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5-Star WR Jeremiah Smith DOMINATING All-American Bowl · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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Welcome to buck Eyes tomorrow morning for Friday, January fifth. I'm your host,
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Tom Moore. The Akron game is in two hundred and thirty nine days.
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The game begets Michigan in three hundred and thirty days, the All American
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Game. Well, that's this weekend. And Kevin Noon and Mark Givler of
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bucke Huddle dot Com are down in San Antonio. They've been covering practices all
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week in the lead up to that game. Five buck Eyes down there right
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now that we're going to be talking about today, and there's a lot to
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talk about there. Kevin joins me from San Antonio. Kevin, I guess
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before we get into this, what exactly have you been doing down there all
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week? What do you actually get to watch them do during the week,
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and how does that compare in terms of evaluation to the actual game itself.
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No, I think the week of practice is very important because when you put
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together a game like this, all right, we bring you in a couple
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of days in advance, and we try to know these are guys who are
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not used to playing with and we're going to try and shoehorn an offensive and
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defensive scheme in there and Hopefully some of these plays work and we get to
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the game and unfortunately it ends up being fourteen to seven in a game,
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because that's just kind of what happens in All Star games. And then there
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are years that there are outliers and you get some high scoring affairs, but
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we get the opportunity to watch there's your e st squad and then there's your
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West squad, and the five players that we're really talking about are on the
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East squad, so they're all on the same they're all on the same unit,
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so we get to watch them go through some positional work. We've had
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a chance to see one on ones with like oldl with a receiver dB.
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We've been able to see seven on seven. We've been able to see eleven
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on eleven. We've been able to see seven on seven in a different way
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of where you're having a sit where it's more running back focused. It's so,
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I mean a lot of the things you see during camp season, but
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some of the stuff is not necessarily camp season. Because on I had to
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think about the day. On Wednesday, they were in full pat so they
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were out there and they were hitting. On Thursday, they were out there
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in short so it was a lot more walk through type of stuff, but
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for evaluation purposes, it's very valuable. Unfortunately, we're kind of at the
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end of the line in terms of their evaluation. Most of these kids are
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signed, most of their star rankings may as well be final. But it's
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a great opportunity and for the recruit nixt I mean, this is where a
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lot of that information comes out of. And one other way in which it's
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kind of different than the summer camp season, and the summer camp season is
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really really valuable opportunities for us to watch a lot of these guys in person,
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and you're a little earlier in the cycle, so a lot of those
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guys are uncommitted or trying to earn it offer a year or more in advance,
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So that's a little bit different in that way. This is a little
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bit different in that it's not just the two really good guys and then also
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three hundred other kids. This is the All American game, so you know,
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there are a couple of these who it's not every single one of the
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top recruits in the nation, but it's a lot of the top recruits in
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the nation, and you're getting pretty good, you know, good on good
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reps on this as well. So when someone dominates this setup, that kind
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of tells you something. And in rather unsurprising news, it sounds kevin like
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Jeremiah Smith, the number one player in the closse of twenty twenty four and
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Ohio state wide receiver signe is apparently dominating the entire scene yet again this week.
