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Is 2025 One Of Ohio State’s Best Chances At Another National Championship? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Buckeyes tomorrow morning for Wednesday, May twenty eighth,
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  Speaker 1: I're your host, tom or the Texas game in ninety
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  Speaker 1: four days the game against Michigan in one hundred and
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  Speaker 1: eighty five days. If you're planning your next event, make
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  Speaker 1: it unforgettable with Grateful Griddle, Lamas's favorite food truck, surfing up, Smashbergers,
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  Speaker 1: gourmet sandwiches, and good Vibes. Booker catering today at grateful
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  Speaker 1: griddleoh dot com. Before we get to the main topic
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  Speaker 1: of today's show, a little bit of basketball news. I just
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  Speaker 1: want to let you know about Buckeyes just announced a
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  Speaker 1: home and home series with Notre Dame. They will host
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  Speaker 1: Notre Dame this year November sixteenth, and then they will
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  Speaker 1: go to South Bend next year on December twelfth. So
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  Speaker 1: a very interesting home and home series with Notre Dame.
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  Speaker 1: Those two teams have not played a whole heck of
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  Speaker 1: a lot. Notre Dame has not beaten Ohio State since
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  Speaker 1: nineteen seventy three. They only have one win over the
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  Speaker 1: Buckeyes in basketball since the nineteen thirties, which is one
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  Speaker 1: more than they have in football. All right, on with
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  Speaker 1: football now, and this is a show. I just thought
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  Speaker 1: about this as just a topic not very long before
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  Speaker 1: we hit record on this one. I had to different
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  Speaker 1: show in mind, and then I thought, you know, let's
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  Speaker 1: talk about this instead, and let's talk about it with
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  Speaker 1: other buddy Tony Gerder meant if Bucky Huddle dot com Tony,
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  Speaker 1: I have spent basically from the day after the National
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  Speaker 1: championship game, maybe even the postseason post game show of
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  Speaker 1: the National champship game, saying, look, enjoy this. Do not
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  Speaker 1: expect another national championship this upcoming season, like you gotta
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  Speaker 1: you know, this is not something that happens every year.
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  Speaker 1: So okay, so I've sort of set that as the
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  Speaker 1: sort of table stakes here. Now, now I want to
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  Speaker 1: kind of go through why I think of all the
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  Speaker 1: Ryan Day seasons, this one actually ranks relatively high in
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  Speaker 1: terms of the likelihood that they could potentially win another
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  Speaker 1: national championship. So before I dive into just sort of
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  Speaker 1: the initial ranking of where I think those the previous
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  Speaker 1: seasons stands, and then we can figure out where this
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  Speaker 1: season falls in there, give me give me your you know,
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  Speaker 1: broad assessment before we dive into this. Is it, you know,
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  Speaker 1: a scale of zero to ten. Likelihood of Ohio State
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  Speaker 1: repeating as national champions Ten is you know, put the
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  Speaker 1: put the mortgage on it. Zero is congratulations. You're Ulm
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  Speaker 1: or Vanderbilt or someone like that with no chance to
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  Speaker 1: do it naturally.
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  Speaker 2: You know, that's an interesting question because it becomes a
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  Speaker 2: more difficult percentage when you throw in last year's national championship.
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  Speaker 2: But since this is its own thing, and I know
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  Speaker 2: time you're trying to talk about repeats and defending, and
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  Speaker 2: there's no defending a national championship. It's a different team.
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  Speaker 2: I wish you'd just move on from last year already.
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  Speaker 2: But no, I would say, like most years, don't you
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  Speaker 2: go in thinking it's like at least of five or six,
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  Speaker 2: Like there's a fifty fifty percent chances as offully high though,
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  Speaker 2: So I would say, but if you only say, like
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  Speaker 2: I don't know, like twenty five, that's like a two
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  Speaker 2: or three, then you're like, that's close to you all on,
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  Speaker 2: that's that's one away from Ulm. Then Tom, if you
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  Speaker 2: say it's a two or three, so I think you know,
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  Speaker 2: I'll say, I'll say a four, but really four is
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  Speaker 2: pretty high.
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  Speaker 1: Well, and you know, I think we probably need to reset.
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  Speaker 1: This redefine the scale maybe in terms of like in
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  Speaker 1: terms of the likelihood in a general season that ten
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  Speaker 1: is like, boy, this is the best chance they're ever
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  Speaker 1: going to have. In zero is okay, boy, this is
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  Speaker 1: definitely not going to be the year. Let's define it
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  Speaker 1: that way instead.
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  Speaker 2: So like nineteen ninety eight would have been like a
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  Speaker 2: nine or ten, where you're like, this is the best
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  Speaker 2: team in the nation. I would say, I think it's
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  Speaker 2: fair to say six or seven with the understanding and
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  Speaker 2: the assumption that the quarterback is going to work out,
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  Speaker 2: And I think that's the farish assumption under Ryan Day.
