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Dylan Raiola vs. Air Noland: How Do Top 2024 Quarterbacks Stack Up? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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Welcome to Buckeyes tomorrow morning for Tuesday, September fifth, I'm your host,
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tom Or. The Youngstown State game is in four days, the game against
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Michigan in eighty one days. Quarterbacks have kind of been the talk of the
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town around Columbus over the last few days, talking mostly Devon Brown and Kyle
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McCord and the quarterbacks to the twenty twenty three Ohio State team. But today
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we're gonna be talking a little bit about the quarterbacks for the twenty twenty four
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and maybe twenty twenty five and maybe twenty twenty six season, and then a
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couple other things as well. We're gonna be doing that with our buddy,
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Mark Givler of Buckeyehuddle dot com. He just spent the weekend down in Georgia
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watching some really really top level talent play. I counted four different five stars
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and two games that he saw, which is, you know, that's not
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too bad. We talked to him last week could of previewing this trip.
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Now he's gotten to go see Edric Houston and kJ Bolden In, Dylan Rail
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and Er Nolan. So we're gonna be talking about all those guys. Mark,
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Let's start with the guy who you have been so so high on for
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quite a while, Edwy Houston. You've seen him a bunch in camp settings
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and you know, preseason scrimmage kind of settings and spring game settings. What
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did he look like on the field in a real honesty, goodness live football
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game last weekend. Yeah, North Cobb did their homework. They ran away
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from him at every opportunity, but he was still able to make several plays
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when they when they were able to be made. I had a really nice
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sack in the second half that kind of showed his explosiveness and power. Just
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kind of drove a kid back into the backfield and while he was getting blocked,
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kind of simultaneously like reached and just gripped the quarterback. And they had
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a really athletic quarterback at North Cobb and he kind of tried to slip away,
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and Edrick's kind of slid down and grabbed him by the by the legs
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or whatever and brought him down. It was really impressive display of power.
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And so he's just he's the prototype strong side end. You know, is
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he going to be like Chase Young and you know, get fifteen or you
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know, plus sacks. I don't know that he's that. I think he's
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more of a almost like you can call him like a dual threat defensive end.
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I think he's one of those guys who can rush the passer incredibly effectively,
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can be an eight to ten sack guy, but as also incredibly strong
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against the run. So he's really kind of a he's probably kind of more
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of a of a J. T. Twemlow out type of defensive end kind
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of what they've seen out of him, just the way he plays the game.
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So couldn't you know, still still super impressed with him. Again,
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I think he's in that discussion as the best player in the class nationally,
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best prospect in the class nationally. And it's kind of a matter of,
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you know what what your definition and for that is whether it's you know,
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are you picking the player who's gonna win the Heisman, are you picking the
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player who maybe the best college player, or be picking trying to predict to
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the number one draft pick is going to be. You know, that type
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of thing kind of depends on you know, kind of your flavor on that.
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But he's he's one of the very elite players in the country and uh,
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you know, they ran away from him, They chipped him with the
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back, they was double team at times. They did a lot to try
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and disrupt him, and he just kept coming. A lot of the kids,
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a lot of these seventeen eight year old kids that happens to them in
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a game, they'll get frustrated and kind of check out, especially when they're
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up in the second half. He didn't do that. He just kept going.
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He just kept plugging away and eventually broke through with a sack, and
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he made a couple other nice plays blocked next to point as well on special
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teams. Yeah, and I guess this is one of these times when I
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kind of want a little more context on who they're playing. I know,
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Buford is a pretty big Division school down there, right, So was this
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was in North Cobb? I mean, Cobb County is a significant, significant
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area around Atlanta. So is this You know, they're playing a big boy
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Georgia high school football team that has legitimate, you know, maybe D one
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or D two type prospects on the offensive line. Yeah. North Cobb had
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as a team had I think five or six Division one prospects, So you
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know, not all those guys are like Georgia Ohio State type of guys,
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there's some you know, Coastal Carolina. I think it's either committed to or
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has considering Coastal Carolina. But they had they had some size up front,
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they had a lot of athleticism. They hung with Buford for for quite a
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while actually, and Beauford was able to pull away in the second half.
