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Was 2025 A Successful Ohio State Football Season? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Buckeyes tomorrow morning, Thursday, January first time your
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  Speaker 1: host Tom Or The ball State game is in two
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  Speaker 1: hundred and forty eight days. Just felt my knees buckle
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  Speaker 1: a little saying that the game against Mishian in three
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  Speaker 1: hundred and thirty one days. If you're planning your next event,
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  Speaker 1: make it unforgettable. With Grateful Griddle Columbus his favorite food
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  Speaker 1: truck serving up Smashburger's gourmet sandwich is and good vibes.
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  Speaker 1: Booker catering today at Gratefulgriddle oh dot com, joined by
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  Speaker 1: Tony Gerderman here at Jerah World. The vibes in here
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  Speaker 1: were immaculate if you were wearing green and orange. Less
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  Speaker 1: so for the folks in scarlet and gray. Miami knocks
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  Speaker 1: off Ohio State twenty four to fourteen, ending the Buckeye
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  Speaker 1: season two straight losses. I guess let's start with just
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  Speaker 1: the season on the whole. They beat Michigan, have an
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  Speaker 1: undefeated regular season. I would say exceeded expectations broadly for
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  Speaker 1: the whole regular season. The year did kind of come
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  Speaker 1: to an end with a little bit of a thud
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  Speaker 1: with the loss in Indianapolis. The loss here and there
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  Speaker 1: you know, you had so many players have incredible individual achievements,
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  Speaker 1: you had so many great wins. Is this a I'm
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  Speaker 1: trying to put this in some kind of perspective in
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  Speaker 1: terms of is this a you know you're not gonna
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  Speaker 1: win the national championship every year? So is this a
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  Speaker 1: great non championship season? This is a very good, good,
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  Speaker 1: unacceptable fire everyone where where does this fall in that scale?
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  Speaker 2: There are Ohio State fans you feel like you should
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  Speaker 2: win it every year, and if you don't, that season
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  Speaker 2: is a failure. Of course, ninety seven percent of ninety
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  Speaker 2: two percent or whatever of your seasons and would be
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  Speaker 2: failures in that sense. But if you go back before
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  Speaker 2: the season you're looking at, you know, you could see
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  Speaker 2: it nine and three, between nine and three and twelve
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  Speaker 2: and zero, where did they end up? Yeah, twelve and
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  Speaker 2: two in the playoffs, which I don't think you get
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  Speaker 2: too much credit for making the playoffs because that's you
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  Speaker 2: just need to be a top eleven and tennis team. Yes,
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  Speaker 2: that's what I've said, has generally been for the last
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  Speaker 2: twenty five years. So that's you know, I don't know
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  Speaker 2: that you get a cookie for that, but you did
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  Speaker 2: beat Michigan, and not just you beat Michigan. You stopped
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  Speaker 2: the streak that you needed to stop. So by that measure,
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  Speaker 2: the season is a success. But you did not win
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  Speaker 2: a Big Ten. You did not win a national title.
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  Speaker 2: The same number of goals reached the last year as
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  Speaker 2: this year, but very different overall in terms of the
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  Speaker 2: total total weight there. But is it a successful season?
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  Speaker 2: You know, yes, it is a successful season because you're
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  Speaker 2: not going to win national championship every year. So does
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  Speaker 2: that mean if they would had won the Big Ten
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  Speaker 2: it would be there would be more people willing to
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  Speaker 2: accept that this is a successful season.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. It's so interesting because you go back to the
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  Speaker 1: Big Ten championship game and they lose, and they lose close,
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  Speaker 1: and they lose to the team that ends up the
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  Speaker 1: number one team in the country going into the playoffs,
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  Speaker 1: and you can kind of sort of handwave that and go, well,
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  Speaker 1: you know, they have bigger goals ahead, and so it's fine,
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  Speaker 1: they'll probably get another crack at Indiana later. Now, not
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  Speaker 1: having capitalized on those later opportunities, now that loss feels
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  Speaker 1: like it well like if they had won that one,
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  Speaker 1: do I still think no matter how you did in
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  Speaker 1: that game. If o'hiustate was thirteen to know in the
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  Speaker 1: number one seed and lost in the first round of
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  Speaker 1: the playoff, congratulations, you're twenty twenty four Organ. Do you
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  Speaker 1: think how many Organ fans walked out of the Rose
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  Speaker 1: Bowl last year the big smile on their face. Probably
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  Speaker 1: not that many.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I guess it's the smiles you make along the way. Yeah, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: the one that you end up with. That's the nature
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  Speaker 2: of sports. If you're not built for a season that
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  Speaker 2: ends with a couple of losses, then you don't deserve
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  Speaker 2: them at their best.
