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Which Young Defensive Linemen Have Taken A Leap This Spring? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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Welcome to Buckeyes tomorrow morning. This is Kevin Noon. I was producing this
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show here on March twenty sixth. Then I want to have my Maya Kolpa.
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I screwed up the audio in the first forty five seconds of this piece,
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So here I am recording a custom intro and taking my lumps as it's
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my fault that we missed the beginning of the show. At the beginning,
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we talked a little bit about the breaking news of Caleb Downs losing his black
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stripe, the second member of the Buckeyes to lose their black stripe this spring,
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joining Jeremiah Smith. Without further ado, let's join the show with Tom
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Orr and Tony Gerdaman, and I promise I will do better. Turns out
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that he's okay. But yes, that happened today after practice, and I
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think the smart money would have been on him doing it first. The fact
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that Jeremiah Smith beat him, I think is another significant sign. But yeah,
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Caleb Downs never any concern about anything, like, he's been fine and
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he's been doing what he's supposed to be doing it. So this was him
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being officially welcomed. And yeah, I think this is the effect that he's
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second. The iacting happened in the sixth practice feels like him being second and
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says a lot more about Jeremiah Smith than it does about Caleb Downs. Because
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of Caleb Downs, if you had said he lost this blackstripe after the sixth
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practice, it would be like, ah, yes, right on schedule for
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someone who came in extremely ready to play. And yeah, so this is
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not a surprising development. He is not. I'm sure everyone's wondering, Hey,
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Tom, of course you got the first person in the black stripe draft.
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What about Caleb Downs. We don't draft transfer guys. The only transfer
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guy who he did draft with Julian saying, but he's a true freshman.
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So that's the exception to a poltics semantics technicalities. You know how we love
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our rules and regulations on this show, Tony, all right, so enough
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for rules and regulations. Fun. Let's talk a little bit about the defensive
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line. Got to talk to Chance, to talk to Larry Johnson a bunch
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about that. Talk to Keenan Billy, the tight ends coach as well.
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Let's start with the defensive line. One thing that he said right off the
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bat, Larry Johnson, younger guys, have to be ready to come in
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and play twenty to thirty reps a game, and the younger guys are repping
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with the ones to get ready, and it sounds like he's pretty happy with
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where some of those younger guys are right now. Yeah, he continue continue
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to mention Jason Moore, Hero Canoe, Cade McDonald as like the three younger
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guys, both the Moore and McDonald's, McDonald's being second year guys, Canoe
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being a third year guy, but those guys getting a bunch of reps and
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the interesting thing to be like the twenty five twenty to thirty snaps early in
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the season. He mentioned a couple of times about early in the season,
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those young guys are going to have to play a lot that way, everybody
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is fresher at the end of the season because he talked about a sixteen game
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season. Every coach we've talked to us talked about that being a factor already
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in terms of how they're getting ready, getting guys ready, and getting those
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young guys a bunch of snaps. The ones. How much work do ty
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Hamilton, Tyler Williams, Jack Sawyer and JT. Tuey molowall need none they're
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getting a bunch of work as coaches this spring and getting those young guys.
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Will Smith included Taiwan Malone, not necessarily a young guy, but these inexperienced
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guys, getting them as many reps as possible, especially at defensive tackle where
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they're less proven than they are on the outside. And that seventeen game season.
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I'm fascinated. Every time we talk to coaches and it's always like,
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well, I guess we'll see because this is not oh one extra game.
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This is you're going from. You could have been, you know, maximum
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of fifteen now maximum of seventeen. And Ohio State has not played fifteen games
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in recent years. They played last year they played thirteen games, and now
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you could be playing three more, four more than that. That's a big
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jump. Larry Johnson's asked, you know, what do you think about trying
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to get through a seventeen potentially sixteen seventeen game schedule with a roster full of
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college kids, and he said, and this is not a direct quote,
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but it was basically asked that question. At the end of the season.
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Right now, we don't know, and that's, you know, that's a
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little scary, it's you know, I think they're taking the reasonable steps right
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now to prepare themselves, to prepare the players for what they're likely to face
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this fall. But this is you know, in a in an era where
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they talk all about limiting exposures and limiting contact and all that kind of stuff.
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In the NFL is changing each kickoff rule to make sure that there's not
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you know, you have less risk of injury. This huge jump for guys
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who are not necessarily, you know, fully grown adults. They're not twenty
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seven year old, thirty year old these are you know, you got eighteen
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year olds out there. In some cases that's a little you know that.
