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Ohio State Football Insider: James Laurinaitis Joins Ryan Day's Staff · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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Welcome to a very special live episode of Buckeyes Tomorrow Morning for Friday, February
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sixteenth. I'm your host Tom Moore. The Akron game in one hundred and
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ninety seven days, the game against Michigan in two hundred and eighty eight days.
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It feels like it has been about two hundred and eighty eight days that
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we have been waiting for Ryan Day to put the finishing touches on his coaching
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staff for the year twenty twenty four. That finally happened on Thursday afternoon when
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I Higher State announced that James Laurenidis had just signed a two year contract to
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be the Buckeyes linebackers coach. He spent a last year as the linebacker's graduate
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assistant. There was some question whether he was going to be the guy this
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year or not. Now the answer is in. He is the guy to
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be the linebacker's coach, to be the tenth assistant for Ohio State going into
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the twenty twenty four season. I'm joined by Kevin noon if bucke Huddle dot
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Com. Kevin. This is one of these things where when James lauren Nitis
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came on as a GA last year, everyone sort of assumed, Okay,
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he's going to do it b aga for one year and then he's going to
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just take the linebacker's job over in twenty twenty four. Easy, no problem,
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no drama, no nothing. It just feels like that's what happened.
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But there were a lot of twists and turns between point A and point B.
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Yeah, there were a lot of different directions at Ohio State could have
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gone with this position, and that was even kind of something that Ryan Day
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had mentioned when we spoke to him on National Signing Day. But you look,
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James Laurinidis starts his coaching career at Notre Dame as a GA. You
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know, there was, you know, some communication between Ohio State and Laurnidis
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at that point. He ends up opting to go to Notre Dame, and
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then a year later he ends up at Ohio State. And had always been
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in the plan for this to move forward, whether or not it was going
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to be after one year or two years or what have you. But as
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we sit here, truly in the middle of the month of February, I
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mean, I think Ohio State was kind of saw what the landscape is going
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to be and what was going to be best for the development of this program
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overall, and that was with James Laurenidis. There were a bunch of potential
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questions about, you know, hey, might they get a defensive line coach
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in waiting. That was a possibility that was sort of discussed that I know,
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you know, you had some names that you had heard around that whole
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conversation, and then Ryan Day said, well, you know, could do
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a special teams coach bringing a special teams coach in this year. They ended
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up landing on James Laurennidis. This feels like this is a perfectly, perfectly
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good move for them. He has been someone who has had a significant impact
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on the recruiting trail already with not being able to go out at all last
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year and being able to go out just a little bit while they were sort
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of waiting to fill that tenth spot. They had Laurenidis acting as that tenth
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assistant and being able to go out on the road, because that's one of
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the primary differences between being one of the ten main assistants and the gas and
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the QCs and the assistant position coaches and whatever else. So it feels like
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this is one where the recruiting trail might be one of those areas where you
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see the biggest impact from Laurnidis. Yeah, because the reality of it is
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is that Jim Knowles is not going to be one of the strongest recruiters on
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your team. Plain and simple, Ohio State obviously very much still in favor
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of what Jim Knowles is doing. He picked up I believe he's been extended
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through twenty twenty six as part of the email, said that there were some
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other extensions and reworkings of deals and titles and so on and so forth.
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But you need to have somebody that can then step into that positional void and
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be able to recruit your linebackers, your guys like tarbos Alford out of out
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of Aero Beach and so on and so forth. So there is a lot
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of importance there. I think when you have a combo of James Laurnidis and
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Tim Walton, we have a long way to go before we can put James
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Laurnidis in that same lofty sphere when talking about recruiting. But I think the
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hope is that you got yourself another Tim Walton, which you know, if
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we just rewind a little bit more, Oh, you have yourself another Brian
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Hartline. Because you know, there are going to be some spots on the
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staff that are probably not going to be as strong of recruiters, and you
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have to find that balance between Okay, this is the best possible person for
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this position because of their coaching ability their recruiting ability. You'd like to have
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both, but sometimes you can't have both just because somebody is just so far
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ahead on one category and maybe not so far on the other. Well,
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speaking of people being ahead on something, let's you know, Tony Gerdaman isn't
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here so I can say something nice about him. Tony had some great reporting
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on this. There were some twists and turns in this whole thing. Tony
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was keeping her subscribers up to speed with all of it on the huddle board
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presented by Jeff Ruby Steakhouse at Buckey huddle dot com. He was the first
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one with this news. Good job reporting by Tony, as he said,
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he had to brush to his computer, cut his wife off mid sentence when
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the news. When he got the news, but he had to get the
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news. He had the news first, So good job by Tony. One
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of those reasons you might want to be at Buckey huddle dot com because there
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were some twists and turns in this whole thing. Very interesting story to follow,
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and Tony Tony had some great reporting on this. So all right,
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you mentioned Tim Walton. Let's talk about Tim Walton because there is other news.
