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BREAKING: Ohio State Football Hires Running Backs Coach Carlos Locklyn · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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Welcome to a very special live episode of Buckeyes Tomorrow morning for Tuesday A per
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second. I'm your host, Tom or the Akron game in one hundred and
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fifty one days, the gaming gainst Michigan in two hundred and forty two days.
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You had a little bit of a live breaking news episode for you here.
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If you remember bucke Huddle dot com, this is not exactly shocking by
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any means. This is something we've been talking about for quite a while right
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now, and it was for a matter of when and not if, But
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now the news has officially broken. Ohio State, according to Pete Damil,
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has agreed to a two year deal with Carlos Lachlan to be the school's new
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running backs coach. Lachlan coming from the Oregon Ducks to Columbus and of course
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replacing Tony Alfred who has departed Ohigh State to go to Michigan. Hey,
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speaking of Tony's I'm joined by Tony Girderman of buck Huddle dot com as well
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as Kevin Noon of bucke Huddle dot com. It is just that exciting a
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live breaking news episode we got, We got to bring out the three headed
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monster here. We are are the service of the Ohio State football beat.
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All right, Kevin, let's start with you. What should people know about
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Carlos Laughlin. He is a coach on the rise right now. He is
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not that far removed from being in a support role of working really kind of
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in the recruiting side of things. He spent a year at Western Kentucky,
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two years at Oregon. He was part of Dan Lanning's first staff at Oregon.
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Just to signed a new deal to try and keep poachers off of his
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tail. But I don't think Oregon really thought that any major players were going
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to be looking for a running backs coach here on April first or April second,
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So his buyout was halved on April first. But you know, he
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seems to really be kind of a fast riser. USC Tennessee, Miami.
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I think we're some of the schools that were looking at him prior to him
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signing this deal. So at least in terms of what the perception is,
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I think that this is a very big move right there. I mean,
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because let's let's not forget. I don't want to I don't want to say
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everything here. In the first three minutes of the show, your running backs
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coach is like a main recruiter. Well, Ohio State has a couple of
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main recruiters with Brian Hartline and og Walt Tim Walton. If you bring in
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another guy that's capable of doing some of this stuff, I mean you look
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out and this is someone. This has been a sort of a drawn out
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process. Tony Alfred left after the first two practices of the spring, so
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you know, it's been a few weeks at this Ohio State running back position,
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running back coach position has been open, and they brought in a couple
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very high profile twenty twenty five running backs over the weekend for that student appreciation
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practice. But Tony, when we talked to Ryan Day like what a week
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ago he was, he kind of said like, yeah, I expect to
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have someone in the next week or so. And uh, you know,
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there had been a bunch of names that had sort of been floated and then
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hadn't worked, you know, hadn't ended up being true or hadn't worked ended
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up going you know, following through. This was one where when he said,
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yeah, there's you know something, you should have someone the next week
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or so. And then you have Carlos Lachlan out there with this contract where
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the buyout just happens to drop on April first, it was kind of like,
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m hm, I can put two and two together. Yeah, And
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that was Saturday when Ryan said that, And throughout, okay, this entire
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spring, since that move happened, he's said, you know, we'll take
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our time. He did put he put no time frames on it. And
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so then in almost in passing or in conclusion about the question on Saturday,
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he said, we should have something next week, which tells you they had
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the guy at that point. That's that's what what I took away from it
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is they had the agreement, but like you said, the buyout, if
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you can save the guy a few hundred thousand dollars, then you know you're
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probably gonna do that. But yeah, as Kevin was saying, like the
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timing, I wonder what how Oregon felt about it, or Dan Landing.
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You know, you put the the kind of language in you probably figure you're
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gonna be fine. And then Tony Alfred leaves and you just you're just like,
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I wonder if this is going to get to us like it is?
