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Ross Fulton Analysis: How Much Will The Ohio State Defense Change This Spring? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Welcome to Buckeyes tomorrow morning for Saturday, March second. I'm your host,
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  Tom Moore. The Akron game is in one hundred and eighty two days.
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  I'll do the math for you. Twenty six weeks almost there, twenty six
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  weeks, just half a year away. The game against Michigan in two hundred
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  and seventy three days. Good news. Spring football a lot closer than that.
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  That starts on Tuesday at the Woody Hayes Athletics Center, and today we're
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  going to be looking at the Ohio State defense and some of the storylines to
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  watch on that side of the ball this spring during those fifteen practices culminating in
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  the spring game on April thirteenth, and we're going to be doing it once
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  again with Ross Fulton. He is the ex's and OS guru at Buckeye Huddle
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  dot com. And when Ross is on the show, we're sponsored by Jeffruby
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  you can go to Jeffruby dot com slash Columbus. You'd rather eat dinner
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  there than at my house anyway, Jeffrubuy dot com slash Columbus. Check out
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  the menu, make a reservation today. All right, Ross, I have
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  reservations about the start of the show, but we're just going to power on
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  through and we are going to talk about the Ohio State Defense today. They're
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  just sort of looking at what are the sort of storylines that you're watching,
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  What are the things you're looking for when we get to watch practice windows,
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  when we get to watch the spring game at the end of the spring.
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  I guess first, let's start with year three of the Gymnoles defense. Year
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  one was kind of well, they're just put kind of installing it and everyone's
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  sort of figuring it out on the fly. Year two looked a lot better.
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  Year three, Boy, there's a lot of talent back, and there's
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  a lot of returning starters, and it feels like they could do a whole
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  lot of different stuff this year if they wanted to. Yeah. Absolutely,
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  I mean it's been It's funny because every three years, I feel like the
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  scheme has shifted quite a bit from time to time like the and I guess
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  maybe some of that's personnel driven because last year, you know, prior to
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  you could make a clear demarcation between before and after Leath and Ransom's injury,
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  and the scheme changed a lot between those times. Prior to Ransom's injury,
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  they're playing a lot more cover one man mixing in some cover two. And
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  then afterwards, you know, as we talked about, like, you know,
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  it was noticeable both against Michigan, Missouri's just a lot of soft country
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  cover four, soft zone. Uh. And I guess, you know,
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  maybe to protect you know, having sunny styles of deep safety instead of Leith
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  and Ransom. But so they've they've used a lot of concepts. So again
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  I think that it will be interesting to see what is the emphasis in spring,
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  because again, as we talked about the offense, like you tend to
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  put in your base defense early, and you know, they certainly have the
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  personnelity to go back to playing a lot of man coverage if they want to,
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  you know, with the three corners and with Kale downs coming in with
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  in Ransom's return, So again it would be interesting, you know, do
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  they go that route, do they mix in more complex cover four coverages some
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  of all the above, but that that coverage mix will probably be the first
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  thing I'm looking for. And how much of that, you know, the
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  different coverages and the variety of coverages, how much of that is stuff you're
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  actually going to see in the spring versus how much of that is more of
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  a later in the year installing. You're just kind of doing the base stuff
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  right now. Yeah, well, I guess you know, there's always you
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  have to always be a little careful with over reading into the few things you
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  see in the spring. But again, like I to me, it's telling
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  what they themselves consider their base defense. You know, what are they focusing
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  on? Its spring? It's what are you know, when we're just making
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  our basic defensive call? What is it? You know, as I cover
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  one for instance, you know, is it our nickel package? What are
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  what are we doing as are sort of this is what we installed the first
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  day of camp. So looking at personnel now and this feels like this could
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  very easily turn into that old Chris Farley Chris Farley Talk Show sketch from Saturday
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  Night Live where he has Paul mccartley. Paul McCartney on He's like you know,
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  hey, remember when you were in the Beatles. That was awesome.
