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Has This Been The Craziest Month In Ohio State Football History? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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Welcome to Buck Guys Tomorrow Morning for Tuesday, January twenty third. I'm your
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host, Tom Moore. The Akron game is in two hundred and twenty one
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days. The game against Michigan in three hundred and twelve days. It has
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only been about three weeks since the end of the Cotton Bowl game down in
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Arlington, Texas. Was not one of the greatest moments in Ohio State history.
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Certainly, the fourteen three loss to Missouri left people kind of wondering what
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the heck was going to happen in the future of the Ohio State football program.
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But have gone a number of different directions, and boy howdy have they
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picked a direction in that last three weeks and some change since then. Today
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we want to take just a look back at the last three weeks and this
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is just literally going to be a timeline of events since the end of that
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Cotton Bowl some of the major stories that we've been covering here on the show,
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because I think as we go through this, you're going to say,
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oh yeah, I forgot about that, Oh yeah, I forgot about that,
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And there is just a lot of interesting stuff here. We're going to
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be breaking this down just week by week, We're going to be doing it
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with our buddy, Tony Gerdiman. If Buck I huddled that Tony, I'm
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just going to run through this first week very quickly and just you can share
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your thoughts. They lose on the twenty ninth. The night of the twenty
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ninth, we wake up in Dallas on the morning of the thirtieth ready to
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head home, and on that day, defensive lineman Mike Hall announces he is
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going to the NFL, and it's like, oh boy, here we go.
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It's is this the first domino to fall? December thirty first, Ohio
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University tight end Willcasmrick announced he's kind of transferred to Ohio State. December thirty
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first, more guys head out, Jesse Murco, Noah Rodgers, Bryson Rodgers
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all end of the transfer portal. January second, after Michigan wins the Rose
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Bowl, putting Ohio State fans in an even better mood. January second,
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Steel Chambers announces that he is leaving. This feels like that was kind of
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like the nadir of things I think for Ohio State fans overall. Then on
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January third, things start. This is when things sort of start to turn
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KYLERK. Williams announces he is coming back. January fourth. Will howardnnounces he
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is coming to Ohio State. January fifth, Lathan Ransom announces he is coming
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He's coming back for one more year. January fifth. Also Jack Sawyer announces
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he's coming back. January sixth, that's McLaughlin the Alibatama Center announces he is
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coming to Ohio State. And then finally, on January sixth, five Star
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Corner Devin Sanchez with the class of twenty twenty five commits Tony. It feels
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like that's about a month and a half of news and that was just over
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a week immediately following that Cotton Bowl. And honestly, I feel like this
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is going to be the slowest week that we talk about or the least aggressive
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week. Boy. Yeah, I mean the just had to join in downtown
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so that I could keep track of all of this because there are so many
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things. The whole the Devin Sanchez thing is normally that would be good for
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a week, you know, that's the biggest thing that has happened in a
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week. You landed number one corner in a particular class and that yeah,
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that week it was I mean it was big at the time. But boy,
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oh boy, you get the transfers, you got guys leaving, You
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got an entire you got the entire like buffet, you got just bits and
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pieces of each thing. Oh you got a transfer here. Oh you got
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a five star corner side of here. You got this guy coming in,
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you got somebody leaving for the NFL. And this was just the start of
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what has been a very, very busy month. But I is one of
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the maybe the un unremembered, the forgotten aspects of this is the Jesse mrco
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leaving. I think that is still tom. If the biggest issue with this
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Ohio State team in twenty twenty four is the punter, would that be the
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biggest slap in the face in Jim Tressel and university history. Boy yeah,
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that would be spiritually first for Brian Farrence to be leaving the And then now
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this, I mean at all the West Coast teams you want, you want
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to talk about the Big ten, getting away from what made the Big ten
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the Big Ten, I don't know, that's a little dangerous. The only
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thing that maybe saves the day a little bit is they do still have another
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Australian punter on the roster. Joe McGuire is on the roster, so they
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have not completely abandoned their Australian roots there in the punting game. But yeah,
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just one of these many things that I think if you ask people to
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try and put together, like here's all the different pieces of news, that
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feels like that's one that probably gets lost in the wash. But it was
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just a couple of days after the cotton ball and it was just like,
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oh boy, if he's leaving, like what else is going to happen?
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And then everything just kind of swung a couple days later, So all right,
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here's the next week. January eighth. They announced that Perry Eliano is
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out. January eighth. High Hamilton announces he's coming back. January eighth.
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Quinn Shawn Judkins announces he is transferring to Ohio State from Ole Miss. January
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tenth. Four star defensive en is They hear Mathis commits for the class of
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twenty twenty five. January tenth. This is there. January tenth was one
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of probably the single biggest biggest day. Matt Gary is in, Parker Fleming
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is out on the coaching staff. January tenth, Denzil Burke is coming back
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January tenth, Donovan Jackson is coming back January tenth, Jordan Hancock is coming
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back January eleventh, and Mecca Obuka is coming back January eleventh. Marvin Harrison
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is leaving January twelfth, JT Jui Molowell is coming back January twelfth. Febian
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Henderson is back. At the end of the NFL returns January thirteenth, Bryson
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Rodgers announces he's police named out of the Portal and then coming back to Ohio
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State. But you just go through that week and you know Perry Aleano is
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leaving, Parker Fleming is leaving, and Marvin Harrison is leaving. Everything else
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is someone's coming in. And I just said a whole lot of names.