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In addition to the hiring of James Lournidis, Tim Walton has been promoted
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to assistant head coach slash secondary and cornerbacks coach and received a two year contract
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ext engine through the twenty twenty six season. Kevin, this is one where
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number one it doesn't say and a big bag with a dollar sign on it,
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But I think that is probably strongly implied by the title bump and all
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of that. If they can keep Tim Walton around for the foreseeable future,
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boy, that's going to be a very big deal in terms of continuing to
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stock those rooms, especially in the secondary and on the defensive side of the
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ball. Exactly when we start seeing assistant head coach, associate head coach,
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head coach, adjason, all these other titles, we know in a lot
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of times it's in order to fulfill certain you know, qualifications for certain pay
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grades and things of that nature. So there is a sack with a dollar
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sign, maybe even three dollars signs that that Tim Walton should be receiving with
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all of this, and just based on where Ohio State was, I think,
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you know, just with the with with with the play last year,
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with what he's doing on the recruiting trail right now, with what he did
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on the recruiting trail last year, certainly this is the best time to get
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involved with getting that extension in place, because if he finishes with this class
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and you you let it drag out, not only do you run the risk
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of potentially losing him because you don't have somebody locked up in a longer term
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deal in assistant coaching space, which is more than a year, but you
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also are probably getting in a little bit more of a discount right now.
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But you know, if they put puts together another class and things go crazy,
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we could we could see the contract ripped up and they could start over
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again. You just never know. That's the limitless dollars of coaching monies and
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things of that nature. And everybody talks about, well, what's the pool
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that they're going to have for assistant coaches. Well, if things are going
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well, that pool better constantly be growing or you're going to be losing.
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Yeah, when you have a successful program and you have guys who are good
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recruiters, and you have guys who are very relational on the recruiting trail,
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those are the guys that will sometimes get snapped up, whether with a title
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bump or just get a head coaching job somewhere. So if you can keep
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Tim Walton and Brian Hartline and James Loriniitis and all those other guys happy and
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content and at home in Columbus, that is going to be a good thing
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for you. So we said Jim Walton is the assistant head coach. Well,
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Kevin, there is also an associate head coach. This is not a
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new title. Larry Johnson has been the associate head coach for a number of
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years. Defensive line coach the subject of constant retirement rumors, but he has
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a new two year contract through the twenty twenty five season. I think that's
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that may be a little surprising to people if there were, you know,
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questions about what, you know, was there a defensive line coach in waiting
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coming a two year contract through the twenty twenty five season. That's you know,
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that seems like that's another statement that we've been listening to Larry Johnson retirement
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rumors for ten years and nope, not yet. Nope, not yet,
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is right? You have them in place longer than a year. So you
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know, that's a message you can put out there for recruits. But I
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don't think it's going to change the fact that somebody is going to sit there
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and say that doesn't mean anything. I mean, he two years, you'd
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be there for a year of him and he could leave at that point.
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Well, anybody could theoretically leave these you know, these are contracts or business
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contracts. There's not there's no certainty when it really comes to any of this
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type of stuff. But it does show Ohio State wants to have a level
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of continuity, if you will, in terms of what they have with their
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with their staff. And you know, it takes some of the takes a
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little bit of the air out of the balloon potentially of having you know,
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that coach in waiting for that position. But at some point, at some
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point, I hope to still be doing this at that point, but at
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some point his career will we'll take at least a little bit of a break,
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I would imagine. I mean, he's going to prably outlive us all.
