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Why Did Ohio State Already Take Down Some National Championship Banners? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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Speaker 1: Welcome to Buckeyes tomorrow morning for Thursday, April third, I'm
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Speaker 1: your host, Tom Or the Texas game in one hundred
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Speaker 1: and forty nine days the game against Michigan in two
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Speaker 1: hundred and forty days. If you're planning your next event,
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Speaker 1: catering today at Gratefulgriddle oh dot com. On today's show,
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Speaker 1: you're going to get to hear from a pair of
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Speaker 1: former five star recruits who now currently call the Ohio
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Speaker 1: State Secondary home. Both very very impressive guys. One a
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Speaker 1: veteran that would be Caleb Downs in one a true
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Speaker 1: freshman that would be Devin Sanchez. We got a chance
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Speaker 1: to talk to both of those guys a little bit
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Speaker 1: earlier in the week, but I wanted to let you
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Speaker 1: hear from both of them. Both very very impressive guys,
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Speaker 1: both on and off the field. I thought you guys
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Speaker 1: would enjoy hearing from both of them. Let's start with
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Speaker 1: Caleb Downs. He's been taking out of doing some limited
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Speaker 1: reps this spring. Sounds like he's just a little bit
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Speaker 1: banged out, a little bit of a tweak, nothing to
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Speaker 1: be concerned about. It's really much more about he just
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Speaker 1: played a ton last year. He played more snaps than
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Speaker 1: anyone else on the site and the team last year,
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Speaker 1: So they're gonna give him a little bit of sort
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Speaker 1: of light work this spring, no reason to rush anything.
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Speaker 1: So what has he been doing this spring and how
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Speaker 1: that has that all been going.
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Speaker 2: It's been good for a learning aspect of it, just
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Speaker 2: learning from coach Patricia, learning about his defense, learning how
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Speaker 2: I might fit in that and how we're going to play.
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Speaker 2: I mean, with the limited reps, it's been good just
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Speaker 2: to see myself in the positions that I have been
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Speaker 2: in and be able to watch to play and coach
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Speaker 2: my teammates, which is always something that I prod myself
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Speaker 2: on being a good teammate. So I think it's it's
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Speaker 2: been good.
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Speaker 1: This is the third year that Caleb Downs has played
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Speaker 1: college football, and it is the third different defensive coordinator
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Speaker 1: he has played under. Like his first year of course
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Speaker 1: at Alabama in what's really Nick Saban's defense, then last
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Speaker 1: year in Jim Knowles's defense at Ohio State, and now
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Speaker 1: in that Patricia's defense. So what is Patricia brought in
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Speaker 1: for the Buckeyes this season?
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Speaker 3: A very NFL mindset.
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Speaker 2: He is a really good teacher of the game. He
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Speaker 2: makes everything simple for us to understand like that, and
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Speaker 2: he's done a really good job just being here, being
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Speaker 2: supportive to the new guys that he's just meeting now,
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Speaker 2: and he's done a great job evaluating everybody and seeing
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Speaker 2: what everybody can do and trying to find ways to
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Speaker 2: use everybody.
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Speaker 1: A little bit of a different position for Caleb Downs
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Speaker 1: this time last year, he was the new guy on
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Speaker 1: a veteran defense. Now this year he's one of the
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Speaker 1: very few returning guys and what's going to be a
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Speaker 1: very young defense. So how different are things this spring
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Speaker 1: for him?
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Speaker 2: It just pushes you into a new role because you're
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Speaker 2: kind of the leader of the group now and it's
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Speaker 2: a blessing to be in that position and be able
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Speaker 2: to have guys looking up to you asking you questions,
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Speaker 2: and it's a great feeling to be a part of
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Speaker 2: to know that, I mean, I can help develop younger
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Speaker 2: guys that have the opportunity to play this year next year.
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Speaker 2: So it's honored to be in the position that I'm in.
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Speaker 1: A lot of those young guys on the defense and
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Speaker 1: especially in the secondary. So have any of those young
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Speaker 1: guys in the secondary kind of caught his eye early on?
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Speaker 3: I think everybody's done a really good job. I've liked
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Speaker 3: a lot with Lero. Roker is doing done.
