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Ross Fulton Analysis: Who Should Be Ohio State's Next Offensive Coordinator? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Buckey's Tomorrow Morning for Sunday, January twenty fifth.
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  Speaker 1: I'm your host, Tom Or the ball State game in
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  Speaker 1: two hundred and twenty three days the game against Michigan
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  Speaker 1: in three hundred and seven days. On today's show, we're
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  Speaker 1: welcoming in our ex's and o's guru, Ross Fulton. And
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  Speaker 1: when Ross is on the show, We're sponsored by Jeffrubis
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  Speaker 1: of Columbus, proudly offering nationally acclaimed USDA Prime Stakes, seafood
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  Speaker 1: and sushi, impeccable service, live entertainment, and in attention to
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  Speaker 1: detail that is simply unmatched. Just go to Jeffruby dot
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  Speaker 1: com slash Columbus to check out the menu and make
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  Speaker 1: a reservation today. All right, On today's show, we are
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  Speaker 1: examining the potential menu of offensive coordinators for Ohio State.
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  Speaker 1: We know they are looking to replace Brian Hartline, who
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  Speaker 1: is off to USF and now the question is who
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  Speaker 1: And there have been a lot of names floated out there.
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  Speaker 1: We have had some lively conversations about some names that
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  Speaker 1: are on our huddle board presented by Jeff Rubies Columbus
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  Speaker 1: at bucke Huddle dot com. We're going to use three
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  Speaker 1: names on this show because these are three that have
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  Speaker 1: been floated publicly. I'm going to credit Mike Waxman, who
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  Speaker 1: does phenomenal work at College Football Focus CFF. M Waxman.
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  Speaker 1: That's Wahsma n We know Mike from the beat. He
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  Speaker 1: is a very good guy and a very good reporter.
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  Speaker 1: He floated these three names publicly. Matt Nagy, Greg Roman,
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  Speaker 1: and Jonathan Smith. Two of those names are NFL names,
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  Speaker 1: Naggie and Roman. Jonathan Smith obviously a college name, former
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  Speaker 1: Oregon State head coach, former Michigan State head coach, was
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  Speaker 1: the OC at Washington before that. So what to bring
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  Speaker 1: in Ross now? And let's start the conversation at this
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  Speaker 1: sort of thirty thousand foot view with the question, what's
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  Speaker 1: the difference between hiring an NFL guy and a college
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  Speaker 1: guy for the, you know, a coordinator role like this.
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  Speaker 1: We've obviously seen Ohio State go a couple different ways
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  Speaker 1: and it worked real well when they brought in an
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  Speaker 1: NFL guy in Patricia last year. What's what's the difference
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  Speaker 1: between a college background and an NFL background in your mind.
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  Speaker 2: I'd say, broadly speaking, an NFL guy is going to
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  Speaker 2: be used to game play and calling plays in the
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  Speaker 2: in the overall way that Ryan Day wants to uh
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  Speaker 2: have the offense run, particularly now with huddling and situational football,
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  Speaker 2: which is you know, really critical in the NFL. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: I think, you know, people want to talk about a
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  Speaker 2: High State's pace of play this year. I mean, that's
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  Speaker 2: basically how every NFL team plays. Like, you get in
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  Speaker 2: the huddle, you take your time, you get to the line,
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  Speaker 2: you figure out what's going on, and you adjust situationally.
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  Speaker 2: I think that it fits you know, Day really the
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  Speaker 2: way he attacks defenses conceptually in the passing game is
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  Speaker 2: also that tends to be the way that NFL uh,
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  Speaker 2: you know, offensive coordinators, offensive schemes work in terms of
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  Speaker 2: looking for matchups in the passing game. That's really where
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  Speaker 2: you make your money in the NFL. So I think
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  Speaker 2: broadly speaking like NFL, you know, Day likes to say
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  Speaker 2: that he runs an NFL scheme out of you know,
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  Speaker 2: the shotgun in college and I and I do think
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  Speaker 2: increasingly it's even more so that So I think that's
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  Speaker 2: broadly a fit there, you know that said, I know
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  Speaker 2: from that list, like I you know, Jonathan Smith has
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  Speaker 2: been much more of a pro style offensive scheme, So
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  Speaker 2: it's not like a pard and fast rule. But I
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  Speaker 2: do think that's why Day tends to be looking at
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  Speaker 2: the NFL or NFL coordinators.
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  Speaker 1: And before we get into maybe some of the specifics
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  Speaker 1: here with these individual guys, I want to just real
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  Speaker 1: quickly touch on the internal hire versus going outside. For one,
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  Speaker 1: it sure seems like Ryan Day is looking externally here.
