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Can Ohio State Pull An Elite 5-Star Lineman Out Of The Deep South? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Welcome to Buckeyes tomorrow morning. From Monday, May twentieth, I'm your host,
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  tom Or the Akron game in one hundred and three days, the game
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  against Michigan in one hundred and ninety four days. A month of May suddenly
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  kind of almost over at the Southern Swing, kind of almost over, but
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  still several more days of travel across the great state of Texas for Kevin Noon
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  and Mark Gibler of buckey Huddle dot Com. They have been Chris crossing the
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  South for more than two weeks now on their Southern Swing. I think this
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  is the biggest Southern Swing ever in terms of days, mileage, people see.
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  And it has been quite an ordeal, quite a trek across the South,
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  but a ton of great content they have been churning out at bucke huddle
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  dot Com. You're you'll be talking to Kevin about some of that today.
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  Kevin, we have a bunch of You gave me a bunch of names before
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  we started. I want to start with JACKEM. Stewart. He is one
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  of the highest rated players in the class of twenty twenty six defensive linemen,
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  rated a top ten player overall in the class by two four seven, the
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  number two player in the class in the two four to seven composite. This
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  is obviously a very very talented football player. What did you find out learning?
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  What'd you learn one meeting when you met him? Well, first and
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  foremost when we saw him in New Orleans at his spring game. That is
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  how you build a player. He looks like a football player. He looks
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  like alignment. I don't care if he's plassed at twenty twenty six, twenty
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  twenty five, if he's twenty six years old, whatever may be. He
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  looks the part. And the team that they went against was not going to
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  let him beat them, and they doubled and tripled him and he still had
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  results. I mean, he is like far and away makes my freaks list
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  of the most freaky players that I've ever seen. Mark Gibler had a chance
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  to interview him afterwards, and we had to get on the road and he
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  had to get back to the school, so it was a quicker interview than
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  we normally do. No decision at this point about reclassification of another visit to
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  Ohio State is coming up. You'll have to read Mark's piece on that coming
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  up here soon. At Bucky huddle dot com you want to get the details
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  on it. But Ohio State certainly has a chance here. You have to
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  go back to Nadrabdala since the last time Ohio State really was able to pull
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  a kid out of Louisiana, and then I think prior to that was Jonathan
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  Wells. So not necessarily a place. Ohio State is heavy and it's recruiting.
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  But as we've learned on Southern Swing, neither's Alabama. And it just
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  seems that the map has expanded for whatever reason. And I talked to an
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  LSU insider who said, Ohio State very much is in the mix, don't
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  you know. Don't let past history get in the way. You know,
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  it's kid to kid, which we obviously know. And Louisiana and Alabama.
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  You guys have been doing the Southern Swing for quite a while, I mean
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  going back what push in a decade now, I think, if not more.
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  And those are states you guys don't typically visit. So this is really
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  sort of the map expanding, both figuratively for Ohio State and literally for you
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  guys on this trip. So that's Louisiana, another spot is Alabama. That's
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  another spot where Ohio State has not pulled a player for quite a while.
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  Quin John Judkins, yes, is from Alabama. He was not a recruit
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  signed by Ohio State, so he will be the first player from Alabama in
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  a very very long time. I did a study a couple of years ago
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  and found a guy on the roster in nineteen eighty three from Alabama, Dante
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  Wheat. That was the most recent Alabama guy I could find on the roster.
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  And then Vron Broadnax, who is a fullback on that team, said
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  who, So I don't think he Dante we ever actually signed or ever actually
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  showed up at Ohio State. So if they do get anyone from Alabama,
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  it might be the first one, maybe ever in terms of scholarship player from
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  the state of Alabama. And one guy who could become that guy is Zion
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  Grady. He's a four star defensive lineer for Alabama, more of an edge
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  guy. What did you learn talking to Zion Grady and the folks around him.