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I kind of hear that, and I kind of go, yeah, especially
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in this era with the eighty five scholarships twenty five thirty five years ago,
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when it was ninety five or whatever, and before then it was you know,
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one hundred, it was unlimited for ten games. You know, now
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you're talking eighty five. I think that number will eventually go up, but
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and it may take this kind of season to see. Is there attrition throughout
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the season. Do you lose people to where you're like, okay, well
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you the evidence is there for the need for more scholarships. But it is
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kind of an uncertain situation. I remember irbin Meyer. I don't know exactly
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what if this is like after winning the national championship, but just the idea
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of playing another game after the Oregon game is like, its couldn't do it.
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Couldn't you couldn't imagine it wouldn't be able to do it. And now
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that would have you're talking maybe one or two games to two games after that,
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maybe three, you know or whatever. But the uh and it's been
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west since twenty nineteen that Ohio State has played more than thirteen games in a
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season. So nobody around here has been a part of that. Yeah,
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that's that's true, that's and that's crazy. But yeah, and I think
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there is a little bit of adjustment. What's an NFL roster fifty five fifty
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three, So fifty three guys versus eighty five you're gonna have, you know,
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all the guys, all fifty three guys in the NFL roster are ready
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to play. You don't have a bunch of developmental guys there. I mean,
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you might have one or two, but it's not you know, you
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don't have a whole class of true freshmen who you're not expecting to play.
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You know, you look at Michigan losing Rod More their safety with an ACL
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injury for the season. You know, you're all, okay, now they
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have time they have to make They maybe have time to go get someone in
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the transfer portal, but they just lost key On Sabin the transfer portal to
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Alabama, so now they're really thin there. You're gonna see this happening all
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over the place, and you know, injuries in fall camp now feel like
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that's going to be a very big deal for for programs because you can you
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can try and manage your reps and balance your reps as much as you can.
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The reality of a sixteen game season is it's not just well it's three
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more games or four more games. It's these are going to be the most
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intense games. Like you are much more likely to have just you know,
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come in battered and bruised on the Sunday morning after a playoff game against Alabama
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or Texas or whoever than you are against Akron because number one, you played,
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you probably your starter's probably played most of the game. You know,
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J T. Twemlow and Jack Swoy were probably pretty darn tired and pretty dumb
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beat up after that Notre Dame game, after they played every snap last year,
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you're gonna play. It's not just more reps. It's more high impact,
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very physical reps against the big, the strong, the you know,
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the fast guys on the other teams who are at that level as well.
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Yeah, and that's why it's so important to get these guys ready as quickly
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as possible. They don't need to be ready to play today, but the
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process to get them ready to play starts today and continues. And Larry Johnson
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talked about last year there was there wasn't much rotation because the guys behind the
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starters weren't necessarily ready. We've talked on the show for years. He doesn't
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like putting his young guys in positions to fail because not only does it hurt
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them then, but it can hurt them down the road. That's something they
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can carry with them. So you want to put them in situations to succeed.
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And they're just weren't enough guys ready last year. You can't have not
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enough guys ready over the course of a season like this, and if you
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do, then you're gonna have a loss here or there to where I guess
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it's not a I guess we're not playing sixteen games anyway. It takes care
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of itself. Yeah, how about that the problem that solves itself. Yeah,
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you need not just the same number of last year. You probably need
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more than last year. And he you know, they are very fortunate this
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year to be in a position where you look at the four starters across the
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defensive line and go one, two, three, fourth. Those are the
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four guys. They're all veterans. They probably don't need a ton of reps
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this spring, which gives you the luxury, as you said earlier, of
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you know, getting those younger guys some reps. It sounds like at the
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defensive end position. This is probably not news to anyone who has been listening
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to any of our shows over the last few months, but Kat and Curry,
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Kenyata Jackson, Mitchell Melton, and then you know, hoping that some
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of the young guys, whether it's Josh Mickens or Edward Houston, can maybe
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be the fourth backup guy there. But you know, that's that's a really
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quality group depth wise. King Curry has been an impact player for a little
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while. Kenyata Jackson, he said, you know, has been. You
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know, he's got all the physical tools. It's just consistency, which I
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feel like it's kind of the same conversation we had about Tyler Williams Munch in
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recent years too. Yeah. Yeah, just doing it over and over and
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over and again, and having the coaches know that they can count on you,
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and if they know that, and there's no like I can only put
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them in good situations like I could put you in any situation. It's amazing
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how much more of the field you will see. So those top four I
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think they're completely fine with. It's that kind of depth at the top is
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tremendous. Mitchell Melton is a guy that's been around, so I'm not too
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concerned about him. Can they get to a sixth guy? Do they need
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to get to a sixth guy? Probably not, But if something happens,
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everybody moves up one and I think you'll see you'll see those young guys Edric
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Houston, Josh Mickens, and Mitchell Meltin. Who's to call them a young
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guy? That's just from you know, our perspective, I guess, yeah,
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But those guys be able to play a bunch of games early in this
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season that way they when when they aren't in a situation later in the year
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where they're forced into something that isn't ideal, they'll be better equipped to handle
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it. And so it's they have good depth. The I'm not too concerned
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about defensive end and the way they're talking the way he was talking Larry Johnson
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talking about Jason Moore Ky McDonald, the way Jim Knowles talks about Hero Canoe.
