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Ohio State Football Insider: 10 Things We Learned From Ryan Day · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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Welcome to a very special live episode of Buckeye Tomorrow Morning for Thursday, February
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eighth. I'm your host, Tom Or The Akron game in two hundred and
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five days. The game gets Michigan in two hundred and ninety six days.
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It has been what Tony Gerdaman thirty eight days or so since the Buckey's last
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played a football game, which is also the last time we got to talk
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to Ryan Day, Yeah before Wednesday, and boy howdy, has some stuff
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changed since the last time we talked to Ryan Day. We got to talk
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to Ryan Day for over an hour on Wednesday, which was an absolute delight
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because I think we both went in there with about forty things we wanted to
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ask about. Probably about thirty five of those got asked about. So I'm
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gonna let you choose the first thing we talk about because it will be literally
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anything you want to talk about about Ohio State football. Well, I think
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the first thing is Bell O'Brien, So no updates there just yet. Obviously
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he's hoping that Bill O'Brien will say and listening to Ryan Day talk over that
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hour, everything he said about Bill O'Brien was something that this program could use
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in terms of the offense and just the experience, the ability to nitpick the
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offense, nick nitpick the terminology, the teaching aspect of it, and improve
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all of that, and of course take the play calling off of Brian Day's
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plate and just provide Day with the ability to be more of the CEO as
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everybody talks about. But the game management that you asked about with Ryan Day,
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so many reasons why Ryan Day wants Bill O'Brien to stay, and yet
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they don't know if you will. And he was at work today here in
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Columbus. But it's just a waiting game. I think gry Day said like
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to have everything finalized within the next week in terms of the entire coaching staff
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as well, but right now just a waiting pattern. And from what I
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got, he really really obviously he hired Bill O'Brien, but he really wants
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him to be here. Yeah, that no question I know that there was.
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That was not a universally well received higher. Brian Day is in with
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both feet on. Bill O'Brien feels, you know, like he's going to
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give them everything they would potentially want out of that position and potentially free Ryan
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Day up to do a bunch of other stuff, and it's just a matter
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of does he go to Boston College or not. And you know the Pete
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Famill report earlier in the week that that's a decision that's probably coming over the
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weekend. I think that's probably about the time frame you can reasonably expect,
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So we will see how that goes. There was so many, so many
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different interesting things in this press conference. I'm I'm just gonna I think we
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just are just going to bounce around. I think one of the most interesting
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things that I heard was right towards the end, not necessarily a question I
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thought was going to lead to a really interesting answer, but will will Howard,
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the transfer quarterback from Kansas State his ability to run the football. Ryan
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Day basically said, yeah, we got to have a guy to you know,
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we think that having a quarterback that can be effective in the run game
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is going to have a real positive impact on their ability to win games late
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in the season. I think I know which game specifically he has in mind,
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but that feels like that's a real significant philosophical shift for him. Yeah,
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and not just Will Howard, but he said we now have five quarterbacks
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that can do it. Just to beat somebody that the defense has to respect
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as a runner, not that they need to do it all the time,
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but just somebody to be accountable, accounted for by the defense. And that's
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what they've got in all of their guys. And so, yeah, Will
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Howard being a guy with nine hundred and twenty seven yards rushing in his career,
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he's not a runner though he'll tell you that. He's just he will
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run and is more than more than willing to do so. But they've got
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a bunch of guys five that are willing to do that now. And yeah,
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the end of the season, he said, you can't. You can't
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win games at the end of the season there. You can't win the last
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game without running the ball. And uh, you know that's we've said it
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for years. When that quarterback is not an option, when the defense does
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not respect it, then they don't worry about it. He said the same
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thing. And so having whoever it is, Will Howard, Devin Brown,
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whomever to be that guy just helps the running game makes them a better team
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at the end of the season when whether it's turned and who is that quarterback
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going to be? Well, Will Howard came in expecting to be the starter.
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You know, I think that's what you would sort of assume if you're
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coming in for your last season, not a guarantee, which you would obviously
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also not expect at a You know that they're going to just come in with
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even Caleb downs As not being announced as a guaranteed starter, even though he
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came in as a freshman All American and second team All American and all that
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kind of stuff. So all these jobs are going to be settled on the
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field this spring. Having five quarterbacks is great. They Randa has said he
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wants four, at least four scholarship quarterbacks. He played with less than that
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at times. They got five. Now it's great, that's wonderful. How
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the heck do you balance getting all of these guys snapped this spring? Because
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you've got three guys three to the quarterback. I've never been through a spring
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here before, and one of them just got here a month ago, and
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you know, one of the guys who has been through a spring. This
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is just you know that that's gonna be a real challenge the spring. Yeah,
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and he said they're gonna do everything they can to get as many reps
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as possible. We've so we saw them in the summer. In the fall,
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Kap go to two fields at the same time. I wonder if they'll
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be able to do that in the spring. That also requires to have enough
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bodies for linemen and defense and receivers to have you need two teams worth of
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healthy bodies. And they don't always have that in the spring. And so
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we'll see what they're able to do. But they're gonna move fast, and
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you know then, he said, eventually things will just start to work themselves
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out of the cream will rise to the top, and maybe there'll be fewer
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reps for this guy, more reps for this guy, more reps for beast
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three guys or four guys. But you have five now. Who knows somebody
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they have in May, and that's why it's important to have five now.