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  Speaker 1: You know.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that sort of thing. Yeah, but yeah, it's
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  Speaker 2: a successful season. You won a bunch of games, you
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  Speaker 2: had fun. You did not end up the way you
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  Speaker 2: wanted time. I'm sure exercise or slices on the plenty.
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  Speaker 2: But it's just because a season ends with pain and suffering,
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  Speaker 2: I guess doesn't mean it was a an unsuccessful season,
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  Speaker 2: because they're if you had as you you had joy
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  Speaker 2: in the Texas win, you had joy with the Michigan win.
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  Speaker 2: You're not going to win a national championship every year.
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  Speaker 2: I don't know that people care about the Big Ten
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  Speaker 2: championship as much as they used to or as much
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  Speaker 2: as you need to. I think you might be seeing
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  Speaker 2: those go away anyway. But yeah, losing in your first
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  Speaker 2: playoff game. Yeah, and to Miami. Yeah, I think that's
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  Speaker 2: also a factor where maybe it's like you've given life
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  Speaker 2: to the program that you put in the ground, So
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  Speaker 2: how can this be a successful season? Ye when you've
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  Speaker 2: let this happen?
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  Speaker 1: Well, yeah, And there's also there's a whole separate, fascinating
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  Speaker 1: conversation to have about what does this mean on the
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  Speaker 1: recruiting trail now moving forward for Ohio stand in South
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  Speaker 1: Florida where they've had a ton of success time on
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  Speaker 1: a talent and at the same time as Brian Hartline
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  Speaker 1: is leaving where he was a really key part of that. Also,
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  Speaker 1: now the narrative is kind of swung on the Ohio
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  Speaker 1: State Miami place in, you know, relative to each other.
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  Speaker 2: What does it mean for DJJ Jacobs.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a whole separate conversation. So yeah, we'll we'll
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  Speaker 1: get to that. You know, we'll have plenty of time
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  Speaker 1: to talk about that because did I mention that the
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  Speaker 1: Ball State game is in two hundred and forty eight days,
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  Speaker 1: So we should talk a little bit about the game itself.
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  Speaker 1: If you want to hear us go real deep on that,
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  Speaker 1: you can find that on the Buckeye Weekly podcast feed
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  Speaker 1: on the whole, the whole long live postgame show that
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  Speaker 1: we did, Instant Reaction Show. But this felt like, you know,
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  Speaker 1: we did a million podcasts going into this, and one
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  Speaker 1: of them was if Miami lyns, what does this look like?
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  Speaker 1: And I feel like, if you go back and play it, it's,
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  Speaker 1: you know, it'll look like, you know, Pink doing Pink
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  Speaker 1: Floyd's the Wall over the Wizard of Oz. You put that,
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  Speaker 1: put that podcast over this game, the game film, and
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  Speaker 1: it's like, yeah, pretty much. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: And we talked about Miami needing to have the turnover
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  Speaker 2: ad and the pick six is as good as two turnovers.
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  Speaker 2: Basically it only counts as one, but when it puts
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  Speaker 2: a touchdown on the boards, that's even more devastating. Takes
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  Speaker 2: a touchdown off of a drive that Ohio State was making.
