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Big Ten Media Days: 5 Things We Learned From Jaylen McClain · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Buckeyes tomorrow morning for Wednesday, July twenty ninth,
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  Speaker 1: I'm your host, tom Or the.
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  Speaker 2: Ball State game in thirty eight days. The Gaming es
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  Speaker 2: fisially in one hundred and twenty two days.
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  Speaker 1: We're sponsored today by our friends at Jeffruby's Columbus probably
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  Speaker 1: So day two of Big ten media days in the books,
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  Speaker 1: it's just kind of wrapping up behind us right now.
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  Speaker 2: That was Ohio State Day.
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  Speaker 1: We got a chance to talk to Ryan Dave, We
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  Speaker 1: got a chance to talk to Julian Saying, we got
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  Speaker 1: a chance to talk to Jeremiah Smith, and we got
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  Speaker 1: a chance to talk to Jaylen McClean. I am joined
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  Speaker 1: by Marcus Hartman of puck Onsiders dot com. Marcus was
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  Speaker 1: on the Jayalen McLean beat today. All these things were
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  Speaker 1: happening basically at the same time, so we had to
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  Speaker 1: sort of divide and conquer. So I have not actually
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  Speaker 1: heard a whole lot about what Jayalen McClain talked about.
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  Speaker 1: If you want to hear about Julian Saying and Jeremiah Smith,
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  Speaker 1: I can tell you about Jeremiah Smith. You'll hear about
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  Speaker 1: that on the Buckeye Weekly Podcast feed. Tony can tell
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  Speaker 1: you about Julian Saying. You'll hear about that on the
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  Speaker 1: Buck Eye Weekly podcast feed. We're gonna talk Jayleen McLain
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  Speaker 1: on this show. So let's start with the I think
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  Speaker 1: the obvious question with the safeties. So Caleb Downs doesn't
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  Speaker 1: live here anymore, how do you how do you deal
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  Speaker 1: with not having Caleb Downs in the defense.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, what's funny.
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  Speaker 4: McClain's kind of like the other guy here. And he
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  Speaker 4: was sort of like the other guy on the defense
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  Speaker 4: last year. He had all these first round draft picks
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  Speaker 4: and and but he was out there just being a steady,
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  Speaker 4: you know, first year starter. And so now he's, you know,
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  Speaker 4: as college football tends to do, he's the guy who
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  Speaker 4: is now going to be in the spotlight. Except for today,
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  Speaker 4: he was overshadowed by the quarterback and the number one receiver.
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  Speaker 4: But he was interesting. Basically, I think the gist of it,
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  Speaker 4: the one sentence thing would be, they're not gonna have
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  Speaker 4: the two sentences. I guess it will be they're not
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  Speaker 4: going to have another. They're not going to try to
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  Speaker 4: make anybody into the new Caleb Downs.
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  Speaker 3: He feels like, you know.
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  Speaker 4: They'll be able to cast everybody sort of in that
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  Speaker 4: role collectively, whereas they probably really did tailor a lot
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  Speaker 4: of things. There were a lot of plays where it
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  Speaker 4: was kind of set up to everybody else get blocked
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  Speaker 4: and we'll let Caleb take care of things. And they're
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  Speaker 4: not going to do that anymore, probably at least in
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  Speaker 4: the city. Feels like, you know that these all the
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  Speaker 4: guys that they have are versatile enough that they can
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  Speaker 4: kind of they can play in different roles, and even
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  Speaker 4: if they all have a specialty, none of them are
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  Speaker 4: going to be maybe that all around playmaker that he was.
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  Speaker 1: And in terms of making plays, Jalen McClain has made
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  Speaker 1: a lot of plays in his career, but he has not,
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  Speaker 1: as far as I know, had an interception.
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  Speaker 2: Is that's what he said.
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  Speaker 3: I didn't check him.
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  Speaker 2: I would assume he.
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  Speaker 3: Wouldn't have very many interceptions.
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  Speaker 4: As a team, I feel like, uh so for a
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  Speaker 4: defense that was as good as they were, so I
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  Speaker 4: assumed he.
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  Speaker 3: Was telling the truth.
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  Speaker 2: Is that something that sort of like sticks in his craw?
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  Speaker 2: Is that a real point of emphasis for him this year?
