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Can Ohio State Raid Michigan's Roster In The Transfer Portal? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Welcome to Buck Eyes tomorrow morning for Friday, January twenty sixth. I'm your
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  host, tom Or. The Akron game is in two hundred and eighteen days,
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  the game against Michigan in three hundred and nine days. Jim Harbaugh is
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  officially the coach of the Los Angeles Chargers. They moved from San Diego.
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  As you may have heard, Jim Harball is moving there as well. So
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  now the question is what kind of fallout will there be for the Michigan program.
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  And there's a whole NCAA conversation to have there, but there's also a
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  transfer portal conversation to have there because, of course, as we have seen
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  with other teams that have lost their coaches in the last few weeks, there
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  is a thirty day transfer portal window that opens up if your head coach leaves.
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  We saw that at Alabama, we saw that at Washington, you're seeing
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  that at Arizona, and now you're going to see that at Michigan as well.
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  So what is that going to look like? And are any of those
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  guys going to end up at Ohio State. That sounds like a little bit
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  of an inflammatory question, but we're asking for reasons we'll get into in a
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  minute, but we're going to welcome into Gerdaman of bucke Huddle dot com.
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  He would never transfer on us to another podcast, Tony, welcome. Let's
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  just start with this. We saw it happen to Alabama, a bunch of
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  very talented players hitting the portal as soon as Nick Saban left and heading to
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  other destinations run college football. Is that gonna happen at Michigan? And you
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  know why or why not? Well? I don't think it will for a
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  couple of reasons. For one, I don't think the talent pool is as
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  great at Michigan as it was at Alabama, and so while these players could
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  have options if they jump into the portal, I don't think that they would
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  be as wide and as prestigious as the players from Alabama. Now, there
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  are certainly some players from Michigan, as we'll talk about, who could,
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  But I also think that if the reports are true and that Seharon Moore is
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  the guy that gets the job, you're trying to keep the band together as
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  much as you can, like when the lead singer leaves, and this is
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  basically Steve Perry leaving Journey, and you just let's just continue to try and
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  keep Journey going type of thing, and Seren Moore now the lead singer of
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  Journey and just trying to keep people from jumping into the portal. And we've
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  seen former players, current players even saying give it to Searan, give the
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  job to Sharon More And so it seems like that aspect of it, the
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  familiarity. The nothing is really changing. The head coach is changing, and
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  but for the offensive guys, not much else, So like why hit the
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  portal. Defensive guys will maybe have to have a different talk because they may
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  be losing the defensive coordinators. So we'll see what that looks like. But
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  I think the familiarity keeps players from bolting, certainly as much as you know
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  less than they did for or more than they did from Alabama, because that's
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  just I think it's two different worlds, two different talent pools. But also
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  you're bringing in a vastly different head coach for Alabama, completely unknown to the
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  players, whereas Sharan Moore is the ultimate known I think for the Michigan football
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  players, and that's not official yet as of the time we're recording. I
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  think they have to have like a seven Day process before they can officially make
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  that change. But literally anyone you talk to, literally any of the national
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  speculation even ward manual statement was sort of strongly implying that it's probably going to
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  be an internal candidate. So the internal candidate likely being the guy who has
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  already had coached four games as Michigan's head coach during Jim Harboss suspension. You're
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  really similar to Ryan Day's resume when he came in having coached four games with
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  Urban Myers suspension in twenty eighteen. I'm not sure which base that puts Sharon
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  Moore in, but that's neither here nor there. Let's talk about some of
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  the guys that have been put out there. And this is based on an
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  article called Michigan Possible Transfers to watch from Mike Farrell, who you may recognize
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  that name. He was the longtime head of recruit for Rivals. He was
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  with them for quite a while. Now he's got his own independent thing at
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  Mike ferrellsports dot Com. In his Twitter bio, humbly calls himself the Godfather
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  of recruiting. So here is Mike Farrell's list. He listed five guys,
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  and obviously the list could be, you know, substantially longer. In terms
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  of who could theoretically be transferring, he listed Will Johnson the corner, Mason
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  Graham the defensive tackle, Colston Lovelin the tight end, Ernest Houseman the linebacker,
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  and Jaden Davis the true freshman quarterback who just enrolled. Those are the
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  five names he put out there. What was interesting to me here, Tony
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  is for four of the names, not for Jayden and Davis, because Ohio
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  State already has two five star quarterbacks in the class of twenty twenty four,
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  so they were probably pretty much full there. But for the other four guys,
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  Ohio State was on all four lists, and I think ohis it was
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  the only team on all four lists, which is weird to me because it
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  feels like number one. I don't think a Michigan guy is necessarily going to
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  feel like, you know, I don't want to break any news here,
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  but there's no been like great relationships between these two programs, particularly over the
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  last couple of years. That feels like, I mean, it has happened
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  before. We saw it with the Borns, we saw it with Greg Madison
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  Al Washington over the years, but it just that feels just exceedingly unlikely to
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  me. This transfer Portal also saw it with Michigan defensive lineman Chris Rock,
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  an Ohio native, transferring back to Ohio State. Walking on at Ohio State,
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  it's how badly he wanted to be a buck Eye. But yeah,
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  the way things are right now with the vitriol, and it sure seems like
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  the idea is a little bit much for me. Now there are players certainly
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  good enough to play at Ohio State. I am. I would love to
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  know what would happen if Will Johnson or Mason Graham is like, hey,
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  can I come over? And what that would do to the thought process the
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  room? Like, do you think there's a highest cornerbacks want Will Johnson there?
