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Ohio State Spring Football Insider: How Big Of A Concern Is The Offensive Line? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Welcome to Buckeyes tomorrow morning for Thursday, March twenty, first time your host
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  Tom or the Agrin game in one hundred and sixty four days. Vegi begins
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  Michigan in two hundred and fifty four days. All right, I was date
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  about to take the practice field for the fourth time this spring. That'll happen
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  on Thursday morning inside the What He Hates Athletic Center. Afterwards, we're going
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  to get a chance to talk to a number of Buckeye players and assistant coaches.
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  You can look forward to that on Thursday around eleven a m. Give
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  or take at YouTube dot com slash Buckeye Huddle. But before we get to
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  practice number before, we get to take a little look back at practice number
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  three. Afterwards, we get a chance to talk to Ohio State head coach
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  Ryan Day. And we have talked to Ryan Day for a bunch of years
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  now. Started as an assistant coach in twenty seventeen, took over as the
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  head coach in twenty nineteen. So we have seen pretty much every possible Ryan
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  Day mood, every possible to Brian Day interview. Kind of circumstances. I
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  gotta tell you, Ken Gerdeman and I were talking after the interview on Tuesday,
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  and it was like Ryan Day seemed like he was in a really good
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  mood. It's generally, I mean, yeah, it's spring, it's early,
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  the pressure is not exactly on. Games are still several months away.
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  But a coach who was real, real worried about something on his team is
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  generally not in a good mood this time of year. Ryan Day, I
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  mean, you can judge for yourself. We're not going to start with a
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  real good mood question, however, So let's start with kind of maybe the
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  biggest question going into the deed and to the day Ryan a his first chance
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  to talk to him after the departure of Tony Alfred for Michigan a big deal.
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  So when was Ryan Day made a way aware of Tony Alford's impending departure
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  for Michigan, And where do things stand right now in terms of the replacement
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  higher was made aware last week? And and so now we're into the process
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  of you know, identifying replacements, excited about the group that you know we've
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  already identified, and you know, I'm gonna be thorough in the process.
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  I think the good news is, you know we're not in a situation we
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  have to make a quick decision based on you know, recruiting or the portal
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  or anything like that. So, you know, I talked to the running
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  backs. You know, they're great, They're They're actually going to be you
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  know, part of the process. I'd like for the part of the interview
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  process for the running backs to meet the candidates. You know. Obviously,
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  ultimately I'll make the decision and Chip will be a huge part of it,
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  but but the input of the running backs will be important as well. But
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  but they've been great, and it was actually fun today. I took the
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  running backs and you know, coached them out there today. So that was
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  fun and we had a really good practice. As soon as he Tony Alfred
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  news broke, I think there was a lot of concern around Ohio State fans
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  that hey, he was going to take the playbook with him up to ann
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  Arbor and Michigan was going to have, you know, get the best of
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  Ohio State because they'll have, you know, all of their secret plays to
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  beat Michigan this year. Already. I talked to Ross Fulton on one of
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  the morning shows last week about that. He kind of poopooed some of the
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  concerns there, And here's Ryan Day's answer on his level of concern that Tony
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  Alfred was going to bring a lot of information about Chip Kelly's impact on this
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  Ohio State offense up to Michigan with him. Now we're nowhere near where we're
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  going to be as we head down the road. This is you know,
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  that was two practices in the spring, and you know a lot of what
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  we did was, you know, what we've done in the past, and
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  then we sprinkled in a couple of things that Chip's done. But there's just
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  so much more that he has that's out in front of us. But I
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  think more importantly like this, this could look differently moving forward in terms of
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  our offense, just you know, how we're doing things, who's in what
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  spots. You know. You know, we have really good receivers, we
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  have really good tight ends, we have good running backs, but ultimately it
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  comes down to what the quarterback can do well, the types of throws that
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  he can make. You know, the run game will look different. It
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  just will. And that's a long time on a long journey to get to
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  next November. So you know, I just think there's gonna be so many
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  twists and turns along the way that I think you know. And now with
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  the quarterback communication being able to use that which we've utilized the first three practices,
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  that's been good. That certainly allows us, you know, more flexibility
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  as we call place. All right, So now let's move on to a
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  little bit of this year's team and the let's start with the offensive line.
