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Ross Fulton Analysis: How Will Ohio State Attack Jim Knowles' Penn State Defense? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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Speaker 1: Welcome to Buck Guys tomorrow morning for Tuesday, October twenty eighth.
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Speaker 1: I'm your host, Tom or the Penn State game in
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Speaker 1: four days, the game against Michigan in thirty two days.
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Speaker 1: On today's show, we're welcoming our buddy Ross Fulton, the
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Speaker 1: ex's and o's guru at bucke huddle dot com and
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Speaker 1: when rosses on the show, We're sponsored by Jeff Rubies
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Speaker 1: of Columbus, broadly offering national acclaimed USDA Prime Stakes, seafood
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Speaker 1: to detail that is simply unmatched. Just go to Jeffruby
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Speaker 1: dot com slash Columbus to check out the menu and
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Speaker 1: make a reservation today. All right, So on these shows,
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Speaker 1: we normally are breaking down the film from Ohio State's
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Speaker 1: previous game on the previous Saturday. My Ohio State didn't
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Speaker 1: have a game on the previous Saturday, so instead we're
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Speaker 1: going to be taking a look at some of this
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Speaker 1: sort of bigger picture stuff that we don't normally get
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Speaker 1: a chance to talk about in too much detail. We're
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Speaker 1: also going to be answering a couple questions from you
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Speaker 1: guys if we asked you on the last week's show
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Speaker 1: to ask leave any questions you have in the comments
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Speaker 1: of those previous videos. Got some good ones, so we'll
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Speaker 1: be getting answering a couple of those later on in
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Speaker 1: the show. But first, Ross I wanted to talk a
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Speaker 1: little bit about some of the storylines that we've been
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Speaker 1: talking about a bunch this season, including Ohio State's use
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Speaker 1: of different formations, different personnel. Obviously heavy tight end usage
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Speaker 1: has been a topic of conversation, a topic of some
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Speaker 1: consternation among Ohio State fans.
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Speaker 3: You know, it.
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Speaker 1: Feels like that sort of dialing back a little bit
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Speaker 1: using fourteen personnel and thirteen personnel that's sort of starting
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Speaker 1: to go away. But where are you seeing that? Are
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Speaker 1: you seeing that in the numbers? And then what is
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Speaker 1: that translated to in terms of production?
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Speaker 2: Jay bud Davis on X highly recommend he puts together
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Speaker 2: these like, you know, snap shots for teams of their
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Speaker 2: you know, various usage and what they're facing on defense,
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Speaker 2: and I mean you could see in the numbers he
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Speaker 2: unfortunately does not have you know, like thirteen or above,
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Speaker 2: but just in terms of twelve, which I assume is
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Speaker 2: twelve personel and above, Ohio state's been in that thirty
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Speaker 2: seven percent in the time, so which might feel a
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Speaker 2: little light, you know when you anecdotically you're like, oh,
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Speaker 2: they're in twelve personnel lot, it's still less than eleven,
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Speaker 2: but it's still like relative to the college football as
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Speaker 2: a whole. He like puts together how often do you
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Speaker 2: do something, and then like, what has it compared to
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Speaker 2: like the median in college football? You know, that's they're
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Speaker 2: using that fifteen percent more of the time than your
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Speaker 2: average college football team. So it's certainly higher, certainly an uptake,
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Speaker 2: you know. I mean this is always sort of a
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Speaker 2: trade off rate. I think if we like put the
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Speaker 2: thirteen and fourteen, like even those heavier looks to the side.
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Speaker 2: I mean, if you're going to ask me, you know
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Speaker 2: what their best eleven is, I continue to think it
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Speaker 2: probably is twelve personnel with Coasmeric and Claire as your
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Speaker 2: two tight ends, probably over playing eleven personnel with Brandon
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Speaker 2: Innis in the slot. So you understand personnel wise why
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Speaker 2: it's kicked up, but it is, you know, honestly, like
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Speaker 2: when you look at the numbers, they've been probably more
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Speaker 2: efficient then some people might think from heavier personnel but
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Speaker 2: not particularly as explosive, and so you know, I guess
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Speaker 2: you might expect that although you know, with the heavier
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Speaker 2: sets you've been hoping that you get you know, teams
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Speaker 2: coming down to the box, which they have. When you
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Speaker 2: look at the numbers, like they faced a heavy box
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Speaker 2: you know, almost half the time forty percent of the time,
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Speaker 2: which again is well above the college football average. So,
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Speaker 2: like we've talked about, like they're playing some heavier personnel
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Speaker 2: and they're getting lots of heavy boxes to take away
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Speaker 2: the run.
