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3 Things We Just Learned About The College Football Playoff · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Welcome to buck Eyes Tomorrow morning for Thursday, July twenty fifth. I'm your
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  host, Tom Moore. The Akron game in thirty seven days, the game
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  against Michigan in one hundred and twenty eight days. Two days of Big ten
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  media days now in the books, which would normally mean we would be in
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  the car and headed back to Bumbus. But welcome to the brave new world
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  of twenty twenty four Big Ten Football. There are three days of this event
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  now, so we were only two thirds of the way through. But boy,
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  it was another very very interesting day. Lots of different stuff to talk
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  about. Some of my favorite people to listen to talk about football. You
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  ask questions, got Matt Ruhle, James Franklin, got the new College Football
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  Playoff executive director, got a chance to talk to him some really really interesting
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  stuff today. I guess we were kind of running a bunch of different directions.
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  There was a lot of stuff happening, So there was a bunch of
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  people you talked to that I really didn't get a chance to talk to.
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  So let's start with Matt Ruhle. You said that he had some interesting stuff
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  to talk about in terms of roster management, coach management, all that kind
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  of stuff. Yeah, the the ability to have more coaches on the field.
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  Now, a lot of the coaches here we're talking being asked about all
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  of the changes, you know, whether it's scholarship limits, the coaching changes.
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  But this one is everybody that you can have unlimited coaches basically. But
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  the thing is, you don't want unlimited coaches because it's the whole too many
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  cooks in the kitchen type of things. So their plan right now is to
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  have two coaches for every position, So you know, two defensive line coach,
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  two coaches, two receivers coaches. And he explained it in a way
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  where they've got on the defensive line, they've got a fit yar guy who
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  should be taking you know, like graduate level courses, and they're bringing in
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  a freshman who is still learning how to play American football. That he said,
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  So it's like to teach these two guys the same thing isn't necessarily fair
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  to either one of them. It reminds me of like the the one room
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  schoolhouse thing, you know, where you've got high school kids and the first
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  graders type of thing. And so they hope to split that up. And
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  we see that at various positions forever, like a Texas Tech would have outside
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  receivers inside receivers under Mike Leach, some coaches have. Some teams have defensive
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  end coach and some have defensive tackle coach together. I was looking to do
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  that for everybody, just to help split up the youth and the veterans in
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  one way. And that's in case you're wondering what changed about coaches. The
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  NCAA ended the countable coaches role. That ended, I think late June they
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  signed off on that finally. Where you used to have the ten countable assistants
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  and those are the only ones who are allowed to do on field instruction and
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  you know, certain stuff like when there's a football on the field. There
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  were just restrictions on that. That's all gone now, so functionally you have
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  an unlimited number of coaches if you want it. I don't think anyone's going
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  to have two hundred and seventy five on field coaches. That will be probably
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  some overkill, but I think people just sort of still figuring out where they
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  want to fall on that spectrum between ten and two hundred and seventy five.
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  One of my other favorite coaches to talk to every year is James Franklin,
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  and James Franklin is just He's very honest, He's very open. He's got
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  a pretty good sense of humor. I know, I know that people have
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  a view of him based on his you know his you know, game management
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  to people have a view based on him on some of his He was asked
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  about the you know, good team, great team, elite team and the
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  reporter said, you know, you had that rant a couple of years ago,
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  and he's like, I would characterize it as a speech and not a
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  rant, which is just kind of like dryly funny. But he had a
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  couple of different interestings to say. I was only over there to get over
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  there for like five ten minutes and had two different things, very distinct things
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  that I posted clips of on Twitter because it was like, well this is
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  this is really interesting. One was about the white out and would they do
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  a white out for the college football playoff game they had home game. They
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  had an interesting answer on that. He also had a really really really interesting
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  answer on the headsets and you know, the helmet radios, and you know,
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  he went into sort of well, you know, this was designed to
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  solve the problem the science dealing, but then said like, well, it
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  might not actually completely do that. Yeah, it solves it in one aspect
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  where you the coaches don't have to sign anything in necessarily, but the sign
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  still has to get from the quarterback to the receivers if you're not huddling,
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  and so there's still gonna be signaling. There would still be hand signals if
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  you're you're doing a no huddle where sure the quarterback gets it into his helmet,
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  but then he's got to relay it to so many twenty yards away.
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  So how are you going to do that. You're not gonna yell it,
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  You're gonna do the hand signals there. So he said, it doesn't really
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  eliminate that you could do some huddling. I think Ryan Days talked about the
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  expectations there will be some huddling. Kirk Parents has talked about that. Surprisingly.
