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BONUS: What Changes Are In Store For The 2026 Ohio State Football Team? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

0:00
Speaker 1: Welcome to Buckeyes Tomorrow morning for Saturday, March twenty, first
0:03
Speaker 1: time your host Tom Moore, the ball State game in
0:05
Speaker 1: one hundred and sixty eight days, the game against Michigan
0:08
Speaker 1: in two hundred and fifty two days. Our friends at
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Speaker 1: Grateful griddele Columbus's favorite food truck. They are now on uber, et,
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Speaker 1: scrub Hub, and or Dash. You search for Grateful Griddle
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Speaker 1: there or check out Grateful Griddle oh dot com for
0:20
Speaker 1: more on today's episode. You're getting a little bit of
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Speaker 1: a bonus show. This is from the Buckeye Huddle primetime show.
0:28
Speaker 1: It's a live show that Juck does every Monday and
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Speaker 1: Thursday night on our YouTube channel YouTube dot com slash
0:35
Speaker 1: Bucke Huddle. If you like this show, you may want
0:38
Speaker 1: to check one of those out. You can also find
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Speaker 1: his episodes in the Buckeye Huddle Primetime podcast feed. This week,
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Speaker 1: he took a look at some of the changes it
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Speaker 1: could be on the way this season for the Ohio
0:50
Speaker 1: State football program, as well as what the Buckeyes basketball
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Speaker 1: season says about the program and head coach Jake Diebler,
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Speaker 1: and much more.
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Speaker 2: Comes to this game. They don't get to find that
1:00
Speaker 2: outside the family who we're cut from a different cloth.
1:02
Speaker 2: Bro Hiowans. He's got it all, man, He's even got
1:04
Speaker 2: the jaw. You know the jaw. You see that jaw
1:07
Speaker 2: and you're just like, yeah, man, that's a that's a dude.
1:10
Speaker 2: Do I want Michigan to beat Oklahoma? No way in hell.
1:13
Speaker 2: I don't know what world I'm living in. This is
1:15
Speaker 2: insane to me. And if you saw my outburst, I apologize.
1:18
Speaker 2: It's showtime now and welcome in the Bucky Huddle Prime Time.
1:25
Speaker 2: Appreciate you so much for joining me on a Thursday evening.
1:29
Speaker 2: As we are here every Monday and Thursday at eight
1:31
Speaker 2: pm except next week. Next week we will not be
1:35
Speaker 2: I'm getting drug down to down to Florida on a
1:38
Speaker 2: family vacation next week and I would go live. I
1:41
Speaker 2: bring all my equipment. I'll be recording the episodes, but
1:45
Speaker 2: I just don't have the internet down there where we
1:47
Speaker 2: go to support the live stream, unfortunately. But I do
1:50
Speaker 2: appreciate you joining tonight as we start the show and
1:55
Speaker 2: welcome in to the folks in the chat. Start the
1:59
Speaker 2: show with with the tournament. The NCAA Tournament starts today.
2:03
Speaker 2: Kind of a holiday for a lot of folks, a
2:06
Speaker 2: lot of people take off work. Did you take off work?
2:08
Speaker 2: Buckeyes were playing at noon, and I was going to
2:12
Speaker 2: do a live stream for it, got tied up. Didn't
2:15
Speaker 2: do my live stream until later on, probably about I
2:19
Speaker 2: don't know, ten minutes left. I kind of popped on
2:23
Speaker 2: And it's good. It's a good thing because the game
2:26
Speaker 2: started off rough. Start off with the Buckeyes all time
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Speaker 2: leading scorer Bruce Thorton making the first three pointer of
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Speaker 2: the tournament, so that was cool, and then Ohio State
2:36
Speaker 2: missed their next seven shots and things started going awry.
2:41
Speaker 2: TCU was pretty excellent in the first half, and the
2:43
Speaker 2: Buckeyes did not score until roughly four minutes left in
2:46
Speaker 2: the first half, or I'm sorry, they didn't score the
2:48
Speaker 2: final four minutes of the first half, which was pretty
2:51
Speaker 2: rough to watch as they I don't know, they got
2:54
Speaker 2: down by like fifteen or something. At halftime. TCU was
2:57
Speaker 2: just on fire, stifling offensively, and things were not looking good.
3:02
Speaker 2: Looked like it might end up being a blowback. And
3:04
Speaker 2: then in the second half the Bucks come raging back.
3:08
Speaker 2: They hit that I mean, they're on fire, and they
3:12
Speaker 2: get up to like a five point lead late in
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Speaker 2: the game, TCU makes a little run, they take the
3:18
Speaker 2: lead back and then with fifty six seconds the Bucks
3:23
Speaker 2: got the ball. They're down by three and Mobley's dribbling
3:27
Speaker 2: up the top of the key forty seconds left and
3:30
Speaker 2: you can tell he wants to pull up and hit
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Speaker 2: the three, but he can't get it off. He passes
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Speaker 2: it over to Bruce, and with thirty three seconds Bruce
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Speaker 2: nails a three. He wants that shot to Bruce, he
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Speaker 2: launches it. MA Git man Git, Holy crap, that was deep.
3:46
Speaker 2: Oh my god, that was sweet. As you can see,
3:51
Speaker 2: I was pretty excited. I do love streaming these games.
3:55
Speaker 2: Like you know, we talk about where we were for
3:58
Speaker 2: memorable moments. I've got a couple of memorable, memorable memorable
4:03
Speaker 2: moments on video as I was live streaming during the
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Speaker 2: playoffs in twenty twenty five. So I got myself the
4:11
Speaker 2: Jack Sawyer scoop and score and in the Jeremiah third
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Speaker 2: and Jeremiah and I was just looking for him and
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Speaker 2: I still got him saved. So it's just kind of
4:21
Speaker 2: cool to be able to document. I can see my
4:23
Speaker 2: own reaction when that play happened, as we you know,
4:26
Speaker 2: we talk about those things, but it was fun. I
4:29
Speaker 2: got a decent reaction out of it, and boy, that
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Speaker 2: shot would have been huge, something really positive, exciting to
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Speaker 2: talk about moving on into the second round. But the
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Speaker 2: Buckeyes did not make it to the second round. As
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Speaker 2: TCU got the ball back, took it down, they scored,
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Speaker 2: and with four point three seconds left, you got a
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Speaker 2: couple of options. Buck guy's down by two four point three.
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Speaker 2: Your options are with one time out left, you can
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Speaker 2: inbound the ball, hurry up and get across half court
5:02
Speaker 2: and call a timeout and then set up an inbound
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Speaker 2: play for pass it in and shoot. Or you can
5:08
Speaker 2: take your final time out immediately. With that four point
5:11
Speaker 2: three seconds, you'll be inbounding full court now, and ideally,
5:17
Speaker 2: if you are going to do that, you want to
5:19
Speaker 2: kind of inbound it a little further down the court.
5:22
Speaker 2: And that's when Ohio State chose to take their time out.
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Speaker 2: So they're inbounding full court and Bruce is inbounding the
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Speaker 2: ball and he inbounds it three feet in front of him.
5:34
Speaker 2: That's what they drew up, and then it goes back
5:36
Speaker 2: to him and now he must dribble up the floor
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Speaker 2: as far as he can. He gets to half court,
5:43
Speaker 2: Chucks it up from half court now with four point
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Speaker 2: three seconds. If your best shot is a half court chuck,
5:51
Speaker 2: you've kind of failed. You kind of failed here, and
5:54
Speaker 2: this was a big time failed final possession and really
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Speaker 2: the worst possible outcome for a lot of us here
6:01
Speaker 2: because it kind of confirms if you're on the fence
6:03
Speaker 2: on Ohio State basketball. This confirms to people on one
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Speaker 2: side or the other exactly what they believed. If you
6:10
Speaker 2: are someone who wants Jake Diebler fired, you got your
6:13
Speaker 2: confirmation on this one, buddy. If you're someone who supports
6:16
Speaker 2: Jake Diebler, hey, they made the tournament that said what
6:19
Speaker 2: everybody wanted. There's nobody who's going to have their mind
6:25
Speaker 2: changed on him through this. But I'm not dwelling on
6:27
Speaker 2: it as a season. I don't even follow the basketball
6:30
Speaker 2: team that closely. I love the tournament and I want
6:33
Speaker 2: to be in the tournament fifty percent of the time.