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But you know, I mean he is his coaching, he's I think
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he's happy to take it into his eighties. I think I remember at least
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one of the Bowses, and it might have been Joey being asked you know
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well, I mean, certainly you don't expect Larry Johnson to be there for
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your whole career. Joey Bosamhat retire from the NFL before Larry Johnson retires from
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Ohio State. We'll see, We'll see who can win that win that battle
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out last the other. The other guy on the defensive side of the ball
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getting a new contract today is defensive coordinator Jim Knowles two year contract extension through
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the twenty twenty six sies. And Knowles is an interesting one because you have
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seen the results that I think people were sort of expecting from Knowles, where
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it was first year was okay, second year was okay, really good,
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and then third year, what is the third year going to look like?
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Well, feels like it might be better than really good. He's someone who
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he's older. He's not the young up and comer thirty something that is necessarily
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going to get poached to go be a sun Belt head coach or a mac
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head coach or whatever. But still, if they can keep Jim Knowles around
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to run the defense as he has been, that's probably a pretty big win
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for Ohio State as well. Yeah, I think so. I mean,
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he certainly was looked at for the Duke opening. And that's another way that
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you kind of keep things matriculating forward. Is I mean, if with Merritt,
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you promote with merit, and I mean a lot of times that just
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comes down to dollar figures and things like that. So Jim Knowles getting the
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additional years on his deal probably won't, you know, keep people from trying
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to attach him to as they come open. But you know, I think
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that the fact that you know, he's he's still here at this point,
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I think that it's not you know, it's not going to be something temporary.
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And you're right about year three. Year three at Oklahoma State is where
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it all really turned on for him. And I think that everybody was so
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hungry to see improvement and year one, yeah they were better, Year two
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they were significantly better. And now you look at just what is returning and
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everything else, and you know, I think that the trend will continue in
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that and that year three could be pretty pretty darn special. One more addition
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to the current coaching staff and a contract extension for tight ends coach Keenan Bailey
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one more year that gets him through the twenty twenty five season. One other
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personnel note Tony Johnson, who is related you know normally you would say,
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oh, no relation to Larry Johnson. Nope, related to Larry Johnson.
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Tony Johnson, the son of Larry Johnson, has joined the staff as a
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senior analyst. So another one more addition into the Ohio State coaching staff there,
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going into the next going into the next season. You know, this
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is Kevin. I think, what's the takeaway here? I mean, they've
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they've really kind of shuffled quite a number of pieces here. When you look
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at bringing in Chip Kelly, retaining a lot of the guys who they've retained
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who were potentially going to get get you know, at least looks for other
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jobs. This feels like close to I don't know if it's the single best
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case scenario, but it feels like we're at least, you know, kind
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of close to a best case scenario for an off season for Ryan Day on
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the coaching front, let alone all the other stuff. Well, it shows
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that addressing needs and you know, there certainly was a need to move on
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move However, with special teams, I think there certainly was a need to
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get you know, at least another defensive recruiting hammer out there. I think
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that there were you know, obviously an offensive coordinator, play caller, all
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of that is extremely important. But you know, what Ohio State has done,
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I think it just kind of mirrors what we've seen with the portal and
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some other things like that. That Ohio State it's like, all right,
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here we go. I mean, you know, you've you've seen what we've
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been able to roll out the last couple of years, and it just hasn't
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quite gotten there. So we're going to really redouble our efforts, if you
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will. And we haven't seen any on field product at this point, but
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expectations are are extremely high. Yeah, expectations are very very high for this
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season. Between the coaching staff and the players that they've retained and the players
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that they added, and the recruiting class, I mean, this is this
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is about as loaded for bear as you have seen an Ohio State team over
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the years. I mean, I go back to I mean, what are
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the seasons with the single, you know, the most hype going into a
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season. I go back to nineteen ninety eight, twenty fifteen. You know,
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it's sort of weird that a lot of the years where they have all
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of the hype are not necessarily the years where they win it. They want
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it the year before the year in twenty fourteen, you know, instead of
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in twenty fifteen. Two thousand and three was another year where it was like,
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boy, they have everyone back, but they just wanted the year before.
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So a little bit of a different dynamic this year, but yeah,
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definitely a year with a lot of hype. Spring Ball starts in less than
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three weeks. We're pretty excited about that Spring game in less than two months,
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we're pretty excited about that. There's be a lot of stuff to talk
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about. We're hoping to get to coach interviews, some returning player interviews,
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maybe some true freshman interviews all coming up as well. Do you want to
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get to a couple questions here that we had or comments. I guess pb
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SA's day is doing everything he needs to do. I mean, I go
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back Kevin to the postgame show for the Cotton Bowl and the stuff we sort
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of laid out that, like, you probably need to find a veteran play
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caller, you probably need to do this, you probably need to do that.
