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How Should Ohio State Attack The Tennessee Defense? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to buck Eyes tomorrow morning from Monday, December sixteenth.
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  Speaker 1: I'm your host, Tom Moore. The Tennessee game is in
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  Speaker 1: five days. The game against Michigan in three hundred and
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  Speaker 1: forty eight days. Tony Gerdaman and I recorded a bunch
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  Speaker 1: of listener question shows on the Buckeye Weekly podcast feed
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  Speaker 1: and recorded so many recorded three separate shows because you
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  Speaker 1: guys said in so many great questions. We even had
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  Speaker 1: one that spilled over to this show. Thought looked at
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  Speaker 1: this one and thought, oh, we could absolutely talk about
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  Speaker 1: this for a full episode. A lot of interesting angles here.
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  Speaker 1: So we're going to start with a question from at
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  Speaker 1: David Hooser, and it is for Tony Gerdaman to me, Tony,
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  Speaker 1: welcome to the show. The question is, if Tony was
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  Speaker 1: the head coach and Tom was the OC, what would
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  Speaker 1: be your plan of attack against Tennessee this weekend? Tony,
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  Speaker 1: I turn to you and say, all right, boss, what
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  Speaker 1: do you want to do?
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  Speaker 2: First of all, Tom, I need to go get me
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  Speaker 2: a coffee. Then I'm going to ruminate.
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  Speaker 1: Is it annual? You time already? Wow? Feels so we
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  Speaker 1: like I just got my last excellent review.
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  Speaker 2: You know, I think, what what I'm gonna do is
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  Speaker 2: I'm going to ask you Tom find us a way
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  Speaker 2: to protect the passer and we'll win. And now that's
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  Speaker 2: what the understanding that the weather is going to cooperate.
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  Speaker 2: And I people may be tired of us talking about
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  Speaker 2: the weather, but I firmly believe that it is an
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  Speaker 2: issue and it is something that Ohio State is going
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  Speaker 2: to have to deal with and work on and improve
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  Speaker 2: on from the last time they're out in the elements.
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  Speaker 2: But from what we have seen this season from Tennessee,
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  Speaker 2: you can throw on them, and you can throw on
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  Speaker 2: them downfield. You can you know, we thought we've talked
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  Speaker 2: about Jermad McCoy.
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  Speaker 1: They're good.
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  Speaker 2: They're really good. Number three corner wearing number three. He's
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  Speaker 2: like the one guy that you've really got to focus
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  Speaker 2: on and worry about. Everybody else I think can be had.
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  Speaker 2: But you got to let Will Howard. You got to
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  Speaker 2: give Will Howard some time sometime. I'm gonna ask you
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  Speaker 2: come up with some you know, Max protects and things
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  Speaker 2: like that. Give Will Howard some time. And it also
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  Speaker 2: where is my coffee?
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  Speaker 1: Your coffee is getting cold, just like we all will
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  Speaker 1: be on Saturday night inside Ohio stadium. Yeah, it is.
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  Speaker 1: It's I think that is where the offensive game plan
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  Speaker 1: has to start is with the offensive line. And we
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  Speaker 1: talked about this on one of the other shows. My
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  Speaker 1: expectation is you're going to see the same offensive line
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  Speaker 1: against Tennessee that you did against Michigan, because that is
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  Speaker 1: the most veteran offensive line that they have, the most
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  Speaker 1: experienced offensive line that they have. It's not the one
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  Speaker 1: they would definitely choose in terms of if you could
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  Speaker 1: choose anyone who was healthy at the start of the season.