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Are these dominoes? And and we saw running backs coach after running backs coach,
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get a nice raise and an extension, and at some point somebody's gonna
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say, you know, I will take the job. And that's sounds like
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that's what you got here. Ohio State is not yet confirming, though I
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have checked. All right, yeah, so we'll we'll maybe they'll wait to
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till April April second, just to make sure there's not a you know,
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not not a any kind of well maybe the language said after April first,
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the buyout drop, so well, well, you know, it's it sounds
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like it's basically as good as done. And this is something that you know,
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we've been talking about pretty openly on the huddleboard at Buckeye huddle dot com
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with our members for quite a while now, and it sounds like this is
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a move where this is they brought in as I mentioned, they brought in
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a couple very high profile running backs last week. Bo Jackson brought in Jordan
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Davison out of Modern Day in California. And this is one, Kevin,
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We're hiring a West you know, a coach with West Coast ties from a
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big West Coast program that Jordan Davison was you know, also looking at this
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is probably going to help them with, you know, potentially keeping themselves at
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or near the top of the list. For Jordan Davison, yeah, we
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have seen, we saw a major crystal ball RPM, whatever the hell it's
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called, depending on what flavor of site you you you monitor for that come
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in for Ohio State and Jordan Davison. Jordan Davison. You know, there
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are so many Twitter and Instagram slews out there that have been following every like
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and everything else. But if you buy into what they've got, this seems
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to be a very popular move with Jordan Davison. I think that this really
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solidifies Ohio State's chances of landing him breaking the modern Day curse and not to
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kind of get away from it, but I mentioned this internally in our chat.
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It gives Chris Henry Junr, who just recently transferred to modern Day a
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pro Ohio State person to be around at least for a year. With Henry
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being a twenty six and Davison being a twenty five. I mean, I
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guess you're on your own buddy for a year, but I mean at least
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now you have somebody to hang out with and not have to go to USC
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and UCLA practice and things of that nature. But yeah, this is big.
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Oregon had not offered either Marquise Davis or Bo Jackson from in state with
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Jackson being on campus. I have a story that will be coming out in
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the next fifteen to twenty minutes over at Bucke huddle talking about the immediate challenges
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that Carlos Laughlin is going to face reshaping a running back room at Ohio State.
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With Travion Henderson being in his last year, with Quinn Shawn Judkins being
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kind of a one and done, this room is going to look very different
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Ohio State going a cycle without even taking a scholarship running back. There's you
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know, a lot a lot there and I will lay out as I yell
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at the dog, all right, well a lot a lot to get to
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get everyone all excited about with this one. And you know, Tony,
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he just mentioned Gravan Henderson and quin Shawn Judkins and some of the other guys
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in the current running back room. Those are guys who had a part in
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this process. They sounds like they kind of helped sign off on this on
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this hire. So you know, theoretically it should be someone who you know,
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if it if the recruits are happy with it, and the current roster
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kind of signed off on it. It seems like internally this should be a
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pretty much a two thumbs up higher. Yeah, and Ryan Days said that
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obviously he's going to make the ultimate higher, but he wanted the players feedback.
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And if the feedback from the players is like no, no, no,
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no, then you would think like he probably would take that into serious
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account because this guy your hire is going to spend more time with these players
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than anybody outside of Mickey Muratti during the off season, and so you've got
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to get somebody that the players are going to be okay with. And also
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it's it's kind of a test, a dry run of recruiting. He's he's
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got to endear himself to these players and speed dating terms basically, and it's
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not that unlike what you've got to do in recruiting. So it's kind of
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a nice little test both ways where you can see him in action and also
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get the real time relay from the players like, hey, what do you
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think, well, how would have gone there? Something like that. So
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that's an interesting test and opportunity for the players, and then you get that
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feedback. But I mean, it's going to be very interesting. There were
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a lot of schools after him over the last few last this past season,
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this was last year, was his third year as a position coach, so
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this is quite the rise. And James Lauridis this was his what this would
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have been his third year in coaching and he's now a position coach. Brian
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Hartline was a position coach after like two zero point two years basically, so
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there is this a decent track record and probably a little early to say that
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James lord Nidis is a success because this is going to be his first full
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year as a position coach, but it's it's not unheard of. The West
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Coast stuff is interesting to me because you also have the fact that he was
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at Florida State in twenty twenty, their high school, the Aison guy,
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So he's also involved in Florida high schools and which is something that Tony Alfred
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was involved with as well. So you have this he's got some California to
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him, he's got some Florida to him, so and you know he coached
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at what Memphis for first ball as well, so he's got a nice little
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several footprint footprints around the country. Yeah, and we get some interesting questions
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there in the chap. We're gonna start with the super chap from Mike Farino.
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He said didn't know his name before this weekend, but after looking him
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up, I think only Gillespie, that would be the running backs coach at
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Alabama, would have excited me more. And that was one of the guys
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who Tony mentioned earlier, who you know, we had sort of been kicking
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that name around at Pakeeye huddle and then all of a sudden, Gillespie just
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for for whatever reason, I don't know why, just one of those things
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that happens, got to raise and ended up not leaving Alabama. Probably a
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coincidence there, but you know, yeah, and this is this is a
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name that I think it feels like unless guys are current, you know,
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former Ohio State players. You know, when they hired Tim Walton, everyone
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knew Tim Walton. When they hired Brian Hartline, everyone knew who Heartline was.
