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5 Underrated Storylines From Ohio State's Win At South Bend · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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Welcome to Buckeyes Tomorrow morning for Tuesday, September twenty sixth. I'm your host,
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tom Or. The Maryland game is in eleven days, the game MCATs
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Michigan in sixty days. We're not going to talk about any of those games.
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Let's be honest. We see we get to talk a little bit more
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about that Ohio State seventeen Notre Dame fourteen game that you saw on Saturday night
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in South Bend. Tony Gertiman and I did two plus hours of postgame coverage.
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There was another hour before that, but with everything that happened, there
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was so much to talk about that there was a bunch of stuff that just
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kind of fell through the cracks. And there, I mean, you're gonna
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hear us talk about five different storylines here that kind of fell through the cracks
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to one degree or another, and there's some really big stuff here. So
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we wanted to kind of circle back, do a little bit of due diligence
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and house cleading here, housekeeping here, to make sure we're honoring every every
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one of these storylines that really should be talked about. Because again with the
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Ryan Day postgame press conference, the dramatic end of the game. There was
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a lot that you could figure her about from the first fifty nine minutes and
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thirty seconds or so of that game. So we're gonna start talking about that
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stuff. I'm gonna do that with our buddy, Tony gardmant puckheabl dot com.
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He was there covering the game, asked Ryan da question about first guy
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we're gonna be talking about. In fact, after that game, Tony,
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we got to talk about chip Train him because yes, he's the guy who
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apparently is keeping Ryan Day loose during pregame. He is also the guy who
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scored the winning touchdown. But I think we really need to kind of go
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back even further back to chip Train him in high school and what happened to
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him after high school, you know, and he's you know, he's sort
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of finally there was there was a long and winding road that led him to
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that moment in the just just barely across the goal line in Notre Dame Stadium.
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Yeah, chip Train him just a kid from Akron and wanted to uh,
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you know, wanted to be a running back in college. Ohio State
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kind of liked him Moore as a linebacker, so he took his talents to
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Arizona State, where he played quite a bit the first two years there and
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then decided, you know what, it's probably time to come back home.
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And Ohio State brought him in as a linebacker last year. There's a bunch
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of talk about him, how how athletic he was, you know during camp
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last year, and the speed and the athleticism and just the the willingness to
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do whatever. And then late in the season they needed him at running back
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and he was there and he played. He was the guy against Michigan.
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And then coming into this season, Tom we were you know what, is
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he the third or fourth running back in the mix, right, you know,
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because you've got Trevion Henderson, You've got Mine Williams, You've got DLin
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Hayden, like you've got all of these guys that played last year. And
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then he was just he was just an extra, like you know, like
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when you you buy furniture and they're there are extra pieces that come with,
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you know, like two extra bolts and some extra nuts and that sort of
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thing. He was like an extra. But he has been instrumental in the
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what Ohio State has done this year, and it's you know, Trevi and
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Henderson is they start running back. But when the team needed that one yard,
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they went to a guy who came to Ohio State to play linebacker.