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  This time last year, Ryan Day, there was like open concern, like
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  very openly talking about being concerned about the offensive line. Really, they were
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  a lot of unsettled positions. It was not a good situation, and they
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  were talking about it pretty openly in a way that you really just don't generally
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  hear coaches talk about concerns this time of year. So now with that as
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  sort of your background that that was a year ago, let's talk about this
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  year's offensive line. The left side of the offensive line pretty much settled.
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  There's going to be Josh Simmons at left tackle and Donovan Jackson at left guard,
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  and something less, something really surprising happens. So let's talk about the
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  right side of the offensive line. You know, this is this is early
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  ran Day was just asked about the right side of the offensive line. Where
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  things are sort of shaken out right now and again very early in spring,
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  only after the third practice. But just listen to what he says, but
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  also listen just to the tone of his voice as he's saying this, and
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  if you're watching on YouTube, just watch the body language. This is a
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  totally different tone than we heard from Ryan Day talking about the offensive line a
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  year ago. Yeah, today was the first day in pad So it's hard
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  to evaluate anything until you get the pads on, and you know, we're
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  going to evaluate that right side really hard, really close. Like you're saying,
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  I can't say we're in a different place now than we were about a
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  month ago because there really isn't enough evaluation to go off of. But we
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  are trying to figure out what that is now. I will say Josh Fryer
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  had one of the best off seasons of anybody in the in the building.
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  Now. We had some bunch of guys who had really good off seasons,
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  but he stuck out. So if he can continue to, you know,
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  stay in the shape that he's in right now, I think he's gonna have
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  a really good spring and take that next step. If that's the case,
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  then a big spot will be it right guard, and you know Luke's in
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  there now. But we got a bunch of guys you know, moving through
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  there. But if if Josh can you know, possibly move into guard and
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  then Teger moves in, if Teger makes a push, then then that'd be
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  great as well. So, like you said, we have a few guys
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  in there. You know, Austin's you know, moving right now, he's
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  at left guard. We could move them over to right if we needed to.
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  So it's a very tight competition in there, you know, hoping that
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  we have you know, some clarity as we you know, get towards the
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  end of spring and and then it continues into the preseason. But I guess
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  the good news is we do have some guys with experience along the line.
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  You know, between Donnie and Josh and Josh they both have played a bunch,
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  and Carson's played and so is Seth. So you know, hopefully in
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  the next week or so, we got a little bit more to go off
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  of three of the names on that right side of that offensive line that could
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  end up filling those two starting spots Josh Friar, Luke, Montgomery, Tager,
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  Shabola. They always talk about finding the best five. So could any
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  of those three guys end up playing that right guard spot, that right tackle
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  spot. I think so. I think that Tiger is probably more of a
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  tackle than he is a guard. He has played some guards, so he
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  could do that. But both Josh and Luke have both played guard and tackle.
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  So we're going to try to figure out who the best five are.
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  We've always done that and figure you know, who who plays the tackle best,
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  who plays the guard best, and go from there. On the other
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  side of the ball, on the defense, boy, there might even be
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  fewer questions than on the offense. One of the big areas where they've got
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  to replace a couple of starters is at linebacker. Tommy Eickenberg, Steel Chambers
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  both off to the NFL. Cody Simon is a returning starter of some sort.
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  He played a bunch of twenty twenty one, started about half the games
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  last year as well, so he's, you know, expected to play a
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  bunch coming this ball as well. So what about the rest of the linebackers.
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  Guys with Cody Simon, Guys like CJ. Hicks, Sonny Styles,
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  and Gabe Powers, so very competitive in each team drill you see us for
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  the first, you know, we call him Racks in eleven personnel, and
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  so then we'll see well, you'll see Nickel in the game. There.
