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Two Ohio State Football Players Enter The Transfer Portal · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Welcome to Buckeyes tomorrow morning for Wednesday, April seventeenth. I'm your host,
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  Tom Moore. The Akron game in one hundred and thirty six days, the
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  game against Michigan in two hundred and twenty seven days. The transfer portal has
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  officially opened and two Buckeyes have gone into it. One of them not really
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  a surprise. We'll talk about him a little bit later on, but first,
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  the first piece of news, the first person to officially jump in that
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  we didn't really have a you know, obvious heads up last week that this
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  was going to happen, is safety Cedric Hawkins, former four Stark mit in
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  the class of twenty twenty three. Tony Gerdermithbuckeheddle dot com joins me, Tony,
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  this one. You know, I would certainly not qualify this one as
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  a surprise. Cedric Hawkins did not play as a true freshman after arriving in
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  the summer, and you know this spring we saw him obviously, but it
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  felt like there was not a real clear path of the playing field for him
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  this year. Yeah, when we talk about guys who entered the portal,
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  a lot of times we talked about the formula of this is your third or
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  fourth year and you still haven't played and even passed up by somebody younger.
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  And so this was just a second year guy. But if you look at
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  it, he was with the threes on Saturday, has been with the threes
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  most of spring at free safety. And that's with Malie Cartford being out.
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  So you bring Millie Cartford back in, and now you're talking about he's running
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  Cedra Cowkins is running with the forest, which isn't really a thing. That's
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  the walk Ons, that's the scout team. And you also factor in that
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  true freshman Jalen McLean has moved ahead of him in the spring. Didn't take
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  him long, and in fact, I believe he was out there the Jalen
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  McLean was the second team free safety for spring practice number one as I think
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  back on it, So the writing on the wall was there probably for Hawkins.
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  And so yeah, it's a deep ish room. But we've seen the
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  secondary at Ohio State struggle through injuries and in fact maybe a little bit this
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  spring with some of the guys that were out or they're holding back. So
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  don't necessarily want to lose people, but they I think there's still like a
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  couple of guys over right now, So this this this was not a huge
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  surprise, let's just say. And the other thing that makes this not a
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  huge surprises Ohio State had a change at the safety coaching position this offseason.
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  Perry Eliano was let go at the end of last season, that Greary came
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  in and Hawkins was a twenty twenty three signee, which is when Grairi was
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  at Indiana and Perry Elliana was in charge at Ohio State. And sometimes you
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  come to play for a guy, sometimes you come to, you know,
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  play for a system and it turns out you're not a good fit. So
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  you know that that I think maybe potentially factors into this this one as well.
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  They've had a lot of turnover at that safety position over the last few
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  years, and I was just kind of trying to think through you know,
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  the last like three four years and kept coming up with name Kai Stokes transferred
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  after last year and Andre Turantine and uh, you know there were Kathy went
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  to Louisville, who you know, Uh, they have had a ton of
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  guys kind of shuffling through there, and that that is a position that is
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  a significant one at Ohio State. Jim Noles talks about this being a safety
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  driven defense a lot, and so they ask a lot of those guys,
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  and you know that that may be you know, you may be getting something
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  more than you thought you were when you when you're signing up. But there's
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  there's a lot of demand there and they have they have a very very talented
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  safety room, but that that can be a very tough place to be.
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  Yeah, you're you're asking them a lot, You're putting a lot on them.
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  In Jim Noles defense, what you could be a nickel and on next
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  the next play, you're basically the free safety because of the way the shift
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  has gone with the receivers. But I mean you you're also talking about you've
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  lost Sunny Styles from that safety room as well because he's playing linebacker. So
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  it's gotten thinner. And if you look through the roster right now, I
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  don't know anybody else is necessarily going to be leaving from the safety room.
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  And and they've got nobody's going to hear, nobody's going to listen to Ohio
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  State can plain Oh, we only have Caleb Downs and Lathan Ransom as starters,
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  and then some guys behind them, like nobody's going to you know,
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  there's gonna be no pity party for Ohio State there. But you're right,
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  it is a lot to ask. You know. We've seen some at the
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  in the spring game and then throughout the spring practice where even Caleb Downs is
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  essentially playing a linebacker at times or playing the slot at times as the free
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  safety, obviously doing the post the deep safety stuff. And so it is
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  a lot. And it's not something where you're just oh, I'm just the
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  safety. I just stand back, you know, fifteen yards off the line
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  of scrimmage and don't let anybody get past me. Much more involved than now.
