Latest / Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning / Ohio State Football: Which Young Defensive Ends Are Ready To Star?

Transcript

Ohio State Football: Which Young Defensive Ends Are Ready To Star? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Buckeye tomorrow morning for Sunday, July nineteenth, time
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: your host Tom or the ball state game in forty
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: eight days, the game against Michigan in one hundred and
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: thirty two days. We're sponsored today by our friends at
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Jeffrey's Columbus probably offering nationally acclaimed USDAT Prime stakes, seafood
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: and sushi, and peckable service, live entertainment, and an attention
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: to detail that is simply unmatched. Just go to jeffrey
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: dot com slash Columbus or scan that convenient QR code
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: on your screen to check out the menu and make
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: a reservation today. All right, we are continuing our list,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: our countdown of the thirty five most impactful players on
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: this year's Ohio State team on today's show, going to
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: be going through numbers twenty five through twenty one on
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: that list. Can be doing that with our buddy, Tony
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: Gerdaman of Buckeye Insiders dot com. Tony, we have now
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: reached the part of the list where I kind of
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: throw up my hands and go, well, it's going to
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: be one of these guys. I don't think the next
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: two guys can both possibly actually be at this point
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: in the list, but I think one of them is
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: probably going to be unless it's someone who we talked
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: about on two shows ago, Tony we got to talk
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: about the defensive ends opposite Kenyata Jackson. Let's start with
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: number twenty five, Zion Grady.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: You know, this is a guy who was the trajectory
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: from last season had him possibly being a starter this season,
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: and he could still do that, but he is very young. Yeah,
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: he's still just a sophomore. But we saw him pass
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: older players, saw him pass bo Atkinson and had some moments,
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: didn't put up any like stellar stats, but had he
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: gone on the open market and transfer portal, everybody would
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: have wanted him, and of course Ohio State has him.
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: So yeah, I'm okay with this one. It feels like
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: this is a spot. Really you figure somebody is going
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: to emerge as that second pass rusher and maybe climb
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: the charts. And I'm I'm impressed by the order that
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: you have here. I'll just say that. I'm it's it's
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: not standard, so good on you unless you're completely wrong,
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: and then it's like, what in the world.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: You know, conventional wisdom's always correct, absolutely, Why would you
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: ever question conventional wisdom. Yeah, so and this is really
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: I've got twenty five and twenty four and this is
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: this might as well be twenty four and twenty four A.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: But so twenty five Zion Grady. Let's go to number
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: twenty four. Another defensive end, Epi Sitanolie.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: And Epi's a guy that put on weight and red
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: shirted last year, not that that counts anymore, but I
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: had a really strong spring, I thought, and more we
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: saw him do more in the spring and make more plays,
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: whatever that means, than I think we did from Zion
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: Grady and maybe from any of the other defensive ends.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: So he was certainly up there. And so I think
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: having him ahead of Zion Grady, I think is going
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: to surprise some people. I would agree with you on this,
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: And you know, I think together they're going to drive
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: each other, and I think there's enough depth here that
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: they can both play. We saw what was able to
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: happen with the twenty sixteen twenty seventeen defensive end group,
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: and so there's no reason to think that you can't
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: play more than four, you can't play four. They can
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: absolutely play four, and they can even play five and
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: keep everybody fresh, especially if you're playing five man fronts
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: and somebody sliding inside. So I think there's I'll I'll
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: just say this, Tom, good job man.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: The rarest of compliments from you. I can't believe it.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna fetch me my fainting couch. I don't know
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: what to do. It just feels like those two guys
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: are probably going to end up with fairly similar snap
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: numbers this year. You're probably going to see a decent
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: rotation of those two guys, probably fairly similar stats. If
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: one of them gets, you know, if one of them
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: really takes a huge step forward and vaults up this list,
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: that's only good news for Ohio State. But I think
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: you've got a couple of guys who are certainly poised
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: to be contributors here. And we're in twenty four to
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: twenty five. There are only twenty two guys who are starting,
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: So you're right now sort of right on the cusp
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: of being sort of a starter caliber player there. So
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: those guys both in there. Number twenty three, John Walker,
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: defensive tackle transfer from UCF. He's another guy who I've
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: got him a little lower on the list because this
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: is another spot where I'm not expecting him to play
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: fifty sixty snaps a game. I think this is going
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: to be sort of a rotational spot, but I think
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: he's going to play a pretty important role for Ohio
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: stated year.