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If you're not bringing in a guy, you know, I don't know
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how many people knew who Perry Elliano or Keenan Bailey or Justin Fry were before
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they brought in those guys. So yeah, the life of an assistant coach
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is somewhat anonymous if you're not coaching at you know, the school that whoever
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is paying attention to, but you know they have I think Ryan Day has
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had a pretty good track record on assistant hires right now where he's he's hit
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a couple of Grand slams with assistant hires, and I think he's gotten a
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couple others where you know, the results are still coming in, but the
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initial results are pretty positive. So you know, no one, no one
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bats a thousand. But it does feel like this is probably you know,
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this is probably at least a decent hire. And there was a question earlier
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that you headed up there right before we got the super chat about is this
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an upgrade from Tony Alfred? Is this a downgrade from Tony Alfred? And
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that's an interesting question. I think the fact that, as you said,
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he has those Florida recruiting ties, that that kind of has some overlap with
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one of the things that Tony Alford really brought to Ohio State over the years.
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You know, running back position coach is not that's not the most technical
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position. It's not you know, it's not a quarterbacks coach where you really
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got to mess with mechanics or you know, corners coach or whatever running backs
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coach that that's not the most technical position. So there is a position where
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you end up leaning a little more on the recruiting side of things, Kevin.
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But you know, obviously this is this is going to be something that
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we all get to watch play out over the next two to three years in
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front of our faces on the fourth Saturday in November. But you know,
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do you have early thoughts on upgrade or downgrade from Tony Alford? You know,
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I think sometimes pressing the reset button you get an upgrade just because of
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that. I mean, Tony Alford has spent you know, the better part
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of a decade as Ohio State's running backs coach. And you know, he
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certainly, he certainly had his biases. He liked, he liked trying to
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sign South Florida running backs. Unfortunately Miami enjoyed that too. In Ohio State
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missed out on a couple of guys there. So while you do have to
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play catch up, maybe don't get too excited about ketchup Tony. Well,
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he do have to catch up in certain places. I think he already has
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a base in Florida. He already has a base in a lot of instances,
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maybe west of the Rocky. So you know, I think there is
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an upgrade here because Tom was exactly right. This is not a case of,
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oh, I want to get the running back coach who is the best,
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you know, developer, because that is not necessarily what the position is.
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There. There are two or three spots on a coaching staff that are
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kind of designated recruiters, and running backs coach is one of them. Tight
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ends coach is another one of them. You have, I don't care how
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good you are at, you know, working your position, if you can't
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recruit, then you know you got a problem. You're going to have to
13:56
address that, you know, in a in a different way. So I
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know there are going to be a lot of people who are still very chapped
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at Tony Alford and would say that, you know, a warm bucket of
14:07
spit is an upgrade over him. But I think if you can take all
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the emotion out of it, I think this is going to be an upgrade.
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But he's going to have to He's he's going to have to catch up
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quickly because he's going to come in for the very end of spring practice and
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then he'll be able to do all the stuff that you can do over the
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course of the summer, which is recruiting, and then when in fall camp,
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you know, he'll really get his first chance to really get his hands
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in the play. That will be Trevion Henderson and quin Jawn Judkins and everything
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else. Well, and that's not exactly I mean, that's not exactly like
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getting just the square block of marble and having to carve something out of that.