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Speaker 2: He's stepped up a lot and had a lot of
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Speaker 2: improvements that I love to see. Jalen and Malik have
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Speaker 2: played extremely well, So just love to watch those two
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Speaker 2: guys continue to compete and continue to grow. And then
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Speaker 2: outside those guys compete every day. And Miles Lockhart just
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Speaker 2: got a stripe off and he's been playing really well.
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Speaker 2: So proud of him and what he's been doing. But
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Speaker 2: those are the people that I would.
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Speaker 1: Say Brian Day mentioned earlier in the spring, just kind
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Speaker 1: of in passing that Downs had sort of asked them
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Speaker 1: to take down some of the national championship signage inside
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Speaker 1: the building. So okay, why did he ask him to
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Speaker 1: do that?
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Speaker 2: I mean, I think that's you have to reset at
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Speaker 2: some point, And I think at some point we had
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Speaker 2: like in the weight room, we had like national shape
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Speaker 2: or stuff up stuff up there, and it was like,
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Speaker 2: I mean, the new guys that walk in here week,
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Speaker 2: they haven't earned anything. We as the new twenty twenty
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Speaker 2: five sixth season, we haven't earned anything, so we can't
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Speaker 2: really take credit for anything that is up on the banners.
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Speaker 3: We can't take credit for winning anything. At this point.
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Speaker 2: We have to compete every day with the mindset of
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Speaker 2: we have to get better to be able to put
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Speaker 2: ourselves in position to be have the opportunity to get.
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Speaker 3: To that point.
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Speaker 1: What is killed downs think the message to the team
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Speaker 1: really is with that sign getting taken down, I.
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Speaker 2: Mean the lesson learned is you have to continue to
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Speaker 2: work last year every day. We continue to stack bricks,
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Speaker 2: like you said, and continue to get better every day.
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Speaker 2: And I think that's why we came out to be
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Speaker 2: where we were. And you can't just think about that
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Speaker 2: from the moment that you get here in January and
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Speaker 2: you start lifting in there. You have to continually push
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Speaker 2: to be exceptional every day and it's not really helping
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Speaker 2: if you're just looking at stuff from last year every
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Speaker 2: day and you have to move past it.
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Speaker 3: You have to keep going.
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Speaker 2: But I think the spring has been good for that
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Speaker 2: because it's been able to be like, Okay, we are
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Speaker 2: turning a new leaf. We have different people in hearing
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Speaker 2: new faces and everything, and there's different people on the
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Speaker 2: field and we gotta make plays with who we are.
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Speaker 1: What are his impressions so far of this twenty twenty
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Speaker 1: five Buckeye team.
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Speaker 2: Very competitive, I'll say people are trying to compete and
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Speaker 2: push themselves every day and it gets chippy sometimes and
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Speaker 2: that's always a good thing, just especially on the defense.
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Speaker 2: To have people that are willing to go there, willing
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Speaker 2: to get to that edge and willing to be physical.
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Speaker 3: I've really like to see that. I'd love to see it.
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Speaker 2: And I mean, I think we just need to continue
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Speaker 2: to be more disciplined, continue to work on our skills
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Speaker 2: and everything like that, continue to strive to be better
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Speaker 2: and it'd be good.
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Speaker 1: And the last one from downs he of course was
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Speaker 1: a former five star recruit. Now you've got that five
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Speaker 1: star recruit, Devin Sanchez coming in in the secondary. So
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Speaker 1: how does he think Devin Sanchez has adapted to college
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Speaker 1: so far.
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Speaker 2: At the end of the day, even when I got
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Speaker 2: to college, it really doesn't matter about your stars. You
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Speaker 2: walk in and you're at the same type of stature
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Speaker 2: as everybody else, So it doesn't really matter how what
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Speaker 2: you walk in here with he's done extremely well. He's
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Speaker 2: learned a lot, he's improved a lot from day one
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Speaker 2: to now. So it's been great to watch him develop
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Speaker 2: and watch them get better. And he's made some exceptional
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Speaker 2: plays and I hope to continue to see that.
