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How Is Ohio State Addressing Its Struggles In Short Yardage? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Welcome to Buckeyes tomorrow morning for Thursday, October fifth. I'm your host,
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  tom Or. The Maryland game is in two days. The game against Michigan
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  in fifty one days. All right, we are officially kind of turning the
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  page from the Notre Dame game to that Maryland game. Ryan Day talked earlier
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  in the week and really was not that interested in looking back at the Notre
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  Dame game. So we're going to talk a little bit about that, maybe
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  a little more broad strokes because this was the first time we got a chance
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  to talk to Ryan Day and Jim Knowles since the night of the Notre Dame
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  game. You talk a little bit more broad strokes, but some of the
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  questions that you have probably been asking online where you've certainly seen other folks asking
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  online about host issues, Ohio State's issues in short yardage, Ohio State's issues
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  with getting the ball to Marvin Harrison at times, exactly how big that win
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  was in terms of Kyle McCord's continue development, the improvement on the defense,
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  and how real that is and what all went into that. We're talking about
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  all of that today, and you're going to get to hear directly from Ryan
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  day and Jim knowles about all of that. Let's start with this was a
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  question that got asked a whole bunch during and after that Notre Dame game.
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  We have data struggled a bunch in short yardage third and one, fourth and
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  one, and they're really struggling to pick that up at the rates they want
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  to get those. We'll get to that in a minute. But why are
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  they not just quarterback sneaking when you line up under center, and that's probably
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  the first thing in a short yarded situation that everyone's going to take away and
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  then you go from there. So it's part of our our short yardage package,
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  you know, whether it's appropriate to use or not, you know,
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  we try to do that on a day to day basis or a game to
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  game basis. But now look at what the Philadelphia Eagles did with with Hertz.
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  You know, he's a very big, strong, powerful player. You
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  know, I think with Justin Fields we did it a lot. You know,
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  he could really move the pile. You know, we've we've practiced it.
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  You know, everyone has the quarterback sneak in and you know, if
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  we think it gives us a chance, we'll do it. But as you
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  can imagine, you know, we're really working hard on short yardage all right.
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  Now onto the bigger picture on those short yardage issues, Ryan Day said
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  that they need to be north of eighty percent in terms of converting those third
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  and one, third and fourth and one fourth and two type plays. Number
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  drops a little bit when you get up to fourth and three, but he
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  said not very much. So they're not even at fifty percent in those third
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  and one, third and two situations right now. They want to be north
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  of eighty. They're not even at fifty right now. So are there specific
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  areas of emphasis right now in order to get that fixed? So I just
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  think in general, anytime you're in those situations, you always look at you
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  look at matchups. You know, there's always going to be extra people down
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  towards the ball, and you got to win your one on one matchups,
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  whether you're on defense or offense. And you know, you look at angles,
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  you look at all those types of things to try to give your your
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  guys an advantage. And you know sometimes you just got to, you know,
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  get bigger than the other guy, get stronger the other day the other
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  guy, move them. You know, if the guys up front are moving
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  their guys forward and the running backs are running hard. You know that that's
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  part of it. Other times you got to look at maybe getting the ball
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  in the perimeter or throwing down the field when they're just you're banging your head
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  against the wall. So there's a lot of different ways to look at it.
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  But but yeah, you know, in big games, you know,
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  a lot of it comes down to shorty yardage. Every Ohio State quarterback over
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  the years has a signature win or two or more. And the Notre Dame
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  game on the road at night, last second comeback, that was Kyle McCord's
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  first kind of signature win. So how has he been coming out of that
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  week? And then where does day still want to see Kyle McCord continue to
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  grow? Yeah, there was a lot of good things in the game,
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  certainly finishing the way it happened. But you know, now it's on to
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  Maryland, bigger challenges ahead. We had a lot of football ahead, and
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  you know he's got to grow, He's got to get better in a lot
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  of different areas, just like everybody else. But good to get that experience.
