Latest / Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning / BONUS: How Is Oregon Planning To Defend Jeremiah Smith?
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Time for another bonus episode as the Ohio State Buckeyes
- 0:03Speaker 1: head into their matchup this weekend against the Oregon Ducks.
- 0:07Speaker 1: Oregon head coach Dan Lanning held his weekly press conference
- 0:10Speaker 1: on Monday outing Eugene. Had some interesting stuff to say,
- 0:13Speaker 1: so we're going to let you hear a little bit
- 0:14Speaker 1: from Lanning on this show. We're going to start with
- 0:16Speaker 1: just some general thoughts out of their comeback win over
- 0:19Speaker 1: Northwestern last weekend.
- 0:22Speaker 2: Following up after the game, again, I want to thank
- 0:25Speaker 2: our crowd. I thought the atmosphere was awesome. I thought
- 0:28Speaker 2: our players really showed some resiliency in that game. and
- 0:31Speaker 2: really kept their focus and were able to attack. So
- 0:33Speaker 2: some real positives that came out of that. And obviously
- 0:36Speaker 2: that matters when you're going to play a team like
- 0:37Speaker 2: Ohio State and a legendary place there as a shoe.
- 0:40Speaker 2: Coach Day does an unbelievable job. It's a really well-coached team.
- 0:43Speaker 2: They've got good personnel. In all phases, they really show up.
- 0:47Speaker 2: So it'll be a real challenge for us, but one
- 0:50Speaker 2: that we're certainly excited about.
- 0:52Speaker 1: Oregon starting quarterback Dante Moore is out for the season
- 0:55Speaker 1: right now. So they're sort of in a similar spot
- 0:57Speaker 1: to where Ohio State is with Julian Sane out. except
- 1:00Speaker 1: they have an experienced backup, and Dylan Rayola that they
- 1:03Speaker 1: paid to come in, the former Nebraska starter, has been
- 1:05Speaker 1: very up and down this year for them, but he
- 1:08Speaker 1: was very up last weekend. 22 for 31, 336 yards,
- 1:12Speaker 1: three touchdowns, no picks in the win over Northwestern. Now
- 1:15Speaker 1: the challenge is to get the guy who's been up
- 1:17Speaker 1: and down to follow that up with another good performance
- 1:20Speaker 1: this weekend.
- 1:22Speaker 2: Yeah, I think the more comfortable he gets, you know,
- 1:25Speaker 2: the better he's going to play. And like I said,
- 1:26Speaker 2: kind of post-game, he builds confidence as the game goes.
- 1:29Speaker 2: So I think it's important for us to be able
- 1:30Speaker 2: to start off early, but him also understand I don't
- 1:33Speaker 2: have to force anything, right, for us to have success
- 1:35Speaker 2: and be able to lean on the players that he
- 1:36Speaker 2: has around him to be able to have success and
- 1:38Speaker 2: us have a great game plan for him.
- 1:40Speaker 1: Last weekend was almost certainly one of Oregon's best performances
- 1:43Speaker 1: of the year. They've had some downs for sure, starting
- 1:46Speaker 1: with that loss to Oklahoma State to begin the season
- 1:48Speaker 1: and then A couple more losses after that, but where
- 1:51Speaker 1: has he seen growth not only in himself, but in
- 1:54Speaker 1: his coaching staff throughout this season?
- 1:56Speaker 3: I think we all are. Yeah, I think we all are.
- 1:58Speaker 2: I don't know that I've sat back and tried to
- 2:00Speaker 2: analyze what makes one coach better than another, but I
- 2:02Speaker 2: think all of us learn from moments throughout the season.
- 2:05Speaker 2: I've told you guys before that we do pretty critical
- 2:08Speaker 2: write-ups after every game and evaluate, okay, if we're going
- 2:10Speaker 2: to do this all over again, what would we do different?
- 2:13Speaker 2: those continue to be something that we utilize and have
- 2:16Speaker 2: affected us this season on how we would approach things
- 2:18Speaker 2: differently and how we'd use them.
- 2:20Speaker 3: So certainly not just myself, but everybody in the program.