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  I know you're shocked by that. I think of them as such a
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  no huddle, up tempo team. That's so strange. But he did say
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  that he thinks they could have a pretty good offense this year. But you
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  do the huddling aspect of it if you want, but there's still gonna be
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  some up tempo because it's such an it's still an advantage for the offense to
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  go up tempo. So when you do, you're gonna have hand signals there,
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  and of course you're always going to have hand signals defensively from secondary on
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  up. So it's it's a nice thought, and it's one way to eliminate
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  some of it, you know, but it's it's if you're trying to eliminate
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  it completely, you're not going to do that. No, and you know
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  you're never going to solve everything. It may make it better, and you
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  know, you may have teams going You used to have teams going up tempo
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  to throw the defense off. Now you might be going, yeah, to
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  throw the defense change up. It's not think. One other thing from James
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  Franklin. He saw a reporter in the crowd where the Buckey's visor and he
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  mentioned the visor and the guy was like, I can get you on and
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  Franklin was like, yeah, I don't think that would go over well with
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  the wuah Wan the sheets people in Pennsylvania. So he declined, you forget,
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  sir, that I live in the convenience store state. That's what it
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  says right on the license plate Yeah, he is. He's always an entertaining
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  guy to talk to. Yeah, he was talking about the fact that it's
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  the helmet stripe game for the Ohio State game, not the whiteout game this
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  year. You know, we have been sort of reading tea leaves on a
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  lot of this stuff and been telling you for a month or two now.
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  We're pretty sure the Penn State game is going to be a day game.
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  We're pretty sure the Oregon game is going to be a primetime game. It
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  feels like no one is willing to say that officially yet, but I feel
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  like everyone on we talked to here is sort of under the same impression.
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  I talked to James Krepia, who cut from The Oregonian, who covers the
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  Oregon That interview was already posted on our board, the Huddle burd Postjffruby Steakhouse
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  atucke Huddle dot com did three season preview episodes, one with Iowa, one
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  with Oregon, one with Michigan. Talking to writers who cover those teams,
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  really really interesting stuff. You can find that all for our members at bucke
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  hill dot com. But when I was talking to James Prepia, who covers
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  Oregon, he said, you know, he everyone has basically all but told
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  him it is going to be a primetime game. They're doing a blackout in
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  the crowd they're doing they're wearing their new black jerseys. So's he said,
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  like, they're probably not going to do that if they think that's a new
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  and local kick. So that's a pretty good indication on that, because I
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  know that's one of those things that people ask us about all the time.
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  So something else people ask us about all the time, the College Football Playoff.
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  We have been doing a bunch of shows on that because it's so new
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  and so different and sort of figuring out like what that might look like.
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  But we always had these questions about, Okay, well, you know,
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  is Ohio State guaranteed if they win the Big Ten guaranteed to be the team
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  that gets you know, the two seed or the one seed or whatever that
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  gets assigned to the Rose Bowl, Or could that change, could that change
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  based on geography or whatever. Got a chance I pulled the Rich Clark,
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  the College Football Playoff executive director, off the side for a few minutes after
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  he spoke this morning, you got a chance to ask him a couple of
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  those questions. The conference tie ins with the bowls, those contracts are still
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  in effect. So the Big ten champion is going to be one of the
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  top four seeds, and the Big Ten champion is going to go to the
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  Rose Bowl. So if Ohio State wins a Big Ten championship here in Indianapolis
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  in December, they will move on to the quarterfinal round and they will play
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  in the Rose Bowl. Basically, period, full stop. What's interesting there
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  is George is the SEC champion if we're you know, whoever the SEC champion
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  is. But if George is the SEC champion, I'm sure Georgia would rather
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  play in the Peach Bowl. But the SEC champion is contractually tied to the
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  Sugar Bowl. So I asked him and he said, well, I guess
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  in that scenario they would go to the Sugar Bowl. Now Big twelve champion,
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  I believe, is also contractually tied to the Sugar Bowl, So maybe
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  they could kind of do a little bit of a work around there. That
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  was certainly one thing that was interesting. The other thing that I thought was
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  interesting talking to him was when you know, we have gone through these scenarios
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  and there's a scenario where Ohio State is playing Texas in the Cotton Bowl,
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  which is rather famously located in Texas, in the semi final round. If
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  the bracket plays out that way, and you know, that would obviously be
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  a pretty substantial disadvantage. The answer on that was, if you were the
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  top seed, they will kind of look ahead and you know, adjust that
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  matchup. So if it's like Ohio State in Texas, are you know,
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  on pace on a path to potentially play in that semi final matchup, and
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  the choices this year are the Cotton Bowl and the Orange Bowl, they would
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  assign Ohio State, you know, Ohio State side of the bracket. If
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  Ohio State's the number one, they would go to the Rose Bowl and then
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  they would go to the Orange Bowl. In that case, if you know,