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Speaker 1: So I'll have you sort of define what actually where
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Speaker 1: is the line that makes it a heavy box versus
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Speaker 1: a light box. And you would think, okay, heavy box,
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Speaker 1: that should mean that there's lots of stuff open deep.
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Speaker 1: Why are they not throwing the ball more if the
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Speaker 1: teams are putting more guys closer to the line of scrimmage.
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Speaker 1: So a little bit of a two fer there for you.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, so I'm somewhat surmising.
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Speaker 2: I have to say, how about Davis characterized as it,
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Speaker 2: But he listed like light box six man box in
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Speaker 2: a heavy box, So I presume heavy box is seven
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Speaker 2: or more inside the tackle box. And you know, to
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Speaker 2: answer your question, so again like as we've talked about it,
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Speaker 2: we've sort of borne that out right with some of
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Speaker 2: the clips we've shown of teams, you know, having an
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Speaker 2: extra hat in the in the box or being gapped out.
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Speaker 2: The answer to why aren't they throwing deep against is
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Speaker 2: because a lot of what they're getting is Cover three
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Speaker 2: right where you have three deep zone defenders and uh
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Speaker 2: four underneath, and so that that allows you with Cover
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Speaker 2: three you can roll a safety down. I mean, Ohio
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Speaker 2: State defensively does this a lot, So you're bringing a
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Speaker 2: safety into the box, but you have three deep defenders
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Speaker 2: and like you're getting those real soft zones, particularly in
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Speaker 2: the corners protecting themselves. So like you know that corner
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Speaker 2: has a deep third so he can always be on
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Speaker 2: top of a receiver vertically. So you know, you will
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Speaker 2: like to attack Cover three with you know, flood routes
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Speaker 2: and like hitting you know, so you see a lot
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Speaker 2: of curl flat from Ohio State against all this Cover
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Speaker 2: three and then like hitches and like hit the seams
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Speaker 2: and you know those steam routes we've showed a couple
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Speaker 2: of times are sort of probably the area where Julian
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Speaker 2: Sand hasn't quite pulled the trigger. The most and so
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Speaker 2: that's sort of like, you know, I think there's been
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Speaker 2: some opportunities there from time to time, but you know,
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Speaker 2: as we've shown, he's obviously progressing and I think like
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Speaker 2: he'll get there. But that's that's probably why some teams
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Speaker 2: have felt comfortable, you know, standing cover three to say
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Speaker 2: on top of Jeremiah Smith and you know, take their
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Speaker 2: chance in the middle of the field.
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Speaker 1: All right, So we'll transition from middle of the field
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Speaker 1: to middle of the field. And one of the stats
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Speaker 1: that you that we have discussed is middle of the
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Speaker 1: field open versus middle of the field closed. And this
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Speaker 1: is something that feels somewhat self explanatory, but maybe just
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Speaker 1: sort of lay it out for people in terms of
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Speaker 1: what that actually means. And I'm assuming the answer is
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Speaker 1: that Ohio State's seeing a lot more middle of the
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Speaker 1: field closed this year than a lot of teams.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's that sort of picks up on what I
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Speaker 2: was saying recurring cover three. Right, So the middle of
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Speaker 2: the field close just means like, do you if you're
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Speaker 2: middle of the field close? It means you have a
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Speaker 2: safety in the middle of the field basically over the ball,
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Speaker 2: but you know, fifteen yards back if it's middle to
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Speaker 2: field open, you're usually playing two high safeties, either Cover
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Speaker 2: two or Cover four. When you're in the middle of
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Speaker 2: field closed, it's generally Cover one or Cover three, So
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Speaker 2: you know Cover one is man coverage with the deep safety.
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Speaker 2: Cover three, as we just said, is like a zone
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Speaker 2: three deep four hunder. So they're facing a lot of
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Speaker 2: middle of the field closed as you said, fifty four
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Speaker 2: percent of the time, so again eight percentage points higher
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Speaker 2: than the call it average offense in college football faces,
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Speaker 2: but they are only seeing man nineteen percent of the time,
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Speaker 2: which is well below what your average college football offense faces.