- 2:23Speaker 1: Lanning as a West Coast coach, pretty familiar with Luke Fahey,
- 2:27Speaker 1: who was a West Coast quarterback, of course, going to
- 2:29Speaker 1: high school in California. So what does he know about
- 2:32Speaker 1: Luke Fahey from high school? And what did he see
- 2:34Speaker 1: from Luke Fahey last weekend?
- 2:36Speaker 2: Yeah, I remember Luke coming out of high school, you know,
- 2:39Speaker 2: went by seeing him when he was in high school,
- 2:41Speaker 2: and he's an operator.
- 2:42Speaker 3: He's a really smart quarterback, right? He's a winner.
- 2:46Speaker 2: But his intelligence, it shows up. You know, this is
- 2:49Speaker 2: an offense that has a lot of moving parts. I
- 2:52Speaker 2: thought he handled it extremely well in that environment. If
- 2:54Speaker 2: you look at it in a lot of ways, you'd say, okay,
- 2:56Speaker 2: they won the game in a lot of categories. They
- 2:58Speaker 2: kind of lost in field position. It was kind of
- 3:01Speaker 2: break even when you talk about the takeaway battle. third
- 3:05Speaker 2: downs and conversion downs were really similar on both for
- 3:07Speaker 2: both teams.
- 3:08Speaker 3: Really, the difference was scoring in the red area. Right.
- 3:11Speaker 2: And their success down there. So I thought he operated well.
- 3:14Speaker 2: It wasn't the best conditions either, you know, playing in
- 3:16Speaker 2: the rain. But he's proven that he can be a
- 3:19Speaker 2: guy that can be successful and operate their offense.
- 3:21Speaker 3: And certainly coming out of high school, we remember him
- 3:23Speaker 3: being a guy that was like that.
- 3:25Speaker 1: When you are a defensive guy like Dan Lanning and
- 3:27Speaker 1: you're about to face a wide receiver as talented as
- 3:29Speaker 1: Jeremiah Smith, how do you game plan for that? And
- 3:33Speaker 1: please note the incredible callback to the controversial ending of
- 3:37Speaker 1: the 2024 regular season game at the start of this answer.
- 3:40Speaker 3: Yeah, we're going to see if we can play with 12,
- 3:42Speaker 3: you know.
- 3:44Speaker 2: No, I guess I realize that's not funny against this team.
- 3:47Speaker 2: But no, I mean, Jeremiah's special. You know, he is
- 3:52Speaker 2: a special player. You have to know where he's at,
- 3:54Speaker 2: you know, at all times. He's dynamic in every phase.
- 3:58Speaker 2: I think it's one that our players are excited about
- 4:00Speaker 2: that challenge, but there's a real challenge involved. And Defending
- 4:03Speaker 2: a guy like him, you know, he's certainly pro-ready. I
- 4:05Speaker 2: think anybody that's played against him already would.
- 4:07Speaker 3: Tell you that.
- 4:08Speaker 2: He probably was two years ago, right? So he certainly
- 4:11Speaker 2: is now. So he's a guy that you have to
- 4:12Speaker 2: know where he's at at all times. They've done a
- 4:14Speaker 2: good job of moving him around and making it challenging.
- 4:17Speaker 2: And Arthur and their offensive staff do a really good
- 4:19Speaker 2: job of finding ways to get him the ball and
- 4:21Speaker 2: be able to take.
- 4:22Speaker 3: Advantage of it.
- 4:24Speaker 1: Ohio State's defensive front and Ohio State's defense on the
- 4:27Speaker 1: whole has changed quite a bit since Matt Patricia showed
- 4:29Speaker 1: up a couple years ago. So what has he seen
- 4:31Speaker 1: from the Ohio State defensive front this year?
- 4:34Speaker 2: Yeah, one, I mean, they make it really difficult. You know,
- 4:39Speaker 2: the job that they do up front, I think they
- 4:41Speaker 2: create a lot of one-on-ones. They have a multitude of
- 4:44Speaker 2: fronts that they use and guys that they move around
- 4:46Speaker 2: in a lot of different positions. I would call them
- 4:47Speaker 2: a game plan defense where what they do one week
- 4:50Speaker 2: is different than what they do the next week.
