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Ohio State Football: 3 Buckeyes Poised For Breakout Seasons · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Buckeyes tomorrow morning. From Monday, June twenty second,
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  Speaker 1: I'm your host, Tom Or the ball State game in
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  Speaker 1: seventy five days, the gaming gets Michigan in one hundred
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  Speaker 1: and fifty nine days. We're sponsored today by our friends
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  Speaker 1: at Jeff Ruby's Columbus probably offering nationally acclaimed USDA Prime Stakes,
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  Speaker 1: Jeff ruby dot com slash Columbus to check out the
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  Speaker 1: menu and make a reservation today. All right, on todays show,
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  Speaker 1: we're gonna be talking about running backs, and Ohio State
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  Speaker 1: had a thousand yard running back as a true freshman
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  Speaker 1: last year, Bo Jackson. We're not gonna be talking about him.
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  Speaker 1: We're gonna be talking about the other guys in the room.
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  Speaker 1: You know about Bo Jackson. Wanted to talk about some
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  Speaker 1: of the other guys in the room because it feels
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  Speaker 1: like there are three guys in that room who could
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  Speaker 1: play significant roles this year who really are not as
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  Speaker 1: familiar to Ohio State fans. Want to talk to about
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  Speaker 1: all three of those guys with Buddy Tony Gerdaman of
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  Speaker 1: Buckeyeinsiders dot com certainly someone who did not run for
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  Speaker 1: a thousand yards last year, but also someone you're pretty
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  Speaker 1: familiar with, Tony, I want to start with Isaiah West,
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  Speaker 1: because Isaiah West in the same year as Bo Jackson,
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  Speaker 1: but missed spring, missed fall camp in his freshman year,
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  Speaker 1: came on sort of in the middle of the year,
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  Speaker 1: made some good impressions, and then miss spring ball again.
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  Speaker 1: So it feels like Ohio State fans have kind of
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  Speaker 1: gotten a little bit of a glimpse of Isaiah West.
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  Speaker 1: But you know, talking to people around the program, it
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  Speaker 1: feels like the folks inside the Woody are maybe higher
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  Speaker 1: on Isaiah West than the general fan base might be.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I would agree with that, And this is a guy,
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  Speaker 2: Isaiah West, who I guess this season was a bell
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  Speaker 2: curve type of thing, because sure, he had forty two
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  Speaker 2: yards rushing against Crambling, but didn't play against Texas, didn't
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  Speaker 2: play against Ohio, didn't play against Washington, and then started
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  Speaker 2: to gradually get some carries during the middle of the season.
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  Speaker 2: Had six carries against Michigan, only three carries against Indiana,
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  Speaker 2: didn't play against Miami, kind of went out the way
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  Speaker 2: that he went in. And so now for anybody and
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  Speaker 2: you know that isn't there every day to be thinking
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  Speaker 2: Isaiah West is going to be this, he's going to
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  Speaker 2: be that. He's probably awful lot of people's radar, but
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  Speaker 2: he shouldn't be. And when we on Buckeye Weekly that
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  Speaker 2: we released over the weekend talking about the top ten
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  Speaker 2: playmakers on offense, I don't want to spoil anything for
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  Speaker 2: those who have yet to listen or watch, but he
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  Speaker 2: was each of our number three playmaker on the Ohio
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  Speaker 2: State offense. So you know, this is based on intel,
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  Speaker 2: based on things that you know, you got to see
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  Speaker 2: a little bit of last year. But he's up to
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  Speaker 2: two twenty five now, he's still shifty, and he's a
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  Speaker 2: year older and a year more comfortable and healthy. And
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  Speaker 2: to me, he's a guy that could start at a
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  Speaker 2: lot of places and it'd be one of those guys
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  Speaker 2: that kind of comes out of the blow You're like,
