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What Does The NFL Draft Mean For The 2024 Ohio State vs Michigan Game? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Welcome to Buckeyes tomorrow morning. From Monday, April twenty ninth, I'm your
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  host, tom Or the Akron game in one hundred and twenty four days,
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  the gamigainst. Michigan in two hundred and fifteen days. The twenty twenty four
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  NFL Draft now safely in the rearview mirror. Some interesting takeaways from that draft
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  for both Ohio State and Michigan, and not necessarily the takeaways we thought we
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  were going to have, because both teams felt like they had fewer people drafted
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  than expected. So what does that mean for this year's Ohio State Michigan game.
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  Well, we're gonna be talking about that today with other Buddy Tony Gerdim
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  Mint Buckeyehuddle dot com. Tony, I think the maybe one of the more
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  surprising things to me was only four Buckeyes picked in the draft. That is
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  the smallest Ohio State NFL Draft class since twenty thirteen. Marvin Harrison and Mike
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  Hall went early, had Stover, Tommy Eickenberg kind of went middle rounds,
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  and then there were a whole bunch of guys that we thought, you know,
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  hey, maybe Deal Chambers, maybe Josh Procter, maybe Matt Jones,
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  guys like that, Zavier Johnson, you might see them picked. Nope,
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  none of them, just the four guys. So when you hear smallest Ohio
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  State NFL Draft class since twenty thirteen, what's your big takeaway from that?
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  My big takeaway is generally what happens soon after a small draft class. And
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  I always think back to the nineteen ninety eight Ohio State draft class, which
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  consisted of nobody, and then you had the nineteen ninety eight team, which
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  was, you know, built on some older guys, some guys coming into
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  their own the best team in the nation that year, got upset by Michigan
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  State, of course, but was number one for most of that year,
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  and they didn't have anybody drafted the year before because they were still building that
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  talent and just a little bit too young. This team, however, like
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  Ohio State, this is built on what, like i'd say, eight guys
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  legitimately saying no to the NFL Draft and returning for senior seasons. So I
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  think that's that's the major reason why the numbers were low. And then you
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  look at the guys that didn't go get drafted. Josh Proctor injury history a
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  sixth year guy. That's not always a great thing when you when the NFL
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  is looking at it. Same for Matt Jones had some foot injuries, and
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  a sixth year guy, Xavier Johnson just a walk on, I think former
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  walk on, So there's gonna be a little stigma there. I also think
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  that he's a guy that can stick and do so many different things, so
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  I think it's probably best for him that he got to choose which team he
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  went to in a sense. But yeah, the top four guys went as
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  expected, and then it was always like, well, could one of these
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  guys could steal Chambers? Could somebody take a flyer on an athlete? That
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  sort of thing. Josh Proctor had a fantastic senior sixth year senior season.
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  Would that translate? And you know, when you're picking in the seventh round
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  or sometimes you know, maybe that's more potential than anything else. And some
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  guys picked just based on you know what, that guy has been in college
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  for a while and it's a quicker transition to the NFL. But just too
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  many question marks on the guys that didn't get picked, And when you look
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  back some of the previous years where there were not a lot of guys picked.
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  Two thousand and three for Ohio State coming off that national championship team,
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  they only had five guys picked, and then the next year at an enormous
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  draft class. I think it was fourteen the year after that, so one
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  of the one of the biggest draft classes in Ohio State history. So that
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  does tend to be, you know, you've got some younger talent who's not
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  yet draft eligible or chosen not to enter the draft. I feel like this
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  year's Ohio State team going to have some talent on it, But it is
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  it is interesting to me that you see multi year starters not getting drafted,
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  and that's that's you know, I'm not sure what exactly that says. You
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  know, maybe it does feel like that traces back a little bit to recruiting,
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  where you know, you had Steel Chambers as a multi year starter at
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  linebacker, but they had to move him over from running back, and you
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  had you had guys where just it felt like a lot of other guys didn't
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  pan out, and that's how you ended up with, Hey, you've got
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  to shift a guy from linebacker too, from running back to linebacker, and
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  they also had a guy shift from linebacker to running back and hip train him.
