Latest / Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning / Ross Fulton Analysis: Was Arthur Smith The Right Pick For Ohio State?
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Welcome to Buckeyees tomorrow morning for Tuesday, January twenty seventh.
- 0:03Speaker 1: I'm your host, Tom Morthy. Ball State game is in
- 0:05Speaker 1: two hundred and twenty one days. The game AGA's Michigan
- 0:07Speaker 1: in three hundred and five days. On today's show, we're
- 0:10Speaker 1: welcoming in our buddy, Ross Fulton, the ex's and o's
- 0:12Speaker 1: guru from bucke Huddle. And when Ross is on the show,
- 0:14Speaker 1: we're sponsored by Jeffrey's of Columbus, proudly offering nationally acclaimed
- 0:18Speaker 1: USDA Prime Stakes, seafood and sushi, and peccable service, live
- 0:21Speaker 1: entertainment and an attention to detailed is simply unmatched. Just
- 0:24Speaker 1: go to jeffrey dot com slash Columbus, check out the
- 0:26Speaker 1: menu and make a reservation today. All right, We had
- 0:29Speaker 1: Ross on the show just a couple of days ago
- 0:31Speaker 1: to talk about the Ohio State offensive ordinator position and
- 0:35Speaker 1: what they might be looking for and who might be
- 0:37Speaker 1: a good fit there. One of the names we talked
- 0:39Speaker 1: about briefly was Arthur Smith. And then just a matter
- 0:43Speaker 1: of hours after we release that show, Ohio State and out.
- 0:46Speaker 2: Well.
- 0:46Speaker 1: I don't think it has officially announced yet, but it
- 0:49Speaker 1: has become widely apparent that Arthur Smith is going to
- 0:52Speaker 1: be the next offensive coordinator at Ohio State. So we're
- 0:55Speaker 1: going to welcome Ross back in and to talk specifically
- 0:59Speaker 1: about our Arthur Smith and what he might bring to
- 1:01Speaker 1: the buck Eyes. Ross, let's start on sort of like
- 1:04Speaker 1: the thirty thousand foot view here, because the first thing
- 1:07Speaker 1: you talked about in the last show was sort of
- 1:09Speaker 1: the organizational piece of this and that is not necessarily
- 1:11Speaker 1: the most exciting piece of this hire, but it sounds
- 1:15Speaker 1: like it is maybe one of the more important pieces
- 1:17Speaker 1: of this higher So why does having someone like Arthur Smith,
- 1:20Speaker 1: with his background in the NFL, having been both an
- 1:23Speaker 1: offensive coordinator and a head coach there, why does that
- 1:25Speaker 1: potentially help make this an important and good addition to
- 1:30Speaker 1: the Ohio State staff.
- 1:33Speaker 2: Exactly. Well, like you know we talked about the other day,
- 1:36Speaker 2: it's sort of the general principles and now we can
- 1:38Speaker 2: apply them specifically here. You know, I mean a big
- 1:41Speaker 2: part of the job is just you know, being a
- 1:44Speaker 2: middle manager for lack of a better term, right, Like
- 1:46Speaker 2: you are the offensive coordinator who you are now in
- 1:49Speaker 2: charge of the four five other assistants I guess with
- 1:53Speaker 2: the over the ten headcount role now on that side
- 1:57Speaker 2: of the football, and say you want to make sure
- 1:58Speaker 2: that every one is on the same page, you know,
- 2:02Speaker 2: swimming in the same direction, if you will. And you
- 2:05Speaker 2: know that comes from sort of like funneling down like
- 2:07Speaker 2: the scheme and what you're teaching each position group, and
- 2:10Speaker 2: just like you know, a big chunk of as we've discussed,
- 2:13Speaker 2: is not so much like the plays you call on Saturday,
- 2:17Speaker 2: but like the game planning that goes on in the
- 2:19Speaker 2: offseason and during the week that you then take place.