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Yeah, I mean, when it's good on good, we're certainly talking
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about good on good with with Jeremiah Smith. And I've had the opportunity through
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the years to cover a lot of recruiting events and even been at some of
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the top one hundred camps where you have a mix of seniors and juniors and
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a guy gets beat on a drill and he's like, oh, I'm kind
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of done with this and goes to the back of the line and hides over
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there. But we Jeremiah Smith has really kind of victimized all comers when it
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comes to trying to defend him. All of all of the skills that made
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him the number one recruit in most of the services are all there. I
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mean, he's tall, he's long, he's fast, I mean he's got
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a giant catch radius, and he's super competitive. I mean, it's not
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a case of you can sit there and look at him and he's just kind
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of got this good natured smile on his face. A lot of times it's
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like, oh, he's going to let up here, and he just doesn't
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let up. I mean, that ball is his. Every time that ball
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is in the air, that ball is going to be his. And he's
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just built different. He's just built different. And it has nothing to do
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with the physical as attributes. I mean, it's a mindset. He really,
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really really puts a lot into his craft. And dare I say,
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we saw somebody else that put a lot and a lot in their craft and
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wore out a Monarch machine and they had to get a new Monarch machine because
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of that. See, I see some similarities in terms of mindset between Marvin
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Harrison Junior and Jeremiah Smith and not I hate I hate doing comps. I
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never do comps because it's just not fair to anybody. But I'm doing a
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comp there because I think, at least in terms of mindset they are,
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they're very similar. But I'm gonna hate myself for this one, but I'm
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gonna say it too, you know. I just I think that Jeremiah Smith
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is more physically gifted, So I think that that's what makes things you know
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so much so much more crazy for what the future can hold. So,
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now now that I've completely and said said that Jeremiah Smith should have been a
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ten star, get me off of this topic before I have to before I
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say anything else I may regret. Well, I was going to chastise you
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for making irresponsible comps, but then I also kind of wanted to ask you
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about other previous Ohio state wide receivers you've seen at these types of events in
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the past, because obviously you've been this is not your first rodeo there,
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and I don't remember back you know, was Garrett Wilson at one of these?
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Or was Marvin Harrison or was Chris A. Lovey? Have you covered
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other Ohio state wide receivers to sort of have a baseline for what guys typically
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look like in this type of setting. I have, I mean, maybe
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not the names that you mentioned there, but I've certainly seen Jackson Smith and
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Jigba in a high school setting I've seen I've seen Cornell Tate and Brandon Ennis
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on the camp settings I've seen, you know, I've seen Terry McLaurin.
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I've seen, I've seen Paris Campbell, I've seen I mean, I could
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go with Johnny Dixon. I've seen a lot of these guys. I mean.
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One of the things I'll say, through all the years that I've worked
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with Mark Givler, through various stops, we are not afraid to travel.
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And if you won't come to Columbus to a camp, and not many camps
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in Columbus outside of Ohio States camps, we will go and find you.
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So we have been to Texas, and we have been to Georgia, and
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we have been to Florida and have seen these types of guys before. And
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Jeremiah Smith, I mean, and I'm not even saying my words here.
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Mark Gibler has has made comments too about just him being maybe the best I
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mean, certainly best high school receiver that he has seen. I mean,
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and you have to kind of put him in there in the freaks list of
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the best high school prospect you've ever seen, because he's there, and you
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know, sometimes it's it's very easy to get lost in the comparison between a
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really talented wide receiver and an a grown man defensive end or something like that,
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and how do you know the growth of the defensive end who's all rocked
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up and it just looks, you know, looks like he's thirty. I
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mean, maybe that stands out more than Jeremiah Smith, who you know,
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certainly is you know, he's tall and he's long, and he's fast and
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everything else. But you see a lot of tall, tall, long,
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fast receivers through the years, but maybe not as talented. But yeah,
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I would say that Jeremiah really, you know, again, at risk of
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gushing too much, is just different. All right. So that is at
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Kevin Underscore noon on Twitter if you want to yell at him about all the
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irresponsible things he just said, or tell him how excited you are about all
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the things he just said. Either way, the address is the same.
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So there you go. I had nothing to do with any of the predeceeding
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segment other than just asking me question. If you don't like what I'm saying,
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I'm at tom or for I just I just put the ball on the
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tee. You're the one who swung the club. I'm not. I'm not
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here to set any sort of irresponsible expectations for anyone. Let's talk though,
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next up about James, People's running back who did not have to go very
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far for this week's All American Game festivities. He is someone who I always
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am a little hesitant on exactly how much to judge running backs in that sort
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of camp setting, you know, drill work, that kind of stuff.
