August 31, 2023 • 49 mins
Ohio State just named a starting QB for Saturday's opener at Indiana. Is he the guy, or just the first one to get an opportunity? Coach AJ Pratt lays it all out for you, PLUS he goes over the biggest games in the country for the next five days and tells you what The Bucks need to do in Bloomington to have a great start to the season.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Welcome into the Oh Show on iHeartRadio. My name is Paul James. I
enjoined by coach AJ Pratty, formeroffensive coordinator at Kent State and Western Kentucky
University, and coach I know youare excited about week one. Week zero
was pretty dog gone good for acouple of games. Many Week zero.
I've watched at least pieces of everygame. It's football, and Paul,
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it's good to see you, myfriend. It's good to see you.
It's not original. Now, whatis original is the Oh, the Oh
Show. This is the real Wesaid this last week. This is the
real absolutely show. But you said, what was it that you brought up?
Now I've lost my track. Oh, just how good the games were?
I mean it was you know,you get Week zero and we're here.
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We've got ranked college football tonight,five days in a row of college
football. Week zero had a coupleof fun games. We really got to
dig into Notre Dame. It was. It was an enjoyable last Saturday.
My wife is so excited. Fivestraight days. I took Tuesday off just
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so I could get over it.That's true, good guy. No high
school football Monday Nights game I thinkis huge I do. We're gonna hit
on We're gonna hit on all ofthem. But obviously Buckeye fans are excited
to see the Buckeyes get back onthe field. A lot of questions,
we'll talk about that, but Isaw this getting into football before we get
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into our plan. This was fromFriday Night's postgame show. And we have
a good time, and and yourson and Racel. I'm doing a great
job, Eric, and then cancoach coach Couzio. We get to talk
ball, but some of the thingsthat come up at every level of football.
A really good football coach, amentor, one of my former bosses,
he listens. He said, look, you don't beat yourself because really,
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honestly, at every level, alot of times you don't win a
game, the other team lost itbecause of mistakes and what you see at
all levels penalties, turnovers, mistackles, missassignments, poor clock management. In
my opinion, it all goes oncoaching. Yeah, it goes on coaching.
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And one of my mentors told methis when I was a young coach.
And we don't say film, wesay tape. He says, AJ,
if you want to know what kindof coach you are. Watch the
tape. Watch the tape, andthat really hit home because why I say
it's coaching the next step in thatconversation, because if you're seeing stuff that's
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not good and you wouldn't want thatto be your resume, you're either teaching
it wrong or you're letting them getby with it. And that was terrific
advice and is for any young coachlistening. Is you want to know how
good a coach you are, watchthe tape. YEP, I totally agree.
I'll tell you we get college footballevery week until the middle of January.
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From here on out, I'm prettyexcited about it. Last one,
again, what a painful thing.I know, it's horrible, And what's
fun is last weekend really was thedebut of what we're gonna see. We've
got a Heisman Trophy winner who excelled, and we're going to talk about his
amazing play. I don't care whoyou're playing. That was an amazing play.
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We heard some brand new names ofsome guys that are gonna make a
lot of waves this year. Imean, what impressed you the most coach
about last Saturday? May you bringgood questions? This isn't original this is
Rick Neuheisel calling his guy. ChrisChilder's the show. Pony. You are,
you are what makes this thing go. No. I mean last week,
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I think what impressed me the mostwas Notre Dame hue their old line
play, their run game and theirbalance. Odrick Estime miniature, Jerome bettis
kind of Maybe he's a big guy, he's gonna gain yards after tax,
he's a powerhouse. But the waythey went into that game and dominated up
front, laying on guys with thatoffensive line was very impressive to me.