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  Speaker 1: Why would he be doing that? You know why the
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  Speaker 1: last time he promoted someone, he promoted Brian Hartline from within.
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  Speaker 1: You certainly have capable assistance on the roster that could
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  Speaker 1: potentially do that, including some guys with some play calling
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  Speaker 1: experience in their background. What's the advantage to going external
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  Speaker 1: with this higher?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's the same situation that it's basically
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  Speaker 2: been since Kevin Wilson left, And you know, we're sort
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  Speaker 2: of back to where we were when Day hired Bill
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  Speaker 2: O'Brien and then he left and then Chip Kelly, which
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  Speaker 2: is like Day would benefit from having sort of, you know,
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  Speaker 2: a veteran presence leading the offense and the offensive staff.
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  Speaker 2: And that's not just like in terms of like play
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  Speaker 2: calling on third and six, that's like organizationally, like you know,
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  Speaker 2: putting everyone on the same page, running meetings, dictating where
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  Speaker 2: things are going, just to take that off a Day's plate.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, the guys that Day has internally tend to
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  Speaker 2: be all of his his people that have sort of
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  Speaker 2: come up, and it's a it's a young group relatively speaking,
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  Speaker 2: and I just think it benefits from having sort of
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  Speaker 2: a veteran presence that has, you know, run an offense organizationally,
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  Speaker 2: you know, at a different location. I also think that's
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  Speaker 2: probably a benefit of having an NFL guy, is sort
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  Speaker 2: of having that.
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  Speaker 3: Sort of professional mindset bringing to it. You know.
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  Speaker 2: I think that Heartline was sort of I don't think
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  Speaker 2: Day really had a choice in that situation, right like
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  Speaker 2: last year, if he didn't make Heartline the offensive coordinator,
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  Speaker 2: then like Heartline was going to leave, and obviously he
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  Speaker 2: ended up leaving anyway. So I still think there's there's
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  Speaker 2: still a lot of similarities as to where they were
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  Speaker 2: a couple of years ago as to what they need now.
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  Speaker 3: You know.
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  Speaker 2: I also do think that I think the offense, no
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  Speaker 2: matter what, is going to look pretty similar. And you know,
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  Speaker 2: Day obviously has strong ideas, strong opinions, and a heavy influence.
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  Speaker 2: But I do think it always you know, would benefit
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  Speaker 2: him to get some you know, fresh ideas for lack
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  Speaker 2: of a better term, you know, not to like rework everything,
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  Speaker 2: but just to like refresh and sort of you know,
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  Speaker 2: meld some different concepts together.
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  Speaker 1: All Right, So let's talk about a couple of those
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  Speaker 1: names that we mentioned earlier. Let's start with Matt Nagy,
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  Speaker 1: who is I think people might be most familiar with
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  Speaker 1: him as the former head coach of the Chicago Bears
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  Speaker 1: and the former NFC North head coach. Thing worked out
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  Speaker 1: pretty darn well on the defensive side of the ball
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  Speaker 1: with Matt Patricius. So what would someone like Matt Nagy
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  Speaker 1: bring in and then how might that sort of meld
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  Speaker 1: with what Ryan Day already wants to do and is
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  Speaker 1: sort of doing with the Buckeyes.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I'll preface my answers on these things to say,
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  Speaker 2: like broadly speaking, I you know, just compared to pre
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  Speaker 2: pole you see on Bucke huddle or elsewhere, like, I
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  Speaker 2: have actually not as picky on this issue, I think
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  Speaker 2: as maybe some people are, like people like to poke
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  Speaker 2: holes at you know, how X Y coordinator did it
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  Speaker 2: different stops in the NFL. I mean they did the
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  Speaker 2: same thing when Matt Patricia was hired. Obviously, Like the
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  Speaker 2: NFL is a tough place. There's lots of factors of play.
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  Speaker 2: I think, you know, if you're bringing in a veteran
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  Speaker 2: offensive coordinator from the NFL to Ohio State to pair
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  Speaker 2: with Ryan Day, I think that's a pretty good place
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  Speaker 2: to start from because again, like to me, the biggest
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  Speaker 2: thing is just sort of having like the adult, like
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  Speaker 2: you know, veteran presence to sort of organize the staff,
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  Speaker 2: make sure everyone's on the same page. So that said, obviously,
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  Speaker 2: Nagy like there's some schematic I mean, he's been with
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  Speaker 2: Andy Reid a long time. Like Andy Reid is sort
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  Speaker 2: of a West Coast background, which isn't quite you know,
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  Speaker 2: Day is much more of sort of like Don Coriel
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  Speaker 2: lineage passing game down through uh you know, but I
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  Speaker 2: think so again, I think that would like sort of
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  Speaker 2: help refresh ideas, meld the two together. Obviously, I think
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  Speaker 2: there's some eagles overlap, So I mean, I just think
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  Speaker 2: it'd be hard to go wrong with with Matt Nagy,
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  Speaker 2: I mean, that would be a great choice.