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Speaker 1: Now moving on to Devin Sanchez, and he of course
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Speaker 1: was one of those guys who enrolled early. Is pretty
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Speaker 1: much everyone does. But you know, technically he should still
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Speaker 1: be in high school and instead of being in high school, well,
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Speaker 1: he's sometimes going up against Jeremiah Smith in practice. So
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Speaker 1: is that a little bit surreal for him?
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Speaker 2: Yeah?
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Speaker 4: It was, But you know I kind of ready myself
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Speaker 4: my whole senior year. You know, I focused on my
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Speaker 4: senior year, but you know, I knew what I was
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Speaker 4: coming into when I got here, So you know, I'm
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Speaker 4: going against God like jaj Cornell, you know, the top
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Speaker 4: receivers in the country. So you know, I got to
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Speaker 4: ready myself. You know, up here, it's not it's not
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Speaker 4: about your age.
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Speaker 5: It's about you know, being a man and you know,
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Speaker 5: stepping up because they're gonna need me to step up.
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Speaker 1: The recruiting process has just sort of gotten longer and
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Speaker 1: longer and longer for all these guys over the years.
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Speaker 1: So he's been talking to Tim Walton for years and
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Speaker 1: years and years. So what is it like to finally
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Speaker 1: now be playing for Tim Walton after getting recruited by
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Speaker 1: Tim Walton For so long.
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Speaker 4: In a recruiting process, it was being developed into, you know,
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Speaker 4: the next best corner and then you know, when I
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Speaker 4: finally got here, it was you know, being coached hard.
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Speaker 5: You know, he coaches hard, very hard.
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Speaker 4: Man. I feel like he's not coaching your heart then
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Speaker 4: you know it's kind of over. But you know, when
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Speaker 4: he's coaching your herd from the jump, that means he
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Speaker 4: wants the best for you. He's not gonna let me
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Speaker 4: slack off, you know, especially on the little coverage things
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Speaker 4: like that. You know, he's all He's always on me.
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Speaker 4: When I watch film, you know, he doesn't so many
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Speaker 4: good plays SHOs men the bad places where I'm doing
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Speaker 4: bad and stuff like that. So it's just making myself
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Speaker 4: better than you know, correcting those things.
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Speaker 1: The jump from high school to college is a big one,
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Speaker 1: even from a pretty impressive Texas program like he came from.
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Speaker 1: So how much of a leap has it been just
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Speaker 1: mentally for him to prepare for this kind of a
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Speaker 1: jump in competition.
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Speaker 4: It's been it's been a good a good mental thing,
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Speaker 4: you know, having to get myself ready to go against
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Speaker 4: guys that are.
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Speaker 5: You know, twenty twenty one years old. You know, being eighteen.
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Speaker 4: You know that they don't care about that up here,
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Speaker 4: so you know, it is developing yourself to a great
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Speaker 4: mindset early. You know, having that grown man mindset at
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Speaker 4: the eighteen years old is really important because like here,
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Speaker 4: they don't really care about feelings. So it's about you know,
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Speaker 4: just coming up here, you know, being a man that
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Speaker 4: you think you are, and you know, having to go
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Speaker 4: out there and you know.
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Speaker 5: Prove it.
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Speaker 1: So far in his college career would have been the
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Speaker 1: easiest and hardest things about that transition from high school
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Speaker 1: to college.
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Speaker 4: The easiest thing, I would say, I mean, it's really
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Speaker 4: nothing easy about this, you know, coming to a top
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Speaker 4: program like this, you know, especially them coming off a
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Speaker 4: national championship, it's really nothing easy. You know, they're they're
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Speaker 4: pushing for the same thing. They're trying to go back
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Speaker 4: to back. So I mean, we just gotta come up here,
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Speaker 4: we gotta we gotta step up. But the hardest thing,
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Speaker 4: I would say, you know, just just having to grow up,
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Speaker 4: you know, going from high school where you know, I've
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Speaker 4: been the man there for three years, so I mean
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Speaker 4: coming up here where you start at the bottom again.
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Speaker 4: So I mean I told my parents is all the time,
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Speaker 4: Like you know, I think my history was repeating itself
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Speaker 4: because when I went into high school, the high school
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Speaker 4: I went to were a powerhouse. So I was at
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Speaker 4: the bottom there and I had to work my way up.
