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Ohio State Football Insider: Who Will Play Safety Next To Caleb Downs? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Buckeyes Tomorrow morning for Wednesday, August twentieth, I'm
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  Speaker 1: your host, tom Or the Texas game in ten days,
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  Speaker 1: the game against Michigan in one hundred and one days.
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  Speaker 1: If you're planning your next event, make it unforgettable with
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  Speaker 1: Gratefulgriddle oh dot com. I'm joined by Tody Gerdaman, a
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  Speaker 1: Bucke Huddle dot com here inside the Woody Hayes Athletic Center.
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  Speaker 1: Just got a chance to talk to the Ohio State
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  Speaker 1: secondary coaches, Tim Walton and Matt Greary. Got a chance
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  Speaker 1: to talk to Davis Snagunos and Jermaine Matthews and Caleb
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  Speaker 1: Downs and I believe that was it and Lorenzo Styles
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  Speaker 1: and Lorenzo Styles Junior.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, so you I know.
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  Speaker 1: One of the first questions you asked Matt Greary was
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  Speaker 1: about the nickel position. What are we to read He
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  Speaker 1: didn't really want to answer, what do we want to
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  Speaker 1: read into? We got a chance to talk to Lorenzo
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  Speaker 1: Styles Junior and uh not other.
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  Speaker 2: Guys who are a presumptive presumably starter.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, no confirmations on who's number one on the whole
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  Speaker 3: area or and then Tim Malton was asked, how well
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  Speaker 3: does Lorenzo do what Jordan Hancock did last year? He's like, well,
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  Speaker 3: it's all depends on the games and the matchups and
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  Speaker 3: so like, not a lot of information being passed out
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  Speaker 3: by the coaches in terms of what they're seeing other
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  Speaker 3: than yeah, everybody's good.
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  Speaker 2: You know.
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  Speaker 3: Obviously Lorenzo Styles has getting better, and Lorenzo himself said
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  Speaker 3: he's comfortable and he feels best about Manda Man stuff
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  Speaker 3: mana man coverage and then getting more comfortable and playing
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  Speaker 3: in space deep when he has to drop back in
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  Speaker 3: that role. But yeah, they didn't. They don't like talking
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  Speaker 3: names right now.
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  Speaker 1: You know.
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  Speaker 3: Ryan Day said he felt good about two guys at Nickel. Now,
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  Speaker 3: does that mean Caleb Downs and Lorenzo Styles? Does that
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  Speaker 3: mean Lorenzo Styles and Bryce West. I don't know that
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  Speaker 3: you can eliminate Caleb Downs from that though, So does
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  Speaker 3: that is that just Caleb Downs and Lorenzo Styles right now?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah?
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  Speaker 1: And Caleb Downs is you know, there's a question about Okay,
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  Speaker 1: does what you do with Caleb Downs change with who
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  Speaker 1: else is out there with Caleb Downs? And does that
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  Speaker 1: you know, what you want to do with Cale Downs impact?
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  Speaker 1: Who else is out there with you know, does who
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  Speaker 1: else is out there with him? Impact with Kelen Downs?
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  Speaker 2: Does?
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  Speaker 1: But does what you want to do with Caleb Down's impact?
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  Speaker 1: Who else is out there with him? And they didn't
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  Speaker 1: want to go into any specifics, but I walked away
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  Speaker 1: from what was probably a non answer with the same
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  Speaker 1: thought I've had all along, which is, yeah, man, both
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  Speaker 1: of the other guys are going to play safety as well,
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  Speaker 1: and they are, I mean, you're going to see them
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  Speaker 1: like in the first half against Texas going to kind
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  Speaker 1: of play. Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: That was one of the questions I asked Matt Greary.