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  We've seen plenty of blitzing from that. So it is tough. And
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  that's why when you know, like a jail In McLean comes in and picks
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  it up pretty quick, it's I'm sure it's one of those things where Cedra
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  Cockin's can look at it and be like, well, that didn't take long.
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  And Jalen Johnson Jansen Dunn was the other guy I was trying to remember
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  from last year. He went to Kentucky, not to Louisville. But you
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  also had Craig Young a couple of years ago he went to Kansas you had
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  Bryce and Shaw went to USC, Marcus Hooker went to Youngstown State. I
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  mean, there's been a ton of turnover in that safety room and I think
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  by and large they are pretty darn happy with where they are right now.
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  With kill Downs and that that kitchen, it's like one of those swinging doors
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  at the on the kitchen at the restaurant. That door swings both ways and
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  you can have a lot of guys leaving, but if you get a Caleb
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  Downs coming in, yeah, that's probably okay. Lathan Ransom will be back,
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  Obviously he was limited in the spring. There's plenty of talent in that
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  safety room. So not any cause for concern for Ohio State here. And
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  we'll see, we will see where he ends up now that he has entered
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  the portal, probably you know, well, they're probably not the last transfer
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  portal departure for Ohio State this spring. Also not technically the first transfer portal
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  departure for Ohio State this spring. That would be running back Delan Hayden.
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  Now, we didn't do a separate breaking new show for Dellan Hayden because Delan
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  Hayden had more or less put the word out last week that he was going
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  to be headed out of town and then was not at the practice last Friday,
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  was not at the spring game on Saturday. That was a pretty good
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  tip off that this was coming. But Dellan Hayden has in fact entered the
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  transfer portal, and he had He was a guy who definitely had his moments
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  at Ohio State. Tony and I you know, you look at that twenty
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  twenty through two. By twenty two Maryland game was probably his signature game as
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  Ohio State. But just even when a bunch of other running backs were banged
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  up, just could never seem to get on the field on a regular basis.
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  Yeah, and Tony Alfred Ohio State opting to go with Chip train him
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  Xavier Johnson at times over Hayden. And still I still go back to the
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  Maryland game where I believe he had twenty six carry in the second half,
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  which is insane, and then thirty I think thirty carries since that game the
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  rest of his Ohio State career. So he seemed fine with the red shirting
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  last year in preparation four this year. But as I you know, as
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  I keep saying, when he agreed to red shirt, he probably viewed the
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  twenty twenty four season as not having Privion Henderson on the team, certainly not
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  having Quinnjohn Jenkins on the team. So you add both of those guys in
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  and it's like, well, clearly, if I want to play, if
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  I want to play as much as I think I should, if I want
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  to play as much as I thought I would want to, I was agreeing
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  to not play at all last year, then I'm gonna have to go do
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  that somewhere else because right now I'm looking at having the junior year that I
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  had maybe as a freshman, and there's chances and I'd be the junior year
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  that I had as a sophomore, and I, you know, I'm not
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  interested in that. I want to play. And so he can go plenty
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  of places and play and that's what he's doing. And he has some family
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  ties to Tennessee that has been, you know, long been considered one of
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  the likely landing spots for him. You know, if he if and when
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  he did go into the portal, we will see if that is where he
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  ends up. Does does feel like someone who is probably going to have a
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  pretty productive career wherever he does land. So that is just the start of
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  as the transfer transfer portal turns could be an eventful a few days a few
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  weeks at bucke huddle dot com as we talk about guys heading out on port
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  portal buck guys obviously doing a little shopping in the portal potentially as well,
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  could be some interesting names to watch there. In addition to plus in addition
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  to all the recruiting news that we have come in, in addition to all
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  of the team news that we will be following over the spring and summer.
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  Great place to do all that is at bucke huddle dot com and of course
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  at YouTube dot com slash Buckeye Huddle as well. That'll do it for today.
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  Thank you guys all for joining us. Have a great day. We'll
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  talk to you tomorrow.