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Ohio State Football Insider: 10 Things We Learned From Ryan Day & Jim Knowles · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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Welcome to a very special live edition of Buckeyes Tomorrow Morning for Wednesday, September
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twentieth. I'm your host, tom Or. The Notre Dame game is in
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three days, the game against Michigan in sixty six days. I'm here with
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Tony Girderman here inside the Wood Hayes Athletic Center. You just got a chance
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to talk to Ryan Day and Jim Knowles about, Hey, there's a football
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game this weekend and it might be one of some consequence. And I guess
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before we get into any of the specifics, Tony, you know, we've
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been in here in big game weeks where everyone's a little tight, everyone's a
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little button up. Ryan Day and Jim Knowles both seemed pretty loose and relaxed
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considering what's on deck this weekend. Yeah, I hadn't even thought about that.
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I did. There was no the air. You know, it's a
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little different, and I didn't feel that today. I will say Ryan Day
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went a little bit shorter than normal, but that was the plan that was
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you know, that wasn't something that Day takes twelve questions like that's it,
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you know, but overall, like, yeah, I would say Day was
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open. He was there's no like shortness. Sometimes Jim Knowles is just you
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know, like he he didn't seem any different than he was against Western Kentucky.
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So I know it doesn't obviously it's a big game, but it doesn't
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feel like it's too big of a game. Well, and I think Notre
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Dame changed their media schedule because there was Marcus Freeman and Sam Hartman talked on
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Monday, and I think I think I heard someone in one of those questions
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ask about the fact, you know, he is reference the fact that it
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was normally a Tuesday things. So maybe they've shifted the media schedule around a
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little bit. I would say, knows that for the Michigan game, not
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for this one. It doesn't mean it's not a big game though, you
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know, I guess before going into this game, a lot of the talk
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was, you know, about last weekend's game and what they learned during last
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weekend's game, because after the game you always kind of get there, well,
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I gotta go back and watch this all. This is our first chance
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to talk to these guys after they've got a chance to go back and watch
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that film and get a little bit of a you know, Okay, what
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did you really see what did you learn? What does it mean moving forward?
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Ryan Day seems to feel like, you know, I think what we
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talked about, you know, hey, this was you know, it's again
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not a done deal. It's not a finished product, but it was a
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step in the right direction for the offensive line. Yeah, and that was
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good to see for them because they put so much emphasis on it all week
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regarding the toughness and the violence, and we talked in our Buckeye Weekly Rewatch
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episode that we saw a more physical offensive line and there was I don't think
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there's any doubt of that. And to see that continue to build and then
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it's not a finished product. So you want to take what they did these
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first three weeks, especially what they did last week, and then continue to
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build on that and just raise that level of physicality, raising the level of
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intensity and intensity it was also energy was also something right Day talked about how
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I just want to continue to carry that into the biggest game of the year
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to this point, and they saw everything they wanted to see against Western Kentucky
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to believe that they can move forward and carry it further against Notre Dame.
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And you know, they felt like they got some confidence, got some rhythm
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on offense. You know, but this is going to be a little bit
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of a different game. How many how many times should we hear them talk
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about the fact that this is a matchup game, which is I think the
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twenty twenty three version of the talent is equated. It is. You know,
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this is one where what does this game always come down to? When
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you're playing a big game like this, it always comes down to the trenches
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winning along the lines of scrimmage. And you know, Brande talked about,
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you know, he gotta win the one of scrimmage. You gotta win the
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fourth quarter. You gotta go win a top ten game on the road.
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But in order to do that, in order to win the game, you
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know, in the trenches, you have to you can't be predictable. You've
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got to have balance, and that's going to be a challenge because in the
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past they've had you know, in the past, they've had times where like
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the Organ game for example, two years ago, Brandi after the game talked
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about the fact that, hey, CJ. Stroud, he probably probably asked
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CJ. Stroud to throw the ball a little too much. So you've got
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to go in this week and have a certain amount of balance. Yeah,
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and they feel good about where the running game is going right now. And
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I thought it was interesting when it was y was Ryan Day was asked if
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Kyle McCord is going to be asked to do too much or is there is
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any concern about putting too much on his plate, and he's like this,
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you gotta do whatever it takes to win the game. And that's the focus
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in terms of you know, whether it's asking him to throw the ball forty
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times or twenty times, run the ball forty times or twenty times, it's
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about doing whatever it takes in that fourth quarter to get the job done.
