay Timmons, I can think of a whole lot more,
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  Speaker 1: you know, wow plays in a positive way for Jay
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  Speaker 1: Timmons than I can wow plays in a yuck way
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  Speaker 1: for him.
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  Speaker 2: It was, I mean, going into the Texas game, one
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  Speaker 2: of the things, all right, is he potentially going to
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  Speaker 2: make a big screw-up or an error here or there
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  Speaker 2: that's going to, result in a Texas explosion, and we
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  Speaker 2: didn't really see that. And then, you know, in these
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  Speaker 2: other games, he just looked like a superstar. So now,
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  Speaker 2: first game, Big Ten play, and I think this is
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  Speaker 2: kind of the third variable of game these guys are
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: going to face, right?
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: You had the super cream puff MAAC teams.
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: You had a great team, and now you get kind
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: of the middle of the road Big Ten, upper crust,
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: kind of better Big Ten team. And I expect him
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  Speaker 2: to not be the fish, at least not the one
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  Speaker 2: they're looking for.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, because I know he's missed some tackles, but he's
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: also coming from different angles to make those. The fact
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  Speaker 4: that he's there at all and making something happen, and
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  Speaker 4: he'll get dinged for a missed tackle. But when Ryan
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  Speaker 4: Day is talking this week about he's one of the
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  Speaker 4: guys that we're going to continue to build a defense around,
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  Speaker 4: not much more needs to be said, but we'll continue
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  Speaker 4: to say more about him because as a true freshman
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  Speaker 4: already doing this, Really the first starting defensive true freshman
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  Speaker 4: since what, Denzel Burke in 2021. The other day I
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  Speaker 4: was like, gosh, how long has it been? I was like,
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  Speaker 4: has it been since Andy Katzenmaier? And I was about
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  Speaker 4: to send out like a group text like, hey, and it's,
• 6:18
  Speaker 4: oh yes, Denzel Burke. And that one was based as much,
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  Speaker 4: you know, kudos to Denzel Burke. But the secondary in 2021,
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  Speaker 4: aside from him, was pretty woof at the cornerback position.
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  Speaker 1: With former future first, first overall pick seven banks.
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  Speaker 3: Yes.
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  Speaker 1: But other than that, yeah, it was, it, that, that
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  Speaker 1: felt like a year where it said more about the
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  Speaker 1: other guys this year. It feels like it says more
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  Speaker 1: about Jay Timmons and Timmons has been someone who they're
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: looking for ways to get more pressure on the quarterback.
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  Speaker 1: They're looking for ways to generate more turnovers. That's, that's
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  Speaker 1: sort of, you know, last year it was kind of a, you,
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: you can sort of sit back and just let the
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  Speaker 1: talent be just overwhelming. They don't necessarily have that luxury
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  Speaker 1: this year. But it feels like when they're looking to
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: make a turnover, who forced and recovered the turnover on
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  Speaker 1: the first play from scrimmage for Texas? Who were they
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  Speaker 1: sending on corner blitzes? The answer to a lot of
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  Speaker 1: these has just been Jay Timmons.
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  Speaker 2: There are 65 defensive plays usually in a game, roughly.
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  Speaker 2: We have three schematic experts over at Buckeye Insiders where
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: you should join us. And two of them did a
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  Speaker 2: breakdown of a couple of Jay Timmons plays. Those are
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  Speaker 2: the ones they chose independently of each other. to talk
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  Speaker 2: about this week because Jay is the guy. If you
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  Speaker 2: want to send somebody, you send him. He has got
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  Speaker 2: such burst. He closes, he finishes, and he's just a playmaker.
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  Speaker 2: And I think we'll see more of that as the
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  Speaker 2: season goes on. He's the guy, not Earl, though Earl's
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  Speaker 2: really good at it too, but he's the guy that
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  Speaker 2: they're going to tap when they need that play.
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  Speaker 4: Well, and we saw this early in fall camp when
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  Speaker 4: they started sending him on blitzes from the nickel position.
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  Speaker 4: It's like, boy, he gets there quick, and then you
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  Speaker 4: see it against– Kent State, he's forced turnovers the last
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  Speaker 4: two games. Give him credit for that interception to Riley
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  Speaker 4: Pettyjohn on hitting the quarterback's hand as the ball is
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  Speaker 4: coming out.