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You have a pretty well formed sculpture already in that running back room for
14:50
this year, so you know, yes, he's coming in late. I
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don't know how big of a concern that is, given that you have more
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or less a finished product with at least your top two running backs, and
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then you've got other guys in there, who are you going to be a
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little more of a project this year? But you know, and the recruiting
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seems like, you know, the hay is not in the barn yet,
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but they're in decent shape with a couple of guys I thought. We had
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a very interesting conversation on the huddleboard at buckey huddle dot com this weekend about
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Tony Alfred and people you know, As Kevin said, you know, leaving
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the way he did when he did for where he did. There is going
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to be sort of a natural backlash to that, and everyone's going to say
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this guy was terrible and never never any good. And I don't think that
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if you go back and look at the reaction to Tony Alford during Tony Alfred's
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time at Ohio State, outside of early signing day when you had a running
15:45
back flip to Miami in twenty twenty three and then another one flipped to Miami
15:50
in twenty twenty four, class outside of those times, I don't think you
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had people saying that Tony Alfred was a terrible coach, but he also Tony
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was never you know, I think you would be hard pressed to go back
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through the hours and hours and hours and hours and hundreds of hours of podcasts
16:04
we've done or message board posts we've made, and fine times that we've said,
16:08
you know, illy, illy in the way that you know, you
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can look at a Brian Hartline and say, like, absolutely elite recruiter and
16:18
developer, Tim Walton, absolutely elite recruiter and developer. Not everyone is elite,
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And I don't think you really, you know, Tony Alfred was like
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a solid B plus running backs coach. Maybe at Ohio State where there was
16:32
some success, there were some development. But if you look at you know
16:36
how many of his guys who he signed as recruits, who went all the
16:41
way through their careers ended up getting drafted in the NFL. Is it just
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one? Is it just JK. Dobbins? There's just someone I'm missing?
16:47
I mean it just you were the running backs coach at Ohio State for nine
16:49
years and you had one guy who you signed who went all the way through
16:52
and got drafted in the NFL. That's not great. That doesn't mean he
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wasn't good in other areas. He was a good recruiter, He was helpful,
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and he was a lead recruiter in a lot of cases in Florida.
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But this is I think he was neither quite as bad as Ohio State fans
17:11
are acting like he was, nor was he quite as good as Michigan fans
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are now saying, oh boy, well look at the incredible prize that we
17:19
stole away in the draft. Thing that's going to change probably when Miau Williams
17:29
gets drafted. He might get drafted this year. It will change when Trayvon
17:33
Henderson gets drafted next year, but from like fifteen to twenty fifteen when he
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first started recruiting players to what would be what like, you know, twenty
17:45
twenty, twenty twenty one, where they'd be eligible. Now you're talking like
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six or seven classes, five six classes where you produced one NFL draft pick.
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And I think if you talk about that at any position, and maybe
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we should go back and look at each position at Ohios, if that's all
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you're doing, that's you're you're you're you're not keeping up. I don't think
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now only two guys are probably playing at a time. But I also,
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you know, I've been frustrated at times with him in terms of having players
18:17
ready, having more than two running backs ready. And this predates the twenty
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twenty two situation where they had to move chip train them. And at the
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end of the season, they're running the ball with chip Train them, a
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linebacker who former running back slash linebacker, and then also Xavier Johnson. You're
18:36
running them in the playoffs, so you're running them against Michigan, and then
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the same thing this past year. Chip train them obviously is still at running
18:42
back, but this last year the second leading rushers, chip train them the
18:48
third leading rusher is Xavier Johnson. That and and Dylan Hayden, who looks
18:55
good at times, hadn't hasn't, wasn't developed enough to be trusted to play
19:00
clearly or else he would have played, and whether it's a pass blocking or
19:03
whatever. So I think there were some issues over the years where you know,
19:11
things just weren't as at the peak that they could have been, or
19:15
that other positions were. And I also wonder, like with some of the
19:22
recruiting, like Samson James or James Sampson Samson James, where you know he
19:29
committed, but he was never decommitted and was let go basically. But I
19:34
don't know what necessarily they I think they missed on that in terms of probably
19:38
shouldn't have been offered Todd Sibley if that was like an Urban Meyer thing,
19:44
probably early on, and he may have even pre dated Tony Alfred in fact.
19:48
But some of the recruiting has just been a little wonky. But I
19:52
think that's that's not atypical. We just saw Brian Hartline lose Javen Boggs,
19:56
so like things like that happened. But the Florida running back stuff just seems
20:03
like Lucy and Charlie Brown football situation quite a bit, and it could have
20:08
repeated with Byron Lewis this year. I mean, because Ohio State was certainly
20:12
all in on Byron Lewis. Well, we know Tony still is Tony offered.