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  Speaker 2: So there's that there's just doing enough on first and
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  Speaker 2: second down so that third downs aren't a challenge. Third
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  Speaker 2: downs were he challenge for Ohio State because there are
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  Speaker 2: too many long ones. There were not very many long
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  Speaker 2: ones for Miami, and the longest one they picked up
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  Speaker 2: third and eleven was a scramble from Carson Beckett. At
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  Speaker 2: that point you're like, well, maybe they maybe they need
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  Speaker 2: to start spying again, because he was effective doing that
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  Speaker 2: and he chose quickly to do that, and kudos to him.
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  Speaker 2: But yeah, most of those third downs were of adequate, acceptable,
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  Speaker 2: easily enough where you can just you're throwing a four
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  Speaker 2: yard the passing of flats to a guy in motion
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  Speaker 2: and there's just no way the defender can keep up
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  Speaker 2: with them in motion and get there for the tackle.
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  Speaker 2: Well designed stuff, and kudos to again, I think I've
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  Speaker 2: said kudos yeah tonight a thousand times trying respectfully to
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  Speaker 2: the Miami offense. Good job on those things.
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  Speaker 1: So for the Ohio State offense, it really just started with, man,
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  Speaker 1: they really can't block that Miami defensive front. And it
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  Speaker 1: was not you know, there have been games this year
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  Speaker 1: where people have gone, it's that guy, and it's that
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  Speaker 1: guy's fault alone, that guy, you know, for some versions
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  Speaker 1: of that guy. That guy wasn't even playing tonight, and
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  Speaker 1: the issues remained and it wasn't necessarily like, oh well
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  Speaker 1: all the problems are happening on this spot. It's all
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  Speaker 1: it's not wasn't even it's all happening on the right
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  Speaker 1: side of the offensive line, and left side of the
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  Speaker 1: offensive line had their right shown issues gave Van Sickle
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  Speaker 1: got benched for Josh Badia in your halftime, Austin Seerveld
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  Speaker 1: went out with an injury. Ian Moore came in. It
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  Speaker 1: was probably a little better of the second half. It
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  Speaker 1: was probably a little more on Julian saying holding on
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  Speaker 1: the ball too much, But it felt like that whole
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  Speaker 1: game was one and lost in the trenches and Ohio
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  Speaker 1: Miami won it and Ohio State lost him.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and Miami had some very timely sacks as well.
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  Speaker 2: They killed the Ohio State momentum with those. And Ohio
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  Speaker 2: State's doing well in the second half. They're moving the
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  Speaker 2: ball and there were two sacks there and essentially just
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  Speaker 2: he had the crowd going and then it's like, uh yeah,
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  Speaker 2: and he punted away and you got to kind of
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  Speaker 2: start over and rebuild that momentum. But yeah, the Ohio
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  Speaker 2: State offensive line struggled early, tried to put it together
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  Speaker 2: pretty well with backups in there in the second half,
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  Speaker 2: and that's not a good way to sustain a winning
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  Speaker 2: two quarters against what we've been talking about. It is
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  Speaker 2: a very very good defensive line for Miami, and not
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  Speaker 2: just on the xterior but also on the interior.
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  Speaker 1: One area where Ohio State had a ton of success
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  Speaker 1: was the pushing the Jeremiah Smith to do something cool.
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  Speaker 1: Button seven catches one hundred and fifty seven yards, had
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  Speaker 1: a touchdown, probably would have had another touchdown if he'd
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  Speaker 1: gotten led a little more. He was behind the defense
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  Speaker 1: and the throw was kind of behind him and he
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  Speaker 1: had to wait. But man, that was We have seen
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  Speaker 1: a lot of huge Jeremiah Smith days. That was a
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  Speaker 1: huge Jeremiah Smith day on a day when there wasn't
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  Speaker 1: that much else that was really working particularly well, and
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  Speaker 1: he was there to really kind of carry him. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: he did.
