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What Is Ohio State Going To Do With Its Last Open Assistant Coach Position? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Welcome to buck Eyes tomorrow morning for Tuesday, February thirteenth. I'm your host,
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  Tom Moore. The Akron game in exactly two hundred days, the game
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  against Michigan in two hundred and ninety one days. Today we're going back to
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  Ryan Day. We got a chance to talk to him last week, and
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  there was a lot to talk about last week. Just let you hear solely
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  about the quarterback position. Well, there's a lot of other positions on the
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  field. So today we're going to be talking about some of those other positions.
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  Where things stand coaching staff much much more. So, Let's start with
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  Ryan Day talking about some of the biggest I guess biggest stories overall over the
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  last month. One of the biggest one has been the transfer portal just overall,
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  how has that gone for Ohio State since the end of the twenty twenty
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  three season. Could there be more on the way? I thought this was
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  an interesting answer because he talks about the fact that a lot of the transfer
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  portal additions were sort of backfilling for transfer portal departures. Yeah. I think
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  I think last year we were at seven. I think right now we're at
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  six, and I think I've said this before in that type of situation,
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  we're trying to do is we're trying to fill needs. You know, we
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  always want to recruit high school players and then develop them, and I think
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  we're doing that as good as anybody in the country. But when we have
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  opportunities to fill needs, you know, Chip left, you know, so
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  we're able to bring in quinchn you know, there was you know, Kyle
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  went in the portal, so we're able to bring in Will you know what
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  We're trying to fill needs. But you know, I think you know,
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  guys, can you see what's going on here? I think, you know,
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  even having someone like Davison Igbinosen who was at Old Miss, you know,
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  just to give a little feedback on what it's like to be at Ohio
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  State. You know. For Kleb, he knew what this was. He
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  had relationships with Jordan Hancock and some of the guys on our team. So
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  a big part of it is is it goes back to the guys that came
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  back, And I think that was the number one thing coming off the season,
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  is the guys coming back and seeing that they wanted to be with their
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  teammate and reach their goals and to me, that's where all this started.
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  So when you think about where JT and Denzel, you know, Jack ty
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  Leek, Lathan, Trevion a, Mecca, Donovan. I mean, these
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  are all really high end players who decided they wanted to come back and it
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  wasn't for anything other than their teammates, their coaches, the culture, and
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  and that kind of set the tone for all of it. And then we
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  started to fill in a couple of the pieces and like you said, there
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  wasn't a lot, It wasn't big numbers, but hopefully the guys that we
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  brought in can make an impact. Here's a player we get asked about more
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  than just about anyone else on the team, Sonny Styles. He is came
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  in as a five star and rolled a year early. Obviously an incredibly intriguing
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  athlete. Mostly played at the safety position last year. What's his role going
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  to be this year? And you know, do they have the flexibility to
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  sort of figure it out as they go along right now? Yeah, we
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  we've had conversations with Sonny and he has the flexibility to do a lot of
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  different things, which is great, and he's embracing some of those things.
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  And so as we get into spring, we'll start to figure out exactly how
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  those will all shake out. But that's the one thing when you see Sonny,
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  he has the flexibility to do multiple things, not only because of his
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  skill set in terms of his you know, size, but also his mental
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  makeup. And you know, he's really willing to embrace some of those different
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  roles and that's that's exciting because it gives us a lot of flexibility with the
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  defense. This is a question we could have the answer to potentially very soon
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  as Ryan Day decided what he wants to do with that tenth assistant coach position.
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  No, we have some flexibility there. We've had multiple conversations. I
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  think we can go in a couple of different directions, but we're still not
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  ready to make a decision there yet. Certainly have talked to people and you
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  know, probably about a week away there. January was one of the craziest
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  months of probably Ohio State football history, just in terms of the incredible amount
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  of news in terms of players returning, transfer, portal coaching changes, all
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  that good stuff. So what was January like for Ryan Day? Well,
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  like any year, you know, you have to come off of the season
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  and try to identify you know what's important moving forward, what's important for the
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  next calendar year, what's important for the next three years, what's important for
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  the next five years, and and so we always look at that to figure
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  out what needs to be done. And so you start off with your roster.
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  Then you go to the staff and you just try to do everything you
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  can to make sure that you're making the adjustments that need to be made based
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  on things you've learned, based on what you've seen the past season. And
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  so, you know, as a leader, it's your job to put a
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  plan together and create a vision of what it could look like. And again,
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  it started with these guys deciding to come back, you know again Lathan
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  Ransom and Denzel Burke and you know, and then you know, Jack,
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  you know, decides to start, you know, talking to the guys about,
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  hey, you know, we need to bring this thing back, we
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  need to go chase a championship next year. There's a lot of things that
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  you know, we need to do. And you know, then a Mecca
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  jumps in and get a bunch of guys, you know, JT and Cody's
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  time, and you know, these guys all decide they want to come back.
