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Has Ohio State Answered All Of Its Questions On The Offensive Line? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Welcome to Buck Eyes tomorrow morning from Monday, April fifteenth. I'm your host,
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  Tom Moore. The Akron game in one hundred and thirty eight days,
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  the ambiates Michigan in two hundred and twenty nine days, The High State spring
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  game now in the books. The Buckeyes wrapped up spring practice on Saturday in
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  the Horseshoe in front of eighty thousand people. Have pretty solid day overall.
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  Turnovers that are a little bit of a concern for the defense for the offense,
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  but defense has to be feeling pretty good good about that. Nice runs
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  for the offense. The defense may be a little bit of concern there,
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  but overall a lot to feel good about for Ohio State fans on the day
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  and also just looking forward towards this fall. So on today's show, you're
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  going to be hearing directly from Ohio State head coach Ryan Day, some of
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  his thoughts on the spring, some of his thoughts on the spring game,
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  and much more. Let's start with the quarterback position, obviously always one of
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  the big storylines this year, maybe especially so. Buck guys have five scholarships
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  quarterbacks heading out of the spring. One of them, the transfer quarterback will
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  Howard from Kansas State. What kind of growth has Brian Day seen of Will
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  Howard through those fifteen practices this spring. Yeah, I think the pocket presence
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  is something that was there early on when when you know he got in the
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  spring practice, we were able to see that. That's that's something that is
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  difficult to teach, that your eyes are downfield but you're feeling the rush.
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  It does help when you're you know, north of six four and but he
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  stands in there, you can see that, and so, you know,
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  I just think that over the spring, the timing is increasing. It's getting
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  better over and over again. I think the more reps that that, you
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  know, all these guys get, the better. But it looks like I
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  guess, you know, during that drive, he had some nice completions in
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  there, and I think there was a sack in there. It'd be held
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  on a little too long and and wind was blowing pretty hard today, and
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  so I think we undered, threw a couple of balls. But but but
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  overall, I thought he had at least, you know, I had a
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  good comfort level for the first drive in the shoe. After the game,
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  Ryan Day was asked what he was feeling best about heading out of the spring.
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  Now he's going to talk about a bunch of stuff. I just wanted
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  you to just take a moment as he's talking to listen to how many different
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  things he talks about and how long this answer is. That might give you
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  some indication how Ohio State fans should probably be feeling heading out of the spring
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  as well. I would say, you know, our experience just a bunch
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  of guys who played a whole bunch of football. You know, today,
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  I think there was you know, about ten players who came up and wanted
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  more snaps today and you know, but look at next year is a long
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  run and there's a lot of guys out there who have played a lot of
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  football, some of them you know, well over a thousand snaps. And
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  you know, the number one thing and something like this is is to stay
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  stay healthy. I mean, you want to get good work in there the
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  best you can, but you got to stay healthy. It's too important.
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  There's too much invested in these players now more than ever, and so you
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  know, I feel like, you know, we had to get those guys
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  out of there, but I think these guys have played a lot of football.
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  When you look at our defense, Uh, you look at the back
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  end, you look at the you know, the front, and then those
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  linebackers. I mean, it's it's a good looking group and you saw that
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  all spring. They're flying around, they're getting it and they all want to
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  play more and show off in this game. But you know that's that's our
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  job as coaches to kind of hold them back. But you can see a
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  lot of the talent out there. I thought the corners really did a nice
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  job of covering. You saw the guys get some you know, get some
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  pressures on on the quarterback. I think on on the offensive side, you
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  know, you see again guys like a Mecca who have been out there before,
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  and then Donovan Jackson and you know, so there is experience about both
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  running backs. You know. You know, I thought all the running backs,
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  you know, did a nice job today. You know, certainly for
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  James and Sam getting the first opportunity to get tackled was good. We'll look
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  at the film because that is different, you know. And but you know,
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  I think our we have some real good playmakers on the perimeter. So
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  I mean I can kind of go on and on. But you know,
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  again, I guess if you said the number one thing it would probably be
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  our experience and game mentioned off the top of the show, the Buck guys
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  have five scholarship quarterbacks. They all played quite a bit during that spring game
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  on Saturday for some of the younger ones, Lincoln keen Holes or Noel and
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  Juliet saying it seemed at times like maybe the Buck guys were trying to keep
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  things a little more simple and maybe push the veterans a little bit more than
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  they did that with the younger guys. So was that plan was that the
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  plan was that the the idea to keep things maybe a little bit simpler for
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  the younger guys to help them maybe build some confidence. Well you try to
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  get into a rhythm, you know, for them just to get some completions
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  because it all is happening fast and and that's kind of how it works.