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And he said they didn't go into this expecting to bring in Julian, saying
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that was not part of their recruiting. You know, well, once they
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got Aaron Nolan and I've they were done. They offered Julian to say it
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before Nolan, but Dolan was committed to Alabama. Then when this happens,
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you're like, well, let's let's go for it, and now you've got
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five guys and it'll work itself out. It's crazy how some of this stuff
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has sort of shaken out over the last month building it. Bring in Bill
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O'Brien, sure, yeah, that was that was I think a big part
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of the plan, bringing in a veteran guy like that. You did it
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perfect, just what you sort of expect. The sort of fallout from that
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being well, Bill O'Brien was maybe part of the recruiting a little bit with
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Julian saying at Alabama, okay, so that maybe helps with that a little
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bit. And then you also have a you also have a you know,
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Julian Say and then goes into portal because when they brought in Bill O'Brien,
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I don't think Nick Saban had retired yet, correct, correct, Yeah,
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so you know, it was not it was not like this was some diabolical
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plan to bring in Bill O'Brien to poach all of these Alabama recruits. The
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things have just sort of fallen into play in the way that they have.
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They were not expecting to bring in Julian saying, I think, you know,
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but when you have an opportunity to bring something someone like him, in
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he's one of two five star quarterbacks in the twenty twenty four recruiting class.
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You don't want to take off the other or in the twenty twenty four recruiting
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class. But you know he Brian Day said, you kind of have these
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conversations and you don't come to Ohio State without wanting to compete. That is
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a part of being here, and you want to you want to be the
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best. You got to be the best. Well and for Flair will yes,
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But the idea that you can come to Ohio State that's going to be
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an easy road, like there's nobody in front of me, I'm just gonna
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run this thing Like that's not the reality. So you're coming in knowing that
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there's going to be around you and ahead of you, behind you, and
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so you go in knowing that you also going knowing that they're going to bring
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somebody else behind you as well. And none of these guys are guaranteed anything.
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The spring is going to be uh Riot Day is clearly looking forward to
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what is going to go on this spring as they figure this whole thing out.
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But throughout this whole thing, it's been interesting to talk about the cultural
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fits like these aren't mercenaries. These are guys that they had backgrounds with.
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And the transparency that they talked about when you're going to the portal, you
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talk to the players who are already at that position. You talk to the
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coaches when they're bringing in Julian saying they talked to Aaron Nola, they talked
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to the quarterbacks and said, it doesn't always go well when you talk with
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players about hey, we're going to bring this guy and we're thinking about bringing
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this guy in, but generally they're on board. Same thing with Quinch on
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Judkins. I thought it was interesting where Ryan Day said as soon as Judkins
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was in the portal, they basically went to Trevia yes said hey, what
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do you think? Yeah, well, and I think that's a little bit
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of a testament to Trevia and Henderson coming back being a fourth year guy,
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being an established veteran on this team. There is not an established veteran in
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the quarterback room right now, an established veteran starter for Ohio State, so
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it's a little bit of a different conversation. I did take note of that
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that they went to Travion and said what do you think, and Trevion basically
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said, yeah, fine, do it great. I think everyone has sort
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of seen over the last years, months, whatever, that there is only
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so you know, there's only so much battering that your body can take as
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a running back that the amount of hits you're going to take it is only
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going to increase now moving forward as you get into college football playoff and you
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know, potentially sixteen games this year. Theoretically I guess possibly seventeen games,
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but that's just that's all a lot and having someone else who's a veteran to
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sort of share that load. It's interesting that he framed the Will Howard decision
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as well. Kyle went in the portal, common Cord went in the portal,
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so then they had to go find another quarterback. Jip train him went
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in the portal, so then they had to find another quarterback. So this
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was not necessarily just we're going to just go, you know, give me
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two of these and three of these, and it was sort of strategic.
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It lines up with you had holes to fill, very specific holes to fill,
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and you know, I think Treviaan Henderson recognizes he's not going to be
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able to carry the ball three hundred and fifty times next year. So this
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is a way to sort of take a load off of him a little bit.
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I think a good question next time for Ryan Day is were you going
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to go to the portal for a quarterback even with kylet Cord returning, because
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I think I would be some insight. Yeah, well, what if the
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answer you're going to get there. I think the answer you're going to get
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there as well. You know, we always look at everything, and that's
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you kind of get the answer to the non answer answer. But you can
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tell me no, you could and if you don't tell me no, then
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it's yeah. Yeah, And I think and I do think they look at
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everything because you never know. You never know who could go in the portal.
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You never know, Hey someone gets hurt, You never know, you
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never know. So yeah, I think that they The quarterback play in twenty
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twenty three was not where they needed it to be to get to where they
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want to get and where they want to get. It's very clear it is.
