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Ross Fulton Analysis: Is The Ohio State Defense Designed To Shut Down Tennessee? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Buckeyes Tomorrow morning for Saturday, December twenty. First,
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  Speaker 1: I'm your host, Tom Moore. It is the day you've
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  Speaker 1: all been waiting for. The Tennessee game. Is today a
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  Speaker 1: real life, honest to goodness college football game in Ohio Stadium?
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  Speaker 1: Coming up a little later on tonight the game against Michigan. Well,
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  Speaker 1: that's three hundred and forty three days away. We'll worry
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  Speaker 1: about that later today. We got to talk about Tennessee.
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  Speaker 1: We're gonna be doing that with our buddy Ross Fulton.
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  Speaker 1: The ex's and o'sgrew at bucke Huddle dot com and
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: when Ross is on the show. We're sponsored by Jeff
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  Speaker 1: Rubies of Columbus, probably offering nationally acclaimed USDA Prime Stakes,
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  Speaker 1: seafood and sushi, impeckable service, live entertainment, and an attention
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  Speaker 1: to detail that it is simply unmatched. Just go to
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  Speaker 1: jeffruby dot com slash Columbus to check out the menu
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: and make a reservation for today. All right, So we're
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  Speaker 1: gonna do what we did earlier in the week, because
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  Speaker 1: this feels like one where we're just gonna have a
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  Speaker 1: little bit more of a broad conversation. But what to
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  Speaker 1: expect this is gonna be looking at the Ohio State
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  Speaker 1: defense and the Tennessee offense. We're not doing clips like
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  Speaker 1: we do. We'll do probably that as a review show
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  Speaker 1: after the game, But today I just want to kind
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  Speaker 1: have a broader conversation with Ross about all this stuff.
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  Speaker 1: One of the things I wanted to start with here.
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  Speaker 1: Earlier in the week, there was a question at one
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  Speaker 1: of Josh Hipel's press conferences about you know, is his
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  Speaker 1: offense an air raid offense? And you know, is where
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  Speaker 1: is he on the air raid tree? Is he on
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  Speaker 1: the tree at all? Is this not an air raid offense?
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  Speaker 1: So Ross, I know he's got some art briles ties,
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  Speaker 1: but you know, is this an air raid offense? If not?
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  Speaker 1: Where you know, what is it? And does it even matter.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly? What? What? What are words?
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  Speaker 3: I do not think of it as an air raid
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  Speaker 3: offense because of the limitations of the route tree due
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  Speaker 3: to the wide splits and can get into that. Like
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  Speaker 3: I think of when I think air raid, I think
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  Speaker 3: of how Mummy Mike leach uh and and what has
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  Speaker 3: come from that and a lot of the plays off
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  Speaker 3: of that out of an air raid system, where like Mesh,
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  Speaker 3: you know, shatout crosses and things of that nature, and
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  Speaker 3: Tennessee does not run that like I I just think
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  Speaker 3: of this as like pure pretty much pure Art Briles,
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  Speaker 3: and everything is like with the wide receivers, like spread
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  Speaker 3: out wide, everything a lot of choice routes, right, Like
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  Speaker 3: guys are deciding whether it's all like vertical stems, and
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  Speaker 3: by that I mean they're going straight north and south
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  Speaker 3: in deciding whether to keep going vertically or come back
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  Speaker 3: and run a comeback round and the quarterback's reading that.
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  Speaker 3: So it's its own unique Art Briles thing that Josh
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  Speaker 3: Hipel has taken to Tennessee.
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  Speaker 1: And you mentioned some of the unique stuff that they do,
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  Speaker 1: and this is a Tennessee offense that just you turn
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  Speaker 1: on a game and you're like, well, that's different. And
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  Speaker 1: you know, the wide splits are certainly the first thing
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  Speaker 1: you're going to notice. They have wide receivers lined up
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  Speaker 1: outside the numbers on both sides of the field. That's
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  Speaker 1: something you really don't see almost anywhere else in college football.