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I don't have too much concerns there either, But I have more concerns
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on the interior than a defensive end right now. Yeah, that's probably fair,
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but I don't you know, I think if you're playing your second string
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defensive line, which is I mean what at this point, probably Curry Jackson
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on the outside canoe and I mean, well, you can you can go
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a couple of different ways. Yeah, And I guess it just depends.
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I get he said. Cain McDonald is a nose tackle right now, so
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Hero Canue has played nose tackle last year. So it doesn't come down to
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Jason Moore being, as he said, the ideal three technique in this system
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six five ninety five. And that's why I asked him because Tyler Williams,
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ty Hamilton can play either spot. So who is that third guy that would
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come in if something happened, And he said, the first name you mentioned
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was Kate McDonald, which you know he would go to Nose and whoever would
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you know if Tyler or ty Hamilton would then go to three Tech or whatever
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like that. So it's just interesting, interesting to get a little bit of
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a glimpse at the pecking order. But he continued to say hi, things,
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good things about Jason Moore throughout. Yeah, that was one where that's
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a name I've been just waiting to hear for. I'm gonna I'm gonna do
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my obi wan Kenobi. That's a name I haven't heard for a long time.
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He came out, you know, he came out of high school and
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you just there was so much about him that was like, oh man,
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this guy is gonna be chasem you heard. And you know where he's from
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helps a lot in that same high school, right, they're both from to
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Matha. Yeah, so they you know, obviously that's gonna inspire all sorts
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of irresponsible comps in the Jaden Ballard slash Devin brad Evan Smith Mold. But
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he's someone who I think the guys who watched him at camps and the guys
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who watch him in high school said oh yeah, yeah, this is this
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is the real deal. And then last year just kind of banged up and
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takes sometimes it just takes a year. And now you're now we're hearing the
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stuff I was thinking we might hear a little bit last fall. And you
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know, it's practice six of the spring, so it's hard to say he's
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late. It's hard to say he's not on the schedule here. He's someone
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who I think if he can get to the point where he's you're they're comfortable
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playing him in you know, like like Larry said, twenty five thirty snaps
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a game, boy, that provides a lot of depth. And if you've
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got the two extra guys you're comfortable with at end and you or three extra
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guys you're comfortable in that, and three guys you're comfortable with a tackle,
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and we haven't even talked about Taiwan Malone yet, you know, there's enough
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depth there that you could your second team defensive line could probably start play fifty
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snaps and you win eight games, just even if the other team comes in
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knowing you know, the the first team defensive line is almost a luxury in
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a lot of games. Uh, and you're gonna you're gonna need them for
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the other six or seven or so. But the second the backup defensive line
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is I think the depth there. I feel like they probably are going to
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come out of spaying or spring feeling pretty good about Well they should, because
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you don't have to go too deep into an alternate universe where the second team
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defensive line is the first team defensive line at Ohio State with the four seniors
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coming back like that is that is a luxury. So it wasn't always going
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to be like that. So the guys that are gonna be Cayden, Craig
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Kenyatta Jackson, and those three defensive tackles that we've talked about, there's there's
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a world where they would be starting this year and so they would need to
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be counted on, and so they've been preparing for that. But boy,
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after after this season, this is it's going to be a completely new defensive
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line and all of the experience that they get this year is going to be
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huge for what they do next year. Yeah, getting those guys twenty five
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thirty snaps a game and I'm not expecting them to red shirt Edward Houston even
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though he's not you know, he's not ready to play yet. But you
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go ahead. You're not getting five years out of Edarck Houston. Like,
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I'm sorry to spoil the surprise, but you're not getting five years out of
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Edward Houston. So you play him this year, get him as many reps
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as you can, and those twenty five thirty reps. It's big for this
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year and for the end of this year. It's enormous for next year because
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then it's like, you know, you have guys who are coming in and