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: And he's a guy I think who also closed well
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: and maybe didn't We didn't see as much from him
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: early on. But it's also a spring, so you know,
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: how much can you tell from run stopping in the spring.
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: I feel like to me, this might be pretty close
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: to a ceiling for me, especially when we consider James
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: Smith might be playing some of that nose tackle. Will
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: Smith might be playing some of that nose tackle, and
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: John Walker dropped some weight, so maybe he's going to
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: be more versatility. He came in like twenty pounds under
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: what he was at UCF, or at least what he
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: was listed there, so maybe there's designs on him being
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: more than nose tackle and being able to play both
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: spots like all of the other defensive tackles are asked
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: to do. So I'm I think this is aggressive, but
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: if it's correct, I think that's a good thing for
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: Ohio State.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think a lot of guys we've talked about, boy,
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: this could be substantially higher. I don't see John Walker.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: I mean, if he is a top ten player this year, great,
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: I'm sure Larry Johnson would take that with a big
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: smile on his face. I don't think he's going to
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: get there. This feels like a guy who's going to
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: be a really solid contributor, but not an every down guy,
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: not a guy who's piling up huge stats, but a
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: really solid player in the middle of that defensive line.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: So that's number twenty three, not at number twenty two.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: And man, I don't think I stressed out about any
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: position group more than the wide receivers number twenty two.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: I've Devin McEwan, which sure he could be. It feels
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: you look at the numbers, you look at the production
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: at UTSA, and it's like, yeah, if he can do
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: that at Ohio State, oh boy, that would be really
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: really important. And we've seen flashes of that this spring.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: But how is that going to translate to Big ten
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: level play and a week to week basis could be
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: ten spots higher than this, could be behind Kyle Parker,
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: who I named what nine spots ago something on this list.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: It just this is another one where I think the
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: error bars on this one one way or the other,
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: and it could be either one could be pretty big.
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, when I first saw this, I thought, you know,
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: and that's based on sure the utsa, But if we
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: had seen him light it up in the spring, I
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: don't care where he would have come from, you know.
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: And the fact that I can remember maybe maybe two plays,
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: and I think one of them was a kind of
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: a catch and run on a screen type play down
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: the sideline. So I just my big question with both
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: him and Kyle Parker is catching the ball in traffic downfield?
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: And really, is there such a thing as a fifty
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: to fifty ball anymore with those guys, because I don't
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: think there is, And so it needs to be a
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: situation where either he's he's open, or you're gonna not
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: go that way, even if there's no safety over at
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: the top. Is truly insane willing to throw him the
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: ball in a one on one situation, And maybe they can,
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: maybe he can convince the quarterback that he can do that,
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: and maybe maybe he's shown that when we're not there,
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: But I do have that concern for him. And yet,
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: you know, it's got to be somebody catching the ball
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: and we know, they're going to be doing some short
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: yarded stuff and some screen stuff, which he's good at,
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: and I just I'm okay with this, but yeah, I'm
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: with you. It could be he could be. I mean,
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: I could see a scenario where he's outside of the
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: thirty five and it just didn't work out, or he's like,
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: you know, catch him fifty five balls for seven hundred
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: yards and he's the perfect compliments to the rest of
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: the offense.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: And someone else who could end up taking a big
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: step forward or not this year is Brandon Innis. I
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: got him number twenty one on this list, and he's
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: someone who former five star wide receiver out of high
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: school and has been a starter for Ohio State and
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: was a team captain for Ohio State and obviously incredibly
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: well respected. But you look at the stats from last
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: year and they were just kind of okay. And they
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: have talked to the coaching staff, has talked openly about
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: the fact that they need more they need more yards
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: after catch, they need guys to break tackles, and they
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: need people to you know, take that seven yard catch
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: and turn that into a fifteen or twenty yard play.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: Brandon Innis, I'm sure would raise his hand and go, yeah,
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: they're talking about me when they say that. And I
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: think there's probably more in there for him, And I
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: think that if he can sort of access that little
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: bit more that's in there, he could take that next
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: step and have that kind of a role this year.
