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Ross Fulton Analysis: Who Should Be Ohio State's Next Defensive Coordinator? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Buckeyes tomorrow morning for Tuesday, January twenty eighth.
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  Speaker 1: I'm your host, tom Or. The Texas game is in
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  Speaker 1: two hundred and fourteen days. The game against Michigan in
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  Speaker 1: three hundred and five days. All Right, we got to
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  Speaker 1: talk about the fallout from the departure of Ohio State
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  Speaker 1: defensive coordinator Jim Knowles four Penn state that news broke, well,
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  Speaker 1: we had kind of had a pretty good sense for
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  Speaker 1: it on the night before the Ohio State National Championship celebration,
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  Speaker 1: and then the day of the National Championship celebration. It
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  Speaker 1: broke just after the event ended. And so now the
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  Speaker 1: question is what next for the Ohio State defense. Can
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  Speaker 1: we bringing on our Budd Ross Fulton, the x's and
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  Speaker 1: o's guru at bucke huddle dot com to try and
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  Speaker 1: make sense of some of the potential names on the
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  Speaker 1: hot board, if you will, for the defensive coordinator job
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  Speaker 1: at Ohio State when we have Ross in the show.
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  Speaker 1: We are sponsored by Jeff Rubs of Columbus, probably offering
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  Speaker 1: nationally acclaimed USDA Prime Stakes, seafood and sushi, impeccable service,
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  Speaker 1: Just go to Jeff Ruby dot com slash Columbus check
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  Speaker 1: for today. All right, Ross, So, I think before we
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  Speaker 1: dive into some specific names here, I think it might
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  Speaker 1: be helpful to have a little bit of a broader
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  Speaker 1: conversation on the benefits of a continuity higher, so, you know,
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  Speaker 1: keeping someone keeping it in house, someone who is sort
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  Speaker 1: of off of that Jim Knowles coaching tree, for example,
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  Speaker 1: versus maybe going out nationally and trying to see is
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  Speaker 1: there a best available national candidate or something like that. So,
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  Speaker 1: before we get into specific names, what would be the
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  Speaker 1: benefits of a continuity higher keeping things sort of in
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  Speaker 1: house versus going out and trying to do more of
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  Speaker 1: a national search.
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  Speaker 2: I think it depends what we mean by continuity to
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  Speaker 2: begin with, right, Are we talking about what Ohio State
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  Speaker 2: was doing and the last ten weeks of the season
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  Speaker 2: following Oregon one, where they were running much more what
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  Speaker 2: I would have expected from a Jim Knowles defense, or
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  Speaker 2: are we talking about continuity with a four down, one gap,
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  Speaker 2: single high concept that you know, I think someone like
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  Speaker 2: Larry Johnson would prefer to play, So assuming that it's
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  Speaker 2: continuity with what Jim Knowles wanted to do. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: I think the proof is in the pudding, right, Like
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  Speaker 2: it worked really well. They came up with a good
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  Speaker 2: hybridized approach that kept a four down front with while
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  Speaker 2: while using some of the concepts of like spacing up
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  Speaker 2: front that Jym Doles would want to achieved from an
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  Speaker 2: odd front anyways, like we've talked about, like you know,
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  Speaker 2: closing down into your gaps, so with different techniques so
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  Speaker 2: that you can linebackers and second level players can sit
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  Speaker 2: on RPOs or play different types of split safety coverages
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  Speaker 2: without having to be conflicted with both paths pass and
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  Speaker 2: inside run responsibilities. So that would be the benefit of
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  Speaker 2: you know, it certainly ain't broke worked pretty well, like
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  Speaker 2: don't fix it. You know, they were able to feature
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  Speaker 2: kalb downs effectively in that system, particularly like as that
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  Speaker 2: middle safety and three high schemes or at the second level.
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  Speaker 2: So he's obviously going to be back, so you know,
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  Speaker 2: I think it's paramount to make sure that you maximize
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  Speaker 2: his talents.
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  Speaker 3: So I guess that would be the benefit.