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it's like, well, Cody Sam it's not a returning starter, but he
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kind of is. You've got all these guys who have all these banked reps,
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and then it's not, Okay, well what is this guy gonna look
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like on the field against Michigan. Well you've already seen him for twenty five
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thirty snaps. So that's big tailand Malone. You know, I feel like
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Larry maybe you know the old Brian Day listens to the podcast thing. I
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was like, listening to Larry talk about Tylan Malone, I'm like, hey,
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listen, he sounds like it sounds like I was talking about this,
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tell you about the incredible impact that being a baseball player head on his football
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development, and not in a good way, just always splitting time in high
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school, always splitting time when he was at Ole Miss. And you know
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this is really like now he's been a football player full time for like about
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one year now, and you know that that comes with, you know,
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some developmental delays, but also now now that he's doing this full time,
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like boy, he's catching up. Yeah, baseball is such a terrible thing.
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I wonder how good Deon Sanders or Michael Jordan would have been without baseball
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in their lives. They could have been so much better. And I think
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the same thing with Tyln Malone. I'm willing to entertain one of those Bo
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Jackson, But the basket, the baseball talk continues to come up. It's
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like, this is his first spring without baseball. This is last year was
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his first full year without it. So you're just overcoming that. And it's
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at some point you know, this is as fourth year Redchyard junior. Is
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this the year or is this is just a slower process where you know,
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like Nader Abdallah way back when twenty years ago. Now it took to like
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his fifth year, but then he was really good as a fifth year senior.
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Maybe that's what it is for Taiwan Malone. But when you're already talking
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about three guys who are younger than him, yeah, it's not a great
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sign for him. But he Larry did say, he's you're seeing it now.
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It's picking up. It has picked up that he's finally thrown out the
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shackles of baseball and embraced the freedom of football. And he is. You
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know, I think he's someone who I'm not expecting him to be necessarily starting.
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Maybe he's in that twenty thirty snaps a game kind of group this year,
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but he certainly is next year. And you know, with with you
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know, there's a very obvious why. You know, when a guy comes
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in and is not an immediate impact guy, especially as a transfer, sometimes
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there's a oh, just it's not going to work. And sometimes it's Lorenzo
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Styles. By the way, he hasn't played corner at all in college.
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So yeah, there's an obvious answer why Taiwan Malone. There's an obvious answer
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why Hero Canoe not a transfer, but coming in there's an obvious answer why
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in terms of why he's been you know, he's been here a couple of
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years and hasn't really played a lot, and now the light's coming kind of
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coming on, and it's sort of the same thing. Does not have the
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football background that Taiwan Malone does. That has less to do with baseball and
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more to do with where he grew up, which was Germany, which is
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not a place known for this flavor of football. So you know, he's
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another guy who I think you're going to maybe see take a pretty significant step
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this year. Yeah. Also, he did not have the burden in baseball
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in Germany, so that has helped him as well. If you didn't know,
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Tom, I'm a Cubs fan, so baseball is not great. But
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you're also a Mets fan, so I don't know why you're sympathizing. You
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don't. You don't need to tell me. I don't bet on a Dodgers
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fan. Oh you did you have further thoughts or are you just gonna no?
17:55
I am interested to see where are you just gonna babble? I'm interested
17:59
to see what hero Canoe can do because, as you mentioned, Jim Knowles
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talked about him as being the anchor and a five man from which Larry Johnson
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also said they're gonna They haven't done any of that yet, but they have
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talked about it for when they meet up with two tight ended sets this season,
18:12
and talked about the Rushman package as well. I thought that was interesting
18:15
because, you know, he talked about the fact that they brought in the
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Rushman package in twenty seventeen, and that was just a function of, well,
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we've got Nick Bosa and guys like that on the field, and we
18:26
don't want to take them off, but we know, you know, we
18:26
don't want to take the other guys off either, And so you had you
18:32
know, what was that defensive line That was Taekwon Lewis and Nick Bosa,
18:36
Jalen Holmes and Sam Hubbard. Yeah, so yeah, which of those guys
18:41
do you want to take up the field? The answer is e none of
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the above. And so the answer was the Rushman package. And they have
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used that sort of intermittently over the years. And last year you saw j.