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And and really, maybe something isn't working in the first quarter, you change
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it, and you figure out what's working. Then you go with that.
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And so it's not about putting too much on his plate or whatever, because
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they're happy with what he's doing right now. They're happy with the focus,
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the accuracy, the ability to lead the offense, and the command that he
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has of the offense. And now it's you're the quarterback. It can't be
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about putting too much on your plate. You've got to go and lead this
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team to a victory on the road in a hostile environment. And I think
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when people think about balance they think just in terms of run pass. But
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Ryan Day talked about the fact that you know, they have to be able
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to attack from different personnel groupings. It has to not just be hey,
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you can throw the ball, you know, or hey, you're can throw
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the ball to the tight ends with running too wide receivers. You've got to
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be able to get everybody involved and that keeps people off balance. Yeah,
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and that starts. We've seen it with the tight ends getting the ball and
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as the third or fourth options in the offense, they can be sneaky first
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options on the play action boots that we've seen Kate Stover ninety yards receiving and
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a guy that didn't have a catch the previous game and then comes in with,
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you know, the number of catches that he had. So it's ability.
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It's the ability to keep the defenses off balance in terms of, well,
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you don't have to worry about this guy because clearly you do, and
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when you don't, then boom, he's taking get thirty or forty yards.
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And so the number of weapons they have the ability to spread the ball around
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because it's not just Marvin and it's not a mecca and and even if it
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was, then defenses could do a better job of handling that. But clearly
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it's not one thing that one of the real I think got a good laugh
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kind of moment during the press conference was Bryan Day was asked by I think
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one of the TV reporters, you know, hey, this is they're in
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top ten game. It's gonna be a crazy environments, a crazy environment last
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year, are you gonna be able to take a moment to you know,
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kind of while you're there, you know, you know it's a big game,
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but you could shout to take a moment and just sort of soak it
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all in and just very dead pen He just goes probably not that gotta that
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got a big laugh. Yeah, I will say I went back and looked
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to see how many times Ryan Day has been at Notre Dame as a coach
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at Boston College. I believe four times, putting once as a GA his
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Boston College Eagles were free and one wow in there. Mostly I don't want
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to blame Charlie Weiss, but I'm going to guess that the Boston College offenses
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in those games probably not quite as talent laden or in terms of point points
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per game explosiveness, probably not quite on the same level as this game.
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There were some fourteen ten, sixteen fourteen. I think that the lone win
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by more than a four or five points was a twenty seven fourteen victory for
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Boston College. That may have been like the Matt Ryan versus you know,
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Jimmy Claus and that seems way too uh odd, like Matt Ryan seems to
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have played before then, but you know, yeah, uh it was Matt
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Ryan is there in two thousand and seven. It might have been good.
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I think it might have been, you know, in terms of expectation for
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this weekend. This is a little off topic, but I saw a couple
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of stats from Brett Siancia from Pick six previews who Morning Show regular Morning Show
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heads will remember from multiple previous appearances on the show. I want to guess
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where Ohio State and Notre Dame rank in terms of the best yards per play
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among Power five teams through week three, first and sellout allowed by defense first
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and second, first and second. Ohio State three point six, Notre Dame
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three point eight. You want to guess where Ohio State and Notre Dame rank
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in terms of top yards from play differential among Power five teams, so yards
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for playing on offense minus rs for playing defense. Where they rank among the
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Power five teams? Is it first and second? It is third and four,
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Notre Dame third, Ohio State fourth, Washington first, Ucla second.
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But I mean, I mean it's a really big ten dominating Uh. Could
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could be four for four on future Big ten teams there, Washington, Ucla,
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Notre Dame, in Ohio State. But yeah, I mean, this
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is this is going to be such an interesting game because I think you go
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into it thinking, well, Ohio State has been putting up a bount yards
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and Sam Hartman's been throwing a bunch. This might be a little bit more
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of a defensive game than than than people are expecting. Jim Knowles was asked
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about Sam Hartman, the present, the challenge that Sam Hartman presents, sixth
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year quarterback. This first year, he threw like sixteen touchdown passes in twenty
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and eighteen, which is a little bit ago. But it was amazing to
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me how Day and Noels were both asked about him, and basically every answer
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was some combination of smart inexperience. Yeah, the decision making in there and
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does what you want him to do, doesn't put you in too much danger.
