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Ohio State Scheme Insider: Changes Coming At Linebacker? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Buckeyees tomorrow morning for Monday, August tenth. I'm
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  Speaker 1: your host, Tom Moore. The ball State game in twenty
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  Speaker 1: six days, the game against Michigan in one hundred and
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  Speaker 1: ten days. We're sponsored today by Jeff Ruby's Columbus probably
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  Speaker 1: All right, on today's show, we're going to be talking
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  Speaker 1: about some things that we learned inside Ohio State football practice.
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  Speaker 1: You want to hear some stuff that Tony Gerderm and
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  Speaker 1: I were hearing following Sunday's closed practice. It's a Buckeye
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  Speaker 1: Weekly podcast episode talking about some of that, and we've
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  Speaker 1: got even more information on that on the Insiders board
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  Speaker 1: at Buckeye Insiders dot com. This would be a great
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  Speaker 1: time for you to go sign up there get access
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  Speaker 1: to our full team of insiders. You get Tony and
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  Speaker 1: I covering the team, get Juck covering recruiting, get Marcus
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  Speaker 1: covering basketball, and we have our scheme insiders as well,
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  Speaker 1: Ross Fulton and Michael Pettitt. Michael is my guest on
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  Speaker 1: today's show. He was at practice on Saturday. I wanted
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  Speaker 1: to sort of pick his brain on some of the
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  Speaker 1: things that he saw because he had some different takeaways
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  Speaker 1: than Tony and I did and Marcus and I did
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  Speaker 1: following that practice. And let's start Michael with the linebacker position.
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  Speaker 1: Because you were watching all the different groupings of linebackers
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  Speaker 1: that they had and the different combinations of guys they
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  Speaker 1: had out there. What did you learn about that and
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  Speaker 1: what are you maybe thinking it might mean for the
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  Speaker 1: linebackers this ball.
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  Speaker 2: Well, my takeaway from the linebackers is that I don't
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  Speaker 2: know that the starting linebackers are set in stone. I think,
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  Speaker 2: in particular, at one point in time, I kind of
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  Speaker 2: thought that it was going to be Pierce and Aliegro,
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  Speaker 2: But it seemed like a lot of different linebackers were
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  Speaker 2: getting looks with the ones yesterday, and they were kind
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  Speaker 2: of giving a lot of the linebackers reps at the
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  Speaker 2: different linebacker spots. So, for example, at one point, you know,
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  Speaker 2: I kind of always assumed Peyton Pierce will be the
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  Speaker 2: starting Mike linebacker. I would still think he will be,
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  Speaker 2: But at one point he was at Will with TJ.
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  Speaker 2: Alford at Mike. And then when Riley Pettijohn and TJ.
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  Speaker 2: Alfred were on the field together, Pettijohn was at Mike
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  Speaker 2: and Alfred was at Will. And then at one point
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  Speaker 2: they went with a four to three look and aliegro
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  Speaker 2: is at Will, Alfred was at Sam, and Peydon Pierce
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  Speaker 2: was at Mike. So a lot of different moving around,
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  Speaker 2: I'm sure, just trying to figure out the best combinations
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  Speaker 2: they have with that versatile room they have, and.
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  Speaker 1: That's something that Ryan Day's talked about a bunch that
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  Speaker 1: they are sort of shuffling guys around right now just
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  Speaker 1: to sort of figure out what they're working with and
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  Speaker 1: the best combinations there. But one thing that I think
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  Speaker 1: might be a little bit different for people this year
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  Speaker 1: is it feels like we're coming out of a time
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  Speaker 1: when when James Lauren I just was a linebacker at
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  Speaker 1: Ohio State, there was a lot of four to three
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  Speaker 1: out there, and then football changed and you got into
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  Speaker 1: the spread era and all that kind of stuff, and
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  Speaker 1: then you saw a lot more two linebacker sets and
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  Speaker 1: a lot more sort of four to five kind of defenses.