- 2:22Speaker 2: You know from that you know fit within the specific
- 2:25Speaker 2: game and so there's just a lot of that that
- 2:28Speaker 2: you can with Having someone with the experience that Arthur
- 2:32Speaker 2: Smith has, as you listed, can take that off of
- 2:35Speaker 2: Ryan Day's plate, so he doesn't have to be in
- 2:37Speaker 2: every offensive meeting if he doesn't want to be. You know,
- 2:40Speaker 2: it's otherwise a pretty young offensive staff with a lot
- 2:43Speaker 2: of guys who have kind of grown in their positions
- 2:47Speaker 2: under Day, and so you're just bringing a sort of
- 2:49Speaker 2: as you said, sort of venturing. Although Arthur Smith's not
- 2:52Speaker 2: that old, only forty three, but you know who has
- 2:56Speaker 2: done it is both an offensive coordinator, a head coach
- 2:59Speaker 2: and can run in the room and get all the
- 3:01Speaker 2: coaches then like sort of spreading spreading the message out
- 3:03Speaker 2: to their position groups and the rest of the team.
- 3:07Speaker 1: And it's kind of interesting that he is in some
- 3:10Speaker 1: ways kind of similar to Matt Patricia, where really NFL
- 3:15Speaker 1: guy mostly as a in terms of background, but was
- 3:18Speaker 1: always pretty solid as a coordinator, got a shot as
- 3:22Speaker 1: a head coach that didn't work out. Is there something
- 3:25Speaker 1: about that profile that you know, maybe maybe it's someone who,
- 3:29Speaker 1: as I'm just sort of thinking this through, you know,
- 3:31Speaker 1: you've you've been a head coach and it didn't work out,
- 3:34Speaker 1: and so you're not necessarily chasing that now, and that
- 3:37Speaker 1: this maybe makes going back to college a more appealing
- 3:42Speaker 1: next step. Maybe I don't know, is it is there
- 3:45Speaker 1: something there or is this just sort of a little
- 3:47Speaker 1: bit of a coincidence that that's sort of the profile
- 3:49Speaker 1: for both of these coordinators.
- 3:51Speaker 2: I mean, I think it's certainly the profile that Ryan
- 3:53Speaker 2: Day is looking for. He obviously likes THEE and relates
- 3:57Speaker 2: to people with NFL experience. Uh, you know, I'd even
- 4:01Speaker 2: almost put Patricia and Smith in a little bit different categories, right,
- 4:04Speaker 2: They were each as you said, they each had their
- 4:06Speaker 2: head coach and Shot obviously both fired, and you know,
- 4:10Speaker 2: pretty much everyone in the NFL gets fired eventually, but
- 4:13Speaker 2: I would say Patricia was maybe a little bit more
- 4:16Speaker 2: even on that outs in general from the league by
- 4:20Speaker 2: that point because then he you know, he had his
- 4:22Speaker 2: time with the Patriots on the offensive side, and with
- 4:24Speaker 2: the Eagles with sort of a weird he had to
- 4:26Speaker 2: take over play calling. Then he was out of football
- 4:29Speaker 2: for a year. Whereas you know Arthur Smith, yes, his
- 4:34Speaker 2: tenure as at Falkins head coach didn't work out, but
- 4:37Speaker 2: he's you know, he was employed by the last two
- 4:41Speaker 2: years as offensive cording for the Steelers. They made the
- 4:43Speaker 2: playoffs this year. I mean, he's never been fired as
- 4:46Speaker 2: an offensive coordinator. He you know, it just happened that
- 4:49Speaker 2: Mike Tomlin was ready to step aside, and you know
- 4:52Speaker 2: he by all accounts, it seemed like Arthur Smith had
- 4:56Speaker 2: potential offensive cordner opportunities for other teams and fl and
- 5:00Speaker 2: made the choice. So I think there's definitely a profile
- 5:03Speaker 2: that Ryan Day is going for with these sort of again,
- 5:06Speaker 2: people who can be trusted to, you know, be in
- 5:09Speaker 2: charge of their side of the football and have that
- 5:12Speaker 2: experience at the highest levels but I think in some ways,
- 5:17Speaker 2: you know, I'd say probably Arthur Smith was a little
- 5:20Speaker 2: bit more in demand at the moment than Matt Patricia
- 5:22Speaker 2: even was.