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  Speaker 1: It's probably not exactly what they would go with, but
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  Speaker 1: it's the best option right now in terms of the
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  Speaker 1: most experience, and in an environment like this, you're probably
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  Speaker 1: going to go with the most experience. So let's just
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  Speaker 1: sort of stipulate that at the beginning. That's that's what
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  Speaker 1: we're basing this whole conversation on. You know, the Ohio
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  Speaker 1: State run game. The oistate running backs have been pretty
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  Speaker 1: good in pastura, tra Van Henderson has been pretty good
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  Speaker 1: in pass pro this year. You have wil kas Merrick
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  Speaker 1: back the tight end, who is the best blocking tight
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  Speaker 1: end they have on the team. You think that that's
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  Speaker 1: probably going to those guys are probably going to factor
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  Speaker 1: a lot into this because Tennessee is strongest on the
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  Speaker 1: edges in terms of their defensive line. Both both defensive
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  Speaker 1: ends have have shown themselves to be pretty consistent pass
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  Speaker 1: rush threats, and you know, Donovan Jackson is still relatively
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  Speaker 1: new at tackle, so you're going to have to find
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  Speaker 1: a way to probably help him out to a certain degree,
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  Speaker 1: and you're going to have to have someone you know,
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  Speaker 1: so that's probably where Wilcas Merrick fits in. And then
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  Speaker 1: you're going to have have Travan Henderson back there to
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  Speaker 1: help out a little bit with the you know, with
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  Speaker 1: with picking up blitz and that kind of stuff. Because
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  Speaker 1: Tennessee will bring guys they've run a ton of stunts,
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  Speaker 1: twists and bring guys from weird angles. You're going to
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  Speaker 1: need to have those guys back there to help out
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  Speaker 1: us to a certain degree. It can't happen every time.
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  Speaker 1: You can't just you know, because I will let you
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  Speaker 1: do the math, But that only leaves two men for
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  Speaker 1: two guys to run routes if you're if you're keeping
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  Speaker 1: two guys in to help protect, so that doesn't really work.
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  Speaker 1: So yeah, it's it's a it's going to be a
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  Speaker 1: little bit of a ongoing process to figure out how
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  Speaker 1: they're going to handle all that stuff. I think I'm
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  Speaker 1: looking tony at how are you going to get the
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  Speaker 1: ball out quickly? You can? One of the best ways
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  Speaker 1: to help pass protect is to not have the offensive
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  Speaker 1: line have to pass protect very much. So get the
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  Speaker 1: ball out quickly from Will Howard's hands, get it to
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  Speaker 1: Carnel Tait in space, get it to get it to
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  Speaker 1: Mecca Booka in space, get it to Jeremiah Smith and space.
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  Speaker 1: Just get the ball out, try and let them make
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  Speaker 1: a play because we've seen you mentioned jimalm McCoy. By
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  Speaker 1: far Tennessee's past corner. The other corners just fine, but
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  Speaker 1: not you know, not unbeatable. And this is by far
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  Speaker 1: the best wide receiver unit that Tennessee is going to face.
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  Speaker 1: So I don't know how much they're gonna be able
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  Speaker 1: to throw downfield given the conditions and the wind and
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  Speaker 1: all that kind of stuff, But it feels like if
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  Speaker 1: they can get the ball out quickly and just try
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  Speaker 1: and let guys do something in space, that's probably going
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  Speaker 1: to be their best option.
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  Speaker 2: And I think some of that is also involving the
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  Speaker 2: running backs in the passing game and we haven't really
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  Speaker 2: seen I don't know, looking back over the four games
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  Speaker 2: that we've watched, I haven't necessarily seen Tennessee attacked in
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  Speaker 2: that way as much as maybe Ohio State can. And
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  Speaker 2: that again, also it would be a quick throw your
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  Speaker 2: outlet throws because the linebackers and coverage have not been fantastic.
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  Speaker 2: You don't really see them making plays. I think a
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  Speaker 2: safety against Travon Henderson, you know, it could go either way,
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  Speaker 2: but we've seen Henderson look make linebackers look silly, and
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  Speaker 2: so maybe that's a way to help the passing game
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  Speaker 2: out as well. And then Tom, I also think, you
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  Speaker 2: know what, do that but also rank up the tempo
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  Speaker 2: and not all the time, but this is an area
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  Speaker 2: that consistently we have seen Tennessee have issues with and
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  Speaker 2: and and getting lined up and getting the communication and
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  Speaker 2: getting where they need to be. And these are all
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  Speaker 2: opportunities for not just ooh, nice seven yard pickup, now
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  Speaker 2: it could be a seventy yard pickup. These are opportunities
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  Speaker 2: to take advantage of Tennessee's defense not being set and
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  Speaker 2: not being exactly sure where they need to be. And
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  Speaker 2: if you can do that or create some penalties or
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  Speaker 2: you know whatever. Tempo. Tempo is essentially undefeated against Tennessee.