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  You know, when you're doing everything for the first time, you know,
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  there's certain things that you're learning and you're growing, and you just you want
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  to make things easy for them. But but again, you know, they
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  was I don't know what the win ended up being, but I mean it
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  was it was gusting pretty good in there, and so you know, all
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  it takes is a little bit of a you know, Gusta winn and it's
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  it's in the DB's hands and that can that can rattle your confidence. So
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  to your point, you know, try to get an own rythm a little
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  bit. It did try to push the ball down a little bit down the
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  field, but probably could have done it a little bit more, but wanted
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  to get the ball out in space to our guys. And and like you
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  said, but I think overall, with all the guys, I guess we
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  were thirty seven of fifty seven, but we did have the three interceptions,
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  so so I think we at least got some good you know snaps on film
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  that was good. And I guess we ran it forty nine times, so
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  there will be a lot of film to watch and grow from. But we
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  want to be able to some of those those passes, you know, those
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  are those are like long hand offfs for us. You know, we want
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  to stretch the field horizontally and then we want to stretch the field vertically.
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  And you know, we didn't get as much of an opportunity that today,
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  but there were a couple of play action passes where they kind of ran out
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  of there. We checked it down and made good yardage on it. For
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  most of the Urban Meyer era, the quarterback run was a staple of the
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  Ohio State offense, maybe sometimes to the point Wheal High State fans kind of
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  are enough QB power. Well for the last three years with c Stroud and
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  then Kyle mccortd as the starters, that has kind of gone to the back
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  burner a little bit. So this year, now the five scholarship guys they've
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  got on the roster, all five of them can run, all fairly mobile
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  to one degree or another. So how much more QB run are we going
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  to see this season? And you can see, you know, like Air
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  I think had three carries for twenty five, Devin three for twenty four,
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  and so you know, Lincoln I think had sixteen yards rushing. So you
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  know, when you have a quarterback who can run, it does change the
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  numbers, as we all know. You know, you guys have seen that
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  over the years, and it's going to be a weapon for us this year
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  because all of our quarterbacks are athletic enough to do that. The quarterbacks were
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  obviously the single biggest story in terms of position battles on the offense this spring,
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  but the right side of that offensive line. That was kind of a
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  lingering story as well. It felt like they maybe were feeling pretty decent about
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  the center position, and it felt like you maybe saw some stability there at
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  the right tackle position. Is Ryan Day feeling Does Brian Day think he's got
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  a good feel for what the right side of that offensive line is going to
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  look like this fall? No? No, no, I don't think we're
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  there right now. But again, like you said, kind of watch this
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  film and then go back, I'll evaluate the entire springing and then kind of
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  see where to go from there. For most of the back half of springball,
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  we saw Josh Fryer pretty solidly, always with the ones, not not
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  exclusively, but almost always when we saw the ones, Josh Fryer was there
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  at right tackle. So does Day feel like they've got right tackle solved now
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  with Fryar and they just need to find a right guard or is it maybe
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  more complicated than that. Now, this is another interesting answer because the strong
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  implication here he doesn't say it, but the strong implication here is, you
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  know, maybe they're leaving the door open to finding either a guard or a
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  tackle in the portal, and then if they find a tackle, well you
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  might just move Josh Fryer inside. Well, we know that Josh can play
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  the right tackle and he's done that before. But we want to find the
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  best five. We feel like Josh is one of our best five. You
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  know, if if we can figure that part of it out, that'd be
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  great. He has played a little bit of guard, but he's also played
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  tackle, So the goal is to find our best five. The Ohio State
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  defense is broadly expected to be one of the very best in the nation this
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  fall. They felt like they lived up to that expectation for much of the
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  spring. That put the real put a real test out there for the Ohio
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  State offense. So they were able to lean on the quarterback run at times