18:52
C. Twumoloau Jack Sawyer in the middle and that quite a bit.
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He was asked, you know, is that you want the veteran guys in
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the middle. He said, honestly, it's more of a matchup thing like
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the and they're like, we can get that guard and that's where you put
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you know, that's where they're using that. It sounds like I would expect
19:07
based on his answer, I think you're probably going to see more of that
19:11
this year than you have maybe last year. I think so because that also
19:12
gets Katon Curry Kenyana Jackson on the field more. I think it's just a
19:18
situational thing, like you said, matchup situations. What kind of offense are
19:22
you facing, because you don't want to do it and you don't want to
19:25
do it against twelve personnel thirteen personnelity, you want to do it against a
19:29
lighter offensive line or as you said, a week link and like the raptors
19:34
in Jurassic Park, checking the fence, that's what that is. Just checking
19:37
defense for the week spot and then you attack it. And so yeah,
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it's just different each week as to what they're going to do there. But
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I do think those four defensive ends, if they do put it together,
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you're going to see them out there at times together. Now, I don't
19:52
think Jack Stowyer necessarily loves playing inside, but he kind of did it as
19:57
a jack back in twenty two as a blitzing linebacker ish type where you're dealing
20:02
with the garden, the center of the garden to tackle there. So I
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think they're gonna all all for see the field more than once together this season.
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Now, I was just with Larry Johnson the whole time. Were you
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over with Keenan Bailey? A little, yeah, little anything interesting from Keenan
20:17
Bailey on will Kesmerrick, just continuing to transition from from Ohio where it's a
20:23
lot of it is okay, what is this play? You know, like
20:27
the terminology, the language that's coming along. Then it's you know, just
20:33
that that that process takes a little bit of time and so you just find
20:37
fascality, is there? G Scott of course leader in the room. Keenan
20:42
was asked what what what what kind of what went wrong with Gilani Thurman?
20:47
What roadblock did he hit because he lost his black stripe to early. He's
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like, well, there's no roadblock. It's just these things take a while
20:53
and so that's progressing. But no, no, nothing earth shattering, g
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Scott, Like I said, doing well. Bennett Christian, as you know,
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wasn't able to play in the games last year, but he did everything
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they asked practice wise. He was always a practice and you know, doing
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what everybody else was doing. So he stayed engaged and they'd love for him
21:14
to be a significant part of the offense. But he said, you know,
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that's what you want from everybody, Like, if they're here, you'd
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like them to play. And then they've got they've got some some decent depth
21:25
and they'll be adding two more this summer. In the from the freshman yep,
21:30
all right, and say we've got a couple of questions we want to
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get to. Yeah, Mika Hannah wants to know. Let me use this
21:37
first. Do you think Gay Powers plays more? We think he Gabe Powers
21:41
plays more. I'm expecting a pretty robust rotation at that linebacker position for a
21:48
lot of the same reasons we talked about with the defensive line. So I
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think the answer to that to me is, yeah, yeah, you will
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play more than he did last year. I mean, but I think you
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I don't think he plays as much as Cody Simon played last year. Yes,
22:00
but I think you will see him out there because again, long season,
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you need a second middle linebacker just like you need a backup quarterback.
22:08
You need a backup quarterback of that defense, and the more he can play
22:11
early on I think will obviously help. So yeah, I'm expecting him to
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play more. I don't know that it's going to be second quarter here comes
22:18
Gay Powers. It might be you know, a bunch of fourth quarters,
22:23
but maybe it will because they are going to have to talk about how they
22:26
want to change things in terms of rotating and getting people work and honestly keeping
22:33
guys engaged. And not that you have to worry about Gay Powers of the
22:36
portal because he's set to be the starting middle linebacker next year. But a
22:40
lot of these guys, you're like, well, we need to feed them
22:44
some snaps. Yeah. I think that's true from the sixteen game perspective.
