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Ohio State 56, Ball State 3: What We Learned From A Blowout Win · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Buckeyes tomorrow morning for Sunday, September 6th. I'm
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: your host, Tom, or the Texas game in six days,
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: the game against Michigan in 83 days. Thanks to our
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: friends at Jeff Ruby's of Columbus, proudly offering nationally acclaimed
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: USDA prime steaks, seafood and sushi, impeccable service, live entertainment,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: and an attention to detail that is simply unmatched. Just
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  Speaker 1: go to jeffruby.com slash Columbus to check out the menu
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: and make a reservation today. All right, the Ohio State
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Buckeyes are 1-0 in the 2026 college football season, 56-3 win.
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  Speaker 2: Over Ball State.
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  Speaker 1: I'm joined by Tony Gerderman of BuckeyeInsiders.com. Tony, this felt
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  Speaker 1: like the most Week 1 game against an overmatched opponent
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  Speaker 1: that you could possibly imagine. It was just stereotypical Week
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  Speaker 1: 1 overmatched opponent.
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  Speaker 2: That's what that looks like.
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  Speaker 3: 14 points in every quarter. You hold the opponent to
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  Speaker 3: 3 points and you just move on to the next
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  Speaker 3: week and move on to Texas. Ryan Day said afterwards,
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  Speaker 3: We'll give them tonight, but then it's Texas. And very
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  Speaker 3: serious about that. They didn't keep Jeremiah Smith out there long,
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  Speaker 3: you know, one half. Julian Sand got, what.
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  Speaker 4: The first series in the third quarter?
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  Speaker 2: I think he hit two.
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  Speaker 4: Two, two.
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  Speaker 3: And for a while there, because it was 21-0 late
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  Speaker 3: in the second, it's like, Julian might be playing the
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  Speaker 3: entire third quarter if they don't pick it up.
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  Speaker 4: But they did.
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  Speaker 3: But, yeah, this was, if you just look at the
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  Speaker 3: score and you just look at the box score and
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  Speaker 3: stats like that, it's like, no problems, right?
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  Speaker 2: Right, yeah, exactly.
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  Speaker 1: And you look at the box score, and they rushed
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  Speaker 1: for 6.8 yards per carry. So, sure, that sounds great.
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  Speaker 1: So about that, the first half was not 6.8 yards
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  Speaker 1: per carry. The first half was not anywhere close to 6.8
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  Speaker 1: yards per carry. They, at times, really kind of struggled
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  Speaker 1: to run the ball in the first half. That, to me, was,
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  Speaker 1: you know, we've been hearing encouraging things about the offensive line.
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  Speaker 2: We've been hearing encouraging things about the running backs.
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  Speaker 1: And it got there eventually, but the first 30 minutes
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  Speaker 1: or so was a little rough.
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  Speaker 3: Very rough, just watching them, seeing the Ball State defensive
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  Speaker 3: line penetrate into the backfield, blowing stuff up before there
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  Speaker 3: was anywhere to go, and then even if Ohio State
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  Speaker 3: did kind of win at the line of scrimmage, it
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  Speaker 3: would be like a two-yard gain, and the Buckeyes were
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  Speaker 3: working very, very hard to get stuff to happen with
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  Speaker 3: Bo Jackson and Jacoby Jackson, and it wasn't working early
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  Speaker 3: on until it finally was, but It's discouraging, disappointing, because
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  Speaker 3: you would think that you should just be able to
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  Speaker 3: essentially run whatever you want, as simple as you want,
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  Speaker 3: and be able to move the line of scrimmage and
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  Speaker 3: pick up four or five yards just basically.
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  Speaker 4: And that was not the case for the most part.
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  Speaker 1: Right. First quarter, nine carries for 32 yards. That's a
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  Speaker 1: little shy of four yards a carry. Second quarter, eight rushes,
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  Speaker 1: three yards. Now, there were sacks in there, but... there
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  Speaker 1: were sacks in there.
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  Speaker 4: Exactly. Yeah. You're trying to excuse the offensive line.
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  Speaker 1: You can't blame the offensive line for eight yards, eight
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  Speaker 1: carries for three yards.
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  Speaker 2: Right.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: So, you know, the good news is 12 carries, 180,
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  Speaker 1: 169 yards in the third quarter, six carries 33 yards
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  Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter. It was, it got better, but
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  Speaker 1: you had a 49 yarder for Jacoby Jackson, a 65
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  Speaker 1: yarder for Bo Jackson, 24 yarder for legend Bay. It
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  Speaker 1: was kind of skewed where you look at the median rush,
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  Speaker 1: and it wasn't where you'd want it to be.
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  Speaker 3: No, I bet the median rush is probably three yards
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  Speaker 3: or a four-yard rush in there because that was the
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  Speaker 3: majority of what we saw. But, again, you would expect
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  Speaker 3: Ohio State to eventually wear on them, and we expected
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  Speaker 3: some big plays. So I guess you got to see
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  Speaker 3: what you expected, but what you saw that you did
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  Speaker 3: not expect is still what stands out most.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure. And I think a lot of the folks.
