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Is CJ Hicks Ready For A Bigger Role In The Ohio State Linebacker Room? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Welcome to Buckeyes Tomorrow morning for Sunday, February twenty fifth, I'm your host
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  Tom Moore. The Akron game in one hundred and eighty eight days, the
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  game against Michigan in two hundred and seventy nine days. We're gonna let you
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  hear from Ohio State linebackers coach James Laurenidis once again today. Got some good
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  feedback on the show from a couple of days ago. Figured definitely there was
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  plenty more to talk about. Today. You're hearing a lot more about this
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  year's team, this year's players, all that kind of stuff, a lot
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  of infering stuff from James on that, and a lot of players that we
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  get a lot of questions about. So it's a good time to let you
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  hear straight from the horse's mouth, the guy who's going to be deciding who
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  plays and when, Well, let's let you hear from him. Let's start
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  with James Laurenitis talking about the chance that's linebacker or safety Sunny Styles could join
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  the linebacker's room this year. I think that's a question probably above me,
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  but I think Sonny has such a rare skill set in the sense that you
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  saw it some a little bit where he would play kind of the overhang last
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  year and you don't really know what he was. This is a safety,
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  right or is this more of an outside backer? You know, he has
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  old school sam you know, to use those terms. He's just so versatile,
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  and so I think there's a lot of different roles that we can kind
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  of put Sonny in to kind of bring out the best in him. I
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  think with his body size and his age, when you try to project him
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  forward, he's kind of in that Isaiah Simmons mix if you remember that name,
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  where you're like, what really is he? You know, is he
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  a safety? He's just a weapon. And so I think that's something that
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  we have to kind of evaluate this spring. That's kind of where to put
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  him to not only best suit what we want to do a Silver Bullets,
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  but also what's best for his future. Here are another couple of young guys
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  we get asked about a lot, ce j Hicks and Gabe Powers. They're
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  both entering their third season as Buckeyes. So where do things stand for those
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  two guys right now? They's got to play and I think it all comes
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  down to consistency. Consistency breeds confidence, so you know, if you want
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  to, you know, put your stake on a position, you got to
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  do it day in and day out. I think, you know. The
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  vision that I have for our room is hopefully we come out of this spring
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  to where we have at least four guys that have earned the right to play.
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  That's my hope, and I don't know if that'll happen. But what
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  I mean by that is, like I thought last year we had three guys
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  that earned the right to play. I thought, but the way Cody Simon
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  prepared during the spring and then in the fall. Quite frankly, looking back,
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  I wish I would have played Cody probably a little more last fall.
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  He earned it. So I think when you look at it, it's okay.
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  Do we have four players maybe five that can earn the right because if
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  I think, if you play well enough, the season is going to be
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  really long with this twelve game playoff, right, so you're looking at what
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  sixteen games or something, So we're going to have to rotate if we have
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  the ability to. Now, if only two guys show up and prove that
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  they're trustworthy, then two will play. But I hope that we have a
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  room that is reflected kind of what Brian has in his room, where it's
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  guys are constantly iron sharpening iron, trying to claw for the field and for
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  playing time. I hope that's what we can have not only exit in the
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  spring, but heading in the fall camp. Who is it that is ultimately
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  get to decide whether Sunny Styles is a safety or a linebacker, or a
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  combination or something else entirely. Who's going to make that decision Ultimately? I
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  think it's a combination probably of everybody. I think it's probably coach Knowles and
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  Coach Day talking about. I think there's a balance of what's best for our
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  defense and what's best for Sunny's future. He's a I mean, he's a
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  big human and when you look at his body size, I think that he
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  would he would excel obviously as a linebacker. I also think that he has
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  a unique skill set to where he can play out in space like he did
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  last year. So I think it's just trying to figure out what does Sonny
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  want to do, what do we think is best for the Buckeyes and also
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  with his future CJ Hicks, it was a five star prospect coming out of
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  high school, and outside of Sunny Styles might be the guy we get asked
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  about the most of anyone on the team. Why isn't this guy playing more?