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  I think they're pretty good as they are, but you know, you
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  gotta do what you gotta do to win a national championship. But man,
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  those would be I don't know. Would they be interesting conversations or would they
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  even be conversations? Would it just be like no, that coach is saying,
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  now we're good. I genuinely don't know the answer to that, because
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  I think Ohio State is looking to improve its talent wherever it can improve its
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  talent and the cornerback room is really good. Will Johnson is one of maybe
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  a handful of guys that could improve the talent. I just I think it's
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  so hard to see given how the last I mean especially the last four or
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  five months have played out. But you know, even the last few years,
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  there's just been so much bad blood between those programs, and I think
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  that's an even tougher jump than it would have been in previous years. I
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  also think, I mean, Will Johnson is the name that everyone's it's gonna
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  be the first name that everyone thinks of, gonna remember. Will Johnson is
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  from Gross Pointe, Michigan, which is a suburb of Detroit, so that's
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  home. His dad played for Michigan. He's a Michigan legacy. He's one
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  that if he leaves, boy, I think that bodes real poorly for their
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  chances of hanging on to other guys. He's I think, of all these
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  guys, maybe the least likely in my mind to transfer. But you never
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  know. I mean, you could have someone you know, you could get
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  an offer. Spicking of the Godfather, you could get an offer you can't
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  refuse. So possible. Some of the other guys listed here Mason Graham,
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  He's from California. Colston Loveland's from Idaho. Ernest Houseman is from Nebraska and
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  also started his college career at Nebraska before transferring to Michigan. Jayden Davis from
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  North Carolina. He's actually from the Providence Day School in Charlotte. That is
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  the school that we name checked on yesterday show with Mark because that's where the
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  number one offensive tackle in twenty twenty five is from as well. So the
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  school that's pumped out some talent. I just I think to me, this
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  is probably a bridge too far for some of for Ohio State right now to
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  be taking on someone from Michigan. I just I think that you may see
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  some of these guys move on. You say, you may see some of
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  these guys head closer to home. I mean Mason Graham, the little list
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  has a bunch of uh, you know, his Oregon and USC and UCLA.
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  He's from California, so the West Coast schools makes sense. Some of
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  the other schools on his list, Houlston Lovelan being from Idaho, Oregon,
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  Colorado, USC, Okay makes sense. I just think this just feels like
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  you're potentially opening up a conversation. You you know that that doesn't really work
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  given everything else right now, Yeah, there's too much that has gone on.
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  I think an interesting question that I will ask you Tom and my angers
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  to Michigan fans is if you open up those five names as the draft pool
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  and Ohio State had the first pick, I'm not sure that Will Johnson isn't
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  third on that list, behind some combination of Mason Graham and Colston Loveland.
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  I think either of those guys would be a better pick, a better fit,
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  not necessarily a better fit, but would fill a bigger need and losing
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  Kate Stover if you could just you know, replace him or help out that
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  tight end room with Colston Lovelin or any team can, any team in a
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  nation can use Mason Graham as one of those defensive tackles. So I think
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  those two positions would be would benefit more than cornerback would from Will Johnson.
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  Misigan fans, I know are gonna be upset about me saying Michigan Will Johnson
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  should be third on that list? But am I wrong? Am I crazy?