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  Speaker 2: where did this guy come from? And that's just you know,
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  Speaker 2: recruiting and development rush for three hundred and ten yards
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  Speaker 2: last year not not unusual for some freshmen at Ohio
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  Speaker 2: State over the course of their you know, over the
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  Speaker 2: course of time where you just you get a little
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  Speaker 2: bit of time. I could throw out Tomorio McCall I
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  Speaker 2: could throw out Ezekiel Elliott as guys with similar rushing
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  Speaker 2: totals as true freshman He'll be somewhere in the middle,
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  Speaker 2: or he'll be somewhere between those two, I think in
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  Speaker 2: the coming years.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, those are two pretty good, pretty wide error bars
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  Speaker 1: there on what an Ohios date running back career might
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  Speaker 1: look like. So there's Isaiah West. Why did to talk
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  Speaker 1: also about Jakobe Jackson? This is another one. This is
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  Speaker 1: one of those guys who I think you and I
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  Speaker 1: both came into the spring with an idea that, Okay,
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  Speaker 1: this is what this guy might be. This is this
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  Speaker 1: is kind of what to expect from him, and then
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  Speaker 1: you watch them in practice and it was like, oh, okay,
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  Speaker 1: I think I need to update my priors on this one.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. And if you go back to the twenty twenty
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  Speaker 2: fourth season at Florida, five hundred and nine yards rushing,
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  Speaker 2: five point five, five point four yards per tempt, seven touchdowns,
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  Speaker 2: seven catches, like this is all this is a productive
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  Speaker 2: player and may not be your starter. So it could
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  Speaker 2: and the only reason maybe you're not the starter is
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  Speaker 2: because of well, you've got an injury history, you came
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  Speaker 2: from juco at which he did at Florida, and so
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  Speaker 2: there were just guys ahead of you. And yet he
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  Speaker 2: worked his way into the lineup last year ninety eight
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  Speaker 2: yards rushing four games, got hurt. So now he's this
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  Speaker 2: is his last go round. And based on what we
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  Speaker 2: saw this weekend or this spring, he looked very, very legit.
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  Speaker 2: He was smooth, he was comfortable outside catching the ball,
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  Speaker 2: He's comfortable between the tackles, He's a patient runner. I
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  Speaker 2: think there's a lot that you can do with them,
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  Speaker 2: Like with all of these guys, they're just going to
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  Speaker 2: be limited by their opportunities because I think if you
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  Speaker 2: gave him fifteen sixteen carries a game, I think he's
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  Speaker 2: a thousand yard rusher. But I think I could say
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  Speaker 2: that about probably four guys on this team as well.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, this is a really deep running back room. And
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  Speaker 1: this is one of these things that Carlos lopliners there's
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  Speaker 1: a lot of credit for because this is still a
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  Speaker 1: relative a young running back room. You know, on average,
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  Speaker 1: if you include Jacoby Jackson, which I think this is
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  Speaker 1: his seventh year, like if you include that that sort
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  Speaker 1: of skews the uh scus the mean of the age
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  Speaker 1: of the of the running back room a little bit.
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  Speaker 1: But the median is still second year like Bo Jackson,
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  Speaker 1: Isaiah West. These are second year guys, Derba Rogers second.
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  Speaker 2: Year guy UH.
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  Speaker 1: And then you get favor Aki the freshman. One other
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  Speaker 1: guy that I wanted to mention, and this is someone
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  Speaker 1: who you mentioned. Jacoby Jackson can do a lot of
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  Speaker 1: different things. Legend Bay also can do a lot of
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  Speaker 1: different things, including get Ohio State Twitter all excited. UH.