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The goal was a national championship. That's the same three goals has always
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beat Michigan, win the Big Ten, win the national championship. The goal
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this year is a national championship. BRANDI was asked point blank, is this
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a championship caliber team, and he said, did you think so? Yeah,
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yeah, clearly it's a very loaded roster. He said, all of
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this nomentum started with the juniors coming back. In the seniors, Layton Ransom,
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Cody Simon returning, so that kind of got everything going real quick.
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Back to the running backs, when they asked talk to Quinchaw, Judkins said,
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Hey, Trevian's coming back. He's like, cool, awesome, that's
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great. I love that. There's definitely a way for both those guys to
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get two hundred carries this year. There's there's plenty of root for those for
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both of them. But yeah, getting the the the underclassmen coming back just
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show as Ryan Dakeop saying, showed everybody showed the guys out in the portal
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that hey, this is pretty clear, nice place to be. Guys want
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to come back, they want to continue to experience this. They could go
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to the NFL, they're choosing not to. And so that's I think that
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speaks volumes. That does as much recruiting as as maybe as an Il probably
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not, but as much as the coaches do at least well, I think
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that goes back to watch what they do, don't listen to what they say,
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and yeah, it's a real it's real easy to say, oh yeah,
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it's a brotherhood, and oh yeah, it's a you know, you
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know we we we feel like this unfinished business. Day said, even for
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Marvin Harrison, jumping the NFL wasn't one hundred percent guaranteed lock, and even
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as a top five pick like he's going to be, there was still a
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little bit of that sense of unfinished business where it was not sort of an
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instantaneous snap of the fingers decision. The fact that you had all of these
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guys come back, that's you know that everyone wants to point to this and
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say, well nil N I L N L Okay, sure you can't.
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If you're if you're going to be even a second round pick, third round
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pick, whatever you're making in NIL next year is not going to be what
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you would make in the NFL. So there has to be you know,
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you're not you're not holding people against their will, so there has to be
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a little bit of a you know, shared mission. And the way Ryan
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Day talked about those guys, it sounded like Jack Sawyer was kind of the
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ring leader of that thing and really kind of drove you know drove that group.
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We had a conversation on the the Huddle Board per center by jefferby Stakauns
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at buckye huddle dot com about who might be the block O guy. When
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he talked about that, I thought I might move Jack Sawyer a little higher
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on my list in terms of who is the block oh Jersey this year.
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Just if you were kind of the guy who you know back in the day
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that Mike Dowgs coming back and that sort of was one of the big moments
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of that two thousand and two season. Jack Sawyer being one of those guys
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who maybe sort of helped Ring lead this. Maybe he's in that conversation.
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I will say, no defensive back in Ohio station ever give up the two
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for the zero. Yeah, well that's true. Yes, yes, throw
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that out there. But yeah, the juniors coming back, and Ryan Day
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said, they also understand you can't win it all right now. They understand
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that this is a long process. They're not even the spring ball yet,
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so they have that kind of understanding. It will be interesting to watch because
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a lot of those veterans aren't gonna be doing much this spring. They're gonna
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be coaching, They're gonna be pushing guys. They're gonna be getting the younger
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guys kind of paying it forward so that when they leave, you know,
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or in October, you know, when there's they need somebody else to step
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in, these guys are ready. So you're gonna see a lot of assistant
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coaches, I think for the buck Eyes this year, because you don't need
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j T. Twoey well the while, you don't need Jack, so you're
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out there getting after the quarterbacks. The quarterbacks actually need time to throw.
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Now. The offensive line does need some work, but forty to right day.
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He also likes the offense wine. Yeah, I think they feel like
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they're in a better spot with the offensive wind now. And I saw while
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we were waiting to start someone who said only one question about the offensive line.
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There were at least two or three There were There were a few about
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blind and there were some about specific guys, and you know, as Josh
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Fryer maybe gonna look at get kicked inside from tackle the guard and that kind
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of stuff. But just sort of allably speaking, it does feel like they
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feel like they're in a better spot now than they were a year ago because
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last year, last year at center for example, Luke Whipler was sort of
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a surprise departure and then they kind of looked around and went, huh,
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what where did everyone go? And this year you have Carson Hinson back who
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started for you all. Last year, you got Seth McLaughlin, the transfer
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from Alabama. He gives you again significant veteran president's presidents, a lot of
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snaps, a lot of cold You know, if I had four questions for
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Ryan Day today, I was going to ask him about Okay, yeah,
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what if they're quickies. I was going to ask him about bringing in transfers
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from a program like Alabama. Do those guys get up to speed maybe a
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little quicker than you know, bringing in a transfer from ULAM last year?
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I think Cutler, you've just spent the last three four years playing for Nick
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Saban. I would bet that's a pretty good, you know, college prep
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for what you're facing at Ohio School. Kind of talked about that a little
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bit with Seth Claughlin, Clakland and Caleb down Is talking about how they can
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let Olistate guys know how it was in Alabama and they can let the Alabama
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guys know how it is at obviously, so you get different perspectives, and
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I think that's interesting where you got to find the right guys, but they
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can give you different perspectives. Bill O'Brien coming in giving them a different perspective
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on so much in terms of the offensive line talent, a new set of
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eyes there to what he sees and what what O'Brien said said today is that
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they're talented and on the offensive line, and we've talked to here. I
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believe they have the guys here to get it done. They'll know after spring
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and they'll move make a move after spring if they feel like they need to.
