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The 5 Most Interesting Games On The Buckeyes' 2024 Schedule · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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Welcome to Buckeyes Tomorrow morning for Thursday, June thirteenth. I'm your host,
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Tom Moore. The Akron game in seventy nine days, the game against Michigan
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in one hundred and seventy days. We're counting down the days to that Michigan
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game. Of course, coming down to the game days of the Akron game
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two. There are a lot of anticipated games, interesting games on this year's
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Ohio State football schedule. It's an interesting one because it's not the most dangerous
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schedule Ohio State has ever played, but there are a lot of really really
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interesting games. It is not all Akron in Western Michigan on this year's schedule.
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So today we're going to be talking about some of the most interesting games
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on that schedule. We're doing that with our buddy kevinnut if Buckehuddle dot Com
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and Kevin Yeah. We'll get to Oregon and it's going to be potentially two
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versus three, one versus two. It might be one of the biggest games
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of the regular season. This is an Ohio State show. We have all
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watched the last three seasons of Ohio State football. We know the game that
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is the one that everyone is gonna be focused on. It is the one
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we talk about at the start of the show every single for years and years
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and years, Kevin, we got to talk about the Michigan game. It
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feels like that's going to be the one with the most interest on this year's
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Ohio State schedule by a wide margin, at least among Buckeye fans. It
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really is. And I think one of the big questions is going to be
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what is Michigan going to be this year? Because I think the Vegas line
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is nine nine and a half wins for Michigan, which means you think Ohio
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State's potentially going to win the game. Are they going to be nine to
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two going into that game? Are they going to be ten and one?
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I mean, are they going to be less? We just don't know.
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But what we do know, Ohio State has dropped three in a row to
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them. Ohio State has been kept out of the Big Ten championship game.
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Ohio State has not hoisted a Big Ten Championship trophy in quite some time,
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and Ohio State fans are just getting kind of playing the time, playing second,
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tired of the outcome of these games, especially coming off of the Urban
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Meyer era and coming up off of the Jim Tressel era and just having so
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much success for twenty years, and it all kind of took a hard left
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turn and Jim Harbaugh's gone. But I think there's going to be plenty of
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animosity from Ohio State fans towards Sharon Moore and aren't there. People aren't going
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to be less interested in it because it isn't Jim Harbaugh. People are not
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going to be less interested in it because there's no Jj McCarthy or whoever.
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They're going to be plenty of people from that cast of characters that Ohio State
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fans have no love for. And if the Buckeyes are going to be as
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special as people think that they're going to be this year, not only does
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this game have to be a win for Ohio State, but probably a convincing
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one in that matter. And it doesn't hurt that it is in Columbus and
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not up twenty three in that unnamable state. Yeah, no need to stop
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by the truck stop in North Baltimore with the famous Ohio State Michigan bathroom hallway.
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You will get to You'll get to watch the Ohio State Michigan game at
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home this year in Columbus. Yeah, that that I know, it's not
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the biggest necessarily in terms of national profile in some ways in terms of what
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the on field matchup might be, but that just feels like that is going
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to be the game that just defines this Ohio State regular season one way or
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the other. If they lose to Oregon in October, yeah, there'll be
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terably people upset. They will probably get a second crack at Oregon in Indianapolis
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and could potentially get a third crack at Oregon in the College Football Playoff.
