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Ohio State Football Insider: 4 Things We Learned About The First Spring Scrimmage · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Welcome to buck Eyes tomorrow morning for Monday, March twenty fifth, I'm your
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  host, Tom or the Akron game in one hundred and sixty days, the
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  game against Michigan in two hundred and fifty days. On Saturday, the Ohio
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  State back Eyes held their first scrimmage of the spring. It was closed to
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  the media, closed to the public. But sometimes, folks on the staff
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  at Buckeye huddle dot com, here's some things, and sometimes there's some interesting
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  information to come out, and it's not always super detailed play by play information,
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  but generally the folks who are there know what they're talking about, and
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  so if they let you know something was interesting, it's generally pretty good information.
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  And bring in Kevin Nowon of bucke huddle dot com. He've been shot
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  talking about this stuff on the huddle board at bucke huddle dot com basically since
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  the scrimmage ended. And Kevin, I guess let's start with the one position
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  group on the defense where there are maybe some question marks this year and some
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  turnover the linebackers. It sounded like scrimmage won. Things look pretty good,
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  pretty darn good there. Yeah, I think there were a lot of concerns
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  with Ohio State losing Tommy Eikenberg and Steel Chambers. I mean, two guys
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  that had locked down the positions for a couple of years, what was the
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  position going to look like moving forward? And while I didn't necessarily get rotations,
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  I was told, quote unquote, the linebackers looked really good. So
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  that means guys like Cody Simon, who is a known But then what happens
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  at that point is that a Sunny Styles is a a CJ. Hicks.
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  I wasn't able to get much further, and I didn't want to put my
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  source really out over his skis, but he said that they looked really good,
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  that they were flying around out there, And I mean, I think
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  that's going to have to be something that people really grasp onto because, as
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  you said in the setup there, linebacker is the one position on the defensive
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  side that I think people have the questions just mostly because of in a four
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  to two five the two are gone, so you were having to put new
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  guys in there. And while Cody Simon isn't a new guy with the amount
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  that he's played, especially on times I went back to more of a traditional
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  four to three, he has not been in every down type of player at
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  Ohio State yet. And I think if you had to ask Ohio State fans,
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  you know that I can let you pick one position group on the defense
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  to hear, Hey, things were looking really good during the first scrimmage.
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  I think most people would pick the linebackers because there's sort of a level of
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  expectation. Yeah, the corners are probably going to be pretty good. Yeah,
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  the safety are probably gonna be pretty good, The defensive line probably gonna
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  be pretty good. For the linebackers to be pretty good, to be impressive
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  this early. That feels like that's probably about the best possible news Ohio State
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  fans could get at this point. Oh yeah, I certainly agree that getting
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  positive news about the linebackers because that is kind of the missing link. I
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  mean, we do know on the defensive line when you return Jack Sawyer,
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  JT. Tuamoloou, when on the defensive tackle when you return everybody but my
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  call, all of that is important. I mean, I think that they're
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  going to there's gonna be the need for depth at a lot of positions.
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  It's going to be a long season, especially if it's a successful season,
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  potentially going out to sixteen games. Let's not say seventeen, because if we
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  say seventeen, that means you're having to play a first round game in the
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  playoffs, and nobody wants that. That doesn't that doesn't A, that doesn't
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  help you, and B that means that maybe your season wasn't as special as
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  you'd hoped it would be. But with the linebackers really showing up there,
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  and again it's a scrimmage, it's it's early. I mean, I don't
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  want anybody go on out and getting on their favorite getting on their favorite sportsbook
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  site and laying bets based on what we're talking about here on you know,
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  late March. But scrimmage one linebacker's good, and scrimmage one sounds like defensive
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  line good as well. And that is not probably as much of a surprise
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  because there's a lot of returning talent there and even the second level talent there.
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  Some of the younger guys have seen the decent amount of action. But
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  you know, again, this is one of these things where it feels like
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  that's you know, if you have we're Kevin, they're one in the trenches.
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  So a good start for the defensive line feels like a good start for
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  the spring for Ohio State. Well, I mean, everything kind of feeds
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  into itself. If you if you get a good pass rush that helps out
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  your secondary. If your secondary is really good, then maybe you have a
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  little bit more time for your defensive line to get home. If everything works
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  together. I mean, that's you know, that's what separates a good team
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  from a great team, and a great team from an excellent team. And
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  Ohio State certainly has a chance to be an excellent team. I'll be very
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  curious to see how can Yata Jackson, how Kate Curry some of you know,
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  these two's on the on the at the end, how they look.