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  Speaker 2: And obviously, you know, it depends what the names are
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  Speaker 2: I suppose, but you know, finding the best available I
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  Speaker 2: guess you know there comes with some uncertainty, particularly if
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  Speaker 2: like we're talking about someone internally in terms of their
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  Speaker 2: experience level, right, So it's you know, if you find
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  Speaker 2: someone who's more of a proving commodity. But I think
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  Speaker 2: then that then it gets into the questions of like
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  Speaker 2: staff alignment and continuity that let us here in the
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  Speaker 2: first place.
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  Speaker 1: So the two names that I've heard the most in
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  Speaker 1: terms of potential internal promotions are the two guys in
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  Speaker 1: the secondary, and that would be Matt Gerary, who is
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  Speaker 1: a longtime Noles assistant probably Knowles, that knows the Noles
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  Speaker 1: defense better than anyone else on that staff other than
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  Speaker 1: Knowles himself, and who also has a number of years
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  Speaker 1: of calling defenses before, did it for what for years
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  Speaker 1: at Duke and then a year at Indiana, so he's
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  Speaker 1: got some experience. And then Tim Wolton. Tim Wolton served
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  Speaker 1: as a defensive Cornado, I think on a couple of
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  Speaker 1: occasions in the NFL, obviously knows the Knowles defense as
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  Speaker 1: coached with him for the last few years here at
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  Speaker 1: Ohio State as well. Do you have a sense for
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  Speaker 1: you know, other than sort of trying to read the
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  Speaker 1: tea leaves on Ryan Day's introduction of Matt Gerary as
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  Speaker 1: one of the best young rising coaches or whatever it
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  Speaker 1: was on Sunday. Do you have a sense for the
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  Speaker 1: likelihood or maybe the fit of one of those guys
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  Speaker 1: versus the other.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, Career is the one who jumps out to me
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  Speaker 2: more for the reasons Obviously that Brian Day comment, you know,
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  Speaker 2: can certainly overread into that, but that obviously seemed like
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  Speaker 2: a thumb on the scale for the reasons you listed though,
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  Speaker 2: Like he's been in the NOLE system, he's called defenses before,
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  Speaker 2: as I said on Bucket Huddle and elsewhere, Like I
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  Speaker 2: give him credit whether it's do or not. For like,
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  Speaker 2: as we've talks about following Oregon one, you know, they
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  Speaker 2: went from a lot of those like spot drop zone
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  Speaker 2: concepts to much more of matching routes in Cover two
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  Speaker 2: and Cover three and playing more Cover four concepts where
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  Speaker 2: their you know, carrying receivers things we pointed out throughout
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  Speaker 2: the breakdowns. And the reason I do is just because
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  Speaker 2: like when he was in Indiana, that was you know
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  Speaker 2: what they I thought they had an effective game playing
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  Speaker 2: against our state. He did a lot of pattern matching
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  Speaker 2: cover three in his time at Indiana, and uh, you know,
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  Speaker 2: as the safety's coach, Like that's naturally like more coverage
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  Speaker 2: focused tends to you know, when they split up responsibilities,
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  Speaker 2: that tends to be her full so that that goes
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  Speaker 2: to the continuity. And obviously like he's a young, up
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  Speaker 2: and coming person, like you know, it's much more of
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  Speaker 2: like a Jeff Hafley or even Ryan day Higher for
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  Speaker 2: that matter, whereas with Walton, like, yes, he was a
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  Speaker 2: defensive coordinator at points in the NFL, but I don't
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  Speaker 2: know if that pot newty's there, Like, as you said,
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  Speaker 2: he's been in the system, but it wasn't like he
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  Speaker 2: was doing Nole's stuff when he was the coordinator in
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  Speaker 2: the NFL, so that I would certainly, I guess if
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  Speaker 2: I had to choose like lean or Toprairi as sort
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  Speaker 2: of the air apparent to knowles if you will.