6:35
Speaker 2: I'll be happy. Had they advanced, they were going to
6:37
Speaker 2: play the number one seed Duke. Anyway, It's not like
6:40
Speaker 2: they were going any further, but it would have been
6:42
Speaker 2: a really damn cool win. But I do got to
6:45
Speaker 2: recognize it for what it was. I mean, this was
6:47
Speaker 2: a big time coaching fail and it makes me a
6:50
Speaker 2: little more irritated when I heard Diebler's description of what
6:53
Speaker 2: was going through his mind as he drew up the
6:55
Speaker 2: plan at the end of the game, and he was
6:59
Speaker 2: talking about it, and he said, we wanted to get
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Speaker 2: Bruce the ball on the run and give him some options.
7:04
Speaker 2: So he's on the run, he's got two outlets down
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Speaker 2: the floor to throw ahead to and he said, I
7:10
Speaker 2: thought TCU did a good job corralling the ball and
7:13
Speaker 2: maybe limited his ability to get the ball down the floor,
7:16
Speaker 2: but we were trying to get him on the run
7:18
Speaker 2: and give him the freedom to make a decision. That
7:20
Speaker 2: all sounds great. Then Deebler said, we had a couple
7:23
Speaker 2: of outlets down the floor. If he could get it
7:26
Speaker 2: to them, and he couldn't really see because he was
7:29
Speaker 2: looking at Bruce. If those guys were open, and he said,
7:32
Speaker 2: then he could maybe get it to half court and
7:34
Speaker 2: you have the option of taking a time out. The
7:37
Speaker 2: problem is there were no timeouts, so OHIOSTK doesn't have
7:41
Speaker 2: a timeout, and you got the head coach drawing up
7:43
Speaker 2: a play and one of the options he's given his
7:45
Speaker 2: guys is to take a time out. Across half court,
7:48
Speaker 2: so then they'd have an inbounds play at half court
7:50
Speaker 2: and you have no timeouts. That sounds incompetent from the
7:56
Speaker 2: head coach when you need it most, in the most
7:58
Speaker 2: critical moment of the game. And I gotta say it
8:03
Speaker 2: jives with everything I've heard from people who do follow
8:05
Speaker 2: the basketball team year round about Diebler as a head coach.
8:10
Speaker 2: You know, when you watch this unfold and you think, back, listen, guys,
8:14
Speaker 2: I respect my buddy Dave Biddle over at buck Nutts.
8:18
Speaker 2: This is something I've heard him say a couple of
8:19
Speaker 2: times this year is Diebler is a guy who I
8:24
Speaker 2: oftentimes walk away from a game and think the coach
8:27
Speaker 2: on the other sideline out coached him. But I never
8:31
Speaker 2: come away thinking Diebler out coached that other guy. So
8:36
Speaker 2: you know, the supporters of not the detractors, were doing
8:42
Speaker 2: a victory lap at the end of this one. As
8:44
Speaker 2: there have been a lot of complaints about the hire
8:46
Speaker 2: at Diebler from the beginning. It was a feel good
8:49
Speaker 2: higher at the time, some called it a lazy higher,
8:52
Speaker 2: and you can't get around the fact that he was
8:54
Speaker 2: the member of the coaching staff that had just gotten fired.
8:58
Speaker 2: It took over as an interim coach, and we see
9:00
Speaker 2: often remember Penn State football this year when Terry Moore
9:04
Speaker 2: took over from James Franklin. Team starts doing good, and
9:07
Speaker 2: when that happens, you see the players rally around the
9:10
Speaker 2: interim coach. We've seen it one hundred times. I don't
9:13
Speaker 2: know what the dynamic is that makes that happen so often.
9:16
Speaker 2: Interim coach comes in, people rally around him, and I
9:19
Speaker 2: don't know why it's like that, but it just seems
9:22
Speaker 2: to happen so often. And Penn State resisted the urge
9:27
Speaker 2: to make that higher. Ohio State didn't. And in situations
9:30
Speaker 2: like that, I always ask myself one thing, what kind
9:33
Speaker 2: of job would this interim guy get on the open market?
9:37
Speaker 2: And if the job that he would command on the
9:39
Speaker 2: open market is nowhere near this particular job that he
9:42
Speaker 2: would get, then I'm not touching him with a ten
9:45
Speaker 2: foot pull. You talk about Penn State with Terry Moore,
9:49
Speaker 2: talk about Michigan with Searon Moore. With Sharon Moore, that
9:53
Speaker 2: guy was a MAC level head coach. If he just
9:56
Speaker 2: said to his agent when Harball left, I want to
9:59
Speaker 2: go enter the coach coaching market. I want a head
10:01
Speaker 2: coaching job. He would have gotten Mac Interest, maybe some
10:04
Speaker 2: crappier Big twelve schools potentially that's it. And he got
10:08
Speaker 2: the Michigan job. And it's those type of deals where
10:12
Speaker 2: it's like, man, when it's the chasm is that wide,
10:15
Speaker 2: you are really really taking a risk. I have no
10:18
Speaker 2: idea because I don't follow basketball what kind of job
10:21
Speaker 2: Jake Diebler would have got on the open market when
10:24
Speaker 2: he was hired by Ohio State, But based on you
10:27
Speaker 2: know what I think, I don't think it would have
10:29
Speaker 2: been anywhere near close to a Big ten job. So
10:33
Speaker 2: that's where we're at. The buck guys do make the tournament.
10:37
Speaker 2: They exit in lousy fashion at the end of the game,
10:40
Speaker 2: but they did great fighting back, which shows a lot
10:43
Speaker 2: of teamwork and shows basically what he said at the end,
10:47
Speaker 2: you know, the family values and the grit and toughness
10:49
Speaker 2: that were built on that's all there, and that's great
10:52
Speaker 2: and we all love that as buck Eys love to
10:54
Speaker 2: see it. But at the same time, you're the guy
10:58
Speaker 2: that gave him the plan thinking they had a time
11:00
Speaker 2: out and they didn't, and it just it was pretty
11:03
Speaker 2: miserable at the end there. So you know, I don't know, guys,
11:07
Speaker 2: what do you think? Man, it's tough to know how
11:09
Speaker 2: to feel about this. Well, ultimately, a good season, a
11:11
Speaker 2: good season, a bad ending, a bad ending. So we
11:17
Speaker 2: now watch the rest of the tournament without the buck eyes.
11:20
Speaker 2: It would have been really cool to watch them take
11:21
Speaker 2: on Duke and if nothing else, we'll always have that
11:25
Speaker 2: shot by Bruce whose career ends, and it could have
11:29
Speaker 2: just been ending with a legendary game with a legendary shot.
11:33
Speaker 2: Moving on and then getting a chance to take on
11:35
Speaker 2: Duke of all teams would have been so cool. No,
11:39
Speaker 2: it's TCU, It's TCU. So anyway, if we all could, please,
11:46
Speaker 2: let's like and subscribe to the show. If you haven't
11:49
Speaker 2: subscribed yet, the Buckeye Huddle just helps you find the
11:52
Speaker 2: stuff that we do easy, and it helps you find
11:55
Speaker 2: other shows that you might like. Pardon this extra camera here.
12:00
Speaker 2: I've got like six extra cameras. I've gone through so
12:03
Speaker 2: many of them you'd be amazed at how the picture
12:07
Speaker 2: looks so different from webcam to webcam, and most of
12:11
Speaker 2: them suck. Ethan says, wait till Dusty May wins a
12:15
Speaker 2: Natty at Michigan. That's gonna sting, and that is gonna sting. Obviously,
12:19
Speaker 2: Dusty May was a guy that Ohio Steak could have
12:21
Speaker 2: really gone hard after. From the sounds of it, they
12:24
Speaker 2: did not humas Hero says, Bruce wanted Jake. Bruce is
12:30
Speaker 2: gone now might mean Jake is too, but I doubt it.
12:34
Speaker 2: Mobley Royal by them all said they have to look
12:37
Speaker 2: at their options. They said that like that. All after
12:40
Speaker 2: the game. They've all said this, like they were asked
12:42
Speaker 2: and all said this, that's an ouch if bind them
12:47
Speaker 2: and Mobley leve I'm done watching college basketball. Yikes. All right,
12:52
Speaker 2: so it doesn't sound good, but hey, at least he's
12:54
Speaker 2: got a five star coming in, right, got a five star,
12:57
Speaker 2: which I've heard a lot of people say they want
12:59
Speaker 2: to keep him around because the five stars coming in. Yeah.
13:03
Speaker 2: I don't know, guys. Anyway, Let's get to some football.
13:06
Speaker 2: Get to u some football where things are always more fun.