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  I'll be curious if if Tywan Malone has been able to really kind of take
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  that next step. But the fact that they were getting after it is,
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  you know, it could be a catch twenty two. They're going to be
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  the people out there that are the last half empty guys. We're gonna say,
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  well, that just means that the offensive line was no good And I
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  haven't necessarily gotten a detailed report about how the offensive line looked, but this
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  defensive line, when you just look at the amount of guys that have come
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  back, the amount of the amount of reps that they've all had, game
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  reps they've had, it's going to be a handful for anybody to try and
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  contain. So before people start freaking out over the offensive line, I was
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  not able necessarily to get up well. The O line just wasn't able to
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  do it. Stuff. I just think it was the D line being pretty
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  darn special well in the offensive line. And there's a lot less, a
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  lot less, you know, hair pulling concern about the offensive line this time
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  of year than there was this time last year. So you're automatically sort of
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  in a position where you don't necessarily assume this is bad news about the offensive
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  line. Is the defensive line. The offensive line supposed to better. The
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  defensive line is also supposed to be better. So it feels like this might
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  be more glass half full than glass half empty. But scrimmage one again.
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  We'll keep watching throughout the course of the spring. Other side of the ball,
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  Too true freshman. Now, I'm going to let everyone in the audience
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  take one second as to which who is one of the true, too true
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  freshmen who we were hearing very very very very positive things about. All Right,
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  pencils down, get ready to get your shocked faces ready, Kevin.
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  It sounds like Jeremiah Smith might have had a pretty good day. Yeah,
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  Jeremiah Smith has already lost his black stripe. And as we talked about on
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  a show that actually was very popular here on the channel at YouTube dot com,
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  slash Buckeye Huddle, he is the real deal. I talked to somebody
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  who was involved with the seven on seventeen on Saturday, and I said,
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  I heard Jeremiah was really good. He's like, yeah, big surprise,
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  So you know, you kind of you kind of go from there. Could
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  he be a Day one starter? I think so. I mean, I
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  guess so much of it depends on what formation Ohio State opens the game in.
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  Everybody wants to sit there and talk about what the starter is. I
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  mean, if Ohio State comes out there in twenty two, which it doesn't
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  really, but if it came if Ohio State came out they're in twenty two,
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  there's probably not gonna be a lot of opportunity to be to be a
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  receiver out there. But I think I think Jeremiah Smith is going to see
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  action from from game one. He just I mean, he has all the
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  talent, he has all the skills. Oh and by the way, he
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  is a hard worker. He really he's got a lot of Marvin Harrison Junior
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  in him in terms of how much work he puts into his craft because he
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  knows that he has all of this god given ability. But it doesn't mean
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  anything if you don't go out there and develop it. So I hate saying
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  this for a true freshman, but enjoy him while you got him. And
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  I know that we got a three year count on him, But enjoy him
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  while you got him, because this is this is going to be a short
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  run with him. For practices like this, you generally are not getting a
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  you know, paragraphs and paragraphs of texts from sources about stuff. Tony Gerdaman
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  said he just reported one word that he got from someone but Jeremiah Smith,
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  that was quote unbelievable exclamation point close quote. Sometimes you don't need very many
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  words to say a lot of things that this feels like one of those cases.
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  Now here's okay. The first guy, Okay, you probably figured out
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  that this is going to be someone you're going to be hearing about. Second
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  one was a little bit of an oh really kind of moment. Sure,
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  you probably are thinking, hey, maybe they're going to talk about the transfer
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  quarterback, and we are, but not the one you're probably thinking about,
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  because Bill Howard came over from Kansas State broadly considered to be, you know,
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  maybe the favorite or one of the favorites to win the starting job this
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  fall. That was not the one that our folks got some reports on on
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  Saturday, Julian saying, true freshman, he's technically an Alabama transfer. He
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  was at Alabama for about the amount of time it takes to get a pizza
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  delivered, and then transferred up to Columbus after Nick Saban's retirement. And it
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  sounds like Kevin Juliansayan is making a very positive early impression. Yeah, and
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  you know, I kind of touch base on several of the quarterbacks here.
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  And it's not that Air Nolan because they're going to be forever linked Ar Nolan
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  and Julian say and as the two incoming true freshman quarterbacks at Ohio State one
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  via Portal one via you know, the traditional method of how you obtain players,
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  saying, had you know, just looked really good out there. I
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  mean he just seemed to be very confident. It didn't look like it was
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  too big for him. I mean again, playing over at the Woody versus
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  playing at Ohio Stadium are two different things. Playing against your teammates versus playing
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  against another team is another thing. But you know, he looked really good.