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  Speaker 3: That's what he said. Yes, he wants to make sure
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  Speaker 3: he gets that taken care of.
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  Speaker 4: I think that causing turnovers is probably something they want
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  Speaker 4: to do a little more of overall. I sometimes it's
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  Speaker 4: bad luck they caused some fumbles last year that they
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  Speaker 4: didn't recover and maybe and he's a guy who made
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  Speaker 4: some big hits and and could do that too. So yes,
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  Speaker 4: so that you know, back again, he was very good today.
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  Speaker 4: He was you know, he was thoughtful and you could
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  Speaker 4: tell that. You know, he's taking very seriously the role
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  Speaker 4: of being a leader and expanding.
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  Speaker 3: What he did.
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  Speaker 4: But he's got he feels he came across like he's
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  Speaker 4: got some confidence in what he has done so far.
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  Speaker 4: I think he's in a good place mentally from that standpoint,
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  Speaker 4: but certainly wants to do a lot more.
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  Speaker 1: Well, someone else who's going to be doing a lot
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  Speaker 1: more this year is Devin Sanchez. He is taking over
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  Speaker 1: no more. Davis, Enigmuenosen, Jim and Matthews back at one
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  Speaker 1: corner spot. Devin Sanchez was like kind of the dime
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  Speaker 1: last year, but I mean really saw him very right
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  Speaker 1: at the beginning of the last season and just continue.
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  Speaker 2: To play a bigger and bigger roles as he's went along.
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  Speaker 1: He is someone who feels like he's taking on a
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  Speaker 1: potentially big, big, big role this year.
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  Speaker 2: What is Jalen McLain. What did he have to say
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  Speaker 2: about Devin.
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  Speaker 3: Sanchiz And he said he likes where he has.
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  Speaker 4: He expects him to be one of the best cornerbacks
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  Speaker 4: in the country. When you've got that ability that the
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  Speaker 4: natural ability has being a five star guy and that
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  Speaker 4: with some experience, you know, he felt like he's he's
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  Speaker 4: really going to him into his zoom. So he was
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  Speaker 4: definitely raving about him.
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  Speaker 1: One of the other guys that I know we've heard
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  Speaker 1: a lot of people rave about is Earl Little. He
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  Speaker 1: will be playing alongside Jalen McClain in the in the secondary.
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  Speaker 2: He's going to be kind of filling.
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  Speaker 1: That nickel role that was filled by Lorenzo Styles Junior
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  Speaker 1: last year.
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  Speaker 2: He's someone who I remember Jeremiah Smith.
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  Speaker 1: We've told this story on podcasts a couple times over
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  Speaker 1: the course of the year, but Jeremiah Smith like had
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  Speaker 1: to take a second to like think about how much
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  Speaker 1: he wanted to say about Earl Little, and it was
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  Speaker 1: not like, well, there's bad stuff, It was like, how
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  Speaker 1: good do I want to tell them this guy is?
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  Speaker 1: So I'm going to guess Jalen McLain probably has been
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  Speaker 1: glowing things just about Earl Little as well.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, he said, you know, he's looking forward to him.
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  Speaker 4: He's the physical guy, He's the guy who's going to
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  Speaker 4: come in and he's also like the energetic and the loud,
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  Speaker 4: maybe the leader of the secondary. From a traditional what
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  Speaker 4: do you think of raw Row leadership standpoint, Jalen said
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  Speaker 4: he and Terry Moore. He sees both of them as
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  Speaker 4: being more lead by example guys, although Jalen is working
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  Speaker 4: on being more vocal and expanding his role from that standpoint.
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  Speaker 4: But yeah, it talks about you know, Little being a
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  Speaker 4: guy who is very physical, always around the ball and
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  Speaker 4: really kind of has a knack for just playing that
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  Speaker 4: playmaker safety right. I mean, he could be a poor
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  Speaker 4: man's Caleb down downs, but I don't think they're going
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  Speaker 4: to have him again like just do everything that where
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  Speaker 4: Downs could be any he could play. He was playing
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  Speaker 4: like four different positions from you know, in one series,
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  Speaker 4: and they're not going to do that.
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  Speaker 3: I don't think, I.