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  during the spring to move the ball, and you saw that again during the
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  spring game on Saturday. But when you're looking at the quarterback run, how
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  do you make sure you can use that quarterback run without becoming overly reliant on
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  it. Yeah, I think that's the thing here right now is you know,
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  you feel like if you can if you can stop you know, the
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  running game, you feel like you're doing a pretty good job. If you
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  feel like you know you can pass on our dvs, you're doing a pretty
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  good job. If you feel like you can cover some of our receivers,
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  you know you're doing a good job. So so this is back and forth
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  on a daily basis, and it's great competition, you know, individually going
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  against really good players, but also against a great unit on defense and a
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  great unit on offense. But you know there are ways, like in particular
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  today, you know, we were doing some open side reading of the defensive
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  end, and if the defense decides they're going to crash it and make the
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  quarterback run the ball, then then that's their decision. Now we also know
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  that if that's going on too much, we know ways to handle that,
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  whether it's bringing a tight end over to block them, to make sure the
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  running backs are getting enough carries. So it just depends on the design of
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  the play. And today that's what happened. But you know, we have
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  ways to adjust to that based on if we're going to a game plan.
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  We've talked a whole bunch of this spring about how good the second area is
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  and Davis Nigbunosen and Denzel Burke and Lathan Ransom and Jordan Hancock and Caleb Downs
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  and oh boy, you know what an incredible group of starters. They have
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  the depth there. It is pretty darn good as well. Jermaine Matthews,
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  you saw him come on and make his be a strong player for the Buckeyes
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  towards the end of last year. He's now taking on presumably even a bigger
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  role in a backup role this year. And you all also have seen some
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  real growth out of Calvin Simpson Hunt. He was a pretty highly touted recruit,
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  some very flashy track numbers ian rolled last summer, and you saw him
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  already starting to make a push for more playing time towards the end of last
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  year. Seems like he had a pretty good spring as well. Good player,
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  like you said, highly rated, but good player. He's growing every
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  day. He came in in the summer, so this is his first full
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  spring. And you know, for Lincoln and for he and for Jason Moore
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  and you know, I think Kate McDonald, those guys all came in in
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  the summer, so this is their first full year. They still haven't been
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  on campus for a year. You know, you think that they've been around
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  for a long time, but they haven't. Uh So, now you're starting
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  to see him get comfortable with the calls, and we've said this before,
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  we have got to play depth, and you good to see Jermain Good in
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  there and a little bit of nickel obviously, you know Jordan's going to be
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  the starting nickel in there, but he can jump out the corner so that
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  gives us some flexibility. And then seeing Calvin out there as well. And
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  the other guy who really had a good spring until you know, we had
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  to have a little procedure done just out of caution, was Lorenzo Styles.
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  So to your point, you know, I think that there is good depth
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  there, but we're going to need them all Throughout the Brian Hartline era,
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  the list of problems for the high State wide receiver unit has mostly been limited
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  to, well, this one guy who's really good is hurt. That has
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  basically been it. And the top line receivers this year expected to be outstanding
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  as well. Got your currentel Tates, you got your a Mecca Abucas,
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  you got your Jeremiah Smith's and Brandon Innis's and Jayden Balach and all of these
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  guys. And they're feeling pretty good about all those guys. What about the
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  depth behind them? Because buck guys are expecting to play sixteen maybe seventeen games
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  this year, and we've heard over and over again at every position group that,
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  boy, you got to have depth. You got to make sure you
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  have plenty of depth. You got to be able to play your depth.
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  You got to be able to lean on your depth all spring. That's been
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  a recurring storyline at all these different positions with the transfers that they've seen depth.
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  Is that actually a little bit of a concern right now for the Buckeyes
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  at wide receiver and do they have guys who maybe can step up to fill
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  those holes. Yeah, I think it's a legitimate question. You know.