- 4:51Speaker 3: You don't necessarily know where they're always going to line up.
- 4:54Speaker 2: And they always have small variations that they'll do based
- 4:57Speaker 2: off of what you do as a team.
- 4:58Speaker 1: Right.
- 4:59Speaker 2: Whether it's a cheated nose, you know, whether it's a
- 5:02Speaker 2: bare front or a four down front, the variety that
- 5:05Speaker 2: they provide and then their ability. You know, they're hard
- 5:08Speaker 2: to move. The guys are hard to move and have
- 5:11Speaker 2: had a lot of success, obviously really well coached.
- 5:14Speaker 1: There was a theory out in Eugene that Oregon was
- 5:17Speaker 1: playing a little too tight because they were a little
- 5:18Speaker 1: too worried about protecting the football earlier in the year.
- 5:21Speaker 1: So were they maybe playing a little more free? And
- 5:23Speaker 1: was Dylan Rayola playing a little more free now that
- 5:26Speaker 1: he wasn't quite as worried about protecting the football? Did
- 5:28Speaker 1: that free him up to do more against the Northwestern Wildcats?
- 5:32Speaker 3: I hope he's still worried about protecting the football. Well, yeah.
- 5:35Speaker 2: We threw it past the, you know, that third and
- 5:37Speaker 2: four play. We threw the touchdown to Jamari, right? Like,
- 5:39Speaker 2: I don't know how many times we'd thrown it past
- 5:40Speaker 2: the sticks on third down recently.
- 5:42Speaker 3: I think there's certainly.
- 5:43Speaker 2: there was a freedom in the way that all of
- 5:45Speaker 2: us coached and played, you know, I think in that
- 5:48Speaker 2: game and not coached him. You think back to like
- 5:50Speaker 2: the UCLA game and you're like, man, this is a
- 5:53Speaker 2: game that if we didn't have seven turnovers or six
- 5:55Speaker 2: turnovers or five turnovers, we were in position to have
- 5:57Speaker 2: success in the game. And I think that the moments
- 6:00Speaker 2: like that make you coach different, right? Because you're like,
- 6:02Speaker 2: all right, if we just protect the ball, we don't
- 6:04Speaker 2: make mistakes, you know, we're going to win. And that's
- 6:07Speaker 2: not always reality, right? You have to be true to
- 6:09Speaker 2: your identity. And I feel like there was moments and,
- 6:11Speaker 2: That UCLA game in Illinois that we weren't true to
- 6:13Speaker 2: our identity, I think that let our players play a
- 6:15Speaker 2: little more free, let them do what they do. And again,
- 6:19Speaker 2: not so much concerned about outcomes, but the best possibilities
- 6:23Speaker 2: are created in moments where you're able to say, OK,
- 6:25Speaker 2: I'm going to make a decisive decision and attack it
- 6:27Speaker 2: and go play.
- 6:28Speaker 1: Oregon was out at Ohio State in 2021, but Dan
- 6:31Speaker 1: Lanning was not the head coach. Mario Cristobal was still
- 6:33Speaker 1: there at that point. So this is Dan Lanning's first
- 6:35Speaker 1: trip to Ohio Stadium. Before every game, he takes a
- 6:38Speaker 1: pregame walk around the stadium just to sort of look around,
- 6:41Speaker 1: get his bearings. Is that maybe going to be a
- 6:43Speaker 1: little more special in a place with as much history
- 6:45Speaker 1: as Ohio Stadium the first time he's there?
- 6:46Speaker 2: I'm certainly excited to go play in this venue.
- 6:50Speaker 3: I don't know that the walk's any different, right?
- 6:52Speaker 2: But it's certainly, you know, it's one of those boxes
- 6:55Speaker 2: that you want to check of the opportunity to play
- 6:57Speaker 2: in a place that's special like that.
- 6:59Speaker 1: What is the message to their defensive backs this week?