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  Speaker 1: Now it feels like things are swinging back a little
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  Speaker 1: bit and you might be sort of re entering the
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  Speaker 1: era of four three linebackers.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's exactly correct. Football scheme is always cyclical. Things
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  Speaker 2: come and go, and we really are entering what some
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  Speaker 2: people like Cody Alexander maatch quarters dot Com describes as
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  Speaker 2: the post spread era because offenses are now using more
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  Speaker 2: two tight end looks and things like that, and so
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  Speaker 2: defenses are naturally responding. They're having a lot of times,
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  Speaker 2: you know, playing with a third linebacker on the field
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  Speaker 2: or using what's called a big nickel, which, as you know,
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  Speaker 2: instead of having more of a i guess, for lack
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  Speaker 2: of a better term, more of a cornerback at nickel,
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  Speaker 2: have someone who's kind of a hybrid between a linebacker
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  Speaker 2: and a safety at nickel. So, yeah, that's definitely part
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  Speaker 2: of it. And on this topic, you know a lot
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  Speaker 2: of times in the off seasons people speculate will Ohio
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  Speaker 2: State play more three linebacker looks where we see more
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  Speaker 2: of this. I do to say that as far as
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  Speaker 2: defense goes, a lot of that really depends on what
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  Speaker 2: the offense is doing. If the offense is running a
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  Speaker 2: lot of eleven personnel, meaning only one tight ends on
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  Speaker 2: the field. You're not gonna be putting in a third linebacker,
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  Speaker 2: even if it's fourth and one, because you need to
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  Speaker 2: be you need to be matching the offenses personnel. If
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  Speaker 2: the offense is running a bunch of two tight end looks,
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  Speaker 2: then yeah, you are more likely to get three linebacker
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  Speaker 2: looks and run a four to three or something like that.
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  Speaker 2: But I guess the point I'm making is that how
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  Speaker 2: many three linebacker sets versus two linebacker sets the defense
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  Speaker 2: runs is not necessarily something that the defensive staff can
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  Speaker 2: just decide unilaterally because they have to, you know, account
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  Speaker 2: for what the offense is doing.
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  Speaker 1: And you're facing some very very different offenses this year.
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  Speaker 1: You're facing Texas, but you're also facing Iowa, You're facing
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  Speaker 1: Oregon in usc but you're also facing a Kyle Whittingham
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  Speaker 1: coach Michigan, So you may see different linebacker groupings and
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  Speaker 1: you know, and opposing personnel groupings varying quite a bit
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  Speaker 1: over the course of the season, even just in those
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  Speaker 1: sort of high profile games. So that was a little
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  Speaker 1: bit on the defensive side of the ball. I also
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  Speaker 1: wanted to get you a little bit of your thoughts
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  Speaker 1: on the offensive side of the ball. Because Arthur Smith
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  Speaker 1: the new offensive coordinator for Ohio State. We're gonna get
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  Speaker 1: a chance to talk to him a little later on
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  Speaker 1: in the week, and I'm interested to hear what he
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  Speaker 1: has to say. But I think there's a lot of
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  Speaker 1: interest in what he's going to bring to the ground
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  Speaker 1: game because that's sort of where his strength has sort
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  Speaker 1: of historically lied, laid laid lied. I don't know that's
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  Speaker 1: where his strength has historically been. So he is coming
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  Speaker 1: in replacing Brian Hartline Brian Day obviously a guy whose
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  Speaker 1: strength lies in the passing game. What did you see
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  Speaker 1: out of the run game on Saturday out of Ohio
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  Speaker 1: State that and what do you think it might mean
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  Speaker 1: for what to expect this fall.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I didn't have the greatest view of the eleven
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  Speaker 2: on eleven period on Saturday, but what I noticed in
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  Speaker 2: the run game was it seemed like a lot more
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  Speaker 2: under center from the offense, which is I think something
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  Speaker 2: that we had kind of heard might be the case.
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  Speaker 2: And I felt like the offense was running stretch a
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  Speaker 2: lot or wide zone, whichever you want to call it,
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  Speaker 2: which I know some Ohio State fans may have a
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  Speaker 2: complex relationship with hearing that the offense is going to
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  Speaker 2: be running a lot of stretch potentially, but that was
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  Speaker 2: kind of something that we expected with Smith coming in,
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  Speaker 2: and I would like to, you know, point out that
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  Speaker 2: having another guy like Smith who's well versed in stretch
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  Speaker 2: there to coach it could definitely make the execution end
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  Speaker 2: up being better. And in addition to stretch, I saw
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  Speaker 2: a fair amount of duo. Duo is essentially power without
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  Speaker 2: the polar The offensive line is down blocking and the
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  Speaker 2: running back is reading the mic linebacker and determining whether
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  Speaker 2: to you know, stay inside or bounce outside depending on
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  Speaker 2: what the linebacker does. But duo is also a play
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  Speaker 2: that you know, we've seen a lot throughout the Ryan
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  Speaker 2: Day era.