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  I think when you when you have you Mecca and Carnell and then Jaden Ballard,
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  Jeremiah, and then you get into you know, Bryson Rodgers, who
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  has done some really good things to Spring. I know he had a couple
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  of tough plays today, but we think he can really help us next year.
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  We're more missing Brandon and this Brandon and this same thing he was having,
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  you know, you know a lot of momentum, and then there was
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  a procedure. We just felt like, out out of caution, we had
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  to get it done. We just didn't want it to Linger, so we
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  did that, so we'll need him to step up in a big way.
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  And then, like you to your point, we're gonna need a couple more
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  guys to step up to build that depth there, because you know, we
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  do have some really good players, but we're going to need them all.
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  So I think it's it's important that some of those younger guys to step up.
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  We are going to get uh, you know, Mile in the summer,
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  and we're going to get you know, Damerian Witten who's going to play
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  a little bit of receiver, a little bit of tight end. So we
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  do have some young guys and to your point, they're going to have to
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  help us. Jayden Ballard came in in the same recruiting class as a Mecca
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  Abuka and Marvin Harrison junior, So it feels like he's not you know,
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  it feels like he's probably been around longer than you might think. Marvin Harrison
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  obviously off to the NFL, and Mecca Abuca decided to come back for one
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  last year, and there's Jayden Ballard, the third member of that recruiting class
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  at the wide receiver position, kind of still waiting to make an impact.
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  So you heard Day mentioned Ballard's name earlier there. Does he think that Ballard
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  is finally ready to really be a contributor to the team this year. I
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  think Jayden took a step here this last week. You know, we've been
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  challenging him. There's been a couple of plays, one in particular, like,
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  you know, he needed to make some plays to say, Okay,
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  I'm here and you can count on me. There was a really contested play
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  in the red zone that he made. He made, you know, a
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  big play on a post out here the other day. So you're starting to
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  see him make those plays. And if he can do that for us with
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  his you know, deep speed down the field, he can really stretch the
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  defense and so we're going to need him to and we did see things in
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  the last couple of weeks. It led us to believe that he can and
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  finally, during what was a rather busy and tumultuous January and February for the
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  Buckeyes or one of the one of the big changes that they made was hiring
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  Bill O'Brien to be the new offensive coordinator and play caller. And then Bill
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  O'Brien left and now they have Chip Kelly as his replacement. So what is
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  Chip Kelly's biggest impact We've been on the offense for Ohio State so far during
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  his time there. You're gonna hear Day say the word defense here, he
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  obviously means offense. Yeah. I think he brings one voice to the defense
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  and I think that's very very important. Certainly has an unbelievable history of running
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  the football and and and I think when you start to tie in some of
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  those quarterback runs, and you know, you notice those quarterback runs aren't designed
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  quarterback runs really, most of them are reading an end. And those aren't
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  hallacious hits, you know, they're they're they're things where we're going to keep
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  guys up right. And he does a really good job of that. But
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  the other thing too with with Chip was you know he got here just a
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  couple of weeks before spring started, so you know we kind of got the
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  spring going, you know, pushed through the spring, learned about the personnel.
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  I think the next couple of months will be important to figure out where
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  we go. Now, you know, what do we do? What is
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  the install look in the preseason, and then we go from there. So,
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  like any any spring, you want to identify the personnel and get guys
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  better and then really dive into the scheme and the chemistry as we had ended
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  the summer well. In the days and weeks after the Buckeyes wrapped up their
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  season in the Cotton Bowl, there was a lot of news coming out about
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  transfers in, transfers out to all sorts of personnel changes, all sorts of
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  drama news, recruiting news, all that stuff. You're expecting a busy couple
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  weeks now heading out of spring ball, the transfer portal about to open,
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  and there's probably going to be some news come in both directions for the Buckeyes
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  more than likely in the coming days and weeks. You're going to want to
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  make sure you are on bucke Huddle dot com and YouTube dot com slash bucke
• 15:43
  Huddle to stay up to date with all of it. We are expecting lots
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  of news. We're expecting to be there bring it all to you at YouTube
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  dot com, slash buckey Huddle and at bucke huddle dot com. That'll do
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  it for today. Thank you guys all for joining us. Have a great
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  day. We'll talk to you tomorrow. M