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But he is someone who just physically looks like he's ready to play college football
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today. Absolutely, And you know you want you want to get him in
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the weight room and you want to be able to do some things, but
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his trunk, his lower body, no, he just looks different than the
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other backs here. And I don't even really this is how focused I am
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on the Ohio state side of things. I don't know who anybody else is
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at the camp, would be quite honest, because I went from the Cotton
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Bowl to the All American Bowl and that's that's where I'm at. But he
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just has a different look. And I mean I haven't necessarily scouted the West
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team. We've been focused primarily one on the East. But he just has
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this this strong lower body, and I think he's somebody who certainly can should
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come in and be very much in the mix. At the time that we're
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recording this, we do not have official word on Trevion Henderson, But what
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does Ohio State's running back room look like without Trey? I mean they're going
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to need all hands on deck and maybe somebody through portal with Trey. I
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mean, does people doesn't come in any lower than third in my opinion with
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with with Hinderson and with Dallan Hayden. Uh, coming back on on on
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the roster, but we also know that Ohio State seems at times to have
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moments where it will play freshman backs and where it won't. I mean,
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I guess if you're JK. Dobbins, it's cool. If you're Dalan Hayden,
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we'll see. But uh, People's has that that look. And I
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mean I was talking to somebody on text message while I was supposed to be
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watching practice, but they were just doing a lot of walking around today.
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He's like, I'd feel a lot better if he were like two oh five.
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I'm like, no, I wouldn't. I mean, you know,
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I think that I think that he's got a he's got a good body and
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of what he's doing, and he doesn't necessarily need to be you know,
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a short fullback or anything like that. I mean, don't you know let's
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let let's see what they got there. I mean, I'm sure Strength and
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Conditioning has a plan for what they want him to be at, what they
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want him to play at, and I don't think that they're going to have
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to do a ton of reshaping with him to get him to the point where
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they want him at come August. And however, many days as it was,
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you saidt the beginning of the show for the Acron game. All right,
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now, let's move on to the position I think of maybe the most
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concern for Ohio State fans right now, and that is the offensive line.
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The Buckeyes have brought in one potential transfer offensive lineman from Troy. He's already
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been in. They're bringing in Alabama's center a little later on this week,
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so they are very actively pursuing folks in the portal to bolster that offensive line.
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They've got a pretty deep class this year, and the star of that
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offensive line class is Ian Moore. He is out of the state of Indiana,
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so we have not seen him in person a ton outside of camp settings.
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You have gotten to see him a bunch this week. Obviously. The
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stipulation upfront is you never expect a player to come in and be a starter
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year one. So this is more of a twenty twenty five twenty twenty six
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kind of question. But how is Ian Moore looking this week down in San
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Antonio, right? I mean when Michael Jordan started as a true freshman for
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Ohio State, that was a big deal. And that's just not the norm,
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even even when there is the need if you I mean, you can
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sit there and really mess a kid up if you throw him out there too
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quick and he's not ready. I think one of the big questions to Ian
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Moore is what is his position? He's been repping at guard here. I
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think Ohio State sees him as a tackle. I mean he's looked good at
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guard. I mean again, we are not necessarily seeing true game action.
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We saw eleven on eleven full scrimmage on Wednesday. I will I'll feel better
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once I get to watch the game off of the DVR and see a little
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bit and be able to play a couple of plays back. But you know,
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big kid, I mean seems to seems to move pretty well. Not
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that you're necessarily getting to showcase that in guard where you're playing in space.
