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BONUS: Do Ohio State & Texas Need To Treat This Weekend As Must-Win? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: We are back with another bonus show, and this time
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: you're going to get to hear from Texas head coach
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Steve Sarkeesian. He held his press conference earlier this week,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: previewing the matchup between the number one Buckeyes and number
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: four Longhorns. Had a lot of interesting things to say.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: He comes across as very likable in these press conferences.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: We talked to him at the Cotton Bowl a couple
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: of years ago. He is very energetic. Seems pretty relaxed
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: going into this one. I think you guys will enjoy
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: hearing from Sark this week, so we're going to give
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: you three separate shows, one sort of a general overall
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: look at the game, one specifically on the offense, one
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: on the defense, and some other things. So let's start
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: with sort of the general overall thing, and we're going
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: to get real, real general to start with. This was
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: just his opening statement, kind of looking back at their
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: 59-7 win over Texas State, and a sort of brief
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: synopsis of his views on Ohio State.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: Quick recap from Saturday's ballgame. I think, first of all,
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: I'd be remiss if I didn't thank our fans for uh,
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: what an, what an amazing turnout, um, under those conditions,
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: you know, where I think we were 105 heat index, um,
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: you know, on the field, the field reached 160 degrees
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: for our players. Um, but, but, and you looked in
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: that stadium at the opening kickoff and just the, the atmosphere,
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: the energy, uh, was really awesome. So thank y'all Longhorn
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: nation for your support. Uh, I don't, I know I
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: don't need to be, uh, asking for you this Saturday night.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: I know we'll be there ready to rock and roll,
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: so it should be a fun night for everybody that way.
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: You know, I think coming out of the game, you know,
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: we talked about, you know, playing 52 guys in the
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: first half I thought was huge. We played upwards into
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: the 70s for the total of the ball game. A
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: lot of guys played. A lot of guys got opportunities.
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: A lot of guys got touches. You know, I know
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: that some of this is redundant, but, man, you think
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: about the five turnovers essentially we created defensively. and a
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: variety of ways, right. With, with Biles, with the punch out,
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: Grayson scooping and scoring, um, Marad Watson, you know, with the,
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: with the force fumble calling with a great job on
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: the recovery, uh, the interception by Biles, the two fourth
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: down stops, but all those, you know, that that's 35
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: points in a game and that's playing complimentary football. I
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: know y'all have heard me say that before of playing
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: complimentary football, working together. I thought offensively, you know, the
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: third down efficiency was really good. Um, you know, I
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: think arch was like six or seven on third down,
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: something like that. The short yardage offense, that's how you're
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: able to extend drives. Um, and then when we didn't,
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: there were some that were intentional, you know, going two
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: for two on fourth down. So, um, I guess it's,
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: it's always a good day when you don't punt. Um,
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: you know, it'd been nice to, to get Mac out there.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: I get, and I know that sounds crazy to say,
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: and that was part of why, you know, we put
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: G out there to kick that field goal just so
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: he can, you know, make a field goal in DKR
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: as we start to move forward. But, uh, All in all,
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: it was a good win for us. It was a
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: good start to the season. But we also know the
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: challenge that we have this week. Ohio State, they're number
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: one in the country for a reason. Ryan has done
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: a tremendous job with that program since taking over, obviously,
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: national champs a couple years ago. Brought in Matt Patricia
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: last season. Led the country in just about every defensive
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: statistical category. This year he brings in Arthur Smith. So
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: it's a nice luxury to have. having two NFL head
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: coaches on your staff as your play callers, and they've reloaded.
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: They're extremely talented. I think we all know who Jeremiah
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: Smith is offensively, but Julian Sands, a heck of a player.
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: Bo Jackson running the ball. They've got a veteran O-line.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: They've added some receivers to the mix, losing Carnell Tate.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: And then defensively, they've reloaded as well. They've got some
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: really good players and some guys that have grown up.
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: With McLean, Matthews, those guys, you know, Pierce, but also
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: the addition of an Allegro, the addition of a John Walker.