13:10
Speaker 2: When we talk about ranking coaches, ranking head coaches, where
13:15
Speaker 2: did you put Ryan Day? Where do you put him now?
13:18
Speaker 2: In an honest ranking if you're doing a top twenty
13:20
Speaker 2: five coaches list, And keep it in mind that these
13:24
Speaker 2: lists not just strictly what you've achieved at the highest level.
13:28
Speaker 2: It's not ranking the resume because every coach and every
13:32
Speaker 2: program is capable of different things based on what his
13:34
Speaker 2: program's capable of. Kyle Whittingham, for instance, has been on
13:39
Speaker 2: anybody anybody who does these things. He's been in their
13:41
Speaker 2: top ten for years and years and years, but he
13:44
Speaker 2: was never going to win a national championship at Utah.
13:48
Speaker 2: But coming into last year, I was pretty adamant, coming
13:52
Speaker 2: off of Ryan Day's national championship that he was going
13:57
Speaker 2: to pass Kirby Smart by the end of the twenty
13:59
Speaker 2: twenty sixth season twenty twenty five season and take over
14:04
Speaker 2: that number one spot and be kind of universally recognized
14:07
Speaker 2: as the number one coach in college football. And I was.
14:12
Speaker 2: I was really stoked for it. I thought all he
14:14
Speaker 2: really had to do with that team was make it
14:18
Speaker 2: to the national championship game or at least win a
14:20
Speaker 2: playoff game, and Kirby not win a playoff game and
14:24
Speaker 2: they would have taken it over. And based on twenty
14:29
Speaker 2: twenty five, I feel Kirby did a better coaching job
14:32
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty five than Day, So for me, that
14:35
Speaker 2: argument out the window. But really it doesn't even matter
14:37
Speaker 2: anymore because along came Kurt Signetti, and he's making the
14:41
Speaker 2: Kirby Ryan Day argument an argument for second or third
14:45
Speaker 2: instead of first and second. But one thing I always
14:48
Speaker 2: have loved about Ryan Day, despite twenty twenty five being
14:53
Speaker 2: what I thought was one of his poor seasons in
14:57
Speaker 2: his seven years as the head coach at Ohio State,
15:00
Speaker 2: is his adaptations. Like he's sometimes really quick to make
15:05
Speaker 2: an adaptation, sometimes a little slower. Sometimes we may not
15:09
Speaker 2: agree with the adapting that he's doing, but you can
15:13
Speaker 2: never say that this guy does what so many head
15:16
Speaker 2: coaches do, which is dig their heels in and say
15:20
Speaker 2: I know what's best, stay the course, forget this evidence
15:24
Speaker 2: right in front of my face. I'm gonna do it
15:26
Speaker 2: my way. Look at a guy like Dabbo, and you
15:29
Speaker 2: see the way he has done that for five years now,
15:33
Speaker 2: and it's just tanked his program. And it doesn't even
15:36
Speaker 2: need to be things on that big of a scale.
15:38
Speaker 2: Obviously that's a huge scale, but much smaller things. We
15:41
Speaker 2: see so many of these guys there, I think, by nature,
15:45
Speaker 2: to get to a certain level of success in life
15:47
Speaker 2: in any profession, you got a certain amount of stubborn
15:50
Speaker 2: and ego to you, because that's what got you there,
15:54
Speaker 2: but Day has a real humble quality of knowing when
15:57
Speaker 2: he sees something better or a better way to do things,
16:00
Speaker 2: that he doesn't need to be married to what already
16:04
Speaker 2: was working for him, he can change it and make
16:06
Speaker 2: it better. And it's a rare thing in guys at
16:09
Speaker 2: that level. And one of the reasons that I was
16:11
Speaker 2: advocating for him to be kind of number one on
16:13
Speaker 2: those lists which you're hypothetical and don't really mean anything,
16:16
Speaker 2: but it's the off season and we're yeapping, so something
16:20
Speaker 2: I've always admired about him, for sure. And we've seen
16:24
Speaker 2: them adapt the recruiting philosophy. We've seen adaptation and pace
16:29
Speaker 2: of play, adaptation and transferporter philosophy, and we've seen some
16:35
Speaker 2: of those adaptations move really quick. You know. We listen
16:38
Speaker 2: to Mark Pantoni talked this off season about Ohio State's
16:42
Speaker 2: most recent transferportal class and Mark Pantoni was literally talking
16:46
Speaker 2: about Indiana laying the blueprint that happened that national championship
16:52
Speaker 2: one month before. Mark Pantoni was speaking on it one
16:56
Speaker 2: month prior, and Ohio State Football said, you know what,
17:00
Speaker 2: we like what they're doing. Let's go. Let that be
17:04
Speaker 2: our blueprint and We're going to kind of go use
17:06
Speaker 2: that as our guiding principle, and that is a huge
17:10
Speaker 2: change fast. But the ability to do that is something
17:14
Speaker 2: we don't see at a lot of organizations in college football. Man,
17:17
Speaker 2: they move it a snail space. Ryan Day's program will
17:20
Speaker 2: move fast, and I like that, and I think it's
17:24
Speaker 2: something that is admirable when it comes to recruiting. In
17:29
Speaker 2: the nil era, they've always done it their own way
17:32
Speaker 2: at the top, and they've not been you know, they've
17:36
Speaker 2: not been. They've always moved it, changed it around, adapted,
17:41
Speaker 2: and there were times where you know, they moved a
17:45
Speaker 2: little slow. People would want to see them move into
17:48
Speaker 2: paying players a little more, a little faster, but they
17:52
Speaker 2: did it their way and they continue to adapt, and
17:55
Speaker 2: a lot of people were very upset with the way
17:57
Speaker 2: they were doing it in twenty twenty five in the
17:59
Speaker 2: recruiting claus And when it was all said and done,
18:02
Speaker 2: it was a brilliant plan. It all came together in
18:05
Speaker 2: the end and they got a ton of gems at
18:07
Speaker 2: the end for relatively low dollars. They were able to
18:11
Speaker 2: flip guys and it all worked out really well. But
18:16
Speaker 2: we were discussing last show, you know, about the money
18:21
Speaker 2: and the investment and investing in scouting and how much
18:25
Speaker 2: they have saved money on a lot of really top
18:27
Speaker 2: tier guys and been able to then spend that on
18:30
Speaker 2: the you know, the first rounders as they call them,
18:33
Speaker 2: and get themselves more first rounders by doing that successfully
18:38
Speaker 2: and offensively. In twenty twenty four, when they went to
18:41
Speaker 2: the huddle full time, slowed down the pace of play,
18:45
Speaker 2: and then in twenty twenty five they kept the slow
18:48
Speaker 2: pace of play and they also decided they were going
18:51
Speaker 2: to add in the heavy tight end packages and at
18:55
Speaker 2: the same time they had a first time play caller. Now,
18:57
Speaker 2: as it turns out, the combination of those three things,
19:00
Speaker 2: the first time play caller, the extremely slow pace of
19:04
Speaker 2: play due to huddling, and the heavy tight ends, all
19:09
Speaker 2: those three things together did not It wasn't the best
19:14
Speaker 2: thing for the offense. It wasn't the best and it
19:16
Speaker 2: didn't go great. And we saw him try to adapt
19:19
Speaker 2: during the year, pull the tight ends back a little bit,
19:21
Speaker 2: and they did after maybe like game five, game six,
19:24
Speaker 2: and then they kind of brought it back. It just
19:27
Speaker 2: was clunky. The whole year. The offense felt a little
19:30
Speaker 2: bit clunky. Things weren't quite clicking. They were far fewer
19:35
Speaker 2: explosive plays, definitely in the red zone. They weren't as
19:38
Speaker 2: good as the year prior. A lot of that can
19:40
Speaker 2: be attributed to a quarterback who can run a bit.
19:43
Speaker 2: But one of the things we noticed this offseason about
19:47
Speaker 2: Ryan Day versus last offseason, I think is the attitude
19:51
Speaker 2: and the way he's moving. I think we're already seeing
19:54
Speaker 2: a much more aggressive, happy coach, happy to be out
19:59
Speaker 2: of the offensive meeting room, happy to be able to
20:03
Speaker 2: go around and coach football, and we're seeing it all
20:07
Speaker 2: over the practice field. It just so he's coaching. He's
20:10
Speaker 2: in on the little things rather than I don't want
20:14
Speaker 2: to say holding Brian Hartline's hand, that sounds disrespectful, but
20:18
Speaker 2: walking him through his first year as a play caller.