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  Speaker 1: This is the first Big Ten game of the season,
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  Speaker 1: which means it is the first week of the new
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  Speaker 1: Big Ten availability report rules. And so normally we're waiting for, okay,
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  Speaker 1: two hours before kickoff. All right, now we can tell
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: you what's going on. This is a very different world
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: where we started getting them Wednesday night. We got another
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: one Thursday night, got another one Friday night. And at
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  Speaker 1: that point, this reminds me a little bit of the
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: start of fall camp where you see the one at
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  Speaker 1: the first day and it's like, okay, this is interesting.
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  Speaker 1: And then you see the trajectory for certain guys. And
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: the trajectory for Zion Grady, for Phillip Daniels, Bennett Christian
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: has just been out all week, but Zion Grady, Phillip Daniels,
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  Speaker 1: those are guys who feel like we are not likely
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: to see them today.
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  Speaker 4: Did they go from questionable to doubtful?
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: They did, yes.
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  Speaker 4: And as the week goes on, obviously that's not good.
• 8:54
  Speaker 4: They wanted to see what if they could get out
• 8:56
  Speaker 4: to practice and what they look like. So that's probably
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  Speaker 4: not going to happen. Maybe no reason to let that happen.
• 9:01
  Speaker 4: And Ryan Day said earlier in the week, you know,
• 9:03
  Speaker 4: when he was asked, he was this week or he
• 9:05
  Speaker 4: had to be this week, like, is the Gabe Van
• 9:08
  Speaker 4: Sickle lineup your best lineup on the offensive lines and
• 9:12
  Speaker 4: why I'd like to see more of it before I
• 9:13
  Speaker 4: make that proclamation. This gives them an opportunity to see
• 9:16
  Speaker 4: more of it with him at right guard and Austin
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  Speaker 4: Searveld at right tackle. So we'll see what happens there.
• 9:22
  Speaker 4: Kyle Parker being a guy that is now probable for
• 9:25
  Speaker 4: the first time. So we never even saw him in camp.
• 9:28
  Speaker 4: We saw him in spring. We did not see him
• 9:30
  Speaker 4: in fall camp. So him being probable, I think it's
• 9:33
  Speaker 4: a good opportunity to get him out there this week
• 9:36
  Speaker 4: before you go on the road and you deal with
• 9:38
  Speaker 4: Iowa and things like that. Very interested to see where
• 9:42
  Speaker 4: he is. We know Brock Boyd's got a lot of
• 9:43
  Speaker 4: slot reps in these games. Maybe some miscommunications, some missed blocks.
• 9:50
  Speaker 4: Does that get fixed by having Kyle Parker out there
• 9:53
  Speaker 4: I don't know because Kyle Parker's got to have a
• 9:56
  Speaker 4: ton of rust on him right now so you've got
• 9:58
  Speaker 4: to shake some of that rust off. And we saw
• 9:59
  Speaker 4: Kyle Parker outside at Z in the spring as well. So, like,
• 10:03
  Speaker 4: what is his role in this offense? And does this
• 10:06
  Speaker 4: now stunt the growth, perhaps, of the two true freshmen,
• 10:10
  Speaker 4: Chris Henry Jr. and Brock Boyd?
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: Well, it feels like this is one of these, okay–
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: You're going to tell me whatever you're going to tell me,
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: but I want you to show me. And this is
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: a game where you're going to say, okay, is Kyle
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: Parker the first guy out there who's not one of
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: the starting three? Is it Brock Boyd? Is it Chris
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: Henry Jr.? You're going to see what they really think
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: of these guys when you have that kind of combination
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: of people available. Because where does Brock Boyd rank relative
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: to Kyle Parker right now? We don't know. They can
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: tell us whatever they want to tell us, but we
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: don't know until you see it on the field. I
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: am very intrigued to see him. I'm also intrigued, there
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: were some of the names that were not on the
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: availability report this week that were big news as well.
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: James Smith, I watched James Smith get carted off the
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: field last week holding his arm, and I thought, well,
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: that looks a lot like a broken forearm, and boy,
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: they might not have him for a month, month and
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: a half. That could be a really big loss. Never
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: on the availability report this week. That was very surprising
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: to me. There was someone else who got hurt last week.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: Legend Bay, you played one snap last week, didn't see
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: him again. And then, boom, he's never on the availability
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: report this week. So sometimes, you know, this is the
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: Sherlock Holmes where the biggest thing is the dog that
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: doesn't bark. That's the big clue. Or in jazz, Tony,
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: as we all know, the notes you don't play, sometimes
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: the most important. Some of the names that aren't on
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: the availability report this week are potentially pretty big for
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: Ohio State, too.