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: They still have Kenyatta Jackson. They still have Devin Sanchez.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: So this is a very, very talented football team that's
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: well coached. But these are the games that you love
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: to be part of, you know, and we're fortunate that
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: we get to be part of these games as a staff,
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: as players, as a fan base. We're obviously looking forward
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: to the opportunity. Should be a heck of a week.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: This is a top five matchup. This is going to
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: be one of the most watched games of the entire
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: college football season. But at the same time, the team
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: that loses, they're not out of the college football playoffs.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: It's a little bit of a dent in the resume,
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: and that's about it. So can you kind of treat
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: this just as another game, or do you have to
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: treat this as a big game, knowing how much a
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: win could impact your playoff resume?
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: I don't think I need to really spend so much
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: energy and time on um, what is this game mean? Right.
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: I think as a competitor, it's like, Hey, we're, we
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: get an opportunity to play the number one team in
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: the country, a team we've had two battles with the
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: last two years. And we know what that takes. I'm
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: not so consumed with what the end result might be,
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: you know, four months down the road, we've got other
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: games to go play that, that, that can contribute one
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: way or the other to our success that we have
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: in the season. Um, What I am excited about is
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: as a competitor and for our team, the locker room
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: and building full of competitors that we have is that
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: we get an opportunity to go against the best. And
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: how are we going to perform against the best? Because
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: our best is going to be needed, and our best
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: is going to be needed for four quarters. And so
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: that's what excites me. Like I said, I'm not so
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: consumed with what could be down the road. We've got
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: 10 other games to go play that will contribute to that.
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: This is about the life of a competitor and putting
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: yourself in the arena and performing under what would deem
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: stressful conditions, right? Because if you're wrong, they can hurt you.
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: But if we're right, we can hurt them. And so
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: that's the exciting part of preparing for that at DKR
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: in front of our crowd with I bet there's close
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: to 20 million people that watch this game. And so
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: that's pretty cool when you think about it that way.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: This is a big game in all the ways a
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: game can be a big game. College Game Day is
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: going to be there. National TV broadcast is going to
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: be one of the most watched games of the season.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: Lots of fans, lots of celebrities coming into town. Is
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: there any concern around all the pomp and circumstance around
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: this game, maybe creating some distractions for the Longhorns?
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: I think it's great for our game. I'll say this.
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: The fact that we have College Game Day coming back
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: to Austin, that's great. The fact that we'll have Um,
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: you know, whether it's the, the Spurs team, the Rockets team,
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: you know, how many other people on our sideline, their side,
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: that's great because these are two great teams that are,
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: that are going to battle and going to, going to
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: compete against one another. It's awesome for the university. It's
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: awesome for the city of Austin. It's awesome for college football.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: I mean, this, this will be the most watched regular
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: season game, arguably of all time in the regular season.
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: that's great for everybody else for us. What are we
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: doing today? How are we preparing today? And that's been
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: the message to our team. Um, you know, today's the
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: most important day. We need to focus on the task
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: at hand and we need to be enamored with us. Um,
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: because I think this week can be full of distractions
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: if you allow them to be distractions. And so, you know,
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: focus is a very powerful thing. And so we use
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: a very simple adage, starve our distractions, feed our focus. Um,
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: And if we do that, we'll put our best foot
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: forward and play the best game that we're that we're
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: capable of playing. But all that stuff is really good
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: for the game. It's really good for everything else for us.
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: It's about our prep work and about our preparation mentally,
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: physically and emotionally.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: Is there any kind of a change in approach for
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: Texas from last year's game? Because last year was week
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: one and it was on the road this year, week
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: two at home. So does that change how they're approaching
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: this game?
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: I don't I don't. you know, I don't feel like
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: going into last week's game that we weren't in the
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: right frame of mind to compete at the highest level
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: in a very tough environment on the road. You know,
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: I felt like we came to battle and we did
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: battle and, you know, unfortunately we didn't score a couple
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: of times. We were inside the five yard line, 10
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: yard line, you know, and maybe, maybe that's a different game. So,
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: I think from a mentality standpoint, how we approach things,
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: we've always got a little bit of a theme for
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: different games, but how we approach it and our process
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: to get ready to play won't change. We believe in
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: our process. We've been very efficient in that. We've won
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: a lot of big games. I think since 2022, we've
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: won more top 25 games than any other team in
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: the country. So we've been used to playing in big games.
