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Which Young Ohio State Offensive Linemen Are Ready To Contribute In 2025? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to buck Eyes tomorrow morning for Tuesday, March fourth.
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  Speaker 1: I'm your host, tom Or the Texas game in one
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  Speaker 1: hundred and seventy nine days, the game against Michigan in
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  Speaker 1: two hundred and seventy days. If you're planning your next event,
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  Speaker 1: make it unforgettable with Grateful Griddle, Columbus's favorite food truck
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  Speaker 1: serving up Smashburgers, Cormet sandwiches, and good vibes. Book you're
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  Speaker 1: catering today at Grateful Griddle, oh dot com. All right,
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  Speaker 1: so here's the show that I thought you were going
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  Speaker 1: to get yesterday. But then the NHL Stadium Series game
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  Speaker 1: at Ohio Stadium was really, really cool, an amazing night,
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  Speaker 1: and I wanted to do a show on that. So
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  Speaker 1: you got that show yesterday. Now you're getting the show
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  Speaker 1: that I thought you were going to get yesterday. It's fine,
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  Speaker 1: It's worth the wait. It is one of my favorite
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  Speaker 1: Ohio State players to talk to. Donovan Jackson. Our crew
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  Speaker 1: in the NFL Combine got a chance to talk to
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  Speaker 1: him over the weekend. The offensive line were some of
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  Speaker 1: the last interviews of the week. Donovan Jackson had a
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  Speaker 1: lot of interesting stuff to say aboutout last season. The
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  Speaker 1: run to a national championship, has moved to left tackle,
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  Speaker 1: some of the guys who are kind of coming up
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  Speaker 1: next on the offensive lines, and really really interesting stuff
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  Speaker 1: from Donovan Jackson. So you got to get a whole
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  Speaker 1: show hearing from him. There's some other really interesting interviews
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  Speaker 1: that we haven't gotten to yet. You might get some
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  Speaker 1: of those little later on the week. We'll see how
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  Speaker 1: the week goes, but let's start with Donovan Jackson. Is
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  Speaker 1: he grateful now looking back to have the experience of
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  Speaker 1: playing left tackle for the second half of last season.
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  Speaker 2: I'm very grateful for the experience, you know, I'm I'm
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  Speaker 2: Unfortunately the way I got it wasn't the way I
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  Speaker 2: wanted to go obviously. You know, I had fantastic guys
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  Speaker 2: that we're playing in the position, but we always at
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  Speaker 2: a high so we always take competitive excellens. You know,
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  Speaker 2: you got to make the plan on your numbers called.
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  Speaker 2: So when my number is called to play tackle, I
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  Speaker 2: went went into it with the best mentality I could say.
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  Speaker 2: If I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna do with the
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  Speaker 2: best of my ability, you know, showing off my versatility
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  Speaker 2: a little bit, showing that you know, I can I
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  Speaker 2: can play anywhere on the line. So I'm grateful for
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  Speaker 2: the experience.
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  Speaker 1: What did Donovan Jackson see the most benefit from his
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  Speaker 1: time kicking out from left guard to left tackle.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I feel like it benefited me a lot in
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  Speaker 2: terms of i'll say, different aspects of my game where
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  Speaker 2: the bfeet, hand usage, you know, working out in space
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  Speaker 2: because you know there are other times at guard where
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  Speaker 2: if you're at guard, there's still gonna be a d
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  Speaker 2: in on you, like guys can come out in a
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  Speaker 2: rushman package or sack packers or anything like that. So
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  Speaker 2: you know, I think the experience helped in terms of
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  Speaker 2: how I viewed the game.