- 7:01Speaker 1: And what are they looking for out of them against
- 7:04Speaker 1: Jeremiah Smith?
- 7:06Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm looking for their best, right? It's going to
- 7:07Speaker 2: be a great, great opportunity, you know, and, you know,
- 7:09Speaker 2: I think Coach Day said it early in the year,
- 7:11Speaker 2: you know, if he's, if he's one-on-one, he's open. If
- 7:14Speaker 2: there's two guys covering him, he's sort of open, right?
- 7:16Speaker 2: If there's three, that means somebody else is open. I
- 7:18Speaker 2: think that's the great challenge with this game is, you know,
- 7:21Speaker 2: wherever Jeremiah's at, if you, everybody defends him different, right?
- 7:24Speaker 2: And if you want to roll the coverage or take
- 7:26Speaker 2: two guys over to him, that means somebody else all
- 7:28Speaker 2: of a sudden became the hot boy and became available.
- 7:30Speaker 2: And we've got other good players that, you know, on
- 7:32Speaker 2: this team that are available that they're able to utilize
- 7:35Speaker 2: and can create explosive plays. So really in the secondary, linebacker,
- 7:39Speaker 2: you know, even with the front, it's kind of, it's
- 7:41Speaker 2: a collective unit that everybody has to play together to
- 7:44Speaker 2: try to limit explosive plays for players like him.
- 7:47Speaker 1: Since this is Dan and Lanning's first visit to Ohio Stadium,
- 7:50Speaker 1: has he talked to people on the Oregon staff about
- 7:53Speaker 1: that 2021 game just to sort of get a sense
- 7:56Speaker 1: for what to expect?
- 7:57Speaker 2: Not specifically, just because there's a lot of different people
- 7:59Speaker 2: in the room for us. Certainly a lot of talks
- 8:02Speaker 2: logistically about the environment, the crowd noise, locker room location,
- 8:05Speaker 2: stuff like that. But, you know, obviously there's an exciting
- 8:08Speaker 2: history there for the Ducks. And this is a new season,
- 8:12Speaker 2: new game, new team in a lot of ways. A
- 8:14Speaker 2: lot of people that weren't.
- 8:14Speaker 3: Necessarily a part of that experience, but all that other
- 8:16Speaker 3: stuff plays into it.
- 8:18Speaker 1: One of the things that may have improved Oregon's offense
- 8:20Speaker 1: last game was it had a new play caller. Jay
- 8:23Speaker 1: Johnson took over for Drew Merringer before the Northwestern game,
- 8:26Speaker 1: and they had one of their best games of the season.
- 8:28Speaker 1: So what did Lanning think of just the operation and
- 8:30Speaker 1: the execution of that offense under the new play caller?
- 8:33Speaker 3: Yeah, I thought overall it went really smooth.
- 8:35Speaker 2: I think there was one moment in the game where
- 8:36Speaker 2: we were a little frustrated with the execution. It was
- 8:39Speaker 2: much about the way we lined up and executed as
- 8:41Speaker 2: players as it was the operation itself. But there was
- 8:44Speaker 2: a couple of negatives that we wish we could have
- 8:47Speaker 2: had back because guys just didn't line up as fast
- 8:48Speaker 2: as we wanted to in the sequence we wanted. But overall,
- 8:51Speaker 2: I thought the communication on the headset was great. The
- 8:55Speaker 2: preparation was really good.
- 8:56Speaker 1: Before getting the Oregon head coaching job, Lanning was a
- 8:59Speaker 1: defensive coordinator for Kirby Smart. Kirby Smart recently talked about
- 9:02Speaker 1: the fact that he thinks teams are practicing less and
- 9:05Speaker 1: guys are getting hurt more as a result. He thought
- 9:07Speaker 1: it might be linked in some way to NIL. Is
- 9:10Speaker 1: that something that Lanning has talked to Smart about? Or
- 9:14Speaker 1: is that something that Lanning has sort of seen in
- 9:16Speaker 1: his own experience?
