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Is The 2024 Ohio State Cornerback Room Really 'The Best In America'? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Buckeyes Tomorrow morning. For Tuesday, August thirteenth, I'm
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  Speaker 1: your host Tom Moore. The Akron game in eighteen days,
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  Speaker 1: the game against Michigan in one hundred and nine days.
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  Speaker 1: On yesterday's show, we let you hear directly from one
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  Speaker 1: of the players whose name you've probably heard a lot
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  Speaker 1: over the course of this year, be Jeremiah Smith. Today
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  Speaker 1: we're going to be doing something like that. On the
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  Speaker 1: defensive side of the ball, you're going to hear a
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  Speaker 1: lot about a coach you've probably heard a lot about,
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  Speaker 1: especially on the recruiting trail. That would be Tim Walton,
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  Speaker 1: the cornerbacks coach. He is someone who has played a
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  Speaker 1: significant role in both the recruiting realm and also the
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  Speaker 1: on field development realm has to take. Cornerback room expected
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  Speaker 1: to be good to quite good this year. Tim Wlton
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  Speaker 1: a big part of that and a big part of
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  Speaker 1: the reason why the pipeline at corner seems to be
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  Speaker 1: pretty well stocked for the future as well. So today
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  Speaker 1: you're going to hear directly from Tim Walton. You're also
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  Speaker 1: going to hear from man we always talk about as
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  Speaker 1: the most honest player on the team. That is Denzel
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  Speaker 1: Burke always has some fascinating stuff to say. You'll get
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  Speaker 1: to hear from him in a little bit. But let's
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  Speaker 1: start with Tim Walton. How many guys does he feel
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  Speaker 1: like he has who could go out there and play
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  Speaker 1: right now at the corner position?
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  Speaker 2: Probably not going to five five guys right now for sure,
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  Speaker 2: possibly another one, so you know, it's still early, so
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  Speaker 2: you'll know a little bit more a week from now,
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  Speaker 2: you know, I mean when you start playing, uh, you know,
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  Speaker 2: scrimmage a little bit and get into some other situations
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  Speaker 2: because now you know it Isabelle. Can you do it
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  Speaker 2: over a period of time, you know what I mean?
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  Speaker 2: Can you stack six, seven, eight, nine days in a row?
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  Speaker 2: See if we can? You know what we got?
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  Speaker 1: All right? So five maybe six guys who could go
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  Speaker 1: out there, and you could say Denzel Berkshire, Davis Nigg
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  Speaker 1: knows some church, Ordan Hancock Schurch, I mean, Matthew seems
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  Speaker 1: like he's definitely in that group. That's four. So you know,
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  Speaker 1: depending on how youway talk about Lorenzo Styles, maybe in there,
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  Speaker 1: maybe Calvin Simpson Hunt I mean, but is someone like
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  Speaker 1: Aaron Scott true freshman he also potentially in that group, could.
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  Speaker 3: Be you know, he's in, he's in, he's in that
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  Speaker 3: mix of stuff, you know.
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  Speaker 2: I mean he's got to play out a little bit more,
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  Speaker 2: you know, like I say, because you got to do
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  Speaker 2: it over time. Man, you got to make sure there's
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  Speaker 2: a true evail on how it's going on all situations
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  Speaker 2: and all days stacked up.
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  Speaker 1: To have five, maybe even six corners you feel could
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  Speaker 1: really play for you at the start of the season,
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  Speaker 1: that feels pretty remarkable. Is that the deepest room that
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  Speaker 1: Tim Walton has had. No, we got it.
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  Speaker 2: We got a we got a deep room. We got
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  Speaker 2: guys that, uh that have experience. You have some good
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  Speaker 2: upcoming young guys to have talent. Uh, they got a
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  Speaker 2: gain experience. Usually gonna do that through game days, you know.
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  Speaker 2: But we have a good group, we have good depth. Uh.
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  Speaker 3: We just got to keep it going and keep growing.
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  Speaker 1: When you look around the country, look around even the
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  Speaker 1: Big ten, just most teams would absolutely kill to have
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  Speaker 1: one lockdown outside corner on their roster, and the Buckeyes
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  Speaker 1: think very well might have two in Davison Ignotan and
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  Speaker 1: Denzel Burke. So is Tim Walton feeling confident in where
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  Speaker 1: those two guys are.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, we feel good. I mean, we feel good. We're
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  Speaker 3: gonna play. We get work at practice every day against
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  Speaker 3: best we go see.