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  Speaker 1: Having him play left tackle was obviously not Plan A
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  Speaker 1: or even Plan B for the Buckeyes this year. So
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  Speaker 1: how did that conversation go when Justin Fry approached him
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  Speaker 1: about maybe moving out to tackle before the Penn State game.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so when when Josh initially got hurt and then
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  Speaker 2: Zen Maholski went in when he unfortunately got hurt as well,
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  Speaker 2: Coach Fry came up to me. He was like, look, man,
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  Speaker 2: like I know we always joked because we always joked about, Oh,
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  Speaker 2: you're gonna have to play tackle. I was like, no,
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  Speaker 2: I'm not. But but when when the conversation finally came,
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  Speaker 2: I looked like, we need you to, you know, kick
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  Speaker 2: out the tackle for this big week, playing a big team.
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  Speaker 2: So it was it was a lot to think about.
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  Speaker 2: He weighed the pros and the cons of the decision,
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  Speaker 2: but at the end of the day, like, I just
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  Speaker 2: like winning more than anything else, and I felt like
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  Speaker 2: in me moving outside with help us win because I
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  Speaker 2: think this happened around like week seven, so there's still
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  Speaker 2: a lot of football ahead of us. So I just
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  Speaker 2: like winning more than anything else. So I knew that
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  Speaker 2: I had a lot of work to do and I
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  Speaker 2: practicing it is two amazing edge rushers every day, so
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  Speaker 2: I had no choice about to get better.
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  Speaker 1: A little bit more of a big picture question now
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  Speaker 1: for Donovan Jackson, looking back, what did it mean to
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  Speaker 1: Jackson to play at Ohio State.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, being a Buck, I'm in everything to me, you know,
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  Speaker 2: growing up my parents growing up in Texas. At least
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  Speaker 2: my parents already asked me, are you like to their
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  Speaker 2: two major teams in Texas, But my parents are like nah,
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  Speaker 2: Like my mom is a huge Ohio State fan. She's like, now,
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  Speaker 2: you're a Buck guy. And I was like, okay, Mom.
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  Speaker 2: But then eventually the time came for me to make
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  Speaker 2: a college decision. I chose Ohio State. And you know,
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  Speaker 2: scarlet and Gray means everything to me, you know, the
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  Speaker 2: University of the State, the guys I played with, I
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  Speaker 2: bled with, sweated with, cried with. It means everything is
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  Speaker 2: so deep in my heart, deep and grained in my
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  Speaker 2: heart that my time at Ohio State was a huge
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  Speaker 2: development factor and who I am today.
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  Speaker 1: All Right, So here's one of the more questions that
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  Speaker 1: we got for a bunch of these guys during the
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  Speaker 1: course of the week at the NFL Combine. It's about
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  Speaker 1: who's up next at their positions.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so, uh, the guys haven't seen. Obviously, Loop balled
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  Speaker 2: out in the playoffs. I just know he's going to
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  Speaker 2: continue it throughout the season. Carson stepped in, uh when
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  Speaker 2: we had other injuries and you know, didn't miss a beat.
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  Speaker 2: Tegra had a great first year, and I know he's
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  Speaker 2: just going to continue to grow. But guys, we haven't
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  Speaker 2: seen I think that, uh. I think Josh for Dia
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  Speaker 2: is gonna be really good. Josh er Dia Ian Moore.
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  Speaker 2: Ian Moore is a guy who near the end of
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  Speaker 2: end of his freshman year started to figure it out,
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  Speaker 2: and you can see him starting to figure out throughout practice.
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  Speaker 2: I feel like he's gonna have a really good career
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  Speaker 2: to how to say.
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  Speaker 1: This is a great question for our buddy, Tony Gerdaman.
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  Speaker 1: Was Donovan Jackson sort of surprised that the three guard
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  Speaker 1: rotation worked in the playoff? Now, I will raise my
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  Speaker 1: hand and say yeah. I when they announced that they
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  Speaker 1: were going to do a three yuard rotation the week
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  Speaker 1: of the Tennessee game, it was like, oh, that seems
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  Speaker 1: like that's probably a bad idea. And Donovan will hit
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  Speaker 1: Tony with a little bit of a power pause here.