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  So? All right, James Laurn, iis, what do you still
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  need to see from CJ Hicks this year to see him get on the field
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  more. I think just consistency, To be honest with you, CJ has
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  all the potential in the world. He does, and I think sometimes he's
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  just got to he's just got to cut it loose and go play. And
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  I think the lot I think, honestly, I expect a big spring from
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  CJ. I think he with the way he has attacked this offseason, workouts,
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  the way he's carried himself, I expect him to take a jump and
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  look. For some guys it's easy to come in right away and just go
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  and play, and for some it takes a little bit more development. But
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  I think CJ is getting to a point where, hopefully this spring there's a
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  lot of growth. And maybe some of that will come with just the fact,
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  hey, this position is for the taking, right like, and I
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  think some guys thrive on that, and we'll find out kind of how he
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  reacts to it. But I'm a big fan of CJ. Hicks always have
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  been because I think, like you said, he has such a raw and
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  rare kind of skill set to where he can just physically. He has so
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  many traits that you love, you know, at the linebacker position. Linebacker
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  Gabe Powers came to Ohio State the same year as CJ. Hickson has also
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  been mostly a special teams contributor so far. What kind of growth has James
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  laur and I seen out of Gab Powers in his year in Columbus? Yeah,
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  Gabe, look, I mean, Gabe looks good as well. And
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  I think Gabe last year, I can't think of players. Cody Simon's definitely
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  won, but Gay Powers got significantly better from last spring all the way through
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  the fall and into the winner, you know what I mean. So as
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  the season went on, you would notice him kind of making plays in practice
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  routinely to where you're like, Okay, I think the light bulb is coming
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  on for Gabe and so I can't I can't speak enough when you talk about
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  those two and talk about rvel rees, how big this spring will be for
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  them, because it's an opportunity, it's an opportunity to see who's going to
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  be in there alongside Cody Simon, and like I said earlier, whether that's
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  just one guy and it's two players playing, you know, which I hope
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  it's not, because my hope is we're able to keep people fresh for this
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  long haul of a season. All right. And finally here's another one.
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  We get asked about a whole bunch, the jack position. You've heard a
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  bunch about it a lot of the times. It's because we get asked about
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  it, and so we answer the questions over and over again. You saw
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  it a little bit in twenty twenty two and then it really kind of went
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  away in twenty twenty three. So does the jack position really even exist?
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  You know, I don't think it's I mean, you mentioned our vell CJ.
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  Mitch Melton probably is another candidate. It's definitely part of our scheme.
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  You know, we didn't use it last year, but two years ago to
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  use it a lot. And you know, as we go through and we
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  self scout, we're trying to figure out, hey, what are we bringing
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  to the table for this season. So to be honest with you, we
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  haven't gotten to those conversations yet about kind of that or who will coach it.
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  But I think it's something that's definitely unique to Jim's scheme, and I
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  think it could be very beneficial for us. But you always weigh, I
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  guess this is this is you know some nash Jim is you always weigh,
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  Hey, we have all this stuff in the system, and how much of
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  all of that do we really need versus what do we actually do really well?
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  So our guys can play really fast, and there are sometimes where you
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  need a lot, and there's sometimes we don't need much. You can just
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  go play, and I think that's for Coach Knowles to decide, all right,
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  Well, that will do it for today. I hope you guys enjoyed
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  hearing a little more from James Learned at US. Very very interesting interview subject,
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  very very interesting guy, a lot of stuff to talk about. Really
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  just enjoy hearing him answer questions and some really good, thoughtful answers. So
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  I hope you guys enjoyed that one as much as I did. And I
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  hope you guys enjoyed buckye Huddle dot Com as much as I do. As
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  well as where Tony, Kevin and I cover the team, Mark covers recruiting.
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  We had our whole team of x's and those gurus, really fun active
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  board as well, the huddle board pre centered by Jeff Ruby Steakhouse. That's
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  all at Buckeye Huddle dot Com. Lots and lots to talk about there.
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  Boy, it is been an eventful year already in Ohio State athletics promises to
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  only be more interesting and more exciting moving forward as the Buckeyes head into springball
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  just over one week away. I am really legitimately excited for spring ball this
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  year. A lot of interesting storylines will be following for you. There a
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  lot of interig stuff to talk about, really talented players coming back, really
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  talented players coming in. It would be a pretty fun football season. Means
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  it'll be a great season to be a member of bucke Huddle dot Com.
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  That will do it for today. Thank you guys all for joining us.
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  Have a great day. We will talk to tomorrow.