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I will say he does have some games where there's two interceptions, there's
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three interceptions, and and and he started out the season completing like eighty percent
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of his passes in the first two games. Last each of the last two
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he's around you know, sixties sixty two percent, So it's starting to come
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down a little bit. But he's the guy that you you can trust him
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to run the offense, you can trust him to get the ball where it
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needs to go. And as Ryan Day said, he's or maybe Jim Nelson,
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he's just good at good at getting rid of the ball. He sees
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everything well, he knows where to go with it, he doesn't hold on
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to it too long, doesn't get tackled, so he gets rid of it.
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And really is a frustrating aspect for the defense in that way, because
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you're rushing, you're rushing, and you're never quite able to get there because
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he knows where to go with the ball. And that's honestly, that's if
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that's not the toughest kind of quarterback to deal with. It's the guy that
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can make something out of nothing. But the guy that knows the way where
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to throw the ball when wherever the blitz is vacated a spot something like that.
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That's what that's what Sam Hartman can do. Yeah, he has his
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ten thousand hours of college football quarterbacking for sure. And one thing that makes
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that Notre Dame offense challenging is you've got Sam Hartman. Yes, the wide
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receivers. They do not have a Marvin Harrison. They do not have an
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a Mecca a book on that team, but they have an Adric estimate and
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they have a pretty darn good offensive line. And when you have, you
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know, an offense that's set up to the way that Notre Dames is where
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it's you're going to run the ball and then you're gonna throw take your play
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action shots off of that. Boy. If they can get the run game
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going, that makes us a much more challenging game for Ohio State. Yeah,
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and this is something I've been saying for a few days now, like
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Ohire State hasn't faced a play action attack really yet. You know Indiana and
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they ran the ball Youngstown State, it's Youngstown State, Western Kentucky. They're
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more of a getting out quickly, but you're notre Dame. They're gonna want
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to establish the run, and even if they aren't, they're still going to
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show play action and you have to respect the run there. And so I
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think that's still a question mark. And when I asked Jim Knowles, like
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how confident are you in the defense's ability to handle the play action, He's
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like, well, you know, we've seen all of the signs that they'll
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be able to do it, But this, to me is a much bigger
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test than anything they've seen before. So while they have seen what they like,
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they've seen things they like in the first three games, this is going
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to be a completely different test. Like last week was a completely different test.
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They passed that one. This one, to me is it's in the
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wheelhouse of where Josh Proctor and Lathan Ransom have had their issues with the play
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action, and so I think that's something to watch in this one. But
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they've also been harping on it and practicing against it, and that, you
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know, with the front seven being what it is and as doubt as it
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is, do they want their safeties to be just relax on the run a
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little bit, you know that that sort of thing. I don't know how
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they're gonna do it, but it's gonna be it's going to require a ton
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of discipline from the safeties. Yeah, and I think you're you're almost having
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the same conversation there that Jim Knowles asked about in terms of blitzing. Yeah,
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if you can get there with your front four, great, how much
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are you gonna blitz? And you know, whether that's linebackers. We've seen
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a lot of Tommy Eikenberg blitzing, for example this year, but they brought
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guys off the corner, they brought safeties in, you know, and I
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love this was this was another good Gym Knowles answer. You know, it
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was basically, you know, well that's sort of there was like this long
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pause. You know, how how how do you balance wanting to blitz but
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knowing hey, there's that play action threat And there was like this long pause
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and then he sort of smiled and uh, you know, the end of
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the answer was basically, uh, well, this is why I'm in this
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building so much. If it was if it was easy, if there was
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a straightforward answer to that question, I'd be outside smoking a cigar right now.