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  Yeah, to kind of start with Alabama and Louisiana, we've always talked
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  about all the Midwestern states being a flyover states. Well, Alabama and Louisian
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  have been drived through states, so we have driven through them to get from
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  Florida to Texas, but we have never stopped. And let's not forget Ohio
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  State does have a commitment from Naim Offered the towns of defensive back out of
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  Alabama. But Ohio State is going to have to hold on for dear life
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  there. You know, Offered gave a great interview and you know a lot
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  of reasons to feel like Ohio State has a good opportunity of holding on.
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  But then no, on the heels of that, he goes on another visit.
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  So it is what it is. But Zion Grady is another player.
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  I think one of the big separating factors between Ohio State and maybe some of
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  these Southern schools at Ohio State runs into in the playoffs or has to compete
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  with for these playoff spots are these big freaky defensive linemen from the Deep South.
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  And if Ohio State is able to land a couple of these big freaky
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  defensive linemen from the Deep South, you know, Katie bar the door,
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  it's going to be crazy. You know, Grady is very close with Maligautry
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  as well from Alabama. It seems like there's a very real chance they could
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  maybe go to the same school. That bodes well for Ohio State being involved
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  with both of them. Signed Grady's got a visit coming up to Ohio State
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  as well as a member class twenty five. It is an official visit when
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  he is taking it the same weekend as Malie Goatry, you know, another
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  very impressive kid. You know, it's one of these things that it just
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  we get to a field and the first thing I asked Mark is, Okay,
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  who's our guy. Well, it was pretty obvious who the hell Signed
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  Grady was, because, first of all, Enterprise Alabama produces a lot of
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  talent. This is not like it's just this rare five star kid that just
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  fell from the heavens. They have a lot of dudes through the years,
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  and you know, this kid still a head taller than everybody else. I
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  mean, it was just, you know, it was just crazy. So
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  no, I like Ohio States chances to be competitive in this one. I'm
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  always going to be very hesitant to go much further than that when talking talking
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  about a kid from the Deep South, because you know, we don't we
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  don't really have a roadmap of a lot of these recruitments. People say,
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  well, Hi, State recruits Georgia. Well that's different, and and and
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  has gone into the deeper, non Atlanta parts of Georgia the land kids,
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  whether it's northern Georgia to get Von Bell, whether it's southern Georgia to get
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  Raylon McMillan. But it's always seemed like these defensive ends have been very difficult
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  for Ohio State. Maybe maybe they land them at one point, but then
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  to hold on to them. So you know, we'll see. But again,
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  I've I've seen some players on this trip that uh, you know,
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  I expect to I expect to see playing on Sundays. Well, one place
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  where you can always go and find players we would expect to see them eventually
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  playing on Sundays is IMG Academy. That's dound in Bradenton, Florida. That
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  is a much more familiar spot stop on the Southern Swing tour. You can
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  probably just going through the list in your head of the number of guys who've
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  gone through IMG Academy and turned into high four star, five star prospects NFL
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  players. The list is long and full of very very talented football players.
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  You talked to. You said there were three different guys that you talked to
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  at IMG. Who are names people should know, so let them know those
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  names. Well, let's start with the easiest name. Let's start with London
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  Merritt, who is an Ohio State commitment. Transfers from Woodward Academy outside of
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  Atlanta down by Heartfield International Airport to to IMG. Still, you know,
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  he's still got the shine of being an Ohio State commit you know, very
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  happy, you know, really looking forward to to working on his game.
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  He's you know, there are a couple of guys at IMG that he's actively
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  working on recruiting as well as recruiting guys from from beyond. You know,
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  said all the right things about Larry Johnson and that relationship with the Ohio State
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  defensive line coach. You know, Merrit very you know, very impressive guy.
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  I mean, unfortunately for the spring game that we got there for,
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  it started a little early, so we missed a little bit of the action
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  because they just got got it going a little early. But you know,
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  Merit very impressive, you know, very impressive interview, very impressive young man
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  and in a in a tremendous, tremendous football player. And you know he'll
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  he'll be working on another twenty five guy who will be the next guy to
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  talk about. I guess as soon as you say, all right, Kevin,
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  talk about the next guy. All right, Kevin, talk about the
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  next guy. Now there, there you go. They have another talented linebacker.
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  I'm just I'm not just Drew Blank Jeremiah a Wo su Bo Tang.