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  So they've had they've had some misses in recruiting, but nowhere has that
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  been more true than it's safety. You had a really interesting post on the
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  huddle board at bucke huddle dot com about Ohio State's safety recruiting, and I'm
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  just gonna ask everyone at home just think in your head, who was the
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  last safety drafted from Ohio State. He's gonna give you a couple of seconds
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  to think about that, Tony, let people know who it was. And
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  boy, that feels like it was. That's been a minute since since that
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  player was a buck Eye. It has been a minute. That was Jordan
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  Fuller, who I believe was the twenty twenty draft was the was drafted in
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  the sixth round with the one and ninety ninth pick overall, which is also
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  when Tom Brady was drafted, so they share that in common. But yeah,
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  the last safety drafted before Jordan Fuller was Molli Cooker in the twenty seventeen
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  draft. So seven drafts, one safety selected. And that is probably worth
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  a study in terms of like what positions have done worse at Ohio State than
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  safety because you don't have to go too far back. You can go back
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  to the the twenty twenty season when they're starting Marcus Hooker, Marcus Williamson,
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  Johnson Went is part of that, like some names that should have been recruited
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  over by that point, but they had to rely on Lathan Ransom as a
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  true brashman was playing Bryce and Shaw the year after that and year after that,
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  where it's you've got guys that it's surprising that they were starting at that
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  point for Ohio State and kind of saw the results the past few years in
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  that secondary until they've finally got things short up and certainly have things set up
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  pretty well this year as well, and that you know, I believe Lathan
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  Ransom gets drafted next year, so that will finally you start to blow some
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  of that down. And of course Caleb Downs will get drafted probably the year
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  after that. But really just a poor recruiting, poor development, and some
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  would say, you know, you look at the coaches at that point at
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  that position and you can see why. Now I'm a Michigan and you know
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  there's the old saying that you know joy or you know, results are the
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  sorry, the results minus expectations is like how you're feeling and Michigan's draft,
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  they hit thirteen players drafted, one of the biggest draft classes in history,
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  and it still felt kind of disappointing based on some of the expectations that got
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  thrown out there, where Jim Harbaugh is talking about twenty guys, you know,
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  the things they could have twenty guys drafted this year, and they had
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  eighteen guys invited to the combine and then hit thirteen guys draft and that's a
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  big class. But for those guys were drafted in the seventh rounds, so
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  you have nine now it's nine guys in the top six rounds, and it
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  just it felt like a little bit of a you know, kind of a
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  flat ending with all the guys they had going out there. And you know,
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  we've seen undrafted guys make teams before, and I'm sure some of them
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  will make teams, and so you know, this is not this is by
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  no means trying to disparage Michigan or this draft class or anything like that.
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  It just it felt like for a team that had those kind of expectations thrown
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  out there by their own coach, this was not just some random guy,
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  this was this is their head coach. Saying this is what he was expecting
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  to be possibly true. It just felt like, boy, I didn't hear
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  Michigan players getting called nearly as much as I expected to, especially earlier in
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  the draft. Yeah, the twenty numbers thrown out by Jim Harbaut was almost
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  backed up by the eighteen players invited to the combine. But you never saw
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  that in terms of like, who are these eighteen, who are these twenty
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  players that are going to be drafted? Who are these guys that are going
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  to have five more draft picks than the record of fifteen by Georgia set in
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  twenty twenty two. So I never really saw that, and always assume that
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  a lot of these draft picks were going to be in later rounds. Now,
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  they did have what seven guys taken in the first two days, the
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  first three rounds, which is probably as good as they've done in a very
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  long time just scanning through here, perhaps their best ever in fact, So
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  you know, credit there, But you know a lot of these a lot
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  of the back half of the draft is where they they kind of I don't
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  want to say patted the stats, but you see some of those these veterans
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  that have been around a professional style of program. And that's where it gets
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  into that, like, maybe this is just an easier transition from Michigan to
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  the NFL for some of these guys. Cornelius Johnson been around for a long
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  time. La Darius Henderson been along around for a long time. Michael Barrett
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  another guy who has been around for a long time at Michigan as seventh rounders,
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  and you figured, maybe maybe they just make an easier transition. But
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  yeah, far short of the the eighteen invited to the combine, far short
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  of the twenty number that was thrown out by Jim Harbaugh, but still more
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  than any other school in the nation this past year. So we'll see how
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  they kind of fix and replace those guys they lost. And that's going to
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  be the challenge this year for them because Ohio State has they lost the four
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  guys who were drafted and they got back virtually Oliver upperclassmen Marvin Harrison and Michael
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  Hall were the only two underclassmen to declare for Ohio State and for Michigan,
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  you know, you kind of had the leak, you know, going out
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  on a high note thing. Even after the national championship, virtually everyone who
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  could leave left, and then you also had Rod Moore, who I believe
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  could have left and chose to come back and then suffered a pretty signific get
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  injury, so they're gonna be without him potentially this year as well. It
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  feels like there's a lot of holes to fill on that Michigan roster. And
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  when you look at the recruiting the last couple of years and you look at
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  the you know, not real active in the transfer portal this season, it
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  feels like, yeah, they have done a very good job developing the players
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  that they've had, and that's why you've got thirteen guys getting drafted. But
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  it feels like, boy, there are a lot of questions still on that
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  roster, especially on the offensive side of the ball. Defense feels like they're
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  in pretty decent shape. The Rod more injury is a big one, but
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  it feels like there's a lot of questions on that offensive side of the ball,
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  and I don't know how many answers they really feel like they have coming
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  out of spring. Yeah, and a lot of that development was done by
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  coaches that are no longer at Michigan. So you you Michigan fans and Michigan
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  people can think that well, we'll just continue to develop and there will be
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  that some of that to some extent, But can you expect to continue to
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  develop at the same rate that you have been when the coaching staff is much
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  different than it was and the strength staff is looking different as well. But
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  also some of these guys, you've got some transfers that came in and and
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  we're helpful and we're kind of more finished product, you know, a J.