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  Speaker 3: Really big.
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: And, you know, they wanted to kind of debut legend
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: last week. Didn't really want to mess with it until
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: they were through the Texas game. And, yeah, we see
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: one play, and out you go, which did not help
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: the narrative over the course of the last week that
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: he's too small to get a whole lot of action here.
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: The fact that he's not on it, I think, all right,
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: now what are we setting this at? Four and a
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: half touches over under.
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: I'm taking the under.
• 12:00
  Speaker 4: What do you guys think? I would go over that,
• 12:02
  Speaker 4: provided he can stay healthy, because, like, last week I
• 12:04
  Speaker 4: thought he was headed for a 100-yard day because of
• 12:07
  Speaker 4: the blowout, like who's going to carry the ball in
• 12:08
  Speaker 4: the second half. I think they'd like to get him
• 12:10
  Speaker 4: over that. He needs to– Because he played two plays.
• 12:15
  Speaker 4: He ran the ball once and then tweaked his ankle
• 12:18
  Speaker 4: or something coming out of the second snap. So I
• 12:22
  Speaker 4: think they'll go over that. What do you think?
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: I assume they're going to want to try and figure
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: out what they've got in him. I mean, really figure
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: out what they've got in him before you get into
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: the more consequential games. I don't know how much you're
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: going to trust him on the road at Iowa, but
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: you kind of want to know. You got it or not?
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: And I think they're going to try and figure out
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: a lot of what they've got and what they don't.
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: Because this is a game on the ground overall where
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: the question has been around Bo Jackson. Okay, can he
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: make guys miss? Can he make guys miss tackles? Man,
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: if you can't make this Illinois defense miss tackles, you
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: got a problem.
• 12:59
  Speaker 4: Well, is it more important to get Isaiah West going
• 13:01
  Speaker 4: than Legend Bay at this point? Because Isaiah West has
• 13:04
  Speaker 4: been struggling at this point in making dudes miss, running
• 13:08
  Speaker 4: over people. This would be an opportunity for him to
• 13:10
  Speaker 4: get back to the Isaiah West we saw last year
• 13:14
  Speaker 4: and get him going. I think they're going to need
• 13:16
  Speaker 4: both of those guys, but do they need Legend more
• 13:19
  Speaker 4: than they need Isaiah if they've got Jacoby Jackson and
• 13:21
  Speaker 4: Bo Jackson?
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: It feels like Jacoby Jackson is maybe the big piece
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: of that conversation because I think they're getting more out
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: of him than you may be expected, but you're getting
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: less out of Isaiah West. But those guys feel like more...
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: similar players than Legend Bay, where Legend Bay can give
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: you something that you don't get from anyone else in
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: that room. If you can get Bo Jackson and Jacoby
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: Jackson giving you what you need and what they can do,
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: do you need a third guy who can kind of
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: do similar stuff?
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I look at all three of the Jackson brothers
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: and Isaiah West as relatively similar in what you can
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: get out of them. And You know, if it's two
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: of those that are producing, whatever, any way you go
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: about it. And I do think that it would be
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: nice for Isaiah to get a good game in him.
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: Because you will need him.
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: But as far as legend, he is the only guy
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: that can do that. So I think that's vital to
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: kind of at least find out what you do have.
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: I'm just not so sure we're going to see it.
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: But I think the thing I'm most looking forward to
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: today is Now this will be the second time in
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: four games that we'll see the second, the alternative offensive
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: line group that we talked about preseason. You've got the
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: Phil Daniels, and then you've got the Gabe VanSick, Larsen,
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: Cerebell group.
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: So we'll have two games apiece. Which one looked better?
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: This wasn't planned, but now you've seen them both. You've
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: run the offense with both.
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: Additionally, without Bennett Christian, I think that Nate Roberts and
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: Mason Williams both have had– slightly better seasons?
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: Are we going to see just the two of them?
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: Are they going to force maybe Max LeBlanc into action
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: to get a third tight end involved or in the rotation?