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But I think there's everybody's a year older, you've gotten better. There's
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gonna be more pushing because you've got guys now entering third and fourth years who
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want to play, and if they don't get it done now, they they
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got an taker. Shabola it is. This is gonna be as what third
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year here. So at this point he should be pushing for a job somewhere
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on that offensive line. But there's really only one job open, so that's
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assuming except Miclauchland is the center, you know, so there's not a lot
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of rooms. So it creates this very physical log jam somebody's gonna come through
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that and it's gonna be for the better for the offensive line. But yeah,
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they're much better off now than they were at this time of year ago.
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We've talked in the past about the panic, the wavering in Ryan Day's
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voice at the end of spring when he's like, oh, because remember at
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this time, at the end of spring, Zen Maholski was the starting right
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tackle and Josh Fryar was a starting left tackle. That's where they were.
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Yeah, and by the end of the year, zend Maholski was not someone
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you really heard a lot about. Josh Farr had flipped to the right side.
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Of course, bringing Josh Shimmon last year, Simmons, I think people
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looked at at the number of penalties at San Diego State and went, oh,
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this guy's a bum and he can't play well. Chiard freshman, cher
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freshman, and then improved so much during the course of last year. Now
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he's got another he's got the spring. He was not at Ohio State last
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spring, so he still has not been at Ohio State for a full year.
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You got another year where now you're taking first team reps and however often
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you're taking them against Shack Sawyer or J. T. Twomloel or Kayden Courri
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or Kenyatta Jackson or whoever it is. That's only gonna help. He's now
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played next to Donvin Jackson for another year. That's gonna help. You've got,
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you know, Donovan Jackson has another year in the system under Justin Fry.
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The offense is not going to change. It doesn't sound like too significantly.
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You're not you know, you're not bringing in Bill O'Brien to run the
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Bill O'Brien offense. You bring in Bill O'Brien to help supplement the Ryan Day
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offense. And in the day talked about the fact that they're gonna make they
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make like terminology tweaks and that kind of stuff during this kind of this time
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of the year, figuring out, hey, why do you call it that?
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But this is not coming in and installing a whole new offense. So
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this is an offensive line that should be last year, they were starting from
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square one this year for personnel and schematic reasons. It should be far further
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along the road than that. Yeah, he said, you can't let the
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offensive cooridator come and just change the offense, because coordinators come and go,
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so you're gonna lose a guy after a couple of years. I think you
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tweak it, you add to it. Like when Mike your six came in,
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they brought in some under center stuff and so right they talked about how
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he really likes Bill O'Brien's empty sets, and so maybe you see some of
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that, but you enhance, You figure out what works for the guys that
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you have, and then you go from there. And part of the spring
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is figuring out what works best with their offense. Because you've got whatever quarterback
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it's going to be, it's going to be it different than last year's quarterback.
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The offense is going to be different. So how can you enhance that,
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How can you get the most out of that? How can you be
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creative as well? I think creativity, you've got a lot of things to
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work with, but you can also get the paralysis by analysis type of stuff
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well. And I think what they're going to bring in and what they're gonna
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get creative with is going to be functionally basically the same package for all five
19:53
quarterbacks. You're obviously gonna have a lot more for the older guys who are
19:56
a little more up to speed on a college game than it is for the
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tr freshman. But all five guys can run. You don't have the Kyle
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McCord where it's like, yeah, I mean technically he can run in the
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way that we all can rush. Yes, I mean sure I can run.
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Yeah, he is. He is a mobile quarterback in that he is
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not permanently stationary. But he's not Also, you know, Devin Brown,
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Lincoln kingholes are a little more mobile. And you've got guys in that room.
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Now, Will Howard, who I think we said earlier, you know,
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said he's not a running quarterback. I mean he has the stats of
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a running quarterback. So I think, you know, the Will Howard level
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of mobility is going to maybe be different than the Devin Brown level of mobility
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and so on down that line. But functionally it's going to be largely the
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same package for everyone, which will probably help and help, you know,
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help them get through more of those reps. We talked about the you know,
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the question at right guard and do you kick Josh Fryar inside and put
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look Montgomery there. The answer on that was basically, yeah, we're looking
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at everything, so said Friar will get some steps the right guard he's a
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right tackle now, but they're going to take a look at it. Yeah,
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And and you have time to do this. You have time to shuffle
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guys around. You don't want to be shuffling guys around the third week of
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August. If you're doing that the third week of March, that's fine that
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you should. You should be shuffling guys around the third week of March.