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  Speaker 1: So that's one of the unique things. But they do
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  Speaker 1: a bunch of other stuff. They will run a decent
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  Speaker 1: amount of tempo, not constantly, but they'll do a decent
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  Speaker 1: amount of that stuff. But what other stuff are kind
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  Speaker 1: of the the signature things that you can kind of
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  Speaker 1: keep an eye out for on the Tennessee from the
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  Speaker 1: Tennessee offense on Saturday night.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean always.
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  Speaker 3: You obviously have to start with the wide wide receiver split.
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  Speaker 3: So you said they'll put them, They put them outside
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  Speaker 3: the numbers. That obviously spreads out the defense, right, and
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  Speaker 3: the goal with that is to get the ball in
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  Speaker 3: space and count on the defense missing tackles the down
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  Speaker 3: you know. And that's where tempo fits into right, Like
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  Speaker 3: if you can't get lined up, can't fit the run correctly.
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  Speaker 3: You know, they want to spread spread it out, and
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  Speaker 3: they want to run, want to run it and run.
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  Speaker 3: You know, a ton of reliefs and RPOs with that
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  Speaker 3: run game that we can get into. But there is
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  Speaker 3: a downside that I just touched on with the wide
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  Speaker 3: receivers being spread out so wide, is it really limits
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  Speaker 3: the passing game?
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  Speaker 2: It is.
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  Speaker 3: It is not an NFL style pass game where you're
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  Speaker 3: using space and progressions as I said, it's it's pretty
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  Speaker 3: limited to you know, vertical stem routes. They'll run some
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  Speaker 3: you know, they'll run some quick game like you'll get
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  Speaker 3: some slants obviously, like the RP stuff, but it's really
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  Speaker 3: like choice routes and it's all predicated as a set
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  Speaker 3: off of people are counting on the defense to make mistakes,
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  Speaker 3: whether that's an alignment getting lined up as I said,
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  Speaker 3: missing tackles not being in the right spots, and so
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  Speaker 3: it's you know, I don't want to sound like pejorative,
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  Speaker 3: like you know, if it's not NFL, it's it's more
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  Speaker 3: you know, simplistic than that. But it is not what
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  Speaker 3: you would see, as I said on Sundays like as
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  Speaker 3: a passing game. There's just not that bevy of concepts
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  Speaker 3: insteads as I said, those vertical routes and then you
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  Speaker 3: know RPOs and heavy play action.
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  Speaker 1: And you mentioned to me before we started that something
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  Speaker 1: that I hadn't thought about or really heard anyone else
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  Speaker 1: talking about this week in terms of those wide splits
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  Speaker 1: like that we talked, we've talked a bunch about what
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  Speaker 1: do they do, But those can actually, in your mind,
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  Speaker 1: maybe limit them in some ways in some of the
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  Speaker 1: options they have in terms of downfield passing.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly, as I was just saying, I mean, it
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  Speaker 3: just makes it there's less things that you have to
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  Speaker 3: worry about in terms of like if you think about
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  Speaker 3: the route tree right where all the different ways of
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  Speaker 3: wide receiver. Obviously if you're spread out that wide, you
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  Speaker 3: can't it's hard to run out routes to begin with.
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  Speaker 3: There's no there's no out to go to right, so
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  Speaker 3: you you pretty much have to run, you know, come
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  Speaker 3: back routes. As I said, the run go routes, come
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  Speaker 3: back routes, and as I said, not a lot of
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  Speaker 3: like you know, they won't won't run like shallow crosses
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  Speaker 3: for instance, or like why over another air raid stable.