22:47
It's also true from the realities and portal situation. I think the middle linebacker
22:52
role in particular is going to be crucial because of how important that is,
22:56
and with the helmet radios this year, the middle linebacker is one with that
23:00
green dots, and the middle linebacker is not just playing middle linebacker, he
23:03
is the captain of that defense. You can't you know if Gay Powers is
23:07
playing five snaps a game and then Cody Simon gets hurt in you know whatever,
23:11
the week of the Oregon game. You can't just throw him out there
23:15
and go, well, good luck, because it's not just you got to
23:18
do mic stuff. It is you got to set up the whole defense.
23:22
And I mean that's there's just a lot there. And so that's even more
23:26
important with that position this year. And like you said, backup quarterback,
23:30
same exactly one. And it's it's the same with winning game reps versus practice
23:33
reps YEP. Next one here, Shame wants to know what your thoughts are
23:41
about the pursuing a transfer offensive lineman. I know we didn't talk to Justin
23:45
today, but still a real question. Yeah, So thoughts on pursuing a
23:49
transfer offensive lineman. I think why would you not if there's someone out there
23:56
that could materially improve your team. But this also, so this feels different
24:00
than last year when it was like, you know, I remember talking to
24:04
Joe Burrow and after the Cotton Bowl in twenty seventeen and him talking about like,
24:11
well, I want to be a starter somewhere, not I want to
24:15
be you know, if he wasn't a start a higher state, well,
24:17
I want to be a starter somewhere last year was we need a tackle.
24:22
This year is you've got tackles that you're happy with. If there's a great
24:29
option out there, If Caden Proctor goes back in the portal for the third
24:32
time this offseason, maybe you know, absolutely you make a pursuit there.
24:37
If there's someone who's you know, the shopping list of tackles last year was
24:41
probably like, well, if any of these fifty two guys show up in
24:45
the portal, we're going to go after him. This year, it might
24:48
be well if any of these ten guys show up in the portal. An
24:52
interesting question would be if, say Josh Simmons, that exact person, that
24:56
exact guy was in the portal this spring, I don't know that Ohio State
25:03
is jumping right well, I think if you bring in someone like that.
25:07
Josh Shimmons was not completely ready to go at the beginning last season. Joshimmans
25:11
made leaps and bounds, improved during the court. Improvements during the course of
25:15
the season, ended up the season probably their best offensive lineman. Definitely did
25:18
not start the season as the best offensive lineman. You don't need that guy
25:22
for this year. Maybe if Josh Shuman's goes in the portal, maybe you're
25:26
getting him and you're saying, hey, do I have great news for you
25:29
in twenty twenty five, But you're not necessarily going after that guy this year.
25:33
He's you know, where would he be on the list? Was he
25:37
twentieth or whatever on last year's list and you know only five of them went
25:41
in the portal or whatever, But you know you're looking for a much You're
25:45
feeling a much smaller niche this year, where if you don't have someone who's
25:49
materially better than whoever, they feel like their top option is at right tackle,
25:53
whether that's Josh Fryer or Luke Montgomery or Tager Shabola, all three of
25:59
those guys are probably better than what they were rolling out with at right tackle
26:03
this time last year. I think the situation you'd need is the reaction from
26:07
Josh Fryar that you got from Sonny Styles when Caleb Downs came to Ohio State
26:14
and Sunny Styles is like, well, I guess I better play linebacker.
26:18
That sort of thing. Was like, well that guy is good. Yeah,
26:22
you know, so now this has impacted me and I'll do what I
26:25
can. And where it's just this known thing like, yeah, oh oh,
26:30
this is this is one of these the players know things where you can
26:34
you can come out and say don't swing in this twice. But when it's
26:38
justin fields, it's justin fields, and like, we're not going to be
26:41
su We did not go through the twenty nineteen spring and go, oh boy,
26:45
Tony, it's an open quarterback. Who could It could be anyone.
26:49
It could be justin fields. It could be the kid who transferred from Georgia.
26:52
It could be that guy who used to play baseball but doesn't anymore because
26:56
he played football at Georgia. It could be the kid who was committed to
27:02
Penn State a while ago. I mean literally anyone, literally, anybody could
27:04
be the guy who's gonna play for the Bears and get unfairly blamed for them
27:07
being a terrible franchise for thirty years in a row. Anyway, we're not
27:11
here to talk about the Chicago Bears much year much year relief. I'm sure
27:15
this is yeah, this is a this is a spot where you're gonna try
27:18
and bring in someone who can fit a very small niche you want you want
27:22
the oh yeah, no, that guy makes us better. That's the guy
27:26
the no brainer Tech transfer, not like, well, maybe he's in the
27:30
mix. Yeah right, yeah, last one. And in honor of who
27:36
we were supposed to talk to today Nikahanna was any updates on a running backs
27:40
coach? Any updates on a running backs coach? Ryan Day did not show
27:45
up today, So a high state's running backs coach did not show up.