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  I heard. I was also told kind of on the side that it
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  wasn't that Aaron Noland didn't look good out there, that they really like Aaron
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  Noland. They think that Aaron Noland is progressing. But Julian saying just took
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  a huge step here, very early. I would expect that black stripe to
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  probably be coming off in the next week, quite honestly. But when you
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  are an Ohio State quarterback and you are throwing against the secondary that Ohio State
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  has, those windows are smaller than any window you've ever gone against. Because
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  you know, Ohio State, somebody told me big if true, Ohio State
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  has a pretty good secondary. So to shine as a quarterback Ohio State is
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  no small undertaking. Yeah, you've got pretty good wide receivers to work with,
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  but also the guys on the other side of the field pretty darn good
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  at what they do as well. So and Kevin, we live in an
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  era of overreaction. And you know, as soon as you hear anything about
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  true freshman looking good. Everyone says day one starter question mark, and I
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  think you know, with Jeremiah Smith, I am like slowly and grudgingly coming
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  along the line to like this has gone from probably not to maybe to possibly
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  to probably. So okay, you've dragged me along with the Jeremiah Smith thing.
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  Julian saying true freshman quarterback, I know, early, exciting, good
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  news, all of that kind of stuff. You're not starting a true freshman
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  quarterback this year with as veteran a team as you have, and with as
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  many other veteran quarterback options as we have, are you? I don't see
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  it. I mean, now, if he comes out there and he's twenty
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  five percent better than everybody else, but then the fear is how many guys
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  hit the portal if that's the case. I mean, that's again the reason
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  why we're not going to come out of spring football knowing an Ohio State starter,
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  even if somebody is like five hundred percent better than everybody else. I
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  don't think that Ohio State is going to announce that because we have such an
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  amount of movement in terms of especially at quarterback that happens throughout college football,
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  and you want to make sure that you have depth. Oh Ohio State has
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  five quarterbacks, well you want to figure out how Ohio State is gonna have
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  like two quarterbacks announced. Julian's saying, as as as your starter, and
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  we'll see what comes from that. But I think Julian's saying right now would
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  be competing for the backup role because what happens coming out of spring, what
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  happens coming out of fall practice. Let's say that Will Howard does live up
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  to what you know, what the expectation is and Will Howard and I heard
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  a lot of good things about Will Howard from the scrimmage, his ability to
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  run the ball. He's a little bit more of a of a of an
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  Urban Meyer type of quarterback with with that ability, which I think doesn't translate
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  as well in a scrimmage when you're doing more of a thud ball type of
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  thing protecting your quarterbacks. You just you know, you don't, you don't
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  know what you don't know, But no, I don't. I don't see
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  Julian saying or ar Nolan being the starter. Now with that being said,
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  if if Will Howard is the guy, and he's a mobile quarterback, and
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  we know players are bigger, faster, stronger, and things happen, you
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  better be ready. In Ohio State has to do a good job of maintaining
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  its numbers and making sure it keeps everybody happy. Are you going to be
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  able to keep five quarterbacks happy? Absolutely not. Do I expect there to
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  be five quarterbacks scholarship quarterbacks on Ohio State's roster for the Akron game in one
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  hundred and sixty days or whatever it was you said, No, I don't.
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  I think that they lose one, maybe two, I don't know,
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  but yeah, it's gonna be fun. I'm looking forward to next weekend when
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  we get to go and see the scrimmage for Student Appreciation Day. Unfortunately,
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  that is not one of the best viewing events just based on the way that
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  it's set up, but you know, maybe we'll be able to coroborate some
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  of the things we've heard. Yeah, we're looking forward to that. We're
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  going to be back inside the Woody a bunch this week Tuesday for interviews,
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  Thursday for interviews again, and then Saturday for the scrimmage, and then we'll
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  have another interview session after that. So a lot of stuff coming there,
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  a lot of stuff coming in a whole bunch of other fronts right now with
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  the Buckeyes in a whole bunch of other sports. As if the time we're
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  recording this, they have not tipped off the women's game for the second round
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  of the NCAA Tournament. Women's hockey will play the national championship game a little
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  later on on Sunday afternoon. Men's basketball earned the right to play in the
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  third round of the nit that will happen on Tuesday night. As of the
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  time we're recording this, we don't know where that's going to be, but
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  we'll have a whole bunch of information about all of that stuff coming up for
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  you a little later on this week at Buckey huddle dot Com and then of
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  course plenty of football coverage as well. Make sure you're signed up there.
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  We have. As I said, we talked about a bunch of this stuff
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  and much more about that scrimmage, things that we learned, the things that
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  we're hearing all that on the Huddleboard presented by Jeffruby Steakhouse. It is exclusive
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  to our members. Get get answered stuff in a little more detail sometimes there
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  than we can on a public forum like this. So Jake a look take
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  a look, give it a shot. Tried for a month, we think
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  you're gonna like it. Lots of fun stuff coverags of the team from Tony,
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  Kevin and I. Coverage of recruiting from Mark, Covers of the X's
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  and o's. Stuff to make you a smarter football fran from all of our
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  x's and o's gurus all at Buckeyehuddle dot com and of course YouTube dot com
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  slash Buckeye Huddle as well. That'll do it for today. Thank you guys
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  all for joining us. Have a great day. We'll talk to you tomorrow.