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  Speaker 2: And it's interesting they came up short on a deep
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  Speaker 2: pass to Jeremiah against Indiana and that went a long win,
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  Speaker 2: costing them the game. This one, you could say the
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  Speaker 2: same thing because shoot, it turned into what a pick
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  Speaker 2: six is up?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, he caught it, they went they you know, it
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  Speaker 1: probably would have been seven, and then it's you know,
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  Speaker 1: it's a tie game at seven and the next play
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  Speaker 1: because they didn't score on the next play. That was
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  Speaker 1: the pick six instead of seven to seven, it's fourteen
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  Speaker 1: to nine.
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  Speaker 2: And it's interesting that last season Will Howard had those issues.
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  Speaker 2: In the first half of the season, the deep ball
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  Speaker 2: got better and better. Julian's saying, the deep ball is
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  Speaker 2: pretty good in the first half of the season and
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  Speaker 2: then and most for most of the season, but then
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  Speaker 2: struggled a little bit towards the end of the season
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  Speaker 2: as his receivers got a little banged up. And but
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  Speaker 2: there's no re and that some of these throws shouldn't
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  Speaker 2: have been made indoors, you know, other than just there's
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  Speaker 2: a lot of pressure. Maybe your feet aren't correct, you'll
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  Speaker 2: know all of those little things.
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  Speaker 1: How comfortable are you setting your feet and driving from
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  Speaker 1: your back leg and all the stuff you need to
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  Speaker 1: do as a quarterback when you have defenders coming at you,
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  Speaker 1: when you have people at your feet, when you have
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  Speaker 1: you know, people going behind you. I wonder how much
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  Speaker 1: that might have impacted in right day.
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  Speaker 2: Soon after a game, there's just there's give and take
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  Speaker 2: because they felt they could hit those against Miami. But
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  Speaker 2: to do that, you're going to have to protect, and
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  Speaker 2: to do that, you're gonna have to stand tall in
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  Speaker 2: the pocket and trust your guys, and there are portions
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  Speaker 2: of this game where they did not provide the kind
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  Speaker 2: of trust. You know, they didn't earn that trust in
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  Speaker 2: this one. And so yeah, and you also saw I
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  Speaker 2: thought it was interesting you saw Julian saying taking some
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  Speaker 2: one on one shots downfield with yeah, twenty five yards,
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  Speaker 2: back shoulder, I'll I'll let my guy go up and
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  Speaker 2: get it, crying out take they just he wasn't able
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  Speaker 2: to connect with them on those. Yeah, connected on Jeremiah
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  Speaker 2: a couple of times on those. But it's interesting, like, Okay,
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  Speaker 2: it's one on one, there's no safety. Sure, I think
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  Speaker 2: that's as valuable as that's as good as a two
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  Speaker 2: yard run for Bo Jackson up the middle.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. He completed sixty three percent of his passes
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  Speaker 1: for two hundred and eighty seven yards, one touchdown, two picks.
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  Speaker 1: The one pick was the pick six, the other one
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  Speaker 1: got he was I think got hit or something like
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  Speaker 1: that right at the end when you're a sort of
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  Speaker 1: desperation mode, that one I kind of don't hold the hold.
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  Speaker 1: I would not put on his permanent record. But so
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  Speaker 1: now we turned the page. No Fiesta Bowl trip for
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  Speaker 1: the buck Eyes, no chance now to defend the National championship.