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  Speaker 1: Don't worry, we're going to go back and re-watch this game,
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  Speaker 1: so we'll have more insight into this a little bit
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  Speaker 1: later on. I think a lot of the people in
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  Speaker 1: our comments and a lot of the feedback that we've
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  Speaker 1: gotten is probably more on the offensive.
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  Speaker 2: Line than on the running backs. The running backs.
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  Speaker 1: For a show where we started talking about the fact
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  Speaker 1: that the running game wasn't very good, once the running
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  Speaker 1: backs got going... you saw sort of what had been
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  Speaker 1: promised in terms of short gains turning into big gains.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, and you saw Bo Jackson and Jacoby Jackson reading
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  Speaker 3: the blocks, running with the blocks, being patient, and then
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  Speaker 3: things just got more effective, and then Legend Bay gets
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  Speaker 3: in there, changes some things up, and now you've got
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  Speaker 3: three distinct running backs making waves and getting some yards,
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  Speaker 3: so this is kind of like loosening the lid on
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  Speaker 3: the jar, maybe a little bit like that, but We
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  Speaker 3: had been promised a more explosive running game.
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  Speaker 4: We saw it. They didn't say anything about we're getting
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  Speaker 4: rid of the one- and two-yard rushes.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. Well, you know who I was really impressed with?
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  Speaker 1: And we just did an hour and a half of
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  Speaker 1: postgame and didn't talk about this specific thing, really. Jacoby
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  Speaker 1: Jackson was just kind of consistently good. You know, we
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  Speaker 1: talked about the median rush being three yards.
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  Speaker 2: Here were his rushes. Five, five, five, three, three, eight, five. 49.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: And that three yarder, is that, was that the only
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  Speaker 3: one or what? Yeah, that was the only one where
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  Speaker 3: it wouldn't be, wouldn't count towards the, he did not
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  Speaker 3: hit the metric, the efficiency metric or whatever, the success rate.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he was just kind of consistently
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  Speaker 1: good and hit the big one at the end. That
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  Speaker 1: was a, you know, the 49 yarder. That was a nice,
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  Speaker 1: a really nice play for him. But we got a
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  Speaker 1: chance to talk to him after the game.
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  Speaker 2: He, he is very excited.
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  Speaker 1: I think he was, he's been, you know, he's had
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  Speaker 1: a long career. This is his seventh year But he's
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  Speaker 1: just banged up and just has not been healthy. When
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  Speaker 1: he's played, he's been good. And he had a big
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  Speaker 1: bag of ice on his arm, which I saw that
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  Speaker 1: and I went, oh man, I hope this poor guy
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  Speaker 1: can stay healthy. Because when he's out there, he's been
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  Speaker 1: very good. Someone else who was very good, for the
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  Speaker 1: most part, had his moments on special teams. But Legend Bay...
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  Speaker 1: And he was just one of a number of freshmen.
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  Speaker 1: And this was a game where we saw a lot
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  Speaker 1: of freshmen. You probably saw more freshmen in this game
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  Speaker 1: than you're going to see in a lot of the
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  Speaker 1: games moving forward. But man, there were freshmen. We knew
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  Speaker 1: Legend Bay was going to play a significant role in
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  Speaker 1: the first half. We knew Jay Timmons was going to
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  Speaker 1: play a significant role in the first half.
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  Speaker 2: But there were other freshmen out there.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, Kari Wilder for one, but There were other
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  Speaker 1: freshmen out there that we saw earlier than expected and
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  Speaker 1: who looked very much the part.
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  Speaker 3: Simeon Caldwell maybe in the first half as well. I'm
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  Speaker 3: pretty sure we saw him at least a little bit. So, yeah,
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  Speaker 3: very interesting. And what was key to me is seeing
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  Speaker 3: the packages that they were used in where Kari Wilder
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  Speaker 3: was clearly the number one guy in the rushman package
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  Speaker 3: that rushes on the interior. The defensive end plays a
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  Speaker 3: little defensive tackle on long downs, on passing downs.
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  Speaker 4: Jay Timmons is clearly the nickelback in that package.
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  Speaker 3: Um, and you know, legend Bay doing what he does,
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  Speaker 3: those three guys. And then Chris Henry and Brock Boyd
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  Speaker 3: playing together out there with Jeremiah Smith. So, uh, you're
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  Speaker 3: seeing all of those guys in there. Uh, Demar, even
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  Speaker 3: like Darius McKinley, I saw him in the box for,
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  Speaker 3: didn't see him like this is late, but, um, the
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  Speaker 3: freshmen that have already grabbed roles in this is just
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  Speaker 3: a very, uh, clear sign for positive things coming, not
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  Speaker 3: just this year, but down the road.
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  Speaker 4: And good to see so many young guys.
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  Speaker 3: And then also to the coaches, giving them, finding roles
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  Speaker 3: for them. And not just finding roles for them, but
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  Speaker 3: also like, who is the best person for this role?
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  Speaker 4: Well, it's actually this freshman. All right.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 4: Let's do it.
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  Speaker 3: And we'll work on it. We'll get through the mistakes.