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  Speaker 3: That's why to me, it's like not air raid because
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  Speaker 3: you're not you know, the air raid really came from
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  Speaker 3: sort of like taking the Don Coriel system Lavelle Edwards
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  Speaker 3: at BUYU and like adapting that to be more like
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  Speaker 3: pass all the time. This is just a very much
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  Speaker 3: like we are going to count on the defense, as
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  Speaker 3: I said, making mistakes, like we're gonna run it when
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  Speaker 3: when they don't get lined up or they're spread out
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  Speaker 3: too far, we're gonna hit those vertical routes. If you
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  Speaker 3: play off coverage come back routes and count on the
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  Speaker 3: cornerback missing the tackle. You know, then what we'll use
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  Speaker 3: a lot of play action to try to create explosives.
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  Speaker 3: And so it is both a test for the defense
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  Speaker 3: in terms of defending the entire field, but also self
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  Speaker 3: limiting in some ways, right, Like you're going to get
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  Speaker 3: the inside run game and outside passing off of it essentially,
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  Speaker 3: and you know, it does dictate and we can get
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  Speaker 3: into this a little bit like how teams defend them.
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  Speaker 3: You see a lot of similarities, but as I said,
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  Speaker 3: like you kind of know what you're getting.
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  Speaker 1: Well, one of the similarities and how a lot of
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  Speaker 1: teams choose to defend Tennessee is the use of odd
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  Speaker 1: fronts and that is not something that Ohio State has
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  Speaker 1: had a whole heck of a lot of over the years.
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  Speaker 1: And that's changed some this year. They're kind of dipping
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  Speaker 1: their toe into that a little bit more than they
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  Speaker 1: have in the past. But you know, has everyone played
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  Speaker 1: Tennessee with an oddfront that you've watched and you know why?
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  Speaker 1: Number one? Why? And number two? What does that mean
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  Speaker 1: for Ohio State? And if they're going to try and
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  Speaker 1: play four down?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I mean this will be fascinating to me
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  Speaker 3: because it is. It is difficult if you go through
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  Speaker 3: this season to find defenses using an even four down
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  Speaker 3: front against them, it's just so much odd front.
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  Speaker 2: Now.
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  Speaker 3: Part of that, obviously is a lot of the teams
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  Speaker 3: that they play in the SEC run a lot of
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  Speaker 3: odd front anyways, like you know, Georgia like a lot
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  Speaker 3: of that Nick saban Uh. You know, lineage has spread
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  Speaker 3: throughout the SEC, particularly with whether it's at Arkansas or
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  Speaker 3: you know obviously with Kirby Smart playing the mid front.
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  Speaker 3: So it's some of that, but where the reason for
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  Speaker 3: it is goes back to those wide splits, right, So
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  Speaker 3: like they want to run reliefs, and we talked about
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  Speaker 3: with Marshall, like how how are we're RPOs really effective?
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  Speaker 3: Like if you have linebackers and conflicts, So like if
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  Speaker 3: you have to if your linebacker is like out wide,
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  Speaker 3: because they have to account for the RPO, but then
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  Speaker 3: they also have to fill an interior run gap, you
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  Speaker 3: know you're in trouble. And so the odd front also
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  Speaker 3: that because if you put three defensive linemen in those
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  Speaker 3: like A and B gaps right inside the guards in
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  Speaker 3: the center, then you're just widening out the gaps that
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  Speaker 3: the linebackers have to fill, and so then they can
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  Speaker 3: tread water and sit on the reliefs and then fill
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  Speaker 3: from depth and the defensive line can spill the ball.
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  Speaker 3: So I'm personally fascinating to see what Jimles does with this.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, maybe they pull out an offer, and I
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  Speaker 3: don't know, they've had some time, as you said, like
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  Speaker 3: it's in the playbook, we haven't seen them do it
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  Speaker 3: with the starters at all this year. I could also
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  Speaker 3: see some sort of variation akin to what they did
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  Speaker 3: against Indiana, or they used a lot of those A
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  Speaker 3: gap blitzes to essentially like create a bearfront with the linebacker,
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  Speaker 3: but again that that doesn't necessarily solve the conflict issue
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  Speaker 3: for the other linebacker right now. Indiana was obviously a
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  Speaker 3: heavy RPO team as well, and so you know, I
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  Speaker 3: do expect, like coverage wise, a lot of what we
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  Speaker 3: saw against Indiana. We can get into that a little bit,
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  Speaker 3: but like that will be the first thing I'm looking
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  Speaker 3: for is like how do they line up up front
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  Speaker 3: against Tennessee?