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  Speaker 2: And not that you can do it all the time,
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  Speaker 2: but when you pick the right time to do it.
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  Speaker 2: We have seen it have an impact against the volunteers defense.
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  Speaker 2: Like that's every time we see it. It's effective. Now,
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  Speaker 2: what happens if you do it more? Do you do?
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  Speaker 2: You want to do it more? Can you can? You
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  Speaker 2: can do? The conditions allow for you to do it more?
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  Speaker 2: Is the the advantageous alignment that you have. You know,
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  Speaker 2: you've got the personnel out there and James Pearce is
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  Speaker 2: on the bench like okay, let's go now, or there's
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  Speaker 2: a matchup that you don't like that is no longer
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  Speaker 2: on the field and so boom, let's keep it that
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  Speaker 2: way and keep Tennessee from subbing defensively. If they don't
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  Speaker 2: do tempo in this one, then it's as inexcusable as
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  Speaker 2: it was against Michigan.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and they're not going to run tempo every play.
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  Speaker 1: I think everyone looks at that and goes, well, why
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  Speaker 1: don't you just run tempo every play? And it's because
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  Speaker 1: it's like throwing a change up in baseball. If you
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  Speaker 1: throw it and you're mixing things up. It gets them
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  Speaker 1: off balance, gets the batter off balance, gets the defense
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  Speaker 1: off balance. If you're throwing nothing but change ups, then
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  Speaker 1: eventually you adjust to that. And yeah, you can. You
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  Speaker 1: can get people off balance to a certain degree, but
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  Speaker 1: you're going to want to change your personnel at some point.
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  Speaker 1: You mentioned James Pierce, that's one of their defensive ends.
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  Speaker 1: I don't think we actually said his name earlier, but
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  Speaker 1: James Pearce and Joshua Joseph's the two defensive ends that
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  Speaker 1: I did want to sort of shout out there. But yeah,
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  Speaker 1: you're exactly right. We've seen Alabama, Georgia, and Arkansas all
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  Speaker 1: use tempo at times with great success against Tennessee. And
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  Speaker 1: you said, you know, as you said, you can trap
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  Speaker 1: their personnel on the field if you've got a good matchup,
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  Speaker 1: you can also Tennessee will look to adjust once they
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  Speaker 1: once you're lined up, so a lot of times when
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  Speaker 1: they catch, when teams catch Tennessee in you know, using
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  Speaker 1: tempo that you got the defensive linemen standing up looking
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  Speaker 1: over to the sideline and you snap the ball and
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  Speaker 1: like boom, you're blowing people off the ball real quickly.
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  Speaker 1: That's something that you're gonna have to You're not gonna
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  Speaker 1: be able to do that every play. Guess what, they
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  Speaker 1: will figure that out at some point. It's it's you
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  Speaker 1: know they have They have some pretty smart coaches too,
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  Speaker 1: and Banks, the defensive coordinator, is one of the best
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  Speaker 1: in the nation according to most folks who know these things.
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  Speaker 1: So you know this, You're not gonna be able to
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  Speaker 1: just do that constantly, but you have to use that.
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  Speaker 1: You have to, you know, sprinkle, sprinkle some tempo in
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  Speaker 1: there from time to time. Pick up a first down.