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  Speaker 3: And by the time they get to November, they're no
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  Speaker 3: longer freshmen, all that coach-speak. So the fact that it's
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  Speaker 3: already Kari Wilder, it's already Jay Timmons, these are big things.
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  Speaker 3: And we haven't talked enough about Kari Wilder because we
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  Speaker 3: didn't know that he was the number one guy in
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  Speaker 3: that freshman package.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, we had talked a bunch about Simeon Caldwell at
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  Speaker 1: one point because there was a sort of prescribed role
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  Speaker 1: for him. That was one that I was a little
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  Speaker 1: surprised that he was out there as early as he was,
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  Speaker 1: Kari Wilder.
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  Speaker 2: And it seemed like he played reasonably well. It's interesting
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  Speaker 2: that with... a little bit.
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  Speaker 1: More margin for error this year, where one loss does
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  Speaker 1: not completely blow up your season like it did in
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  Speaker 1: the 90s or the 2000s, and two losses don't necessarily
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  Speaker 1: blow up your season like they did in the 2010s.
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  Speaker 1: Now you have a little bit of margin for error.
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  Speaker 1: So therefore, if you have a game where it's like, well,
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  Speaker 1: you had a freshman did a freshman thing, and in
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  Speaker 1: a real fine margin game, that can be the difference.
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  Speaker 2: You can afford that. You're obviously not trying to.
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  Speaker 1: And someone's going to have a loss next week between
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  Speaker 1: Ohio State and Texas, and that's going to put them in,
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  Speaker 1: you know, a little bit behind the eight ball in
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  Speaker 1: terms of making the playoff. But you have a little
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  Speaker 1: more margin for error, so then you're maybe willing to
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  Speaker 1: make that sort of upside play.
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  Speaker 2: We just talked about true freshman playing. We didn't talk
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  Speaker 2: about Luke Fahey. Boy. Oh, yes, by the way.
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  Speaker 3: Also, these freshmen winning these key roles, like the backup
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  Speaker 3: quarterback's a pretty key role, and I don't know if–
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  Speaker 3: is it legal to say he is the backup quarterback?
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  Speaker 3: Or Ryan Day said it's still an ongoing process, of course.
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  Speaker 3: They wanted to get both of those guys in there.
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  Speaker 3: So maybe that's still one of those things that you
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  Speaker 3: can kick down the road. We may find out next
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  Speaker 3: week who the backup is if something happens to Julian,
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  Speaker 3: even for a snap or two.
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  Speaker 4: Right. Helmet comes off. Who's the next guy in?
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  Speaker 1: Like when Justin Fields got hit on the hip in
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  Speaker 1: the Sugar Bowl against Clemson. And it was like, well–
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  Speaker 1: Now we know it's CJ Stratton. He only came in
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  Speaker 1: for one snap, but it was like, you're not messing
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  Speaker 1: around at that point.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly. So that will be interesting to see. And
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  Speaker 4: at that point, then it's like, okay.
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  Speaker 3: Or if they're up by 42 points and Luke Fahey is, again,
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  Speaker 3: the first guy in. like well all right i guess
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  Speaker 3: he's the backup quarterback.
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  Speaker 1: Now if they're up by 42 points next week in
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  Speaker 1: texas i don't think luke fahey's gonna be the first
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  Speaker 1: thing we're talking about on the postgame.
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  Speaker 3: Show breaking officially the backup quarterback yeah but we didn't
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  Speaker 3: that's another good one that's a I mean, huge.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, so very, very talented group of freshmen.
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  Speaker 1: You got a little bit of a look at a
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  Speaker 1: bunch of them and got a first look at the
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  Speaker 1: team on the whole and I think a lot to like.
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  Speaker 2: Plenty to, a few to grow on.
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  Speaker 1: And, you know, as we said on the post-game show,
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  Speaker 1: the old cliche that you grow, you improve the most
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  Speaker 1: from game one to game two.
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  Speaker 2: So we will see.
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  Speaker 1: They've got some improvement to do and they've got a
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: very talented opponent coming up next weekend in Austin, Texas.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: Buckeyes and Texas Longhorns. That is a 7.30 game on
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: ABC next week.
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  Speaker 2: We will be there. We'll be down there on.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: Thursday night and have all sorts of coverage for you.
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: We'll have plenty of coverage before we even get on
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: an airplane to Austin, Texas.
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: It's going to be a busy, busy.
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  Speaker 1: Week, and we would love to spend that week with
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: you at BuckeyeInsiders.com. Tony and Chuck and I covering the team.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: Chuck also covering recruiting. We had a busy recruiting day
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: as well. Lots of coverage of that. Some very, very
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: big names visiting Ohio State for this one. We have
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: Ross and Michael Pettit. They are our scheme insiders. They'll
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: be breaking this game down and giving you a little
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: bit of a preview of what to expect down in
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: DKR next weekend.
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: We've got Marcus Hartman. He's our basketball insider, but guess what?
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: He was here today, too.
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: It's all hands on deck at BuckeyeInsiders.com. We would love
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• 11:57
  Speaker 2: That will do it for today. Thank you guys all
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: for joining us. Have a great day. We'll talk to
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  Speaker 2: you tomorrow.