20:21
Speaker 2: It's a huge undertaking. And if you're the head coach,
20:25
Speaker 2: you're the CEO, but that's your main objective. You've got
20:28
Speaker 2: to make sure that's squared away. Now with Arthur Smith,
20:31
Speaker 2: he gets to take a step back, and I think
20:34
Speaker 2: he is really excellent at this CEO rolling. He's damn
20:37
Speaker 2: good at it. So last year an offensive year, I
20:41
Speaker 2: think he'd like to forget but I think he learned
20:44
Speaker 2: some lessons. I don't think he would make those same
20:47
Speaker 2: decisions again. The execution of those decisions were even worse
20:52
Speaker 2: than the decisions. And to have a team so damn
20:56
Speaker 2: talented to kind of look like that, I think, honestly,
21:00
Speaker 2: if they weren't so talented, and that's thanks to him, right,
21:04
Speaker 2: thanks to him. They're so talented. But if they weren't
21:06
Speaker 2: so talented, that would have just been a really bad
21:09
Speaker 2: offensive football team. I really believe that. But they are
21:13
Speaker 2: so talented, so there's ways to do things better and
21:18
Speaker 2: he knows that. And now bringing in Arthur Smith, there
21:21
Speaker 2: are a couple of changes that I think we're going
21:23
Speaker 2: to see that are going to make a huge difference
21:25
Speaker 2: to this offense. And we'll start with what's not going
21:28
Speaker 2: to change, and that, in my opinion, is heavy tight
21:33
Speaker 2: end play. I don't think that's going anywhere. I think
21:36
Speaker 2: that he brought in Art Smith, and you know, some
21:39
Speaker 2: of the tight end stuff with him had a lot
21:42
Speaker 2: to do with why he chose him. But I think
21:45
Speaker 2: that what he was trying, what he saw in his
21:47
Speaker 2: head last year with the tight ends and what he
21:50
Speaker 2: wanted it to look like, is what it's going to
21:53
Speaker 2: look like under Arthur Smith. And that's for a couple
21:55
Speaker 2: of reasons. One it's Arthur Smith and not Brian Hartline.
21:59
Speaker 2: And I think that you've got better tight ends to
22:03
Speaker 2: what they want to do. While I really like Max
22:06
Speaker 2: Claire and I like Will kas Merrick, Will Kasmerrick a
22:09
Speaker 2: great blocking tight end, Max Claire a great receiving tight end,
22:14
Speaker 2: I think what they're looking for is a little bit
22:15
Speaker 2: more in the middle, a little more versatility from those
22:18
Speaker 2: pieces there, and you got that this year with your
22:23
Speaker 2: Max Welson's and Nate Roberts and Mason Williams. A little
22:27
Speaker 2: more in the middle, a little more in between, and
22:30
Speaker 2: that's a plus. I don't think Max was very good
22:34
Speaker 2: blocking last year at times, and Will Kasmerck can't move
22:38
Speaker 2: quite as good because he's a guy's like a tackle man,
22:42
Speaker 2: total stud blocker, but getting out polling in gap scheme
22:47
Speaker 2: like these, they had a hard time identifying things. I
22:49
Speaker 2: don't think Bennett Christian played very good. So this year
22:52
Speaker 2: with Arthur Smith and the tight ends, I think you
22:55
Speaker 2: got better personnel to do what they're trying to do. Obviously,
22:59
Speaker 2: better coaching, no doubt about that. With Nate, with Welson
23:03
Speaker 2: with Williams, it's going to look a lot better, and
23:05
Speaker 2: it's going to look like he intended it to look.
23:07
Speaker 2: In addition to that, switching from gap scheme and polling
23:12
Speaker 2: tight ends to playing wide zone and it's going to
23:15
Speaker 2: look a lot better. But that's not changing and I
23:18
Speaker 2: don't think that was the problem. The problem was the
23:20
Speaker 2: poor execution with it, combined with the turtle pace, and
23:26
Speaker 2: the turtle pace is the first change I think we're
23:30
Speaker 2: going to see in this offense. I do not think
23:31
Speaker 2: we're going to see Ohio State in the bottom ten
23:34
Speaker 2: teams in the country in pace the play. I think
23:37
Speaker 2: that's over. I think it's over, and I played it
23:40
Speaker 2: over on Juck on Bucks. But Arthur Smith in his
23:42
Speaker 2: own words, and he was talking about his no huddle
23:45
Speaker 2: packages and he's very comfortable with running no huddle and
23:48
Speaker 2: he doesn't do it because just because he needs to,
23:51
Speaker 2: but he does it throughout the game and uses it
23:54
Speaker 2: as a weapon similar to how Ryan Day always used to.
23:58
Speaker 2: But when we look back at twenty twenty five, I
24:00
Speaker 2: didn't see a lot of that, and I think the
24:02
Speaker 2: reason was Brian Hartline. I don't think he wanted to
24:04
Speaker 2: add extra things on his plate. He wanted him to
24:07
Speaker 2: focus on what's most important, the execution, calling, the right sequencing.
24:12
Speaker 2: But now you got a veteran up there. You got
24:14
Speaker 2: a veteran. And similar to the difference we saw on
24:17
Speaker 2: the defense last year from Jim Knowles to Matt Patricia,
24:21
Speaker 2: we'll see an even bigger difference when it comes to
24:25
Speaker 2: Brian Hartline to Arthur Smith in the things that we're
24:28
Speaker 2: going to see on offense. Remember when Day was asked
24:31
Speaker 2: about that pace of play, maybe after Week eight last year,
24:36
Speaker 2: his answer about the pace of play was not we're
24:39
Speaker 2: doing this to preserve ourselves for the sixteen game season.
24:43
Speaker 2: He said, we have our overarching goals, and of which
24:45
Speaker 2: he was inferring that's one of them. But as far
24:49
Speaker 2: as how slow we play, it's more just a habit.
24:52
Speaker 2: It's a product of huddling. Okay, gotcha. I do think
24:58
Speaker 2: there is some truth to that. I think there's some
25:00
Speaker 2: truth to trying to keep it a little slower, But
25:03
Speaker 2: I don't think it's something he's married to philosophically. We
25:06
Speaker 2: have to do this, I really don't. So that's one
25:09
Speaker 2: big change that I think we're going to see this
25:12
Speaker 2: year offensively in the second big change this one. You know,
25:18
Speaker 2: I was talking about Legend Bay, I think last week
25:22
Speaker 2: and Legend Bay. When Ohio State was recruiting Legend Bay.
25:26
Speaker 2: When they offered Legend Big Carlos Laughlin wasn't down in
25:29
Speaker 2: Texas to see Legend Bay. He was down there seeing
25:32
Speaker 2: a primetime prospect and he went in and he offered
25:35
Speaker 2: Legend Bay because he was down there and he liked
25:37
Speaker 2: him quarterback. Ohio State wasn't in on him. They weren't
25:42
Speaker 2: enthused by him. They weren't really recruiting him. He was
25:46
Speaker 2: not anywhere near the top of their board. He committed
25:49
Speaker 2: to Tennessee. There wasn't a peep. And the season goes on,
25:53
Speaker 2: and as the season goes on, you're looking at the
25:55
Speaker 2: playmakers or the lack thereof, on the Ohio State roster,
26:00
Speaker 2: and you're realizing, man, we got these NFL receivers, but
26:04
Speaker 2: looking at tight end, looking at running back, looking at
26:08
Speaker 2: your slot guy, where's the juice, man? We need the juice.
26:12
Speaker 2: We got no Trevion. We need some juice on this team.
26:16
Speaker 2: We need a top tier playmaker that can take it
26:18
Speaker 2: to the house anytime the ball's in his hands. That
26:20
Speaker 2: isn't your prototypical NFL wide receiver, some college football playmakers,
26:25
Speaker 2: and then all of a sudden, we see them go
26:28
Speaker 2: hard after flipping Legend and they came out of nowhere.
26:32
Speaker 2: They came out of nowhere with that heavy pursuit of legend,
26:36
Speaker 2: and obviously they get Legend. Last season, very few explosive
26:42
Speaker 2: plays compared to years before, and now as we roll
26:46
Speaker 2: into this season, Legend Bay is going to play a lot.
