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Two Top Linemen Ohio State Could Target In The Transfer Portal · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Welcome to Buckeyes tomorrow morning for Tuesday, November twenty eighth. I'm your host,
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  Tom Moore. The game against Michigan is in three hundred and sixty eight
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  days, but well before that Michigan game, and maybe even before the Buckeyes
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  play their next game wherever that may be, for bowlseason, they might be
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  doing a little shopping in the transfer portal. Tis the season to you know,
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  pack the malls and do your shopping and you know, maybe make a
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  little bit of a wish list. We're gonna be making a little bit of
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  wishless for the Buckeyes in terms of what they might be looking for in the
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  transfer portal this offseason. And a couple interesting names already popped up in the
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  portal, a couple of Ohio natives who might fit what the Buckeyes are looking
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  for at a couple different spots. We're talking about that with Mark Gifler of
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  buckey Huddle dot Com. Mark, let's talk about the first name that popped
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  up. That was Carter Smith. He is a Central Ohwaii, Ohio native,
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  started twelve games as a red shirt freshman, but when Tom Allen hit
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  the unemployment line, Carter Smith hit the portal. That certainly seems like that
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  might be a good fit for a IIOW state. Yeah, this one's going
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  to be interesting. There had been no contact directly with Carter as of this
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  evening here, as of a Monday evening, but I know Ohio States looking
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  into this. They're already doing their homework on this one. His brother's actually
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  a walk on in Columbus right now, So there's there's a family tie there
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  that they can kind of, you know, uses the go between. Not
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  that they need to now they can directly contact them in the portal, but
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  they can kind of, you know, use the family tie there to their
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  advantage. This was not a kid they offered out of high school. Was
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  it was a very was a highly recruited kid. It was one of the
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  top maybe twenty twenty five players in Ohio coming out of high school. Ohio
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  State did not offer. That was essentially a greg'st Dwara decision. So the
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  fact that they've kind of changed offensive line coaches in the last two years I
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  think helps as well. Uh, they're not necessarily dealing with the same person
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  who did all the most of the evaluating in high school. They're not dealing
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  with maybe the same person who you know, shunned him for lack of a
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  better word, and and now snubbed him whatever you want to put it.
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  So so they're not you know, there's maybe there's no animosity there toward toward
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  h the current regime or anything like that. So there's some things that make
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  this interesting. I started left tackle, played pretty well this year, can
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  play guard as well, and it's one of those deals where it would make
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  a lot of sense from Ohio States and to bring in a couple of offensive
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  linemen this this off season to to push some competition. I mean, we
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  talked about the offensive line so much in the spring, and and when when
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  Ryan Day comes out basically this fall and says, yeah, there's no one
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  in the twos other than maybe Luke Montgomery who's really you know, pushing for
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  playing time or pushing in his starters, that's that's a little bit alarming.
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  So this would this would be interesting. And there's a lot of moving parts
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  here for Ohio State. You've got, you know, is Donovan Jackson coming
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  back. That could change the math one way or the other. If Donovan
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  Jackson does not come back, Carter Smith again plays the left side, you
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  could put him at left tackle. You could kick Simmons to right, you
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  could move Friar inside, you could or you could plug, or you could
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  keep the tackles as they are. Carter Smith plays left guard, and then
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  maybe Luke Montgomery plays right guard. Does the Paris Johnson thing in the year
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  two. So this would make a lot of sense in terms of getting giving
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  them some flexibility and also giving them a proven commodity. He's got three years
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  to play three. This is not a rental. He's got three years of
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  eligibility left. Yeah, so this could be a little bit of a Josh
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  Simmons situation where you bring him in and you know, year one, you
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  know, Josh Simmons was an immediate impact player for them, got a lot
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  better as the court as the first season went along, and you figure he's
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  gonna fit somewhere on the line in his second year, and yeah, you've
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  got an another couple of years with Carter Smith. That seems like that might
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  be a pretty good opportunity for them. And if you if the name sounds
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  sort of vaguely familiar, actually had him on the Morning show several years ago
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  back during COVID. He wrote a really, really well written piece about how
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  the NCAA was. You know, I'm going to simplify this and just say
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  really kind of hosing high school recruits by not letting anyone visit campuses and really
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  making making life unnecessarily difficult for a lot of a lot of recruits. Back
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  then at him on the Morning Show a couple of years ago to talk about
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  that, and then he ended up going to Indiana. But we'll see,
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  We'll see where he ends up after that. Another Ohio native, Zeke Correll,
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  he ended up at Notre Dame three year starter for the Irish. He
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  is now in the portal as well, and he played center last year for
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  them. Mark, Is that correct? I mean that that feels like that's
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  another spot where ohivested had Carson Hinsman, and you figure Carson Hinsman is getting
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  better next year, but having another body there that you know, is a
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  proven veteran guy who has played at a relatively high level, that seems like
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  that might be another another addition worth exploring for the Buckeyes as well. Yeah,
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  it does would certainly make sense to explore it. A very different situation
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  than Carter Smith, and in a lot of ways, Zeke was actually offered
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  by Ohio State coming out of high school and was a guy they they really
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  liked and wanted to get. They were not able to land him. And
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  again that was under Greg's jawara, So there's no you know, bad feelings
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  there toward towards Justin Frye. He was not the offensive line coach ot Ohio
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  State at the time, so kind of a reset button there. The difference
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  obviously we talked about the difference there with with the recruiting aspect, but the
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  difference of on field is this is kind of like a graduate player, So
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  you're talking about a one year kind of plug in stop gap. You're also
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  talking about a guy who's pretty strictly an interior guy. Could he you know,
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  could he fill a guard spot? I think that's possible, But would
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  you be bringing him in to compete with Carson Hintsman at center? So I
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  think again, I'll give you a little bit of flexible, but he's he's
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  pure interior. And again, does Donovan Jackson leave? Does that change anything?