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So yeah, I mean, every team on Beauford schedule is competitive, so
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he's not doing this against you know, five ten, you know, one
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hundred and ninety five pound off intive linemen. So just just a really impressive
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schedule they have. And again Cobb County, Knnesaw area we're talking about that's
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kind of justin feeling right down the road from we're justin fields played in high
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school. Okay, just feel like that's always good, good context for people
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to know of when we talk about Ohio football. You know, when we
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talk about, oh, they're playing Saint Edds or other, they're playing Mohler,
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or they're playing you know, one of the Picturington schools or something,
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or Glenville, everyone sort of knows like, okay, this is there's a
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certain level of expectation, a certain level of play that comes along with some
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of those names. Always just good to have that context when we're talking about
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teams from another state who might not be Saint John Bosco or St. As
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a Quietas or someone like that. So okay, so they're playing a real
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legit, real legit competition. All right, So how about let's talk about
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kJ Bolden. He is someone who is unlike Edric Houston and not committed to
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Ohio State. He has committed to Florida State, which you saw him before
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Florida State did what Florida State did over the weekend. So I'm going to
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guess that probably did not do anything to make him want to flip away from
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Florida State. But what did you see out of kJ Bolden? And do
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you have any sense that there's any reason to think Ohio State still is maybe
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in this thing for the hip for him? Yeah, it's it's hard to
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say. I'm not one thousand percent convinced he signs with Florida State at this
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point. Obviously what they did to ellis you especially in the second half,
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I don't think it's going to hurt them, and the type of season they're
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capable of having this year, you know, maybe able to help them there.
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But this one has been all over the place over the last six months
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between Georgia, Ohio State, and then Florida State coming in late so I
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wouldn't count that one in or out for anybody until the inc is dry.
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Now. Is Ohio State in the best position to flip him? I think
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geography, if you're trying to flip a kid, I would generally go with
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the school it's trying to flip him from, you know, thirty forty minutes
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away, probably is the better chance to get him on campus a few times,
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you know. It just I think it's be easier for Georgia to kind
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of work that one, but there's no question of High State still trying.
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You know, I don't think Edric is putting a ton of pressure on him.
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I kind of talked Edrick a little bit on and off camera about that
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about like who he's recruiting and stuff like that, and I don't think he's
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going two nuts on kJ at this point. But I think, you know,
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obviously they're probably both trying a little bit subtly to recruit each other at
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this point, so that's kind of interesting. But yeah, I as as
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a player, you know, he didn't have a ton of opportunities as far
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as you know, kind of showing that sideline to sideline range, pretty run
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heavy offense they were facing, but really impressive and run support just in terms
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of not only being a short tackler. But there were a few plays he
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made up for the lie of scrimmage where you didn't realize using the play and
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all of a sudd kind of blurer kind of came up from the second area
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and made a play. So he's a very aggressive kid, very physical safety,
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not just a guy who can run. So I was impressed with him
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again much like Edderc where he wasn't always you know, gifted these great opportunities
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to do something special. But when he had a chance to make a play,
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he made a play. All right. And then the last guy we
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can talk about, I'm not gonna bother asking if O hire State, it's
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going to flip him because Ohio State had him at one point and no longer
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has him. That is Dylan royla twenty twenty four or five star quarterback who
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is now it was committed to Ohio State, now committed to Georgia. You
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know we have you have not I think gotten to see Dylan Royal have you
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seen got to see him play in person before, and you know, if
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not, what did that look like? We have seen him in camp settings
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before, and I know he had a solid elite eleven, but what does
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he look like in a game setting as compared to you know, a camp
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setting. Yes, this is my first time in a game setting. He
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was he was very fift He's obviously. Look, we can sit here and
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talk about his arm strength. Everyone knows he's got a huge arm. But
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I thought he was efficient on Friday, you know, not a lot of
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you know, kind of crazy risk. I know, sometimes some of these
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kids with these big arms, especially in high school, they kind of take
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a lot of chances, and I didn't feel he did that. I kept
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pretty good protection. He's not what I would call supermobile, but he moves
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well enough within the pocket. Again, he's able to kind of there are
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some times where he's able to get, you know, off his back foot
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and he's still able to deliver the ball with zip, which is obviously a
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huge advantage for for guys who were able to still be able to do that.
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But yeah, I thought he was I thought he was really solid.