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  Speaker 1: So you talked earlier about the fact that the offense
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  Speaker 1: kind of dictates what the defense puts out their personnel wise,
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  Speaker 1: that you know, are you playing two linebackers or three, Well,
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  Speaker 1: that sort of depends on what the offense is doing,
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  Speaker 1: so the offense can sort of dictate things. So how
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  Speaker 1: does the offense decide what what makes duo or stretch
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  Speaker 1: a good a good fit for this this year's team.
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  Speaker 1: Is that the offensive line and what they're good at
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  Speaker 1: is that The vision of the running backs and what
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  Speaker 1: they're good at, is that what makes those plays that
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  Speaker 1: might be a good fit for this year's Ohio State team.
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  Speaker 2: I think anytime you run a lot of zone and
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  Speaker 2: stretch in particular, one of the most important things is
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  Speaker 2: the running backs vision and cutting ability. I think when
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  Speaker 2: I think of the best guy I've ever seen run
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  Speaker 2: stretch at Ohio State, I always think of JK. Dobbins
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  Speaker 2: as vision was so good, but also his ability to
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  Speaker 2: make a quick jump cut on a dime is what
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  Speaker 2: made him so effective in the zone scheme that he
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  Speaker 2: was running a lot during Ryan Day's first year as
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  Speaker 2: a head coach. So I'd say running back vision is
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  Speaker 2: very much important in this. And yeah, I'd say as
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  Speaker 2: far as the offensive line goes, typically you know, athletic
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  Speaker 2: or maybe smaller offensive lines, some people associate that with
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  Speaker 2: being better at zone blocking than gap blocking. I think,
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  Speaker 2: you know, there might be too much looking into that.
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  Speaker 2: I think generally speaking, with the right coaching, you can
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  Speaker 2: get the offensive line to block any type of way
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  Speaker 2: at a p adequate level.
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  Speaker 1: And of course we are right now as we are
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  Speaker 1: recording this four practices into the fall. We get a
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  Speaker 1: chance to watch the first three and again we have
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  Speaker 1: some information on the fourth one on our insiders bord
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  Speaker 1: oft buckey insiders dot com. But I think it's also
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  Speaker 1: important for people to recognize that it feels like, Okay,
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  Speaker 1: everyone sort of does their hands and says, all right,
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  Speaker 1: we've seen these practices, we know what's going to happen
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  Speaker 1: this year, and yeah, I mean maybe, but there's also
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  Speaker 1: a long way to go between now and the kickoff
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  Speaker 1: of that ball State game.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, you know, Ethan Oneanwa was the starting
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  Speaker 2: left tackle at this point in fall camp last year,
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  Speaker 2: and as we saw, he hardly played it all during
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  Speaker 2: the actual season. So we're going to hear a lot
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  Speaker 2: of things. And I'm not saying that, you know, you
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  Speaker 2: should just throw everything you hear out the window because
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  Speaker 2: it doesn't matter. But I do think that it might
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  Speaker 2: be a little too early to assume that just because
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  Speaker 2: you heard that so and so is with the ones,
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  Speaker 2: that it means they're, you know, they have a starting
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  Speaker 2: spot lock this fall. I think there's a lot particularly
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  Speaker 2: on the defensive side of the ball. I think there's
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  Speaker 2: still a lot of you know, the coaches are still
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  Speaker 2: really trying to mix and match looks and see where
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  Speaker 2: their players fit best.
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  Speaker 1: All right, So there you go a little bit of
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  Speaker 1: a recap of some of the stuff we maybe took
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  Speaker 1: away from the first week at Ohio State football practice
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  Speaker 1: what it might mean for this fall. If you enjoy
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  Speaker 1: Thank you guys all for joining us. Have a great day.
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  Speaker 1: We'll talk to you tomorrow