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That's when you need to find your best five. And I think you've got
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your your top five. Your best five this year is going to be better
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than your best five last year. I think you're also probably gonna have guys
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six through eight, six through ten, assuming you don't lose a tother guys
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in the portal off to the spring, guys six through ten should be probably
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substantially better as well. They're gonna be guys six through ten who were one
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through five last year. Yeah, so that's a considerable improvement. Look,
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if I switch the defense real quick, you sure can. When just this
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is something right they just kind of said in passing when talking about the improven
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over time of offensive wide or wherever said you look back at Jim Dawl's first
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year, he here the defense was really good. They got better second year,
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It's going to be better this year. There's like a matter of fact,
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like just wait for this defense this year. And you mentioned Caleb Down
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saying, you know, somebody asked, I think Clay All said the last
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question, is Caleb Downs a day one starter? And he's like, he's
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gonna be awfully hard to beat out. Yeah, so just recognize that,
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but there is a path forward for somebody to beat him out. Good luck.
22:14
Yeah, right, And it's one of those no job is guaranteed.
22:18
It would be a significant upset, shall we say, for Caleb Downs should
22:22
not be the starter at the adjuster position. For Ohio stated, so if
22:26
Caleb Downs is an adjuster, Tony, yes, and Lathan Ransm is back
22:29
in the bandit position, Well, Tony, what does that leave for sunny
22:33
styles? Well, and I asked ran Day, what does that leave for
22:36
sunny styles? And could he be moving to linebacker? And I'll have to
22:40
go back and look at all of the exact barting, but it was that
22:42
we're looking at everything, but also that is in play because he can't do
22:48
a bunch of different things. And they'll there, they're going to talk to
22:52
him about it. But remember Sunny Styles said a year ago somewhere in the
22:56
I don't know what it was, during the season, before the season,
22:57
somewhere maybe in camp. I know my future is probably at linebacker. So
23:03
they talked about when you make these positions moves, whether it's Josh Fryer to
23:07
right guard, Cat Stover to tight end Chip trade them to running back,
23:11
they have to be on board with it. And from what we know of
23:17
Sonny personally the player than the teammate, he would be completely on board with
23:22
this, not just because he knows that that's probably his future, but whatever
23:25
his best FU team he's willing to do. Plus, he can do a
23:27
lot of different things with his versatility that maybe suits better closer to the line
23:32
of scrimmage than away from it. So this is again the experimenting that Jim
23:37
Noles talked about experimenting with Sunny Styles last spring. There's gonna be different levels
23:41
of it this spring. Yeah, and again they just have more pieces,
23:45
more proven pieces there. Last year, even Josh Proctor at that adjuster position
23:51
turned into a really pleasant surprise. But this time last year we were kind
23:55
of looking at Josh Proctor and going, well, maybe maybe it'll happen at
23:59
some point. You know, there are at that in that kind of spot
24:00
right now where you've heard good things but you haven't really seen it on the
24:03
field consistently. You know, like Jayden Ballard at the wide receiver position could
24:07
have happened. Sure, maybe it hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean it can't
24:11
happen. That was sort of where Josh Brocter was this time last year.
24:12
So then for Josh Broctor to turn into what Josh Proctor turned into, yeah,
24:17
was a real pleasant surprise. Now you have you know, if Caleb
24:19
downs is back there, I think you're feeling even more confident at him.
24:22
Plus you have Leak Hartford back there as who was this time last year,
24:27
you know, a completely unproven true freshman, and now you come in and
24:33
he's at least played some as a true freshman, which tells you something about
24:37
what they think of him. So that was I think that was kind of
24:41
the big secondary talk. There's not a lot of questions about the Corners well
24:45
other than well, yeah, yeah, they don't feel like there is a
24:47
lot of questions other quarters. There was a question about Tim Walton, who
24:49
coaches at Corners. Tim Walton however good your January has been friends, Tim
24:53
Walton is having a better Tim Walton's having a better twenty twenty four than you
24:57
are. Yeah, they talked about somebody asked about timbal and he just goes
25:03
on how well he teaches, how much players like him, and then the
25:07
communication that he has with them, and then he's like and he also can
25:10
recruit big if true. But it's the developments the teaching, It's that aspect
25:15
of it's the cultural fit. It's the fact that he is a Buck guy
25:17
and wants to win a championship year as well. But then also he can
25:21
bring in the tailet that will allow all of the teaching to become more beneficial.
25:26
So yeah, the corners like, what is there to talk about.
25:32
I do think it is interesting though, that if there was no Caleb Downs
25:36
and Denzel Burke did go Wehimstate would be going into spring ball with Mileek Cartford
25:41
and Jermaine Matthews, and I don't think they'd be worried about I don't think
25:44
so, because those are guys who you saw as true freshmen do enough that
25:48
you'd go, Okay, if you're doing this is a true fresh you're going
25:51
to be fine moving forward. Caleb Downs is a true freshman last year.