27:48
I don't have anything in terms of what I'm hearing. I just know that
27:52
Tony Offferd is getting dudes paid. Oh yeah, yeah, this is this
27:56
is for sure. You know, we have we have put out some names
27:59
on board as like you know, here's what we're hearing right now, and
28:03
a lot of those guys have received immediate contract extensions. Probably a coincidence.
28:10
I don't know. Uh, maybe we should get a cut of that well
28:12
and cut you up. But there are also other guys out there who have
28:15
like three year deals currently and it's like you're gonna pay right that buy out?
28:22
Yeah, pay them, you know. Yeah. There are names that
28:25
have been floating around, and this has been they have kept this relatively quiet,
28:32
you know, not not to the point that we haven't heard names,
28:33
but you kind of hear names, and then a guy gets contract extension and
28:37
then you kind of hear another name and then another guy gets contract extension.
28:41
So I think what's interesting to me about this is there is not any super
28:45
urgency about getting this spot filled. It's not like, well, we have
28:49
to and they said that a week ago. It's not like we have to
28:55
get this guy in before practice seven or everything is just gonna explode. It
28:59
was like, wait, yeah, well we'll have to get a guy in.
29:02
They're bringing in Bo Jackson in the twenty twenty five running back out of
29:04
Cleveland to Villa Angelas Saint Joseph High School in like a week and don't have
29:08
a running backs coach, and they don't seem all that troubled by that.
29:11
Yeah. I also wonder if other running backs coaches would be more receptive after
29:18
springball. You know, if it's when you talk to them in the middle
29:22
of something, then they're may be less inclined to leave. But also,
29:27
I think Ohio State could just kind of do what they want and they have
29:32
their own they work on their own timeline. But there's no urgency right now.
29:36
I mean, you do have visits coming up, but in state visits,
29:38
you know, yeah, is one thing. Also, yeah, Jordan
29:42
Davison from California. They put his visit gut put off. He's now actually
29:47
going to see Michigan because they have a running back coach. But in in
29:49
state like Bo Jackson, that's not as much of a concern like being you
29:55
know, bringing in a kid from in Ohio high school is yeah, you
29:57
probably grew up an Ohio State fan. Bringing a kid from modern day in
30:00
California is a hey, we last got a kid out of this high school
30:03
about thirty years ago. So yeah, and getting Bo Jackson back on campus
30:08
is good because he was just at Michigan a little bit ago. So I
30:11
think building the relationship with the head coach and it's easy to get from Cleveland
30:15
to Columbus. Yeah, you know, so you don't need to save your
30:18
visit, like, well, we don't want you to fly down and without
30:21
a coach here. Yeah, so you can say come on down. You
30:22
want to come down on a Thursday, come on down and come down on
30:25
a Tuesday. We'll see you on Saturday, the whole thing. Yeah,
30:27
at this point, I'm expecting running back coach potentially to not be filled until
30:33
after the spring game. I mean at this point, like if they do,
30:36
they do. But I'm much more of the mind that this very well
30:42
could end up dragging on past the spring because just because there doesn't seem to
30:47
be a huge amount of urgency. Yeah, and this may be disrespectful or
30:51
whatever, but it feels like if it was more important, it would be
30:53
getting done by now, you know. Yeah, yeah, Well, And
30:57
there's a whole separate conversation about the role of the running backs coach, and
31:02
traditionally on college football staffs, a lot of time the running backs coach was
31:06
the recruiter because running back is not as technical a position as a you know,
31:11
real technique based position the quarterback or offensive line or defensive line or corner
31:17
or something like that. It's a lot more kind of athleticism and innate athleticism,
31:22
which is why you can have guys. It's why it's a position where
31:25
you have seen a bunch of true freshmen just step right on the field at
31:26
Ohio State Day one in a way that you haven't at quarterback or offensive line
31:32
or whatever. Last one I have, barring a super chat, Steep Buckles,
31:37
where does James People's fit in at running back other than way down the
31:40
pecking order? Steve Yeah, where does James Peoples fit in at running back
31:45
other than way down the pecking order. Right now he is running forth.