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  Speaker 3: I said, whoever wins this competition, if it's not already
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  Speaker 3: been one already between Jalen McLain and Emily Carfer, does
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  Speaker 3: that then dictate where Caleb Downs will be? And he's like,
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  Speaker 3: you know, again, not necessarily, because guys can do different things,
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  Speaker 3: and everybody's versatile, everybody's flexible. But also I said that,
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  Speaker 3: I'm like, so do you just consider do you do
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  Speaker 3: you feel like you have free starter? Like yes, but
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  Speaker 3: we don't use that term. We say game ready players.
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  Speaker 3: We've got three game ready players of safety. You'll see them.
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  Speaker 3: People get hung up on and he said people get
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  Speaker 3: hung up on the term starters, which we've talked about before,
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  Speaker 3: because he said a corner. You can have two starting corners,
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  Speaker 3: but you open up and heavy and now your corner
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  Speaker 3: is suddenly not starting. Does that mean anything?
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  Speaker 2: No?
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  Speaker 1: No, right, Yeah, you're you're gonna have You're gonna be
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  Speaker 1: out there. You look at the number of snaps much
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  Speaker 1: more than who's out there for the start of the game.
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  Speaker 1: And yeah, I'm fully expecting to see multiple, probably three
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  Speaker 1: different safeties with at least ten fifteen twenty snaps against Texas.
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  Speaker 1: And then moving beyond that, Caleb Downs gave a little
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  Speaker 1: bit more of a Defendi advancer just kind of like
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  Speaker 1: where he likes to be, said, close to the box,
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  Speaker 1: closest to the action, like he you know, you know
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  Speaker 1: he's gonna be in all sorts of different places, and
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  Speaker 1: he's going to be you know, they're gonna use him
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  Speaker 1: in all sorts of different places. They're gonna move him
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  Speaker 1: around to wherever they feel the action is going to be.
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  Speaker 1: But also you know, you watch him, and you're like, yeah,
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  Speaker 1: that's a guy who likes to hit people, and if
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  Speaker 1: you're close to the action, you get to hit people.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, and you can do that at that Nickel Sam
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  Speaker 3: type of thing. We've seen him basically become a third
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  Speaker 3: linebacker and do his thing last year. So he's going
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  Speaker 3: to be one of those players, one of the rare
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  Speaker 3: players that can just not necessarily do his own thing,
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  Speaker 3: but you do unique things with him, and then everybody
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  Speaker 3: else backs him up. And you know, of course everybody
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  Speaker 3: talks about how he's a coach on the field. Davison
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  Speaker 3: nig minos and says, I call him coach Downs. Both
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  Speaker 3: Tim Walt and Matt Greary, including Matt Patricia talking about
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  Speaker 3: how you know you can have conversations with him as
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  Speaker 3: if he is a coach, you can talk differently with him.
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  Speaker 3: And so I asked coach Walt, like, how, like you've
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  Speaker 3: coached both in college and the NFL, at what point
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  Speaker 3: do you normally start having these conversations with that you
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  Speaker 3: have with Kyla Downs with other players, Like, well, college,
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  Speaker 3: it's rare. About your third year of the NFL is
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  Speaker 3: about when you can start having these conversations. I'm like,
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  Speaker 3: so he's like a three year NFL veterans like, yeah,
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  Speaker 3: right about there.
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  Speaker 1: Which is nuts because he's he's barely starting his third
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  Speaker 1: year of being a college football that, let alone a
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  Speaker 1: third year NFL player. So yeah, you know, all the
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  Speaker 1: stuff we've heard about him all along, film rat really
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  Speaker 1: understands the game, very very intelligent.
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  Speaker 2: That's the kind of stuff that coaches talk about.
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  Speaker 1: That's not the direct on field stuff, but is the
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  Speaker 1: stuff that really kind of moved the needle for coaches.
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  Speaker 1: I thought it was interesting Matt Greary had taught use
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  Speaker 1: some of the other words that are kind of those
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  Speaker 1: needle moving words for coaches that are not necessarily the
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  Speaker 1: exciting words. Talked about Jalen McLean's consistency of effort, said
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  Speaker 1: he got the highest effort grade of any of the.