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  But yeah, I mean, we all need to be more efficient,
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  We need to finish drives off better, and you know there's a lot of
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  plays that he wish he had back the other night. But now we're moving
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  forward. You know, we're after the bye week. We've addressed all those
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  things and now all the focuses is on Maryland. When you're a Ryan Day
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  quarterback, there are just certain expectations. You're going to be a first round
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  NFL draft pick at some point, you're going to win a whole bunch of
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  games, and you're going to get measured against the previous Ohio State quarterback.
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  So how is Kyle McCord progressing compared to where Justin Fields or CJ. Stroud
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  were at this point in their journeys. It's only a couple of games.
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  You know, I don't think we can you know, leap the judgments.
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  You know, if we don't have that drive at the end of the game,
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  you know, where does that put them? But we we did,
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  so now where does that put him? You know, you know, you
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  can't ride the roller coaster of that good or bad. It is what it
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  is. There's things that we've got to get better at. There's things we're
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  getting better each week at, but you know you can't. It's more of
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  the process, you know, and I think with a quarterback you have to
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  do that because you can get caught up and everything else. There's a lot
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  of things that come with each play. You know, it's twenty one of
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  the guys on the field that are affecting where the decisions are in terms of
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  where the ball is being thrown, all kinds of different variables. And the
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  other thing is we only had you know, eight possessions in that game,
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  so there wasn't as many opportunities as maybe you would like to do that.
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  So we got to be better as a whole on offense of finishing drives off
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  so that we can have more possessions and be more efficient. One of the
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  big frustrations for Ohio State fans this year has been not the buck guys not
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  necessarily being able to get the ball to Marvin Harrison as much as they might
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  want and as much as the fans at home might want. And a lot
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  of that has to do with how teams are defending Marvin Harrison. You've seen
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  more bracket coverage, two guys, a high guy and a low guy just
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  trying to keep them from make someone else beach it, keep the ball away
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  from Marvin Harrison and make somebody else on the Ohio State defense beach it.
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  So how much is Brian Day seeing that this year? Yeah, I think
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  that there's times where that's happening. But you can't do that all the time
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  either, you know, but they definitely know where he is and typically you
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  know, they'll they'll you know, put a couple of guys to his side
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  or whatever that is. And you know it's based on the type of scheme
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  that we're playing, but everybody knows where he is in the field for sure.
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  Is that strategy the takeaway Marvin Harrison and make someone else beach you?
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  Is that strategy something that Ryan Day expects to see continue this year, even
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  with a Mecca Abuka having a big year on the other side of the field.
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  You know, we get that style of defense. You know, we
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  have to make sure that you know, we're you know, creating you know,
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  as many explosive plays in the other areas and attacking the defense where the
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  coverage isn't you know, And I think to your point you're talking about bracket
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  coverage in particular. You know, you've got to find no one on ones
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  and you know, we got to win the one on ones in those situations.
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  But then there's also things on first second now that you might see,
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  and you know, whether it's running the ball or finding a matchup at another
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  position. The more the more we do that, the more pressure it takes
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  off of Marvin. Here is a great stat from Nathan Barrett of Cleveland dot
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  Com. The longest touchdown given up by the Ohio State defense through four games
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  is two yards. I heard that. I thought that can't possibly be right,
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  and then I thought back and it was like, no, that actually
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  is true to yards. So in a year when limiting explosive plays was a
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  very, very big goal all through the off season, how did that process
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  go over the year to get from where they were last year where they give
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  up a bunch of big plays at the end of the year and a couple
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  of losses to this point where they are now. We're Ryan Day and Jimnall's
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  collaborating on that. I mean, we talked constantly about the pluses and the
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  minuses, and you know, when you look back on a season, you
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  know the easy thing to do is overreact. You know, we've got to
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  make sure that we're doing what's right for this group. It's a different group
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  that we had last year, you know, figuring out as the season goes
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  on. You know, how do we want this to look at the beginning
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  of the season, the middle of the season, the end of the season,
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  because that's very, very different. But but I think you know,
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  there's bigger challenges ahead. First four games in the books, you've seen some
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  improvement there, but we know in all areas, including on defense, we've
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  got to continue to grow and get better. And again, the encouraging thing
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  is you watch the film. There's there's plenty of areas Jim will tell you
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  that we can get better at. Jim Knowles has talked earlier in the fall
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  about the fact that he is blitzing less than he ever has before this fall
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  and still getting those results. So what is Ryan Day seeing and how do
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  you find that balance between not being too aggressive and giving up too many big
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  plays, but also not being too passive and sitting back too much. You
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  know, Jim loves the blitz and he will He's always going to be aggressive.