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Yeah. Ryan, They calls that the art of coaching on knowing when
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and how and what, and that's that's one of them, because we have
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seen them blitz continue to blitz on third and long. This against Western Kentucky,
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they were doing it. Sometimes it works, sometimes it didn't, but
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you can't just keep doing the same thing over and over again, especially against
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the veteran quarterback. And he was asked how confident he's in how confident he
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is in the secondary right now? He said, I'm confident in the secondary,
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but you know, I think we'll keep practicing, which another good Knowle's
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moment. You mentioned Lathan Ransom, you mentioned Josh Proctor. That third safety
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spot is kind of an interesting conversation this week as well, because last week
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against Western Kentucky, in a much more past centric offense, you didn't see
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a whole heck of a lot of sunny stylege. You saw a lot more
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Jordan Hancock, and Jordan Hancock had his good moments and he had some not
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so good moments. What are you expecting this week? I mean, Knowles,
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Noel's kind of gave the you know, it depends kind of answer on
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who's going to play there, which, yeah, that's what I would have
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expected him to say. But you know what, what do you expect you
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do you put the more physical guy in styles in there, and you know,
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just take your chances that you're you know you're gonna you might have to
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knock down all your cuestimate at some point. Or do you put the putter
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cover guy in there because you're you're going to try and keep them from running
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those like drag routes across the field. Yeah, I mentioned to see how
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much twel personnel they run with one running back, two tight ends. I
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do expect more sunny styles than this one. I think he's out there and
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the early downs and then if it's a passing down you bring in Jordan Hancock.
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I think with estimate and the offensive line, you want as much size
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as possible. But the benefit of having sunny styles is that he is not
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a linebacker, so you can have him do multiple things in terms of I
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don't need to come off the field. If you want to keep him out
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there and defend the receiver, he should be able to hold up for that.
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Now do you want to do it all game long? Probably not.
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That's what the better cover corner, the cover the better cover guys for.
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But I think initially we're going to see plenty of sunny styles in this one
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because it does allow them to just do some different things, disguise some things,
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and against the veteran quarterback like Sam Hartman, maybe the more disguising you
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can do, the better, but then he also figure stuff out quickly,
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which is something I think Ryan Day said, And so then it becomes disguise
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verse is versus execute, and the execution perhaps maybe on Jordan Hancock's side in
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terms of coverage, but I think you'll you'll see both of them, and
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I'll be interested again to see if they try to trap one of them on
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the field when they go to like a twelve or something like that, and
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if they are in twelve, just is it always going to be sunny out
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there? So I think there's a bunch to watch. I'm interested to watch
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Notre Dame games this week to see exactly how much two tight ends sets do
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they run? Like is it gonna be a lot like watching you know,
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O Higher State offense in terms of the power running that they do versus you
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know, you never really you only see O Hire State with four wides out
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four wide outs like you know rarely and three plenty, but also plenty of
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two tight ends. I'm interested to see the balance of Notre Dame with their
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new offensive coordinator, new quarterback, things like, yeah, and that was
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gonna be My next question was, you go into this game, Ohio State
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had to figure out what they want to do on defense. When you're looking
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at Notre Dames defense, it's a lot of the same guys as last year.
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They have a very veteran team, a lot of guys back from last
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year, especially in the secondary. You've got the same defensive coaching staff.
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The head coach is the defensive coach by trade, so you know it's kind
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of his vision overall. So the broad strokes that are really not going to
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change your dear. On the offensive side of the ball, you get a
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new offensive coordinator, you've got a new quarterback, You've got I think Jim
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Knowles had new offensive line coach. I mean, there's there's a lot of
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different stuff there. And you know, Noel's and day were both asked,
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how much do you look at last year's offense versus the first four games of
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this year's offense when you're trying to figure out what the heck they're going to
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do. Yeah, I think the focus is you look at the new coordinators.
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You have to go back and see what they've done in the past.
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But you have so much film right now from this season. I think that's
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where the bulk of it is going to be. But the coaches will also
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tell you be looking at everything, you know. That's that's why you have
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forty seven people on staff to go look at everything. And if you if
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something happens that we didn't have on film, you're fired, you know that
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sort of thing. So they'll look at all this stuff in terms of what
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they've done this year and devise, As Jim Nolan says, you study it,
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then you devise a game plan, and then then you adjust in games.