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They didn't really get rolling until the second half. So it was kind of
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one of those deals where I think they got as they settled in a little
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bit. But he was really good. Uh nothing, I can't sit here
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and uh, you know, really picking anything that he did. I thought
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he was I thought he played a really good game, a little pretty clean
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game. And you know, we'll I'll be asking you to sort of compare
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and contrast him a little bit with Aaron Nolan next. But I was just
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looking up the Elite eleven rankings and there's not like an official Elite eleven rankings
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after these guys go through the multi days of that camp. But you know,
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at least one of the national networks had Dylan rail And number one and
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Aaron Nolan number two coming out of the Elite eleven this year. So yeah,
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that's that's sort of the level you're talking about. And that's a camp
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setting obviously, and it's a little different than a game. So definitely this
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is why this is why you go watch them play in games too. So
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all right, so let's there's there's a little Dylan Raiola scouting report. Let's
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talk a little bit about Aaron Noland Ohio State fans. Maybe we've got the
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chance to see him play in person on TV Earlier in the year. He
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had a big, dramatic comeback win the first week of the season. What
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did he look like over the weekend? Mixed bag. I did not pick
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his best game and it wasn't just him. The entire Langston Hughes team was
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a little off. They lost to Butler out of basically Charlotte on North Carolina.
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I lose thirty to tw seven I think was the final. They started
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really slow. They got him a fourteen nothing and then a seventeen to three
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hole. He threw a few interceptions. Were they his fault? You'd have
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to kind of know what the play call was. There were a couple of
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times where he and the receiver were not on the same page, including Kyle.
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They had a backbreaker there, they had air actually had a really good
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I would say mid second through mid fourth quarter where he was kind of lights
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out for a while after kind of a slow start, and then on the
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final keep they he brought them back. They were down sixteen, He got
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him down to three and they got the ball back with a few minutes left
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and looked like, oh, he's gonna have a chance here to do a
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drive. The very first play, his receiver kept going. He thought the
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receiver was going to break the route off, he throws it only a defender
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there at that point. The receivers he ran a vertical and Air was clearly
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expecting a curl or something there that and he didn't break it off. So
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I don't know whose fault it was. I'm sure you know, Air will
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say it was his fault. The prettier receiver would probably it was his fault.
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So he's you know, I don't know if I'll get to the bottom
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of that at all, but you know, there was miscommunication there, and
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it happened in the first half too. There was like a miscommunication on like
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a screen pass and that that got intercepted as well, So then they had
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a fumble. They air completed a screen pass running back fumbles it at like
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their own like five yard lines, so that gave Butler a touchdown there.
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And so Langston Hughes just had a whole myriad of issues, made some penalties,
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the defense didn't play well in the first half, and so it was
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very much a I don't think for a team, I just want to state
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championship. Last year and has won a lot of big games the last few
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years. I can't imagine they're very happy with that performance. But Air had,
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like I said, from about mid second to mid fourth was lights out.
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So it was it was a bit of a roller coaster. Had some
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great throws middle of the game, through a few touchdown passes, showed really
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good touch on the deep ball was kind of again we've seen him being able
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to zip those, you know, kind of ten yard outs outside the from
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the opposite hash showed that again. So just just a really a strange game.
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But you know, you saw what he's capable of for sure. It's
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certainly that middle portion of that game. All right. So now I'm gonna
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make you compare and contrast these two guys. They sort of a natural comparison,
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two guys, the two quarterbacks who've been committed to High State's twenty twenty
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four recruit in class. Give me stronger arm, you know, better touch
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better you know, you know, more more clubs in the bag in terms
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of throw as they can make mobility like you know, kind of give me
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a compare and contrast, and where each of those guys there's maybe a little
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ahead of the other. Yeah, I would give Yola the arm strength edge.
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But that being said, I would I would say Air has a plus
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arm, so I think they both have better than I think they both have
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strong arms. I think Rayola probably has, if not the strongest, one
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of the two or three strongest arms in the quarterback class nationally. So that's
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not really a knock on Air as much as it is. That's probably Rayola's
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biggest strength is his you know, arm talent is his ability to drive the
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football. Air is neither one of these guys want too wrong necessarily. Air
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is a better runner, a more willing runner, a slightly better athlete.
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Rayola's maybe the bigger, stockier guy. He's kind of tough to bring down
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in the pocket. You know, Air's got to fill out a little bit.
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So there's some a little bit differences there physically. Touch on the deep
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ball, I would probably go Air. I think I think he does a
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great job of again putting not putting no pun intended hero of getting enough air
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under the ball and kind of dropping in the bucket, whereas Rayola's zipp you
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know, maybe a little more of a line, you know Rayol, But
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for Yola that comes in handy when he's you know, throwing something twenty thirty
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yards down the seam, so he's got that advantage there. Air's I again
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I mentioned earlier. I think one of the things Air does best is gets
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the ball out to the perimeter with accuracy and quick and timing and quickness.