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  Speaker 1: Now we head into the offseason. Transfer portal opens on
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  Speaker 1: January second. This is you know, the buck Eyes are
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  Speaker 1: getting on the plane right yea, as we're speaking, they're
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  Speaker 1: heading home. And then that's the last time this group
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  Speaker 1: is going to be together as the whole group. So
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  Speaker 1: now the season starts. Now things get interesting because you know,
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  Speaker 1: last year, we're standing on the field in Atlanta after
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  Speaker 1: the National Championship and I remember saying very early in
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  Speaker 1: the show, enjoy this because they're not gonna win the
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  Speaker 1: National championship next year, meaning twenty twenty five, And they
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  Speaker 1: made a much better run at it than I thought
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  Speaker 1: they were going to this time last year. So obviously
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  Speaker 1: a lot is going to change. You're going to have
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  Speaker 1: guys go into the portal, You're going to bring guys
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  Speaker 1: back to the portal. There are a lot of guys
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  Speaker 1: who have NFL Draft decisions. A lot of that's going
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  Speaker 1: to play out over the next couple of weeks. Oh Rian,
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  Speaker 1: they needs to make a decision on an offensive coordinator.
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  Speaker 1: Does he want to bring in a big name outside
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  Speaker 1: offensive coordinator. Does he want to do something internal? These
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  Speaker 1: are all kind of questions coaches, who's coming back, who's not.
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  Speaker 1: You know, players, who's coming back, who's not. There's just
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  Speaker 1: so many questions. Now this is gonna you know, this
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  Speaker 1: is going to be a really fascinating and very busy month.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure. They finish five hundred in the Cotton Bowl,
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  Speaker 2: the twenty twenty five Cotton Bowl, and now you've got
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  Speaker 2: to decide who's going to be your offensive coordinator. And
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: given the effectiveness of Matt Patricia from the NFL, I
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: wonder if and Ryan Day was looking towards in the NFL. Yeah,
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: when he decided to hire Bill O'Brien, he was just Kelly.
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  Speaker 2: There are some NFL names that were throwing it around
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  Speaker 2: that eventually ended up with like head coaching jobs or
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: other NFL oc jobs. So I assume he's going to
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: be looking there again as they look to bolster things,
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: because if you wanted Chip Kelly, I'm guessing he'd have
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: Chip Kelly in terms of filling that role instead of
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  Speaker 2: him at Northwestern right now. So I'm wondering who he
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  Speaker 2: has in mind, because I think he's got some people
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  Speaker 2: in mind.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm guessing that, you know, getting off the plane
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  Speaker 1: in Columbus, will not be the first time that it
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  Speaker 1: occurs to him. Oh shoot, I've got to fill that position.
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  Speaker 1: I forgot Brian Hartline's leaving. So yeah, So that process
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: presumably has already started, as Tony said, but that we
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  Speaker 1: will see them sort of starting to go through that process,
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  Speaker 1: probably a little more publicly in the coming days. The
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  Speaker 1: twenty twenty five Ohio State football season is over. It
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  Speaker 1: is time to turn the page at twenty twenty six.
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  Speaker 1: Conveniently right at just you had an hour or so
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  Speaker 1: to grieve it at the end of twenty twenty five.
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  Speaker 1: Now it's twenty twenty six, and the fun begins. A
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  Speaker 1: new ball State just two hundred and forty eight days away.
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  Speaker 1: So we will be there for every step of the
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: way between here and there.
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  Speaker 2: New Year, New Day.
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  Speaker 1: I like it. I like it. I don't love it,
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  Speaker 1: but I like it. So we will be back tomorrow,
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  Speaker 1: the day after tomorrow. We'll be back all two hundred
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  Speaker 1: and forty eight of those days between now and the
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  Speaker 1: Ball State game to tac Ohio State, tac Ohio State
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  Speaker 1: coaching to tac Ohio State, transfer portal to takc Ohio State,
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  Speaker 1: NFL draft decisions to talk to Ohio state of recruiting
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: and all that stuff and much much more. You can
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: find us at bucke Huddle dot com for all of that,
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: and of course at YouTube dot com slash Buckeye Huddle.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you, guys all for joining us, Thank you for
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: another really fun season of Ohio State football and coming
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  Speaker 1: along for us, coming along for the ride with us
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  Speaker 1: on all of those stops. It has been a fun one.
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  Speaker 1: We will be back for a whole new, fun season
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  Speaker 1: of Ohio State football. We'll talk to you tomorrow.