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It feels like they've really kind of gone down that checklist and checked pretty
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much all those boxes. Yeah, I'm glad that they watch our shows and
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they took into account all the things that we said there that needed to be
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done, and it appears that in a large scale. I haven't gone back
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and watched that show because there was so much positive energy coming out of that
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show, but it sounds like that they've taken our suggestions to heart and that
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we've seen a lot of those things happen. So I agree with Peeb as
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well. All right, we have a super chat from mellow number seven.
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What about Tony Alfred? Now, I mean, if you look, there
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are plenty of guys on this list who did not get their contracts extended or
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changed or anything like that. It was just Tim Walton, Jim Knowles,
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Larry Johnson, and Keenan Bailey. So that's only four of the ten,
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plus James Laurnidis is five. So you know, I don't know how much
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I would read into Tony Alford not getting extension. Brian Hartline didn't get an
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extension either that was announced, So you know, I don't remember, Kevin.
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Do you know at the top your head the contract status of Tony Alford
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right look right now, But you know it's always it's always, yeah,
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icy trying to find it. Alfred Alfred had uh he had a contract that
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ended in twenty four. But I don't know. I don't know if this
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is based on a story that I'm reading from twenty two. I don't remember
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him getting bumped in twenty three, but I just don't know. Yeah,
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And you know, it's not This is not like head coaches where it's shocking.
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You know when Jim Harbaugh was in the final year of his contract a
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few years ago and it was like that was basically unheard of. This is
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some coaches coach in the last year of their contracts all the time. That
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does not necessarily mean Tony Alfred has one foot out the door. Well,
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you know, we'll see. That's a This is a results business, as
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they say, I'm expecting Tony Alford to have some pretty good results this year
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with Trevon Henderson and quin Shawn Judkins. They've brought in James People's they are
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set up to have a pretty good year on the recruiting trail. But you
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know, it's always it's always a good year to have a good year on
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the recruiting trail. So we'll see if they can bring in. There's a
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couple very talented in state players for Ohio State. We've got Jordan Davison out
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in California. You get Byron Lewis down in Florida. So they're in on
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a bunch of very, very highly touted running backs for this class. If
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you keep getting you know, you bring in the results on the recruiting trail,
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you get the results on the field. I don't think Tony Alfred has
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anything necessary to worry about, but yeah, well we'll keep an eye on
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it if there is a contract extension there. Rose Courts iced Tea says,
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my guy's quick question. During the Urban era, our front seven felt like
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the soul of our defense, even though BIA was no slouge. Now it
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feels different. How can our linebacking court and defensive line catch up to BIA.
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Well, you know, I think we're going to see a defensive line
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that returns a lot. Obviously, bringing JT and Jack back means a lot.
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They could have really been destroyed a defensive tackle, they lose my call,
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But everybody else is really coming back at the position. You know,
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I think with linebacker it's still kind of a matter of figuring out what to
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do. I mean, because you are a four two five, you're only
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rolling two guys out and out there, and two of them, the two
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main guys are gone with Tommy and Steele, who both be in Indianapolis at
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the end of the month for the scouting combine. You know, you talk
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about it feeling like the soul of our defense is it is it is that
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because of just the unit altogether, or is it because Ohio States had general
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generational players like Bosa Bosa Young. It's been it's been a minute since they've
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had Chase Young here at at Ohio State. I mean, I think that
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a lot of years, I still hear the same complaints that they're not they're
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not getting enough sacks, they're not forcing enough turnovers or or or or whatever.
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So you know, I guess, you know, my my quick answer
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would be, well, recruit another Bosa Young. They might might might get
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you there. But but in lieu of that, which is probably more realistic,
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I mean, you just have to just keep plugging away. And then
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as as for linebacker, we'll see what's in the cards for Cody Simon and
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whoever he lines up there with, whether it be CJ. Hicks or somebody
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else. And c J. Hicks is the subject of one of our questions.
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I'll see if I can find it in here real quick. See.
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Oh, sorry, it was Sunny Styles who was the subject of one of
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our questions. You know, because c J. Hicks and Sunny Styles both
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five star guys, both entering their third year in the program, both you
19:25
know, have have felt maybe a little miscast and maybe like a step closer
19:30
to the line of scrimmage might not be bad for either one of them.