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  Speaker 1: You're not gonna do that necessarily at the very start
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  Speaker 1: of a drive. Pick up a first down or two,
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  Speaker 1: and then boom once they're Once you've been out there
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  Speaker 1: a little bit, you get into a little bit of rhythm,
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  Speaker 1: then you go tempo, and you catch them off guard
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  Speaker 1: at that point. The other thing that we've seen teams
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  Speaker 1: have a good deal of success with over the games
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  Speaker 1: that we've watched is at least the threat of the
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  Speaker 1: quarterback run, if not the quarterback run itself. I think
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  Speaker 1: you got to have Will Howard. You got to work
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  Speaker 1: Will Howard into the run game plan a decent amount,
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  Speaker 1: just because it gives you the plus one that urban
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  Speaker 1: Meyer always talked about. In the run game. It also
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  Speaker 1: forces Tennessee to defend more of the field. If you
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  Speaker 1: have the quarterback, you know, you're showing a handoff inside
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  Speaker 1: to the running back, and then you have Howard going
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  Speaker 1: over the edge or vice versa off the edge, and
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  Speaker 1: then you also have you know, maybe an RPO, you know,
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  Speaker 1: backside hitch or something attached to attached to something like that. Boy,
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  Speaker 1: that really opens things up quite a bit in terms
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  Speaker 1: of forcing Tennessee to defend the whole field. Spread them out,
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  Speaker 1: make make Will Howard an active part of the run game.
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  Speaker 1: That potentially opens up you know, it sets it for
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  Speaker 1: success there, but it also opens up potentially other stuff
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  Speaker 1: elsewhere on the field.
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  Speaker 2: Well, Howard's high game this year is twenty eight yards brushing.
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  Speaker 2: I'll be surprised if he's well over that in this one.
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  Speaker 2: I think they need to be if they want to
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  Speaker 2: establish the running game, and if they do establish it
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  Speaker 2: with him as part of it, you know, he could
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  Speaker 2: he could hit fifty sixty yards and we're still waiting
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  Speaker 2: on that seventy yard or this year has not happened.
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  Speaker 2: It has happened in the past for him. A few times.
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  Speaker 2: So he has that capability. We've seen it in practice
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  Speaker 2: in the fall or in spring or summer, whatever, but
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  Speaker 2: I haven't seen it here yet. But if he doesn't
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  Speaker 2: have over twenty eight yards rushing, then I don't I'm
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  Speaker 2: not expecting the Ohio State running game to be that successful.
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  Speaker 2: But if he does have under and they are successful,
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  Speaker 2: then O High State wins is by a couple of scores.
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  Speaker 1: I think, Yeah, I think I think that's you know,
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  Speaker 1: there's a bunch of different Like if you tell me this,
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  Speaker 1: I will tell you what the game you know, what
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  Speaker 1: the game result is. Yeah, if he's if he's an
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  Speaker 1: effective part of the run game, that tells you they
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  Speaker 1: have an effective run game, which tells you they're able
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  Speaker 1: to hang onto the ball, which tells you I mean
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  Speaker 1: all of that stuff. I'm not expecting a real high
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  Speaker 1: scoring game here. This is one where if Ohio State
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  Speaker 1: can help protect its defense a little bit with some
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  Speaker 1: extended drives Tennessee defense on the field, all of that
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  Speaker 1: stuff will go a long way. The last thing I
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  Speaker 1: had is how many targets do you want Jeremiah Smith
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  Speaker 1: to get? Because how many touches do you want Jeremiah
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  Speaker 1: Smith to get because you got to. You gotta throw
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  Speaker 1: the ball to the best player on the field, and
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  Speaker 1: you know, obviously you can't just throw it to him
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  Speaker 1: forty seven times. We saw Alabama try to do that
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  Speaker 1: with Ryan Williams during their game against Tennessee, and it
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  Speaker 1: didn't work because eventually, again, Tennessee's pretty smart, they figured
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  Speaker 1: it out that, hey, Ryan Williams is the only one
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  Speaker 1: that they seem to be throwing the ball to. You gotta,
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  Speaker 1: you gotta. You know, you have other talented players on
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  Speaker 1: the field, but when you have one on one opportunities,
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  Speaker 1: you got to throw it up. When Ohio State has
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  Speaker 1: the wind, I would throw one up. I would stick
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  Speaker 1: stick Jeremiah Smith and just say put them out wide,
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  Speaker 1: say run a nine route. Will Howard, you have the
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  Speaker 1: wind at your back, try and out throw them, Try
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  Speaker 1: and overthrow Jeremiah Smith. I don't think we've seen that
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  Speaker 1: this year, other than the one at Penn State where
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  Speaker 1: he kind of lost the ball in the sun and
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  Speaker 1: stop stop running. Other than that, we really have not
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  Speaker 1: seen Will Howard overthrow Jeremiah Smith. Go ahead and try it.