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  Speaker 1: All right, I do want to get back to the
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  Speaker 1: RPOs in a minute, but let's let's talk first about
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  Speaker 1: those coverages that you were just mentioning. What what are
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  Speaker 1: you expecting from Ohio State.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so I again, I would like probably the first.
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  Speaker 3: Place I would look is the Indiana game right where
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  Speaker 3: we talked about, you know, a decent amount of those
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  Speaker 3: cover four match concepts.
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  Speaker 2: I expect a.
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  Speaker 3: Good chunk of the three high with Caleb Downs at
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  Speaker 3: the middle safety. See a lot of teams play also
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  Speaker 3: play Tennessee with the three high, like Georgia did it
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  Speaker 3: quite a bit. Arkansas obviously bases out of that, but
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  Speaker 3: they had a lot of success doing it.
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  Speaker 2: One thing that it helps with is it muddies the reeds.
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  Speaker 2: For Nico on those reliefs.
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  Speaker 3: I thought that he he got baited, particularly gets Georgia
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  Speaker 3: into throwing, pulling and throwing the wide receiver screens when
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  Speaker 3: it wasn't there because of like with the three high
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  Speaker 3: playing from depth. But then they could really just come
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  Speaker 3: down hill on those plays and so what looks like
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  Speaker 3: a numbers advantage or or space turned out not to be.
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  Speaker 3: And so you can just muddy the reads with a
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  Speaker 3: three highs. So you know, I expect a bunch of that,
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  Speaker 3: a bunch of Cover four. As I said, like, if
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  Speaker 3: they're going to play four down and play cover four,
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  Speaker 3: I think you're going to have to do a lot
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  Speaker 3: of you know, whether you want to use the heavy
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  Speaker 3: technique we've talked about where the defensive end shoots inside,
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  Speaker 3: whether you want to just pinch or slant again to
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  Speaker 3: essentially like go from a four down front to capture
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  Speaker 3: some of those off principles, because you just don't want
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  Speaker 3: to put him in your.
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  Speaker 2: Linebackers in such conflict.
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  Speaker 3: But I do think that he I do think Nico
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  Speaker 3: can be baited into those to throwing those reliefs when
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  Speaker 3: it's not really there.
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  Speaker 2: He's pretty pretty trigger to pull and throw.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and he's he's an interesting player because he's so
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  Speaker 1: talented and such an incredible athlete, but also young. I
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  Speaker 1: mean this is his first year as a starter, and
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  Speaker 1: every time I watch him, I think this has very
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  Speaker 1: clearly always been the guy who is the most talented
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  Speaker 1: player on the field, and he just he feels like
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  Speaker 1: he can. He always thinks I can fix this no
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  Speaker 1: matter what the situation is, Like I can I can
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  Speaker 1: outrun these guys. I can buy some time and I
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  Speaker 1: can use my you know, incredible arm strength and just
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  Speaker 1: fire something downfield and like we'll make it work. I
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  Speaker 1: think I've watched four Tennessee games and maybe seen him
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  Speaker 1: throw the ball away like once. Now. I asked Sonny
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  Speaker 1: Styles about this earlier in the week, just the challenge
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  Speaker 1: that they may be facing in terms of if he
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  Speaker 1: gets out and they don't rush the passer and they
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  Speaker 1: don't have like discipline in the rush lanes, he can
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  Speaker 1: get out of the pocket. He can make a big
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  Speaker 1: play with his legs. You're also putting a lot of
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  Speaker 1: pressure on the Ohios Tate secondary to cover for you know,
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  Speaker 1: if you're not for two and a half seconds, if
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  Speaker 1: he's scrambling around, maybe you're covering for four and a
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  Speaker 1: half seconds, five. I mean, whatever it is, that's a
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  Speaker 1: lot of pressure on the back end of the defense.