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  That's where that that was the first step, and then the next step
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  was adding the pieces certainly, you know, making some tweaks of the staff,
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  and that's just the beginning. Now we have to go go to the
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  spring and execute the plan. It's a long, long road. You know,
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  there's no you know, magic recipe to this thing other than hard work,
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  and we know it's going to be a long run in next January.
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  But but that that was one thing that you know, I felt like,
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  as a leader, we need to put a plan together, great a vision
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  of what we want this to look like in the next month, and go
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  to work about executing it. This time last year, the offensive line was
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  in his shambles. They had just lost Luke Whibler, lost both tackles Dwan
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  Jones and Paris Johnson. And we're going into spring with the offensive line really
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  maybe the single biggest concern on the team. And they came out of the
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  spring spring with the offensive line still probably the single biggest concern on the whole
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  team. And they did have some struggles last year. So what's the plan
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  this year? They're looking to add more talent there. They've already brought in
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  one France for already and Seth McLaughlin from Alabama. Are they looking to maybe
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  bring in more Having Bill just you know, watch the film and see our
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  guys out there, and having you know, he knows Seth adding that piece
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  to the puzzle was critically important. But just you know the feedback that you
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  know, just a fresh set eyes. What do you see he sees,
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  He sees some talent, he sees some guys who are are are good,
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  and he sees depth, he sees some young guys out there. So,
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  like you said, like we're going to have a really competitive spring and kind
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  of see where we're at. But you know, the idea right now is
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  that we have enough to go win a national championship with the guys that we
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  have in this building right now. We come out of the spring and recognize
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  that we don't, then you know, we'll have to go from there.
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  But there are some really good young players in that in that room, and
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  there are some guys now coming back with some experience and that that should matter
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  going into next season. One of the hot topics in Ohiostate message boards over
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  the last year has been Okay, what are they going to do for twenty
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  twenty four? In the offensive line, area in terms of maybe you're shifting
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  some guys around. Josh Fryer played right tackle last year. Is it possible
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  you move here Mandy guard if they had conversations about that. Yeah, Josh
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  has a little bit of a swing capability there. So you know, he's
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  going to be on the right side right now, and we're gonna, you
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  know, take a look to see what the right combination will be on the
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  right side now that we lost Matt. You know, he's going to play
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  tackle, He's gonna play a little bit of guard, and we'll kind of
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  see how that shakes out as as the spring goes on. But he does
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  bring some some flexibility there, which I think is good for his long term
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  football career as well. You know, going on to the NFL and you
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  know, going on to a team and be able to play guard and tackle
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  is valuable. So we'll see. There's certainly things that I think, you
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  know, being a first time starter there this year, that he did well,
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  but certainly areas that you know, if we're going to reach our goals,
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  he's going to have to improve on. He knows that. But but
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  playing guard is something that we'll we'll take a peek at this this spring and
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  see if if that's right. But his feedback is important to you have to
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  want to embrace these type of things, just like with Sonny, you know,
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  you know, it's the same thing when you know Caid made his move,
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  Steele made his move. When guys make those moves, you really want
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  guys to take ownership of it, you know, not just because the coaches
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  told you to do it. So his feedback will be important. He's been
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  in the program for a while and you know he's a guy that has leadership
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  and leadership capabilities, which, as we know, is important because if you
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  know, if we're gonna win games in November, December, and January,
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  it's gonna start in the offensive line. Other names in the mix on the
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  offensive line include Tager Shabola, Luke Montgomery. Shabola projected probably as a guard,
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  it could be a tackle. Luke Montgomery probably a tackle. We'll see
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  where that ends up. You know, where are those guys heading into the
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  spring? Big spring? Yeah, huge, huge spring for both of those
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  guys. And that's not the only guys. I mean, there's a bunch
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  of other guys in that room. This is a huge spring for the for
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  them and even the guys who came in in the summer, and I think
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  about Lincoln, I think about our val I think about some of these guys
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  that have had a whole spring to really go to work on so excited.
