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BONUS: Matt Patricia Discusses The Improving Ohio State Defense · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Speaker 1: We got another bonus show for you. This time you're
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  Speaker 1: going to get to hear from Ohio State defensive coordinator
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  Speaker 1: Matt Patricia. He is always an absolute delight to get
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  Speaker 1: to talk to at any point during the offseason or
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  Speaker 1: in season. And he was once again had a fun
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  Speaker 1: conversation with him this week, kind of going back and
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  Speaker 1: forth with various reporters. One of the first things he
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  Speaker 1: was asked was about true freshman Jay Timmons. He is
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  Speaker 1: really he's been a standout. He's been a very pleasant
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  Speaker 1: surprise compared to what you were sort of probably expecting
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  Speaker 1: over the summer. Is it possible that Jay Timmons is
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  Speaker 1: the best player on the defense?
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  Speaker 2: I mean, I think Jay Timmons has done an unbelievable
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  Speaker 2: job since day one he got here, right? Flying around,
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  Speaker 2: making plays and just, you know, it's great when you
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  Speaker 2: watch young players like him and they come onto a
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  Speaker 2: team and they just start impacting plays right away. And
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  Speaker 2: you say, okay, that's a little bit different for a
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  Speaker 2: young guy. So hopefully, you know, that trend keeps going,
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  Speaker 2: but it's great having him out there and he can
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  Speaker 2: impact the game. So certainly you rely on him to
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  Speaker 2: do that. It's been good.
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  Speaker 1: Here's a really interesting question. He doesn't really directly answer it,
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  Speaker 1: but it's just kind of an interesting thought exercise with
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  Speaker 1: Julian saying out now for at least the foreseeable future.
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  Speaker 1: That obviously changes a little bit about what you can
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  Speaker 1: expect from the Ohio state offense. So does that in
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  Speaker 1: turn change how aggressive they need to be on defense?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think game by game, we always try to
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  Speaker 2: take a, you know, coach data is a great job
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  Speaker 2: of game by game, really saying like, Hey, what's the
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  Speaker 2: best way for the team to win? based on the
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  Speaker 2: strengths and weaknesses of all three phases of the opponent
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  Speaker 2: that we're going to play. Sometimes you run into guys
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  Speaker 2: that have great returners and field position battle becomes really
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  Speaker 2: critical or other situations where whatever their challenges on their
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  Speaker 2: side of the ball versus the guys that we have
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  Speaker 2: to stop, you try to take that full picture. So
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  Speaker 2: I think it's a week-by-week sort of analysis of how
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  Speaker 2: we need to play the game that week to win.
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  Speaker 1: Did a show with one of our scheme insiders, Michael Pettit,
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  Speaker 1: earlier in the week about how much progress they've made
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  Speaker 1: in run defense this year. And he chalked it up
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  Speaker 1: to kind of a combination of players and also scheme. Matt,
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  Speaker 1: Patricia was asked about that progress in run defense and
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  Speaker 1: what has caused it.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I think in the last couple of weeks, these
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  Speaker 2: guys have done a great job of really, um, improving
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  Speaker 2: the fundamentals and the techniques. I mean, obviously, we didn't
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  Speaker 2: do great there a couple weeks ago. And we take
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  Speaker 2: a lot of pride in making sure that we can
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  Speaker 2: stop the run. And we knew we had some big
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  Speaker 2: challenges in front of us. So that was going to
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  Speaker 2: have to happen really fast. I mean, going to Iowa,
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  Speaker 2: certainly Coach Ferentz, you know that's going to be a problem.
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  Speaker 2: In Indiana, they run the ball so well. So we've
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  Speaker 2: been working really hard and just give the players credit.
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  Speaker 2: I think, you know, you watch the tape and you
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  Speaker 2: see some really good fundamental technique up front. Certainly Edrick,
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  Speaker 2: you know, has really come on, done a great job
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  Speaker 2: with his pad level. And J-Mo has done a really
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  Speaker 2: good job up there. I mean, we've played a lot
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  Speaker 2: of guys in the front, which has been really good
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  Speaker 2: to watch them kind of all progress. And that's I
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  Speaker 2: think been the biggest key is just their hard work
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  Speaker 2: that they've been doing to just really nail down the fundamentals.
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  Speaker 2: I think that's been the biggest difference.