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  Like? What do you think? Well, there's there's a whole conversation
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  that that's not ranking those players in terms of where they're gonna go in the
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  NFL draft or who you know, if you were starting a team from scratch,
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  Yeah, I think Will Johnson is clearly your number one. Why it's
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  not starting a team team from scratch. They've got most of these spots filled,
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  which I think is makes a potential decision on any of these it even
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  got to a point of decision maybe a little easier. There is not a
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  five Star Day one NFL offensive tackle on this list. There is not.
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  You know, they have good cornerbacks, they're not. Is Will Johnson potentially
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  an upgrade? Yeah? Absolutely, Will Johnson's potentially an upgrade, But it's
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  a somewhat marginal upgrade from what they have because they're returning a very, very
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  talented three corners in that room already, between Denzel Burke and Davison Igunosen and
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  Jordan Hancock in the slot. And you've also got Jermain Matthews, who is
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  you know, your fourth corner who is moving into his second year and probably
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  gonna be able to take on a bigger role. That's just that's not a
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  spot where they really need someone right now. Like you said, I think
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  Mason Graham calls some love when we would make a lot of sense. I
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  just don't you know. I think there are factors other than on field production
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  and what it might do for the twenty twenty four house lineup that are just
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  going to override any any other possible conversations here. Yeah, I think that
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  you don't if it's not a necessity. You don't want to upset the situation,
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  upset the room. And we've talked about that over the years. Well,
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  you can't worry about the room in this kind of way. You can.
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  You can worry about the room when it comes to bringing in players from
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  your arch rival and what that would do to just am I spice things up,
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  But do you really need some spice right now? One thing that you'll
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  have to Michigan rivalry he has not been lacking the last few years, is
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  spice. I heard on the Split Zone duo podcast that is available wherever fine
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  podcasts are sold as sort of a national college football podcast. And Richard Johnson,
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  who is a sports illustrated writer who is also has been covering this thing
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  very closely and has been pretty you could tell based on his writing has been
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  sourced pretty well in Michigan. Set on one of their recent episodes that Ryan
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  Day is known internal in chin Beckler Hall as quote third base most quote end
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  of sentence. That's just the nickname. So you know, there's there is
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  a little bad blood there. There's a little bit of spiciness. I'm guessing
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  I probably don't need to explain any of this much further for an audience of
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  largely Ohio State fans and probably some Michigan fans as well. It's there's there
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  is a reason we tell you how many days away that game is at the
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  start of every every one of these episodes, three hundred and nine. If
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  you are keeping track, I'm sure we you know, we certainly are guessing
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  you are too. So we'll see who is playing for Michigan in that game
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  in three hundred and nine days. We'll see who's playing for Ohio State in
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  that game in three hundred and nine days. But boys, they're gonna be
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  a lot of They're gonna be a lot of Those three hundred nine days are
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  gonna be real interesting between now and then, because there's a lot of conversations
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  to have. As the sort of the fallout of the Jim Harbaugh jumped to
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  the Chargers as coaches is he bringing his strength guy with him? Is you
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  know who's gonna be replacing him? And we're assuming Sharon Moore. Who is
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  Sharon Moore gonna bring in to add to his coaching staff, And what's going
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  to happen in the transfer portal and all that kind of fun stuff. We'll
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  be following all of that. We'll be following all of Ohio States, all
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  of the goings on with Ohio State. They're in the middle of their winter
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  workouts and counting days, just a little over a month away from the start
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  of spring football. National Signing Day coming up in about a week or so.
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  There is a lot to talk about there at Buckeyehuddle dot com. At
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  is where Tony and Kevin and I cover the team, Mark covers recruiting.
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  We got a whole team of x's and those guys making you a smarter football
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  fan and a very very very very active community on the huddle board presented by
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  Jefferybysteak House. There's been a lot to talk about there as well. I'll
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  also make sure you are subscribed to our YouTube channel at YouTube dot com slash
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  Buckeye Huddle. We do a bunch of stuff there. We're guessing there will
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  probably be some additional live shows coming up there in the coming days and weeks
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  as more news breaks on Michigan and Ohio State and everything else around college football.
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  get notified when we go live and we drop a new show. All that
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  good stuff at YouTube dot com slash Buckeye Huddle. That will do it for
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  today. Thank you you guys all for joining us. Have a great day.
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  We'll talk to you tomorrow.