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  It feels like you could kind of have that conversation with a lot of the
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  different elements of this year's Ohio State defense because way, they were pretty good
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  last year, and yeah, they got a whole bunch of guys back,
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  and oh yeah, they also added Caleb Downs. And Caleb Downs is a
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  pretty unique talent. When you listen to coaches talk about what makes him special,
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  like it's a very long answer because there's a lot of different elements that
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  make him special. What is adding someone like that to this defense because they're
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  losing Josh Proctor, who was that adjuster safety last year? What is bringing
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  in someone like Caleb Downs do to not only maintain the level of the Ohio
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  State defense this spring, but potentially raise it. Yeah, I mean,
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  is solid a season as I thought Josh Proctor had last year at that field
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  safety adjuster spot, like he was still somewhat limited, Like he clearly was
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  more comfortable closer to the line of scrimmage, and you know, wasn't a
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  person that you could ask to be in man coverage a lot to now with.
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  I mean, Caleb Downs can do basically everything. You know, you
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  have Leithan Ranson who's much more comfortable. As I said, in man coverage,
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  you know, you can't really count on Study Styles being a man defender
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  on a slot wide receiver. So when you put that together, you know,
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  you just have a lot more flexibility. You can respond easier to motions
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  and shifts with them flip flopping roles, you can do a lot more coverage
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  wise, whether as I said in sort of match cover four or you know,
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  if you want to play man coverage and count on one of them to
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  handle the tight end or slot receiver, it just gives you a lot more
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  versatility, Like you have a much higher bar at the safety position then,
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  you know, particularly as I said at the end of the year, where
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  they had to be pretty limited to I think to protect Procter and Styles,
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  who are both bigger guys who are more comfortable close to the line of scrimmage.
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  Unless you know, as deep safeties are in man coverage, well,
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  the Styles feels like he might be a little bit the odd man out in
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  that safety rotation this year. Because you've got Lathan Ransom back, You've now
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  got Caleb Downs. You got to figure both of those guys are playing.
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  You got Malie Hartford behind downs to provide some quality depth there. You've got
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  Jordan Hancock at the nickel spot, and so it feels like you're kind of
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  out of places for Sunny styles to play. In the safety room. It
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  sounds like he's probably going to open the spring in that safety room. All
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  the indications have been that there is not a positional change yet, but we've
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  been talking for months about the fact that it feels like a positional change might
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  be in everyone's best interest this spring. You know, what do you what
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  are you thinking that the deciding factor is there? What are you thinking,
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  you know, would make a move to linebacker potentially a beneficial one for him?
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  Or do you think he maybe should stay at safety and they just have
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  a bunch of extra good safeties. Well, I think if he says the
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  safety, he's not going to play and so he'll be on the bench.
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  And so I would I mean, if I were advising him, I would
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  tell him to move to linebackers. So, like what you have to keep
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  in mind last year Hill Ransom's injury right, like he was a linebacker.
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  Like you can call it a nickel whatever you want to call it, but
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  like he was the sam linebacker against twelve personnel and then when teams would put
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  three wide receivers on the field, they take them off. And like what
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  we can't know for certain because Lathan Ransom happen to get injured in that Wisconsin
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  game, but like Wisconsin game was pretty noticeable that like even when they went
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  twelve personnel, they did not take Jordan Hancock off the field and said they
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  gave styles an occasional They gave him like a series or two at filling in
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  for Josh Procter to get him some reps on the field, but like he
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  wasn't part of the regular rotation. And so I you know, I personally
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  think Ohio States defense is worse off if they take Jordan Hancock off the field.