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  Speaker 1: So before we get to some of the potential external options,
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  Speaker 1: I did want to ask, Okay, if you bring in,
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  Speaker 1: if you just go to promote from within, you do
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  Speaker 1: have another spot on the coaching staff, then you have
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  Speaker 1: that that tenth Well, I guess I don't know if
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  Speaker 1: they even really are doing accountable coaches anymore. But you
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  Speaker 1: do have that spot where Jim Knowles, whoever you know,
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  Speaker 1: that Greary, if he moves into Jim Nole's office, Someone's
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  Speaker 1: got to sit in that Garrari's office. So do you
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  Speaker 1: have a sense for what you would do? You know,
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  Speaker 1: if you're in Ryan Dashoes, what do you do with
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  Speaker 1: that coaching staff spot? Do you bring in a special
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  Speaker 1: teams guide? Do you bring in another defensive guy? Do
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  Speaker 1: you do you promote someone and have you know, assistant
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  Speaker 1: defensive line coach or as another safety's coachure what would
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  Speaker 1: what would you think they might look at doing in
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  Speaker 1: terms of that extra spot if they do promote from within.
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  Speaker 2: I would, yeah, I would look for a co defensive
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  Speaker 2: coordinator akin to like the Ryal Greig Madison played. We're
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  Speaker 2: someone who's focused in particular on the front six, front seven,
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  Speaker 2: whatever term you want to use to mix with Greary
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  Speaker 2: being a secondary's guy, you know in particular, as I said,
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  Speaker 2: like based on you know, Tony Government's reported others like
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  Speaker 2: of the the people who I feel like we're less
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  Speaker 2: on the same page with Jim Knowles in terms of
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  Speaker 2: what he wanted to do, it was probably the defensive
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  Speaker 2: line coach and the linebackers coach, So I would to
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  Speaker 2: the extent again, we're looking for continuity with what Jim
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  Speaker 2: Knowles was doing, and you know, presumably Matt Greer would
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  Speaker 2: want to do that, like you would want someone who
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  Speaker 2: has overall review of the front and the second level,
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  Speaker 2: who is on the same page.
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  Speaker 1: All right now looking at some of the potential external candidates,
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  Speaker 1: and it's kind of funny get you get some last
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  Speaker 1: names on here that you're like, hey, I think I
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  Speaker 1: remember that guy, and it's like, no, you remember that
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  Speaker 1: guy's dad or uncle or brother or something like that.
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  Speaker 1: But the first guy is Mike Tressell, current defensive coordinator
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  Speaker 1: at Wisconsin. That's a name that I have heard come
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  Speaker 1: up in a couple of different places. He is the
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  Speaker 1: son of former o Hiuse State running backs coach Dick Tressel,
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  Speaker 1: a former o House date GA, and the nephew of
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  Speaker 1: former Ohiuse state head coach Jim Tressel. So what do
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  Speaker 1: you know about Mike Tressell and his defensive philosophy and
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  Speaker 1: would that be a good fit with Ohio State and
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  Speaker 1: what they're going to do or would that be a
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  Speaker 1: complete overhaul like what would he where would he fit
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  Speaker 1: in in terms of a defensive coordinator?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean up front of be a pretty big
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  Speaker 2: overhaul because he's been again he's an odd friend guy.
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  Speaker 2: So like I, you know, I don't want to speak
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  Speaker 2: out a turn. I can't say exactly what has happened
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  Speaker 2: the past three years, but I as long as Larry
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  Speaker 2: Johnson's there, don't think they really want to be a
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  Speaker 2: three down defense. And you know, the argument they've made
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  Speaker 2: is that they recruited to a four down defense. I
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  Speaker 2: think that they have more opportunities to do odd front
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  Speaker 2: things next year simply because like lack of depth up
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  Speaker 2: front on the defensive line.
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  Speaker 3: And you know, CJ.
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  Speaker 2: Hicks is coming back, and I'm presuming that, like the
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  Speaker 2: one reason he's coming back is to move to more
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  Speaker 2: of an edge roll, you know, if you want to
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  Speaker 2: use the term jack if you will, But again, like
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  Speaker 2: that's a big change, and are you willing to undertake
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  Speaker 2: that change now when you aren't willing to do with
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  Speaker 2: Jim Bowles.
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  Speaker 1: Another name that will be a last name that sounds
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  Speaker 1: familiar is John Haycock. He actually had long, long connections
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  Speaker 1: at Youngstown State, took over at Youngstown State after Jim
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  Speaker 1: Tressel took the Ohio State job. Remember remember another defensive
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  Speaker 1: coordinator at Ohio State back in the day, Jim Haycock.