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  Speaker 1: I'm just looking at his Wikipedia page really quickly right now,
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  Speaker 1: and you know, yeah, he was the O C. At
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  Speaker 1: the with the Kansas City Chiefs as you mentioned in the
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  Speaker 1: last three years. But also I did not realize former
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  Speaker 1: quarterback for the Columbus Destroyers AFL team, so has some
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  Speaker 1: real strong local ties.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think in fact I saw people like
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  Speaker 2: I think Nagy and was with the Planet Delaware was
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  Speaker 2: at New Hampshire, and I think they played against each other, so,
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  Speaker 2: you know, similar in age and backgrounds, both Northeastern guys.
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  Speaker 2: I guess if depending on how you want to classify Pennsylvania,
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  Speaker 2: but so you know, I think that there would be
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  Speaker 2: a lot of overlap there, and you know, again, I
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  Speaker 2: think that would be a good mixture of sort of
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  Speaker 2: having similar philosophies while bringing in some some different concepts,
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  Speaker 2: you know. I mean, I guess the one thing I
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  Speaker 2: would say, if I want to critique is, you know
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  Speaker 2: that Andy Reid Tree is often criticized for the run game,
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  Speaker 2: and obviously, like that's probably a place where like you know,
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  Speaker 2: Ohio State could always use and they could always use some.
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  Speaker 3: Focus, some refresh.
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  Speaker 2: So you know, I guess if you wanted to pick
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  Speaker 2: a hole there, you could say, maybe that's just putting
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  Speaker 2: like a pass game focused guy with another pass game
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  Speaker 2: focus guy. But I do think this year, like you know,
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  Speaker 2: we talked about, like I thought Ohio State's passing game
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  Speaker 2: in some ways got pretty stale, and you know, whether
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  Speaker 2: that was like young quarterback and they didn't want to
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  Speaker 2: put too much on the offensive line.
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  Speaker 1: You know.
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  Speaker 2: I just thought, especially like we talked about, like following
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  Speaker 2: Miami and Indiana, like you know, I thought they left
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  Speaker 2: some meat on the bones in terms of their like
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  Speaker 2: conceptual concepts, particularly tacking underneath coverage. So I think it
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  Speaker 2: would it would be you know, another benefit of having
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  Speaker 2: an NFL guy to start bringing some more diversified concepts.
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  Speaker 1: All right, So if you want to talk about run
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  Speaker 1: game concepts, may I interest you in someone off of
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  Speaker 1: the Jim Harbaugh tree. Wait and then let you hang on,
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  Speaker 1: hang on, stop walking out of the room.
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  Speaker 3: I get it.
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  Speaker 1: I understand Greg Roman though. Greg Roman is someone who
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  Speaker 1: has worked with Harbaugh. And when you think Jim Harbaugh,
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  Speaker 1: you are probably thinking physical, smashy run game. So what
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  Speaker 1: would a Greg Roman Brian Day offense look like?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and this does cut a little bit the other
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  Speaker 2: way because Greg Roman, you know, his reputation, I guess
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  Speaker 2: is as a run game focused coordinator, you know, he
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  Speaker 2: has been critiqued at the NFL level in the past
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  Speaker 2: for the passing game and maybe, you know, again like
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  Speaker 2: leaving some meat on the bones in terms of what
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  Speaker 2: they're doing in the passing game and the precision of
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  Speaker 2: it relative to other NFL teams. Now, I mean, you know,
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  Speaker 2: this is all shades of gray. So, I mean, I
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  Speaker 2: think the Chargers were pretty good passing offense this year
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  Speaker 2: despite you know, Roman and Harball both are run focused guys,
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  Speaker 2: so I think that kind of cuts the other way
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  Speaker 2: right though, that you would certainly expect Roman to sort
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  Speaker 2: of refresh, you know, the Ohio State run game, and
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  Speaker 2: then it's sort of like then you're relying on sort
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  Speaker 2: of a mixture of Day and Him together in the
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  Speaker 2: pass game. So definitely more of a run focus higher
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  Speaker 2: relatively speaking.
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  Speaker 1: And then the third name on that list was Jonathan Smith,
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  Speaker 1: as I mentioned, former Washington offensive coordinator and has been
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  Speaker 1: a head coach at Oregon State in Michigan State since then.