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  And the more reps those guys get, just like the quarterbacks need, the
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  better and we'll have a better idea of it. But having you know,
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  MA drills, having some of the workouts and all those things will allow them
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  the opportunity to have a year of experience under their belt. You know,
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  physically there way he need to be mentally well. They need to be learning
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  the offense and defense. And I think that's I'm hoping this is the most
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  competitive spring we've had since since I've been here. But you know, we'll
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  see. Here's what I wanted to ask Brian Day about. The last time
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  we talked to Ryan Day was an early signing day and we got to watch
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  Ryan Day sort of process the news of Jeremiah Smith having a press conference and
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  announcing he was going to Ohio State and watch him sort of process that in
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  real news and his knees sort of buckled in a very comedic way. So
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  what was that day like for him finding out that news, waiting for that
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  letter of intent to finally come in later that night, and then what is
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  his first impression has been of the number one player for the class of twenty
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  twenty four. Yeah, he's he's jumped right in. You guys have seen
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  the talent. The talent's there. I think the thing that's been most impressive
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  than me so far is his discipline that he's already built in his life,
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  and then the skill of playing the position at such a young age as well,
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  and well and heart and everybody will continue to build on that and grow
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  on that. But has had a great approach so far, so certainly expecting
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  big things from him. Yeah, that that day was a long day.
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  It was a crazy day. I haven't had one like that before. But
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  you're also talking about, you know, the number one recruit in the country.
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  Ryan Day brought in an offensive coordinator after last season, and the identity
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  of that offensive coordinator has changed since the time he answered this question. But
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  the position and the idea there is sort of the same. So it's not
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  Bill O'Brien now it's Chip Kelly. But I think the general principle applies when
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  you're bringing in a play caller how does that impact him on the sidelines.
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  It impacts him a bunch during the week in terms of game prep and all
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  that kind of stuff. So he'll talk a little bit about that, but
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  just during a game late and let's say late in the Notre Dame game,
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  Notre Dame's got the ball, He's trying to figure out HI managing the clock
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  when they get the ball back. What are they going to do in terms
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  of play calling? What are they going to you know, how much time
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  are they going to have? All that kind of stuff. You're just juggling
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  a bunch of different stuff in your head right there. So how much does
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  it help to have someone else to kind of manage at least one piece of
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  that and take one thing off of your plate. Yeah, that's a good
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  question. I think the first part of the question was how much will it
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  affect the day to day? I think that goes back to, you know,
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  how much will I be involved with special teams? You know, based
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  on you know, the office coordinator's role, you know, and and so
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  that that will affect a little bit about the tenth position. But in game
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  I feel like when when you're calling the game, you have an idea of
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  Okay, should you go forward on fourth and two? Well, is it
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  a do you have a good play? It's one thing if you don't have
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  an idea what the play is, is that you just go for it,
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  well, then you don't have a good play. I feel like when you're
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  calling the game, you're a little bit more of control of the situation.
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  You know what's going on, you can you know, if you don't like
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  the look, you can call a time out. You know, there's just
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  so many more things when you're actually calling the game that you're in control of.
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  But I do think, you know, having somebody else call the game
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  will allow me a little bit of a step back and see things from a
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  wider lens of Okay, how's the defense, how's it going to the defense?
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  The special teams overall, kind of step back a little bit and have
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  a little bit of a different perspective. There's pluses and minuses to both situations.
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  You know, we can sit back and look at, you know,
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  stuff that went on in the playoffs. You know our game. You know,
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  when do you go for it? When you not go for it?
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  Decisions that are made and listen, we can second guess all those things.
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  But I do think being able to step back will give me a little bit
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  of a wider lens on things. But there's a lot of guys you know
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  who, particular in the NFL, who call it, who are also making
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  those decisions in game. I think they do a great job. So I
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  think you have a good feel for what's going on in the game. You
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  have a little more control. I guess sometimes you can get a little bit
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  later, are focused on what's going on in terms of the play call as
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  a post to maybe sometimes a situation. So I think those are the pluses
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  and minus of that. Well, that'd do. We'll do it for today.
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  We'll have one more day of Ryan da for you coming up a little
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  later on in the week, but for now, we'll invite you guys to
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  join us at Buckey Huddle dot com. Lots of interesting stuff going on there
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  right now. Mark Kivler has been down in Florida covering an under armour camp,
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  really really good intel on a number of top prospects in the classes of
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  twenty twenty five and twenty twenty six that he's been posting about on the huddleboard
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  at Buckeye Uddle dot com. You're gonna want to check that out, some
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  very interesting intel on some five stars who could be trending towards Ohio State.
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  He's had great coverage there, Tony, Kevin and I of course covering the
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  team. We should have hopefully some new interviews for you a little later on
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  this week. Hopefully, if not then then next week. But we're heading
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  into spring football in less than a month. And then of course our team
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  of x's and those guys you know ross from the show, but we also
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  have Nike and Devin and Justin. They are all making you a smarter football
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  fan on our huddle board, presented by Jeff Ruby Steakhouse. You can find
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  it all at Buckeye huddle dot com. We hope to see you there.
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  That will do for today. Thank you guys all for joining us. Have
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  a great day. We will talk to you tomorrow.