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Speaker 2: So the upshot of that is if you've got a
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Speaker 2: lot of mobile field clothes and not much man, you're
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Speaker 2: getting lots of Cover three, and so that's what we
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Speaker 2: were saying. So obviously teams do not want to play
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Speaker 2: them in man coverage. We saw what happened against Minnesota
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Speaker 2: when they did want to play van coverage. And you're
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Speaker 2: talking about explosives, you're getting a lot of, as I said,
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Speaker 2: the soft Cover three zone, which is why you know,
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Speaker 2: as we talked about last week, why these RPOs are
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Speaker 2: so effective, because you're just getting these free access hitches
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Speaker 2: and outs where these coverages are corners are bailing, and
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Speaker 2: so you know, that's how defenses are protecting themselves, right
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Speaker 2: as I said, they want to get an extra hat
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Speaker 2: in the box against the run.
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Speaker 3: They want to, but they also don't want to get
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Speaker 3: beat deep.
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Speaker 2: And you know, they're basically hoping that Ohio State will
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Speaker 2: choose to run like we've seen them do and they'll
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Speaker 2: get a High State behind the sticks and hopefully can
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Speaker 2: get off the field. And so that's why those those
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Speaker 2: RPOs in my mind, are so critical. You know, High
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Speaker 2: State's still again according to Bud Davis, you know they've
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Speaker 2: they've run RPOs fifteen percent of the time, which is,
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Speaker 2: you know, actually below the college football average. So I'm
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Speaker 2: sure if you just use the Wisconsin game it would
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Speaker 2: be above. But obviously we've shown, you know, whether it
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Speaker 2: was the first happigans Washington or Illinois times where it
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Speaker 2: they looked like RPOs, but it sure didn't seem like
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Speaker 2: the read was live because the free access throws are there.
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Speaker 2: So I think, you know, as we can talk about
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Speaker 2: like I think a big chunk of what will help
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Speaker 2: the run game is continue to use those and force
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Speaker 2: teams out of those cover three looks all right.
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Speaker 1: I'm going to sort of skip ahead because we have
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Speaker 1: a question about teams trying to take away the r PO,
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Speaker 1: and I want to get that in right now. This
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Speaker 1: one is from Perry Ellison fifty two to fifty five.
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Speaker 1: He wants to know will teams be able to take
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Speaker 1: away the RPO if their corners simply pray play.
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Speaker 2: Press, they could take away some of them, like those
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Speaker 2: free access reads, right, like those hitches we showed against Wisconsin. Yeah,
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Speaker 2: that read is generally gone. I mean you can read
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Speaker 2: a post app if the corner bails quickly. And we
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Speaker 2: showed like against Wisconsin, right that like later in the
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Speaker 2: game they did they rolled their corners up. They were
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Speaker 2: still in cover three, so they bailed and they kept
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Speaker 2: their safety and sort of where you would throw that
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Speaker 2: glance route. But the upshot is that is then you
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Speaker 2: should be able to run the ball better, right because
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Speaker 2: like I showed that one clip against Wisconsin where like
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Speaker 2: suddenly that safety isn't quite as noisy, and now you're
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Speaker 2: gaining five or six yards instead of three or four
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Speaker 2: before you get to that unblocked defender because that you know,
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Speaker 2: that safety is just not accounted for in the blocking scheme,
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Speaker 2: and so you know you can do that, you can
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Speaker 2: roll your safety. You can obviously play cover one right,
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Speaker 2: Like Cover one takes away RPOs because now you've accounted
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Speaker 2: for the various receivers. You know, if teams, as we
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Speaker 2: said though, if teams want to play Cover one, that
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Speaker 2: obviously opens up opportunities downfield, opens up slants, crossing routes,
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Speaker 2: the lake, and or you can play Cover two right
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Speaker 2: and because that's you get your corners like squatting in
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Speaker 2: the flat, so again take away some of those free
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Speaker 2: access throws. But now again you're too high. You should
9:23
Speaker 2: get advantageous evers to run the ball. So I High State,
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Speaker 2: it's such a good passing team and obviously like has
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Speaker 2: their two biggest threats outside, so they really shouldn't be
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Speaker 2: getting teams wanting to play them super heavy in the box.