- 9:18Speaker 2: We've had plenty of conversations. I didn't see his exact comments,
- 9:22Speaker 2: but I do think it's the challenge of, all right,
- 9:25Speaker 2: season can be longer. You want to be able to
- 9:27Speaker 2: make sure that you're really efficient with your practice time
- 9:29Speaker 2: and what you're able to do. I think depth across
- 9:31Speaker 2: college football is a lot different because it's spread out
- 9:33Speaker 2: between a lot of teams. So some of the physicality
- 9:36Speaker 2: that you could have in the past because you felt
- 9:37Speaker 2: like you had a roster that was stacked from top
- 9:39Speaker 2: to bottom, it's not necessarily the case. You're talking about
- 9:43Speaker 2: guys that are playing in You know, really, it may
- 9:45Speaker 2: be a really high level for you. And then the
- 9:46Speaker 2: next guy in line is a freshman that maybe at
- 9:48Speaker 2: times in other instances in our history in college football,
- 9:52Speaker 2: they might be waiting more of their turn. But yeah,
- 9:55Speaker 2: it is it is a little bit different game, you know,
- 9:57Speaker 2: from that perspective. And I think you're always playing. that
- 10:00Speaker 2: cat and mouse game of, okay, do we need more
- 10:01Speaker 2: practice time? Um, do we need more physicality and practice?
- 10:05Speaker 2: You know, we certainly have adjusted, you know, the way
- 10:08Speaker 2: that we do things at times, but then there's moments
- 10:10Speaker 2: that it's just, it has to happen and it has
- 10:11Speaker 2: to look a certain way and you get frustrated because
- 10:14Speaker 2: somebody might get nicked or banged up.
- 10:15Speaker 3: Um, but that's just the reality.
- 10:17Speaker 2: Now, I also think Players are bigger, faster, and stronger,
- 10:19Speaker 2: and that probably leads to injuries as well.
- 10:21Speaker 3: So there's a lot of things that play into that.
- 10:23Speaker 3: But it's a different game for sure.
- 10:25Speaker 2: I think a lot of that starts with the length
- 10:27Speaker 2: of season and the amount of time that we have.
- 10:30Speaker 3: Our players. You also get to spend a lot more
- 10:32Speaker 3: time with them in the offseason.
- 10:33Speaker 2: So when you introduce something, you might have already walked
- 10:37Speaker 2: through it 15 times in the summer or in the spring.
- 10:41Speaker 3: So different from that standpoint for sure.
- 10:44Speaker 1: Ohio State had a very sloppy game against USC, lots
- 10:47Speaker 1: of penalties, really silly ones and unforced errors in big moments. Oregon,
- 10:52Speaker 1: on the other hand, they had only one penalty against Northwestern. Now,
- 10:55Speaker 1: earlier in the year, they had lots of penalty issues.
- 10:58Speaker 1: I think they had 10 against Boise State. So what
- 11:00Speaker 1: have they done to limit that after having so many
- 11:03Speaker 1: earlier in the year?
- 11:04Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, you never want to be the team
- 11:07Speaker 2: that's penalizing yourself, right?
- 11:09Speaker 3: And those yards add up.
- 11:10Speaker 2: Um so you know I thought our guys have done
- 11:12Speaker 2: a better job of competing it's the little things that
- 11:14Speaker 2: you coach every single day that have to continue to
- 11:16Speaker 2: show up and you know preparation like some of those
- 11:19Speaker 2: mistakes that uh didn't show up you know this Saturday
- 11:22Speaker 2: they hurt us you know against Illinois we had a
- 11:24Speaker 2: couple short yardage situations that became third and longer right
- 11:27Speaker 2: because we did jump offside so I always think our
- 11:29Speaker 2: team does a good job of where we put our
- 11:31Speaker 2: focus as coaches like those things show up for us
- 11:33Speaker 2: and how fast can we identify them and I think
- 11:35Speaker 2: that was A lot of our players' focus on Saturday
- 11:38Speaker 2: was really in the right place when it came to
- 11:40Speaker 2: things like that.
- 11:41Speaker 1: And finally, Dan Lanning used the phrase independent contractors on Saturday,
- 11:46Speaker 1: talking about guys who were doing something similar to what
- 11:49Speaker 1: Ohio State was discussing as hero ball a few weeks ago.