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  Speaker 4: Mean, like you say, little maybe more just the nickel,
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  Speaker 4: or or maybe if they want him to be a
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  Speaker 4: little bit of a box safety depending on what kind
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  Speaker 4: of a look they're seeing. Whereas you know they could
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  Speaker 4: just do you never knew where what exactly what downs,
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  Speaker 4: what position downs was playing, no matter what the personnel
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  Speaker 4: was out there. He might actually be the middle linebacker.
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  Speaker 4: Sometimes you know they're not going to do that anymore.
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  Speaker 4: And I think Terry Moore from what I think he
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  Speaker 4: is a little bit more of a deep safety as well.
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  Speaker 4: And mcleans I think he can play both of those
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  Speaker 4: deep box safety, both of those deep seaefty positions which
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  Speaker 4: are a little bit interchangeable, and that you need to
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  Speaker 4: be able to do everything with both of them. But
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  Speaker 4: you know, maybe some skills are more are better for
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  Speaker 4: the boundary and some are better for the fields position,
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  Speaker 4: and so they kind of put you there to be
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  Speaker 4: more where is the ball more likely to find you
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  Speaker 4: when you're in your strength and what you're doing your.
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  Speaker 1: Best well, and mentioned Devin Sanchez earlier in the fact
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  Speaker 1: that he played right away Game one he was playing
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  Speaker 1: as a true freshman. I'm not expecting that out of
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  Speaker 1: Blaine Bradford this year. They're in a spot where it's
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  Speaker 1: a little bit of a luxury. You've got the three
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  Speaker 1: guys we just talked about in terms of the three
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  Speaker 1: safety spots. It feels like they feel pretty good about that.
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  Speaker 1: You're not being asked to throw someone like Blaine Bradford
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  Speaker 1: and or Leroy Roker or any of the other guys
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  Speaker 1: that are back there. But it sounds like Blaine Bradford
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  Speaker 1: might be closer to playing at least some than you
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  Speaker 1: might think for a true freshman in a pretty loaded room.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, and so he was asked specifically about Bradford, so
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  Speaker 4: he didn't like volunteer but and he said, yeah, you know,
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  Speaker 4: he's got the right approach to things in terms of
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  Speaker 4: how he handles his business.
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  Speaker 3: Obviously, he's a big guy. So he passes the look
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  Speaker 3: test to get off.
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  Speaker 4: He'd be on the people that even at Ohio State,
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  Speaker 4: he might be on the like get off the bus
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  Speaker 4: early crew eventually. And so, yeah, that's a guy that
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  Speaker 4: he likes what he's seen from them. He also, and
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  Speaker 4: I'm not sure if I had mentioned this to you,
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  Speaker 4: He talked a lot about how much Roker he really
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  Speaker 4: feels good about him and kind of pointed out that
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  Speaker 4: he had gotten a lot of playing time there towards
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  Speaker 4: the end of the season because of injuries, but that
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  Speaker 4: shows you that the coaching staff has a lot of
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  Speaker 4: confidence in him. This came up two or three times
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  Speaker 4: during McLain's interview, so he was he's definitely feels good
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  Speaker 4: about you know, Roker could kind of be the McLain
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  Speaker 4: of this season, almost depending how everything else shakes out.
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  Speaker 4: And I think, you know, we talked about this every year,
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  Speaker 4: but you know, I think if there's a lot of
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  Speaker 4: different packages that they could play, you know, maybe there's
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  Speaker 4: one that would involve Roker, or even even Blaine for
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  Speaker 4: that matter, and being him being you know, it's just
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  Speaker 4: a big guy. Maybe there's some some package where they
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  Speaker 4: if he wants to be a box safety or something
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  Speaker 4: like that, or or you know, that dime they kind
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  Speaker 4: of have, they kind of do different things with that.
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  Speaker 4: I mean, what if they have a dime that's that's
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  Speaker 4: really five safety or that's four safeties, and they have
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  Speaker 4: another one that's three different In a lot of times,
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  Speaker 4: the dime is that truly three corners, which is what
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  Speaker 4: you're talking about. With Sanchez being in there, they could
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  Speaker 4: have any number of attacks like that. Again, especially sometimes
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  Speaker 4: maybe they had that last year, but the package was
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  Speaker 4: the same guy as just Caleb Towns was playing a
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  Speaker 4: different position.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, Caleb Down, Caleb Downs does everything. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Roker is interesting because it's a name that he was
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  Speaker 1: not like the flashiest recruit, but he was someone where
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  Speaker 1: we keep seeing these like little drip grips of indications
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  Speaker 1: that he's maybe gonna play a role this fall. Where
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  Speaker 1: you know, first day of Spring Bowl, who was the
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  Speaker 1: person standing up and talking to the team. It was
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  Speaker 1: Leroy Roker. They put out the Dudes of the week
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  Speaker 1: for this week and Leroy Roker was one of the
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  Speaker 1: dudes of the week in that picture.
