Latest / Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning / JT Tuimoloau Returning To Ohio State For 2024
Transcript
- 0:00Hello, and welcome to a very special live episode. It seems like we're
- 0:04all we're doing is live episodes these days of the Buckeyes Tomorrow Morning Podcast for
- 0:08Saturday, January thirteenth. I'm your host, Tom Moore. The Akron game
- 0:11in two hundred and thirty one days, the game against Michigan in three hundred
- 0:15and twenty two days. And as I said earlier, we just do live
- 0:18episodes because just news continues to break right around the time we're going to record
- 0:22these episodes, and it's like, well, let's just get it out now,
- 0:25no need to wait. Tony Gerder Minute bucke Huddle dot Com joins me
- 0:28today and Tony the news this time is J T. Twoey Moloow, returning
- 0:33for his fourth season. Former five star defensive end, multi year starter for
- 0:38the Buckeyes at defensive end. Boy, the Ohio State team, the Ohio
- 0:44State collective, the Ohio State brotherhood, whatever you want to associate, whatever
- 0:49you want to credit for all of this. It sure seems like things are
- 0:53working and the mood around Ohio State football is real, real different than it
- 0:56was two weeks ago. I don't even know what you're referring to. Two
- 1:00weeks ago, Tom, the only thing going on right now is everything is
- 1:03great and sunny, even in the sleet in the reign of Columbus Ohio.
- 1:07Right now, as the two PM has hours now become like the returning hour
- 1:11for Ohio State Buckeye juniors and JT. Twey Molowow a twenty eight career starts
- 1:17coming back to Ohio State, joining just about everybody else to this point.
- 1:22And yeah, it would be impossible for Buckeye fans not to be excited about
- 1:26the continued developments, especially what you know, not just what it means now,
- 1:30but obviously what it's going to mean next season for the Buckeyes. And
- 1:34what it's going to mean for the Buckeyes next season is, boy, they've
- 1:37got a veteran defensive line returning in a year when it looked like they might
- 1:42not have any defensive line starters returning. The four members of the Ohio State
- 1:47twenty twenty one defensive line recruiting class JT. Tooey, Molowell and Jack Sawyer
- 1:51on the edges, Klick Williams Mike Hall on the interior. That was a
- 1:55class that at the time everyone was extremely excited about. Tons of talent.
- 2:00Boy, these four guys coming in all together. The downside of that is,
- 2:04well, after the third year typically a lot of those guys tend to
- 2:06turn to turn pro. And even going back to mid December, I was
- 2:10thinking, boy, if they just got two of these guys back, that
- 2:14would be you know, probably a really big win compared to how this could
- 2:16go for them. Now they've got three of them back. Mike hal the
- 2:20only one who ended up turning pro, Ian Marvin Harrison the only underclassmen so
- 2:24far who have announced they're going to turn pro. We're still waiting on word
- 2:28from Trevon Henderson. But man, among the defense, this is Ohio State
- 2:32has had a lot of talented defensive lines. But to have three of these
- 2:38guys back for their fourth year, plus Ty Hamilton, who was another guy
- 2:40who you know was not in that same class, but it was someone who
- 2:44could have theoretically turned pro. He's coming back as well. Plus you've got
- 2:49some talented guys behind them. Boy, that that is going to be a
- 2:53defensive line to be reckoned with this fall and getting Tyleek Williams back was huge.
- 3:00Ty Hamilton has thirteen career starts compared to Tyler Williams twelve to give you
- 3:05an idea that Ty Hamilton is almost the forgotten guy, but started I think
- 3:09seven games at No. Stackle for the Buckeyes this year. And to get
- 3:15those three, the three juniors in particular, especially with the way Jack Sawyer
- 3:19finished the season three sacks against Missouri and the Cotton Bowl really look like not
- 3:27unlike J T. Twoe Mollowa in twenty twenty two against Penn State where they
- 3:31have their defining games, and so that potential is always there, and you
- 3:37know, to get these three guys back, and then also Ty Hamilton announcing
- 3:40his return as well. Those four guys, I mean, to have four
- 3:45guys on the defensive line like that with experience with them, they've seen it
- 3:50all, but have also experienced a lot of frustrations and heartbreak. That sort
- 3:57of thing will fuel them. I mean, that's one of the main reasons
- 4:01why they're all coming back is to get rid of that heartbreak. For sure.