26:50
Speaker 2: He's going to get the ball a lot. They're going
26:52
Speaker 2: to be manufacturing touches for a freshman. And it's not
26:56
Speaker 2: because Legends so special though he is. It's because they
26:59
Speaker 2: have had a guy, you know, with that much juice,
27:03
Speaker 2: but they could have well, as they can always have
27:05
Speaker 2: a guy like These guys exist on teams, right, the
27:08
Speaker 2: Buckeyes just haven't gone after that type of dude now,
27:12
Speaker 2: I think, not just with Legend, but they will continue
27:14
Speaker 2: to go after that type of dude. But Ryan Day
27:18
Speaker 2: now sees that he wants to use a guy like this,
27:21
Speaker 2: and I think that we're going to continue to see
27:24
Speaker 2: guys like this, which I love. Additionally, I think that
27:29
Speaker 2: he wants more juice in that slot receiver position, and
27:33
Speaker 2: I think that bodes not great for Be. I I
27:37
Speaker 2: honestly I think that I don't think that he's going
27:39
Speaker 2: to be the guy that's going to be eating all
27:40
Speaker 2: the snaps in the slot. You got to get more
27:43
Speaker 2: juice in that spot. He's used to more juice in
27:45
Speaker 2: that spot. You don't got it, didn't have it last
27:48
Speaker 2: year with Be. I will see if he makes a jump.
27:50
Speaker 2: But you know, but how I started this conversation back
27:56
Speaker 2: to that top twenty five coaching list and where I
27:59
Speaker 2: where I ranked. So I got him at number three.
28:02
Speaker 2: I think the consensus list as top three would be Signetti, Kirby,
28:06
Speaker 2: and Ryan Day in any order you put him in.
28:09
Speaker 2: But I did a year. I did a list last year,
28:12
Speaker 2: And these top twenty five lists are always so difficult
28:15
Speaker 2: because different coaches are better suited for different programs in
28:19
Speaker 2: my opinion, Like if I were to hire the head
28:22
Speaker 2: coach at Wisconsin or the head coach at USC, it
28:26
Speaker 2: might not be the one guy, might not be the
28:29
Speaker 2: best for each of those jobs. I might pick somebody
28:31
Speaker 2: else for either job. And when you're judging a coach
28:35
Speaker 2: at a program, like trying to do these rankings, like
28:37
Speaker 2: what do you go by? Do you go by that
28:40
Speaker 2: program's historical success and how this coach does versus that
28:44
Speaker 2: historical success. All right, that's what I used to do.
28:48
Speaker 2: But boy, that shirt has changed quickly, right Like we
28:51
Speaker 2: just saw the team with the historical success of being
28:55
Speaker 2: last in the Big Ten win a national championship. And
28:58
Speaker 2: because these things can change, so fadd, what's your baseline
29:01
Speaker 2: anymore for these new hires. An interesting one is our situation.
29:06
Speaker 2: We root for Ohio State. Many nationally have dismissed Ryan
29:11
Speaker 2: Day for years. I can think back to three years ago.
29:14
Speaker 2: ESPN rolled out one of these lists top twenty five
29:17
Speaker 2: lists and he was number ten, number ten, And of
29:21
Speaker 2: course they say, Ohio State's an easy job. He walked
29:23
Speaker 2: into this easy job, all the talent, all the players,
29:26
Speaker 2: all the resources. All he had to do was keep
29:30
Speaker 2: the train rolling. And they always win at Ohio State.
29:34
Speaker 2: And it's such a discredit because it's really, really difficult
29:38
Speaker 2: to reach the expectations at Ohio State. And this guy
29:41
Speaker 2: every year has reached the expectations. Whether you feel that
29:45
Speaker 2: it's the floor of the expectations or the ceiling of
29:48
Speaker 2: the expectations, he's reached them, right, He's reached the expectations.
29:54
Speaker 2: Now now that that streak is over. But then you
29:56
Speaker 2: could also say you got a couple of years in
29:58
Speaker 2: there where you might not believe that was done legitimately.
30:02
Speaker 2: But I think it's pretty clear to me that he's
30:04
Speaker 2: reached the expectations. And every program has those expectations. But
30:09
Speaker 2: I always like to go over these lists because I
30:11
Speaker 2: do think they're interesting. And Stu Mandel, who I can't
30:16
Speaker 2: stand from the Athletic, he always does one, as does
30:19
Speaker 2: his partner Bruce Feldman, who I love from the Athletic.
30:23
Speaker 2: The two guys, they're kind of partners and I don't
30:25
Speaker 2: know if you ever listen to them, but they do
30:27
Speaker 2: his show, a podcast called The Audible, and they fight
30:31
Speaker 2: and it's awesome because Stu is horrible Cincinnati Stu Ball.
30:35
Speaker 2: He's one of these Ohioans from Cincinnati that hates Ohio
30:38
Speaker 2: State and it comes out and everything that everything that
30:42
Speaker 2: he does. But you know, they both got a list,
30:47
Speaker 2: and I've gone on and on about Ohio State and
30:51
Speaker 2: spending money better than ninety five percent of college football
30:53
Speaker 2: last year. In my opinion, I think that's one of
30:56
Speaker 2: those things. Man, you attribute that to a head coach,
30:58
Speaker 2: like what he's what Ryan don't they have done. Spending
31:02
Speaker 2: money has been tremendous. It is funny when we look
31:05
Speaker 2: at these lists and we see these coaching hires. Everybody
31:08
Speaker 2: is so definitive about coaches, like a lot of I
31:12
Speaker 2: don't know, if you read Twitter, there's probably only three
31:14
Speaker 2: good head coaches. People say Ryan da sucks all the time.
31:17
Speaker 2: It's a national championship winner. Everybody sucks. But when we
31:21
Speaker 2: see these coaching hires, we see the list of grades
31:25
Speaker 2: who'd had a good hire, who had a bad hire,
31:28
Speaker 2: and you'll see these consensus opinions build, Like right now,
31:33
Speaker 2: the consensus is Michigan had a great hire with Kyle Whittingham,
31:37
Speaker 2: Penn State had a great hire with Matt Campbell. We
31:39
Speaker 2: could see these guys flame just as easily as anything else.
31:43
Speaker 2: And we'll see guys that they consider bad hires excel.
31:48
Speaker 2: That's always how it goes down, and we know that.
31:51
Speaker 2: But people get so dug in and so confident in
31:53
Speaker 2: their opinions of it. And I don't know how, because
31:56
Speaker 2: really you just have no clue. You have no clue.
31:59
Speaker 2: A lot of people thought Brian Kelly was going to
32:01
Speaker 2: work at LSU. A ton of people said that was
32:04
Speaker 2: a coup that LSU pulled getting Brian Kelly down there.
32:08
Speaker 2: So let me go over these guys' lists real quick,
32:12
Speaker 2: and I want to point out if you got someone
32:16
Speaker 2: who is in your top three two years ago and
32:20
Speaker 2: now they're not in your top twenty five, you're doing
32:23
Speaker 2: this wrong. Both of these guys last year, not last year,
32:26
Speaker 2: two years ago had Lance Lighthull of Kansas in their
32:30
Speaker 2: top three, top three head coaches in the country, and
32:33
Speaker 2: he's no longer one of them, not even in the
32:36
Speaker 2: top twenty five, which blows my mind. I mean, I
32:40
Speaker 2: could see putting Lance high. This is a guy who
32:44
Speaker 2: at Wisconsin Whitewater was you know, that was the program
32:47
Speaker 2: in d D three that was beating Mount Union for
32:50
Speaker 2: national championships. He won like five of them. And then
32:53
Speaker 2: he moves up and he takes Kansas a horrific program
32:57
Speaker 2: to ten wins and then like nine wins, and then
33:01
Speaker 2: since then he's had like two five win seasons in
33:03
Speaker 2: a row. So they've taken him from top three to
33:06
Speaker 2: out of the list in two years, which blows my mind.
33:10
Speaker 2: But anyhow, their list will start with Stu Ball, he
33:13
Speaker 2: goes Signetti, Kirby Ryan Day number three. Then Kaylin de Boor,
33:19
Speaker 2: and he's got Mario Christobal number five, which I respect
33:22
Speaker 2: putting Mario over Dan Lanning who's at number six, because
33:26
Speaker 2: Dan Lanning is consistently overvalued in these things. And then
33:29
Speaker 2: Marcus Freeman number seven. And I got to say, Marcus
33:34
Speaker 2: Freeman at number seven. Marcus got the opportunity to coach
33:38
Speaker 2: Notre Dame. And I always wonder when I see things
33:41
Speaker 2: like this, and I see, all right, Marcus is at
33:43
Speaker 2: number seven. What happens if Notre Dame instead of hiring
33:46
Speaker 2: Marcus Freeman hires Brett bi Lama, a guy who's been
33:50
Speaker 2: coaching a long time, fairly successful everywhere he's been, knows
33:54
Speaker 2: a ton of football, has a really good track record,
33:56
Speaker 2: and then he gets the opportunity at the beginning of
33:59
Speaker 2: the end era to go to a place like Notre Dame.