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So I'll be interested to see. Like I said, this is a
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pretty new offense. New quarterback that changes the complexion of everything because he can
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do he can make the throws, and last year this Notre Dame offense was
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very limited by what they could do with the quarterback. This quarterback opens things
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up. You've got a veteran returning running back who was very good last year
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and continues to build and is a tough tackle, a tough guy to tackle.
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So there's a lot of things that should keep hire States defense from not
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practicing basically, Yeah, you know, I mean last year's Notre Dame offense
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was not the same at all. Last year's Notre Dame offense looks suspiciously like
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this year's Alabama offense. I can't imagine why, but that is not It
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is not a compliment. One other guy I did zip passed this note on
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my phone. Tylick Williams, you know, played a lot more last week.
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You know, that's a guy who you know, every no one,
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no one has been bigger on freeing ninety one than ninety one himself. Now
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he has been freed. It was fifty summing snaps last week. You know,
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he feels like someone who with the offensive line they could face and the
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scheme they could face, they're gonna be rotating guys. He talked about the
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fact that me rotating guys. But still he feels like he's going to be
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a big piece of what they want to try and do this weekend. Yeah,
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and I can't remember it was Day or Jim Nolson. Like. The
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best thing is he got better at times. I think it was Day,
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So he got better as the game went on at times, which is something
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that has been the downside of tyler claims playing were because he didn't have the
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lung capacity basically to do it. And now that he does, not only
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can he be out there, but he is effective and we've seen him the
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sack that he had and we've just you know, grabbed the back of a
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jersey and get back here, and that wasn't the only play he had.
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So he plays is huge for him, and they probably more than he'll be
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playing in this one. But the fact that you have that third and fourth
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quarter where he is still getting better and and honestly fewer plays probably gonna happen.
19:12
Anyways, I didn't find interesting yesterday on Monday when Marcus Freeman said they
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don't want to play not to lose this year and playing that they did do
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that last year. But I'm still not expecting a wide open offense when you
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know you you can shorten the game. I do expect them to try to
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shorten the game because it it is still Ohio State's offense that they're dealing with.
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But you know, yeah, Notre Dames defense is very solid, but
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the Ohio State's offense is you know, right at the right at the top
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of the sport and has been for enough years in a row that it's probably
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not a coincidence at this point. So yeah, I think keeping keeping the
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Ohio State's offense off the field is probably in Notre Dame's best interest. We
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were going to get to questions if we have have some Let's let's get some
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questions really Tuesday. I want to see him on Saturday. I want to
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see a corner blitz on Saturday, Tony. I think his dreams may very
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well come frum. Yeah, I think you're gonna dial some things up and
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try to. Like I said, you gotta be a little bit unpredictable for
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Sam Hartman, but you don't want to put yourself in a bad situation.
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But the way these guys are hitting the corners especially uh and if you want
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to throw in the nickel corner of Sunny Styles or Jordan Hancock in there because
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they're a little bit closer to the quarterback, I wouldn't be shocked. And
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I think we'd all like to see David Davids nig Nosen on a you know,
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an opportunity like that, and it won't shock me. It probably doesn't
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need to come from the blind side just to make things a little bit better
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for the defense. Will see maybe the short side wherever that is, Yeah,
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I would guess the boundary side is probably where you're you know E did
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the slaughter the boundary because if you're if you're blitzing your field corner, he's
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a he's got a long way to go. You're asking your corners to cover
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a lot if you if you do that the games out of my call,
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Jack Lawyer allow Tylie Williams for Aiden Curry. All right, So basically who
21:06
on the Ohio SA defensive line finishes with the most sacks? Mitchell Milton No,
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I mean he was, he was up there last week. I think
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let's let's all remember what Michael Hall Mike Call did last year against Notre Dame
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where they could not contain him. And it is a still a very good
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Notre Dame offensive line, but he was very effective in that game. I'm
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thinking he might be very effective again. But they'll obviously know who he is
21:32
now, so maybe that works against him, and maybe that frees up you
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know who does it free up? Because you know all of these guys now,
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So like, how do you how do you deal with that? And
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I don't think there's necessarily a real weak spot on the Notre Dame offensive line
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where it's like, oh, yeah, well, whoever's matched up with this
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guy is gonna be they That is a very solid offensive line across the deck.