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  Speaker 1: Cornerbacks are always people who are going to get criticized
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  Speaker 1: and examined probably a little more closely than almost anyone
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  Speaker 1: else on the field. Cause boy, you have one bad
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  Speaker 1: play or one play where you give up a catch
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  Speaker 1: and everyone is kind of looking at you and saying,
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  Speaker 1: what's wrong with that guy? So Matt Patricia was asked
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  Speaker 1: to sort of evaluate the corner play of guys like
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  Speaker 1: Jermaine Matthews and Devin Sanchez so far this season. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, Jermaine, I think he's really gone out this
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  Speaker 2: season and battled every single snap. You know, I think
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  Speaker 2: he's been competitive and, He's made some big plays for us.
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  Speaker 2: He's been on it. It hasn't been easy. Those are
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  Speaker 2: some good players that we've played through the course of
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  Speaker 2: the year. Same thing with Devin. He's obviously learning and
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  Speaker 2: he's in the middle of the mix right now and
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  Speaker 2: he's getting better. With some of the different looks that
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  Speaker 2: we've had to, I would say, implore out there, sometimes
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  Speaker 2: They don't necessarily have the easiest assignments in some of
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  Speaker 2: those looks. But, you know, that's on purpose for us
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  Speaker 2: for the totality of what we're trying to do. So it's,
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  Speaker 2: you know, it's a good week for us to try
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  Speaker 2: to get better at some of those things that we're
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  Speaker 2: not great at right now and do a good job
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  Speaker 2: of the self-scout. We obviously got some, you know, huge
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  Speaker 2: opponents coming up and certainly S.C., right out the gate. But, uh,
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  Speaker 2: so we'll, uh, you know, keep working that stuff this,
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  Speaker 2: this week. But I think, you know, those guys are
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  Speaker 2: trying to do everything that we're asking and some of
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  Speaker 2: the guys that have come into, you know, even cam
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  Speaker 2: who's had to come into the game and Jay Timmons
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  Speaker 2: kind of moved around a couple of different roles. So, um, it's,
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  Speaker 2: it's a group that is hopefully getting better every week.
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  Speaker 1: Black guys have this weekend off, but next weekend, they've
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  Speaker 1: got a real challenge ahead. They are heading West to
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  Speaker 1: take on the USC Trojans out in the Coliseum. It'll
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  Speaker 1: be the first time taking on Lincoln Riley since he
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  Speaker 1: was at Oklahoma in 2017. What kind of a challenge
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  Speaker 1: does USC pose to the Ohio State defense?
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely. Great quarterback, great passing game. I think they do
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  Speaker 2: a good job. Coach Riley does a good job mixing
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  Speaker 2: tempo and different formations, different looks. I would say this
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  Speaker 2: offense stresses you in a lot of different areas. Sometimes
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  Speaker 2: we see offenses that maybe stress you in a couple areas.
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  Speaker 2: I feel he does an excellent job of stressing the
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  Speaker 2: field horizontally, and then obviously being able to push the
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  Speaker 2: ball downfield vertically. And he does a really good job
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  Speaker 2: of understanding when to do that. I think he's got
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  Speaker 2: a good feel for that. And it's driven through the quarterback.
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  Speaker 2: So he's going to throw it. This will be a
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  Speaker 2: huge challenge for us in the passing game, for sure.
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  Speaker 1: Something else we talked about with Michael Pettit on one
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  Speaker 1: of our Scheme Insider shows this week is the fact
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  Speaker 1: that Matt Patricia was a little bit more aggressive than
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  Speaker 1: he tends to be at the end of that game
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  Speaker 1: against Indiana. He brought pressure on both fourth downs that
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  Speaker 1: the Hoosiers had during the game. Jalen McClain had a
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  Speaker 1: strip sack on one, and then of course they had
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  Speaker 1: the pressure to force an incomplete pass on the last
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  Speaker 1: play on offense for Indiana. So what went into those calls?
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  Speaker 2: You know, those are kind of sequences of pressures and
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  Speaker 2: blitzes that have kind of run for a long time.