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  Speaker 2: I think he said, any of the secondary guys last year.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, and yeah, exactly, that was gonna say he did
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  Speaker 3: that last year, but he was talking about it last year.
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  Speaker 3: He talked about it last year as well, where he's
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  Speaker 3: just continually chasing the ball. I remember may have been
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  Speaker 3: after that or well before or you know, I do
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  Speaker 3: these like closer look pieces on the incoming freshmen and
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  Speaker 3: I did one on Jayalen McLain and I put together
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  Speaker 3: like two or three minute clip of just him chasing
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  Speaker 3: the football down. And it could be like from forty
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  Speaker 3: yards away or you know, like he's on this side
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  Speaker 3: of the field and he's got and he tracks him
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  Speaker 3: down and it's just him chasing the ball down, not
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  Speaker 3: giving up on a play, and he continues to do
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  Speaker 3: that here. That's just who he is.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, And that's the stuff that coaches absolutely love, love
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  Speaker 1: love love. It's you know, when we talk about wide receivers,
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  Speaker 1: we're talking about, well, how are you in terms of
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  Speaker 1: run blocking and that kind of stuff. That's the kind
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  Speaker 1: of stuff with defensive ACKs. If you're running down plays
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  Speaker 1: from forty yards away, even if you don't have a
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  Speaker 1: chance necessary, you know, maybe the guy cuts back, maybe
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  Speaker 1: the you know, there was like ted Gin in the
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  Speaker 1: running to end around against Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl.
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  Speaker 1: You know, like Doug Dadish was hustling down and you
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  Speaker 1: watch ted Gen run past him like you know, the
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  Speaker 1: roadrunner past the coyote, and then Doug Dadish catches up
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  Speaker 1: with him later as ted Gen is zigging and zagging
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  Speaker 1: and stuff. But that's an effort play. That's the stuff
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  Speaker 1: that coaches love to see. Orlando Pace blocking the guy
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  Speaker 1: from Rice, you know, fifty yards downfield in a game
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  Speaker 1: that they won by sixty three points.
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  Speaker 2: That's the stuff coaches love.
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  Speaker 1: So when you hear coaches talking about a guy like
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  Speaker 1: Jayleen McLain, I go, yeah, this is this kind of
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  Speaker 1: moves moves the me a little bit for me in
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  Speaker 1: terms of expectations for those guys. One of the other
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  Speaker 1: things that I thought was interesting was I don't think
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  Speaker 1: you were over there for any of Jermaine Matthews, but
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  Speaker 1: I went over. I made a point to go over
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  Speaker 1: and listen to him a little bit.
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  Speaker 2: And.
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  Speaker 1: He's, you know, you know what you expect from him.
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  Speaker 1: He's very entertaining, he's very outgoing. He's I mean, great,
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  Speaker 1: great kid, but a great, great player as well. You
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  Speaker 1: know you're going over there expecting like, oh, he's going
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  Speaker 1: to say something outrageous. And then I was over there
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  Speaker 1: for a few minutes and he's talking about how he
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  Speaker 1: needs to be more consistent getting more reps in the slot,
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  Speaker 1: but the importance of being a good tackler in the
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  Speaker 1: slot and being more consistent in the slot. And last
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  Speaker 1: was about helping the team in any way possible. This year,
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  Speaker 1: it's all about being consistent. And you know he talk,
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  Speaker 1: He's ask about Davis snig Noosen talking about Davison having
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  Speaker 1: working on being more intentional about his technique, and it's like, oh,
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  Speaker 1: oh oh, look he's he's he's talking like the coaches. Now,
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  Speaker 1: this is you know, this is someone who is potentially
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  Speaker 1: in his last season as a college football player. And
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  Speaker 1: you know, I'm sure he's going to have his moments
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  Speaker 1: on the field where he's you know, he's doing the
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  Speaker 1: cornerback thing, which cornerbacks do this, this is what they do.