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  if they were going to play in Miami somehow, then obviously they would
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  put that potentially in the Cotton Well, I mean, you don't want to
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  put the number one seed at a disadvantage is playing Miami in Miami. Actually
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  advantage is playing UCLA or USC and the Rose Bowl at disadvantage. Yeah,
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  I mean, and and the first round is contractual for the next couple of
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  years. So even if even if they were going to somehow play USC or
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  UCLA in the quarter final round. Yes, that would be the Rose Bull
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  came out today saying they want to stay yes, quarter final round January first,
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  so that that he doesn't move, I have to move anything. So
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  they will briefully bow out of any type of semi final action. Yes,
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  So a couple a couple of interesting little pieces of information there on the college
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  football playoff. Again, this is this is all the stuff that people People
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  are like, why are you asking these stupid, you know, minutia kind
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  of questions. It's like, well, because we're gonna get asked a question
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  in October about well what happens if and it's like, well, now we
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  have gone directly to the source and gotten the answer. So that's a lot
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  of what this week is about. Well, another one Kirk parents. He
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  was talking about the technology. We touched on that a little bit, the
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  tablets on the sideline. He said, he loves it and it's great that
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  college football has finally caught up of high school football. So and he comes
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  from the NFL where they would have photos, you know, they print out
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  the photos and they have that. He does think it's gonna be a little
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  bit more maybe sometimes maybe too much information with video like photos. It's very
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  boom boom, you can you could see it. We're but it's gonna be
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  a huge help on the sidelines for the players and I I'm fascinated to see
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  how all that works. You'll be on the sidelines and they're all gonna be
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  huddled around their iPads and it's a brave new world. As we move into
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  the tablets that the kids love. You know nowadays that the three year olds
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  grew up with, now the twenty year olds get them. Everyone's screen time
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  only going to go up at this college. The childer are supposed to be
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  outside getting fresh air and exercise in playing football, and now there's going to
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  be screen time to evenside. Shameful. One thing that not exactly a college
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  football tradition, but definitely old school Wrigley Field. We talked to some of
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  the Northwestern players on Tuesday about having played in Wrigley Field and how cool that
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  was, and you know how different that is in terms of game day kind
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  of stuff. Iowa players also played there. They did not, you know,
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  they did not have all Chicago people necessarily who grew up as Cubs fans
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  and had that whole you know, experience. So you've got a chance to
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  talk to some of the Kirk parents and a couple of the Iowa players about
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  that. What was what were their thoughts on playing in Wrigley Field? Well,
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  talking to Jay Higgins, linebacker, he said that he said, I
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  think the answer is like, it's a baseball stadium, not a football field,
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  and playing on the infield there trying to you can't. It's we're not
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  doing baseball moves, We're doing football moves, and you can't move people very
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  well on the on the diamond, and so the footing was not great.
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  Kirk Farren said the same thing, like the footing was not great on that
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  field. So there, you know, that's those are some things like real
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  world concerns. But conditions at Northwestern have famously been walking. Yeah, but
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  it was interesting, you know they had to play when the players are on
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  the same sideline. Everybody's on one sideline. Talked to Cam Porter, the
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  Northwestern running back yesterday. He said he was told build me on opposite opposite
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  sidelines, so that will be a help. But yeah, the footing is
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  not great. But the old school building they loved and Prince Shalti I asked
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  him how these defensive back and forth. Iowa, how familiar were you with
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  the building? And he's like, well, you know they told us about
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  it. You you kids today, what country did you grow up in?
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  Certainly not America, sir. Did you not grow up with WGN? No,
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  No, with w B. I don't know. Yeah, that's upn
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  up kids today with their upn their WB and their tablets. I don't know,
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  Tony, I just don't know. It was interesting that that when the
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  teams were on the site on the same sideline, which sounds like it might
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  not be the case this year, but when they were on the same sideline,
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  there were issues with almost like a hockey line change during the second period,
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  where you've kind of got the long change and if the puck gets stuck
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  in one end, it's hard to get off the ice. Well, if
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  the you know, it's it's harder to substitute, if the if the if
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  you are on one end of the field and the balls down the other end.
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  You know, if the out subs, then the defense gets a chance
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  to sub. But if the defense wants to sub and the offense, you
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  know that that can be a harder thing to do well. And fortunately,
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  when talking to Jay Higgins about that. He said that when they were down
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  by, you know, on the Northwestern side, Northwestern would sometimes throw a
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  tight end in and one of the a newnother linebacker would have to come in
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  because he play four two five, there's a linebacker would have to come running
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  from like twenty five yards away. Fortunately they hold the time a little bit,
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  but you've got to be on your toes and it's it's an interesting situation.