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  Speaker 2: But I think you could say a six or seven,
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  Speaker 2: and then then it becomes kind of like the win totals,
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  Speaker 2: like who's higher? Is there anybody higher? I don't know.
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  Speaker 2: There might be other sixes and sevens, though.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. I think there's a couple of different things. We'll
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  Speaker 1: go into this and we'll get into it in a minute.
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  Speaker 1: But one of the things that really changes the the
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  Speaker 1: number for me is the fact that you got twelve
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  Speaker 1: teams getting in right now, Because if you go back
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  Speaker 1: through basically since Urban Meyer got to Columbus, any year
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  Speaker 1: that Ohio State was eligible to be in the college
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  Speaker 1: football postseason, they would have been in a twelve team playoff.
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  Speaker 1: So that's you know, the fact that you now are
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  Speaker 1: in and your chances are higher than zero percent on
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  Speaker 1: December first, well, that probably means you're going to have
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  Speaker 1: a better chance to win overall. So that bumps it
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  Speaker 1: up a little bit for me. But let's just run
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  Speaker 1: through just the Bryan Day era, and I was making
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  Speaker 1: this list, and it's like, boy, they could have won
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  Speaker 1: the national championship in any of these years. But I
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  Speaker 1: think if you look through the list of years and
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  Speaker 1: it's going to be a little out of order for
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  Speaker 1: what I think many people might think. But you know,
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  Speaker 1: the top one twenty twenty four, they were pretty clearly
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  Speaker 1: from the beginning of the season to the end of
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  Speaker 1: the season, one of the most talented teams in the nation,
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  Speaker 1: if not the most talented team in the nation. You
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  Speaker 1: knew they were going to get into the playoff almost certainly,
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  Speaker 1: even with a couple losses, so you didn't have the
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  Speaker 1: one weird game that blows up your season and you're out.
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  Speaker 1: So that I'd put to the top of the list. Second,
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  Speaker 1: I'd have twenty twenty two just because again very, very
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  Speaker 1: talented team. You had the first year of Jim Noles
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  Speaker 1: defense where it was like, okay, now they have two
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  Speaker 1: sides of goal of the ball, that's good. You had
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  Speaker 1: the CJ. Stroud offense, they were throwing, they were scoring
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  Speaker 1: a ton of points. Yeah, the defense was not in
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  Speaker 1: twenty twenty four shape yet, but you saw how close
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  Speaker 1: they were to beating Georgia, and then you saw what
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  Speaker 1: Georgia did to TCU. So I think it's that's a
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  Speaker 1: pretty clear number two to me. Third one is I
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  Speaker 1: think where people might go, huh, But third for me
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  Speaker 1: is twenty twenty three. And the whole point that this
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  Speaker 1: one is there was no great team that year. Ohio
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  Speaker 1: State was on the road, played the ultimate national champions
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  Speaker 1: on the road, and as flawed as Ohio State was,
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  Speaker 1: they were driving for the potential winning score in the
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  Speaker 1: final minute in Michigan Territory. You look through the rest
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  Speaker 1: of that playoff field and it's a bunch of I
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  Speaker 1: mean fine, like, there's not a team in that field
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  Speaker 1: that is clearly better than Ohio State to me. And
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  Speaker 1: if Ohio State just finishes that drive in ann Arbor,
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  Speaker 1: they're going to win that Big ten championship. I don't
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  Speaker 1: remember which of the interchangeable bad Big Ten West teams
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  Speaker 1: Michigan beat that year. That was a year was that
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  Speaker 1: Iowa Okay was Yeah, I think that might have been
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  Speaker 1: a middling Iowa team instead of a middling Purdue team.
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  Speaker 1: But either way, that's a very winnable game. And then
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  Speaker 1: you have to beat Alabama in the Rose Bowl, which
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  Speaker 1: that Alabama team was, you know, was good but was
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  Speaker 1: not incredible. That was not a vintage Nick Saban team.
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  Speaker 1: And then you have to beat Washington, who again was
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  Speaker 1: good but not incredible, certainly not a complete team by
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  Speaker 1: any means. So there's I have twenty twenty three. There
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  Speaker 1: After that, I have twenty nineteen, which I'm sure this
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  Speaker 1: is one that people would probably have higher up. This
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  Speaker 1: twenty nineteen is not a year when you can say
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  Speaker 1: there were no other great teams. There were no elite
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  Speaker 1: teams that year. No, nineteen. There were three teams that
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  Speaker 1: probably would have won the national championship in virtually any season.