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  Speaker 2: Man, you know, we start talking about those guys over
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  Speaker 2: there with Jeremiah, with meck Cardell wet. They got some
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  Speaker 2: really good dudes that we go against every day at
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  Speaker 2: different body types. You know, you got Brandon Ennis, the
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  Speaker 2: different skill sets, different lengths, different heights, different speeds. So
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  Speaker 2: we get really good work going against really good guys
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  Speaker 2: at different positions. So we that'll make us feel good
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  Speaker 2: on Saturday going in with matchup.
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  Speaker 1: Wise, we've gotten to watch a lot more practice this
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  Speaker 1: month than we do in a typical Fall camp. And
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  Speaker 1: one thing we've noticed is there's a lot of intensity.
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  Speaker 1: There's a lot of trash talk, there's a lot of
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  Speaker 1: back and forth. Everyone is going very very hard at
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  Speaker 1: all times. Where does that intensity come from?
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  Speaker 2: You remember, like we talked about before, we compete in everything.
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  Speaker 2: We're competing in our own room to see who the
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  Speaker 2: best players are, you know what I mean. So we
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  Speaker 2: don't just compete against other guys. We compete in our room.
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  Speaker 2: So we have created that environment through that recruiting that
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  Speaker 2: you got to compete to come here.
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  Speaker 1: Something else we've noticed at practice this month, the NCAA
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  Speaker 1: passed a rule allowing more guys to coach. It's not
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  Speaker 1: just the ten on field assistance. You can now have
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  Speaker 1: functionally as many assistant coaches on the field coaching during
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  Speaker 1: practice as you want to. So who are those extra
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  Speaker 1: guys now out there helping Tim Walton during practice and
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  Speaker 1: what does that look like on the practice field.
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  Speaker 2: Well, we use Dohart and Mike Connor a lot to
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  Speaker 2: help us because they have that experience now, you know.
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  Speaker 2: And Mike Connor has you know, played the game, he's
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  Speaker 2: coached for a while. He actually played for me with
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  Speaker 2: the Giants, so he knows a lot of teaching styles
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  Speaker 2: and he's actually been on the field full time coach
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  Speaker 2: ALSA for a minute, so uh.
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  Speaker 3: And Duhart has been with me for a couple of years,
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  Speaker 3: second year now.
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  Speaker 2: So we use those guys in drills and meetings to
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  Speaker 2: help them all hands on deck approach with that. And
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  Speaker 2: then Breton Zanevski helps us well, you know, with the
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  Speaker 2: young guys and try to make sure everybody gets some
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  Speaker 2: hands on teaching to escalate their learning.
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  Speaker 1: One of the young Buck guys who seems like he
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  Speaker 1: is on his way into growing into a bigger role
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  Speaker 1: with the team this fall is Calvin Simpson Hunt. Where
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  Speaker 1: has Tim Walton's seen improvement from Calvin Simpson Hunt over
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  Speaker 1: the past year.
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  Speaker 2: He's growing, you know what I mean, because he's doing
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  Speaker 2: special teams. You know, he was behind, you know, started
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  Speaker 2: out when he came in, and he's kind of increased
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  Speaker 2: his role more on the special teams part on the defense.
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  Speaker 2: He got to keep growing, keep coming and in the mix,
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  Speaker 2: he got to keep competing every day, you know what
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  Speaker 2: I mean. So there's a group of guys there that
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  Speaker 2: we looking to kind of see, you know, who separate
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  Speaker 2: themselves within the next week and a half or so.
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  Speaker 1: Tim Walton's cornerback room is not only one of the
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  Speaker 1: deepest in recent memory, it is also one of the
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  Speaker 1: most experienced in recent memory as well.
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  Speaker 4: You got a.
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  Speaker 1: Four year starter in Denzel Burke in that room. Denzel
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  Speaker 1: Burke was a starter day one as a true freshman
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  Speaker 1: in twenty twenty one in that Minnesota game. He is
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  Speaker 1: still a starter in twenty twenty four. So what is
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  Speaker 1: there still left for Denzel Burke to do? What is
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  Speaker 1: Tim Walton working on with Denzel Burke to develop his
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  Speaker 1: game more during fall campus year leadership.