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  I think he is stout enough against the run and he gives you so
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  much Morgans coverages. Like I suppose there are situations where you're playing a Michigan
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  and they're in heavy personnel that you're gonna like want someone there, but like
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  that they you know, I would be telling Sunny Styles like that's a very
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  situational role, Like you're maybe getting fifteen percent of the total snaps of the
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  first sharing defense maybe and so again I just don't He's not a safety that
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  Lathan Ranson and Caleb Downs are, Like, He's pretty limited, So I
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  personally would move like I think conversely, like if he doesn't start the spring
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  it you know, linebacker, Like every day that he's not there is a
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  wasted chance to get reps. Like that's a that is like a position change
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  in terms of being an interior linebacker and filling. So, I mean,
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  I think the choice is between like him being a part time, you know
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  player at best and having the opportunity to play all the time. So I
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  you know, I don't think they should use I mean, I guess you
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  could say it's a question of like how much they want to use more like
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  a three linebacker looks as opposed to what they did last year. I just
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  think Jordan Hancock's one of their best eleven and so like I would, I'd
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  want him off the field as little as boss ball. And if they do
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  just play two linebackers, which it would be for four defensive linemen, two
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  linebackers and then the five defensive backs, if you got Hancock out there,
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  there's no returning starters there technically. I mean Cody Simon I think has started
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  a little bit before. He's I think someone that you kind of pencil in
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  for sort of towards the top of the line in terms of number of expected
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  reps this fall. But then you've got potentially, you know, maybe Styles
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  is there, maybe he's not, but you've still got gay powers, You've
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  got CJ. Hicks. I mean, that's a room that's got some talented,
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  intriguing players who we've heard a lot about and we haven't really seen play
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  a lot of linebacker at Ohio State. So you know, what are you
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  looking for there? What is going to be the deciding factor there in terms
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  of which of those guys maybe gets this one of the starting jobs this fall?
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  Yeah, I mean I to me, like, Cody Simon is a
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  returning starter. Like he played a lot last year. He was very good.
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  He was very good at Mike against Missouri. So it's really but that's
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  like the one really open position on the defense, and it's a critical one.
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  You know, not to say that that Steel Chambers was a great will
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  linebacker, but he was certainly serviceable. And you know, I to me,
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  like, what's going to be the difference there? Is like who can
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  can read their keys correctly and read and react and fill the gaps. You
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  know, I have said on Buckey Huddle before that you know, what I've
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  seen out of CJ. Hicks for the most part, unfortunately, has not
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  been particularly encouraging in that front in terms of reading keys and reacting. Like,
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  you know, someone could be the greatest athlete in the world, but
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  like you know, it does take a certain type of skill to be able
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  to fill holes and do what you're supposed to do in the defense. So
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  I you know that that to me is going to be like a big deciding
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  factor. And yeah, I would say that, you know, almost maybe
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  besides the fifth offensive line spot, I would say will linebackers like the biggest
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  question mark in terms of like you know, I personally think Sunny Style is
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  going to play there, as I said, but like you know, the
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  more time they spend with him not playing there, I guess that would concern
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  me more. But it's sort of like anyone's gas in terms of how that
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  might shake out. Well, we will see how that starts shaking out next
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  Tuesday when the Buckeyes open spring football fifteen practices. Culminating in that spring game
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  on April thirteenth. We're looking forward to seeing as much of it as we
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  possibly can, and when we whatever we get to see, we will tell
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  you all about it. At bucket Huddle dot com is where Ross and our
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  whole team of x's and O's gurus are there to make you a smarter football
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  fan. We get Mark covering recruiting, we got Tony, Kevin and I
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  covering. The team was a really active and fun community on the huddle board
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  presented by Jeffruby Steakhouse, and of course, whenever Ross is on this show,
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  we are also presented by Jeff Ruby Steakhouse, the award winning upscale steakhouse
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  in downtown Columbus, named one of the top fifty steakhouses in America by Food
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  Network. Jeffruby dot com slash Columbus. Check out the menu, make a
• 12:11
  reservation today. You won't be disappointed. It is. It is a delight.
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  I love it. You will love it as well. I promise that'll
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  do it for today. Thank you guys all for joining us. Have a
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  great day. We'll talk to you tomorrow.