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  Speaker 1: To me, I look at him and it's like he
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  Speaker 1: is going to make the big play, one for one
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  Speaker 1: team or another. He is going to make the big
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  Speaker 1: play of the game that's going to decide it. And
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  Speaker 1: it's just which direction is it going to go? And
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  Speaker 1: I kind of shrug and go, I don't know, but
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  Speaker 1: it's going to be exciting to watch.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I think part of it too, is
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  Speaker 3: it just again like a reflection of what their passing
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  Speaker 3: game is right, Like there's not it's like half field
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  Speaker 3: reads so it's kind of like hell, won two guys
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  Speaker 3: and then he's going to tuck and go, and you
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  Speaker 3: know a lot of it, A lot of his throws
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  Speaker 3: are off of obviously RPOs or play action. You know,
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  Speaker 3: I don't think there's just not a lot of mid
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  Speaker 3: intermediate stuff. I do think that like that, Jim Knowles
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  Speaker 3: will bring pressure on passing downs Kirby Smart Georgia, like
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  Speaker 3: they really doubt it up on passing downs against him,
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: to get him off his spot and force him to move.
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  Speaker 3: You know, a lot of like hot pressures or it's
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  Speaker 3: like bringing six and you're playing three D two under
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  Speaker 3: and you're like counting again that like the space you're
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  Speaker 3: sort of giving up when you when you do that
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  Speaker 3: is like in the intermediate middle right, like you only
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  Speaker 3: have two underneath defenders. But again that's not really what
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  Speaker 3: their passing game is. So you take away you play
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  Speaker 3: a three deep shell and you take away the vertical
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  Speaker 3: stuff and force them to like work it back underneath.
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  Speaker 3: So and I you know, I do think they I
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  Speaker 3: think they have some opportunities against the Tennessee line to
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  Speaker 3: create pressure, and so I think that'll you know, be
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  Speaker 3: be taking advantage of it at that, but on early downs,
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  Speaker 3: I think you know, to me, first and foremost, it
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  Speaker 3: starts with limiting the Tennessee run game and covering up.
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  Speaker 3: You know, you need to both you need to take
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  Speaker 3: away the interior gaps, but also cancelf the reliefs, like
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  Speaker 3: you don't want to give them easy chunks off of
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  Speaker 3: wide receiver screens.
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  Speaker 2: You know.
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  Speaker 3: Again, like with the run game, it's interesting because they
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  Speaker 3: play someone in odd fronts. You see like a lot
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  Speaker 3: of gap runs, like they like to use dart, which
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  Speaker 3: is just power with the tackle pulling instead of the guard.
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  Speaker 3: They will run counter. But again like if they get
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  Speaker 3: an off front, I don't know, maybe there'll be more
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  Speaker 3: zoned like it'll be or even front of excuse me,
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  Speaker 3: like Ohio States base four two five. So that's also
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  Speaker 3: something to watch. But uh, you know, again you got
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  Speaker 3: to tackle well because you're sort of you're gapped out
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  Speaker 3: and you've got you know, people, your dvs are spread
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  Speaker 3: out wide. I mean, the good news for US eight
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  Speaker 3: is they have very good safeties and so you know,
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  Speaker 3: you see games where Samson breaks explosives because the safeties take.
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  Speaker 2: Bad angles and you don't really get that with Caleb down.
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  Speaker 3: So that I expect a big game where he's sort
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  Speaker 3: of like the the queen on the chessboard that gym
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  Speaker 3: knowles is going to have to use to move around,
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  Speaker 3: and you know, it should be a double digit tackle
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  Speaker 3: game for him.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Watching the Tennessee Vanderbilt game, Tennessee Vanderbilt safeties were both
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  Speaker 1: very young and pretty inexperienced and just constantly biting real
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  Speaker 1: hard on play action or the run on the RPO
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  Speaker 1: and just giving Niko Iamalayava just an easy dunk dunk
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  Speaker 1: over their head for a touchdown. You're expecting You're not
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  Speaker 1: expecting that against Ohio State on Saturday. One thing that
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  Speaker 1: I'm interested in is you mentioned the offensive line briefly there.