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  You're seeing a lot of guys rotating and out around there. But then when
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  when you put twelve in the game and we get into base personnel on defense,
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  now you're seeing you know, Sonny do a little bit of the that's
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  Sam linebacker, so he has some flexibility there. And again this is another
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  one. You know, I don't have a ton of updates because we just
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  today was the first quick dan and pads, but you are seeing those guys
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  learn those positions, and then hopefully in the next week or so you're seeing
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  progress in certain areas. And then you know, Jim and the defensive staff
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  will sit down and say, Okay, here's what we need to invest our
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  time moving forward. And these are big decisions in the off season. You
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  know, the season is a long way away, and it's a long way
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  away to get to where we need to be, but the decisions that are
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  made over the next month or so are going to be critical in terms of
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  development of our team. During one of the earlier answers you heard, Ryan
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  Day mentioned the helmet radios that is one of the many, many, many
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  new and different things coming this fall to college football, and this one's kind
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  of flown a little bit more under the radar compared to you know, Oklahoma
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  and Texas being in the SEC and the whole new Big Ten and all that
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  kind of stuff, new college football playoff format Compared to all that, helmet
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  radios seems like not that big a deal, but when you look at how
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  it could impact things on the field, well it would be a pretty pretty
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  actually a pretty big deal. So as they're just sort of getting used to
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  those things, and what are they allowed to do right now? How much
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  are they able to use helmet radios during the spring? How are they using
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  them right now? You're going to hear Ryan Day's answer on that, and
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  then a quick follow up from our buddy Tony Gerdaman. Yeah, so they're
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  allowing us three devices and the helmets per practice, which is a little bit
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  difficult because we have one three quarterbacks, and then we also have the defensive
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  side of the ball. So I wish there was more available, but there
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  isn't. So right now we're working with three and you know, right now
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  we've worked with the offensive side, they're going to be practices where we you
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  know, give the three devices to the defensive side so that Jim can work
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  with that. But you know, it's it's been good to kind of work
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  through that. Chip Well dealt with it when he was in the NFL and
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  so he has experience in that. The easy thing is when you're in a
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  huddle, you just called the play. The quarterback calls the play and that's
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  simple. But there are other ways to to build in different kind of hybrids
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  between signal and calling it into the quarterback. There's verbal and then there's then
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  there's the physical signals. So we'll use you know, a bunch of different
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  ways to do it. We'll use risk bands, we'll use signals, we'll
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  huddle, we'll try to find as many ways to be creative in that area.
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  And it's something new in college. So each day we're learning a little
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  bit more about it. We're getting feedback from the quarterbacks and from the players.
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  Like today, it would be what just the three quarterbacks would have it
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  and then you got it maybe Thursday, Cody and Gabe and you got it
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  right. That's that's exactly what it is. Yeah, So that the tricky
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  thing we learned early on was we had two huddles going on. Early.
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  I think you guys were a practice the one day we were doing formations and
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  so Chip was calling it in to the guys in the one huddle, and
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  for Lincoln, he's got it in his head and I'm calling them the plays,
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  and there was a voice in his head. He thought he was going
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  crazy for a seconds. He said, Coach, I got to take this
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  helmet off. So we learned that we can only have one quarterback in the
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  call at once. But but no, I think the good thing about it
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  is the quarterbacks are hearing the you know. So if let's say Will's up
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  there and or Devin's up there, Lincoln's getting the call in his head.
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  He's also seeing the signal. Talked a lot about the departure of Tony Alfred
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  earlier in the show. Now the question, of course who's going to replace
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  him, So we'll get to that one in a minute, but temporarily,
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  who's replacing Tony Alfred. Well, that's a gentleman by the name of Ryan
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  Day. He's never actually coached running backs before, but he's running the running
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  backs room right now. And this is another one where I just want you
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  to listen to the tone of his voices. He's answering this question, just
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  sort of asking, you know, how's that going. You're coaching the running
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  backs now, you've never done it before. How's that going? And you
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  always hear head coaches kind of wistfully talking about how they really miss getting to
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  just coach the players and just teach and you know, go through film with
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  guys and just you know, be coaches. All the stuff he got into
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  coaching to do. You don't get to do a lot of it when you're
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  the CEO of a big program like Ohio State. So just listen to Ryan
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  Day and just in his voice how much he is absolutely loving being the ten
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  running backs coach at Ohios Date. It's been great. Yeah, I think
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  you know, we went in there and put up the first play. In
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  the first play, I think it went off for twenty minutes on one play.