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Yeah, and a guy who Ohio State, what four years ago, didn't
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think was an Ohio State running back necessarily, or at least that wasn't his
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best option. So yeah, that that is. You know, those are
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always such interesting stories to me because you come out of high school and a
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lot of times the program knows best and and you know, Lorenzo Styles junior
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coming out of high school wanted to play receiver. Ohio State said you're maybe
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more than are more of a corner, and he went to Notre Dame and
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played wide receiver for a couple of years. Now back at Ohio State and
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playing corner. So you know, you will have times where it ends up
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with you know, the school was right. Maybe coming out of the gate,
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Kip Crane and may have may have been onto something there when he when
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he thought maybe I can play running back Ohio State turns out, yahah,
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he can. Someone else who probably had a pretty good idea what he was
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coming out of high school and took a little bit of a long and winding
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path to get there, is Xavier Johnson. He came out of the Cincinnati
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area, had Power five offers. He had an offer from from Iowa State,
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for example, to be a scholarship football player, passed up that to
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come be a walk on for Urban Meyer at Ohio State. It was not
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a direct and easy route from there to what happened on Saturday night or what
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happened last year against Notre Dame. But I mean Xavier Johnson to go from
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walk on to all of the accolades he's received and then some of the moments
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he's had, especially against Notre Dame in the last couple of years, that
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is quite a story. Yeah, And he may be the best story of
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anybody on this Ohio State football team to show up to Ohio State walk on
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as basically an athlete, and he started out as a corner, played running
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back, played receiver, back to running back, back to RECEI ever and
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has done whatever and you know, throw kickoff returning there, throw kick coverage
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in there, has done whatever the team has asked him to do. And
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you know, going into last year looking like he was going to have a
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role in the passing game as a receiver. And I remember talking to running
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backs coach Tony Alfred saying, you know what would happen if you went to
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Xavier Johnson knowing that him knowing that he's going to have a role and as
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in the receiver rotation, and you said, Xavier, we need you in
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the running back room in case somebody gets hurt, or because somebody has gotten
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hurt. We just need you for depth. And he said that. Xavier
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would say, what do you need me? What can I do? Let's
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meet after practice. I'll come to your house. We'll talk, We'll talk
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it over, show me the playbook, things like that in terms of assignments,
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and then lo and behold, two months later, that's exactly what happened.
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And he stepped in and we saw him against Michigan, we saw him
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against George. I like just being involved in any way he can, and
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that has carried into this season now where they can put him wherever they want
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and they'll get something out of him. So it's it's a fantastic story culminated
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by wearing the block O jersey this year, being given that honor and just
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one of the nicest guys that we've ever dealt with covering the Ohio State beat
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at the time that we've all done in from from twenty eighteen when he arrived
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until now, Like, it's it's pretty remarkable that he's been able to do
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so much, and not that he's done a lot, but he's he's been
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involved in a lot of things and is also now an Ohio State captain as
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well. Yeah, the Bloco captain. And you know he's not he's not
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going to end up in the top ten of career rushing yards or receiving euros
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or anything like that in Ohio State history. But you know he's, you
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know, a smarter version of Forrest Gump wor boy. He just keeps popping
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up in these big situations where, oh, crucial second half touchdown against Notre
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Dame in twenty twenty one, crucial touchdown against Georgia in the Peach Bowl last
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year, huge play that you know, if Ohio had scored on their penultimate
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drive against Notre Dame. Boy, that's another one that goes down in history
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as it was, it just ends up sort of being a footnote. But
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yeah, he is. He has had some crucial, crucial moments and earned
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every single one of those accolades that's that he's gotten. Next up, a
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guy who is you know, came to a high state in the more traditional
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route, highly ranked linebacker out of Jersey City, New Jersey, Cody Simon.
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He has been you know, I mean, he's stuck behind a couple
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of very other talented linebacker Steal Chambers in Tommy Eickenberger in the depth chart.
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But then he ended up making one of the crucial plays in Saturday's game.
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But his mistake was making it way too early in the game, and by
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the time of the game ended, everyone had forgotten about the fact that Cody
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Simon stopped Sam Hartman on fourth and one at the OSU eighteen on the very
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first drive of the game for Notre Dame Irish had driven fourteen plays, seventy
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one yards taken, eight minutes off the clock. They're in the red zone
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and then Cody Simon comes up and sticks Sam Hartman just short of the sticks.