- 4:06I think that's something that it's easy to point to the nil, and
- 4:10the nil maybe makes it a little more financially viable to make that decision.
- 4:15But if they win the national championship this year, you might be ready to
- 4:17move on now. I mean, how many times did we hear the phrase
- 4:20unfinished business? Jack Sawyer talked about it after the Cotton Bowl, that zel
- 4:25Burke talked about it after the Cotton Bowl. Both of those guys are back.
- 4:29I think that that's clearly a motivational thing, and it's also I think
- 4:32there's a little bit of a snowball effect where if you you know pure you
- 4:39know, you'll never you know, your mother saying if someone else jumped off
- 4:42a bridge, would you jump off a bridge? There's a certain point where
- 4:46if all of your other teammates are sticking around, or most of your other
- 4:47teammates are sticking around, why wouldn't you stick around? If you know,
- 4:51then you're not the crazy person who gave it up. Then you're kind of
- 4:55linking arms and kind of you know, linking arms and jumping off that bridge
- 4:58together with a certain degree. But there's a certain yeah, I think,
- 5:00I think there's a certain momentum that brings you know that they can cut factor
- 5:04into this kind of decision too. Yeah. Well, and it's not jumping
- 5:09off the bridge. They're all staying on the bridge and just all standing there.
- 5:13And that's something Tyleek Williams said when we talked to him between the the
- 5:17Michigan game and the Bowl game about his decision, and he said what his
- 5:21teammates will be doing factors into his decision as well, because he didn't want
- 5:26to be the only one to come back. I believe he was the first
- 5:29one to announce you that he was coming back. But it sure seemed like
- 5:32the way Jack Sawyer talked, the way Tyley Williams talked beforehand, like this
- 5:36is all leading leaning this way, like there are there are conversations like as
- 5:42of right now, and things can change, but you know, like a
- 5:44month or so ago, like we're all coming back now. Things can change
- 5:47between now and then. But you know, obviously the plan has continued on
- 5:54as it was set essentially that day, and now you go into twenty twenty
- 6:00four with not only unfinished business, but real leadership. You've got a You've
- 6:06got also young guys behind them, and also juniors behind rising juniors behind them
- 6:11that they're able to pass all of this stuff on and not just leave a
- 6:14legacy in terms of the way they want to go out in twenty twenty four.
- 6:17But how to do it? You know, how to stick around because
- 6:21I don't think anybody expected three fourth of this defensive line class to be seeing
- 6:27their senior seasons. No, I definitely didn't. And you know, these
- 6:30are not guys who are passing up sixth round, seventh round draft projections.
- 6:35These are you know, therese are guys. Some of these guys have been
- 6:39projected in the you know, late in the first round. You're not Marvin
- 6:42Harrison is a top five pick. Marvin Harrison has was going to go pro,
- 6:45was always going to go pro. When you're a top five pick,
- 6:48the coaches tell you, please go pro. It would be stupid for you
- 6:51to come back. That's even even with whatever nil money you're going to get.
- 6:56You're not going to raise top five pick NFL contract kind of money,
- 7:00so it would be a little bit irresponsible to come back in that role.
- 7:02But if you're a late first round pick, the math has changed a little
- 7:05bit and you can you can now make a you know, bring in a
- 7:10decent amount of money. And I'm going to hit a couple of questions here
- 7:13that were comments here that we've gotten. One from Buckeye zero one love the
- 7:17strategy using more money on retaining players than recruits. It feels like college football
- 7:25is maybe remember like the NCAA basketball teams that would bring back, you know,
- 7:30would have the veteran team and you didn't have you know, you didn't
- 7:34have any future lottery guys, but you had like four juniors and a senior,
- 7:40and those teams always kind of made a run in March. It feels
- 7:43like you're sort of turning college football is turning a little bit more into that.