25:56
Jermain Malie Cartford is a true Fresheran Being out there as a safety in the
26:00
Michigan game, even just for a little bit, tells you, Okay,
26:03
they think this kid is way further along than a typical true freshman. Caleb
26:07
Bounce started twelve games for Alabama and was Freshman All Americans. Second. I
26:11
mean, that's a whole that's another step or two beyond that. Both of
26:15
those guys have really bright pachers at Ohio State, and you know, if
26:18
it was Milike Hartford and Jermaine Matthews. Again, we talked earlier at the
26:22
learning curve where the first year, okay, goes up a little bit and
26:25
then you start going you know, the second year is where you typically really
26:29
see the big jump. So expecting probably some of that the it would be
26:36
nice to see Caleb Downs get a little bit better. I think there might
26:38
be a little more in there, but he's definitely someone who between the conversations
26:44
about the work ethic and the focus and the film study and all that kind
26:45
of stuff. The reason you're further along is because you are more maximized at
26:49
this point of your career than a lot of other guys are. One interesting
26:53
thing was the tenth position code, which is still an open question as to
26:56
what's going to happen with that. And is you know, the Bill O'Brien
27:02
position is full for now. We'll see if they need to fill that position
27:04
again, but you do have that one extra spot, and is that going
27:08
to be James Blower and Night says linebackers coach? Is that going to be
27:11
a defensive line head, you know coach and waiting kind of thing. There's
27:15
been lots of stuff thrown around about that. There were something thrown out at
27:18
one point about, you know, days thinking about bringing in a special teams
27:22
coach again, but it was I asked him a question that was only sort
27:27
of vaguely related to this, and he just sort of said, you know
27:30
something that was especially along the lines of, well, you know, I
27:33
mean, I'm probably gonna, you know, take a look at a bigger
27:37
role with special teams myself, where we've seen that with Ohio state head coaches
27:41
before, where Jim Pressel was the special teams coach on Jim Tressel's teams.
27:47
It's interesting the fact that he threw that out there kind of made me think
27:52
this might be more than just getting thought about. This might be what you're
27:56
leaning towards. And then that tenth spot goes somewhere well and he else have
28:00
met Garyery. Gary can also as a special teams background and he could fulfill
28:04
that role. So that's all going to be worked out. So it really
28:07
feels like I don't even know why at this point they would go to just
28:12
a special teams coordinator when they have solutions for it. I think maybe it
28:18
comes down to the fact that if they can't find if Bill O'Brien leaves,
28:22
the trickle down effect of all of this, if Bill O'Brien leaves and they
28:26
can't find somebody that he trusts to hand over the play calling too, because
28:30
he said, you're not just going to hire somebody to go here you call
28:33
plays. It's got to be the right guy. You can go hire an
28:34
offensive coordinator or a quarterbacks coach, but it doesn't necessarily mean you're going to
28:40
give them the keys because they may not be the right fit. So if
28:44
Bill O'Brien leaves and they go get a coordinator or a quarterbacks coach, but
28:47
they have to keep the play calling, that takes him away from special teams,
28:51
which may force their hand a little bit, may convinced Day that his
28:55
hand has been forced to go with the special teams coordinator. But at this
29:00
point, it also feels like, as they said, this will all shake
29:04
out in about a week. We've been wondering about, you know, is
29:07
Jason Taylor still at the mix? Today is signing day? Once this is
29:11
all done, maybe then can they move forward with a new position coach or
29:17
an additional position coach. Once everything is signed and dotted in terms of the
29:21
recruits, now you're free to go basically, or people are free to leave
29:26
if they want to know. Yeah. Yeah, So that that's and it
29:30
sounded like that was probably going to get resolved. Sue an Ish. This
29:33
is not imminent, you know, imminent like today, but you know,
29:37
in the next week or two I think he I think he said like the
29:40
week, ten days something like that in terms of a timeline. So I'm
29:42
expecting news on that front, Sue and Ish. I know everyone every day
29:48
that goes by, everyone's like, why isn't there a decision yet? And
29:49
it's well, because it's January seventh, and if it's you know, when
29:53
it's January ninth. It's still not a crisis jun yet, but spring ball
29:57
is also a month away, so you do want to to get that staff
30:00
filled out. You would like to know, Hey, who's gonna be the
30:03
offensive coordinator and how is that gonna fit in? And Day was asked at
30:07
one point about you know, so when you decided to give up play calling.
30:10
He's like, well, whah, who who what? I didn't say
30:11
I've decided that. Yeah, it just it's you know, it's sort of
30:15
in the in the works. I asked him about sort of the late game,
30:21
late close game situation where, for example, Notre Dame, Notre Dame
30:26
has the ball, it's two minutes left, three minutes left, whatever it
30:30
is they're driving. You're trying to figure out when you're using your timeouts on
30:33
defense, You're trying to figure out how much time you have left. You're
30:37
trying to figure out, Okay, if and when you get the ball back
30:40
as your offense, you know, as the guy who's calling the plays,
30:41
what am I gonna call? What? How much time do I have as
30:45
the clock ticks down? How does that change what I'm gonna call? You're
30:48
trying to you're trying to do four things at once, and that's just that's
30:51
shipped impossible. You know, you can be as great a multitasker as you
30:53
want to be, as funny of studies to go, you can think you're
30:56
great at doing this, it's almost impossible to do four things well at the
31:00
same time. So for day, yes, getting that off his plate,
31:06
if it is like Bill O'Brien calling the play, sure that takes one thing
31:08
off his plate. But he made an interesting point, which is sort of
31:11
the flip side of that, where if you're deciding do I want to go
31:15
forward on fourth and two? If I'm the play caller, I know what
31:19
play I'm going to call already, and I know I have confidence in the
31:22
player. Don't if I had? You know, if I have someone else
31:25
calling plays, well, that maybe changes. Do I know that they have
31:29
a play in mind? Do I know, hey, this is something I
31:30
have a high degree of confidence in or not that That's sort of an interesting
31:34
perspective on that because I have always looked at that as a very delegated handle
31:40
your CEO kind of responsibility. But that was an interesting sort of angle to
31:44
that. Yeah, the communication needs to stay there in terms of how do
31:47
you feel about this this play because it's something where you practice all week.