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  Speaker 1: That's another thing that's kind of jumped out to me.
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  Speaker 1: Where Hayde May is the center, fantastic, dynamite, fantastic offensive lineman,
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  Speaker 1: The guards are fine, the tackles I look at and go, mmmm,
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  Speaker 1: that might be an area to watch, you know, when
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: the dentist kind of goes like, well, it's not a cavity,
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: but we're going to keep an eye on this for
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: the next time. Like that's kind of where I am
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: with the Tennessee Tennessee tackles like m let's note that
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  Speaker 1: on their chart and then we'll see what comes up
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  Speaker 1: on Saturday night. But it feels like that's an area
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  Speaker 1: where if Ohio State is going to get Tennessee off schedule,
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: that's probably probably where that might come from.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree.
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: Obviously a lot of focus on the High State offensive line,
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: and greatly so, but Tennessee is not in all that
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: different a boat. Just they just didn't have the injuries
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: to get there, you know, PFF or whatever PFF is worth.
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: Both as their offensive tackles rated pretty low in terms of,
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: you know, compared to all their offensive tackles across the country.
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: So I agree.
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: I think that again it's you know, on early downs,
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: it's really controlling the interior and resetting the line scrimmage
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: and you know, uh, I mean Sam's is very good,
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: but he'll he'll find holes where there aren't any really,
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: but you just kind of have to control the line
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: of scrimmage.
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: And then yeah, I.
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: Think, as I said, I think you turn up the
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: pressure on you want to get them in the third
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: long and then turn up the pressure on passing downs.
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: But that's why I sort of like, you know, a
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: lot of the three high stuff as well. You know,
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: let the defensive line control the line scrimmage. You have
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: the corners rolled up for the reliefs, you have two
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: deeps safeties, and then kaled downs can sort of be
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: the eraser in the middle.
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: One thing I noticed this week is I was kind
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: of going through stats. We have lots of time to
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: think this week, and it's you know, the coaching staff
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: always talks about, you know, it's dangerous when the coaches
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: have too much time to think during you know, before
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: a game. This is that's kind of how it is
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: for media folks as well. It's like, well, we've already
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: watched all the Tennessee stuff, we're going to watch. Let's
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: start looking at stats. And one thing that really jumped
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: out to me is Ohio States defense has allowed fifty
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: five percent of opponent red zone possessions. Red zone possessions,
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: they're twenty yards from the end zone, fifty five percent
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: of them have ended in scores this year. That is
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: just to put that in respective, Army is the only
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: other team that's under seventy percent this year. No team
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: other than Army this year, which is fifty nine point
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: four six percent no team going back to twenty sixteen,
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: which is as far back as the stats go, has
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: ever been under sixty percent other than Army this year
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: and Ohio State, and those are two incredible outliers this year.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: What is it that makes Ohio State's defense so good
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: in the red zone this year?
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: I think it's a domination of I mean, you know,
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: it's funny because like big picture Ohio State, right and
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: advanced stats, you know sp plus has I say, is
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: the number one defense in the country. I don't really
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: think they kind of get that respect necessarily. And a
• 18:19
  Speaker 3: lot of it is, like you know, people complain about
• 18:22
  Speaker 3: Jack Sawyer and JT. Tumulo like not creating more pressure, right,
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: But they're really good against the run, right, And so
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: when you get in the red zone, like teams are
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: apt to run the football, and they're very good at
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: stopping the run, particularly like Jim Noles, he can bring
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: defenders down. Caleb Downs and Lathan Ranson are very good
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: against the run and coming downhill. Their corners are good tacklers.