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It was initially ruled a first down, got overturned on replay. That's
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one of those plays, Tony, that you know, we did I think
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two hours of postgame and I don't I don't know if we actually mentioned that
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play because there was so much other stuff that happened. But man, oh
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man, if they if Notre Dame picks up a first down and scores a
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touchdown or even kicks a field goal there, that changes the complexion of that
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game completely. Yeah, and it was a remarkable play by Simon who was
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basically being taken down the field by a fullback and then had to fight off
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that block to come and pick up Sam Hartman before he could actually cross the
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line. And based on the way that Hartman was holding the ball, I
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was actually a little surprised they went and reviewed it, and then even more
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surprised that they decided to overturn it. Not that not that they were wrong
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in doing that, It's just it's one of those close calls that usually they
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just give the benefit to the runner. But to go back and look at
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it, and I think they had enough angles that you could see the Cody
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Simon got there, and yeah, he's another story. He played quite a
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bit in this game. Was oddly substituting with I think Davison beenosing at times
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a quarterback. When Notre Dame would come out with just one wide receiver,
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they'd take a quarter off field. They're sigment out there, and you know
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this is another guy who in twenty twenty one, started nine games at linebacker
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for Ohio States, started most of the season for them, and then gave
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way in the middle to Tommy Eikenbergnet has worked out well, and you know,
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when Simon has been healthy, he's been pretty good. And this is
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another guy that provides death and provides that third linebacker four games like this when
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they're going up against more of a power attack. But yeah, that play
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was definitely was impressive. Just going back and rewatching it to refresh, like,
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what player are you even talking about? Tom You know, there's only
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maybe you know, like sixty plays on defense or whatever. And that happened
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so far in the past that you forget just how big it was because that
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drive was taking forever. Who knows how much longer that drive would have taken
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if Notre Dame picks up that first down. Yeah, and for a defense
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that was to guess, by the end of the game, not having those
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extra whatever five plays or whatever it would have been plus the points, plus
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the time it would have kept Ohio State's offense off the field. Yeah,
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that that ended up being a huge play that got just completely forgotten by the
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time the game was over. Something else you know another guy who is sort
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of getting his getting his accolades now. He was just named the Big Ten
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Defensive Player of the Week. But Lathan Ransom, the safety seven tackles,
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six assist, thirteen tackles total plus a quarterback hurry. He's another guy who
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you know, when you play safety, it is very easy to have the
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one bad moment and then that's all anyone remembers for you. You know,
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for nine months when you heard Lathan Ransom's name, everyone went, oh,
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yeah, the guy who slipped and fell down during the Georgia game and they
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scored a long touchdown. Lathan Ransom has given you a whole something else to
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think about when you hear his name. Now, that was a fantastic performance
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from him. And you know, we talked a little bit after the ship,
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after the game about the fact that when your safeties are leading you in
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tackles, that's not always a great thing. That's not always a great sign
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when your safeties are some of your leading tacklers. But man, oh man,
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did Lathan Ransom have a have a night? You know? And I
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think one of the reasons why it was maybe okay and this one is because
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they were tackling closer to the line of scrimmage and Notre Dame is still rush
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for one hundred and seventy seven yards in that one and it's not great,
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but they didn't. It wasn't any necessarily any instances where you know your thirty
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yards downfield you're chasing somebody, And yeah, he was. He was very
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effective, Lathan Ransom And that one play against Georgia, Like, can you
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can you fault somebody for getting beaten deep when when you're going up against a
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ten to one, one hundred meter guy and you slip a little bit,
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Like you don't need to slip to lose a race to that guy. But
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that's what happened. And you know, right now, Lathan Ransoman is playing
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very very well and it maybe a little bit quiet for some people, and
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maybe this I don't want to mention Jordan Fuller's name and turn of the kind
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of things that are that are happening for him right now. But he's just
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been very, very solid and very very physical. There are times when he's
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come up all throughout the season, including against Notre Dame and hitting like a
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linebacker and players are staying hit against you know, talented players and it's good
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to see. And this is a guy who's been around since twenty twenty as
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a true freshman playing. Ryan Day loved him then, and you don't hear
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anybody say anything bad about him, And that's another indicator that he's a guy
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that does whatever has asked, will do whatever has asked. Has played all
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over in secondary, all three safety spots for the Buckeyes, and maybe out
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of position at times playing in the slot and early in his career, but
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it seems to have find a found a home now as strong safety. Yeah,
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it's always nice when you can say something nice about a position where they
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typically just get talked about as the guy who did something wrong, you know,
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rightly or wrongly. Sometimes it's just there's the guy who's chasing on TV.
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You see them chasing the receiver on TV, and it's like he must
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have been who on the one who got beat. It's like not always nice
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to be able to say something. It's like long snappers. No one ever
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says anything about long snappers unless that something bad happened. So nice to be
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able to say something nice about a guy who plays a position where a lot
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of times people point rightly or wrongly at that position and say your fault sometimes
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not always last up. I wanted to talk about someone from Notre Dame.