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It feels like you might get one swing at Michigan and you better you better
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connect if you're going to if you're going to do that. So Michigan number
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one on the list, Okay, we've made you wait long enough. Number
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two Oregon it is. You know, if you look at some of the
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some of the early preseason rankings, these are number two and number three in
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the country, certainly both top five teams this year. Michigan projected to take
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a little bit of a step back just in terms of pure rankings. The
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Ohio State Oregon game might be the highest ranked matchup of the season, and
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if Georgia loses an early one, and they've got a couple losable games on
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their schedule before this one would happen. Ohio State certainly should be undefeated going
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into Eugene and Oregon. Schedule going into that game is Idaho, Boise State,
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at Oregon State, at UCLA, and Michigan State. There's not a
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real obvious loss there. It feels, Kevin like this has been a game
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I think you and I and Tony have been looking forward to for a number
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of years. We were thinking we were going to get to go out there
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in twenty twenty, and then that game got canceled. That's a place I've
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been looking forward to seeing a game for a number of years. And oh,
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by the way, it might be the biggest regular season game of all
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this college football nationwide this year. And we'll have a better idea of who
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Ohio State is, what Ohio State is for that game, because this game
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isn't until mid October. I think it's October twelve, week seven, So
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we'll we'll seen Ohio State maybe go through some of its growing pain in terms
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of new quarterback, still trying to see what we think about the offensive line,
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et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But I think when you
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go from one to twenty two, this is the game that is a lot
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more talent equated than any other game on Ohio State schedule. These teams are
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very very similar in a lot of ways. Oregon goes out has to go
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back to the transfer portal to get a quarterback as well, because bo Nix
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is out of his after seventeen years of eligibility, no longer has any eligibility
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left. The game is going to be an outstand which I think if you're
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a big fan of college football, you understand how hostile and noisy that place
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is. I think if you're maybe a more casual fan, it's like it's
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not the biggest stadium, but apparently and this is the last stadium in the
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Big Ten for me, the new eighteen team Big Ten that I've not seen
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a game. Man, I've seen one in the all seventeen other ones.
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But supposedly everything is just really close together and high and there's just no way
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for the noise to escape. So this is going to be a real test
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for Ohio State, a real road environment. And again that's I'm not trying
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to detegrate anybody else, but you know, this one comes in and kind
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of fits with what you're going to get at. You know, a school
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that we've already talked about, a school that I'm sure we're going to be
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talking about here in a second. This is going to have all of the
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hype everything in there. And you know, this is the type of game
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that Ohio State normally doesn't lose under Ryan Day. I mean, then again,
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I had that same saying going into the Cotton Bowl and they lost to
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Missouri, but of course there were extenuating circumstances there. But this is going
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to be a huge game on a day filled with huge games. October twelfth
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is going to be college football nirvana for a lot of people. And I'm
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just hopeful that whatever the schedule, gods have allow us time to be able
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to at least see a little bit. Or maybe I'll have to figure out
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how to take a DVR with me to Oregon so we can watch some of
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this stuff. Because as it's a date that I have circled, and as
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an old curmudgeon who doesn't get excited by a lot, I am excited about
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this day of football. Yeah, it's a big day, it's a big
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week. It is a huge trip. It's an enormous game. Yeah,
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I'm really looking forward to just about everything about that week and that game.
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And we have kind of tried to do the you know, squinter eyes and
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do the schedule math and as near as I can figure, I think NBC
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traded with Fox and so that would make put the Ohio State Oregon game in
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primetime. It would be a seven thirty Pacific, seven thirty Eastern, four
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thirty Pacific kickoff. That is not anything final. That's just Tony and I
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spending a lot of time thinking about TV schedules and doing shows about TV schedules
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and incorporating some new information. So you might get a chance to at least
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watch the noon games on that day, or we might just be at the
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stadium six hours before the game. That's been known to happen on big game
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days as well. We'll be there one way or the other. I mean,
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will be in the car at best. Yeah, yeah, we make
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it to listen listen to some noon games on the radio in the car on
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the way to the stadium. How about that. But either way, that's
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that game. Next up Penn State And this is another one where you know,
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this is one we haven't been to Oregon. Kevin and I have been
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to a whole bunch of games at Penn State, and some of them have
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been primetime white out, some of them have been noon. There was the
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twenty twenty game where there was no one there it was, but pretty much
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all every time Ohio State plays at Penn State, you're at some point in
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the fourth quarter and it's like, hey, it's a one score game.