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  Speaker 1: So another another name that's sort of familiar to folks
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  Speaker 1: in the Ohio State orbit. He's been at Iowa State
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  Speaker 1: for a few years. And you know, back in the
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  Speaker 1: post Kerry Combs days, that was a name that I
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  Speaker 1: had heard just sort of mentioned kind of briefly as
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  Speaker 1: like you know someone that Ryan Day had maybe you know,
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  Speaker 1: looked at at one point and thought about it at
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  Speaker 1: one point. Now he is, you know, he's still at
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  Speaker 1: Iowa State, continues to do a do good job in
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  Speaker 1: some ways sort of similar to what Noles brand, but
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  Speaker 1: in some ways not.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean again, like Space Code on Blue Sky
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  Speaker 2: has a good discussion of why Ecock would be a
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  Speaker 2: good choice. Yeah, I mean connuity in the sense of
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  Speaker 2: like Jim Knowles when he went to the Big twelve
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  Speaker 2: basically took a lot of he Cocks stuff from Iowa
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  Speaker 2: State and adapted it, like the three down front, the
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  Speaker 2: three high scheme that like as tech middle safety that
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  Speaker 2: we talked about Down's plane.
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  Speaker 3: So like, you know, he Cocks older than Knowles.
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  Speaker 2: I guess to the extent that matters, you know, but
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  Speaker 2: like cutting one way or the other. But again like
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  Speaker 2: keep that sound like a pergod record, but like some
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  Speaker 2: of this comes down to like staff alignment and like
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  Speaker 2: you know, I think Ryan Day three years ago or
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  Speaker 2: whenever he hired Jim Knowles like probably should have better
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  Speaker 2: thought through was he comfortable running what Knowles wanted to
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  Speaker 2: do or did he want to be like a four down,
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  Speaker 2: one gap defense. You know there's people out there that
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  Speaker 2: do that, Brent Prye, others. Penn State has a long
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  Speaker 2: line of coaches doing that. You know, Tennis as we
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  Speaker 2: talked about, like Tennessee does it because they came from
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  Speaker 2: Penn State. So again that be like somewhat of a transition,
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  Speaker 2: like not yes and no a transition, right because a
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  Speaker 2: lot of what Knowles does is what he talked does.
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  Speaker 1: And one other name, one of the name that's at
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  Speaker 1: least been sort of mentioned is Jim Leonard, former Wisconsin
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  Speaker 1: defensive coordinator and I believe interim head coach as well.
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  Speaker 1: And then when they brought in Fickle, he was not
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  Speaker 1: retained or chose not to stay there. He's in the
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  Speaker 1: NFL right now. I mean any sense for you know,
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  Speaker 1: first of all schematic fit there, and second of all,
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  Speaker 1: generally I assume when a guy goes to the NFL,
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  Speaker 1: he probably is not all that enthusiastic but coming back
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  Speaker 1: to college to do the recruiting stuff again. But I
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  Speaker 1: mean any sense there at all.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, same, I just have the same pure guess that like,
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  Speaker 2: he's had opportunities in college and seemed like he wanted
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  Speaker 2: to get out of recruiting and be in the NFL.
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  Speaker 2: Same same she'sus the last few days on front guy,
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  Speaker 2: you know, so big change. So again it's like that's
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  Speaker 2: it's you got to like have you gotta have alignment
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  Speaker 2: to start with, and like you don't want to be
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  Speaker 2: back in the same situation where the defensive coordinator and
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  Speaker 2: the assistants can't get on the same page.