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  Or are you looking at z Correll? That's kind of the first decision
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  they have to make. Are we looking at z Correll as a guard or
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  are we looking at Z correll As again a center to push Hinsman because maybe
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  we're not thrilled with how that played out this year. But some different questions
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  there than you have with Carter Smith, some different dynamics at play there.
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  But another guy that I think they'll at least do their research on and and
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  consider contacting. Yeah, and the only thing that's like a sure thing right
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  now is that Matt Jones has done. Matt Jones will be off to greener
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  pastors after this season. Anything else, as you mentioned, Donovan Jackson could
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  go, could come back. You could move Josh Fryer into guard, that
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  could open up a spot of tackle. You could put Loke Montgomery gard.
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  I mean, there's a million different pieces you could sort of shuffle around here,
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  having a few more pieces to try and make the puzzle fit together pretty
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  neatly. Just yeah, that seems like another one that might fit somewhere in
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  that mix. Something to keep an eye on for sure. Offensive line not
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  the only spot where the Buck guys could be doing a little portaling this offseason.
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  Where else do you see them potentially looking to find you? You know,
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  you're not going to bring in forty guys like Colorado did. Last offseason.
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  But you know they've been generally pretty selective. You pick five guys something
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  like that, five six, Maybe maybe it's more this year. But where
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  else do you see them looking to maybe potentially add someone in the portal this
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  offseason? Yeah, you almost have to categorize this as needs and wants.
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  You know, if if a superstar becomes available at like wide receiver, like
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  someone like Evan Stewart from Texas A and M has come up as a possible
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  portal guy, I think a caliber player of that caliber, even at receiver,
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  you would take a look at. But you know, for the purposes
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  of kind of what we're talking about here, I think kay maybe lean toward
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  more toward the needs right now. Again, definitely some offensive lineman at least
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  one, maybe two, depending how things shake out. I know they want
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  to push the competition in that room this offseason and they which is really needed
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  in my opinion. And then you look at the defensive line who's coming back
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  because if they lose a bunch of guys to the NFL early, you need
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  a defensive tackle probably, you may need a pass rusher, you made it,
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  You may need an edge guy. I'll throw out another position linebacker.
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  Uh if if Cody's if Cody Simon doesn't come back, you've just lost your
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  top three linebackers in a room that's not super deep to begin with. You
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  know, Rvel Reese is probably you know, going to stay on the outside.
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  Uh. I think they'd be interested in a linebacker. And you know,
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  even in the secondary, I know, again, who what's gonna shake
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  out there? I think they're probably pretty happy with corner to an extent,
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  But if Jordan Hancock leaves, you're gonna need it. You may you may
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  be looking for a nickel guy, and you may be looking for a safety
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  anyway, just because of all the stuff you're losing back there. So I
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  think all three levels of the defense will get a look, and whether it's
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  a need or a want will probably be determined by who goes early to the
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  NFL. Yeah. I mean, theoretically, they could lose their four starting
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  defensive linemen. You could lose your three starting linebackers. You're gonna lose Josh
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  Proctor. You could lose you know, you're probably losing Denzel Burke. You
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  could lose Jordan Hancock. I mean you could you could really pretty much be
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  completely overhauling the defense, and you know, there is certainly some young talent
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  there. But I go back to the year after Pete Werner and Tough Borland
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  and who was with Emlie Harrison, they all left, and all of a
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  sudden it was okay, well, you know, you've got all these guys
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  who've been waiting for for years, and it was kvon Pope and Dallas Gant
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  and someone else, and you know, and it just that didn't work at
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  all. So you kind of had this sort of lost year. And you
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  know, you've seen enough from some of the guys, younger guys behind them
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  that it's probably not going to be quite that, but you don't know what
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  you got until they have to do it, you know, when the bullets
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  are flying for real. So yeah, definitely an interesting and interesting conversation.
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  There a lot of possibilities. You're obviously not going to be able to add,
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  you know, your whole defense from there. You're not going to add,
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  you know, fifteen guys from the portal. But it may be more
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  of a more of an aggressive portal season for Ohio State than we've seen in
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  the past, So we'll be keeping an eye on that for you at Buckey
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  huddle dot Com. Early Signing Day coming up in what just over three weeks.
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  December twentieth is early signing Day this year. Buck guys have to wrap
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  up their twenty twenty four class probably around that point, and there are are
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  lots of big names to watch. Can the Buckeyes get Dispatuela out. Can
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  the Buckeyes keep other people from getting dispatchel out on them making a couple of
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  last minute flips. It's gonna be a lot of drama this December. As
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  we'll be following that. I'm guessing this will not be the last time you
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  hear from Mark and the next week or so as we talk recruiting, talk,
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  transfer portal, and much more. They're also planning to have Ross Fulton
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  on a litter later on in the week and talk a little bit about what
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  he saw, what he learned during that Michigan game, from the hoisted offense,
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  HIGHSTDID defense, and much more. Let it later on tonight, we'll
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  be just watching the College Football Playoff Selection show with you, Kevin Tony and
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  I. Watching that, we'll find out a lot more about where the Buckeyes
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  stand in those rankings, how far are they going to drop it? Shouldn't
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  be that far. Right, after losing to number three on the road in
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  the last minute, you wouldn't think they'd go plumbting down the rankings. But
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  we'll find out exactly how much help they will need this weekend if they want
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  to sneak in the back door to the college football playoff week again this year
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  like they did last year, and much much more. You can get us
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  all find all of that content and much more at buckey huddle dot com.
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  That will do it for today. Thank you guys all for joining us.
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  Have a great day. I'll talk to you tomorrow.