20:18
That is because Team up North just offered him today. So as Tony
20:22
Gerdaman posted and so it begins. I mean, because that's going to happen,
20:26
and he's gonna fall for the banana and the tailpipe once again. So
20:30
here's an interesting one for market X. Does this affect Dalan Hayden staying one
20:34
way or another? I mean that he couldn't get less playing time under the
20:42
new coach than he did under the old coach, So I can't imagine this
20:48
would hurt having him stay. I mean, I don't know that we have
20:52
enough information yet to make a real firm decision on that. The fact that
20:56
Dalan Hayden was presumably part of the had some input on this hire, you
21:00
would think that might help. You would think the fact that Tony Alfred is
21:06
not there anymore might help. But you know, I don't know that I
21:10
necessarily think that Dalan Hayden's number of reps was based solely on Tony Alfred's decision
21:15
making and no one else's. So, you know, does anyone have a
21:21
strong opinion on this one one way or the other, because I feel like
21:22
my answer is kind of yeah, I think it's I don't think it's hurt.
21:30
I don't think his chances of staying at Ohio State are hurt by this.
21:33
I think they're only helped by this one. Real quick aside, or
21:38
back to what Kevin was saying about how a change can just automatically be an
21:42
upgrade, I would say the same thing for Tony Alford. This could be
21:45
an upgrade situation for him as well, just because of that new thing and
21:51
getting out of an old job and do a new job and kicking it up
21:55
and not. So I think, you know, while we're talking about some
22:00
of the areas where Tony Alford fell short, maybe Ohio State fell short for
22:03
him in some areas as well. And so I think this is an opportunity
22:07
for him to you know, he's going to have some things to prove and
22:11
really be motivated to prove those things. I'll say, all right, I
22:15
do want to get through We had a couple, We had a couple of
22:18
recruits who signed or committed over the weekend, actually four. On the Sunday
22:23
Morning show, I took I sorted the Monday Morning show. I took a
22:29
couple of shows that Kevin and Mark had put together on two of those commitments
22:34
and threw those in there. But there are a couple other guys I do
22:37
want to talk about. So we've already if you listened to the morning show
22:41
for Monday morning, you've already heard about the first two commitments of the weekend.
22:45
But now we want to get to the last two guys to commit.
22:48
So you've heard about London Merritt, you've heard about t J. Alfred.
22:52
Let's talk about DZ Jones and Deshaun Stewart, both New Jersey guys, which
22:56
obviously very exciting to me. Let's start with DeShawn Stewart four star safety,
23:03
which which one of you guys wrote that one up? Who has who has
23:04
the most information on Deshaun Stewart? Obbably I wrote I wrote it, But
23:11
Kevin can please talk about it if you want? All right, well go
23:15
ahead, and I mean yeah, I mean I Both of them are out
23:18
of out of Wayne, New Jersey, which out of de Paul Catholic with
23:22
with Deshaun Stewart, I mean he you know, was listed in some places
23:27
as a corner. I think Ohio State is looking at him as a safety.
23:30
But Ohio State certainly talked to him about all five, you know,
23:36
all five positions, and that's something that everybody wants to you know, wants
23:40
to hear because you don't want to necessarily get stuck behind a Caleb Downs.
23:45
If you play Caleb Downs' position, You're probably not going to see a lot
23:48
of playing time. So you show, you know, you show that that
23:52
versatility there, and that's something that Stewart has. I mean, Stewart certainly
23:56
has great size at six' two buck eighty five buck ninety right now,
24:02
you know, just shy of twenty offers. But I think that he was
24:03
somebody that probably, you know, if he let us drag another couple of
24:07
months, could have really blown up, you know, four star type of
24:11
kid. But the biggest question that we get is how many defensive backs of
24:15
Ohio State going to take Because you sit there and you look at you know,
24:19
you look at the corners that Ohio State has, you look at the
24:22
players that are still on the board. I mean you know, you have
24:26
fahem De Lane, you have Trey McNutt, you have Dorian Brew. I
24:30
mean, you just you just keep going down through through the list. And
24:33
you know, let's not even forget the fact that Cleveland Saint ignatious defensive back
24:37
just decommitted from Wisconsin and you know, and he's you know, being crystal
24:44
ball to Ohio State. So is this going to be an eight man class?