- 7:46That's sort of what Michigan did. And we have a Michigan fan in
- 7:47the comments here that I want to get to because it's actually a you know,
- 7:51an interesting and insightful comment. We'll get there in a minute. But
- 7:55you know, it's it feels like you're sort of seeing a little bit of
- 8:00a shift in terms of what team construction looks like now under the new realities
- 8:05of college football. Yeah, the NFL Draft is in Detroit this year.
- 8:13Cleveland, No, it's it's Detroit. Yeah, And so like you know,
- 8:18months, like this time a year ago, we're thinking there's gonna be
- 8:20so many buck guys that are gonna have an opportunity to be first round picks,
- 8:24and you know, you go and cover it and talk to all these
- 8:26guys and now that's there's gonna be one guy. And I think a lot
- 8:31of that is because of NIL in terms of I don't need to go and
- 8:37set my family up for life right now, I can. I can stay
- 8:39and set them up for the next year quite nicely and set myself up quite
- 8:45nicely, and then that will be there because right now, I think on
- 8:50CBS Sports Draft rankings, j T Twoey Moloow is the number four edge rusher
- 8:56and like the number twenty three player listed, and I think if I look
- 9:00at the number twenty three player last year in the draft, they signed a
- 9:03four year, thirteen million dollar deal. So you're talking like three and a
- 9:07half million a year. And I'm not saying that's what JT. Moloaw is
- 9:11getting right now, but I'm saying they can. They can find a happy
- 9:16medium, and then that three and a half to four to five to six
- 9:18million will be there next year with another outstanding year with outstanding defensive linement all
- 9:26around you, and this could elevate you to top ten, top fifteen pick
- 9:31territory. You always hear about guys, and this is not specific to JT.
- 9:35This is kind of a more broad comment on guys in the past who
- 9:39you know, Hey, my mom lives in a bad neighborhood. I want
- 9:43to go pro and be able to move her to a new house somewhere.
- 9:48You can do that with nil money. There's you're not making thirty million dollars
- 9:52in nil, but there are guys who are making a million dollars. You
- 9:54can move your mom to a better house, or set your family up in
- 9:58a better situation, or you know, set aside some money to put your
- 10:03whatever cousin, younger brother through college, like all of that stuff you can
- 10:05do with nil now. So that has really sort of changed some of the
- 10:09dynamics of, you know, some of these decisions. And this is a
- 10:13really interesting comment Master Toy Museum, nineteen seventy nine. As a Michigan fan,
- 10:18I'm excited to see Ohio States players return to school. Michigan set a
- 10:20standard and returning players to school. I hope this becomes the norm moving forward.
- 10:26Great for the fan. I don't disagree with any of that. I
- 10:30mean, I think Michigan sort of had the did the run it back thing
- 10:33last year and they brought Blake Korum back, and they brought back a whole
- 10:35bunch of you know, a whole bunch of the guys, the Mike Sainmerstill's
- 10:39and all those guys who turned out to be real difference makers on this year's
- 10:43Michigan team. It feels like, you know, you have the programs sort
- 10:48of chasing the recruits and you know, throwing big, you know, throwing
- 10:52the bag at oh I don't know, let's pick a college at random,
- 10:56Texas A and m let's say just to just high pathetically. I don't know
- 11:01that that model is working necessarily as much as you bring in the guys who
- 11:07want to come in and get developed, and you develop them and then maybe
- 11:11you can talk them into sticking around and having a veteran sort of model.