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: We haven't won them all, but for the most part,
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: we've performed pretty well, and so we feel like our
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: formula for success is one that has kind of withstood
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: the test of time.
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: This is kind of a, just a different, a different
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: kind of question. He was asked Sark as a college
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: football fan, not just a college football coach, but a
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: college football fan loves the game and was asked about
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: three things from the opening weekend, Notre Dame's uniforms, the
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: Ole Miss Louisville game and the finish of the Michigan game.
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: So get a little, little potpourri from Sark on some
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: of his thoughts on the opening week of college football.
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: That was a lot going on there. Um, I didn't
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: get to see the Notre Dame game as much, but
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: they were blue. You know, I saw the uniforms. The
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: Ole Miss game was a hell of a game, you know.
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: I mean, that was a hell of a game. And,
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: you know, two quarterbacks that were making plays, you know,
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: in that fourth quarter of that game. And that's what
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: college football, like you love that. I mean, we're sitting
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: around on a Sunday night. and college football's at the
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: forefront and everybody's watching those two teams compete. So that
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: was a hell of a game. I didn't see the
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: Michigan play in real time. I saw the aftermath, you know, watching,
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: you know, different sports shows and, and, and reading about it.
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: And I was curious and I still don't understand or
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: get the final ruling of it all. Um, unfortunate for
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: Western Michigan to to play their tails off the way
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: they did and to lose like that. I've lost a
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: game that way before on a Hail Mary and that,
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: that definitely sucks. Um, but that's why you play 60 minutes. Um,
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: but again, I don't know the exact ruling on the timing.
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: I know there was a player out of bounds, touch
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: the ball first. Is there one second? Is there not
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: the clock in the stadium, the clock back in the
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: big 10 set? There's a lot of moving parts that
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: I'm not going to pretend to know everything about. Um,
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: But wow, what a finish. My biggest thing was I
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: was shocked they stormed the field. That was probably a surprise.
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: Is there a little bit of a different dynamic to
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: this non-conference game than there would be for a typical one?
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: Because a lot of times non-conference games, these are teams
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: that haven't played. There's really not much overlap between the
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: coaching staffs or the rosters. In this case, Ohio State's
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: played Texas. This is the third year in a row
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: that they're going to play Texas. That's more than they
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: play most Big Ten teams. So is there a little
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: bit of a different dynamic having played twice in the
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: last two years?
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think that it, you know, I
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: think it lends to strategy, right? I think it lends
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: itself to style of play. I think it lends itself to,
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: as I said, the life of a competitor. And to
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: your point, we've had some great success against really good
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: teams over the past two, three years. We've had not
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: so good success against other teams. Well, you got to
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: do a deep dive. Well, why is that? And where
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: can we make those subtle adjustments to continue to try
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: to improve, to play better against certain teams and continue
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: to play well against other teams? I don't think it's
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: a rinse repeat. And I think that's a mistake you
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: can make is that, Hey, we're good against this team.
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: Let's just do the same thing again. Because there's really
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: good coaches that we, that we coach against and they're
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: making adjustments to, they're making adjustments to their roster. to
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: try to be better against us or to continue to
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: prove against us. They're making adjustments to schemes. And so
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: you have to adapt, you have to continue to evolve,
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: and you have to try to do what we think
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: is in the best interest moving forward for specific opponents
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: as we go.
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: All right, there you go. A little bit from Sark.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: Hope you guys enjoyed that. We are going to have
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: so much more coverage all week long at BuckeyeInsiders.com and
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: at YouTube.com slash at BuckeyeInsiders.com. Got some shows coming up
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: this week with our scheme insiders, Ross Fulton and Michael Pettit.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: Ross did a show on the Ohio State offense, recapping
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: their first week. Michael Pettit doing a show on the
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: Ohio State defense, recapping their first week. Ross also did
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: a show. We had some questions from members on our board.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: People wanted to hear more from Ross about the Texas defense.
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: Our new defensive coordinator, Will Muschamp. You can find that
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: show as well on our YouTube channel, youtube.com slash at buckeyeinsiders.com.
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  Speaker 1: of BuckeyeInsiders.com. That'll do it for now. Thank you guys
• 14:01
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