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Speaker 2: And like you know, the fact that Julian Sane has
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Speaker 2: like an eighty percent completion percentage like against sort of
9:41
Speaker 2: shows that they're they're probably being too conservative if they
9:44
Speaker 2: really had to put the pedal down, because like that
9:47
Speaker 2: just shows like it's too easy for them to pass
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Speaker 2: the ball. Basically, like you're you're you're super efficient passing,
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Speaker 2: and you know they're they're almost like below average efficient
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Speaker 2: running it. So you know, I presume they'll keep as
9:59
Speaker 2: I said post Wisconsin like not sure they'll you know,
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Speaker 2: rpot every time all the time, depending on what teams
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Speaker 2: are giving them. But I think they're they're going to
10:07
Speaker 2: have to use the pass to help their run game.
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Speaker 1: That was a really long and detailed and really good answer.
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Speaker 1: That was sort of an explanation of we hear of
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Speaker 1: posing coaches talking about having to pick your poison against
10:21
Speaker 1: Ohio State. That was I thought a great description of
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Speaker 1: the details of exactly what all the different kinds of
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Speaker 1: poison are and which one you have to pick. There
10:29
Speaker 1: is not a do it all, one fits all, you know,
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Speaker 1: one size fits all answer to stopping the Ohio State offense,
10:37
Speaker 1: because they can do a bunch of different stuff. One
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Speaker 1: of the things that they, I think would probably like
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Speaker 1: to do more is take those deep shots. As you said,
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Speaker 1: a lot of teams are trying their very best to
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Speaker 1: keep Ohio State from being able to throw the ball
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Speaker 1: down the field. How much is Ohio State throwing or
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Speaker 1: they are they throwing down the field more than other teams,
10:55
Speaker 1: less than other teams more than you'd expect, less than
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Speaker 1: you'd expect. What where are they on those deep shots?
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Speaker 3: Yeah? So good?
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Speaker 2: Using Bud Davis's numbers, you know, throws deep throws which
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Speaker 2: he defines as fifteen yards or more in the air. Right,
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Speaker 2: Ohio State is only doing that fifteen percent of the time,
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Speaker 2: which is thirteen percentage points below like the college football average.
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Speaker 2: So they're not doing it quite as much, right, And
11:20
Speaker 2: there's some scheme issues to that, like we just described.
11:24
Speaker 2: I think we've shown right over time, particularly like early
11:27
Speaker 2: in the season. I think Julian sand was conservative, like
11:31
Speaker 2: we've we've showed a couple examples where he's you know,
11:34
Speaker 2: whether it was that Wisconsin game to seem throw potentially
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Speaker 2: to Jeremih Smith where he had to move off his
11:39
Speaker 2: launch pat point because of you know, the blocking, and
11:42
Speaker 2: he dumped it down to Bo Jackson, which was still
11:44
Speaker 2: an exposed to play but just done differently, or you know,
11:48
Speaker 2: just what they've been calling. Ohio State has not been
11:51
Speaker 2: taking a ton of shots downfield.
11:53
Speaker 3: I think.
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Speaker 2: I do think sometimes the general focus on Jeremi Smith
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Speaker 2: ignores the fact that, like Cardinal Tates had a bunch
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Speaker 2: of explosive plays as well downfield. But I do think
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Speaker 2: and it's not just like throwing it vertically right like
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Speaker 2: we showed some of it, like those deep you know,
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Speaker 2: sale route concepts are like why crosses, like getting things
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Speaker 2: deep digs things again over the middle of the field
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Speaker 2: where you can attack the second level of cover three.
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Speaker 2: And you know, I don't have doubt that Julian Sank
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Speaker 2: can do that. We've seen him do it. I think
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Speaker 2: it's just like, you know, they want to developing them
12:26
Speaker 2: along and again, so like these season stats, I think
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Speaker 2: kind of obscure sometimes, Like you know, that Texas game
12:32
Speaker 2: was they were in a very different place than where
12:34
Speaker 2: they are now.
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Speaker 1: We've kind of talked around a little bit some of
12:38
Speaker 1: the issues in the run game, and I do want
12:40
Speaker 1: to get to those next. But one of the areas
12:42
Speaker 1: that I was wondering about with that is when you're
12:45
Speaker 1: not able to run the ball super well or super consistently.
12:48
Speaker 1: I mean, they've been efficient but not explosive generally in
12:52
Speaker 1: the run game, but sometimes they haven't been particularly efficient either.
12:55
Speaker 1: How much does that impact what they're able to do
12:57
Speaker 1: with play action? Obviously, if you have a really strong
13:00
Speaker 1: run threat, that would seemingly increase your your ability and
13:04
Speaker 1: the level of threat from play action passing. How has
13:07
Speaker 1: that impacted Ohio State's ability to use play action this year?