31:52
This is our fourth and two or this is our two point confers, were
31:55
you prepared during the week for that? But then talking about when you when
31:57
you are calling the place, complete control. When you aren't calling the plays,
32:04
you lose that control, but you get a better perspective of the situation
32:07
as a whole. And they said, there's give and take to you,
32:10
there's pluses and minuses to both. But he did realize, he said during
32:15
the season last year, it's best for everyone if he's no longer calling plays,
32:19
which is tough for him because that's what that's like his favorite thing to
32:22
do. That's the football aspect of it. And I remember going big ten
32:27
media days in twenty nineteen. I asked several big to the head coaches,
32:30
what did you miss most about being an assistant and they said coaching, just
32:34
you know, the football aspect of it. And this is Ryan Day like
32:37
just grasping on to still being a football coach rather than a head football coach.
32:44
But he did say, I got hired for this job because of offense,
32:46
because of what the success we had on offense, that is no longer
32:50
my job. I am the head coach, so it's been interesting to watch
32:52
this growth aspect of it. And I know, after the Cotton Boll we
32:58
both said, like, we need to ask him about the conversation that we
33:00
had with Eli Drake Wetz at the same table Eli talked about was the head
33:04
coach talking about how blessed he was once he gave up play calling a day.
33:07
You know, he said, yeah, you know, it was already
33:09
decided before then, like that was that was fine, but uh, he
33:14
had come to the conclusion that it would be best if he could give up
33:16
play calling, which he has ish and is willing to do so with Bill
33:22
O'Brien. Doesn't mean he's willing to do so with the next guy, but
33:27
he wants to bring somebody in so that he can give up to play calling.
33:30
And he was asked about, you know, what he was looking for
33:32
in terms of what was he looking for in terms of filling that spot when
33:36
he hired O'Brien, is and is he going to be looking for similar stuff
33:39
if he has to replace O'Brien, And it sounds like, yeah, there
33:43
was specific stuff. Yes, that's going to be you know, you're still
33:45
trying to fill the same role, even if it's a guy with a you
33:47
know, different, different name and a different little bit of a different history.
33:51
The only other thing that I had in my mind that I wanted to
33:53
touch on was Jeremiah Smith that the last time we were in that room in
33:58
the team room talking to Ryan Day was on early sign day on December twentieth,
34:01
and Ryan Day found out in real time as during the press conference,
34:08
Jeremiah Smith held his announcement and I'm sure you probably remember, you know,
34:13
his knees kind of like buckling, like a big, big, theatrical kind
34:15
of knee buckle, and a big sigh of relief, just sort of collapsed
34:20
at the podium for a second, and you know, asked him about you
34:22
know, hey, you didn't get the actual letter of intent in until the
34:27
next morning, so you know, it was kind of he said, it's
34:30
just sort of the new world of recruiting and it's a little bit different now
34:31
than it used to be. But you know that Jeremiah Smith, all the
34:37
all the stuff you heard about Marvin Harrison in terms of focus and work ethic
34:39
and discipline and all the all the stuff that isn't like, yeah, he's
34:44
really big and can catch the football really well. All this sort of off
34:47
field stuff, soft factor stuff. You're hearing all the same stuff about Jeremiah
34:52
Smith, which you know, I don't. I don't think this is like
34:55
exclusive being must credit, but you know, I think the the optimism about
35:00
jeremiahs fast future in this building is pretty significant. Yeah, I was glad
35:04
you asked about that. They did say he's jumped right in, said he's
35:07
basically he has so much discipline, but also a ton of skill. Obviously
35:12
great approach so far. Did say signing day was crazy, you know,
35:15
waiting for that, but he's getting The point was, but you're talking about
35:19
the number one player in the country, so you kind of knew that going
35:22
in. And I'm sure Brian Heartline was confident the entire time that they were
35:25
going to get him, and maybe he even said so, he said,
35:29
so it gotten ball. The Heartline was like, yeah, we were you
35:31
know, I knew, I knew all along. They didn't didn't seem to
35:35
agree from watching it on signing day, but yeah, clearly very very happy
35:39
to have him. You know, they need him based on the losses that
35:44
they've had. So another fun room to watch in spring. There's just a
35:49
ton to talk about as Spring ball approaches and watching spring I wonder if we
35:53
get more access this spring because of the attention, and it doesn't hurt the
35:59
program. Definitely doesn't hurt the program. And I think, you know,
36:02
I mean, we have sort of been it's been indicated to us that we're
36:06
going to get coaches at some point, and we're going to get the young
36:07
guys at some point, and then spring balls only a month away. So
36:12
boy, there is a lot of excitement around this program right now. And
36:15
you know, I'm sure they want to sell out the stadium for the spring
36:16
game that because that's a that's a recruiting event you want to bring in.