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  I got it, I got it. There he's somebody that that that James
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  Lorniitis has made a big impact on he you know, certainly has you know,
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  followed what what what Jims Laurentiitis is all about. I think Ohio State's
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  movement in this one has been kind of free since. So you like the
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  fact that it's being followed up with a visit. Does Ohio State have a
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  lot of ground to make up? I mean that, I guess is going
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  to be some of the question with other schools having been involved with him longer.
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  You look at the linebacker position, it's not necess necessarily been a position
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  where Ohio State has taken numbers in mass the last couple of years. I
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  mean they've been able to go out and target a couple of guys, you
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  know, being able to get like a Peyton Pierce out of Texas. I
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  think that picking up Jeremiah would be a huge get if they're able to do
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  it. I know London Merrit is certainly going to be in his ear,
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  but you know, very you know, a very impressive looking specimen out there
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  too, and seems to be saying the right things all right. And then
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  so who is the third guy now from img Academy A twenty twenty six zech
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  ryah Ford or zech Fort as a lot of people call him who are more
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  familiar. He is originally from Long Beach, but he has family ties to
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  the state of Ohio, and if you want to figure out more about those,
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  you'll have to read the article on Buckeye Hollo and watch the video on
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  zech Ford. But he is a safety who Ryan Day already kind of considers
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  an Ohio and just because of his family ties to the state of Ohio,
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  and he's somebody who really has a history of watching Ohio of State. I
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  mean, there's one thing about oh I've got family in Ohio, and then
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  there's another thing about watching the annual game between Ohio State and the team up
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  north and knowing all the stats and everything that goes on there and being able
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  to really go through all of these types of things being able to see games
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  as a fan. Maybe he hasn't had a chance to see a game as
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  a recruit, but he's seen games as a as a fan. So I
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  like where Ohio State stands there too. People are immediately going to say,
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  well, he's from Long Beach. So if we don't view him as a
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  poor idiot, if we don't view him as somebody from that state, because
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  he's been at IMG since I think in eighth grade, we got to view
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  him as a Californian. Well, I think that you can sit there and
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  have a third door as well. And you know, again, another impressive
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  player, somebody that I've I've actually had a chance, had a chance to
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  kind of talk to him briefly last season, and then this season had the
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  chance to have the more formal interview with him. You know, I think
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  that he's somebody that Tim Walton will do a good job trying to trying to
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  secure when the time when the time arrived, Tim Waltman has a pretty good
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  track record of securing guys when the time arrives, so we'll see if he
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  can do that in this case as well. If you want more details on
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  these guys, and many many many many more top high school players that they
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  have seen and met an interviewed on the Southern Swing. You can find that
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  all at buckey huddle dot com. As Kevin said, we talk about some
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  of the stuff here, there's way more on the site, way more on
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  the huddle Board presented by Jeff Ruby Steakhouse. That is a member exclusive area
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  of the site. That's where the real good stuff is, all the detailed
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  stuff, all the nitty gritty where you can ask us questions, ask Mark
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  and Kevin questions about the guys they've met on the trip. Get that all
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  that great insider information. That's all at bucke huddle dot com. And if
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  you were not a member right now and you'd like access to that, well,
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  good news. Our annual subscription sale it's winding down right now. These
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  guys are wrapping up their Southern Swing trip. That sub annual subscription sale is
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  going to wrap up as well, very soon. But if you want to
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  get in under the wire, you can do that today at Buckeye huddle dot
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  com. Get about forty percent off the price of an annual membership except just
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  under seventy bucks. Pretty good deal for a full year of coverage so other
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  than the swing, the June recruiting period for the media days in July,
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  fall camp in August, the season September through October, November, December,
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  probably into January, and maybe decent ways into January this year. All that
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  great stuff. Yeah, we talked some basketball, we talked some hockey,
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  all that stuff there as well. But a full year of coverage for just
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  under seventy bucks. That is a pretty darn good deal. If you want
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  to get that deal, you better sign up today at buckeyehuddle dot com.
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  That'll do it for today. Thank you guys all for joining us. Have
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  a great day. We'll talk to you tomorrow.