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  Speaker 1: If you're listening and you're not watching, you can basically
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  Speaker 1: see the wheel spinning because he's not sure exactly how
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  Speaker 1: honest he's going to be for a second about his
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  Speaker 1: thoughts on the three guard rotation and whether he was
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  Speaker 1: surprised at worked.
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  Speaker 2: Uh No, no, no, I wasn't. I wasn't surprised. I knew,
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  Speaker 2: I knew what all those guys are capable of. I
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  Speaker 2: think when I realized, like, oh my gosh, it's really
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  Speaker 2: gonna work for sure, Like when we first introduced the
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  Speaker 2: guard rotation, like guys coming in out in practice. I
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  Speaker 2: was like, I don't know, like you, guy's gotta get
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  Speaker 2: a rhythm here. But when we were playing Tennessee and
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  Speaker 2: like I was playing next to Sarahveld, I was playing
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  Speaker 2: next to Luke and both those guys were just bawling,
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  Speaker 2: I was like, man, this is a great idea. Like
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  Speaker 2: I believe that this is from the start. But yeah,
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  Speaker 2: I mean, like all those guys up that rotated to
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  Speaker 2: help us, when when the obviously the big one at
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  Speaker 2: the end that had played an amazing job playing top
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  Speaker 2: notche football, Well, I did it work because as a Sally,
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  Speaker 2: as speaking as offensive line, we just have played with
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  Speaker 2: the chip on our shoulder every game. Every game we
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  Speaker 2: just remembered where we were at the end of the season,
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  Speaker 2: and every game we just kept reminding ourselves what people
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  Speaker 2: said about us. You know, I believe when we were
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  Speaker 2: announced for the playoffs, people are like, oh, man, that
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  Speaker 2: Tennessee front's going to run through all house it offensive
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  Speaker 2: line and so that, and then other people were saying, man,
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  Speaker 2: I really hope they don't have a home game in
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  Speaker 2: the shot because they're going to boot the Buckeyes out
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  Speaker 2: of there. So just those clips were just running through
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  Speaker 2: our head, just cycling through and through to the point
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  Speaker 2: where just we knew we had to play better.
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  Speaker 1: Mentioned earlier that Donovan Jackson's first game at left tackle
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  Speaker 1: was against Penn State. Now that's a tough opponent on
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  Speaker 1: the road, tough environment, So that's already a pretty big challenge,
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  Speaker 1: not to mention the fact that Abdul Carter was lined
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  Speaker 1: up across from him for a whole bunch of that game.
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  Speaker 1: So what was it like getting thrown in at left
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  Speaker 1: tackle against Abdul Carter in his first game as a
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  Speaker 1: left tackle?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I look back on it and see
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  Speaker 2: how much I've grown from then. You know, I had
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  Speaker 2: what four days notice to learn how to play tackle,
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  Speaker 2: So I just seeing how I set seeing how I
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  Speaker 2: did everything then to now. I sometimes look back on
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  Speaker 2: and see and just kind of appreciate how much I've
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  Speaker 2: grown and just renew myself of there's still so much
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  Speaker 2: to do. Yeah, it was huge for us obviously as
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  Speaker 2: a team to win that game. Obviously a great opponent
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  Speaker 2: that we went against, but it was big volvens of line,
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  Speaker 2: especially down the stretch in the fourth quarter with our
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  Speaker 2: heels essentially in our in their end zone to drive
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  Speaker 2: the ball out and try to run the clock out
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  Speaker 2: to win the game.
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  Speaker 1: One of the most memorable moments of the season, of course,
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  Speaker 1: was the scoop and score by Jack Sawyer in the
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  Speaker 1: Cotton Bowl against Texas. So what was Donovan Jackson thinking?