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: If we just see Nate and Mason, this whole thing
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: might look a lot better with the tight ends.
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: It has been kind of a clunky experience here in
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: the first.
• 15:05
  Speaker 4: Couple of games. I think the third tight end is
• 15:07
  Speaker 4: Jake Cook. If you want to put him out there
• 15:10
  Speaker 4: and just go with that. Because we saw him at times,
• 15:11
  Speaker 4: he was the second tight end at times against Kent State.
• 15:15
  Speaker 4: But the... The idea that they're going to look better
• 15:19
  Speaker 4: because of Gabe VanSickle, I think they're going to look
• 15:20
  Speaker 4: better because of Illinois. And then next week if Phillip
• 15:24
  Speaker 4: Daniels is back and it's going to be Iowa, it's like, boy,
• 15:26
  Speaker 4: they don't look nearly as good this week against... With
• 15:29
  Speaker 4: Phillip Daniels back out there, they don't look nearly as good.
• 15:31
  Speaker 4: It's like, well, these are two very different defenses, so
• 15:34
  Speaker 4: you've got to factor that in. I don't think they
• 15:37
  Speaker 4: necessarily need to go as deep at tight end. I
• 15:39
  Speaker 4: think they can just stick to two plus the sixth
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: offensive lineman and see how that goes. And Just go
• 15:47
  Speaker 4: with that. Go with the guys that are your best options.
• 15:51
  Speaker 4: If you're supposed to be playing your best 11, it's
• 15:55
  Speaker 4: hard to imagine the fourth and fifth tight ends would
• 15:58
  Speaker 4: be part of that. I know different schemes and different
• 16:03
  Speaker 4: formations or whatever require that, but you're putting some good
• 16:08
  Speaker 4: dudes on the bench to bring in some guys who
• 16:11
  Speaker 4: are only playing because of this line.
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: Well, and you've got to remember, they're getting a wide
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: receiver back in Kyle Parker, and they are taking a
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: tight end off the field this week in Bennett Christian. So,
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: you know, if you're just taking those two positions and
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: just ranking them 1 through 10 or 1 through 12
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: or whatever in terms of who's going to play, you've
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: got one fewer tight end and one more wide receiver.
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: So you would assume, just naturally, you're going to have
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: more wide receivers this week. The wide receiver unit on
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: the whole, Jeremiah Smith is Jeremiah Smith, and you know
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: what you're getting out of Jeremiah Smith. They have been
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: talking about the fact that they need to get the
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: other wide receivers involved, and Devin McEwen was another guy
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: who last week played, got a couple receptions early, and
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: then it was something that you didn't even notice. I
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: don't know if they mentioned it on the broadcast, but
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: he just kind of limped off the field after, I think,
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: an ankle injury in the first half, and then you
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: just didn't see him anymore. That's another guy where I
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: think they really want to get him going. You want
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: to get your other wide receivers involved, but I feel
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: like Brandon Innes, they got involved more last week, Devin
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: McEwen is probably one of those guys they really want
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: to see get going this week.
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: You got to think so, right?
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: I mean, Devin's a guy that I think we've been
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: waiting since the last week or the last that we
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: got to see them in the preseason. A guy that
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: we thought, all right, maybe this guy is really like
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: the true number two here on this team. We haven't
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: quite seen it, but I think we've seen, you know,
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: how different would we feel if maybe Julian hits him
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: for that pass to Texas? It might feel a little
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: different because that was a clear touchdown, but Definitely it's
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: a guy that hasn't been involved and hasn't gotten the
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: number of targets I.
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: Thought he could at this point three games in.
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: So the next three, four games, do we see maybe
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: him or maybe Brandon emerge as a guy who starts
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: to eat a little more targets? Brandon had four targets
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: last week. He's caught every target this year that's been
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: thrown to him. That's a great sign. But really, there
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: is no true number two at this point to me.
• 18:08
  Speaker 4: Well, maybe we'll find out more once they're playing more
• 18:11
  Speaker 4: than just one half. You would expect that to continue
• 18:16
  Speaker 4: for most of the rest of the season, and then
• 18:19
  Speaker 4: it'll rise and you'll see who that guy is.
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: You would argue, you could argue, that they haven't played
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: a fourth quarter all season. You could certainly make that argument.
• 18:27
  Speaker 4: Boy, Tom, is this where we transition to talking about
• 18:29
  Speaker 4: the defense?