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  Speaker 2: We look at the leadership and we look for him
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  Speaker 2: to see game like situations and see how he's just
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  Speaker 2: in practice. So I hold him to a high standard
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  Speaker 2: on making right adjustments and making right decisions even if
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  Speaker 2: we haven't really installed it or hit it yet, because
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  Speaker 2: you got to play the game now, because you know
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  Speaker 2: the basics. So you got to play the game every
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  Speaker 2: practice on the little details situations, splits, backfield, sets, formations,
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  Speaker 2: and I give him challenges every day to ask him
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  Speaker 2: questions and tell me what he saw on these things.
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  Speaker 2: To make sure that even if we didn't hit this
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  Speaker 2: and this shows up, you got to think like this
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  Speaker 2: on certain scenarios.
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  Speaker 1: All right, we just heard about Denzel Burke. Now let's
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  Speaker 1: hear from Denzel Burke. Denzel, how much fun is it
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  Speaker 1: to face this caliber of wide receiver in practice every day?
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  Speaker 4: That's a lot of fun. That's a lot of fun.
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  Speaker 4: You know, we're getting them better. You know, we come
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  Speaker 4: up with the mentality every day that we're gonna mut
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  Speaker 4: them every day in practice, and you know they know that.
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  Speaker 4: You know they're barking back now, and that's just what
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  Speaker 4: we're trying to bring every day in practice. Just continue
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  Speaker 4: to bring that dog out of everybody else and just
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  Speaker 4: and especially for me as a leader in this group,
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  Speaker 4: just continue you to you know, bring the guys up
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  Speaker 4: with me and come to the mentality to you know, win.
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  Speaker 1: Every player mentioned earlier that Denzel Burke is very honest,
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  Speaker 1: very really the most honest player. You get, the straightest
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  Speaker 1: answers out of him, most unvarnished answers out of him,
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  Speaker 1: out of anyone on this team. I always go back
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  Speaker 1: to the Cotton Bowl pre Cotton Bowl interviews last year
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  Speaker 1: and Denzil Burke was asked about Jeremiah Smith and he
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  Speaker 1: kind of said, yeah, the five star or whatever, a
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  Speaker 1: number one player in the class whatever. We'll see what
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  Speaker 1: he gets there. And very quickly in spring ball he
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  Speaker 1: was like, oh, no, no, he's the real deal. He
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  Speaker 1: is so it. You know, Denzil Brooke is not just
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  Speaker 1: going to say give you the happy talk that a
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  Speaker 1: lot of people will. He is going to give you
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  Speaker 1: his unvarnished assessment. So, all right, what is his unvarnished
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  Speaker 1: assessment of Jeremiah Smith right now, just eighteen days away
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  Speaker 1: from the first game of the season. You'll hear that
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  Speaker 1: and a quick follow up from Tim May of Lettermanroe.
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  Speaker 4: Oh yeah, Jeremiah is a dog. I mean I've been
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  Speaker 4: saying this for a long time now. You know, he's
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  Speaker 4: all he's on our team, and I'm glad he's on
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  Speaker 4: our team, and you know we're getting him better. Really,
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  Speaker 4: just his mentality, fifty fifty balls. He's he's a pros pro.
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  Speaker 4: You know, he's eighteen years old, and you know he
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  Speaker 4: has everything you want in a prototypical receiver.
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  Speaker 1: So another guy who Denzel Burke has shared his thoughts
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  Speaker 1: on with varying degrees of enthusiasm over the course of
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  Speaker 1: the year is Will Howard the spring. Frankly, he just
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  Speaker 1: didn't seem like he felt like Will Howard was at
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  Speaker 1: the level he needed to be. So what does you
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  Speaker 1: think about Will Howard? Now?
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  Speaker 4: Oh yeah, Will Howard's been gaming. Uh, he's gotten a
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  Speaker 4: lot better, and he's been doing his thing, great reads.
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  Speaker 4: He's only throwing one interception all camp. And and but nah, man,
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  Speaker 4: he's a he's a great leader, great, great person. He's
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  Speaker 4: a vet and uh, he's he's a good, great quarterback.