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I thought Jared Parker in his firstgame as an offensive coordinator Notre Dame,
those guys did a great job.I thought Al Golden did a great job
on defense. Now I kept askingmyself, is Navy that bad? Or
is is Notre Dame that good?Probably somewhere in between. But look,
man, Sam Hartman, we're gonnabe talking about that guy. He is
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kuhnd Luke, his leadership outstanding.Yeah, I've got a couple. Go
ahead, And my point for youis, I don't care who you're playing
in major college football, you savorany week. It's hard to win a
football game practically shutting a football teamout that is fully recruited players. I
don't care who you are. That'sgood. I mean that that kick at
the end of the game. Butthey almost shut that team out. I
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thought that defense was stand up man. Now they played, they played well,
and it is I heard somebody onthe radio say this. It was
dead wrong. You'd rather face anoption team either the first game of the
year because you've got preseason to preparefor it weeks, or in a bowl
game because historically a triple option teamsare not their best the first game of
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the year or in bowl games becauseprep time. But yeah, Sam Hartman's
the man. Caleb Williams in theUSC offense, Oh my gosh. You
know, they may be the greatestshow on turf this year, but they
can't defend. We'll get to that. We saw that again. They can't
defend. Well, let's talk aboutthe Buckeyes to get started. Let's dig
in a little bit. Go ahead, one last thing, because we'll see
if it shows up this weekend.I guarantee you will. Maybe even the
Buckeye game is special team explosion playslike Vandy's Jade McGowan and the electric Zacharai
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Branch that I know we're gonna bringup later in the show for the Southern
Caltrow that kid, Wow, thatkid was amazing. But let's talk about
the Buckeyes. They do travel toIndiana. We're gonna dig into the game
and all of those specifics. Butwhere we're at at this point, Camp
is over. We're now ready forour first football game. And when you
look at it, the big thingthat came out in the last week is
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we do have a QB one,But is it really a QB one coach,
or is it just well, let'slet's give him a cord the shot
and let's let Brown play and let'ssee how this thing plays out of me.
Is he really the starter or ishe just going to be the first
one out? We's on Saturday.The next three weeks for the Buckeyes are
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huge because of what we saw outof Notre Dame for that road game in
the fourty. And I'm not I'mnot overlooking the Youngstown State next week,
and definitely not Western Kentucky University withthe way they can score points. But
you know what you're getting with thedepth of talent at Notre Dame. Here's
the thing with the quarterback, becauseI was gonna have that. Oh,
yeah, they did pick a quarterback. They have to run somebody out there
to take the snap, right,So it's either yesterday they name it,
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or when the people wait and theywatch the game on TV or at the
stadium, who runs out You haveto have a starting quarterback. I guess
you don't have to, but tobe out in the first series, right,
I think there's going to be aresume built and it will be obvious
to everyone, even just the mostcommon fan that if you're watching the game
and it's not about stats, it'sgonna be hard for me to believe the
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statistics will be what c. J. Stroud had last year. And we're
gonna talk about that because I thinkI think we may see a little bit
different style for more than one reasonoffensively. But yeah, that's that.
I think we know who's starting thefirst game, but we still don't know
who their best chance of winning gamesis playing quarterback until the next few weeks.
I was gonna say, so,you don't think we'll really know who
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our official QB one is to startthe season until the Monday before we play
Notre Dame. Yeah, I've coachedquarterbacks that are really good in practice and
this is our guy. But whenthe bullets start flying and they get hit
in the mouth, they don't seethings. I don't know or don't think
that's what's gonna happen with calm accord. But it could or Devin Brown could
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just go out and they're going upand down the field much better than they
are. I mean, yeah,we don't know. So you look at
the Michigan situation, and you know, for three games, hardball's not there
on Saturday. He's doing everything else. He's there for the practices, he's
part of everything. He just can'tbe, you know, in the stadium
coaching the football team on Saturday forthree weeks because of this self imposed thing.