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We'll see how CJ. Hicks does. Sunny Styles. They have been talking
19:37
about potentially moving him from safety to linebacker. There was a picture of the
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defensive backs watching the Super Bowl or something like that, and c and Sunny
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Styles was there with the with the defensive backs and not with the linebackers.
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So everyone is sort of interpreting that as well. He's going to start the
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spring with the defensive backs and not the linebackers. We'll see how that all
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plays out. But you know, it does. It does feel Kevin like
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that might be an opportunity for him because the safety room you got Lathan Ransom,
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you got Jordan Hancock, you got Caleb Downs. It feels like the
20:12
three safety spots are in relatively decent hands and moving sunny styles a little closer
20:18
to the line of scrimmage might make a heck of a lot of sense.
20:22
But the thing we have to remember with positional moves is you've got to have
20:26
buy in from everybody. I mean, the coaches may want to move a
20:29
player and the player may not want to move. The player may want to
20:30
move and the coaches may not want to move him. There's a lot of
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a lot of pieces to it. And you know, I guess until I
20:37
know more about the situation, I think that I mean, moving down to
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linebacker makes a ton of sense. I think if you talk to Mark Givler,
20:45
hething's Moving them down even further to like rush in makes more sense.
20:48
So you know, there's he's. When you're a unique player, it means
20:52
that maybe there's not a playbook per se that you can draw to and say,
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wow, well this is this is exactly how you should be used.
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And you know this is our proof of performance and everything else. So if
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James Laurnidis and Jim Knowles, you know, if the belief is is that
21:11
they want to move them down, I mean, you gotta you gotta get
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everybody else on board with it. And I you know, I think it's
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I think it's the right decision. But I'm also not there at every practice
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to see every you know, everything, and I don't. I don't know
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why it hasn't happened yet. And you know, it's crazy that we're talking
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about CJ. Hicks, who is still a real young guy, is going
21:32
into what his third season. I mean, this is this could be his
21:36
contract here, so you know, we'll see. But I think that,
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uh, I think what makes him unique and special shows more closer to the
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closer to the ball than further from the ball. Yeah, I think that's
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I think that's definitely true. And you've got you've got guys who are I
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mean, they've talked about Sonny being a Swiss army knife in the past and
21:55
a secret weapon in the past, and you know, just turn those guys
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loose. Find way to turn those guys loose. If you move CJ.
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Hicks down to some kind of a jack some kind of defensive end position.
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You know, you have to have buy in from coaching staff there as well,
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and Larry Johnson is going to have views on what makes a good defensive
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end and how much they want to run the jack out there, and Jim
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Knowles may have different views on some of that stuff. So yeah, as
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you said, there are a lot of moving parts there that you got to
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all sort of factor together. It's not quite as easy as as it might
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be on your E Sports College Football twenty twenty five a little later on this
22:30
year, you can do whatever you want with the roster. It's a little
22:33
more complicated in real life. It is, in fact in the game.
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We'll probably do a morning show on that in the coming days. Tony Gerderman
22:41
has also done some good work finding out what exactly Ohio State has submitted for
22:47
that game. We're going to do a morning show on that probably over the
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weekend, I would guess, so you can look forward to that. One.
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PB says, maybe we're finally going to get some stud linebackers again.
22:56
I mean, the recruiting has been pretty good. They had a pretty good
22:59
class this year, and you know, the James Laurnitis impact on this class
23:03
is already you're being felt. I think Peyton Pierce, for example, was
23:07
trending towards Notre Dame, and then when James Laurinaitis went from Notre Dame to
23:11
Ohio State, suddenly Peyton Pier signed with Ohio State. And so, you
23:14
know, Kevin, I think you're already starting to see the James Laernitis impact
23:18
on the recruiting trail, even before he was officially one of the ten assistants.
23:22
Right. I mentioned tarbos Alford from Vero Beach, Florida before and in
23:26
out of the class of twenty twenty five, I think that this move solidified
23:30
James Lauriniitis may be what puts Ohio State over the top here like soon with
23:37
him. He really loves Ohio State, really loves James Lauronidis. Yeah,
23:42
Ohio State hasn't necessarily had that huge impact charismatic type of linebacker. You know.