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Speaker 4: And I feel like as a shi Penis out here,
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Speaker 4: you know, I'm at the bottom here. You know, I
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Speaker 4: put myself at the bottom, so I have to work
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Speaker 4: my way up to the top. And so you know,
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Speaker 4: just going against these guys, they're competing every day. You're
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Speaker 4: not gonna get a day off where you know, the
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Speaker 4: receivers just coming out here just just bs and so
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Speaker 4: I mean you got to you gotta build your p's
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Speaker 4: and q's all the time.
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Speaker 1: When you think about what it's possible to do as
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Speaker 1: a true freshman at Ohio State, you know you sort
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Speaker 1: of expect, well, maybe you get a chance to get
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Speaker 1: on the field a little bit, maybe you earn a
9:22
Speaker 1: little bit of a bigger role towards the end of
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Speaker 1: last year. Bas like last year Jeremiah Smith sort of
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Speaker 1: reset the expectations for what it's possible to do as
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Speaker 1: a true freshman at Ohio State. And obviously cornerback and
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Speaker 1: wide receiver different positions with different requirements and all that
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Speaker 1: kind of stuff. But you know, seeing what Jeremiah Smith
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Speaker 1: did last year, is that maybe inspiring Devin Sanchez a
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Speaker 1: little bit for this year?
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Speaker 4: I mean definitely, you know, just just what he did
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Speaker 4: last year as a true freshman, you know, him being
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Speaker 4: able to play and impact the team like that. Obviously,
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Speaker 4: I want that for myself, so you know, I'm gonna
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Speaker 4: push myself to that limit, you know, try to be
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Speaker 4: on the field.
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Speaker 5: You're one. That's my plan.
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Speaker 4: That's the biggest reason I came here because I have
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Speaker 4: an opportunity to play year one. So me having that
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Speaker 4: opportunity is good. And you know, I'm gonna I'm always
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Speaker 4: gonna come out here and compete. Like I said, I'm
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Speaker 4: putting myself at the bottom, so I'm working. I'm gonna
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Speaker 4: work every day like I'm at the bottom and I
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Speaker 4: gotta I gotta get to the top.
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Speaker 1: What is the most important thing that Devin Sanchez has
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Speaker 1: Lauren so far in his time at Ohio.
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Speaker 4: State competing every day. Uh, that's that's the biggest thing,
10:22
Speaker 4: having to compete. You know, these guys up here, they
10:24
Speaker 4: take winning and losing to heart. So you know, my
10:28
Speaker 4: first my first week up here, when we did our competitions,
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Speaker 4: you know, I was winning then I actually I got
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Speaker 4: that first loss on my belt, and you know, it
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Speaker 4: kind of opened my eyes because like these guys take
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Speaker 4: it the heart when they lose, they don't like it.
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Speaker 5: So you know I kind of got that now where
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Speaker 5: I don't like losing.
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Speaker 1: You heard him mention that first loss. How did he
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Speaker 1: handle going through that?
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Speaker 5: Uh, that first loss, you know it kind of got
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Speaker 5: to me. It was it was igb uh you know
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Speaker 5: he you know, he let me hear.
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Speaker 4: So after that loss, I was like, no, I can't
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Speaker 4: let this happen no more, because it's like now, it's
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Speaker 4: not high school where you seventeen sixteen years old, and
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Speaker 4: if you lose, you lose. Up here, it's not if
11:02
Speaker 4: you lose the coach and see that so and they
11:04
Speaker 4: gonna see how you respond to it. So I feel
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Speaker 4: like I had to you know, open my eyes. I
11:08
Speaker 4: had to go go in in the locker room like yeah, okay,
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Speaker 4: I can't let this happen no more, you know, So
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Speaker 4: I got to grow up and you know, these guys are.
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Speaker 5: Counting on me too, so it's really important that I
11:17
Speaker 5: don't lose.
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Speaker 1: Sanchez got a little bit of a head start on
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Speaker 1: his Ohio State career when even before he had officially
11:22
Speaker 1: started classes, he was able to sort of travel with
11:25
Speaker 1: the team go through some practices during that extended college
11:28
Speaker 1: football playoff run. What did he learn from that run?
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Speaker 4: Uh, you know, being real tight with your brothers. You know,
11:34
Speaker 4: they're they're real tight. You know, they push each other.