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  Some of the guys are looking around like, oh boy, but it
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  was great. I think it's going to be good for them to see it
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  through the eyes of a quarterback. I think it's really good for them in
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  the passing game. I think it's really good for them overall to understand from
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  a you know a high view on things. So we've had great meetings.
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  We have a very intelligent group in that room. They're really good. They're
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  diligent about taking notes. Again, I think it's the best running back room
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  in a country. So whoever we hire is going to have an unbelieable opportunity
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  and a great group of guys. Well, no matter how much Ryan ad
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  loves being the running backs coach, they will eventually have to hire a replacement
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  for Tony Alford. If he gave up play calling, he certainly will have
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  to give up being the temporary running backs coach. So when they're finding whoever
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  is going to replace Tony Alford, how much does things like recruiting play into
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  that decision in terms of who they're going to hire. Yeah, I think
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  when you're you're bringing anybody into the program, you're trying to figure out,
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  you know, what is their expertise. You know. I share this with
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  the team. I think it's important. You know, we want to be
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  the best team we can possibly be next year. We have a bunch of
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  talent, but it's not about individuals. It's about the team. You need
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  each other in order to reach a goal. That's what's specially about football.
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  So you know, the running back coach has to be an expert at coaching
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  the running backs. You have to bring value every day when you stand in
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  front of a group of men, especially a group like we have in that
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  room, you know, you have to your competency has to be at a
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  high level. You know, when you when you stand in front of anybody
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  in this building, you got to know what you're talking about. And it's
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  about building trust. And you do that through competency, through connection with somebody,
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  and then your character and who you are as a person. And so
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  when you have trust, you can you can really you know, develop guys
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  at a high level. Now, the recruiting part is very very important,
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  and that's about building relationship, building trust through the recruiting process. Would we
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  like somebody that has recruited at a high level already here, Yeah, I
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  think that would be I deal. But that doesn't necessarily mean that you know,
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  that's going to make the best player, or excuse me, the best
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  coach for that position. You know, I think about myself coming in here.
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  I had never recruited at a place at Ohio State before, but you
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  know, it worked out for me. I think some other guys have been
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  in that same situation before. You know, Brian Harlan had never recruited at
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  this level. Before he played at this level, but he didn't recruit here.
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  And so while it's good to have the experience, we want to make
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  sure we get the right guy and we're being very, very thorough in the
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  interview process. We're gonna ask a lot of questions. We're going to take
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  as much time as we need and make sure we get the right guy.
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  Well, the Buck guys will be back on the practice field on Thursday morning,
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  and then we will be back at the Woody Hayes Athletics Center doing some
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  interviews afterwards, talking to some players, talking to some coaches. Should have
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  a lot of good new information for you after practice number four of the spring
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  that's coming up all on Thursday morning at Buckey Huddle dot com at YouTube dot
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  com slash Buckeye Huddle. We hope to see there. If you're watching this
• 14:54
  one on YouTube, we would appreciate it if you hit the thumbs up button
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  that helps other folks find these shows. Always nice helpful you can do for
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  us if you're listening on your podcast platform of choice. A five star rating
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  and review helps there as well. Make sure you also check us out at
• 15:07
  Buckeye Huddle dot com. Lots of great content from Pro Day on Wednesday,
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  Interviews with a whole bunch of Ohios Day players coaches. Great interview with Will
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  Howard, the hopefully you know hopeful Ohio State twenty twenty four starting quarterback.
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  He's in a battle with Devin Brown right now. And then of course with
• 15:26
  a surprise guest c J Stroud, old friend of the program. C J.
• 15:28
  Stroud, who's had quite a pro career for himself, swung by on
• 15:33
  Pro Day and actually had a nice long interview after all the other interviews we're
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  done. You can find that at YouTube dot com slash Buckeye Huddle. Some
• 15:41
  great stuff there from Pro Day. Make sure you check that out, and
• 15:45
  of course check us out at Buckeye Huddle dot com. That'll do it for
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  today. Thank you guys all for joining us. Have a great day.
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  We'll talk to you tomorrow.