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Speaker 2: I don't think so at all, And like that's like
13:12
Speaker 2: sort of like one of the things that advanced stats
13:15
Speaker 2: as has shown is like you don't actually have to
13:17
Speaker 2: be a good run team for play action to be effective.
13:20
Speaker 2: Linebackers and second level defenders respected no matter what. But
13:23
Speaker 2: I do think like one of the things I have
13:26
Speaker 2: liked about what I've seen from the Ohigh State offense
13:28
Speaker 2: under Ryan Day and Brian Hartline this year is they've
13:30
Speaker 2: been pretty consistent in using play action from under center
13:35
Speaker 2: and pistol, like those heavy looks heavy bootleg again helps
13:38
Speaker 2: Julian Sans like comfortable throwing boot legs on the run.
13:44
Speaker 2: But like you know, we've obviously talked in previous years
13:46
Speaker 2: where it's like, oh, they had a game where they
13:47
Speaker 2: were in pistol and it was one hundred percent run.
13:50
Speaker 2: They've been, you know, I think, as I said, very
13:53
Speaker 2: consistent with play action this year. In fact, like again
13:55
Speaker 2: look at the same stats for Bud Davis, They've used
13:58
Speaker 2: play action forty nine percent of the time they're passing,
14:01
Speaker 2: which is you know, nineteen percentage points above the college
14:04
Speaker 2: turble average. So a lot of play action obviously, Like
14:06
Speaker 2: play action comes in many forms, right, Like they can
14:09
Speaker 2: be in the gun and saying can kind of stick
14:10
Speaker 2: the ball out and you're giving it. But as appair
14:13
Speaker 2: to like under center you're pulling a guard. You've got
14:16
Speaker 2: like those deep two man routes like the day like
14:19
Speaker 2: so much, you know, the last of what for example,
14:22
Speaker 2: like jeremih Smith's last catch against Wisconsin came off of
14:25
Speaker 2: that on that deep dig.
14:28
Speaker 3: So obviously different types.
14:29
Speaker 2: Of play action, but I do think I've been pretty
14:31
Speaker 2: pleased with the amount and the types of play action
14:34
Speaker 2: they've used this season.
14:36
Speaker 1: All Right, So I got to ask you about the
14:38
Speaker 1: offensive line that has obviously been a big point of
14:40
Speaker 1: concern for a lot of Ohio State fans. How big
14:44
Speaker 1: of a concern is it? Where is the concern if
14:47
Speaker 1: there is one? I mean, where do things stend right
14:49
Speaker 1: now with the offensive line?
14:52
Speaker 2: I think it's a moderate concern, you know, I think
14:55
Speaker 2: the last two weeks Illinois Wisconsin, like both they're definitely
14:59
Speaker 2: been some execution breakdowns. Like we talked about the numbers
15:03
Speaker 2: in the run game earlier, and like that's obviously I
15:06
Speaker 2: still think personally a bigger issue. And like if you
15:08
Speaker 2: clean out the clean up the box, it will make
15:11
Speaker 2: like the identification for the offensive line easier. I do
15:16
Speaker 2: think they've been trying a lot of run concepts, maybe
15:19
Speaker 2: to which I as I've said, I and theory like,
15:22
Speaker 2: but maybe it's been too much for them and they
15:24
Speaker 2: like need to sort of you know, bring bring down
15:27
Speaker 2: the number and rep things more that that are working
15:31
Speaker 2: and discard those that aren't. Like they went from being
15:33
Speaker 2: super heavy gap early in the season, like picking up
15:35
Speaker 2: on the playoffs to now they've been more and more
15:37
Speaker 2: zone as time goes on. So maybe they see that.
15:40
Speaker 2: But there's they're definitely execution breakdowns. I mean some on
15:42
Speaker 2: the left side, but much more so on the right side.
15:45
Speaker 2: You know, Philip Daniels like his his feet and pass
15:48
Speaker 2: protection are pretty slow.
15:50
Speaker 1: Uh.
15:51
Speaker 3: You know, pass protection has not been a big issue.