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It is a Joe Moore caliber offensive line. Yeah, I think you
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can kind of. I think Mike Hall would be the most likely in anyone
21:59
else his kind of you know, who gets there. You could see g
22:03
T Twomlowell gets in there and flushes Hartman and then he runs into someone else.
22:07
I think Mike Hall is the most likely answer. But you know,
22:14
if if that was what SI six choices, he's like eighteen percent of everyone
22:18
else's like fifteen percent. It's just you know, picking an individual guy.
22:21
This is why we do this in bold predictions all the time, because it's
22:23
real hard to figure out who that's going to be, and we're always wrong
22:26
about the SAX stuff. Next, Grailty Dragon. Do you think Ryan Day
22:32
will approach this game like he did the Georgia game? Do you think,
22:36
oh, Bryan Day will approach this game like he did the Georgia game.
22:41
He doesn't have quite the offensive line he did against Georgia. He doesn't have
22:45
quite the you know at least in terms of the experience, he doesn't have
22:48
the quarterback he had against Georgia. But also, you know, I mean,
22:53
I go back to he hit a quote he was asked about. He
22:57
said, in matchup games, doesn't really matter the score as long as you
23:00
win. It's not an eye test game. So I don't know that he's
23:03
trying to, you know, put up a fifty burger, and I don't
23:07
really expect him to, but I you know, I think I would hope
23:12
at this point that based on what you saw against Georgia, what you know,
23:17
and how things went in the past, you know, at Michigan against
23:19
Michigan, where maybe they didn't play quite like that, that the lesson has
23:23
probably been learned. I don't know that anything I've seen in the first three
23:27
games from them, or in the first four games from Notre Dame really makes
23:32
me like think that's exactly what you're going to see, because this is this
23:34
is a different kind of game. Well and it's a different kind of yeah,
23:37
different kind of game, different kind of opponent. You had to attack
23:40
Georgia in a way that you don't need to attack Notre Dame, you know,
23:45
so I view it like Georgia being the final boss of a video game,
23:49
it's either you beat him or you die, whereas Notre Dame, this
23:53
is just a checkpoint and if you lose, you go back and then but
23:56
you can still get you know, and if you if you if you beat
24:00
Notre Dame, the princesses and the other castles exactly. So there's STI keep
24:03
going, but it is obviously I think they have learned from that Georgia game,
24:07
but I think this on the road, you just I don't think you
24:11
need to do anything to put yourself in danger. Against Georgia, you needed
24:15
to do stuff to put yourself in danger. This one, you'll see how
24:18
you see how it's going for the first couple of quarters, and then if
24:22
you need to put yourself in danger to win the second half and the fourth
24:25
quarter, that's when you do it. Not that they're going to be conservative.
24:27
I don't think they'll be conservative. I just don't think they need to
24:30
come out like that game against Georgia, almost like Western Kentucky came out against
24:36
Ohio State and very different things, but just that kind of aggression. I
24:38
don't think that's needed in this one. But it doesn't mean hey, why
24:44
not. Well, I always sort of my default answer on this is always
24:48
that I'm sort of anticipating a little bit of a feeling out period where you're
24:52
just kind of, you know, it's two boxes and a sort of circling
24:55
each other and kind of poking and proud in a little bit, and you're
24:56
not. You don't come out unless you're Mike Tyson. Don't come out round
25:00
one ten seconds in throwing haymakers. That's just not how this typically goes.
25:07
Maybe you do. Maybe you're just hey, you know, first play the
25:08
game, or you know, hey, Trevian Hedters runs for five yards on
25:11
first down, second play of the game, play acts and you're taking a
25:15
shot deep to Marvin Harrison or something like that. Maybe I just I think
25:19
this is one where you're going to come out and at least first drive,
25:23
you're probably going to try and put comic chord in a apout where he's got
25:27
easy, makeable throws, Because this is the first truly hostile atmosphere he's going
25:33
to have played in front of. You're gonna want to get him confidence,
25:37
and in rhythm, we constantly hear confidence, consistency, and in rhythm,
25:41
that's what they want at other quarterbacks. You want to get him in the
25:44
game, you want to get him confident, You're going to get him comfortable.