24:48
I don't know, but I you know, I I talked to some
24:49
people up in in in New Jersey and they really were a big fan of
24:55
of of Stuart's game. Quote unquote, Yeah, this kid can play,
24:59
is what I was told. So you know, we'll see as he progresses
25:03
and you know what it looks like, because again, everybody wants to play
25:07
corner. But you know, if he's coming in and he understands that he's
25:11
a safety but could play any of the positions, you know, I think
25:14
that that's good having somebody who's a bit of a Swiss army knife. But
25:19
when you look at all of this, Ohio State has to do a good
25:22
job of keep on recruiting everybody because you don't want to chase off a Devin
25:26
Sanchez. You don't want to you don't want to chase off nim offered or
25:30
somebody like that in this case. But you know, I think Ohio State's
25:34
doing a great job in the secondary recruiting. It feels like for years and
25:40
years and years we've talked about, you know, this is the year Ohio
25:41
State's going to take twenty eight guys or twenty seven guys or something like that,
25:45
and then they always end up at twenty two or twenty three, and
25:48
we go, how did that happen? Again, this is a year where
25:52
again it feels like, Okay, it's April, so it's time for us
25:55
to say this could be the year they take twenty seven or twenty eight guys
25:57
in the class we might need. At this time, they're recruiting as if
26:03
they're going to take a big class this year, where you know, they
26:07
get seven defensive backs and they take five wide receivers, maybe because you know,
26:11
Brian Hartline is not exactly you know, hurting for top wide receiver talent.
26:17
They brought in a couple really highly ranked wide receivers this weekend and sounds
26:22
like things are looking you know, they're not bad for either of them.
26:26
And then you bring in a relatively unheralded three star wide receiver accept a commitment
26:30
from a relatively heralded three star wide receiver out of New Jersey. That to
26:36
me tells me number one, Tony or Brian Hartline sees something, which generally
26:41
when Brian Hartline sees something early, that player turns into Milon Graham. You
26:45
know, there have been a couple like who what kind of offers from Brian
26:49
Hartline and they have turned into Jackson Smith and Jigba and Milon Graham. So
26:53
you know, it's not like this is the first time we've seen this,
26:56
but it also you know, they're in on so many other big names.
27:00
Tony, it feels like you're probably looking at a big wide receiver class as
27:03
well. And if you're looking at a big defensive back class and big wide
27:07
receiver class, odds are this is going to be a big overall class.
27:11
Yeah, because you got to remember, Jeremiah Smith's going to challenge the NFL
27:15
rule after this year, so you're gonna want to replace him pretty quickly.
27:18
Tony, what day is it all right? Just getting people off the ledge?
27:22
Tony, No, he's not, No, he's not. I'm not
27:26
doing that. April fool stuff up. No, I think, to me,
27:30
I see this commitment as a replacement of Javen Boggs in the slot.
27:33
That's kind of what you're looking for. There's a quick guy, a good
27:37
route runner, a lot like Bogs, So you've kind of you take care
27:41
of that. But you do expect to lose guys every year, and you
27:45
signed for and by the end of their time, one leaves early and for
27:52
the NFL, one leaves for the portal, and you're left with a couple
27:56
of guys there that you can continue to have to build up up. And
28:00
last year basically a two man class or this year two main class with Jeremiah
28:03
Smith and Mylin Graham, and there were times where we thought it was gonna
28:07
be four man class. So you're still trying to catch up on that as
28:11
well. So yeah, four or five guys I think you could see there.
28:15
And again, they're not deep right now at receiver, so it's not
28:19
like they're working off of huge numbers like they They were very happy that Bryson
28:26
Rodgers came back because they need bodies, and so yeah, I'm expecting a
28:30
big class. I just keep wondering at some point when we're gonna hear from
28:33
like Ross Dellinger or something about how the Competition committee is talking about ninety five
28:37
scholarships now because sixteen games whatever, you know, it's only gonna be a
28:42
small fraction of teams that are playing that. But I feel like the Power
28:48
five and the Power two or whatever, eventually you're gonna see that scholarship number
28:52
go up. Then you're gonna have thirty class thirty man classes all the time.
28:56
But it's about time Ohio State has one because it's you know, like
29:00
you said, we talk about it every year and it just doesn't happen.
29:03
Just to jump in quickly too before we get to the to the super chat
29:06
about the thirty man classes and ninety five scholarships. I do think it's going
29:11
to have to be something that we see after the split, after the Big
29:18
one and the Big ten and the SEC kind of go off on their own,
29:22
because there are going to be a lot a lot of other teams that
29:26
our Division one FBS that are going to be like, we're having a hard
29:29
enough time keeping our lights on. Now, we got to be able to
29:32
find funding for ten more scholarships. And let's remember a scholarship is more than
29:37
just you know, room and board and books. So I mean, I
29:41
think that you're going to have a case of until the haves are able to
29:45
separate themselves from the have nots, I think you're gonna see there are a
29:48
lot of things that make a lot of sense that the have nots are like,
29:52
well, we just can't have any part of that, and that's why
29:53
we haven't seen things progress. Yeah, and that's a whole separate convert which
30:00
you know, I think it's probably well past time to stop pretending that Georgia
30:06
and Ohio State are playing the same sport that Louisian Munroe is. But you
30:10
know, where where does that fault line happen when the big one happens?