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: So you know, when you get in that confined space,
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: they're pretty tough to score against. And you know, to me,
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: I guess I'd say big picture, like Tennessee's defense is
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: really good. Like if you go by just sp plus,
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: Tennessee's defense is really good. Ohio State's offense is like
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: slightly behind that, but still in the top five or so.
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: Obviously the offensive line injuries may you know, take us
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: some some slight off of that. But the you know,
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: this is the biggest mismatch is the Ohio State defense
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: against the Tennessee offense. And so this is really a
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: game where like the Ohio State defense has to task
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: to control things. I think it's a good you know,
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: Jim Knowles, I think you can tell is like excited
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: to get out of the Big ten and play someone different. Right,
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: Like as you said, like his defense was in fact
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: designed for this, like playing against the tempo, spread out,
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: playing the playing the three safety looks like.
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: That can handle this.
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: You know, you don't get a lot of motion, You're
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: not gonna get a lot of shifting from Tennessee, like
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: they're just gonna spread you out.
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: So it's this is this is really the area where.
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: The Ohio State needs to make as on the they're
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: on the defensive side of the football.
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: Well, I have all week been saying I'm expecting a
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: low scoring game on both sides and probably you know,
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: a little bit of a rock fight and probably a
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: sixty ish minute game. It sounds like, you know, based
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: on what you' saiding about Ohio State defense, it sounds
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: like you're expecting probably something similar. What what are you
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: looking for? What are you expecting on Saturday night?
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: I mean, I think similar, Like it's hard for me to.
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: Again, I think Ohio States defense is going to handle
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: the Tennessee what they do well. I think it's you know,
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: we'll see how they handle the front up front, with
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: the audverse even front. But I think they're in a
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: good position. You know, if you limit explosives and force
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: Tennessee to drive, you get yourself lined up. I think
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: they'll be in a good position to you know, get
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: off the field and limit Tennessee in terms of scoring offensively. Again,
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: I just think that I really do believe that Ryan
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: Dan chip Kelly learned a lesson from the michiing game,
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: and I do not think you're going to see that
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: replayed again. I think you're going to see a ton
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: of quick passing, passing on early downs of variety in
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: the run game. You know, getting will Howard more involved
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: to try to open things up. But I just it's
• 21:11
  Speaker 3: hard to see Ohio State really like you know, I
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: could just see drives sort of fall apart because of
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: the offensive line issues.
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: So I tend to agree with you.
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: I think it'll probably be a low scoring and obviously,
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: like you know, when you look at the various advanced
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: at profiles, they all sort of see the same thing
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: like in the you know, twenty fourish to eighteen seventeen
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: range or twenty you know, twenty four to nineteen whatever
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: you want to so somewhere in there. So again, as
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: I was always like, if I stick could get to
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: twenty eight points like that, they should win pretty comfortably,
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: I would think. So that's that's it, I think. But
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: four touchdowns like that could be an ambitious goal. But
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: that's to me, the key for I of State is
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: like again, creating explosives out of the passing game, particularly
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: to like a Mega Buka and then Traveon Henderson out
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: of the back like that. Those are the matchups like inside,
• 22:03
  Speaker 3: when you get Mann coverage that you need to you know,
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: create some big plays, whether there's angle routes, you know,
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: similar to what Ryan Day used with Zager Johnson and
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: storage out. You know that vertical route out of the backfield,
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: so things like that, like it's it's you know, the
• 22:17
  Speaker 3: goal for high stage should be to generate explosives.
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: Well, will they be able to generate explosives? Will they
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: be able to contain Tennessee's offense? We will all find
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: out together on Saturday night. We will be at the
• 22:29
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• 22:31
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• 22:34
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• 22:36
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• 22:38
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• 22:41
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• 22:43
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• 22:45
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• 22:51
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• 22:53
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• 22:56
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• 22:58
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• 23:00
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• 23:09
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• 23:11
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• 23:22
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• 23:24
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• 23:26
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• 23:28
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• 23:47
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• 23:48
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