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I think the move to tackle is there for him if that's you know,
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if that's what is decided upon, and he was certainly recruited at as a
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tackle a lot of times at these type of games, you're trying to make
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sure that you have the right configurations to where you can get everybody on the
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field in positions that bit. I mean, I go back a couple of
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years ago and George Fitzpatrick was playing out of position when when he was here
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for you know, representing Ohio State, and it just kind of is what
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it is with that. But I think that they have themselves quite defined there,
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and when you couple them with the Armstrong twins, you know, I
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think it's a pretty solid class. And then of course you have a gay
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Van Sickle, who is a guard tackle type of guy playing against smaller competition
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up in the state of Michigan. I think, you know, I think
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he's the one that has got the boom bust type of potential. And I
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never liked associating the word bust with kids that I cover. That's just,
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you know, that's a tough thing to do. But you know that that
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could end up going down as a tremendous find or it could be like,
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well, didn't necessarily work out, So you know, we'll see that.
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But you know, I've been I've been impressed with more and he's not one
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of these three hundred and seventy pounders that's going to UGA. I mean,
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you know, you sit there and you you look at him compared to some
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of these other guys that are there, and it's like, oh, he's
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he's a little small, and it's like, no, he's not really that
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small. There are just some dudes there that are enormous. Yeah, and
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Ohio State has seemingly sort of made a point of recruiting the more athletic and
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not so much of the just enormous road grater type offensive lineman. That is
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an intentional sort of stylistic choice for the program over the last couple of years.
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So we will see how Ian Moore develops over the next couple of years.
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On the other side of the ball, you've got a little bit clearer
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path to the field as a true freshman, potentially, especially if you are
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someone who is like Edric Houston, who is a five star two hundred and
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seventy pounds already on the big side, already seemingly probably a little more physically
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developed in terms of coming in as a defense end for the Buckeyes. He's
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someone who we have not heard yet officially on JT. Twey Molowow or Jack
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Sawyer. We did yesterday's show and we're talking about the fact we were sort
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of expecting those guys back, and as of the time of recording, they
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have the top four defensive ends from this year's team already back. So is
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Edric Houston someone who you see as someone who might be able to get on
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the field in some form in twenty twenty four or is he maybe a year
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away now. I think he's somebody who's immediately in the mix because I think
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Ohio State is at its best when it is rotating guys. I mean,
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I think that it's important to have your best guys out there in those high
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leverage positions, at least at first until your young guys have had the opportunity
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to do some things like that. But I think that when I look at
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Ohio State's rotation, I think Edric is going to be right there again in
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the in the camp, in the camp circuit, and and I consider this
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just kind of the culmination of the camp circuit. You don't necessarily get to
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see everything. When you're at a normal camp, no bull rush, no
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bull rush, you know, the power guys don't necessarily get to show everything
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that they're all about. I mean, I think Edric can knock you over,
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and I think Edric can run around you. I think that he's kind
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of got the full situation going on there. I watched him kind of just
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you know, having a little horse play with Ohio State linebacker commit to Garrett
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Stover, and he was messing around with Ian Moore. I mean, first
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of all, is he's funny. I never really had a chance to talk
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to him. When Mark and I went down to Buford several months ago,
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I spoke to a couple other players. Mark got to speak to Edric and
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it was like after a spring game and not really a joking moment, but
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god, he was cracking jokes, making fun of James, people's being short
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and stuff like that. So, I mean, I think he's going to
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be a well like kid in the locker room, I guess unless he's making
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fun of you. But outside of that, he's going to well like kid
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there. But I think he's gonna be well liked by the coaches because he
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is. I mean there's a reason he's a five star. They don't hand
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out five stars like candy. And he's earned it. He's earned it,
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I mean, just with all of his his abilities. And I think that
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just being able to get in and and not only work with the coaches.
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I mean, you get to work with the coaches X amount of times,
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but you know he's going to get to work with guys and hopefully if you're
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an iiO State fan Jax Owyer and JT. Tuomoloou work with him on hands
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and some things like that. I think as he's able to put some more
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weapons into his arsenal, I mean, he could be downright scary. Now.
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Of course, Ohio State has this unrealistic expectation of, well, are
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you the next Bosa Bosa or young We. I don't think anybody really knew
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what Ohio State had in its first Bosa or even in young I mean,
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I think everybody kind of had an expectation for Nick because they'd seen Joey.