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  Speaker 1: Twenty nineteen, Ohio State would have had to beat two
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  Speaker 1: other teams. It would have been good enough to win
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  Speaker 1: the national championship in most other seasons. Bunsen and LSU
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  Speaker 1: in the playoffs. Was that was an incredible Ohio State team,
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  Speaker 1: but that playoff path is pretty difficult. Then after that,
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  Speaker 1: I'm going twenty twenty. The discrepancy in the COVID rules
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  Speaker 1: and Alabama having no positive COVID tests all year. It's
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  Speaker 1: the darnedest thing in Ohio State, constantly missing players and
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  Speaker 1: having different practice rules and all sorts of stuff. That
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  Speaker 1: was a year when they were kind of rolling the
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  Speaker 1: Boulder Uphill. Plus that was an incredible Alabama team, So
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  Speaker 1: you've got those two things working against you. And then
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  Speaker 1: the least likely to me was twenty twenty one, And
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  Speaker 1: again that's a team that was from Ohio State, one
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  Speaker 1: win away from winning the Big Ten and going to
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  Speaker 1: the College Football Playoff. But you had a really good
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  Speaker 1: Alabama team and a great, great probably the single best
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  Speaker 1: Georgia team that year. So I'll say you probably between
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  Speaker 1: those two, that's probably the least likely of the previous
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  Speaker 1: six years. Are there any in there that you want
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  Speaker 1: to really push back on me?
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  Speaker 2: No, So thanks for having me. The twenty twenty one
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  Speaker 2: Just defensively, that was not a great season for the
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  Speaker 2: buck Eyes, and you feel like they would have just
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  Speaker 2: had to have been perfect on offense. Even the Rose
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  Speaker 2: Bowl against Utah, like they were incredible and had to
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  Speaker 2: hang on. You know, I had to come back from
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  Speaker 2: fourteen points or thirteen points whatever it was to win
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  Speaker 2: that one. But you see, like at the end of
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  Speaker 2: the season, a lot of these teams are doing pretty well,
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  Speaker 2: like even the the loss to Georgia where it's like
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  Speaker 2: that still looked like one of the two best teams
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  Speaker 2: in a nation the buck Eyes did that year. But
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  Speaker 2: I don't really have any big whirls with you. And
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  Speaker 2: the reasoning with twenty twenty three is correct because Washington,
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  Speaker 2: like there's not a lot of great teams that year. Say, figure,
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  Speaker 2: just get into the mix, you can do some damage.
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  Speaker 2: And I'm just looking at the AP poles and the
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  Speaker 2: CFP polls. For all of those years, their AP high
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  Speaker 2: was two, and each of those years, save for last
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  Speaker 2: year when when they won it all and their aphigh
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  Speaker 2: was one, CFP high was interestingly one or two every
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  Speaker 2: year except for twenty twenty it was three when they
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  Speaker 2: made the National Championship Game. But this has always been
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  Speaker 2: under Ryan Day, a consistent championship contender, and to be
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  Speaker 2: out of the running in those four team playoff years.
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  Speaker 2: It would have been interesting to see the twenty nineteen season.
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  Speaker 2: You said it exactly correct, Clemson, LSU, Ohio State would
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  Speaker 2: have I don't know. They may have been three of
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  Speaker 2: the best teams in the last decade, like they may
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  Speaker 2: be the favorites and maybe most of these years save
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  Speaker 2: for you know, a Georgia or Alabama here there and
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  Speaker 2: so that one. Yes, it may have been their best team,
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  Speaker 2: but the road was more difficult. So that's a lot
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  Speaker 2: of me saying Tom, I begrudgingly, and I don't do
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  Speaker 2: this often, and I should just start as viewing explotives
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: right now, say we can't air this, but I agree
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  Speaker 2: with you.
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  Speaker 1: Wow, the we've been doing podcasts for I don't know,
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: three thousand episodes or so, it finally happened. Do you
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  Speaker 1: believe in miracles? Yes? All right, So now the real
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  Speaker 1: question here and the real the top really the topic
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  Speaker 1: of the show is we're just twenty twenty five fit
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  Speaker 1: in with this list. Twenty twenty four. Obviously that's going
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  Speaker 1: to be clearly number one. That's going to stay number one.
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  Speaker 1: Twenty twenty two. I think you have some similarities. It's
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  Speaker 1: probably a little bit you know, the twenty twenty two
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  Speaker 1: team feels like a little bit more of a sure
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  Speaker 1: thing because you had a second year CJ. Stroud at quarterback,
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  Speaker 1: did have a first year defensive coordinator, so some similarilarities there,
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  Speaker 1: but you had more guys back on defense. I think
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  Speaker 1: you had more returning starters that year. You're losing a
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  Speaker 1: lot of guys on this year's team, and you have
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  Speaker 1: a lot of especially in the defensive side of the ball.