23:51
Tommy Eikenberg just went out there and just like played with no thumbs and
23:53
just beat the hell out of everybody. And Steel Chambers maybe took a little
23:57
bit of a step back in twenty three from twenty two too, But you
24:00
know, I think he'll test pretty well at the combine and and and moving
24:03
forward. But you know where where has been a James Lorinidis or somebody like
24:10
that, if you will. I mean, they just don't necessarily happen all
24:15
the time either. And I you know, I think that this is a
24:18
chance, though for for them to maybe make a little bit more of a
24:21
splash as we look at some of the linebackers at Ohio State missed out and
24:23
in the twenty four cycle and the twenty three cycle. And you know,
24:27
I've been I've been pretty open and honest when I said, Jim Knowles is
24:32
not going to lead your team in recruiting. That's just not what his thing
24:34
is. He is there to run your defense and so on and so forth.
24:38
And and now that they have somebody who can focus specifically on recruiting linebackers,
24:44
I agree again with Peebe that I think that it opens some doors for
24:48
Ohio State, or keeps some doors open longer at least to get to official
24:52
visits and and things of that nature. Yeah, So we'll we'll see how
24:56
that how that all goes on the recruiting frail this year. One question for
25:00
Mika Hannah, what about Gabe Powers. That's the name we have not talked
25:03
about. We've seen him on special teams. This is sort of I think
25:08
I look at him and C. J. Hicks sort of in the same
25:12
way, which is, you're only playing two linebackers. You had two returning
25:17
starters last year, so they weren't really going to play as true freshmen.
25:19
So and last year you had two returning starters and you had another veteran in
25:23
Cody Simon. I don't know that I'm necessarily writing off Gabe Powers or anything
25:29
yet. I think Gay Powers is someone who this is you know, he's
25:32
one of those guys who I think this is a big spring for him where
25:34
you have the opportunity to earn a bigger role. But now you have the
25:38
opportunity to earn a bigger role. You got to go out there and earn
25:41
a bigger role. What what is Gay Powers too? I mean is he
25:45
a Mic? Is he a Sam? I mean, you know, if
25:48
you're a Sam, you're you know, you're kind of a man without a
25:52
home in a lot of regards in the way that the defensive scheme is set
25:55
up. I mean, if he's a MIC, you know, there's you
25:59
you do run in to the situation of where you do kind of get pinned
26:02
in on a depth chart and that just happens. And they're going to be
26:03
players every year that have that happen to them. They just can't you know,
26:10
they're just guys stacked in front of them and they just can't get to
26:11
the can't get to the spot. I Gay Powers is another player that I
26:15
thought, you know, coming out of high school, like you just put
26:18
some weight on them and have them play end and that that could still happen.
26:22
But you know, I just don't. I don't know. I mean,
26:25
I don't talk about them because there's just not a lot of information out
26:27
there about about Gabe at this point. But you know, I think that
26:33
with Ohio State having two backers out there, it certainly doesn't help anybody who's
26:37
not getting the reps right now. Yeah, it's exactly. There's just there's
26:41
fewer reps out there because there's fewer linebackers out there. I mean, it
26:45
makes sense if you think about it. And with the way they're recruiting defensive
26:48
backs, I don't know that you want to take a defensive back off the
26:51
field because they've got five pretty good defensive defensive backs this year from more more
26:56
than five pretty good defensive backs out there this year, so you don't want
27:00
to take them off the field. This is sort of the old why don't
27:03
you, you know, the old Jim Tressel, Why don't you throw it
27:04
to the tight end more? Well, because every time you throw it to
27:07
the tight end, you're not throwing it to Ted Ginn or Santonio Holmes.