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I'm gonna one, two, three, four, five, six, seven,
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eight nine, ten names coming back or admitting. I mean, that
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is an incredible week of news and pretty much all positive. Yes, January
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tenth was an incredible week of news that day alone with the ze here mathis
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committing, Matt Gariery in, Parker Fleming out, Denzel Burke, Donovan Jackson,
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Jordan Hancock all returning. It reminds me of the the memum of the
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Popeyees chicken worker just sitting out out back of the restaurant, just exhausted and
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just you know, hunched over, like this has been a day. That
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was the entire Ohio State beat that day. But also that's kind of the
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way things have been again this week. Just that we give you everything coaching
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movement and then the first time ever it gave us Brian Hartline going into the
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transfer portal for a wide receiver his own Bryson Rodgers. But this was the
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real I think the Tyler Williams returning was the hint. This week was the
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confirmation that the juniors had, you know, just as they said, there
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were some conversations after the Michigan games, say hey, we're all opting in,
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and when they did opt into the Cotton Bowl, that was a sign
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that looks like things are trending towards most of these guys coming back. And
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then when you get the announcements that you did with Denzel Burke and Jordan Hancock
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and Donovan Jackson and j T. T. M Allwhile and Trevion Henderson,
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like that was a one of the biggest weeks in Ohio state history. Off
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the field, for sure, but could be end up being one of the
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biggest weeks in Ohio state history, regardless of on field or off the field.
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Yeah, I was thinking about this just in terms of the upcoming season
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and just sort of the narrative of the year already sort of starting to take
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shape. And you know, if if they end up and there's a long
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way to go between now and then, but if they end up, you
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know, with if they finished their year standing on a podium with a bunch
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of confetti following him right him and getting hand at the National Championship Trophy,
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it feels like the preface of the book, you know, of the book
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about that story or the story of the season is you know, Boy coming
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off the field of the Cotton Bowl and how dejected everyone looked, and you
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know, the conversations about Boy is the is the culture of the program about
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to fall apart? And all that kind of stuff. And then chapter one
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is so the first week and a half of January, let me tell you
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about January tenth, Like that feels like that's sort of a big part of
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what this coming year could be about, because that, you know, think
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you think back to that two thousand and two National Championship season, you think
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about that kind of started with Mike DAWs announcing he was coming back during a
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press conference in early January. It felt kind of like you were having that
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sort of momentum building during that second week. All right. Now, now
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this is just last week, so you probably are actually going to remember at
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least most of these things. Some of these feel like they were well over
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a month, well over a week ago, maybe well over a month ago.
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January sixteenth, Ross Bjork is going to be the Ohio State athletic director.
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January seventeenth, actually hold a press conference to announce him. January nineteenth,
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Bill O'Brien is in as the new offensive coordinator. Corey Dennis is going
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to have some sort of a change of role, but that's, you know,
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the exact role that and where he ends up is a little bit up
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in the air. He hasn't been let go. It's just sort of we
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don't know yet. Also January nineteenth, in addition to hiring an offensive coordinator,
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Oh, by the way, Caleb Downs is coming to Ohio State January
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twentieth, Dominic Kirks, who a month earlier everyone was wondering why have they
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not recruited this guy. Why have they not offered this guy? What is
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going on? How could they possibly miss on this boy? This is a
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symbol of all, you know, all the stuff that is kind of screwy.
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Right now he commits. He has committed to Ohios State on January twentieth,
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and then January twenty first. Oh. By the way, they added
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the number one quarterback by many many analysts in the class of twenty twenty four,
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A second five star quarterback for the class of twenty twenty four, Julian
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Sayin, joining Aaron Nolan in the Buckeye's class of twenty twenty four after enrolling
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in Alabama's about forty eight hours in Alabama and then Nick Daben leaving and hitting
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the transfer portal and then transferring to Ohio State on Sunday. I mean,
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I guess they only added two five stars stolen directly from Alabama, and an
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offensive coordinator and a four star defensive end and an athletic director. I mean,
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is this the most boring week of the week of the year so far?
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Yeah, finally we get to slow down and just take it easy for
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a while. It is interesting how much of this past week has been associated
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with Alabama directly indirectly, even Dominic Kirks decommitting from Washington because their head coaches
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leaves and heads to Alabama to take over there. But again, in any
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week, this would be each of these items would be the thing Ross York
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knew. Ad I mean when when Geene Smith announced that he was retiring back
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in juni or whatever, whenever it did, like we had an emergency podcast,
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because that's that's huge news at Ohio's day. Anyten, there's an a
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d leaving or going that are coming. There's a lot to do. And
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we were all there for the press conference to the president of the university.