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  We're not going to be ben but don't break. But at the same
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  time, when the front four can get a you know, can get affect
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  the line of scrimmage, and get a pass rush. Then certainly takes takes
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  pressure off of the blitzing. But I mean, I know he's got a
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  whole bunch of blitz is lined up down a road for when the right time
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  comes in. You know, he's he's a he's he's got a great defensive
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  mind and you know, finding that balance is critical. But I think that
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  we are using our hands a little better, our pad levels gotten better.
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  Still can improve in all areas. We can still get our hands on more
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  and more throws front of the ball, create turnovers. There's a whole laundry
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  list of things, but to this point, you know we've we have improved
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  in certain areas. Now on to Jim Knowles, and he has a unique
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  challenge this weekend. The Buck Guy's facing the unbeaten Maryland Turpins and their quarterback
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  Tolia Tungue Valoa. He's a fifty year senior. You're completing sixty five point
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  seven percent of his passes this year. That's not bad. Fourteen hundred and
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  sixty four yards and thirteen touchdowns. So what kind of a challenge does a
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  quarterback like Tolia Tongue Valoa face present For the buck eyes He's always been a
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  dynamic player. I mean, he's he creates offense. He has a really
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  strong arm. You know, he can he can make the throws from sideline
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  to sideline. You know, he heard us with some plays last year.
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  I just think he's you know, he's a great player, but he's also
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  making good decisions. Tongue Valoa is a big part of Maryland's success on offense
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  so far this year, but the offensive line has been doing its job as
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  well. They've only given up three sacks all seasons. So when you're facing
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  a combination of a quarterback and an offensive line like that, how do you
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  generate pressure. You have to try to keep him off balance, you know.
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  At the same time, it's really got to be a it's got to
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  be a coordinated rush. I mean, because you see multiple instances of guys
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  coming free and he makes them miss. I mean, you know, Scott
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  Free. So really there's a lot of coordination involved in trying to contain him.
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  It's got to be a big part of the game plan. We talked
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  earlier about the lack of big plays given up by the Ohios date defense and
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  that two yard touchdown stat But when Nathan Barrett Cleveland Dot com asked Jim Knowles
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  about that very funny moment. Nole's kind of knocked on the lecter and the
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  wooden lectern just you know, boy, don't jinx us. It was basically
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  the unsaid message there. So what is Jim Noles seeing that is leading to
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  that kind of success? Seeing a lot of resiliency. I'm seeing, you
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  know, a get better approach, a you know, accountability in mistakes,
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  you know, across the board. If they're made, how do we fix
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  them? You know? I just I just feel like everybody's working together.
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  You know. That's that's the biggest thing. You know, it's always what
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  have you done for me lately? You know that we need to focus on
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  and keep pressing forward. But like there's enough good things that we can look
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  at and say, look, look this was this was good, you know,
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  and there are enough things that we can fix, you know, to
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  always stay hungry. We will have much more coverage of the buck Eyes as
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  a head into that game against Maryland at Buckeyehuddle dot com and of course on
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  our YouTube channel YouTube dot com Slow Buckeye Huddle. On Wednesday night, Tony
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  Gerdaman and I are going to have a live show after the player interviews live
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  from the Louie Hayes Athletic Center. So make sure you are subscribe to our
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  YouTube channel again, YouTube dot com slash Buckey Huddle. Hit that bell so
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  you get notified when we go live and we'll bring you some content there.
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  Things we learned talking to the Buckeyes in the lead up to that game against
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  Maryland that we'll do it for today. Thank you guys all for joining us.
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  Have a great day. We'll talk to you tomorrow.