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They've decided that they have four differentcoaches that are going to play head
coach over the next three games.Uh, you know, Dad's coming in,
his nephew's in there. I meanis looking at that, and everybody's
like, what kind of a gameis hardball playing? Is that kind of
the same sort of ploy that's goingon with We're not naming a starting quarterback
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at Ohio State. We're just gonnago out and see what happens. No,
I think if it's a clear cutdeal that they didn't screw around safe
Justin Fields was or wasn't or cJ. Stroud was it wasn't. You
know what I'm saying, This isour guy. I just don't think it's
still clear to him. And they'regoing to see what happens when the bullets
are flying. And that's just JimHarball being Jim Harball. I mean it
is. It's Jim ben Jim Guysthat I know that have worked for him,
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coach for him. It's every dayit's like you don't want to watch
a cart car accident, but yougotta watch because you don't know what's what
the result is going to be.I mean, that's him. But yeah,
other places for the buck Eyes,it still looks like there's a battle
of free safety between Proctor, MalikHartford and Jahad Carter. The transfer portal
from Syracuse and they did name.I'm sure you saw. Jayden Fielding is
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their place kicker one that competition atthis point over Parker Lewis. And I'm
proud of Daview Johnson. He's gonnawear the block o this year. He's
kind of an inspirational story. It'llbe good to see him running out on
the football field on Saturday. Let'shope he stays healthy. Coach, my
big question for you before we startdigging into game by game, sitting here
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right after camp, here's where we'reat it. We talked a little bit
about this last week, but nowwe know more this week. What is
the biggest thing that can derail thebuck guys in twenty twenty three. Obviously
injuries are a thing, but what'swhat could really derail them and get their
plans screwed up? Well? Ithink if I had to pick one,
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is what has been the achilles heelof this football team for the last few
years. Defense? You got itis? Is there going to be an
improvement of the defense that it willbe derailing again at some point in the
season if they continue to give upbig, big plays, explosion plays that
has to be limited. If it'sbetter play, if it's if it's better
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or different calls, whatever they haveto do. That second is, with
a young quarterback, the lack ofa run game could derail them. Now
that's hard for me to believe becausewe'll talk about more specifically at the end
of the show when we get intothe Indiana game things that I'm looking at
and looking for. But they haveto be able to have balance or improved
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run game because of in my opinion. And then and that helps those young
linemen. We'll talk about that too. Those offensive linemen with the three new
starters at both tackles and center,it helps them because the hardest thing to
do as an offensive lineman is adrop back pass protection. And then the
other one is this is big picturebroad I'm not pointing fingers. Guy has
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won a heck of a lot ofgames. Fans need to stay off this
case. But are they a physicalfootball team? Are they physical? You
know? That's my question about theSouthern cal up front as are they physical
enough. That's why people love Utahand Kyle Whittingham because his teams play smash
mouth football. That's that's their callingcard. My eyes see because a lot
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of times offensively it's like video games. Watching the Buckeyes the last few years
is because you're gonna see this atAlabama, mark my words. They're getting
back to old school nixt saving football. They're gonna run the rock and they're
gonna beat you up up front,and they're gonna defend urban Myers teams were
tough, tough, they didn't getout toughed. Jim Trestle ran the power
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play sixty eight times a game,and the Silver Bullets would hitch in the
mouth. They were tough. Physicaltoughness should not be underestimated with this football
team. Be interesting to see.I'm so looking forward to three thirty on
Saturday. We're going to talk moreabout that game in about fifteen twenty minutes
right now, though, I wantto ask you one of the biggest questions
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that's come out over the weekend.All the analysts got a chance to get
back in their big chairs and starttalking college football because it is here.
And one of the biggest conversations thathappened last weekend into this week was all
the talk about the college football PremierLeague. Coach, it seems inevitable that
we are going to have a collegefootball premier league in the next five years.
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Am I wrong for feeling that way? No, I'm with you on
that one, and a lot ofpeople would be that pay attention to the
sport as much as we do.What's crazy about it back in two thousand
and four, two thousand and five, two thousand and six is a staff
one of my former bosses that listensto this show. We talked about this
someday absolutely probably gonna not absolutely,but probably gonna happen. But you know
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what we're daying there there. Now. We've talked about this a little bit
last week without calling it the PremierLeague. It's going to be more of
the havels and you're gonna have moreof the have nots. We said this
the word I use. It's sad. The money games are going to dry
up for the mid majors, soit's going to be two different types of
legs. Even Chip Kelly talked abouthaving the having a division of the Power
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five and a division of Group offive and have two championships. What I
don't think they are are accurate aboutis how many actually would be in the
Power five side, because I thinkthe number is smaller than what some people
are saying. I don't think youcan find fifty five sixty teams that can
make it like that. I've heardthirty two, Okay, yeah, I
heard the conversation of thirty two.I think at three different conversations last week,
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and I heard the number thirty twowould be ideal. You know what
kind of teams. That knocks outIt knocks out a lot of good teams.