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You don't know necessarily when that's going to strike. But I think that Edric
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is one of the more talented defensive ends that I've seen in the last decade
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plus. All Right, and Finally, you mentioned Garrett Stover. Of course,
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the younger cousin of Kid Stover. Kid Stover in high school played safety,
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he played running back, and those were just about the only two places
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he did not play as a Buck Guy. If I remember correctly, he
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went tight end, defensive end, linebacker, back to tight end at the
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end of his career. Garrett Stover sounds like he's going to start his career
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as a Buck Guy as a linebacker. He didn't he play safety in high
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school. I mean, he's he's sort of following the same you know,
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you're going to bulk up, you're going to be playing a little closer to
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the line of scrimmage. He's sort of following the same general path as Kate,
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as his cousin Kid, though maybe with fewer twists and turns on the
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way no one. I think one of the things with Garrett that you have
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to remember too is he's learning a new position. I mean, he has
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had the opportunity of Big Walnut to play linebacker, but he also has a
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lot of experience playing and while there's some things that obviously, you know,
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football's football, and some things carry over, I mean, there are different
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responsibilities at each position, and certainly at each level and moving down a level
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to linebacker, there are going to be some things there. He's been he's
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been kind of a sponge. He's been talking a lot to the coaches about
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you know, they go through a drill and it's like, okay, and
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you know, I can't necessarily hear what's being said, and that's not necessarily
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for me to get in and try and listen. I'd probably be scored it
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off the premises if I were getting into the huddle in the first place.
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But you know, I think that he's making the most of this situation and
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trying to get as much knowledge before he reports here in a couple of days,
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with January seventh being the big report date for the for the early enrollies.
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But you I think one of the biggest things that he has got to
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learn is he is so hyper aggressive on the field. And that's not hyper
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aggressive and like you know, violent tendencies and anything like that. It's hyper
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aggressive and over pursuit. And I think that he's got to learn, you
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know, once he gets to Ohio State, what his role is, what
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you know, what is what are the expectations not go out there and try
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and make every play, because a lot of times you go to a school
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and you see the best player out there is trying to make every play,
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because that's just kind of how it works. And you know he's going to
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be around ten other guys who were like probably the best player on their team
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as well, and it's all kind of have to fit together. But I've
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been very impressed with Garrett, and I'll tell a story that I was talking
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to Mark about. I have tried on every instance on this trip to talk
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to Garrett Stover, just because I know how much Cad Stover hated talking to
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us. So if I can get in and at least normalize relationships with Garrett,
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I've got maybe six seven months before I get completely shut out. It'll
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be fun when we'll hopefully get to talk to him and the rest of the
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early enrolies at some point after they show up, as you said, they're
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expected to show up on Sunday to seventh, and then hopefully sometimes usually we
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get a chance to talk to those guys pit towards the end of February,
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at the end of January early February, as they start to start going through
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offseason conditioning, and then heading into springball and oh boy, we are turning
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the calendar over yet again. It is a new season, a new year
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of Ohio State football, and the best place to follow along with all of
21:12
that is it Buckeye Huddle dot com. Kevan and Mark and Tony and Ross
21:17
and Justin and Devin and Mickey everyone there making you a smarter football fan.
21:22
Covering the team, covering recruiting, covering the excess, and o's really fun
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active board as well. Lots of stuff to talk about this week with the
21:29
transfer portal and NFL Draft decisions coming up and much much more. That's all
21:33
at bucke huddle dot com, and I will also plug they have Mark.
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Kevin and Mark have done some really really good interviews down there in San Antonio
21:42
that you can find on our YouTube channel at YouTube dot com slash bucke Huddle.
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I will put in a special plug for the James Peoples one that was
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a great interview. But check all that content out at YouTube dot com slash
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Buckeye Huddle. That will do it for today. Thank you guys all for
21:55
joining us. Have a great day. We will talk to you tomorrow.