15:54
Speaker 2: Parts of like that is because Julian sand moves very
15:57
Speaker 2: well in the pocket and can like can feel the
15:59
Speaker 2: right and so that makes it. And you know, Ryan
16:02
Speaker 2: Day has historically had a very good track record of
16:05
Speaker 2: like doing things like to protect the quarterback, Like he'll
16:08
Speaker 2: use different six seven man pass protections you know, different
16:12
Speaker 2: slide chip pole guys full slide house slide you know,
16:17
Speaker 2: but the runt like you know, i'd say the primary
16:19
Speaker 2: concern is Tiger shabolout, like he's almost started for he
16:24
Speaker 2: started at least for a year and a half now,
16:26
Speaker 2: and you just like see the same problems over and
16:28
Speaker 2: over again, Like he leans too far forward so it's
16:31
Speaker 2: hard for him to pick up slants and stunts. And
16:34
Speaker 2: I should say that's been like the majority of the
16:36
Speaker 2: issues the offensive line has had is like identifications slash
16:40
Speaker 2: handling among them between them, like when teams are slanting
16:44
Speaker 2: and stunting, which they're getting a lot of at least
16:46
Speaker 2: they had did for both Illinois and Wisconsin, so that's
16:48
Speaker 2: been causing them problems. So you know, obviously Josh Badilla
16:52
Speaker 2: has been playing some for Tegra. I wouldn't be surprised
16:56
Speaker 2: if his role continues to grow. I mean, he's still
16:58
Speaker 2: a little small, like he'd certainly does not bring the
17:00
Speaker 2: physical presence that Chipola brings. But you know, as long
17:04
Speaker 2: as they like keep having these miscues, you want someone
17:08
Speaker 2: who's like being technically sound. So I personally don't think
17:11
Speaker 2: like either of them, Like I don't think Tiger is
17:14
Speaker 2: going to go from starting to not planing at all,
17:15
Speaker 2: but I wouldn't be surprised if they're like the split
17:17
Speaker 2: the numbers get more even in terms of snaps.
17:21
Speaker 1: All right, and then let's close before we get to
17:23
Speaker 1: our last question from a viewer. I do want to
17:26
Speaker 1: kind of close some of the broader questions with just
17:29
Speaker 1: sort of the issues they've had in the run game.
17:31
Speaker 1: When you look at the numbers, how big of an
17:34
Speaker 1: issue is it, because I think at times it has
17:36
Speaker 1: felt like this team can't run the ball against anyone
17:38
Speaker 1: and it's a total disaster. And sorry when I say
17:41
Speaker 1: it has felt I mean people online are saying. So
17:44
Speaker 1: you sort of get that perspective on things, and then
17:47
Speaker 1: you know, you also look at some of the efficiency
17:50
Speaker 1: numbers and it's like, well, let's maybe not nearly as
17:53
Speaker 1: bad as you think it is sometimes. So what are
17:56
Speaker 1: you seeing in the numbers and what do you think
17:59
Speaker 1: is the actual root cause of whatever issues there are
18:03
Speaker 1: in the run game right now?
18:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, so when you look at the Bud Davis numbers,
18:07
Speaker 2: Ohio State's actually been pretty has pretty good success rate, right,
18:11
Speaker 2: Like he uses the like a color coding the darker.
18:14
Speaker 2: The green is the more successful you are, and like
18:16
Speaker 2: Purple's like you're below average rate.
18:19
Speaker 3: It's like everything Ohio State is doing.
18:23
Speaker 2: With you know, maybe the exception of inside runs, but
18:26
Speaker 2: even that, it's like they're all green, right, Like on
18:28
Speaker 2: success rates, So Day talked about that, right, Like by
18:30
Speaker 2: success rate, we mean did you get four yards when
18:33
Speaker 2: you ran on first down?
18:34
Speaker 3: Half the distance you needed on second down? And on
18:36
Speaker 3: third and fourth down? Did you convert? Right?
18:39
Speaker 2: Like that success rate by contrast, like their EPA, which
18:42
Speaker 2: is like expected points per attempt, like how much did
18:45
Speaker 2: it advance you towards scoring?
18:48
Speaker 3: Is very low.
18:49
Speaker 2: And so I think kind of as you said your question,
18:51
Speaker 2: like they've been pretty efficient. They have not been explosive
18:56
Speaker 2: at all out of the run game. And that's for
18:58
Speaker 2: you know, multiple reasons. Again, like I think obviously the
19:02
Speaker 2: running back room is a work in progress, right, Like
19:05
Speaker 2: two guys got twenty carries against Texas to start the
19:09
Speaker 2: first game, and those guys might be like third and
19:12
Speaker 2: fourth on the depth chart. Now, right, you have like
19:14
Speaker 2: two freshmen who have probably been looked the most consistent
19:18
Speaker 2: as runners.