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Now this is a name that it believed very familiar to Ohio State fans,
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but Javonte John Baptiste. He was a defensive end for Ohio State starting in
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twenty eighteen. He spent forever, it felt like, trying to get up
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to wait. He came in very very undersized. Remember talking to him about,
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you know, having to eat eight thousand calories or something like that,
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trying to get his weight up and how difficult it was for him to get
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up to wait. And he was just sort of always a role player for
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Ohio State and you saw him. He would get starts when they went back
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to his home state of Rutgers, and that was kind of it. And
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then you'd, you know, he'd be a rotational player. But that was
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more or less his role at Ohio State. He has gone to Notre Dame
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and he has turned himself into an impact defensive end for the Irish. Eight
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tackles on Saturday night, one quarterback hurry. That was you know, that
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was one of those you look at those numbers, you look at his play
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and It's like, you know what good for him that that is something that
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is that deserves deserves and accolades as well. Yeah, his name was being
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mentioned constantly on the public address you know, just involved. And I'm pretty
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sure he tipped the first pass of the last drive to Trevian Henderson. That's
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why it was so off and just yeah, that was an impressive performance by
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him. I think personally, maybe I was some would say maybe a little
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dismissive of the impact that he would have coming into this game. But he
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proved me wrong. And you know, he was certainly playing to prove a
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lot of people wrong on the Ohio State sideline. But after the game,
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watching the portions of the television broadcast over saw him, saw Javonte John baptisque
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with I believe running backs coach Tony Alfred after afterwards, big hug there,
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and and Ryan Day after his postgame press or his postgame television into you turn
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around and there's Davante John Baptiste and you know, gave him a hug as
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well. So some guys happy to see him on what was a really good
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game for him but also quite obviously a tough loss. Yeah, and you
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know, it's it's nice to see the transfer portal has been pretty good to
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Ohio State over the years. With a quarterback from Georgia, with an offensive
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lineman from Rutgers. I mean, they have pulled some real running back from
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Arizona State, as we talked about earlier in the show, they have pulled
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a few real pieces of gold out of the transfer portal. It is nice
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to see when guys who are at Ohio State. There was a quarterback who
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went down to LSU a few years ago who worked out pretty well, a
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wide receiver who went to Alabama, and now a defensive end going to Notre
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Dame. It's nice to see those guys get a chance to succeed wherever it
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ends up being. So I hope you guys enjoyed that. I'm sure everyone's
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not quite ready to let that Notre Dame game go, and I guess we'll
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probably be talking about it a little more this week. Good news, we
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have a little extra time to look back at that because there is no game
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coming up on Saturday, so I have a little more time to go look
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back at that. I'm sure we'll have Ross Fulton on later in the week
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to talk about some of it, but make sure you also are checking out
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all of our other podcasts. Tony and I do the Buckeye Weekly podcast.
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The Michigan Monday episode going to be delayed until Tuesday. I know you can't
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wait to hear about that thrilling Rutgers game. May may end up talking a
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little bit of Penn State too, because there's only so much you can talk
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about about Michigan State Rutgers or sorry, Michigan Rutgers. We'll be talking about
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that on Tuesday. We'll have plenty of coverage to our rewatch episode of the
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game. I'm so interested to rewatch this game because I still like, feel
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like we did two shows now talking about that game, and there's still a
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bunch of stuff that I'm feeling. I'm going to watch the game and go,
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oh, yeah that happened and get a different angle on things. So
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we'll have that all coming up this week on the Buckeye Weekly podcast feed,
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and of course you can also find us at buckkeeyehuddle dot com. Have plenty
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of plenty of stuff going on, plenty of stuff to talk about this week
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on the huddle board, which is members only, so I want to consider
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signing up looks like it might be a pretty good season in Columbus. Who
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knew? Who could have seen this coming? M'd be a great time to
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become a member of Buckeyetle dot com. That we'll do it for today.
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Thank you guys all for joining us of a great day. We'll talk to you tomorrow