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: All right, let's talk a little bit about the defense.
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: I mean, let's talk a little bit about the linebackers,
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: because with the defensive line, it feels like it's going
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: to be more or less what you've seen in previous weeks.
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: Nose-eye on Grady, very likely. He was listed as doubtful
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: on Friday night. James Smith, again, expected to play, which
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: I'm a little surprised, but okay. The linebackers, you got everyone.
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: what's the combination of linebackers that we see the most?
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: We talked about the combination of the offensive line. What's
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: the combination of linebackers we see the most?
• 18:57
  Speaker 4: Well, I thought it was interesting. Christian Allegro, we talked
• 18:59
  Speaker 4: with him this week and he said that he and
• 19:02
  Speaker 4: Riley Pettyjohn have been working more together as a pair
• 19:05
  Speaker 4: where previously had been Christian Allegro and TJ Alford. So
• 19:08
  Speaker 4: I was like, this is the first time they've really
• 19:09
  Speaker 4: worked together in practice as a pair, which makes me
• 19:12
  Speaker 4: think that they're going to play more together as a
• 19:15
  Speaker 4: pair with those two out there and What does that
• 19:18
  Speaker 4: mean for T.J. Alford and Peyton Pierce? It's still going
• 19:20
  Speaker 4: to be a four-man rotation with all of those guys.
• 19:23
  Speaker 4: But I think those two are your top two linebackers
• 19:27
  Speaker 4: in Christian Allegro and Riley Pettyjohn. And the good thing
• 19:30
  Speaker 4: about it is they can play all three positions. They
• 19:32
  Speaker 4: can play Mike. They can play Will. They can play Sam.
• 19:35
  Speaker 4: So you can bounce back T.J. Alford and Peyton Pierce
• 19:38
  Speaker 4: with those two guys when you want. You can give
• 19:40
  Speaker 4: a guy a break when you want. And I think
• 19:43
  Speaker 4: you'll see those guys continue to play more. I still...
• 19:48
  Speaker 4: find it hard to believe that they're going to reduce
• 19:50
  Speaker 4: Peyton Pierce's minutes too much, though. I don't believe it
• 19:57
  Speaker 4: will happen.
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: Is that based on just all the things we've heard
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: all throughout?
• 20:01
  Speaker 4: Just based on him being a captain and James Nornitis
• 20:05
  Speaker 4: being his position coach. I think there's some loyalty there.
• 20:08
  Speaker 4: He's a veteran. And, I mean, it's already been dialed
• 20:12
  Speaker 4: back some.
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: It is.
• 20:14
  Speaker 4: But it's like I don't know how much more it's
• 20:15
  Speaker 4: going to happen. And I think it's going to be
• 20:19
  Speaker 4: happening a little bit more because of what they were saying,
• 20:21
  Speaker 4: what Christian Allegro was saying. But it's like I still, like,
• 20:24
  Speaker 4: I expect him to play in every game this year
• 20:26
  Speaker 4: and play a bunch of snaps. Like maybe does he
• 20:29
  Speaker 4: become the third linebacker again in terms of snaps? Like
• 20:33
  Speaker 4: last year, is it him and T.J. Alford competing, bouncing
• 20:38
  Speaker 4: back and forth as that third and fourth guy while
• 20:40
  Speaker 4: the other two just continue to play more and more. Right.
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: So historically, the last couple of years, what we've seen
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: is the two starters play 600 snaps. The third guy
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: played 300 coming into this year. We thought it would
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: be kind of Peyton and Allegro at the top. And
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: then you have TJ and Riley kind of splitting, maybe
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: getting a little bit more of the chunk for that
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: third linebacker between the two of them. And now I'm
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: with you. I think that it's definitely been Allegro and
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: Riley clearly as the two best options here, but the
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: situation with who can play Mike. Is Riley going to
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: play Mike? And that was, you know, a lot of, well,
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: he can't. You've got to go with either Peyton or
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: you've got to go with T.J.
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: Alford.
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: And then, like, you know, we saw this week or
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: past week, and then Michael Pettit broke it down for
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: us this week on Buckeye Insiders. Yeah, Riley was playing
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: a lot of Mike, and Riley was doing very well.
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: And Michael's point was, in this system that Ohio State plays,
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: this is not a big stretch to have a guy
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: jumping over to Mike, and Riley can clearly do it.