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  Barner, Ladarius Henderson who helped out as well. Like some of these
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  guys that come in from outside, they don't necessarily need to be developed as
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  much. That helps supplement that, that helps correct the mistakes. And both
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  the Ohio State and Michigan have done that and done it pretty well in terms
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  of going to the portal and finding guys. But I don't know, you
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  know, replacing the entire offensive line with six or your top seven, seven
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  of your top eight something like that. I think, as we mentioned before,
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  it's a good sign that they were able to field two offensive lines in
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  the spring game. That's promising. We'll see what goes from there. But
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  as we know, like the spring game is never going to be your best
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  offensive line because it's kind of a mix and a match thing. They've got
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  some young talented receiver. Question is quarterback, of course, and what do
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  they have behind down of An Edwards? And really what is done of An
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  Edwards when he's If you can't just expect to fifty yard run, you two
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  fifty yard runs and that'll be enough for him. He's got to become more
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  consistent. And can you become more consistent with the questionable offensive line. But
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  I do think he'll be helped by having a quarterback like Alex Orgy who can
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  run and can keep defenses from focusing on the running back. Defensively, I
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  know they feel very confident about their defensive line. They still return some defensive
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  ends who have played a ton for them, and of course you've got the
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  two defensive tackles that everybody loves, and Kenneth Grant and Mason Graham linebackers.
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  They got a good transfer in from Maryland and the transfer that they got the
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  year before from Nebraska should be two of the best in the Big Ten.
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  The secondary is a question mark. They lose a guy to the portal who
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  is battling for a starting cornerback spot, but they might be getting somebody back
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  from the portal battling for a starting cornerback spot. Good luck re placing Rod
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  Moore, that one hurts. And you know, Kean Sab has already gone.
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  So there are some question marks and the lackluster ish kind of recruiting is
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  going to have to fill those spots because it doesn't I don't know how much
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  more is going to be happening in the portal. Honestly, well, we
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  are getting close to the end of the spring transfer portal season. That portal
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  closes on Tuesday night, a couple more days for players to potentially enter.
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  Not as many guys in there, I think, broadly speaking across the nation
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  as you might have expected this time of year. So that does not mean
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  you have to be signed with your new school by Tuesday. Just means if
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  you want to enter, you've got to enter by Tuesday. So we'll have
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  a more complete look at where things stand in the portal coming up in just
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  a couple of days. But before you know, before then, we've got
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  plenty more to talk about it. Bucke huddle dot com. We hope you
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  can join Tony and Kevin and I there, along with Mark and Ross and
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  our whole team of exs knows gurus making you a smarter football fan. We
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  talked about the special we're running on the show last Friday. I'm not going
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  to rehash that whole thing, but we have significantly slashed the price of an
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  annual subscription right now for just like the next couple of weeks. Overthought,
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  I wonder, wonder what it's like, wonder why people find value in that.
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  Well, it's a great time to figure it out and sign up today
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  at bucke Huddle dot com. You want to just try it for a month,
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  see if you like it, and then sign up. You know,
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  then add on that annual subscription. You can do that as well at Buckeye
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  Huddle dot com. Also make sure you check us out at YouTube dot com
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  slash Buckeye Huddle. I'm going to have plenty of stuff to talk about there
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  as well at Ohio State, about Michigan, about all sorts of interesting and
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  exciting stuff happening in twenty twenty four year when everything is changing all at once
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  about college football. Should be a fascinating season. We hope to see you
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  there. That'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,