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  Speaker 1: Mattmatricia's not quite starting from scratch, and there is some elite,
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  Speaker 1: elite talent on both sides of the ball.
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  Speaker 2: You know.
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  Speaker 1: You imagine going back to twenty twenty two and telling yourself, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: Marvin Harrison's good, but wait till you see what's coming next,
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  Speaker 1: and you never would have believed it, But here we are,
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  Speaker 1: so all right. So twenty twenty four twenty twenty two
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  Speaker 1: I think are both clearly more likely years for o
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  Speaker 1: higher state who have won the national championship. But man,
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  Speaker 1: I don't think I see anything else there. I think
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  Speaker 1: i'd put them ahead of twenty twenty three, where, you know, again,
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  Speaker 1: I think some of the stuff you had going for
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  Speaker 1: you in twenty twenty three, where there's not a clear cut.
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  Speaker 1: This is the elite, elite, number one best team in
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  Speaker 1: the nation, no questions asked. I think this is a
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  Speaker 1: similar year. And yeah, you've got a probably more challenging
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  Speaker 1: schedule this year with Texas on the non conference schedule
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  Speaker 1: and Penn State and Michigan in conference, and you know
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  Speaker 1: we've run through all of that stuff before. But you
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  Speaker 1: also now have more of a margin for error where
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  Speaker 1: that twenty twenty three team they would have made the
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  Speaker 1: College Football Playoff even with that loss up in ann Arbor.
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  Speaker 1: So I think in terms of all of Ryan Day's teams,
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  Speaker 1: as much as I've kind of been saying, well, you know, listen,
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  Speaker 1: don't expect the national championship this year, they certainly are
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  Speaker 1: going to have. You know, they're still gonna be able
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  Speaker 1: to throw their hat in the ring and say if
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  Speaker 1: not us, then who Yeah, and.
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  Speaker 2: We're gonna start seeing a bunch of preseason rankings come
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  Speaker 2: out CBS as Ohio State number one in their post
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  Speaker 2: spring Top twenty five. But I also think the schedule
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  Speaker 2: is the most difficult that they've had in this stretch
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  Speaker 2: of time that we're talking about. This is this is
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  Speaker 2: a schedule that if they lose their toss up games
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  Speaker 2: is going to keep them out of the out of
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  Speaker 2: the playoffs. And now you're talking Texas, which is going
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  Speaker 2: to be I think a last I saw as at
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  Speaker 2: Ohio State's favored by three, So it's basically a toss
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  Speaker 2: up at Washington. We've talked about at Illinois. We've gone
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  Speaker 2: through this at Wisconsin, Penn State, at home at Michigan.
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  Speaker 2: These are all games that you can't overlook, and so
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  Speaker 2: I do think I do expect Ohio States to make
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  Speaker 2: the playoffs, but I also think this schedule is going
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  Speaker 2: to test them and certainly make them earn it, maybe
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  Speaker 2: more than last year's schedule did.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I look at this and this feels like
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  Speaker 1: a ten and two to me, where you're not going
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  Speaker 1: to lose all your toss ups, and boy, if they
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  Speaker 1: beat Texas week one, that feels almost like you'd really
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  Speaker 1: have to screw something up to not be in with
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  Speaker 1: a win over Texas and presumably a ten and two record,
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  Speaker 1: like you might even sneak in at nine and three maybe,
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  Speaker 1: but we'll see. There's a lot to be determined about
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  Speaker 1: how the Committee's going to rank teams this year because
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  Speaker 1: it didn't work out great the way they did it
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  Speaker 1: last year. So we'll see if the CIA where the
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: selection process changes at all this year. But all right, good,
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  Speaker 1: appreciate the sanity check there. You know, there's a lot
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  Speaker 1: of factors that go into this schedule, probably working against
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  Speaker 1: them to a certain degree, but the twelve team playoff
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  Speaker 1: certainly working in their favor. And if you are a
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  Speaker 1: young team, as this year's team is, or at least
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: an inexperienced team, you would certainly expect to be playing
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  Speaker 1: your best football towards the end of the season. So
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  Speaker 1: if they can get in, like I said, why not
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  Speaker 1: that So we will see how they do this season.
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  Speaker 1: We will be there for all those games, starting with
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: Texas and ending wherever the heck the Ohio State season
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: ends this year, but end in a lot of different places.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: Wherever it is, we will be there. Tony Kevin and
• 14:41
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• 14:44
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• 14:49
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• 14:53
  Speaker 1: four to ninety nine for your first month. We are
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: headed into camp season and official visit season. It is
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  Speaker 1: for you at Buckeyehuddle dot com. That'll do it for today.
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: Thank you guys all for joining us. Have a great day.
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: We'll talk to you tomorrow.