27:08
Well, why don't you play more linebackers? Well, because then you're taking
27:12
Denzel Burke or Davison Igbuinosen or Jordan Hancock or Caleb Downs or Lathan Ransom off
27:19
the field. And those guys are all pretty darn good. So is the
27:22
goal? Is the goal to win the game or is the goal to get
27:25
all your favorite players out there? I mean, it's to win the game
27:26
and whatever that combination is. And there's going to be times that that you
27:32
just can't get everybody out there that you're that you're that you're pulling for and
27:36
I you know, and that's just kind of one of those realities. Well,
27:40
and the other reality is when James lour Ninis was playing for Ohio State
27:44
and they were running a four to three a crew four to three offenses were
27:48
a little different than they are now. There's a lot more throwing. You
27:51
look at the stats from the two thousand, you know, the mid two
27:53
thousands offenses, Everyone's throwing the ball a lot more, but you know,
27:59
many more you are. It's a lot more, you know, a lot
28:00
more scoring. By and large, you have to adapt to what the the
28:04
opposing team does. So when you're playing Iowa, sure you might run three
28:07
linebackers out there. You might run three linebackers out there when you're playing Michigan,
28:11
depending on how how man ball Michigan wants to go this year. But
28:15
there are gonna be plenty of times when you the realities of modern college football
28:19
indicate you want the extra you know, the general trend has been move guys
28:26
closer to the line of scrimmage, a little bit smaller, a little bit
28:27
faster, and more guy you know, more sort of smaller, faster guys
28:33
out there. That has sort of broadly been the trend in defense and in
28:37
college football for the last ten years or so. As those spread offenses have
28:41
kind of taken over the sport, maybe things are going to be trend you
28:45
know, things seem like they may be trending a little bit back the other
28:48
direction, especially you know with Michigan winning with not exactly a high flying offense
28:53
last year. But you know, well, we'll see that's that's sort of
28:56
a bigger picture conversation are probably prepared to have right here, Keith Michael says,
29:03
of Laurainitis turns a linebacker room into strength, they'll be thrilled. I
29:07
know he can recruit. Now we'll see if I can develop the talent.
29:08
And this is a situation, Kevin, where Jim Knowles still is going to
29:12
have a hand in those linebackers. So this is gonna be one of these
29:15
situations where I'm not going to be one hundred percent sure exactly sure how to
29:21
alligate allocate the credit. If the on field play from the linebackers is incredible
29:26
this year, how much do you want to give to credit? Do you
29:27
want to give to Lauraiitis versus Jim Knowles, who still is going to have
29:32
a little bit of a say in there. Yeah, I don't I don't
29:34
know how you really discern that either, because we're not going to see a
29:41
clear and defined Okay, you you know you've got seventy five percent of your
29:45
hand in on this, and you've got twenty five percent of your hand in
29:48
onto this and this is kind of where it lives. I think that it's
29:52
going to be a case of if your team Knowles or team Laurennidis and they
29:56
play well, you're gonna you're gonna say it's all because of your guy,
30:00
And that's just going to be the reality of it. But I think that
30:03
having having somebody who is like the tactician and the way that Jim Knowles is
30:08
and then having somebody that's not that far removed from their playing days and playing
30:14
at a very high level in James Lorenidis, is going to be the best
30:17
of both worlds for that position. Yeah, that's I think, I think
30:22
a pretty good, pretty good assessment there. Ty Croner wants to know,
30:26
is Mitchell Melton still on this team? Looks amazing when healthy? He's Mitchell
30:29
Melton is still on this team unless I have missed, Unless I have missed
30:32
a memo, And Mitchell Melton should be on this team. It's just a
30:36
matter of they had him at the jack position last year and they just didn't
30:38
use the jack position a whole lot. And the defensive line was great last
30:42
year. I don't know that especially towards the end of the year. I
30:45
don't think anyone was clamoring for them to take J. T. Twey,
30:48
Moloow or Jack Sawyer off the field. So that may just be, you
30:52
know, we maybe he's having the same conversation there, Kevin that we had
30:56
with the linebackers in the secondary. Sure, you'd love to see him on
31:00
the field. Who exactly would you like to take off the field to put
31:03
him on the field. Yeah, I mean, unless this is Ohio State
31:07
special teams where you're out there with nine or fourteen or whatever, I mean,
31:11
you can only have eleven out there at any given time. So you
31:15
got a roster of eighty five scholarship players, you go to one oh five
31:18
with the walk Ons and everything else. More guys are not going to play
31:22
than they are going to play. It's just kind of a nature of the
31:25
beast, and you have to find the right situation. And I don't know
31:30
if there's necessarily wholesale alignment on when to use the jacket when not to use
31:34
the jack. I mean, when you kind of get into these hybrid boutique
31:40
positions and you know that sound that just sounds so disarming in the sport of
31:45
football such a you know, physical, violent sport. To talk about a
31:48
boutique position, but it is a little boutiqui in some ways. And the
31:55
goal is just to get out there and win the damn game. And I
31:56
you know, I don't care really how you do it. Show me the
32:00
baby, don't tell me about the labor. That's a that's a very colorful
32:07
way to put it. But yes, exactly. PB super Chat says,
32:09
it's good to be a Buckuy, thanks for all the great coverage, guys,
32:12
looking forward to an exciting season. Yeah, this is shaping up to
32:15
be a very exciting season. I think you know, you kind of have
32:19
all the pieces there. You don't have the championship hangover. We talked earlier,
32:22
but you know, all a bunch of these seasons where boy they're loaded
32:25
and oh it just hasn't come together. Two thousand and three, twenty fifteen,
32:30
that was when they were probably having a little bit of a championship hangover.