- 11:52Speaker 1: So sort of a different way to talk about the
- 11:54Speaker 1: same thing. But why does Dan Lanning think independent contractors
- 11:58Speaker 1: on the football field are not such a good thing?
- 12:00Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, ultimately... everybody's got to be on the
- 12:04Speaker 2: same team, right? And it all has to come from in-house.
- 12:07Speaker 2: And we have one guy not doing his job, right?
- 12:09Speaker 2: You're not going to have the success needed. And, you know,
- 12:12Speaker 2: even though we walked away with success on Saturday, right,
- 12:15Speaker 2: we could have been so much more successful if we
- 12:17Speaker 2: had 11 guys doing exactly what they're coached to do
- 12:19Speaker 2: and what they're supposed to do.
- 12:20Speaker 3: Now, as a coach, that means you're either coaching or
- 12:22Speaker 3: allowing it to happen, right?
- 12:23Speaker 2: But, you know, I'm looking for guys that'll be assassins,
- 12:26Speaker 2: not superheroes, right? You don't have to feel like you
- 12:29Speaker 2: have to make a crazy play every single play. Sometimes
- 12:31Speaker 2: when you're trying to go so much harder because you're
- 12:33Speaker 2: putting this unbelievable effort, you're all of a sudden, you're
- 12:35Speaker 2: not in your gap, or you're trying to make a
- 12:36Speaker 2: pick because your eyes aren't on your man anymore, right,
- 12:39Speaker 2: or you're trying to run a route because you think
- 12:40Speaker 2: it'll be open, but that's not the route that's designated
- 12:42Speaker 2: in this coverage, right, I think there was a few
- 12:45Speaker 2: of those moments on Saturday that hurt us, right, and
- 12:47Speaker 2: when you go back and you just point to the,
- 12:49Speaker 2: you know, the entirety of the game to our players,
- 12:51Speaker 2: you show, hey, look, we had 11 guys doing what
- 12:52Speaker 2: they were coaching on this play, look at the result,
- 12:55Speaker 2: you recognize that there's a lot of success on both
- 12:57Speaker 2: sides of the ball when that happens, so Our guys care.
- 13:00Speaker 2: Sometimes that means they press, right? And again, we don't
- 13:03Speaker 2: want superheroes. We want assassins.
- 13:05Speaker 3: We want guys that do their job consistently, don't really.
- 13:07Speaker 2: Care where the credit comes, and they make 100% of
- 13:10Speaker 2: the plays that they're supposed to make.
- 13:11Speaker 3: I don't need anybody making 100% of the plays that
- 13:14Speaker 3: they're not supposed to make, right? Because that means they're
- 13:15Speaker 3: probably not doing their job somewhere else.
- 13:17Speaker 1: All right, there you go. A little bit from Dan
- 13:19Speaker 1: Lanning in the lead-up to Saturday's game. It is not
- 13:22Speaker 1: quite the game that we were expecting when this one
- 13:24Speaker 1: first showed up on the schedule, but it should be
- 13:26Speaker 1: an interesting game. Really, really fascinating matchup between two teams
- 13:30Speaker 1: that are still sort of fighting to sort of save
- 13:32Speaker 1: their seasons and get a win that could really change
- 13:35Speaker 1: the perception of their 2026 season. We'll be talking about
- 13:39Speaker 1: that all week long at BuckeyeInsiders.com. Got a lot to
- 13:43Speaker 1: talk about. Buckeye's still fighting, of course, for college football
- 13:45Speaker 1: playoff berth. The first college football playoff rankings come out
- 13:48Speaker 1: Tuesday night. Tony and I will have a live reaction
- 13:52Speaker 1: show watching those rankings revealed on by the College Football
- 13:56Speaker 1: Playoff Committee, talking about what it means for the Buckeyes,
- 13:59Speaker 1: where they sort of stand, and what that may mean
- 14:03Speaker 1: for the rest of the season. You can find that
- 14:05Speaker 1: on our YouTube channel, youtube.com slash at Buckeye Insiders.