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Speaker 4: You know, it's a real brotherhood. They don't let nobody down.
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Speaker 4: They always got each other's back. So, I mean it's
11:43
Speaker 4: a new team now, so you know, we got to
11:45
Speaker 4: build that chemistry with each other. You know, just just
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Speaker 4: get tight. And I feel like when I was there
11:49
Speaker 4: for that playoff run and I practiced whenever at the
11:52
Speaker 4: national championship, you know, I.
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Speaker 5: Just got to watch, you know, how guys are, you know,
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Speaker 5: real locked in.
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Speaker 4: They're close with each other, They're not letting no they
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Speaker 4: slack off, and you know, I feel like we had
12:02
Speaker 4: the opportunity to do that with this.
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Speaker 1: Tune now and finally in an era when it seems
12:06
Speaker 1: like everyone's a game player and recruiting even more so
12:09
Speaker 1: than usual, and everyone's turning everything into all sorts of
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Speaker 1: drama and will he and won't he? Devin Chance Chancez
12:16
Speaker 1: was one of the rare exceptions where he committed it
12:20
Speaker 1: was drama free. He never waivered, there was never any stress,
12:22
Speaker 1: there was never any uncertainty. He wasn't a game player.
12:25
Speaker 1: And as a fire star guy who probably could have
12:28
Speaker 1: bumped up his nil payments in a little bit of
12:30
Speaker 1: way with a little bit of leverage, why not Why
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Speaker 1: wasn't he a game player when he was getting recruited?
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Speaker 4: Uh, you know, because this was this was is where
12:38
Speaker 4: I felt, this was home. Uh you know, I didn't
12:41
Speaker 4: really feel like, you know, stan In Texas was a
12:43
Speaker 4: good thing for me.
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Speaker 5: I didn't. I didn't feel like that was home for me.
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Speaker 4: Up here, I just felt like it was home, you know,
12:48
Speaker 4: with Coach Wall and coach they, you know, them making it,
12:51
Speaker 4: you know, making me feel important up here. And then
12:53
Speaker 4: you know, you could ask Couch Wall how many times
12:55
Speaker 4: I came up here throughout my high school career. I
12:58
Speaker 4: came up here thirteen times. So it got to the
13:00
Speaker 4: point where I was knowing guys on the teams. I
13:02
Speaker 4: had the numbers and stuff like that. When I come
13:04
Speaker 4: up here, you know, I don't got to always be
13:06
Speaker 4: with the coaches. I can go chill with some of
13:07
Speaker 4: the guys on the team. So it's just just me,
13:10
Speaker 4: you know, knowing where I want to play my college
13:11
Speaker 4: ball at, you know, Noring where I felt like it
13:14
Speaker 4: was home. And then you know it was also my
13:16
Speaker 4: parents too, you know, my mom being you know, feeling
13:19
Speaker 4: safe that you know I'm up here, you know, I'm
13:21
Speaker 4: hendling the business and not having to worry about me
13:23
Speaker 4: once she goes to sleep.
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Speaker 1: Well, hope you guys enjoyed that. A couple of very
13:27
Speaker 1: impressive guys in the secondary for Ohio State, and there
13:29
Speaker 1: are plenty more of impressive guys back there as well
13:32
Speaker 1: as there are all across the team. We're gonna have
13:36
Speaker 1: plenty to talk about the next couple of weeks as
13:37
Speaker 1: we covered the wrap up of spring football, ending with
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Speaker 1: the spring game on Saturday or April twelfth. There for
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Speaker 1: all of that, and then of course the White House
13:46
Speaker 1: visit on the following Monday on the fourteenth, plenty to
13:49
Speaker 1: talk about, and then of course heading into recruiting season,
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Speaker 1: so gonna be a lot to talk about. Hope us
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Speaker 1: be seeing you l at all. At YouTube dot com
13:57
Speaker 1: slash Buckeye Huddle have lots of coverage of all of that.
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Speaker 1: We're there as well as at buckehuddle dot com. That'll
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Speaker 1: do it for today. Thank you guys all for joining us.
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Speaker 5: Have a great day.
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Speaker 1: We'll talk to you tomorrow.