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  Speaker 2: And honestly, the history of them is kind of fascinating
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  Speaker 2: when you go through the ones that have worked and
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  Speaker 2: the ones that haven't worked and the games and some
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  Speaker 2: of the biggest games that we've called them in that they've,
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  Speaker 2: they've worked or not worked. So I was just excited
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  Speaker 2: to see, um, you know, the one with Jalen with the, um,
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  Speaker 2: the strip sack is like the timing of that is
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  Speaker 2: so well executed by him, uh, and everybody in, in
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  Speaker 2: the design and the scheme of it, um, that I
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  Speaker 2: was just happy to kind of get that one, that
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  Speaker 2: one rolling. Obviously it was a big part of the game, but, um,
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  Speaker 2: a lot of times those plays, they do have, you know, defense,
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  Speaker 2: you don't think about it, but they have a timing
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  Speaker 2: to them. Um, and, and those guys did a great
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  Speaker 2: job with those ones.
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  Speaker 1: With Julian Sane out and a new quarterback in, Ryan Day,
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  Speaker 1: it's probably safe to say, spending a little more time
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  Speaker 1: with the offense this week to get them ready for
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  Speaker 1: the USC game than he probably typically would in a
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  Speaker 1: normal week. So how does that change things on the
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  Speaker 1: defensive side of the ball?
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  Speaker 2: I think I'd go back to, you know, I always
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  Speaker 2: follow Coach Day's lead on what do we need to
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  Speaker 2: do to just win this game, you know, as all
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  Speaker 2: three units. I think our focus has to be just,
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  Speaker 2: you know, defensively, defensively. Take this week, really do a
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  Speaker 2: good job with our self-scout, really do a good job
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  Speaker 2: of obviously also preparing for SC. But what do we
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  Speaker 2: have to do both individually as players and then schematically
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  Speaker 2: to just get better? You know, level up is kind
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  Speaker 2: of what we got to do during the bye week.
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  Speaker 2: You know, bye weeks are tricky because you always feel
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  Speaker 2: that the teams that are playing are in rhythm and
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  Speaker 2: they're getting better because they're out there competing and they
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  Speaker 2: go into that rhythm. you know, three-hour fire on Saturday,
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  Speaker 2: and that's a huge growth opportunity for those teams. So
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  Speaker 2: how do we keep that edge? How do we, you know,
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  Speaker 2: continue to kind of grow, even though we don't have
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  Speaker 2: that really hardcore competitive Saturday upcoming? Now, we need the rest,
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  Speaker 2: and all that's going to be really good for us,
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  Speaker 2: but we have to really focus on us, you know,
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  Speaker 2: defensively and the things that we have to do to
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  Speaker 2: get better, and then, you know, follow the lead as
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  Speaker 2: far as what collectively we'll do as a team to
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  Speaker 2: help us win next week.
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  Speaker 1: One of the really underappreciated players on defense is Jalen McClain. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: he's a captain. He's a returning starter. He has been
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  Speaker 1: so good this year. And he's just one of those
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  Speaker 1: guys who you just, I think a lot of people
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  Speaker 1: sort of take for granted. And we keep talking about
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  Speaker 1: him as like, boy, really, really underappreciated on that defense.
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  Speaker 1: So what kind of a role has he played in
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  Speaker 1: all of the different things he's been asked to do
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  Speaker 1: this season?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think he's been huge for us this year.
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  Speaker 2: I think you nailed it. He's done a couple different
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  Speaker 2: roles and been so solid in some of those assignments
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  Speaker 2: that we've asked him to do. It's not easy to
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  Speaker 2: play in the deep part of the field and come
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  Speaker 2: out of the deep part of the field and make
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  Speaker 2: some of the plays that he's made in space. And
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  Speaker 2: it's certainly one of the things about the college field
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  Speaker 2: that I always feel like with the hashes and the
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  Speaker 2: amount of room that is actually out there in some
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  Speaker 2: of those situations. And he's done a phenomenal job. He
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  Speaker 2: really has in those opportunities he's had to get guys
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  Speaker 2: down on the ground or cover guys with all that
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  Speaker 2: sort of space that maybe are a little bit more
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  Speaker 2: athletic than he is or have a different skill set
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  Speaker 2: or be able to blitz off the corner or even
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  Speaker 2: fill in some of the run plays that he fills in.
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  Speaker 2: And he's coming downhill. I think he's done an excellent job.
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  Speaker 1: The football team will head out to California next week
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  Speaker 1: Take on the USC Trojans. That is a 4.30 Pacific, 7.30
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  Speaker 1: Eastern kickoff. Saturday night, Halloween night in L.A. in the Coliseum.
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  Speaker 1: It'll be a really exciting game. Should be a whole
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• 9:17
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• 9:25
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• 9:41
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