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: Now that we know that, I think we see a
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: whole lot more of Riley and Allegro on the field together.
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: And you've got to remember, you've got Iowa on deck,
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: so you're going to be playing three linebackers a whole
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: lot next week. So at that point, it's okay, who's
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: the third linebacker? Even if it is Allegro and Petty
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: John this week, who's the third linebacker next week? I
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: would still assume that's Peyton Pierce until we hear otherwise.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: Mentioned James Laurinaitis. James Laurinaitis before the game will be
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: ringing the pregame victory bell. That is an honor. Last
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: week it was Katie Smith, the Ohio State women's basketball legend. Today,
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: James Laurinaitis in honor of his induction to the College
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: Football Hall of Fame. The real question, Tony, will they
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: be ringing the victory bell after the game? We've got
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: to talk score predictions. I'm just going to say mine, 42-14. Tony,
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: what do you think? Ohio State, to be clear. What
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: did you pick after I picked 42-14?
• 22:30
  Speaker 4: Before you picked 42-14, I sent my score prediction to you,
• 22:34
  Speaker 4: and it was 41-13. But now that I'm thinking about it,
• 22:38
  Speaker 4: this means maybe some– I'm going to say the field
• 22:40
  Speaker 4: goals come from outside the red zone. I think red
• 22:42
  Speaker 4: zone is going to be okay this week. And you've
• 22:45
  Speaker 4: got Connor Hawkins to kick a couple of 45-yarders, something
• 22:49
  Speaker 4: like that, or perhaps miss an extra point. Who's to say?
• 22:52
  Speaker 4: I went 41-13.
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: And this is one where you might want to get
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: him a little bit of action. You know, you might,
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: if it's a comfortable lead, you might want to have
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: him try and kick a couple field goals.
• 23:04
  Speaker 4: On third down.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: You also have, probably, arguably not on third down, but
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: unless it's right before halftime. There is an interesting dynamic
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: with the special teams in this game in which Ohio
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: State special teams coordinator Robbie Disher worked for Illinois as
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: their special teams coordinator last year. I wonder if they
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: might have something fun up their sleeves this week, just
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: as a hello to old friend Brett Bielema. Or if
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: Illinois might have something up their sleeves as a hello
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: to old friend Robbie Disher. Might be an interesting week
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: on special teams. Juck, what are you expecting, not only
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: on special teams, but game on the whole?
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, if we're going off the first three games,
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: I'm expecting absolutely nothing on special teams, which is what
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: we've seen so far.
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: Slightly disappointed.
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: Ranking in the 100s in every single category on special teams.
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: I'd certainly like to see that improve as we enter
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: Big Ten play.
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: But for the game, we heard Brett Bielema after the
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: game last year.
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: Obviously, he's got a different squad this year, but he
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: thought he really found something running up-tempo that Ohio State
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: didn't have anything for it, and he almost made it
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: sound like, but we'd have won the game if we'd
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: have started off like this. So I think they're going
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: to go a little bit quicker, leading to a couple
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: of more points, and I'm going to go 49-10.
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: 17 Buckeyes.
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: And we should mention, we mentioned this on the Illinois
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: Duke rewatch, Ethan Machowski, the kicker for Illinois, career long
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: of 59 in the Illinois game or the Illinois Duke game.
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: They had him try a 62 yarder. So he is,
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: he is a from the logo, like a literal from
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: the logo guy in terms of kicking. So there you go.
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: Lots to watch for today as the Buckeyes take on Illinois,
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: starting at noon on Fox radio. We will be back
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: after the game with a live press conference with Ryan Day,
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: Ohio State players. Instant reaction from Juck, instant reaction from
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: Tony and I. You're going to want to find us
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: on your YouTube player. And then you can also find
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: us later on your podcast platform of choice, the Buckeye
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: Weekly Podcast, the Buckeyes Tomorrow Morning Podcast, the Time and
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: Change Will Surely Show. And, of course, you can always
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: find us at BuckeyeInsiders.com. That's where we've got our whole
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: team of insiders covering the Buckeyes, covering recruiting, covering X's
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: and O's, covering basketball, plus a really fun and active community.
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: the Insiders Board at BuckeyeInsiders.com. Thank you guys all for
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: joining us, and we'll talk to you after the game.