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  Speaker 1: What is it that jumps out to Denzel Burke about
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  Speaker 1: Will Howard's game?
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  Speaker 4: I always just say For me, I'll say his pocket presence,
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  Speaker 4: how he handles his team, how he breaks the huddle,
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  Speaker 4: how he finished his plays, how he is in the
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  Speaker 4: live periods when it's good on good, when the ball
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  Speaker 4: is down, and just him seeing just him the balls
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  Speaker 4: he throws, and what he's been doing on the field
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  Speaker 4: moving the ball. And yeah, he's a great to add
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  Speaker 4: to the team.
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  Speaker 1: You don't even need to go back a full month
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  Speaker 1: do Big ten media days back in late July in Indianapolis,
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  Speaker 1: and Denzel Burker still kind of guarded in his comments
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  Speaker 1: about Will Howard even then. So what is he has
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  Speaker 1: he now seen enough to feel like Will Howard could
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  Speaker 1: really be the guy to get Ohio State where it
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  Speaker 1: wants to be this year.
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  Speaker 4: Oh yeah, Yeah, he's been. He's definitely been balling. Really
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  Speaker 4: proud of him. He's been going really hard, playing really well,
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  Speaker 4: good decisions with the ball, and you know, especially when
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  Speaker 4: you go against this defense, it's not gonna be easy
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  Speaker 4: every practice. But he's been making really good decisions and
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  Speaker 4: he's been doing good.
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  Speaker 1: Going back to his freshman season of twenty twenty one,
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  Speaker 1: the Ohio State defense has gotten substantially better every single
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  Speaker 1: year that twenty twenty one defense was not great, not outstanding.
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  Speaker 1: Jim Knowles arrived in twenty twenty two and they were
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  Speaker 1: suddenly pretty good. They gave up a few too many plays,
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  Speaker 1: but big plays, but they were still pretty good. Twenty
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  Speaker 1: twenty three, they went from pretty good to great. This
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  Speaker 1: year they're looking to take another step even beyond that.
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  Speaker 1: All that said, they've gotten pretty good, but they have
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  Speaker 1: not forced turnovers at the rate that you'd expect from
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  Speaker 1: a pretty good or a very good the Ohio State defense.
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  Speaker 1: So is that something you can work on. You're gonna
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  Speaker 1: hear Denzel Burke in his answer talk about PBUs that
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  Speaker 1: there is a stat called pass breakups, which is when
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  Speaker 1: the defender deflects the pass to break up the completion
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  Speaker 1: but does not intercept it. So that's pbu's Denzel burg
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  Speaker 1: can you work onforcing more turnovers?
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  Speaker 4: It's really just more instincts. You know, the PBUs they're cool,
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  Speaker 4: but in a day, we've got to get we got
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  Speaker 4: to turn that ball over, and you know, we're doing
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  Speaker 4: everything in our power to come out and compete every
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  Speaker 4: single day, and you know, turn that ball over and
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  Speaker 4: just go get the ball man and you know, make
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  Speaker 4: the receivers better.
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  Speaker 1: And finally in the show, you heard Tim Walton talking
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  Speaker 1: about maybe making things a little uncomfortable for Denzel Burke
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  Speaker 1: in camp, all with the goal of getting him better
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  Speaker 1: and you know, really rounding out his profile as a
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  Speaker 1: player and a leader. So what has that been like
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  Speaker 1: to have Tim Walton kind of pushing him like that.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, coach wa He's just continuing to coach me really hard,
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  Speaker 4: making sure I take you a little details and making
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  Speaker 4: sure I'm doing everything in my possible everything in my
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  Speaker 4: h doing everything possible to be you know, the first
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  Speaker 4: corner off the board this year. And you know, he's
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  Speaker 4: been really he's been coaching me hard and just making
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  Speaker 4: sure I take care of everything. Sure I take care
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  Speaker 4: of everything.
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  Speaker 1: That'll do it for todayt playing more coming for you
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  Speaker 1: later this week at buckey Huddle dot com. We'll have
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: more interviews with Ohio State players and coaches, may get
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: another chance to watch another Ohio State practice. We will
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: see that it's still sort of TBD right now, but
• 11:46
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