- 11:15And you look at Georgia, you look at Alabama under Nick Saban. We'll
- 11:18see what Alabama looks like moving forward. That's a whole separate conversation. But
- 11:22it feels like the bring in the guys, and you know, it's not
- 11:24like you're not going to get some nil money at Alabama or Georgia or Ohio
- 11:28State or Michigan or whatever as a freshman. But you bring those guys in
- 11:33and then you keep them around a little stability in college football. That's also
- 11:37not probably a bad thing. And then you can sort of supplement through the
- 11:41transferport Yeah, I think if you're not using the transfer portal, you're doing
- 11:45it wrong. CC Dabosweeney there. But you also part of keeping your guys
- 11:54is fending off other colleges as well, and I think that's where it gets
- 11:58back to the quote unquote brotherhood. Yes, d ni L the the culture
- 12:03that you have. And as Ryan Day will tell you, you also kind
- 12:05of suss this out in recruiting in terms of you're you're checking all of these
- 12:11boxes on players, who who is likely to stay through all of the drama,
- 12:13who is likely to be swayed? And if somebody is swayed by another
- 12:18team, if you kind of get that idea, then they're going to be
- 12:22lower on the packing order in terms of taking them. So a lot of
- 12:24stuff that you have to check boxes now on guys, and then this is
- 12:28one of it. And you know how the poachability of this recruit that sort
- 12:31of thing and the ability to keep them. And you know Michigan has done
- 12:35it. Obviously they did it. We can go back to two thousand and
- 12:39seven time with Mike Hart, Chad Henny and Jake long didn't go well for
- 12:43them, what better this time for Michigan. But it wasn't too long ago
- 12:48that Chase Winovich in the revenge tour that didn't go well for them either,
- 12:52But this one obviously did work for Michigan. And when you look at the
- 12:56just the experience they have and they had and knowing that they're going to be
- 13:01losing a lot of guys, this is one of those things where we know
- 13:05this the last time, so you kind of give everything you've got and I
- 13:09think you'll see some of that from Ohio State this year as well. All
- 13:13right, and we have about three hundred people have already hopped on with no
- 13:18notice. So thank you guys all for joining us on YouTube. Make sure
- 13:22you hit that thumbs up button. Go ahead, take three seconds to do
- 13:24it, ready, three to one click? All right, Thank you everyone
- 13:28who just did that, And if you didn't do it, well, we
- 13:30will accept your thumbs up in the next thirty seconds as well. We are
- 13:35going to also have to wrap this semi soon. I have real real life
- 13:39stuff that I will have to handle shortly. Stupid adult responsibilities. That's okay,
- 13:43We've got about ten more minutes. I do have some more questions from
- 13:46the audience. I do want to get through. Let's start with Buckeye zero
- 13:50one, Ty Hamilton taking Mike hallspot, possibly Edward Houston rotating in hero Canoe.
- 13:54I think the first thing is Edward Houston is coming in as a defensive
- 13:58end. I'm not you know, he may grow into a three tech.
- 14:03The other stuff I think, you know, for he may grow to a
- 14:05three tech. I would expect him to start as an edge rusher and sort
- 14:09of start there and maybe that changes later in his career, maybe it doesn't.
- 14:13What about the other stuff, Ty Hamilton taking my call spot Hero Canoe?
- 14:16Where does he fit in? What's your expectation there? Well, I'm
- 14:20going to tell you this, Ty Hamilton doesn't think that's my call spot.
- 14:22He thinks that's his spot. And you know, they both started seven games
- 14:26this year. I think they started once together as well. So yeah,
- 14:31I mean my call was Ty Hamilton has been the run based nos tackle and
- 14:37yet he's also been very effective in the backfield this year. I think what
- 14:43thirty eight tackles to Mike calls twenty four tackles. I believe this year something
- 14:48like five tackles for lost two and a half for my call or something like
- 14:52that was not a great year for my college. We've talked about in the
- 14:54past, but they're semi different players. But Hamilton was very good this year
- 15:00year. And yeah, and I'm with you on Edric Houston. He's a
- 15:01defensive end for now Hero Canoe, I think they need him to be somebody.