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Again, How is it always a one score game when Ohio State plays at
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Penn State. This year is a year when you look at Penn State schedule
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at West Virginia, Bowling Green Kentucky, Kent State, Illinois, UCLA,
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at USC at Wisconsin, there's not an obvious loss there. This could be
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potentially a matchup of unbeatens right around Halloween in Happy Valley, and we will
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do our TV creskin thing as well. I'm going to say big noon kickoff
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for this one, based again on some of the rumblings on game times and
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TV network swapping weeks and all that kind of stuff. Again, that will
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not necessarily be known until much closer because that's the week of the Oregon Michigan
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game. So I don't know that anyone has officially made their decision yet,
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but that would be my guess right now. But either way, Kevin,
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every time you and Tony and I load up the car and drive to load
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up the family truckster drive this Happy Valley, it is pretty much always just
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a great four quarter game. It is and being I mean, they've played
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there before around Halloween, and I think that it was a day game that
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last time as well. And Penn State fans where I rate, But don't
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forget Fox has the MLB contract for the postseason, and that just creates a
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lot of confusion and everything else, so you don run the possibility of it
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being put in Fox's premiere slot, which is a twelve pm Eastern slot.
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And I think if you're an Ohio State fan, you're not shedding any tears.
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We're going to learn a lot about quarterback Drew Alar, what he's capable
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of doing for Penn State. Last year not so much. I know he
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didn't throw a lot of picks, But you can sit there and have a
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quarterback who doesn't throw a lot of picks if you don't necessarily trust him and
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don't give him a lot of things over the middle or between the numbers,
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So what do they look like. Julian Fleming goes there, looks like he's
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going to be their number one receiver due to KeAndre Lambert Smith going into the
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portal some other moves. They may have some young guys. I mean,
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obviously they've got the one two punted running back with Nick Singleton and Kitron Allen.
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Defensively, you have Abdual Carter the linebacker. My way to early look
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at this is this really shouldn't be a one score game in terms of Ohio
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State coming out on top. This should probably be a larger score. But
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you're right. Every time we sit there, we looked at this game in
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Happy Valley. It's way too close for way too long, and it's you
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know, I'm hard pressed to think about a lot of times that Ohio State's
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been able to just come in and put its foot on the neck of Penn
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State. Ands like submit. So a lot of excitement. We're getting to
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the point of where the first college football playoff rankings will come out. That's
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generally like the first Tuesday of November, if I recall correctly, all bets
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are off these days now with the twelve team playoff, which is short term
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for the twelve team playoff before we get to the fourteen team playoff, but
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a lot of excitement for that one would I would say that, you know,
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in most years, that might be the most exciting game not named Michigan,
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but throw that organ trip in there. And for a schedule that isn't
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necessarily going to be in the top fifteen nationally in strength of schedule, the
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three games on the top of the schedule are pretty damn exciting. Yeah,
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I think you could look at those three games that we just talked about and
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conceivably have any or all of those three teams in the College Football Playoff,
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potentially in addition to Ohio State the Big Ten. You know, you see
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a lot of the projections a Big Ten getting three, maybe four teams in
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the College Football Playoff this year. It's entirely possible that those three teams plus
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Ohio State are the three or four teams in that College Football Playoff this year.
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So, yeah, you're playing some really high caliber competition and you have
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a little bit more margin for error, so maybe you can enjoy it a
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little more where one loss doesn't necessarily completely ruin your season, but you're going
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to have some very high stakes football games there as well. The next one
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on my list, number four. This is all about where and not who,
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because Northwestern Northwestern's fine whatever. The Ohio State has lost once to Northwestern
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since nineteen seventy one, and that happened in a uniquely bad year for Ohio
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football two thousand and four, and it took overtime in a pretty good Northwestern
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team that year to do it. They're playing at Northwestern, but unlike most
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of the previous games where they've played at Northwestern, they're not playing at Ryan
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Field. They are playing at Wrigley Field. The matchup on this one,
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Kevin, is pretty much irrelevant to me. The location on this one,
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I am. I've been Wriggly for baseball games a few times before, so
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it's not brand new to me. But I am really looking forward to being
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there and seeing football up close in person in one of the great sporting venues
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in America. Let's be honest, Ohio State's never going to play in the
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Finnway Bowl. Ohio State's never going to play in the Gotham Bowl. Is
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that the one that they play at Yankee Stadium. So you know, smoke
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them if you got them. This is not going to be a regular occurrence.