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  Speaker 2: So he keeps seeing these like little drip group grips
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  Speaker 2: of information that he's maybe going to be playing a
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  Speaker 2: bigger role.
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  Speaker 4: Well, and with more and little we're both a little
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  Speaker 4: bit in and out with injuries, Roker was the guy
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  Speaker 4: who's I mean, he's the next guy off the bench
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  Speaker 4: for sure. Even if even if those are your top
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  Speaker 4: three safeties, you know, he's he's definitely there. So then
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  Speaker 4: how much of a role do they do. They still
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  Speaker 4: try to find for him if everybody's healthy all season,
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  Speaker 4: which never really happens. So there's no doubt that they
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  Speaker 4: like a lot of what they've seen from him.
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  Speaker 1: And then last thing we talked kind of going all
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  Speaker 1: the way around the secondary for the most part, let's
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  Speaker 1: go to the other side of the ball, because it's
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  Speaker 1: always interesting. I would like to ask guys on one
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  Speaker 1: side of the ball, ab the guys are going up
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  Speaker 1: against on the other side of the ball. So he
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  Speaker 1: was asked about the wide receivers, you know what you
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  Speaker 1: got with Jeremiah Smith, the other wide receivers, especially the
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  Speaker 1: new wide receivers. What has he seen out of like
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  Speaker 1: a Kyle Mcar, Kyle Parker, Devin Mchew and those guys.
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  Speaker 4: He said, he's definitely seen, you know, a certain quickness
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  Speaker 4: and explosiveness out of them, which you know that the
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  Speaker 4: knock on Ohio State receivers has been the yards after
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  Speaker 4: the catch. So that was the thing that he mentioned
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  Speaker 4: with those guys, and I asked him if you know
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  Speaker 4: he has if he can tell from his perspective that
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  Speaker 4: they're working on yards after the catch everybody, and he
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  Speaker 4: said yes.
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  Speaker 3: For sure, even Jeremiah.
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  Speaker 4: Smith, you know, we're working a little bit more on
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  Speaker 4: being dangerous with the ball in his hands. And so
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  Speaker 4: that was and he also said that he feels like,
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  Speaker 4: you know, he has seen Julian sane practice against saying
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  Speaker 4: has been a little different in the spring. He's got
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  Speaker 4: a little bit more of a of a grasp on
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  Speaker 4: what's happening and more command of everything from that standpoint.
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  Speaker 2: So there you go.
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  Speaker 1: So a quick run through what we heard from Jalen mclaim,
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  Speaker 1: what we learned from Jalen McLain at Big ten Media Days.
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  Speaker 1: As I mentioned, we will have more from the Jeremi
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  Speaker 1: Smith interview, the Julian Sayin interview. We already did a
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  Speaker 1: Ryan a interview show that's in the Buckeye Weekly podcast
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  Speaker 1: fee you can find that on our YouTube channel YouTube.
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  Speaker 2: Dot com slash at Buckeye Insiders.
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  Speaker 1: But if you want all this in one convenient spot,
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: plus all sorts of additional commentary and additional notes you
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: wanted in a written form, well we've got a thread
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: on our board, the Insider's board at Buckeye Insiders dot
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: com that is exclusive to our members. We have had
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: a really really fun and active and very spirited conversation.
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  Speaker 2: On there this week with our members.
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  Speaker 1: Lots of interesting stuff about the Buckeyes, about other teams.
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  Speaker 1: Guess what, Thursday Its Michigan Day here, so we'll have
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  Speaker 1: plenty to talk about, I'm sure on Thursday there with
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: our members as well. So this would be a great
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  Speaker 1: time for you to sign up at Buckeye Insiders dot com.
• 11:08
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  Speaker 1: menu and make a reservation today. That will do it
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: for today. Thank you guys all for joining us on
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: a great day.
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  Speaker 2: We'll talk to you tomorrow.