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Was there Ted Carter as well, and that boy, this all just flies
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by time. It is crazy how things have gone this weekend. And you
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know the bill of Briant thing, new offensive coordinator, new new quarterbacks coach
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like that. It doesn't it doesn't get much bigger than that when Brian Day
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is hiring a new offensive coordinator and a new new quarterbacks coach, because that's
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him, that's that's his baby. And now he's bringing in this, you
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know, somebody to take care of his baby. So that is huge news
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in and of itself. And of course it's Bill O'Brien who has done it
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at Penn State, did a great job saving that program from really deep depths
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of despair, and goes to Houston, has success there, gets fired after
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a poor start in twenty twenty, goes to Alabama, his quarterback wins a
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heisman, has done it all and now is going to see how they match
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with Brian Day. And that's creates all kinds of questions. You and Ross
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Wolton have been talking about that, and then Tom and let's get to the
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middle part of the week. The one thing missing from this defense. You're
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like, boy, if you could if there's just one player nationally that you
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could go get for this defense, who would it be? Caleb Downs?
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And he had already been into portal. Seemed like it was gonna be Georgia.
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Everybody was pointing at Georgia and then boom, it's Ohio State. And
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that would be good enough for a month in terms of the biggest news for
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a month of the month. And it's just one of the many things that
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has happened. Dominic Kirks, Hey, you get an in state defensive line
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and you need one ah that is so under the radar, because the next
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day you get a second five star quarterback in your class. Now doesn't count
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as the recruiting class because he was enrolled at Alabama, so it's another transfer.
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But now you've got two of the top four quarterbacks according to the twenty
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four to seven composite from the twenty twenty four class. That's that's a pretty
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good starting point. And to this point, Aaron Nolan has been okay with
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it. He's you know, he's saying all of the right all of the
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right things, just as you would hope a quarterback would. And this is
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this is it's not the quantity this week, but the quality has been low.
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Yeah, it is one of the biggest weeks in terms of star power
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and you know roles, you know, significant roles that are being added to
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the program. And the athletic department on the whole didn't mention, you know,
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on January twenty first, also the women's basketball team beat Iowa and overtime.
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The weekend before that, the number one women's hockey team swept the number
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two i think the number two Minnesota Golden Golfers by a combined team to one.
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I mean, it's been quite a month at in Columbus, and what
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I was trying to remember, do a little back of the back of the
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nap work napkin math real quickly on how many five stars they have acquired or
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attained or retained this month, and I can't remember the biggest. I think
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maybe there was one Urban Meyer recruiting class at Florida that had eight five stars,
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maybe just this month. According to my back of the Napkin math,
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Ohio State has acquired or retained seven five stars in the last well, I
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guess the last seventeen days, because it starts January fifth with Jack Sawyer,
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January tenth with Donovan Jackson, January eleventh with a Mecca Ibuca, January twelfth
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with JT. Dewey Moloou, January twelfth with Trevan Henderson, January nineteenth with
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Caleb Downs, January twenty first with Julian saying, and those are just the
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guys who were five star recruits out of high school. I think you could
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make a pretty good argument that you, Denzel Burg would certainly merit five star
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rating. Now some of those other guys perhaps as well, But you know,
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it has been a thirty five star January. If you want to do
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it that way, and that's just the five stars, not you know,
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let alone all the high four star recruits that were in that list as well.
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So Tony, I know there's there's more recruiting decisions potentially coming at some
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point soon. What is the next thing that January will bring? Go ahead,
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spoil a surprise for everyone? What what else are we expecting next?
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What could January possibly have in store for us next? You know, that's
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that's a good question because even when we were talking about all of the things
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that have been going on, like you and I are texting like, well
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now that's saying is and you know things they'll slow down for a little bit,
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and you're like, well, but about this and this, and don't
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do forget about this, And it's like, what do when does Tony get
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a break? What does tom get a break? What about us? Right?
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Why? Nobody nobody's thinking about us, nobody's caring about us. I
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guess maybe we can rest in May or June, because it's not going to
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be Januybruary. February is signed. You know, we've got second signing day.
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It's you we're only a month away from spring ball, and it's usually
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there's like a little. I can't even say usually anymore, there are no
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laws anymore after the bowl game, after after the season is over all,
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heck is still breaking loose and falling into place. And so what happens next?
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Uh? And I think the portal is well, maybe the portal is
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done for now until the spring. But uh, you know, the coaching
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carousel continues. I'm gonna say some there's some recruiting guys that are gonna some
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some commitments coming up here at at some point, and still coaching decisions need
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to be made. There is still that in terms of what what is Ohio
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State going to do with their tenth assistant coaching positions? So that will be
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happening and we'll be talking to coaches and players here eventually. So yeah,
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time nothing is nothing is slong down. This train keeps it rolling. Yeah,
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you mentioned all that different news, and I will also point out sometimes
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things that make news in nan Arbor also make news in Columbus. We'll see.
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There might be some news on that front coming as well. At some
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point there will be an off season probably maybe we'll see. But until then,
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boy, is bucke huddle dot com a great place to be to experience
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There's a member exclusive feature at bucke huddle dot com and boy is there
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a lot to talk about right now on that huddle board. So this would
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to try for a month see if you like it. There's been plenty of
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do it for today. Thank you guys all for joining us. Have a
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great day. We will talk to you tomorrow.