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  Speaker 1: If you're not going with someone internally, is there someone
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  Speaker 1: nationally who you think, boy, this guy might be a
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  Speaker 1: really smooth transition. I mean, you probably have new terminology
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  Speaker 1: and all that kind of stuff, But in of a
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  Speaker 1: schematic fit, is there someone who's like a best available
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  Speaker 1: national guy that would not be a complete start from
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  Speaker 1: scratch higher for Ohio State or you know, if not
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  Speaker 1: who's who you know, you're in charge, who's getting hired.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean that's why I kind of tend to
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  Speaker 2: go with Gerri because I just I don't have an
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  Speaker 2: easy name off the top of my head. I said, like,
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  Speaker 2: you can throw out Jeff Hafley and there's your four
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  Speaker 2: down like single high base scheme. I mean again, same thing,
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  Speaker 2: like he's a defensive coordinate in the NFL. He I
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  Speaker 2: thought he really wants to go back to college Bred
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  Speaker 2: Price the head coach at Virginia Tech. So like, you know,
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  Speaker 2: without going through like the entire coaching tree of everyone
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  Speaker 2: out there right now, I just there's not like a
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  Speaker 2: big name that jumps out to me that seems to
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  Speaker 2: like be a like a great fit. And so for
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  Speaker 2: my part, as I said, like what I the one
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  Speaker 2: thing I've done is like I'm broaking down lots of
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  Speaker 2: ISO State games.
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  Speaker 3: I like what Gerri did against I State when he's
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  Speaker 3: at Indiana.
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  Speaker 2: I like the changes they made in the back end
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  Speaker 2: a lot post organ as we've talked about uh, and
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  Speaker 2: I like keeping you know, they have now a veteran
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  Speaker 2: group in the back end. Still like keeping those guys
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  Speaker 2: on the same page and assuming that they were happy
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  Speaker 2: with how things went, Like I'd like them to continue
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  Speaker 2: forward with what they've been doing.
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  Speaker 1: And is there a benefit to maintaining you know, I
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  Speaker 1: assume you'd sort of maintain the same terminology and the
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  Speaker 1: same basic scheme stuff. Is there an advantage to that
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  Speaker 1: where you're probably starting spring ball a couple of steps
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  Speaker 1: ahead of where you would if you were kind of
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  Speaker 1: introducing a new playbook.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely right. I mean that's why tipically didn't change
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  Speaker 2: the terminology. I mean they have such a short turnaround
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  Speaker 2: too to spring from given worth finishing, like six weeks
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  Speaker 2: from the National championship game, So I think there's a
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  Speaker 2: big you avoid a big learning curve, right and again,
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  Speaker 2: like you know, to the extent it goes beyond scheme
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  Speaker 2: and like personalities were involved, like if again, like I
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  Speaker 2: can't speak to how everyone gets along with Matt Greary obviously, but.
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  Speaker 3: It definitely gives you a leg up.
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  Speaker 2: Now, obviously you have to weigh that against like do
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  Speaker 2: you think he's the right guy for the job and
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  Speaker 2: can't let the short term outweigh the long term, but
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  Speaker 2: certainly would give you a leg up.
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  Speaker 1: All right, So there you go. So there's your breakdown.
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  Speaker 1: Of some of the potential leading candidates or at least
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  Speaker 1: names we're hearing in terms of the Ohio State defensive
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  Speaker 1: coordinator search. We will continue to follow that for you
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  Speaker 1: at bucke huddle dot com. As Ross mentioned there, we've
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  Speaker 1: had a lot of shitter chatter on our board, the huddleword,
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  Speaker 1: presented by Jeff Ruby's columbus Jenner Gerderman kind of did
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: a notebook dump on what he was hearing and some
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: of the stories behind the move and all that kind
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  Speaker 1: of stuff. There's been a lot to talk about. You believe,
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  Speaker 1: it has only been about a week since Ohio State
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  Speaker 1: won the national championship. Feels like that was about a
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  Speaker 1: month and a half ago. There's been a ton to
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  Speaker 1: talk about there. There will continue to be a ton
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  Speaker 1: to talk about as we head into springball and all
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  Speaker 1: of the potential changes coming at Ohio State. There's gonna
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  Speaker 1: be a lot to talk about. We hope to talk
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  Speaker 1: about it with all of you there at bucke huddle
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  Speaker 1: dot com and at YouTube dot com slash Buckey Huddle.
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: Thanks again to our friends at Jeff Ruby's columbus, the
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: award winning Upscales Steakhouse in downtown Columbus name one of
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: the top fifty steakhouses in America by Food Network. Just
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: go to Jeffruby dot com slash Columbus, check out the menu,
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: and make a reservation today. That'll do it for today.
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: Thank you guys all for joining us. Have a great day.
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  Speaker 1: We'll talk to you tomorrow.