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  Speaker 1: What was going through his mind during that play?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I initially didn't know what was going on. We
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  Speaker 2: were on the sideline preparing to you know, run a
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  Speaker 2: quick four minute drill, so Coach Fry was drawing up
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  Speaker 2: plays and trying to talk us through some of the looks,
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  Speaker 2: and we just hear the crowd go crazy. I look
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  Speaker 2: up and Jack Sawyers running down the sideline and I
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  Speaker 2: was like, no way, Like we were all freaking out,
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  Speaker 2: you know. You know, Jack Sawy is one of those
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  Speaker 2: guys where, you know, kind of cement to himself and
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  Speaker 2: I'll have to say history, and that couldn't have happened
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  Speaker 2: to any better guy. You know. He kind of kind
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  Speaker 2: of ran the show, especially in the playoffs, of making
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  Speaker 2: sure everyone's on the same page before the season, making
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  Speaker 2: calling everybody, make sure we all you know, get on
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  Speaker 2: board of coming back. So you know, it couldn't happened
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  Speaker 2: to a much better guy, you know, Captain Jack Sawyer.
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  Speaker 1: And finally, a question for Donovan Jackson about Seth McLaughlin. Now,
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  Speaker 1: Seth McLaughlin is coming back from an achilles injury, of course,
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  Speaker 1: and the good news is it sounds like he will
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  Speaker 1: be good to go for training camp whenever he gets,
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  Speaker 1: you know, wherever he gets drafted by an NFL team.
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  Speaker 1: So what would Donovan Jackson tell NFL teams about Seth McLaughlin.
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  Speaker 2: Seth McLoughlin's a field general. You know there are we
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  Speaker 2: wouldn't have started the way we did without Seth McLoughlin.
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  Speaker 2: I'll tell you that there were many times, many looks
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  Speaker 2: where he would check it like mid cadence with when
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  Speaker 2: Will's Midcayen's He like, no, we're going over here now.
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  Speaker 2: And then they would bring a rifle of blitz to
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  Speaker 2: where he checked it and we would pick it up.
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  Speaker 2: So Seth knows what's going on all the time, and
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  Speaker 2: he's he's a guy who's like organization, be lucky to
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  Speaker 2: have because I know that our success. Even when he
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  Speaker 2: unfortunately did get hurt around week ten, he was still
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  Speaker 2: in the building. He was you know, he didn't go
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  Speaker 2: outside to outside practice. Because it was cold as ice.
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  Speaker 2: But but he when he was always in the meeting rooms,
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  Speaker 2: he was always in the indoor practice and practice field,
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  Speaker 2: making sure everyone's on the same page, making sure we
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  Speaker 2: all had that same mentality coming into games. And I
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  Speaker 2: feel like we wouldn't have been where we are now
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  Speaker 2: without Seth McLaughlin.
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  Speaker 1: I hope you guys enjoyed that, a little bit of this,
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  Speaker 1: a little bit of that. But I'm guessing people are
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  Speaker 1: probably pretty interested in some of the look back at
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  Speaker 1: the run to the National Championship, and of course they
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  Speaker 1: look ahead to the twenty twenty five buck Eyes as well.
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  Speaker 1: So I'll try to maybe get you one more of
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  Speaker 1: these shows looking back at some of those interviews from
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  Speaker 1: the NFL combline, because there's still some really interesting stuff
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  Speaker 1: we haven't gotten the chance to get to yet, So
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  Speaker 1: get to one of those later this week. But we've
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  Speaker 1: got some other stuff coming up this week as well,
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  Speaker 1: probably hopefully maybe some interviews with Ohio State assistant coaches
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  Speaker 1: before everyone heads off for spring break, and then of
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  Speaker 1: course spring ball will start in just a couple of weeks.
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  Speaker 1: We're gonna have a busy month, a lot of stuff
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  Speaker 1: to talk about all at pucke huddle dot com basketball
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  Speaker 1: team has its final home game of the season Tuesday
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  Speaker 1: night against Nebraska. There is a lot to talk about
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  Speaker 1: there at puckey huddle dot com and of course at
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  Speaker 1: YouTube dot com slash Buckeye Huddle. That'll do it for today.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you guys all for joining us. Have a great day.
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  Speaker 1: We'll talk to you tomorrow.