31:48
But again, we're gonna say this, This is gonna be the We're all
31:52
gonna be sick of saying it, sick of hearing it. Tom Long season,
31:56
you're gonna need to get everybody out there red shirting is I don't he
32:04
could read shirt and still play in seven games this year, you know more
32:08
eight? Yeah, like you could play half Seretically, you could play nine
32:12
because I think the conference championship game doesn't every postseason game, Yeah, none
32:15
of the postseason games count against the red shirt. So you could play like
32:20
four of the first seven games or whatever, you know, early in the
32:22
season, the four worst opponents in those first early games the first half season
32:27
or whatever, and then you got to get into the groove with everybody else.
32:30
But then you could get back into that if you need to. So
32:35
I I you're gonna see him, and it's gonna be up to him to
32:38
get on the field, and with quinch Own Judkins and Trevon Henderson and Downay,
32:44
and it's gonna be difficult for the fourth guy to get too much.
32:47
But they're gonna be a bunch of fourth quarters. There are gonna be a
32:52
bunch of fourth quarters. And also the fact that there are five scholarship running
32:54
backs who are healthy after practice six in the spring does not mean that they're
32:58
gonna be five scholarship running on that roster and healthy by the time the acting
33:01
game kicks off. So we have seen guys get hurt, we have seen
33:05
guys transfer. These things happen in modern college football, and I think if
33:08
you're looking at Sam Williamstix and James Peoples, you can I would think you
33:15
might want to look at trying to red shirt both of them, because,
33:16
as you said, you you can redshirt them but also play them potentially the
33:21
whole postseason is you need to, but also be strategic about it. And
33:24
maybe they both play in the Acoring Game because they can both get five six
33:28
carries in that game, the Rutgers game, maybe one of them they play
33:32
records istitione right, Sorry, I'm just going off of traditional Big Ten scheduling
33:37
and all of a sudden, some of the answers have changed. You could
33:39
treat them as one guy, yeah, yeah, play them every game.
33:43
Well, you you could do that, or you could just say, hey,
33:45
it's the whatever whoever you know, whichever team, and you're gonna play,
33:52
We're probably gonna have five carries in the fourth quarter, and so this
33:53
is going to be a James People's game. And if for you know,
33:55
two weeks later, if there's five carries in the fourth quarter, that's going
33:59
to be a Sam Williamsticks game. And balance it out. You don't want
34:02
to do like they burned Kyle McCord's red shirt in twenty twenty one for one
34:08
game where he threw like three passes or something like. That's don't do that.
34:14
You you can be responsible with it. But I think there's a lot
34:16
of ways that can manage it and still have those guys both maintaining that red
34:21
shirt but also being ready for the postseason. Yeah, they basically just share
34:25
custody of the red shirt. James People's gets it Monday, Wednesday, Friday,
34:30
you know, same Williams Dickson. So one super chat, one super
34:35
chat for Jordan Kapler. I'm only super chatting in hopes that delays Tom from
34:38
getting to any important obligations. It's the only kind of obligations I have the
34:44
important months. Jokes on you. I actually have some free time today it's
34:46
it's wild raining outside. Do a softball practice. It's gonna be crazy,
34:52
gonna be crazy. I have nothing to add. I have. I have
34:55
a basketball game to go to tonight. Yes, yeah, yeah, Buck
35:00
guys and Georgia playing seven o'clock tonight at the Shot. We'll be there,
35:05
you can. I'm going to guest tickets are still available. I'm gonna go
35:07
out on a limb and guess that. But we will. We will be
35:09
see there. We'll also be back here on Thursday talking to a whole bunch
35:13
more Buck guys after practice number seven of the spring. Lots of stuff to
35:16
talk about. Very interesting spring here at Ohio State. Very different spring in
35:20
some ways, but a lot of a lot of very intriguing storylines at a
35:23
bunch of different positions. So that will do it for today. I hope
35:25
you guys can join us at Buckeyehuddle dot com. That's where Tony, Kevin
35:29
and I cover the team, Mark covers recruiting, got our whole team of
35:30
ex'es, and nose guruz making you a smarter football fan all at Buckeye Huddle
35:35
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do so. That will help other folks find these shows as well. If
35:40
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35:44
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35:46
that as well. Thank you guys all for joining us. Have a great
35:49
day. We'll talk to you tomorrow.