25:47
I'm not expecting a big shot play right off the bat, but you
25:52
know, once you're in the rhythm, the whole playbooks open. You gotta
25:56
you know, you gotta keep them off balance. Wouldn't you be surprised if
25:59
a higher state wins the toss and takes the ball and like, wow,
26:00
that is to me, that would be the first sign of aggression. And
26:04
because this isn't necessarily about possessions and numbers of plays, because I don't think
26:10
they're so concerned with that in this one, but to take the ball in
26:14
a situation where normally that first drive you don't want to go flat. You
26:17
want to kind of send the defense out there first and deal with it.
26:19
So I think if they do that, that would be kind of telling that,
26:22
hey, we're gonna we're gonna swing. Yeah. And you know,
26:26
when you're on the road like this, you don't want that crowd is up,
26:29
that crowd and turned up to eleven at kickoff. You don't want that
26:33
crowd to still be at eleven when you go out there. You want to
26:37
have the chance for that middle eight kind of that that we've talked about in
26:41
the past, but also, hey, if Notre Dame comes out, go
26:44
three and out. Well, now the crowds like an eight eight and a
26:45
half. It's still loud, but it's not quite the same as it was
26:48
would have been coming right out, you know, right off that came out.
26:51
I feel like both of these teams are going to try to defer.
26:53
Yeah, that would be my expectation. Yeah, Jeff Straley, will we
26:56
see more Mind so Ryan Day? Or will we see more Mayan? On
27:03
Saturday, Ryan Day was asked, you know, his chip Train him surpassed
27:07
Mind for the number two running back spot, and it was like, no,
27:08
not necessarily. So he you know, he made it sound like you're
27:12
going to see all three guys this weekend. I don't know that you're going
27:15
to see more Mayan necessarily. I think they're gonna I sort of get the
27:22
sense that they're gonna lean on Trayvon Henderson as much as they can in this
27:25
type of game, and then if it's not him, Chip Train was probably
27:29
the next guy you will see Mayan, I think, But I don't think
27:32
you're gonna see I don't expect you're going to see twelve carries of min on.
27:36
Yes, so what I what I like, what I've liked the most
27:38
that I've seen from Mayan as the dude does a smile on his face all
27:42
the time, and you could understand if he wouldn't at this point, you
27:47
know, not playing until the fourth quarter because I think we can't go back
27:51
a couple of years. I do remember, you know, just some some
27:53
frustration with his number of carries when Trayvon Henderson took over. But throughout this
27:59
entire thing this season, this is not the season that we had expected for
28:02
him, and so I you know, every time I see him, he's
28:04
you know, got a huge smell on his face, is happy for his
28:07
teammates, but also you still get this feeling like he's going to be involved
28:11
at some point. It is going to be a big part of a big
28:12
game at some point the season, because that's just the way things have gone
28:15
at Ohio State running back over the recent years. But you don't you don't
28:21
keep running backs one hundred percent healthy all year. That is a position that
28:23
there's a lot of wear and tear, and yet at some point, at
28:26
some point, I'm fully expecting him to have the eighteen carry kind of game.
28:30
Yeah, Hey, guys, what about running at three three five defense?
28:37
What about running a three three five defense? You know that is Yeah,
28:45
Larry, Larry Johnson has never run a three down defense. He's always
28:48
been four down. That's what Larry Johnson has always done. I think as
28:52
long as Larry Johnson is at Ohio State, that's what you're gonna do.
28:56
You know, long term, if Larry Johnson hires at some point that Jim
29:00
Knowles is still here. Jim Knowles has run the three three five type defense
29:03
before with that kind of jack position being you know, you want to you
29:07
want to call him a line line backer versus a defensive lineman. Sure,
29:11
it's certainly possible. Long term, that's not That's not one of those like
29:15
surprise things that I would think, you know that you're going to break out
29:18
this week. I don't think, well, well, Jim Knowles, like
29:22
the last question, he was asked, hey, are you comfortable with the
29:25
Mitchell Melton putting him out there? You know, like what kind of situations
29:29
could we see? And he said, I'm comfortable put him out putting him
29:32
out there at any point. It just has to be part of the game
29:34
plan. And I think somebody said, so does that mean he's we're going
29:37
to see the jack this week? And like he kind of just trailed off.