32:34
They are watching Michigan. They just had to watch Michigan win the national
32:37
championship. Definitely no championship hangover for this year's Ohio State team. So this
32:42
is going to be a really unique one in Ohio state history in terms of
32:45
just how, you know, just just what that could look like, because
32:50
even the twenty twenty team looked like, okay, boy, they're they're coming
32:54
back from the twenty nineteen season and know they're you know, they've got so
32:58
much talent coming back and they're a team on a mission and coming off of
33:01
that Fiesta Bawl loss to Clemson, and they did what they could do for
33:07
the most part. But there were obviously, let's say, some extenuating circumstances
33:10
in the twenty twenty season they may have limited them. You know, hopefully
33:15
we don't have the circumstances in the twenty twenty four season as well. But
33:19
yeah, it is I mean, this is Kevin as anticipated a spring ball
33:24
as I think I can remember, just in terms of it's not just oh
33:29
yeah, there's one player. It's oh, you know, oh hey,
33:30
Terrell Pryor is going to be here. Who you know, Braxton Miller is
33:35
going to be here or whatever. This is not like, oh, it's
33:38
the one guy, it's oh, it's everyone. They have everyone. This
33:43
is about as anticipated a spring ball as I can remember. I liken this
33:47
to going into twenty twelve with Urban Meyer coming off of the six and seventh
33:52
season, and everything was going to be new, and you know, Okay,
33:57
we're finally going to see a team that is going to go going to
34:00
go for broke and everything else, and coming off of very disappointing season and
34:06
you know, all things being equal, eleven and two last year was still
34:08
a very disappointing season for Ohio State. So it's got a major twenty twelve
34:15
vibe to me in terms of just wanting to see what this is like.
34:21
And because even even when Urban handed it off handed the controller in the famous
34:25
video to Ryan Day, that was just like a handoff and it's just like,
34:30
Okay, it's going to kind of continue. And Ryan Day just kept
34:34
winning games and then you know, Ohio State faces a little bit of adversity,
34:37
drops a couple few games to the hated rival, and now this kind
34:43
of seems like this is going to be a reintroduction. Hi, guys,
34:46
remember me, I'm your head coach, Ryan Day, and I'm here to
34:51
to kick ass and chew bubble gum. And I'm all out of bubble gum.
34:54
Yeah, And not only do you have all that, you also have
34:58
the new and expanded Big Ten the College Football Playoff. Oh yeah, the
35:01
college Football video game coming back. I mean, it's just there is so
35:06
much going on right now, and you know, this has a certainly been
35:08
a tumultuous time in the sport of college football, but it's also been you
35:13
know, this is a pretty exciting time in the sport of college football on
35:15
the whole. A lot of new stuff going on. We were just talking
35:19
about the upcoming trip to Oregon, which could be like number two versus number
35:23
three or number one versus number two, depending on how the first few weeks
35:27
of the season play out. I mean, there are some monster games on
35:30
this Ohio State schedule, some really exciting new stuff, the new dynamics of
35:36
what are the twelve team college Football Playoff is going to look like. I
35:37
mean, this is whive State is shaping up to be right in the middle
35:42
of a potentially historic, historic history making season. So we would love to
35:46
have you celebrate and enjoy that history making season with us at buckeyehuddle dot com.
35:52
That's where Kevin and Toni and I cover the team, Mark covers recruiting.
35:54
We got our whole team of ex's and nose gurus, Ross and Devian
35:59
and Justin and Mickey making you a smarter football fan. That is all at
36:01
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36:31
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36:36
guys for joining us. Have a great day. We will talk to you tomorrow.