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  If you ever see it, just look up a picture of Google,
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  like Iowa Northwestern Wrigley Field, and you'll see the setup and there's a lot
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  of open space, but then they're all kind of crammed. And he did
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  say though that later on after that game down the road, he did go
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  to a baseball game at Wrigula and he was like sitting in the stands,
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  thinking, how in the world did they get a football for over year.
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  I had the same thought. I went to a game there a couple of
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  years ago, and you look and it's like, I guess it, Maybe
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  I don't. Yeah, I'm I'm guessing I'm not going to have the luxury
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  of standing behind the end zone in at least one end of the field because
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  I don't think there's a lot of a lot of space there. And if
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  someone does come running into and bumps into you, you're gonna get bumped directly
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  into a brick wall, which seems not ideal. This was also the first
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  impressions for a couple of LA schools here at Big ten media Days. Lincoln
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  Riley was asked about the famous picture that he tweeted about his brisket a couple
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  of years ago, and the brisket looked like it was, you know,
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  well done ish and it got a lot of scorn and derision. He said,
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  his barbecue skills are fine. It's pestography skills that were that were lacking
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  in that case. He was also asked about the USC Notre Dame rivalry and
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  the fact that that could be going away. They are still playing this year,
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  but that right now is the last game of the season. USC hosting
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  Notre Dame. You see us he has a difficult slate this year. This
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  is not an easy schedule for them, and then you also have Notre Dame
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  on there, and it was it was he didn't say it's definitely going away.
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  We are definitely get doing rid of that, you know, getting rid
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  of that thing. But it was the kind of answer that was, like,
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  well, a lot of games, traditional rivalries have been casualties of college
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  football expansion. Notre Dame has lost some of those, and you know,
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  I think that that's one of those things that the ACC. They have their
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  ACC scheduling agreement right now, but you know, you start they start to
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  lose some of those. You wonder if that might push them, you know,
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  if and when there's an ACC implosion slash explosion, push them even closer
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  to the Big Ten in some way or fashion. Well, if you you
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  lose USC, you lose perhaps the opportunity to play FSU Clemson in the ACC.
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  The rest of the ACC is not enough of a draw necessarily unless you're
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  playing Miami twice two times a year. That sort of thing. Catholics versus
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  convicts, Catholics versus convicts too electric boogoloo. Yes, so there's some I
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  think there's some strategic there. Should have Big ten start to freeze and not
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  just start, but have they should should have been freezing Notre Dame out.
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  I think that's been a conversation. There's no way LSU or USC is going
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  to continue this. There's no reason to for that right. It the way
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  he said it was one of those very diplomatic like, well, you know,
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  gonna that's a decision that's going to get made above my pay grade.
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  But that's when you tell your kids, we'll see yeah right, yeah,
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  yes, yeah exactly, yeah, yeah, Lincoln Riley is going to turn
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  this car around unless you unless you join the big tant and sirs. Yeah
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  it. It is one of you know, and you go through the list
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  of the great college football rivalries that have gotten kind of kicked the curb over
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  the years, and you know the Backyard Brawl and the Border War, and
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  you know Texas Texas A and M which went away and now is coming back,
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  and Notre Dame. I mean, there are a million of them,
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  and you know that is sort of the price of my in college football.
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  There's going to be some cool stuff this fall. There is going to be
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  some stuff that you will miss this fall, but definitely going to be a
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  memorable season. And it's going to be a memorable season for all of us.
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  At buckey Huddle dot com, that is where Ibany, Kevin and I
• 18:11
  cover the team, Mark covers, recruit and get our whole team. Effects's
• 18:14
  and those gurus making you a smarter football fan. It's all at Buckey Huddle
• 18:18
  dot com. Mentioned have some sort of early access to some of the season
• 18:23
  preview shows that we're doing here in Indianapolis. Has a really really good interesting
• 18:27
  conversations. Had a great conversation with Aaron McMahon from the Annarburnews and mlive dot
• 18:33
  com all about Michigan. Asked him, you know what is the perception right
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  now in ann Arbor of you know what's going to happen when the NCAA noticed
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  valigations drops. And it's a really really interesting conversation with it with a guy
• 18:47
  whose work I really respect. I've followed him for years and it was a
• 18:51
  great conversation. So you can find all that on the Huddleboard, present of
• 18:53
  by Jeff Ruby, Steahouse all at Buckeye Huddle dot com. We hope to
• 18:57
  see there. That'll do it for today. Thank you guys all for joining
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  us. Have a great day. We'll talk to you tomorrow.