30:15
Is that between the Power two and the ACC, you know, the ACC
30:18
and Big twelve explode and then there's just two conferences left? Or is there's
30:22
some kind of a schism between the power conferences and the Group of five or
30:27
group of whatever it is at that point conferences that's all all TBD. But
30:33
yeah, I do think you're right. I think broadly, I think you're
30:37
you are going to be at some point looking at bigger rosters just because you're
30:41
asking more players to play more games and eventually they're you know, the the
30:45
demand on eighteen year olds, you can you know, an eighteen year old
30:51
is probably not quite as physically ready for the physical demands of playing that length
30:55
and intensity of a schedule as a twenty five year old in the NFL.
31:00
Those are kind of two different points in your life. So we'll see how
31:03
that all shakes out. Super chad for Mike Farino. Speaking of Jeremiah Smith,
31:07
which we were earlier the weekly reminder that ESPN should be removed from the
31:11
composite number two wide receiver in twenty twenty four. Class in saying this is
31:17
Tony. I think the player who the feedback on has been the single most
31:23
consistent of anyone I can ever remember, just in terms of yeah, the
31:30
high school coaches, the high school talent evaluators, the college coaches, the
31:36
people inside the program, the people who get to watch practice. Like when
31:40
we just get to go in and watch practice, it's just like everyone has
31:42
the same reaction and it's just like, oh oh, and you know,
31:48
I wasn't surprised when I saw when we saw what we saw on Saturday,
31:52
but it was still like okay, yeah, okay, we have to say
31:59
some of irresponsible things now. Well, and I believe is that Ryan Williams
32:04
that ESPN has number one who reclassified from twenty five to twenty four. So
32:09
it's like that was definitely a choice to put him number one in that regard,
32:15
Like you could have kept him at two and everybody'll be like, yeah,
32:17
that makes sense. You know he's he's still a year behind, but
32:21
you then go ahead and jump him up. I swear I remember Shannon Terry,
32:24
who is the the big guy at on three, tweeting about should we
32:30
have ESPN? Should we wait? ESPN's rankings less because they spend less time
32:37
on it and things like that. That in terms of their composite and I
32:39
don't know if they have or not, but it's weighted, but so it
32:44
is. I mean, I think two four seven in as well. It's
32:46
like they both love each other and then they've kind of dropped rivals down.
32:51
It's like Rivals is only fifteen percent of the equation. I think ESPN's only
32:54
ten percent of the equation, if I know. Don't quote me on those
32:58
numbers, but that's what I seem to remember. Well, all right,
33:00
so fifteen percent for you heard it here first from Kevin Noon, Kevin Noon
33:06
and Buckeheadle dot com. Fifteen percent and ten percent put a graphic up.
33:10
Quote sorry, Tony, go ahead, Well, and I always tell a
33:15
story about ESPN how I don't know, maybe like eight ten years ago when
33:21
they did more recruiting, they had like eight analysts in the southeast and one
33:25
analyst in the Midwest. And you're like, well, why are there so
33:29
many more Florida kids ranked higher than Ohio kids? And like, well,
33:35
it's you're asking one guy to go cover the entire Midwest and you've got eight
33:39
different guys that you know down in Florida or whatever to handle that. So
33:43
you're gonna just have more numbers because you have more eyeballs down there. But
33:46
no, is this clearly ESPN SEC bias? Yes, of course, naturally,
33:53
what else would it be? All Right, And before we go,
33:57
it was offensive line day at Ohio State. Both you guys got were there
34:00
to talk to Justin Frye and some of the offensive linemen. Obviously that is
34:05
a position that has been you know, it's not quite wide receiver or corner
34:07
or quarterback in terms of the excitement level around the Ohio State program. But
34:12
it's certainly one where you know, we have season seen seasons derailed by offensive
34:16
lines that weren't quite up to the standard. What's the what's the latest on
34:21
the offensive line? What was Tony What was the most interesting thing you heard
34:23
during the offensive line interviews today? Yeah, honestly it's listening to U.