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I don't know what the timeline is on the rebuild of Ryan Field.
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We know that they do a good job when they do build a new facility
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there. If you look at their football facility that's right on the water,
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there's no way that they would have put this game at their temporary soccer stadium
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home or whatever they're doing for most of these other games. All sorts of
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interesting site lines. This is going to be a hot ticket because Ohio State
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alumni there are a lot of them around the Chicagoland area. Plus I think
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a lot of fans are going to have the same view of Tom and myself
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of we may never get to see this type of matchup again in terms of
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the location, So we better jump on it, get these tickets and see
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what's there. As for what Northwestern is going to be, nobody expected anything
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out of David Brown's team. Last year. He goes on and wins Big
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Ten Coach of the Year, They win, you know, they go to
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a bowl, and I believe they won their bowl if I recall correctly.
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That's how little I think about Northwestern these days. But I think that just
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nobody's going to have a home field advantage in terms of knowing what to expect
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playing at Wrigley, and I think that it's going to be like an Ohio
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State game at Northwestern, even at Ryan Field, where they're probably going to
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be more Ohio State fans there than Northwestern fans. But I'm looking forward to
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it as long as I don't have to like sit in like an auxiliary press
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box, like on the field, or like something terrible. Just let me
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do my job the way that I know how to poorly. Yeah, we'll
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see where the media gets put. I'm going to guess pretty much all the
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seats are going to be full, so I don't know how many auxiliary press
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boxes they're going to be putting in there. You might be in the old
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in the regular baseball press box. Maybe they'll let you're sitting the seventh inning
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stretch between the third and the fourth quarters. That'd be fun. I may
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have to sit in the scoreboard, who the hell knows, that'd be fun.
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Maybe get you on one of the rooftops across the street wherever, wherever
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you are. If you're there in person, you're doing all right. Just
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a couple of housekeeping notes there. I will beat Kevin's Kevins editor here.
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Northwestern did win their ripol game last year. They beat Utah fourteen to seven
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in the Las Vegas Bowl. I'm sure you all knew that off the top
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of your head. I know that I did, and definitely didn't have to
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look it up at Northwestern's new stadium expected to open for the twenty twenty six
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seasons. So yes, this would very likely be Ohio State's only trip to
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Wrigley Field during the interim period for Northwesterns non football stadium season. So all
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right, those two notes. Now on another school where another school with an
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N on their helmets, and that's Nebraska. This is the fifth and final
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game we're gonna be talking about today. And Nebraska has for years and years
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and years essentially since Frank Souliz got fired, been kind of somewhere between okay
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and pretty good. But you know, Bo Polini Day is September fourth,
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because they were always nine to four and then now they haven't made a bowl
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game since what twenty seventeen I think, and they can't they can't win close
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games. Eventually they are going to get over the hump. I'm going to
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say this is the year that they at least get back to Bowl eligibility.
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And when you look at their schedule in advance of the Ohio State game,
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I don't think Northwestern. I don't think Nebraska is going to give Ohio State,
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you know, a fantastic game this year by any means. But they
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might come in with a real shiny record, and that might be a game
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that is a number one or number two Ohio State versus a number ten,
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number twelve kind of Nebraska. Maybe here's what they have coming into that game.