- 5:24Speaker 1: All Right, so we've gotten through some of the big
- 5:26Speaker 1: picture stuff. Now here's what everyone has come here for.
- 5:29Speaker 1: All right, How is Arthur Smith going to completely revolutionaries
- 5:33Speaker 1: Ohio States offense? You know what we talked on the
- 5:36Speaker 1: last show. You've got guys who maybe are more specializing
- 5:39Speaker 1: in the passing side of things or more specializing in
- 5:41Speaker 1: the run side of things. My sense, and you can
- 5:43Speaker 1: correct me if I'm wrong here, is that he's known
- 5:45Speaker 1: maybe a little bit more on the run game side
- 5:48Speaker 1: of things. What does he potentially bring and how does
- 5:52Speaker 1: that maybe marry into you know, what are some maybe
- 5:55Speaker 1: concepts that he's known for, or specific personnel groupings or whatever.
- 6:00Speaker 1: And then how does that maybe marry in with what
- 6:03Speaker 1: Ryan Day likes to do on offense.
- 6:06Speaker 2: Yeah, so, you know, I pointed this out on X
- 6:11Speaker 2: on Saturday when it was when the announcement was made.
- 6:13Speaker 2: I guess, as you said, a not official announcement, but reported.
- 6:18Speaker 2: You know, it's always going to be Ryan Day's offense
- 6:20Speaker 2: at Ohio State. You know, I think that Arthur Smith
- 6:25Speaker 2: will they will update things. I think we can get
- 6:29Speaker 2: into this, like particularly in the run game, but it's
- 6:32Speaker 2: it's still gonna be like Day's overall framework, right, and
- 6:35Speaker 2: like you can again contrast that there's probably a little
- 6:37Speaker 2: bit more freedom on the defensive side of the ball
- 6:42Speaker 2: in the sense of like obviously Days not a defensive coach,
- 6:46Speaker 2: like he doesn't have that background. Although I will say
- 6:50Speaker 2: even on defense, like there's certainly like some principles like
- 6:53Speaker 2: the single high cover three framework the Day like, so
- 6:56Speaker 2: I think and he's talked about like when Patricia was higher,
- 6:59Speaker 2: like keeping the Ohio State defense quote unquote, So I
- 7:02Speaker 2: don't think things are going to look radically different. You know,
- 7:06Speaker 2: Arthur Smith is he coached under you know, Kyle Shanahan,
- 7:13Speaker 2: Sean McVay, Matt Lafleur, so you you sort of have
- 7:16Speaker 2: that framework in place. There's some similarities, you know, Ryan Day,
- 7:20Speaker 2: a lot of some of the run game play, action
- 7:23Speaker 2: passing game sort of Mike Shanahan, you know, based system
- 7:28Speaker 2: and framework. So there there are some some overlaps there.