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I think he does that very very well, you know, decision making.
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Until Friday, I would have said probably a wash if not Air. You
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know, Rayola had the cleaner game on Friday. I think Air through like
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four interceptions last year in like fifteen games, so I historically has not been
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a guy who throws interceptions, So I think we caught an outlier game on
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that. But yeah, there there, Look, I think they're both elite
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prospects. I don't really have a problem with where either of them are ranked
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at the moment by the services. I think they're both tremendous players. Yeah,
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I tell you about a pair of five star guys who are both at
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the top of the elite living class, and you're kind of looking for looking
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for little differences. So good. That's It's just it's nice to have someone
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who has seen them kind of back to back nights, just to be able
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to kind of compare and contrast. That is there someone. Is there a
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former Ohio State quarterback that Aaron Nolan's game maybe reminds you of. Is he,
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you know, just in terms of the whole package, is he uh
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justin fields or a CJ. Stroud or a Dwayne Haskins or a JT.
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Barrett or a Kyle McCord or a Devin Brown. Is there is there someone
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who he reminds you of. There's not a guy that I just immediately like,
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Oh, he's that guy. But I think and he's Again, there's
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gonna be some differences here, which is why I hate saying this because it's
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not, you know, the Ven diagram. Here's got some separated and that's
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not a the Ven diagram, not a circle okay, just one single circle
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here. There's there's there's some things people are listening or be like, well,
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you know he's this or that. You know that that's different, And
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I probably agree. But I think in terms of the way he plays the
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game, he is most like of all the high state quarterbacks you've seen me
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in the last twenty twenty five years, I think he's most like Troy Smith.
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He's a good athlete, He's not a four three, He's not Braxton
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Miller or Terrelle pryor. But he's a good athlete. He's can spin it,
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he's got a strong arm. He wants to throw first, but is
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capable of running. He's tough, he's you know, got some leadership quality
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to him that guys kind of gravitate toward. And it's kind of the way,
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you know, the way he leads a team. So I think if
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I had to go with someone that they've had, it would be closer to
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Troy. Now we can, you know, we can spend thirty minutes talking
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about some differences and thinks, like, you know, Air is taller,
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probably not a stocky as Troy. It is certainly not the Troy we saw
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at Ohio State the last couple of years he was there. You know,
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Troy maybe even a better, more gifted runner, just because his background where
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Air has kind of been always been a quarterback, Troy was kind of all
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over the place. He's always been kind of an athlete slash quarterback. So
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there's some differences there. But I think, you know, again, if
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he got to peg me down to like who's he most similar to, that's
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who I would do. He started talking and then I thought he's a lefty
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who what lefty quarterbacks? Is our hostate had? Oh he's not gonna say
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Steve bell is sorry? Is he? No? Okay, okay not Steve
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Ell? Sorry, no, no, no, no, there you go.
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So yes, southern, southern left handed Ohio State quarterback recruits. Not
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a big not a big group of group of players that we've seen over the
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years, but at least two there. So all right, so I think
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Ohio State fans would probably take Troy Smith, that Troy Smith two point zero
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or whatever whatever you want to call him. We'll see, we'll see him
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this time next year. This year, though, we're going to see Kyle
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McCord. We're gonna see Devin Brown. We're gonna see the Buckeyes back on
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the field at young against Youngstown State SUN this Saturday. Should be a should
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be a game where you see a little bit more of Devin Brown and probably
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a little bit more of an apples to apples comparison to those two guys will
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be watching watching that pretty closely. I'm guessing that will be a little bit
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of a storyline. This week, Tony Gerdon and I on Tuesday are releasing
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eight Buckeye Weekly episode We Went Back and rewatched the game afterwards, because watching
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it live in person, you see a lot of stuff, but there's some
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stuff that you just you want to go back and rewatch things. So we
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had a bunch of notes. We have plenty of stuff to talk about with
18:04
quarterbacks and defense and running backs and offensive line and all that good stuff,
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so you can look forward to that in the Buckeye Weekly podcasts beed a little
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later around on Tuesday. We'll be talking to Ryan Day and Jim Knowles at
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starting at noon at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center. You'll be streaming that live
18:18
at YouTube dot com, slash Buckeye Huddle have lots of coverage of course for
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you at Buckeye Huddle dot com as well. That we'll do it for today.
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Thank you guys all for joining us. E a great day. We'll
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talk to Jay tomorrow.