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  Speaker 1: What is his specialty? Where would he maybe fit on
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  Speaker 1: this list in terms of run heavy versus pass heavy
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  Speaker 1: versus maybe someone in the middle.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean that's an interesting name.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, he Jonathan Smith has had a lot of
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  Speaker 2: success until he got to Michigan State and that just
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  Speaker 2: kind of seemed like a mess. I don't know, like
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  Speaker 2: never a good fit for whatever reason, and the like
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  Speaker 2: the program quickly fell apart, and you know, so I
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  Speaker 2: guess definitely in need of a change. I mean, he
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  Speaker 2: again I would say run focused though, like he's had
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  Speaker 2: a lot of success in the past, a lot of
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  Speaker 2: like under center run game with like jet sweep action,
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  Speaker 2: you know, particularly at Oregon State and Washington before that.
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  Speaker 2: You know, does have like the Chris Peterson lineage of
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  Speaker 2: like the past game. So it's not it's it's not
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  Speaker 2: you know, a total run heavy person. As I said, like,
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  Speaker 2: I still prefer the idea of someone from the NFL,
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  Speaker 2: But I guess, you know, Jonathan Smith does have much
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  Speaker 2: does have more of like a pro style background and
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  Speaker 2: would be another person like sort of bring up obviously
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  Speaker 2: a veteran presence with experience into the room to run
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  Speaker 2: the offense. So he sort of does still lean towards
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  Speaker 2: that pro style of things, if you will.
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  Speaker 1: Is there any other kind of tree We've talked about,
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  Speaker 1: the Jim Harbaugh tree, We've talked about the Andy Reid tree.
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  Speaker 1: Is there any other NFL tree that you would think,
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  Speaker 1: you know, this would be an intriguing area for Ryan
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  Speaker 1: Day to maybe explore, or you know, specific names you
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  Speaker 1: might have in mind, or are the three names that
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  Speaker 1: we talked about, you know, is there is there a
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  Speaker 1: winning name on that list.
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  Speaker 3: That you think no need to go further than that?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I again, like I don't think you
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  Speaker 2: go too wrong with any of the names on that list.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, I guess if you're putting like pick one,
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  Speaker 2: I'd say for Nagy would be my first choice, you know,
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  Speaker 2: But as I said, I'm probably less or more sanguineo
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  Speaker 2: on like various names that are bandied about than others
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  Speaker 2: are more open. Like you know, Arthur Smith's another name
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  Speaker 2: that's been out there. Again, I think that another person
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  Speaker 2: who would help refresh the run game, you know, so
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  Speaker 2: it brings some you know, under center concepts. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: I think that's maybe a place where I state should go,
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  Speaker 2: especially with like Jillianstane's not a run threat, and so
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  Speaker 2: you may you may want to lean even more into
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  Speaker 2: like pro style under center duo type run game, at
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  Speaker 2: least on early downs. So you know, all those guys
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  Speaker 2: sort of bring that so there is some commonality there
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  Speaker 2: in the names that are being talked about, but that
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  Speaker 2: also is just because like you know, if you turn
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  Speaker 2: on an NFL playoff game this year, you'll see teams
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  Speaker 2: running duo like fifteen to twenty times a game. So
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  Speaker 2: it's you know, things the NFL tends to ideas spread
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  Speaker 2: quickly and sort of get adopted by everyone. So I
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  Speaker 2: just think it's again like a lot of it is
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  Speaker 2: like organizational and down like having a like a you know,
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  Speaker 2: for lack of a better world, a professional approach to
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  Speaker 2: like organizing the offense. And then you know, so it's
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  Speaker 2: much more on that less so like as I said,
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  Speaker 2: what are you going to call on third and six?
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  Speaker 2: You know from the thirty five yard line, It's much
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  Speaker 2: more like what's going to happen in the off season
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  Speaker 2: and on like you know, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday in the
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  Speaker 2: facility in terms of getting getting pair that takes things
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  Speaker 2: off day's play.
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  Speaker 1: All right, Well, there you go a little breakdown of
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  Speaker 1: the Ohio State offensive coordinator search. We will be continuing
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  Speaker 1: to follow that at pucke huddle dot com and talking
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  Speaker 1: about it in great detail on the message board. The
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  Speaker 1: huddle board presented by Jeff Ruby's Columbus all at bucke
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  Speaker 1: huddle dot com and of course thanks again to our
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: friends A. Jeff Ruby, the award winning upscale steakhouse in
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  Speaker 1: downtown Columbus named one of the top fifty steakhouses in
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  Speaker 1: America by Food Network. Just go to Jeffruby dot com
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  Speaker 1: slash Columbus to check out the menu and make a
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: reservation today. That will do it for today. Thank you
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: guys all for joining us. Have a great day. We
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: will talk to you tomorrow.