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: But you got to see it on the field this fall.
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm just concerned about the trend on his yards
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: per catch because as a freshman it was fifty eight
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: yards and then.
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: On how many catches was that Tony.
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: Look, I don't we don't have time. Fifty eight yards
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: of catch as a freshman, down to twelve and a
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: half as a sophomore, and then last year seven and
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: a half, which is completely unacceptable. But he knows that
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: and has worked on that and spent a lot of
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: time working on the after catch stuff, and so I
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: would expect if he has thirty six catches like he
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: did last year, he should be over four hundred yards.
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: And yet with the short yard is the short passing
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: game that they're doing, he's probably going to have quite
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: a few five to eight yard catches. But maybe there's
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: more after that. For maybe he's got more opportunity after that.
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: We know the whole complaint. One of the big complaints
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: about Julian saying is that he did not see Brandon
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: in this open down field, even though Brandon Innis was
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: open down field at times. I don't know if that's overblown.
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: I think it might be a little bit overblown. But
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: if he had seen if he would have seen him
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: two times for sixty yard gains, then I don't think
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: the numbers are as big as big of a concern.
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: So I think Brandon Innis thinks he's going to be
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: higher on this list. I will, we can ask him
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: when we talk to him next. But I think this
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: is I don't know if this is aggressive. I think
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: there's gonna be a lot of people that disagree with
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: you on this one, though.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think that I'm sort of pricing in
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: you're going to have better than the seven something yards
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: per catch this year. And I think, yeah, you give
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: him one of those times when he was running open
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: down the middle, and you throw another sixty yards on
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: this and he's at ten yards to catch, eleven yards
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: to catch, then all of a sudden, no one's having
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: that conversation. And so I am sort of baking in
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: a little bit of regression positive regression for him this year.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: But it's entirely possible that maybe these maybe Kyle Parker
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: ends up winning more of those snaps and you're sort
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: of flip flopping those two guys on this list. So
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: we will find out all about that as we sort
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: of head into Fall camp that's coming relatively soon, and boy,
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: Big ten Media Days right around the corner. We're just
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: about a little over a week away from that. We're
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: gonna have pretty much the whole crew in Chicago for
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: that one, Tony Juck, Marcus and me, we'll all be
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: there covering Big ten Media Days. Man, it is going
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: to be three jam pack days of content we are
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: going to have. We'll have a bunch of it on YouTube.
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: Don't worry, we will make sure we have plenty of
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: stuff on YouTube, but we will have even more at
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: Buckeye Insiders dot com. We'll have stuff that is exclusive
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: to our members. That'll in some cases probably be video
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: and interviews that are going to be exclusive to our members.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: So you want all that stuff, you want the you
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: want to take a real deep dive on twenty twenty
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: six Ohiger State football and twenty twenty six Michigan football
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: and twenty twenty six Oregon football and twenty twenty six
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: Indiana football and all all the other teams that we'll
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: be covering there. You can do that at Buckeyeinsiders dot
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: com Join us now. Sign up there. You can get
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: access to our whole team of insiders, a really, really
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: fun community. On the Insiders board, we're given away confetti
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: from the twenty twenty four National Championship game right now
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: to members. So you want all that and more, you
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: sign up today at Buckeyeinsiders dot com. And thanks again
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: to our friends at Jeff Ruby's Columbus, the award winning
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: Upscales takehouse in downtown Columbus, name one of the top
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: fifty steakhouses in America by Food Network. Just go to
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: Jeffruby dot com slash Columbus to check out the menu
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: and make a reservation today. That will do it for today.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: Thank you guys all for joining us. Have a great day.
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: We'll talk to you tomorrow.