34:04
Speaker 2: Does he get the same out of Notre Dame as
34:06
Speaker 2: Marcus Freeman is what he's gotten out of Notre Dame.
34:11
Speaker 2: What's your opinion on that, because I think there's a
34:14
Speaker 2: lot of guys who would have walked into that situation
34:18
Speaker 2: at the beginning of the nil spending era, and Notre
34:20
Speaker 2: Dame for some reason doesn't get talked about as a
34:23
Speaker 2: big spender in nil and they are, and Marcus walks
34:28
Speaker 2: into that and all of a sudden, Notre Dame is
34:31
Speaker 2: extremely talented. They're beating Ohio State now for guys on
34:36
Speaker 2: the trail, which is something that wasn't happening, and they're
34:39
Speaker 2: pulling a top three class and in the transfer portal
34:42
Speaker 2: they're getting eight really hyper expensive guys in the transfer portal.
34:47
Speaker 2: And Marcus Freeman is a top five coach because of that.
34:51
Speaker 2: I don't know that I've seen that track record to
34:53
Speaker 2: prove it. Matter of fact, I think that I've seen
34:55
Speaker 2: him have his growing pains. I just don't know. This
35:00
Speaker 2: doesn't jive with me. At number eight, Dabo Swiney. I
35:04
Speaker 2: think Bruce got him down quite a bit further. Number
35:07
Speaker 2: nine Kyle Whittingham, and Whittingham is always going to be
35:11
Speaker 2: in everybody's top ten. It's just like the cool thing
35:13
Speaker 2: to do. Number ten Mike Elco, Number eleven Matt Campbell.
35:17
Speaker 2: And here's another interesting one. This is a case of
35:20
Speaker 2: a guy who overperformed at a place and did a
35:23
Speaker 2: great job there. We've never seen him anywhere else, never
35:26
Speaker 2: seen him anywhere else. How's he going to do? Now
35:28
Speaker 2: at a place that has the highest of expectations. It's
35:32
Speaker 2: going to be so interesting to see how this guy
35:34
Speaker 2: does at Penn State. I honestly think this year, when
35:36
Speaker 2: we look at the schedule, and remember we talked about
35:38
Speaker 2: the win total the other day, their win total is
35:41
Speaker 2: nine and a half games, which shows you how easy
35:44
Speaker 2: that schedule is. This guy's walking in with Iowa State's
35:47
Speaker 2: roster into Penn State twenty two transfers from Iowa State,
35:53
Speaker 2: and he has a nine and a half win total.
35:56
Speaker 2: Matt Campbell might make the playoffs, and I think it'll
35:59
Speaker 2: be fools gold and they'll drop back next year the
36:02
Speaker 2: following year, even if they do have a great year
36:05
Speaker 2: this year. But you got him at eleven. At twelve,
36:09
Speaker 2: you got Jeff Brom, which I do appreciate Jeff Brom
36:13
Speaker 2: being at twelve. I think he's really underrated. This is
36:15
Speaker 2: a guy that took Purdue to the Big Ten championship game,
36:19
Speaker 2: goes to Louisville. They win a minimum of nine games
36:22
Speaker 2: every year, and every year they beat a team that's
36:25
Speaker 2: in the top ten that they shouldn't beat. Number thirteen,
36:29
Speaker 2: Steve sarkisian interesting to see how far back he's fallen.
36:34
Speaker 2: This was a guy that was in a lot of
36:35
Speaker 2: people's top fives a couple years ago, doesn't make the
36:38
Speaker 2: playoffs last year, and it just doesn't seem Look if
36:41
Speaker 2: they don't do a little better this year, right, we're
36:45
Speaker 2: talking getting in that final four again, people are gonna
36:48
Speaker 2: start turning on him pretty quick because when we talk
36:51
Speaker 2: about resources and investment, Texas has no limit. They're spending
36:56
Speaker 2: whatever he wants. Number fourteen, James frank I don't know
37:00
Speaker 2: if you've been paying attention, but on the recruiting trail
37:03
Speaker 2: at Virginia Tech, there has not been a prospect that
37:07
Speaker 2: Ohio State has been in on that has also had
37:09
Speaker 2: like Virginia Tech in their top five in Man, I
37:13
Speaker 2: don't know how many years, and I'm seeing it quite
37:16
Speaker 2: a bit now. A guy that the Buckeyes are in on,
37:19
Speaker 2: I go look at other schools he's interested in in
37:22
Speaker 2: Virginia Tech pops up. I don't think it's gonna be
37:25
Speaker 2: long before he really flips this roster around, and Virginia
37:28
Speaker 2: Tech is very competitive again. And I gotta be honest,
37:31
Speaker 2: I love that. Not some huge James Franklin fan, but
37:35
Speaker 2: I like when Virginia Tech is good they got a
37:37
Speaker 2: great stadium, great tradition, and I do love the ugly uniforms,
37:42
Speaker 2: like so ugly, they're beautiful. I gotta get a Virginia
37:45
Speaker 2: Tech helmet. What I'm missing out that's next on the list.
37:48
Speaker 2: I mean South Carolina. I need Virginia Tech. I think
37:52
Speaker 2: I went Northwestern as well. So next three helmets. Let's
37:56
Speaker 2: move on after Franklin at fourteen, He's got Laanek at fifteen,
38:02
Speaker 2: Willi Fritz at sixteen, and Willie Fritz. Willi Fritz is
38:08
Speaker 2: the guy that all the smart guys, all the ball
38:13
Speaker 2: knowers put on their list to show you how much
38:15
Speaker 2: they know ball. Because Willy Fritz was really good at
38:18
Speaker 2: Blynn College and Georgia State in Tulane and now at Houston,
38:24
Speaker 2: and he's a top twenty five coach in the country.
38:27
Speaker 2: He just, you know, he chooses to remain at these lower,
38:30
Speaker 2: smaller schools. I don't know what the argument is for that.
38:33
Speaker 2: If you don't go test yourself at the highest level,
38:36
Speaker 2: I can't reward you with a spot at top twenty
38:38
Speaker 2: five on my list. Seventeen Kalini Sataki, This dude has
38:42
Speaker 2: killed it at BYU. They've been great every year. For
38:46
Speaker 2: the last couple of years, so props to him. And
38:48
Speaker 2: now they're spending money, and as you know, BYU's got money.
38:52
Speaker 2: If they start spending real heavy, who's to say they
38:55
Speaker 2: can't do what Texas Tech is doing. This one I
38:58
Speaker 2: think is insane. At number eight, he's got John Sumrall.
39:04
Speaker 2: John Sumrall, who Florida just hired, who did good at
39:07
Speaker 2: Tulane his first year, didn't do good as second year,
39:12
Speaker 2: and he won the conference at Troy his first year there.
39:16
Speaker 2: That's his resume. So a really good year at Troy,
39:20
Speaker 2: a really good year at Tulane, two good years at Tulane,
39:25
Speaker 2: and now he goes up to Florida and already you've
39:28
Speaker 2: got him in your top twenty five. He's not coached
39:30
Speaker 2: at a P four school ever, that's insane to me.
39:33
Speaker 2: Number nineteen Lincoln Riley, who's made the playoffs, is behind
39:38
Speaker 2: some raw. Number twenty Kirk fernceho's been doing it for
39:41
Speaker 2: twenty five years. Number twenty one Kenny Dillingham. Number twenty
39:46
Speaker 2: two Brett Bee Lama, who I just think is underrated
39:50
Speaker 2: on these lists. Man. I'm telling you, if I was
39:53
Speaker 2: an Illinois fan, I would be through the Moon, having
39:55
Speaker 2: Brett Beelama having the program in his hands. When you
39:58
Speaker 2: listen to this guy talk football, this is he's just awesome.
40:01
Speaker 2: He really is. Number twenty three Josh Heipel and the
40:06
Speaker 2: guy resurrected Tennessee. I don't think he has a huge ceiling,
40:11
Speaker 2: but getting Tennessee up to a nine slash ten win
40:14
Speaker 2: team every year was something that you know, they circled
40:19
Speaker 2: through four coaches before they could find that again, so
40:22
Speaker 2: props to him. Obviously, he's got tons of money getting
40:27
Speaker 2: thrown at that program though, so you know, maybe that's
40:29
Speaker 2: been a little easier for him. Number twenty four Rhett Lashlee,
40:33
Speaker 2: who I really like. And number twenty five and I
40:36
Speaker 2: think this is way too low. Number twenty five Clark Lee.