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  Speaker 1: But I'm just listening to him talk and it's like,
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  Speaker 1: you know, this is this is a very businesslike approach
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  Speaker 1: from Jermaine Matthews.
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  Speaker 3: Well, and Ryan Day said it a week or two
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  Speaker 3: ago where he's he was surprised at how much of
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  Speaker 3: a leader Jermaine Matthews has become because the Jermaine Matthews
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  Speaker 3: that we've always known is like I always talking about
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  Speaker 3: how and all of your photos he's always got the
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  Speaker 3: biggest smile. Does it doesn't really matter what's going on.
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  Speaker 3: He's always happy. But like he's more, he's still the
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  Speaker 3: energy guy. But he's very serious about things now and
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  Speaker 3: I think one of the reasons is his role is larger.
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  Speaker 3: It is it is possibly a contract year, but he's
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  Speaker 3: he's more serious now. And although to say that, it's
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  Speaker 3: like it's not that he wasn't serious before he started
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  Speaker 3: a couple of games as a true freshman. He started
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  Speaker 3: a couple of games a game or two last year.
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  Speaker 3: He has been part of this rotation his entire career,
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  Speaker 3: so he's always been serious, but now you've seen him
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  Speaker 3: continue to take that level up where you know, if
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  Speaker 3: he is back next year, is he a captain?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, he's He's definitely.
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  Speaker 1: As you said, Ryan Day has talked about him being
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  Speaker 1: a leader, and you can just you can sort of
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  Speaker 1: just talking to him since that in him that this
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  Speaker 1: is this is a little bit of a different role
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  Speaker 1: in this locker room now that some of those older
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  Speaker 1: veteran guys are gone.
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  Speaker 3: I'll go to the other guy, David s nig Binosen.
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  Speaker 3: We've talked about him repeatedly being a leader in that
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  Speaker 3: room and how we've seen him do those leadership things.
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  Speaker 3: He was asked about the penalties and what he's done
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  Speaker 3: to work on that, and he said, basically last year
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  Speaker 3: he just wasn't turning and looking for the ball, where
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  Speaker 3: if he would have done that, he could have gotten
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  Speaker 3: away with being so handsy, you know. And also you know,
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  Speaker 3: it wasn't just grabbing once you get beat, it's just
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  Speaker 3: being better at the top of the route, getting your
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  Speaker 3: head around playing the ball. As long as he plays
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  Speaker 3: the ball, he believes he'll be fine. Tim Walton said
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  Speaker 3: the same thing, like he's doing much better at that
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  Speaker 3: playing the ball, So he seems to be Everybody seems
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  Speaker 3: confident that the issues that he had here and there
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  Speaker 3: last year won't be the issues there. That doesn't mean
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  Speaker 3: you're not gonna get called. Everybody's gonna get called, but
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  Speaker 3: they seem to have figured out what the issues were,
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  Speaker 3: what the problems were. And then Tim Walton was asked about,
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  Speaker 3: you know, like, once you have the the the reputation,
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  Speaker 3: don't the refs. Have you talked about how the refs
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  Speaker 3: will look for more? And he's like, the calls don't
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  Speaker 3: matter as long as we're doing the right thing. So
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  Speaker 3: you just do your thing, play your game, and if
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  Speaker 3: they make bad calls, they make bad calls. Don't worry
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  Speaker 3: about that.
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  Speaker 1: Coming up this fall, the reputation tour brackets. Davison's version thoughts,
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  Speaker 1: Oh okay, moving on Lorenzo's house, Junior I talked about
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  Speaker 1: the fact that he's this is a little different year
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  Speaker 1: for him because he graduated, said nothing but football, like
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  Speaker 1: did not seem devastated by that either, you mentioned earlier.