- 7:32Speaker 2: I do think that this is sort of a runback
- 7:36Speaker 2: of twenty four if you will, or like you know, Day,
- 7:40Speaker 2: I think feels the most confident and what frankly, what
- 7:42Speaker 2: Day is known for is you know, his drop back,
- 7:45Speaker 2: downfield passing game right and the offensive coordinator that he
- 7:49Speaker 2: brought in with Chim Kelly. Then farther, Smith now is
- 7:55Speaker 2: no more for the run side of the offense, and
- 8:00Speaker 2: so I think that's sort of like the marriage he
- 8:02Speaker 2: seems to be looking for for about lack of a
- 8:04Speaker 2: better term term, you know, whereas Kelly though was sort
- 8:09Speaker 2: of known as like at least traditionally had been like
- 8:13Speaker 2: the sort of the spread run game college guru, you know,
- 8:16Speaker 2: Arthur Smith again, like as I said, it's like much
- 8:18Speaker 2: more of like that Shanahan under center, multiple tight ends,
- 8:25Speaker 2: wide zone duo NFL framework, which will be an interesting
- 8:30Speaker 2: mesh up. It sort of plays into where Day was
- 8:34Speaker 2: going this year with the increased tight end usage. You know, especially,
- 8:40Speaker 2: I think Arthur Smith's job is to get the Ohio
- 8:44Speaker 2: State run game to a point where it functions well
- 8:46Speaker 2: without a quarterback run threat. You know, we talked about that, Like,
- 8:51Speaker 2: you know, I think that that has been an issue
- 8:57Speaker 2: for Day, where the run game has been less effective
- 8:59Speaker 2: whenever he does not have a quarterback run threat. And
- 9:02Speaker 2: that's sort of like one of the downsides of like
- 9:04Speaker 2: the you know, shotgun spread looks, and so you know Day,
- 9:08Speaker 2: I mean, I think I would expect, just like guessing
- 9:12Speaker 2: that there will be some more even more increase, a
- 9:15Speaker 2: further increase. I guess, I would say in under center
- 9:17Speaker 2: looks with Julian saying, you know, Smith I think has
- 9:21Speaker 2: an effective play action pass game. You know what you
- 9:24Speaker 2: saw some with him in Pittsburgh, and Aaron Rodgers is
- 9:27Speaker 2: like some RPOs from under center even where you're sort
- 9:30Speaker 2: of making those same reads and you know you can
- 9:33Speaker 2: pull from the run play and throw it. So I
- 9:35Speaker 2: expect that. So those are things that like you know,
- 9:38Speaker 2: you can sort of build into the existing framework of
- 9:41Speaker 2: the offense or emphasize. Right, So like we've seen Ohio
- 9:44Speaker 2: State obviously at one point with Kevin Wilson and Day
- 9:46Speaker 2: it was like very stretch wide zone heavy. They move
- 9:51Speaker 2: more towards gap runs. I would expect them to go
- 9:53Speaker 2: back more towards zone inside zone, outside zone, and then
- 9:57Speaker 2: as I said, like some more duo from underst or
- 10:00Speaker 2: particular with the tight ends. So maybe maybe back away
- 10:03Speaker 2: from some of the gap towards more of a zone system.
- 10:06Speaker 2: But like you know, Arthur Smith wherever he's been, has
- 10:08Speaker 2: been you know, a successful with the run game and
- 10:13Speaker 2: sort of implementing like the finer points to, like, you know,
- 10:16Speaker 2: effectively run the football.
- 10:19Speaker 1: That was actually something that I have seen people talk
- 10:22Speaker 1: about that I thought was really interesting that that it's
- 10:25Speaker 1: very very detail focused with him, and that that's that's
- 10:28Speaker 1: something that he's kind of known for, just the real
- 10:31Speaker 1: minutia of stuff. And when you listen to people talk
- 10:35Speaker 1: about Kurt Signetti and why Indiana has been so good,
- 10:38Speaker 1: it's a lot of the same stuff. It's just they're
- 10:41Speaker 1: so detail oriented, they're so focused on the minutia. It's
- 10:44Speaker 1: the same way people talk about the Iowa defense, where
- 10:47Speaker 1: the Iowa defense doesn't necessarily do a ton of exciting stuff,
- 10:50Speaker 1: they just do it so well and they execute it
- 10:53Speaker 1: so so well. I wonder if that's part of you know,
- 10:58Speaker 1: are everyone's trying to figure out how to get more
- 11:00Speaker 1: like Indiana and Indiana has solved football, right, So is
- 11:03Speaker 1: that you know, is that something that's maybe part of this,
- 11:06Speaker 1: you know, what made him the pick here?
- 11:09Speaker 2: Yeah? I mean I think yeah, that that like attention
- 11:12Speaker 2: to detail in the run game I do think is important,
- 11:14Speaker 2: Like especially you know in the combination blocks and the identification,
- 11:18Speaker 2: like some of the issues we talked about this year,
- 11:20Speaker 2: you know, where you're getting different fronts on the fly
- 11:23Speaker 2: and you're you're having to adjust to what you're seeing.