34:30
Seph McLaughlin and Carson Hinsman were both there. I did not get to listen
34:34
to Carson Hinsman, but talking about just how the competition is going and Seth
34:39
McLaughlan saying it's not really a competition. They're just mixing and matching and everybody's
34:45
just rolling in, so you're just trying to fire the best five. And
34:49
at one point McLachlin said, you know, I'm a center, I'm an
34:51
offensive lineman, basically like I'm not. You know, don't don't worry about
34:54
just pigeonholing me as a center. And you know, I think Justin Frye
35:00
asked him about the right side. He's like, you know, we're still
35:02
trying to figure it out. And I said, well, what do you
35:07
need to have done by the spring? He's like, well, you just
35:09
want a body of work and not just a whole bunch of snaps. You
35:15
want like this, many third and eighths for each guy in terms of the
35:19
right guard or the right tackle, or mostly the right guard, but you
35:22
want to have a number of snaps from each situation so that you have something
35:25
degrade on and then the grade is whatever the grade is, and that's how
35:30
you know, basically, more than just eyeballing it, who was better well.
35:34
And we walked away from that student appreciation practice and talked on the post
35:38
practice show that we did, and I think our sense, broadly speaking,
35:44
was that based on what we saw, it looked like Seth MacLachlan was rapping
35:47
more with the ones than Carson Hensen was on Saturday. It's just one practice.
35:52
It does not mean this is the final answer. And the way they
35:55
were talking, you know, moving Tager Schabola into guard a week after Ryan
36:00
Day had talked about him being more of a tackle that to me suggests,
36:05
okay, they feel like Josh Farr might be that right tackle. Did you
36:08
hear anything either of you guys on Monday to make you think we were reading
36:14
too much into this? And these are still very much, you know,
36:16
very much wide open position battles. I focused on some other things, So
36:22
go ahead, Tony on that one of them I listened to. I listened
36:25
to Justin Fry when I got home, and then before I knew it,
36:30
like I opened my eyes, I was like, what was I doing?
36:34
No, nothing like nothing new there, still just getting guys wraps. So
36:39
nothing definitive. I'm I didn't mention take in terms of guarter tackle at all.
36:46
I don't recall, but you know, like I said, it's it's
36:51
fluid tomorrow or Wednesday. When they're back, yes, tomorrow, when they're
36:57
back at practice, they will you know, who knows what it'll be.
37:00
And he was asked, asked if at some point will centers, Will Hinsman
37:07
and McLaughlan one of them rep at guard just to see or he's like,
37:10
well how he was asked, how would you know that they could play guard?
37:14
Like, well, they need to play guard. It's like, well,
37:15
is that going to happen? You know, like kind of wishy washy
37:17
on anything like that. So not a bunch of answers coming from Justin Fry,
37:22
but I do. I still think they have plenty of options to fill
37:27
whatever concerns they have. And I know so many people a lot of Buckeye
37:30
fans are like, they've got to get rid of this guy. They've got
37:32
to fix that guy. They can't go into a game with Josh Friar as
37:37
their right tackle. And I people just need to put that Missouri Cotton Bowl
37:42
game out of the picture because you didn't have your actual center playing in that
37:46
game, and you had situation on the right side that was not sustainable.
37:51
So I don't think you can use that as any kind of goalpost moving forward.
37:57
They talk about taking a game tape and bearing it in the yard.
38:00
That's one that you bury out in the yard and never go back to it
38:02
again. Yeah, put that one right next to Jimmy Hoffa and never look
38:06
at it again. Yeah. The two guys who are were probably at the
38:10
center of the issues for most of that most of that game are not guys
38:15
who were really talking about in terms of being likely starters this year. So
38:19
yeah, I would I would kind of leave that one alone and not not
38:23
have that taint your view of what the offensive line might be in twenty twenty
38:28
four. But whoever that offensive line is in twenty twenty four, they are
38:31
going to be blocking for the new running backs coach Carlos Lochlin's guys, Carlos
38:37
Lochlin will be not He's not officially announced yet. And as we said before,
38:39
we've been talking about this for a while at the on the huddleboard if
38:43
I got huddle dot com, and it is now to the point where it's
38:45
public enough that we're going to talk about it here. So well, you
38:49
have now gotten your update on Carlos Lughlin, you've gotten your update on the
38:52
offensive line, you've gotten your update on the recruiting recent news, you've gotten
38:57
your update for market X on the only good thing from the Cotton Bowl being
39:00
the pickles. Now we're done. Thank you guys all for joining us.
39:04
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40:00
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40:01
a great day. We'll talk to you tomorrow.