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  Speaker 1: Take it as a personal challenge to overthrow Jeremiah Smith.
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  Speaker 1: When you have the wind, but also Tony, I think
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  Speaker 1: you can get him involved in the run game as well.
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  Speaker 1: We've seen him, you know, take sort of end of
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  Speaker 1: rounds a couple times. It worked for a touchdown against
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  Speaker 1: Michigan State, it did not go. It didn't go quite
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  Speaker 1: as well against Northwestern, but I think they still picked
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  Speaker 1: up a short gain. But find other ways to get
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  Speaker 1: him the ball whatever that might be him, get him
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  Speaker 1: the ball in space and just say, well, try and
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: do something cool.
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  Speaker 2: So you're saying when we talked to will Howard, be like,
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: did you hear Jeremiah Smith say you got a noodle? Alarm?
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  Speaker 2: Totally dismissive of your arm strength. Brother. That Ryan Williams
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  Speaker 2: the Alabama game, he was targeted nineteen times in that game,
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  Speaker 2: caught eight passes for seventy three yards. And the other
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  Speaker 2: amazing thing about that is that they were on him
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  Speaker 2: immediately only seven yards after the catch of all of
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  Speaker 2: those catches of those eight yards, and those nineteen targets
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  Speaker 2: long of just sixteen yards. Those are winning numbers all
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  Speaker 2: all day long for Tennessee. If they can they can
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  Speaker 2: do that now, I would expect better numbers if Jeremiah
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  Speaker 2: Smith is targeted nineteen times. I'm not expecting that to happen.
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  Speaker 2: But what could also happen is something that happened in
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  Speaker 2: this game is of the two hundred and thirty nine
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  Speaker 2: yards receiving for Tennessee, one hundred and forty eight of
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  Speaker 2: them were after the catch. So they were making hey
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  Speaker 2: with the short passing game because there is so much
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  Speaker 2: focus on Ryan Williams. So if there's a ton of
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  Speaker 2: focus on Jeremiah Smith, then everybody else has to eat.
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  Speaker 2: Even though Jalen Melroe kept trying to feed Ryan Williams,
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  Speaker 2: it was everybody else getting the bulk of the yards
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  Speaker 2: in that one. And so if Tennessee wants to try
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: to stop Jeremiah Smith, you have to let them and
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: then go let everybody else eat.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, someone if they can't double everyone as they say,
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  Speaker 1: And Ohio State does have probably a deeper and more
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  Speaker 1: talented way receiver room than anyone that Tennessee has played
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: this year. And how will the weather cooperate? You will
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: all find out together on Saturday night. Really looking forward
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: to this one. Should be a really really good exciting
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: matchup of those games you've been waiting a generation forward.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: Let's see what the SEC team coming up to Columbus, Ohio,
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: and December is going to look like and there's a
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: national championship potentially on the line for these teams as well,
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: four games away from potentially winning the national title. It
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: all starts Saturday night in the Horseshoe eight o'clock. We
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: will be there, Tony, Kevin and I there covering the team.
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: Weve got Mark Covern recruiting at bucke huddle dot com.
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: Got our whole team of xi's and o's gurus there
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: as well. Make you a smarter football fan. Hope to
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: see you there. Also, hope to see you at our
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: YouTube channel, YouTube dot com slash buckay Huddle. We are
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: gonna have a ton of coverage this week, Interviews with
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: players and coaches, all sorts of inside analysis. Will have
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: some of our x's and OSE guys on some of
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: these shows as well to break stuff down for you.
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: All of that at bucke huddle dot com and YouTube
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: dot com slash Buckeye. That'll do it for today. Thank
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: you guys all for joining us. Have a great day.
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: We'll talk to you tomorrow.