- 11:26Speaker 2: And I thought that's where like some of the breakdowns
- 11:28Speaker 2: came from, you know, the offensive line, tight end room,
- 11:32Speaker 2: running backs. It's sort of like, you know, it may
- 11:34Speaker 2: be drawn up one way, but then you know, people
- 11:37Speaker 2: obviously not stagnant. You're maybe getting a look that you're
- 11:40Speaker 2: not entirely prepared for, and then you get like miss assignment.
- 11:43Speaker 2: So it was like less you know, just getting beat
- 11:45Speaker 2: one on one. It was more like not blocking the
- 11:48Speaker 2: wrong guys, leaving a comma block too early, like you know,
- 11:51Speaker 2: not identifying the block. And so that's the kind of
- 11:54Speaker 2: detail I think they need. Like I think again, like Day, like,
- 11:57Speaker 2: you know, there's a lot of attention into the passing game,
- 12:01Speaker 2: and so I think it's helpful to have someone like
- 12:02Speaker 2: that and that can can bring that to the run
- 12:05Speaker 2: game and sort of hopefully, you know, ideally for Ohio
- 12:08Speaker 2: State sort of marry the two things together. And then
- 12:11Speaker 2: as I said, like you know, he's always Arthur Smith's
- 12:13Speaker 2: always been effective with play action pass. I think that's
- 12:16Speaker 2: pretty important again with saying and you know he is
- 12:19Speaker 2: not a run threat or a significant one, but like
- 12:23Speaker 2: he's very effective with his ball handling under center, his
- 12:26Speaker 2: like carrying out play action. He's good on bootlegs, and
- 12:29Speaker 2: so I think trying to marry that up and sort
- 12:32Speaker 2: of you know, you can see again like we talked about,
- 12:34Speaker 2: like with the huddling, with the NFL style, the Day
- 12:38Speaker 2: has wanted to play with on offense already, and it
- 12:40Speaker 2: makes sense to get someone who's familiar with that and
- 12:43Speaker 2: that's what he does.
- 12:45Speaker 1: All right, We got to address the elephant in the room,
- 12:48Speaker 1: which is that you have said the words tight end
- 12:51Speaker 1: quite a bit on the show, more than you have
- 12:53Speaker 1: said the words wide receiver. And I know that that
- 12:56Speaker 1: is everyone big concern. That is Arthur Smith going to
- 13:00Speaker 1: completely disregard all of the lessons from the twenty twenty
- 13:02Speaker 1: five Ohio State football season and exclusively run thirteen and
- 13:06Speaker 1: fourteen personnel packages. Can you please talk people off the
- 13:11Speaker 1: ledge on that or more people need to be on
- 13:14Speaker 1: the ledge because that's exactly what's going to happen.
- 13:18Speaker 2: I don't think people should be on the ledge for
- 13:20Speaker 2: either case. Again, so as I said, like this is
- 13:23Speaker 2: Day's offense, right, So like we're not talking about any
- 13:26Speaker 2: radical changes obviously. You know, I would say like Ohio
- 13:31Speaker 2: State probably has a deeper wide receiver room now next
- 13:35Speaker 2: year than they did this year, right with the portal
- 13:37Speaker 2: Transfert edition. So they I don't think they're going to
- 13:40Speaker 2: like stop playing eleven personnel anytime, saying with three wide receivers,
- 13:44Speaker 2: you know, I do think that they will continue to
- 13:47Speaker 2: use two and three tight end sets obviously, Like that's
- 13:51Speaker 2: just the way football is going right now. Like you know,
- 13:54Speaker 2: things are cyclical. If anyone you know, watched the Ramseyhawks
- 13:57Speaker 2: game on Sunday lots of two and three tight end sets,
- 14:01Speaker 2: I mean it is you know, the theory is sound right,
- 14:04Speaker 2: Like you're putting a run heavy side to one side
- 14:08Speaker 2: and then opposite. You know, if you have a Jeremia Smith,
- 14:10Speaker 2: you're forcing defenses to Are you going to devote you know,
- 14:14Speaker 2: two to three defenders to Jeremi Smith and you know
- 14:18Speaker 2: be light in the box or are you going to
- 14:19Speaker 2: play the heavy set and leave you know, single coverage.