29:41
So I'm not expecting it either in terms of but if you were going
29:47
to spring it, would you spring it this week? Or would you just
29:49
like, hey, everything is working, we don't need to mess things up
29:53
right now. Well that might be a let's see how things start and you
29:57
know, if you need to break glass in case of emergency, maybe you
30:00
know, are we counting him as a you know, yeah, he's the
30:03
jack. Is that he's been really been playing. He's been playing defensive,
30:07
defensive end, So to me, that's almost still a four two five,
30:11
So you know, you know, is he standing up at some point?
30:17
Yeah, if you want to, if you want to call them that at
30:18
three, three, five, you might see that. But it's you know,
30:21
you're not going to have a major philosophical shift this week. That's not
30:25
that's not gonna happen. We go to ten. If Notre Dame has three
30:29
two turnovers after the game, you think it's more likely that their picks or
30:33
fumbles. If Notre Dame has three turnovers after the game, is it more
30:37
likely their picks or fumbles. I mean, it doesn't have to be three
30:41
of one or three of the other. If it's three. If it has
30:42
to be three zero, then it's well no. But I mean, could
30:47
it be two and one or whatever. If it has to be three zero,
30:49
I think it's three picks because if you're throwing, if you're turning it
30:52
over three times, you're probably playing from behind, which means you're throwing more,
30:56
which means it's more likely you're going to have more picks. So if
30:59
you're if we're going to do it as it has to be three zero,
31:02
I deal with interceptions on that, Yeah, I would agree, And if
31:04
it's two one interceptions as well. I just think these guys are the outside
31:10
guys are doing really well, being really close to the ball, close to
31:12
the action, and sim Hartman's accompany guy who's gonna, you know, put
31:17
the ball where he thinks it can be. And I'm this will be the
31:21
biggest test for the Notre Dame receivers and they haven't been tested like this,
31:25
and I'm I'm interested interested to see exactly how elite they are. And you
31:30
know, is this are they more Cornelias? Johnson, you know, at
31:34
Michigan. And but I say that, I'm going to say I can pull
31:38
up Cornelius Johnson stats in the Ohio Stadium last year exactly, but you know,
31:41
and that that was a different a different defense than what Ohio State has
31:45
been playing to this point. But that was enough to disrupt these guys.
31:49
And so just a whole bunch of focus and I'm just disciplined. But yeah,
31:55
I'll go with the the interceptions over the fumbles in the queues. More
32:00
of a statement from Drowsy Dragon. There is a wanted dead or alive poster
32:05
of Kevin Noon and Notre dames locker room. There's a wanted debt or a
32:10
live poster of Kevin Noon and Notre Dame's locker room. Do you think we
32:15
can get in there and get that and then have that like behind behind me
32:20
in my setup like all the place to baseball cap. You know how I
32:24
know that is not true because it says Kevin Newton wanted no notes. All
32:31
right, we're done here, So thank you guys all for joining us,
32:35
Thank you for joining those those you guys who joined us live. Make sure
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you're listening on your podcast platform of choice, make sure you believe a say
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five star rating review as well. That does the same thing. Again,
32:53
I don't know that this is what they tell me, So this is this
32:57
is what we're asking you to do, and also we're asking you to I
33:00
got bucke huddle dot com. You're going to be a very lively week on
33:02
that site. I can tell you it already is a whole lot of stuff
33:06
to talk about. We're going to try and get together with some members while
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But be a member at Buckeye huddle dot com and well, I think
33:20
the tailgate information will be on that board with some specifics on that. But
33:23
should be a fun weekend, should be an exciting game. Keep seeing score
33:27
projections, you know, the like the UH Computer Rating systems score projections keep
33:32
spitting out like twenty eight twenty seven, like this is this could be a
33:37
real four quarter thriller, which you know would not be the first one I'll
33:42
hostates played in this calendar year, technically by about one second, but was
33:46
you know those those are always fun after three weeks of you know, yeah,
33:51
you know it, you know what, you know what the first three
33:53
weeks were. There were a lot of fun. It was football. It's
33:55
about to get a lot more interesting. So hopefully you will join us there
33:59
at bucke Huddle dot com, on our YouTube channel, on our Facebook page,
34:01
on our podcast apps, all the good stuff. So thank you guys
34:06
all for joining us. Have a great day. We'll talk to you tomorrow.