40:39
Speaker 2: Clark Lee at Vanderbilt. When you listen to this guy
40:43
Speaker 2: talk about his program, talk about his program, philosophies and
40:46
Speaker 2: what we've seen him do at Vanderbilt, and it hasn't stopped.
40:51
Speaker 2: And now he's got boosters throwing money at him. Obviously
40:55
Speaker 2: we see him landing the number one quarterback. There are
40:58
Speaker 2: guys who was I just talking about the other day,
41:04
Speaker 2: Keishawn Bowman, wide receiver that Ohio State's in on he
41:07
Speaker 2: was about to choose last week between Vanderbilt and Miami.
41:11
Speaker 2: It's a top ten wide receiver in the country. So
41:14
Speaker 2: Clark Lee to me, if we're talking about just young
41:17
Speaker 2: guys on the rise, like to have him below John
41:20
Speaker 2: Summrall another insane one. Let's go to Ste's list, Stu
41:24
Speaker 2: I like to make fun of. He's got Signetti Kirby Day.
41:28
Speaker 2: Then he's got Dan Lanning at number four, because of
41:30
Speaker 2: course he does ahead of Kaitlin de Borr, who is
41:34
Speaker 2: a guy who just handled Dan Lanning when dabor was
41:37
Speaker 2: out at Washington, beat him twice in one year, made
41:40
Speaker 2: it to a national championship, and somehow Stu Ball thinks
41:44
Speaker 2: Dan Lanning belongs above him at number six. He's got
41:47
Speaker 2: Steve Sarkesian number six in the country. Ridiculous, Marcus Freeman
41:52
Speaker 2: number seven. At number eight, he's got Lane Kiffen. What
41:56
Speaker 2: in the world has Lane Kiffin done to put him
41:58
Speaker 2: at number eight in the country other than exploit the
42:02
Speaker 2: portal and spend a ton of ole miss donor money.
42:05
Speaker 2: What he's an offensive guy like, I don't know. I
42:09
Speaker 2: guess we'll see when he gets the LSU number nine.
42:12
Speaker 2: Kyle Whittingham. Like I said, Whittingham is in everybody's top
42:15
Speaker 2: ten every year forever. Number ten, Mario Crista Ball, number eleven.
42:23
Speaker 2: I can't read my writing on my notes here. Sorry, No,
42:28
Speaker 2: it's Matt Campbell number eleven, number twelve, James Franklin, number thirteen,
42:33
Speaker 2: Kalani Sataki number fourteen, Kirk Farence here's where I agree,
42:37
Speaker 2: Number fifteen, Clark Lee, number sixteen, Willie Fritz, Stu Ball
42:41
Speaker 2: knows Ball Willie Fritz, And my man Brandiego says what
42:46
Speaker 2: we're all saying. Dan Lanny incredibly overrated. Very few have
42:49
Speaker 2: done less than more, maybe only Sark. And that's another thing, man,
42:52
Speaker 2: Both these guys have bottomless pits of resources, and neither
42:58
Speaker 2: of them have really done and credible with it. I
43:01
Speaker 2: mean the amount of money that Oregon spent his first
43:06
Speaker 2: I don't know, not this past year, but the two
43:09
Speaker 2: years prior to build what they now have on that roster,
43:13
Speaker 2: which is it's loaded. It's loaded from top to bottom
43:16
Speaker 2: every year. That so much so when they go to
43:20
Speaker 2: the transfer portal, they're like, Ohio State, they need, you know,
43:24
Speaker 2: a couple of pieces parts what they need. The Buckeyes
43:27
Speaker 2: chose to go get some more this year, but as
43:29
Speaker 2: far as what you need, they don't need much. They're
43:33
Speaker 2: working with the best of the best talent, and that's
43:38
Speaker 2: all bought for him in a real quick amount of time.
43:41
Speaker 2: I will say, I think he's done a really good
43:43
Speaker 2: job hiring assistance. And I'll also say, if Ryan Day
43:47
Speaker 2: left tomorrow, and this is something I would love to do,
43:50
Speaker 2: I would love as Buckeye fans to all, right, everybody's
43:55
Speaker 2: got to put together a list Ryan Day leaves tomorrow,
43:59
Speaker 2: what is your top in order of who you want
44:02
Speaker 2: to take over for Ryan Day? And we combine all
44:05
Speaker 2: of our lists and then average it out and spit
44:08
Speaker 2: out the rankings to hand to the board to say, Okay,
44:11
Speaker 2: here's your list in order of guys to go after.
44:15
Speaker 2: I would love to see that list because it also
44:19
Speaker 2: goes with not just who's the best coach, but who
44:20
Speaker 2: do you think is the best for Ohio State, which
44:22
Speaker 2: is a very different and unique job. And for me,
44:28
Speaker 2: Dan Lanning'd be pretty high on my list because he's
44:32
Speaker 2: kind of a guy I really can't stand at Oregon,
44:35
Speaker 2: but if he was my guy, similar to what you'd
44:39
Speaker 2: see people say about Urban Meyer, Right, everybody hated urban
44:43
Speaker 2: Meyer when he wasn't their guy. I mean you might
44:45
Speaker 2: not have. I didn't because he was an Ohio guy.
44:47
Speaker 2: When he was down at Florida, I always loved him.
44:49
Speaker 2: But around the country when he was at Ohio State,
44:53
Speaker 2: when he was at Florida, people hated urban Meyer, and
44:55
Speaker 2: I understand. But if he was your guy fighting for
44:59
Speaker 2: your team, man, you loved him. And can we put
45:07
Speaker 2: Saman I don't think so. I think we got to
45:09
Speaker 2: pass on and we got to pass on Nick. You
45:11
Speaker 2: get pass an old Saint Nick. But anyway, a little
45:15
Speaker 2: bit of recruiting one of Laurais's targets off the board here.
45:21
Speaker 2: Jaden Nelson, who was one of Laura Itis's targets that
45:24
Speaker 2: was really underrated, was a guy that was I don't know,
45:29
Speaker 2: maybe like a top six hundred prospect when James offered
45:32
Speaker 2: him six three two twenty and the Buckey's recruiting him
45:36
Speaker 2: and a defensive tackle from his high school as well.
45:40
Speaker 2: He commits to Texas Tech last night. There will be
45:42
Speaker 2: no shot of flipping him off of that. So Laura
45:47
Speaker 2: and Iitis already working kind of off a small board.
45:49
Speaker 2: I mean they've offered twenty. He's offered like twenty linebackers.
45:53
Speaker 2: Fifteen of them remain unsigned, but we've not really seen.
45:57
Speaker 2: There's a lot of them that he doesn't have much
45:59
Speaker 2: motion with him, and the guys that he does have
46:02
Speaker 2: motion with it's a pretty small board, so we'll keep
46:07
Speaker 2: our eye out for that. But he gets just sitting
46:09
Speaker 2: and pick off exactly who he wants now that he
46:11
Speaker 2: has Quentin Cipher in the class. And when we look
46:13
Speaker 2: at this guy, man, it's it's exciting to follow like
46:18
Speaker 2: wide receiver, and I almost just want him to wanted
46:21
Speaker 2: to bring in three every year because it's just fun
46:23
Speaker 2: to follow, even if you don't need three. You know,
46:26
Speaker 2: you look at him, you go from Riley Pettijohn, TJ
46:29
Speaker 2: offered Eli Lee, and you go into your following class.
46:33
Speaker 2: And what I thought, what you maybe thought last year
46:37
Speaker 2: by the way he was moving with a lot more
46:39
Speaker 2: in state offers, was Okay, the investment financially is not
46:42
Speaker 2: going to be as heavy at linebacker this year. I
46:45
Speaker 2: get it. You invested with TJ, you invested with Riley Pettijohn.
46:49
Speaker 2: You're gonna pull back the funds a little bit on James.
46:52
Speaker 2: All right, James, go get your best. Well the state
46:54
Speaker 2: of Ohio produces the number one linebacker in the country,
46:56
Speaker 2: and he go ahead and grabs him obviously. And then
47:00
Speaker 2: he goes and finds the biggest diamond in the rough
47:03
Speaker 2: in the entire class in Braxton Rembert, guy with one
47:07
Speaker 2: Power four offer who finishes as a top ten linebacker.