36:20
You you have one hundred thousand people in your stadium for the spring game,
36:22
there's gonna be a bunch of recruits there. That's a big thing you want
36:25
to you know, you want to sell your tickets this year. Selling tickets
36:29
is not as easy as it used to be for any in person sporting event,
36:35
especially if you're trying to sell one hundred thousand, and sometimes you're playing
36:37
Akron and sometimes you're playing Western Michigan and whoever else. So yeah, I'm
36:43
expecting to have a decent amount of access to the spring, which would be
36:45
great because there's I mean, there's a lot to talk about. Was there
36:49
anything else that you while you think about that? I just want to address
36:53
a couple of things on there. We had to make a last in the
36:57
convents. We had to make a very last second shift our podcasting location do
37:00
to some technical issues inside. So we are not on a big, fancy
37:05
Kevin Noon camera. We're just on my laptop and I had already logged in
37:07
and had not bothered to change my name because it was just supposed to be.
37:10
Hey, I can read the comments here, so apologize for that.
37:13
Apologize for the avant garde camera angle. Today we'll probably be back to a
37:19
more traditional sitting on black and white. I thought about it. If I
37:22
knew where that button was, I would have done that. But yeah,
37:24
we're a little we're kind of uh tony. It's spring. It's time to
37:30
just try new things. We're gonna we're gonna shift around. You know,
37:36
something you try in the first week of February that's not necessarily gonna be this
37:38
is gonna be our style allod We're just gonna try. We're just trying to
37:42
find the best five places of the podcast right here. How about the very
37:45
last question of the press conference today, Playhaul asked Ryan Day about his son
37:49
r J getting a scholarship offer from Marshall soon you know, r J loves
37:52
football, lives and breathes football. And then I don't even know who asked
37:58
who was better, Who's the better quarterback at the stage of their lives,
38:00
RJ or Day? And as day as walking out, he said me,
38:06
which that's ten of ten, ten of ten, dadding, No, no,
38:08
it's that's that's tremendous. Yeah, you yeah, it was. There
38:13
was. If you watch the press conference, you can find the press comforts
38:15
on our YouTube channel YouTube dot com. Slash buckuy huddle. This very one,
38:19
This very one, unless you're listening on a podcast, in which case
38:22
it's a slightly different one. Either way. The you watch the it's just
38:28
half a second there at the beginning where he like just kind of catches him
38:31
up, you can tell how proud he is of his kid, because you
38:37
know, I think I think there's probably people who are got marshalled. Well,
38:40
that's not even a power of five school no, no, no,
38:43
no, no, like the percentage of a high school athlete who play college
38:47
at any level, it's either seven or nine percent. I've seen the sisiscus
38:51
and that's that includes D three and AI a juco. It is a miniscool,
38:55
minischool portion of the high school athletes who play at the college level.
39:00
So to play at the D one FBS level potentially have an offer like that
39:05
after his freshman year, you know he's they said, you know, yeah,
39:08
I was thinking there may be more to come, but you know he
39:13
is. I think Ryan Day the coach likes RJ. Day the player in
39:17
terms of work ethic. As he said, he just does it. He
39:22
just he only thinks about his football. All he wants to do is football,
39:24
obsessed with it. That's the kind of stuff that you know Jeremiah Smith
39:30
or you know Marvin Harrison. No offense to RJ. Day. He does
39:35
not have Marvin Harrison Junior's jeans. So you know that he may not he
39:40
may not turn into a top of five NFL pick where he may but having
39:45
that work ethic that makes you an attractive and you an attractive prospect, and
39:50
you know he's going to be coached up. You know he's going to understand
39:52
the offense. You're not going to have to explain stuff to him seven times.
39:54
Do you think Day will be upset when happier upset when the New Hampshire
39:59
offer comes. Rap, he's at least as good as me, at least
40:04
as good. Well, some might say that a Marshall offer is better than
40:07
New Hampshire offer. I have not studied Marshall or New Hampshire's quarterback room particularly
40:12
closely. But well, the sirens says it's no, and the siren says
40:15
it's quit in time, So I think we are done for done for the
40:19
morning guy. I do appreciate you guys all joining us on this sort of
40:23
impromptu live reaction show. We will probably do a morning show with some of
40:29
these Ryan Day clips. We can go into a little more detail and it
40:31
cut some of the coming days. I started writing down here's all the stuff
40:36
he said about quarterbacks, and it's like, boy, we could do forty
40:37
five minutes on just a quarterback position. It feels like in the coaching position
40:42
and all that kind of stuff. So we will have those shows coming up
40:45
for you very soon. Special guest appearance by Kevin nuone I. His equipment
40:50
is not working and neither is he. He always nice to have Kevin join
40:53
us. Thank you, thank you guys all for joining us. Hey,
41:00
we will talk to you tomorrow.