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You tep at home, College Rotto at home, Northern Iowa at home,
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Illinois at home at Purdue home for Rutgers. That's it. I mean,
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I don't I don't see an obvious loss on that schedule. The only
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road game is at Purdue. The best home game is probably Illinois. Unless
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you're a real big Don believer and you know Kevin. This is a team
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that I know, Tony and I always talk about Northwestern being our favorite road
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trip. It's a fan base you you really have to like. It's it's
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a stadium that you like. It's a program that you really kind of have
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to respect. There's a great history there, Like i'd like to see Nebraska
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get better. It feels like this might be the year that Nebraska really does
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get better, and the Ohio s date Nebraska game feels like, oh,
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that's a that's a pretty big football game. For years, I have been
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tricked by the banana in the tailpipe routine, and I picked Nebraska to do
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really well and only for them to let me down. Last year I didn't
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and unfortunately I didn't put any money on it because I you know, that
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would have been nice to be able to buy some souvenirs at Wrigley. But
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this will be the day Riola game largely one time commit to Ohio State,
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one time commit to Georgia ends up flipping late to Nebraska. There are a
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lot of indications that he may be the guy as a true freshman. Here
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you go, Son, We're gonna just put you out there. Even though
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I did see a report that they had an Naia passer who threw for like
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six thousand yards or something. So does that mean that things are not necessarily
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working with Rayola or they tried to have, you know, as Matt Rule
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looking for some backup. I don't know on there. I think really the
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biggest issue for Nebraska is that they've had nothing remarkable with its defense, nothing
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remarkable there. They were the home of the black Shirts. I've called them
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the black Shirts here lately because they've just been so mid. I do agree
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that they could come in to Ohio Stadium undefeated but also largely untested, because
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I'm not necessarily buying a complete rebuild again under Dion. I think that that
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game at Purdue may be the most terrifying thing there, just because strange things
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happen, but normally that happens against better teams than Nebraska. But then again,
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Nebraska could have a fifteen next to its name at that point, and
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you just you don't know. But I'll be very interested to see what happens
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there, what the progression is under Matt Ruhle, who I think is a
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good coach but has probably been in some bad situations and is realizing that the
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rebuild isn't coming together as quickly as he hoped. But I think if you
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pull one hundred Ohio State football fans, like real Ohio State football fans,
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not just people who kind of show up, at least eighty five of them
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are going to say, oh, yeah, I can't wait to see what
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this Roola Guy's all about. Yeah, that's certainly one of the really interesting
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storylines. You mentioned the Julian Fleming storyline for the Penn State game. We
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didn't even talk about Chip Kelly going back to Oregon as an interesting storyline for
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that game. I mean, you talk about how many interesting things there are
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to talk about with the game. Former head coach of Oregon has been there
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with UCLA in recent years, but former head coach of Oregon going back there
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as the offensive coordinator in a top five potential matchup, Boy, that's going
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to be an interesting story. And as far as ross Aids Stadium being haunted,
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as you were sort of hinting at there, the week after Ohio State
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plays at Eugene, Oregon has to fly cross country on a Friday night and
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play at ross Aids Stadium Friday night after what could be the biggest win of
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the season if they beat Ohio State. I'm sure it's going to go fine.
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There's nothing to worry about at all. Welcome to the Big Ten,
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Oregon at it now. Welcome to the Big Ten. So we will be
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there for all of those games this year and the whole and the rest of
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them as well. I cannot wait. This is going to be such a
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great football season. You could. It's a big football season all across the
20:45
country. It is an enormous football season in Columbus, Ohio. You can
20:49
already tell people are already talking about it, and they're talking about it as
20:52
well at Buckeye Huddle dot Com. That's where Tony, Kevin and I cover
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the team, Mark covers recruiting. Got our whole team of ex's and o's
20:59
gurus, thanking you a smarter football fan. There's plenty going on right now.
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Tony, Kevin, Mark and I will all be out at Ohio State
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on Thursday covering another big camp. There were some enormous names there. On
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Tuesday, Mark and I did a show talking about some of those guys.
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Another big day coming up on Thursday. We'll have a full coverage for you
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That will do for today. Thank you guys for joining us. Have
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a great day. We'll talk to you tomorrow.