19:19
Speaker 3: I actually think the CJ.
19:20
Speaker 2: Donaldson's probably been better than some people getting credit for
19:22
Speaker 2: like he you know, he does I think some things
19:25
Speaker 2: well getting nor South in the run game, but obviously,
19:28
Speaker 2: like you know, it's I think a lot of people
19:30
Speaker 2: expected James Peoples to be the.
19:32
Speaker 3: Guy this year and that has not come to fruition.
19:36
Speaker 2: So you got you know, so you got freshmen, you know,
19:40
Speaker 2: you just so they're not making a lot of guys
19:42
Speaker 2: miss you also for all the reasons we talked about,
19:44
Speaker 2: like you know, heavy personnel packages, more guys in the box,
19:48
Speaker 2: it's just sort of hard to get past the second level.
19:50
Speaker 2: So you know, the numbers do bear out that, Like
19:53
Speaker 2: they've been best running Stretch to the Boundary, which again
19:57
Speaker 2: I always you know, laugh at is tries people crazy,
20:02
Speaker 2: but that's been their most consistent run play, both in
20:04
Speaker 2: terms of success rted EPA. But like I'm I think
20:09
Speaker 2: for this group, like I still think, you know, I
20:12
Speaker 2: think we're gonna see more of Jackson and West. But
20:15
Speaker 2: if they're efficient and they're not super explicit other run game, like,
20:18
Speaker 2: that's not the end of the world because they have
20:20
Speaker 2: this such explicive potential from Smith and Tate and Claire
20:24
Speaker 2: as well.
20:26
Speaker 1: All right, so now we get to talk about this
20:28
Speaker 1: weekend's game between Ohio State and Penn State. And I
20:32
Speaker 1: think over the summer, we expected to come into this
20:35
Speaker 1: game with all sorts of storylines and national implication championship
20:39
Speaker 1: implications on both sides, and Big Ten championship implications on
20:42
Speaker 1: both sides, and just you know, one of the biggest
20:45
Speaker 1: games on the college football calendar. And one side of
20:49
Speaker 1: this game has held up its end of the bargain,
20:51
Speaker 1: and the other side of this game has not had
20:53
Speaker 1: the season it expected. And the head coach who we
20:56
Speaker 1: expected to be talking about this week is no longer there.
20:58
Speaker 1: Starting quarterback who expected we're talking about this week is
21:01
Speaker 1: no longer there. So Ohio State is currently about a
21:04
Speaker 1: three touchdown favorite against Penn State this weekend, not the
21:07
Speaker 1: number I think anyone was expecting over the course of
21:10
Speaker 1: the summer. But one storyline that is going to be
21:14
Speaker 1: exactly what we thought it was going to be is
21:17
Speaker 1: the storyline of Jim Nole's defense against the Ohio State offense.
21:20
Speaker 1: And obviously not they're not having exactly the season that
21:23
Speaker 1: they expected to have either. But the question we had
21:26
Speaker 1: a question from Todd Roberts forty two seventeen on YouTube
21:29
Speaker 1: Ken Ross Talk about how Ohio State will to attack
21:31
Speaker 1: Penn State and Jim Noles defense. It will be interesting
21:34
Speaker 1: to see the chess game between both Knowles and day
21:38
Speaker 1: Slash Heartline will play to gain an advantage on play
21:40
Speaker 1: calling since both know each other's schemes, etc. So all right,
21:44
Speaker 1: I guess let's start with how big of an advantage
21:48
Speaker 1: is it to know each other? You know, have been
21:51
Speaker 1: in the building with each other for the last three
21:53
Speaker 1: years and to you know, you know, you you have
21:56
Speaker 1: gone up against each other, You've seen how the other
21:58
Speaker 1: person responds. How big of an advantage is that or
22:02
Speaker 1: is it an advantage for either side or is it
22:04
Speaker 1: just kind of they both know each other, so it's
22:07
Speaker 1: going to be you know, you kind of throw it
22:08
Speaker 1: out the window.
22:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, it probably cancels each other out, you know,
22:14
Speaker 2: it probably forces you to break tendencies more. But like
22:19
Speaker 2: you know, as I said, I think that given you know,
22:22
Speaker 2: Knowles is very familiar, Day Days obviously very familiar with Knowles,
22:25
Speaker 2: you know, but it also matters a lot like who
22:28
Speaker 2: the personnelity is and what they're doing. So like earlier
22:31
Speaker 2: this season, Jim Knowles was basically like rerunning the hits
22:34
Speaker 2: from Ohio States playoff run, you know, like things we
22:37
Speaker 2: talked about last year, spilling the football outside, using a
22:40
Speaker 2: lot of like those three high safety looks a lot
22:43
Speaker 2: of what we saw from Hio State's defense. And then
22:45
Speaker 2: during this recent skid, he's really been sort of throwing
22:48
Speaker 2: the kitchen sick at things, trying to find out what's working.
22:51
Speaker 2: I mean, they're you know, Penn State's really thin at linebacker.
22:54
Speaker 2: I think that's impacting them and what they're trying to do.
22:57
Speaker 2: So that stuff's probably gonna matter more because as I said,
23:00
Speaker 2: like as familiar as Knowles is with Day like it
23:03
Speaker 2: cuts both ways.
23:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, they have been playing a former walk on at
23:07
Speaker 1: linebacker and just sort of checking out some Penn State media,
23:12
Speaker 1: the response from the fan base and the current grades
23:14
Speaker 1: from the fan base. I haven't looked at PFF on him,
23:16
Speaker 1: but the grades from the fan base have not been
23:18
Speaker 1: real positive. So that's certainly a storyline that we'll be
23:21
Speaker 1: keeping an eye on this week. So if you're Ohio
23:25
Speaker 1: State and you know what you know about Jim Knowles,
23:27
Speaker 1: but you know that Jim Noles knows what he knows
23:29
Speaker 1: about you, and you know now what you know sort
23:32
Speaker 1: of where Penn State is personnel wise on defense? What
23:36
Speaker 1: do you do to Todd's question, how will Ohio State
23:40
Speaker 1: go after Penn State in Jim Knowles's defense.
23:47
Speaker 2: I think it'll be interesting to me to see what
23:49
Speaker 2: Knowles does with the RPO threat.
23:51
Speaker 3: I guess would be my first step.
23:53
Speaker 2: Like you know, he may play a lot of cover one,
23:57
Speaker 2: sort of be aggressive in which case to state all
24:00
Speaker 2: of the opportunities to attack downfield. I assume he's gonna
24:03
Speaker 2: he wants to probably cancel out High States run game.
24:07
Speaker 2: So I think it'll be probably he'll be more aggressive
24:11
Speaker 2: than what you've seen just in terms of like his
24:13
Speaker 2: Cover one usage relative to other opponents, and so I
24:16
Speaker 2: do think that'll probably give High State opportunities downfield if
24:19
Speaker 2: they if they take their shots.
24:22
Speaker 1: All right, well, we will find out. We will find
24:25
Speaker 1: out together on Saturday when the Buckeyes take on Penn State.
24:29
Speaker 1: The game kicks off at noon Eastern on Fox. We'll
24:32
Speaker 1: have our full team there covering that game from beginning
24:35
Speaker 1: to end. We'll have our live pregame show, our live
24:37
Speaker 1: postgame show, all that you can find at YouTube dot
24:40
Speaker 1: com slash Buckeye Huddle. We have our full coverage after
24:44
Speaker 1: the game as well. You'll be able to find your
24:45
Speaker 1: postgame press conferences, all that kind of stuff, including the
24:49
Speaker 1: live Brian Day press conference on our postgame show. But
24:52
Speaker 1: you can find that all at YouTube dot com slash
24:54
Speaker 1: bucke Huddle. We're gonna have plenty to talk about in
24:57
Speaker 1: the lead up to that game as well as we
24:58
Speaker 1: count down the days to that game, and then of
25:01
Speaker 1: course we have plenty to talk about afterwards, and we
25:03
Speaker 1: would love to talk about with you all at Buckeye
25:05
Speaker 1: Huddle dot com. That's where we're having the whole team,
25:08
Speaker 1: covering the team, covering recruiting, covering x's and o's and more.
25:12
Speaker 1: It's all at Buckey Huddle dot com. And thanks again
25:14
Speaker 1: to our sponsors at Jeff Rubies of Columbus, the award
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25:27
Speaker 1: it for today. Thank you guys all for joining us.
25:29
Speaker 1: Have a great day. We'll talk to you tomorrow.