47:11
Speaker 2: And we'll take another top twenty linebacker and CJ. Sona
47:15
Speaker 2: from the state of Ohio, which actually means if we
47:18
Speaker 2: look at your number one linebacker in twenty twenty five,
47:21
Speaker 2: Riley Pettijohn, well, he got a higher rank guy in
47:24
Speaker 2: Sincere Johnson, you're number two, and TJ. Alfred got a
47:28
Speaker 2: higher rank guy in Braxton Rembert, number three, Eli Lee
47:31
Speaker 2: got a higher rank guy in CJ. Sonna the guy
47:34
Speaker 2: just can't miss. And now with Quintin Cipher, can he
47:38
Speaker 2: Polkaden Henderson, can he go get the number one linebacker again?
47:44
Speaker 2: Might just happen, man, it might just happen. At wide
47:47
Speaker 2: receiver Cortes Hankton's room, this class really fascinating to me.
47:53
Speaker 2: You got Jamir Brown already, so he's got a huge
47:56
Speaker 2: gift that he gets to start off working with. And
48:00
Speaker 2: he has now got a visit scheduled from our guy
48:03
Speaker 2: Blake Wong, who told me he will be in town
48:06
Speaker 2: on April fourth. And Blake is a guy that I
48:09
Speaker 2: just think is brock Boyd two point zero. The dude
48:14
Speaker 2: is fast. He's got great hands. He's six to one,
48:18
Speaker 2: one hundred and eighty pounds right now, moves just like him,
48:22
Speaker 2: catches everything with his hands. He can take it from
48:24
Speaker 2: a short dist that's all the way, he can catch
48:26
Speaker 2: it long. He's just got it all. And this is
48:29
Speaker 2: a guy that came into Ohio State last summer as
48:33
Speaker 2: an unranked prospect, got an offer from Brian Hartline. And
48:37
Speaker 2: he gets this offer from Brian Hartline, everybody starts taking
48:40
Speaker 2: a look at him. He goes out his junior year
48:42
Speaker 2: fourteen hundred yards, twenty touchdowns, receiving eighty receptions, and now
48:47
Speaker 2: he's a top three hundred overall but still not really
48:51
Speaker 2: being nationally recruited. Ohio State's well, I guess Oregon now
48:55
Speaker 2: on the west coast, but Ohio State's really the only
48:57
Speaker 2: big big to just watch him explode, right, I Mean,
49:01
Speaker 2: he's got the juice, got the jews for sure. And
49:05
Speaker 2: he'll be in on the fourth, UH visiting the Buckeyes.
49:08
Speaker 2: So I'm really excited about that. When we talk about
49:11
Speaker 2: Ohio State in terms of wide receiver visits, not that much,
49:15
Speaker 2: not that much going on this spring. We did have
49:17
Speaker 2: Khalil Taylor in last week. He's a top fifteen guy
49:20
Speaker 2: out of Pittsburgh. Matter of fact, teammates with Jay Timmins
49:23
Speaker 2: in high school. Appreciate you, Ko, good to see you.
49:28
Speaker 2: And oh Ivan Lewis a newer offer out of Richmond.
49:32
Speaker 2: He is also barely, just barely a top three hundred guy,
49:35
Speaker 2: but six. Now we need size here in this class,
49:39
Speaker 2: in the wide receiver room. Let me show you why
49:43
Speaker 2: we need size in this class because when we look
49:47
Speaker 2: next year at what this room could potentially look like
49:51
Speaker 2: next year. Chris Henry Jr. Jr. Quaighton, Guildford. You know
49:56
Speaker 2: you've lost You've lost Devin McEwan as, you've lost JJ.
50:01
Speaker 2: So you got Chris Andry Jr. And you got your
50:02
Speaker 2: quadon Guildford. And do you still have Kyle Parker? Brandon
50:07
Speaker 2: Nis is gone, Kyle Parker. Who knows? But we'll say,
50:10
Speaker 2: all right, you got Kyle Parker, you got Phil Bell,
50:13
Speaker 2: you got Brock does Jones, Jaden Rickets does des Jones
50:18
Speaker 2: stick around after he's been passed over by Brock. I
50:22
Speaker 2: don't know. But when we're looking here like we're missing
50:25
Speaker 2: the size depth. So you got to get that somewhere,
50:28
Speaker 2: whether that be the portal, whether that be recruiting. And
50:32
Speaker 2: there's not a ton of I don't know, bigger guys
50:35
Speaker 2: on the Buckeye's board here. So when a guy like
50:38
Speaker 2: Ivan Lewis, who's six foot two, coming in, you know
50:43
Speaker 2: you take notice. Keishawn Bowman will also be in April thirteenth.
50:47
Speaker 2: Keishawn another top tier guy and he's also about six
50:52
Speaker 2: foot two out of Tennessee. He's a total stud. But
50:56
Speaker 2: I did a full breakdown over Chuck on Bucks this morning.
50:58
Speaker 2: If you want to watch any of the wide receivers
51:01
Speaker 2: that are coming in and visiting with just a little
51:05
Speaker 2: bit of their film from each of those guys. So
51:09
Speaker 2: that is where we're at with that. My friends, Hey Doug,
51:13
Speaker 2: how you doing, Buddy, Good to see you. Appreciate you
51:16
Speaker 2: joining us tonight. Buckeye Freak says, Honestly, when Day hangs
51:21
Speaker 2: it up, I hope for one of two things, Heart
51:23
Speaker 2: has proven himself and wants to come home, or one
51:26
Speaker 2: of our NFL coordinators decides to hang around after learning
51:30
Speaker 2: the college landscape. So for me, I would I would
51:37
Speaker 2: prefer if we're just talking, you know, ex buck guys
51:40
Speaker 2: that coming back to coach, I would prefer that was
51:43
Speaker 2: Lauren IIIs or maybe even Eddie, who we're not really
51:47
Speaker 2: talking about. But Eddie is now serious about coaching, obviously
51:52
Speaker 2: taking that bullying Green job. You know, he wants to
51:55
Speaker 2: be a college football coach, and boy they had a
51:59
Speaker 2: really good year last year. He now has Lorenzo Styles
52:03
Speaker 2: Senior joined the staff, which is an interesting move. It
52:07
Speaker 2: just feels like, you know, two three years of Eddie
52:11
Speaker 2: doing really good at Bowling Green, and is what is
52:14
Speaker 2: doing really good anymore? Look, you operate the program like
52:17
Speaker 2: a CEO, You make good hires, and all of a
52:20
Speaker 2: sudden you're floating on air and your stock goes through
52:23
Speaker 2: the roof. Eddie's next stop could be a big one,
52:29
Speaker 2: and it could be interesting. Give Chat beach Chat GBT
52:36
Speaker 2: the head coaching role at Oregon or Texas and it
52:38
Speaker 2: would do better than landing Er sark. I saw a
52:41
Speaker 2: story the other day a guy had chat GPT Thomas said,
52:49
Speaker 2: my list is insane. It wasn't my list Thomas h
52:57
Speaker 2: but he had chat GBT. I haven't said our time
53:00
Speaker 2: saying that sell his house. It listed it, it scheduled
53:05
Speaker 2: all the appointments, it did all the contracts and all
53:08
Speaker 2: the paperwork, and he saved all this money with a
53:11
Speaker 2: realtor selling his house like that. So anyways, my friends,
53:18
Speaker 2: I do appreciate you again. Next week, I will not
53:22
Speaker 2: be on here live on Monday and Thursday. I'll record
53:27
Speaker 2: something and get it out to you, but we won't
53:29
Speaker 2: be live as I'll be down to Florida and the
53:31
Speaker 2: Wi Fi will not be able to keep up with it.
53:34
Speaker 2: So we'll be back live here the following week after that,
53:37
Speaker 2: which is great because we'll have plenty to talk about.
53:39
Speaker 2: As the Bucks come back to practice next week. We
53:43
Speaker 2: will get to hear next week from Patricia and for
53:46
Speaker 2: the first time from Arthur Smith. We'll also start to
53:50
Speaker 2: hear pretty soon here from the other assistant coaches of
53:53
Speaker 2: every room and every player in every room. This is
53:57
Speaker 2: what we get in the spring, which I love so
54:00
Speaker 2: can't wait for that. I can't wait to get down
54:02
Speaker 2: there and talk to some of them when I get
54:05
Speaker 2: back next Saturday. So I do appreciate you so much.
54:08
Speaker 2: Thank you for joining and I'll talk to you soon.
54:10
Speaker 2: Have a good one.