- 14:24Speaker 2: So that's the theory, Like the it was, I would say,
- 14:28Speaker 2: like upon for a reflection. In some ways, it was
- 14:31Speaker 2: more of the implementation last year, Like we talked about
- 14:33Speaker 2: some of the issues with like when they're bringing extra
- 14:36Speaker 2: bodies in, like this gets into the details, like we
- 14:38Speaker 2: should against the dan up. You know, that brings additional
- 14:41Speaker 2: defenders into the box on the edges, and a lot
- 14:44Speaker 2: of times, like especially with gap schemes when they were
- 14:46Speaker 2: at thirteen personnel, it was like misidentification of who's supposed
- 14:50Speaker 2: to be walking to who you know, the tight end
- 14:51Speaker 2: blocked down? Is you bluck out? Who are you pulling
- 14:54Speaker 2: and leading on? You know, I personally think it works
- 14:57Speaker 2: a little bit better with the way that like MC
- 15:00Speaker 2: and obviously like Arthur Smith do it like twelve and
- 15:03Speaker 2: thirteen to run duo and wide zone where then you're
- 15:06Speaker 2: just like you're the principles remain the same for the
- 15:10Speaker 2: offensive line and tight ends, but now you're just creating
- 15:13Speaker 2: additional gaps for the defense to have to defend, and
- 15:16Speaker 2: then you have play action pass off of that and
- 15:18Speaker 2: part of it. Just like you know, they just need
- 15:20Speaker 2: more effectiveness out of the tight end room, both as
- 15:24Speaker 2: blockers and receivers. You know, I think they never quite
- 15:27Speaker 2: could figure out last year how to use Max Clayer
- 15:29Speaker 2: because they never quite trusted him as like an inline blocker,
- 15:32Speaker 2: and so that like loses some of the effectiveness of
- 15:34Speaker 2: those sets without the play action pass right off of it.
- 15:39Speaker 2: So you know, they brought into obviously you know, transfer
- 15:41Speaker 2: tight ends. It gives them some flexibility. So I guess
- 15:45Speaker 2: this is all a way to say, like, I do
- 15:47Speaker 2: not expect them to certainly don't expect them to move
- 15:50Speaker 2: away from it. I think you're gonna still see, you know,
- 15:52Speaker 2: plenty of two and three tight end sets. Don't do
- 15:55Speaker 2: not think it's gonna be something exclusive. You know, we're
- 15:57Speaker 2: not talking about returning to the days of what do
- 15:59Speaker 2: he hate and Jim Trussell here, But I do think,
- 16:03Speaker 2: like as you're seeing across football, particularly at the NFL
- 16:06Speaker 2: level right now, it's becoming more of a weapon that
- 16:09Speaker 2: teams are using.
- 16:11Speaker 1: All right, So there you go. There is your update
- 16:13Speaker 1: on Arthur Smith, the almost maybe not quite but probably
- 16:18Speaker 1: pretty soon Ohio State offensive coordinator. Will let you know
- 16:22Speaker 1: when that does officially become official, and then we'll probably
- 16:25Speaker 1: have Ross back on at some point. Take a little
- 16:27Speaker 1: bit more of a deep dive on some of the
- 16:30Speaker 1: guys they brought into the transfer portal and what that all.
- 16:33Speaker 1: Maybe with this all sort of means big picture in
- 16:36Speaker 1: terms of what to expect.
- 16:36Speaker 2: From the Ohio state offense this.
- 16:38Speaker 1: Year and when he is back on. We want to
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- 16:42Speaker 1: award winning upscale steakhouse in downtown Columbus in one of
- 16:45Speaker 1: the top fifty steakhouses in America by Food Network. Just
- 16:47Speaker 1: go to Jeffruby dot com slash Columbus to check out
- 16:49Speaker 1: the menu and make a reservation today. That'll do it
- 16:52Speaker 1: for today. Thank you guys all for joining us. Have
- 16:54Speaker 1: a great day. We'll talk to you tomorrow.