- 15:07I'm wondering if they separate Hero Canoe and Caden McDonald like they did Mike
- 15:13Hall and Tyler Williams, because I think Hero Canoe Kate McDonald, one of
- 15:16those guys is the number two nose tackle. It's just which one is it?
- 15:22And can Taiwan alone get involved at three tech behind Tyler Williams And can
- 15:26Cad McDonald or Hero Canoe be that that other guy? And when we talk
- 15:31to Larry Johnson maybe in a couple of weeks, I'll say, I don't
- 15:33know where anybody's gonna play. They're all gonna learn it all and then we'll
- 15:37go from there like he has for ever when it comes to defensive tackles and
- 15:41and they'll all have to play both like they're gonna learn no stackle, They're
- 15:45gonna learn three tech that sort of thing. And then the other thing you're
- 15:48gonna with with the defensive ends that Ohio State has now, you're going to
- 15:52see more three four defensive end alignment in terms of like the rushman stuff where
- 15:58you've got Cayden Curry sliding insider, j T. Twey, Moloow sliding inside
- 16:02on passing down. So even if they don't necessarily have a third or fourth
- 16:07defensive tackle that they love or trust right now, they're going to get away
- 16:11with a lot of that by playing more defensive ends inside. I think,
- 16:15yeah, they're going to see probably some different defensive alignments this year. There's
- 16:18certainly a lot more flexibility in what you can do when you have all these
- 16:22different pieces. You can sort of mix and match two quick things on the
- 16:26interior before we move on to the next question. Hi Hamilton, I have
- 16:29said this before, I will say it again. I think maybe the most
- 16:30underappreciated Ohio State player because he just a lot like his older brother DeVaughn,
- 16:36came in without any of the recruiting hype. He was a three star and
- 16:38it's a local kid and you go, oh, well, you know it's
- 16:41not the South Florida guy or it's the guy out of Texas. It's oh,
- 16:45it's from Pickerington. He's from Pickerington and it's Threetar and isn't that nice?
- 16:48And he's a local kid. And then he just kind of keeps contributing
- 16:52every single year and people keep you know, he sort of gets lost to
- 16:55the shuffle. And I'm guilty of it as well, where I do the
- 16:57narrative of the twenty twenty one recreit in class and well Ty Hamilton was there
- 17:00a year before that, so he's not in that twenty twenty recruiting class,
- 17:03but he's been as everybody, as big of a contributor as all of those
- 17:07guys. So first of all him. Second of all, you mentioned all
- 17:11those names, did not mention Jason Moore, who I think is you know,
- 17:15he was maybe the highest ranked of the defensive line recruits last year for
- 17:19Ohio State and was banged up this year probably you know, probably fits in
- 17:25that three tech mold at some point. I don't know that we even saw
- 17:27him this year on the field, but that was I think more due to
- 17:30injury than anything else. But that's He's another name that is someone I'm very
- 17:36interested to see coming up this spring. Drowsey Dragon says This is like eight
- 17:41Mike Dos guys coming back. I mean, do you remember, do you
- 17:44remember the Mike Dos press conference after the two thousand and one season, and
- 17:48everyone was so sure, so sure that he was going to turn pro,
- 17:52and then he came back, and that was an Ohio State team. It
- 17:56was also not coming off you know, exactly the greatest end to its season
- 18:00Michigan in two thousand and one, and that was obviously not at all the
- 18:03norm back in those days, especially to beat them in in Arbor, but
- 18:07they had lost to South Carolina in the Outback Bowl just a couple of days
- 18:11before that. And then Mike Doss comes back, and I don't know that
- 18:15I was expecting Ohio State to be a national championship level team in two thousand
- 18:19and two, but Mike Doss was a returning All American, was really the
- 18:25heart and soul of that defense. And I mean that was a team that
- 18:27was led by its defense, obviously. So you know, this is I
- 18:32don't know if it's eight Mike DOS's, but boy it is. You know,
- 18:34you're sort of you're sort of seeing this decades version of that kind of
- 18:41return. And if I recall correctly, Mike Dawes said, I'm coming back
- 18:45to win a national championship, and it's like you just went seven and five.