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  Speaker 1: Based on a side by side of his how much
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  Speaker 1: he has has grown over the last few months. This
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  Speaker 1: is another guy where the the buzz inside the building
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  Speaker 1: was top of the charts, I mean really really sort
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  Speaker 1: of the the most buzz around any player going into
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  Speaker 1: spring ball was around Legend Bay. And then it just
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  Speaker 1: it's had a little minor hamstring thing and just so
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  Speaker 1: you didn't really get to see nearly as much this spring,
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  Speaker 1: but from all indications back healthy and ready to do
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  Speaker 1: some really potentially exciting things this fall.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and after being in the building for two weeks
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  Speaker 2: these past two weeks, the buzz is still there and
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  Speaker 2: it has not died down and that's an exciting thing
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  Speaker 2: for o Higher State fans and for the Ohio State
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  Speaker 2: offense based on you know what he has the capability
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  Speaker 2: of doing. He's stronger, he's bigger, he's still the fastest guy,
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  Speaker 2: he's the most elusive, he's the most explosive. He's still
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  Speaker 2: a freshman, and so there may be some issues there
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  Speaker 2: just you know, look at bo Jackson rush for one
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  Speaker 2: thousand yards as a true freshman last year, didn't play
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  Speaker 2: against Texas, So there's some things where you might have
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  Speaker 2: to ease him into big time college football. And this
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  Speaker 2: is a big time schedule for the Buckeyes, so maybe
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  Speaker 2: you want to ease him in a little quicker than
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  Speaker 2: you did with Bo Jackson because you're going to need
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  Speaker 2: him in more games and more tougher games and more
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  Speaker 2: games that are matchup games than Bo Jackson was needed
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  Speaker 2: last year. So it's a lot like and talking with folks,
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  Speaker 2: the idea of putting him on special teams was also
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  Speaker 2: exciting and they want that to happen. So this could
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  Speaker 2: be somebody who is involved in a number of things,
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  Speaker 2: whether it's running the ball, a third down back, catching
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  Speaker 2: the ball, throwing screens to kickoff returns, and it'll be
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  Speaker 2: I can't wait to see how he is utilized because
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  Speaker 2: is it just a spot thing, you know, where it's
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  Speaker 2: he's not the guy that's out there for an entire drive,
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  Speaker 2: not that he couldn't be, but is it all the
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  Speaker 2: change of pace? Is he the fastball for when the
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  Speaker 2: pitcher only throws change ups, or like when they put
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  Speaker 2: the fastball for a knuckleball pitcher where you know it's
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  Speaker 2: like eighty seven miles per hours, like one hundred and
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  Speaker 2: six after you've watched you know, fifteen knuckleballs. You know
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  Speaker 2: how they're going to use him. And you know, I'm
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  Speaker 2: not saying he can't go an entire drive, because I
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  Speaker 2: think you can. It's just it's a deep room. So
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  Speaker 2: you've got to figure out how to make all of
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  Speaker 2: this work. And we've talked about three and alluded to
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  Speaker 2: Bo Jackson and Turbo Rodgers is right there as well
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  Speaker 2: as a guy read your freshman itching to get out there.
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  Speaker 2: But I think the three guys that we've talked about
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  Speaker 2: they're going to factor in in a number of different ways.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I think I think they like Terribo
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  Speaker 1: Rogers a lot. I just how many how many running
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  Speaker 1: backs can you give five to ten carries a game?
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  Speaker 1: I mean you do still have Jeremiah Smith. You do
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  Speaker 1: want to throw the ball every once in a great while.
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  Speaker 1: So yeah, you're gonna you're going to run into numbers
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  Speaker 1: issues like every Wednesdays healthy You're going to run in
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  Speaker 1: numbers issues. Sometimes these things resolve themselves. But that those
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  Speaker 1: are three guys who want to just sort of mention
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  Speaker 1: there in terms of people who are probably not getting
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  Speaker 1: quite enough shine this time of year. Who you should
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  Speaker 1: you know, if you're thinking about just you know, hey
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  Speaker 1: throw this in your conversations with your Ohio State fan friends. Hey,
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  Speaker 1: don't sleep on Isaiah West. Don't. I think everyone is
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  Speaker 1: rightly excited about what year two for Bo Jackson could
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  Speaker 1: look like. But do not sleep on Isaiah West, Jacoby Jackson,
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  Speaker 1: and Legend Bay. Also, do not sleep on Jeff Ruby's Columbus,
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  Speaker 1: the award winning upscale steakhouse in downtown Columbus name one
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  Speaker 1: Just go to Jeffruby dot com splash Columbus to check
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  Speaker 1: out the menu and make a reservation today. That'll do
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  Speaker 1: it for today. Thank you, guys all for joining us.
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  Speaker 1: Have a great day. We'll talk to you tomorrow.