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  Speaker 2: Feels good.
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  Speaker 1: In Manda Man coverage, he was asked about Caleb Downs
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  Speaker 1: and just playing with Caleb Downs and what that benefit,
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  Speaker 1: how that benefits him, and he talked about Kell Downs
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  Speaker 1: just as a leader and just you know, all of
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  Speaker 1: the stuff that everyone talks about in terms of intelligence
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  Speaker 1: on the field and being able to call stuff out
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  Speaker 1: and all that kind of stuff. But also said he
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  Speaker 1: killed got my vote as a captain. So and then
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  Speaker 1: Caleb Downs was asked about Texas because this is in
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  Speaker 1: three years of college football, this will be his third
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  Speaker 1: time playing Texas. He played them at Alabama as a freshman,
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  Speaker 1: and they played the mint Ohio State last year and
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  Speaker 1: then played them again. His impressions of Texas, he just said,
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  Speaker 1: Sark does a great job with the offense.
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  Speaker 2: Lots of eye candy, just stuff.
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  Speaker 1: Motion shift to just kind of give you a bunch
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  Speaker 1: of stuff to look at also said the fifteen places
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  Speaker 1: script is legendary.
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  Speaker 2: That is one of those Sark things. You know, that
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  Speaker 2: fifteen playscript at the start of the game.
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  Speaker 1: Right now, I'm going to tell everyone, if Texas goes
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  Speaker 1: right down the field and court a touchdown on the
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  Speaker 1: opening drive, do not climb up on the roof of
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  Speaker 1: your house. This is this is what Sark is known for.
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  Speaker 1: Is you get off to a fast start. They look
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  Speaker 1: incredible right out of the box. Do not be shocked
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  Speaker 1: if they go down the field and score a touchdown
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  Speaker 1: and the open and drive.
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  Speaker 2: That's kind of what Sark does. I mean, you heard
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  Speaker 2: Caleb Down talking about it today.
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  Speaker 3: Did he gave you his impression of Texas? Did he
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: give any impressions of Texans? Did he do any of
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  Speaker 3: those impressions.
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  Speaker 2: He did know he did not.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, that would have been sadly, that would have been
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: good for the reels and the clips like that.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah. Just the way people talk about him, It's unlike
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: it's like the way people talk about Jeremiah Smith physically, huh,
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  Speaker 3: you know, is the way they talk about Caleb Downs
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  Speaker 3: mentally and just like being advanced and all of that.
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  Speaker 3: One last thing for me, I don't know. I'm not
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: trying to wrap up the show.
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  Speaker 2: I'm out, so I was gonna ask your show. You're
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: right on top.
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  Speaker 3: I asked coach Walton about what they saw, what he's
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: seen from Julian saying and basically, has he given you
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  Speaker 3: guys enough work? He's like, yeah, he gets the ball
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  Speaker 3: out quick. That was something that Davis Niggnosen said as well.
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  Speaker 3: You try to read a three three step drop and
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  Speaker 3: by the time you get there, it's too late because
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  Speaker 3: the ball is already there. So he can make all
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: of the throws, does all of the reads. Matt Patricia
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  Speaker 3: said the same thing, like they tried to give him
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  Speaker 3: stuff and he's been able to handle it. So the
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: offensive coaches seem happy, the defensive coaches seem to respect
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: what they have seen.
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  Speaker 2: All right, So there you go.
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  Speaker 1: So ten days till the Ohio State Texas game, number
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: one versus number two inside Ohio Stadium, really looking forward
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: to that. Can't believe we are three days away from
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: college football season and ten days away from number one
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: versus number two. Wouldn't this be a great time to
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: join bucke huddle dot com. I agree, Tony, thank you
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: for pointing that out. That is where Tony Kevin and
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  Speaker 1: huddle dot com. That will do it for today. Thank
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: you guys all for joining us. Have a great day.
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: We will talk to you tomorrow.