- 18:51Are you sure you know what you're talking about? Because I don't know
- 18:56that you're aware, but you know, I will credit Phil Steele. I
- 19:00think he had Ohio State thirteenth to start the season the year in two thousand
- 19:03and two, so he saw it happening obviously as well. But yeah,
- 19:07that was a two time All American coming back. You're getting a two time
- 19:11All Big Ten player coming back in JT. Twym Molowow. But you're getting
- 19:15a bunch of other All Big Ten players coming back as well. We'll see
- 19:18what with Travon Henderson does the Mecca Booka was the second team last year.
- 19:22I think Tyler Quiams is maybe his second team this year. So there's a
- 19:26bunch of guys that are of note for sure. And Will Howard and and
- 19:37Will Howard. Yes, yeah, this is this is an interesting mixture of
- 19:42Ohio State using NIL to kind of help keep some of those guys together,
- 19:47but also they've brought in some guys through the portal as well, Quinn,
- 19:49Shawn Judkins, Will Howard and going to guess things are business is not done
- 19:56being transacted in the portal on the incoming basis for Ohio State, whether that's
- 20:00this month or after spring ball. And I know if you look at the
- 20:04portal right now, there's not a ton of names in there. I'm just
- 20:07going to remind everyone. Once your head coach leaves, you have thirty days
- 20:11to enter the portal. So Alabama players have another trying to remember where I
- 20:15was to figure out what night that was. I think that was Wednesday night
- 20:18this week Wednesday night, So they have another twenty eight days to enter the
- 20:21portal. So there may be some more names in the portal in the next
- 20:26month and we'll see. And then wherever Alabama hires their no head coach from
- 20:30there may be more names from there in the portal as well, so we'll
- 20:33keep an eye on that for you. Let's wrap up with this one from
- 20:37Kyle best OSU defense in the past ten years. I'm gonna I'm going to
- 20:44make you answer this question two different ways, Tony, what is the best
- 20:47OSU defense in the past ten years? And will twenty twenty four meet or
- 20:52exceed that standard? I think it's either twenty nineteen or twenty sixteen, And
- 20:59let me. I'll answer this better when I know who all they're getting from
- 21:02the portal in case on anybody else lands. But there's the potential to have
- 21:10a secondary as good as twenty sixteen. I just even with these defensive linemen
- 21:14coming back, I don't know that there's a Bosa and I don't think there's
- 21:17a Chase Young. And that's what each of those two defenses had. And
- 21:22when you have that, it makes everybody better. Now collectively, maybe this
- 21:26group can get there and shoot this defense this year. In terms of all
- 21:30of your analytical things, Tom was one of the best in the last ten
- 21:33to twenty years in college football, so it probably already ranks ahead of the
- 21:40nineteen and sixteen teams perhaps, but best of your LSU defense in the past
- 21:45ten years potentially. But I'm not going to say that just yet. Give
- 21:52me, give me a month, give me twenty eight days, Tom,
- 21:56Yeah, Gully, Tony, why do you need four more weeks? I
- 21:59don't know, could be anything. Yeah, Well, I suspect this will
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- 22:23Ohio state has at least one more under Klassman, who still has to announce
- 22:27his decision. I feel like I should nervously check Twitter to see if that
- 22:30has happened while we're while we're on, but I have to leave, so
- 22:33it doesn't matter. We can't talk about Trevian Henderson's decision one way or the
- 22:37other until Trevion Henderson announces it, hopefully later today after I'm done running around
- 22:41with kid stuff. We will we will be back whenever the Trevian Henderson decision
- 22:45comes back comes out. Will we have We will have, of course,
- 22:48more coverage on bucke huddle dot com. Lots of content on the huddle board,
- 22:52lots of new information on recruiting and some transfer portal stuff all on the
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