I mean, think about it.In the Big Ten, you're only
going to get Ohio State, inMichigan and probably Wisconsin and Penn State.
And that may be it. Imean, you know, think about it.
I mean you know, and thenyou do. You do it like
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a premier league. You drop ateam down because they haven't played well in
a few years, and you bringa team up because they have. I
mean, it's just interesting to seehow it might work. It all goes
back to what I said last week, and I will repeat the word.
It's one of two. It's thetwo driving forces money and or TV money
that has only to do with football, right, and the impotence of the
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NC Double A. And that's whywe're here. They also said tell me,
tell me I'm right or wrong.When I heard this, it blew
my mind. It made sense tome, but it still blew my mind.
Eighty five percent of college sports,all college sports, eighty five percent
funded by football. Eighty five percentof all college sports funded by football programs.
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Man, that blows my mind.I get it. I mean,
if you sit down and you startputting numbers, papers, on numbers on
paper, it makes sense, butthat's a mind blowing number. America loves
football. My wife got on methe other day and I said, sweetheart,
I'm a girl dad. You're agirl's hit ladies hit basketball coach.
I mean, you're not gonna findany more anybody more supportive of female athletes
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than me. But she was baseball'sAmerica's past time. I said, yeah,
that's past. Yeah, America's gameis football. And I think that's
been pretty obvious for a while now. And there's gonna be a lot of
money spent on the betting apps thisweekend in the state of Ohio. I
will guarantee you. Let's look atthose Week zero games. We talked a
little bit about them. Notre Dameblows out Navy forty two to three.
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The Sam Hartman story continues. Theyscored five touchdown drives in a row,
six touchdowns by five different players inthat football game. How balanced was their
offense and their solid defense? Manthat Notre Dame looked really good Saturday.
Yeah, forty two three victory.Sam Hartman, I mean, you can't
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say enough. I mean he wascool and collected. They've talked about how
much a leader he is for thatfootball team, which is most important when
it's that position. I loved howtheir old line played. They pushed Navy
around. I mean they should.They're much bigger than the Navy's defensive front.
Again, I give aids to JaredParker now Golden for their plans.
The offense had balance one ninety onerush, two fifty three pass, which
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you know I love balance. Thedefense seven negative plays. They were held
Navy to four of fourteen on thirddown, which is a big deal.
The team had zero turnovers and onepenalty, one ten yard penalty. And
this is the compliment that can't bebeaten when you say this to a coach.
Their team looked coached. So MarcusFreeman has to feel good about how
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that looked, because I'm telling you, watching that game, that's the first
thing came to mind. They lookcoached. They looked like they were having
a ball on Saturday. And Iwasn't the only one who noticed that.
My wife came home from work.She walked in, she sat down,
we were eating dinner. Ten minutesin. She goes, at that point
in time, Notre Dame was upfour touchdowns, But she goes, they
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looked like they're really having a lotof fun. I said, that is
a huge point. They really did. I mean, you can tell that
they like what Freeman's bring into it. They like what's going on. They
had a really good time playing.You knew he was going to bring some
young coach energy. Year two,he's got to be a heckful lot different
than year one. He's went throughit. And when teams have fun playing
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together, good things happen. Butwhen you're beating the hell out of somebody,
it's a lot of fun. Definitelymakes it better. The other big
game last weekend, a lot ofpeople were upset because he couldn't watch it.
It was on the PAC twelve network, and if you didn't get the
PAC twelve network, you couldn't watchit. USC blows out San Jose State
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coach. You said his name earlier, Zachariah Branch the most exciting freshman of
Week zero and maybe for the entirefootball season. That dude's fun. Hey,
I gotta get a jab in here, and I got friends in the
PAC twelve well soon to be knockedwhatever, right, But do you think
I pay for the PAC twelve network? Yes? I do, But I
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called Ernie Adams. I said,hey, dude, you watching this pack.
I don't get it. I said, well, you can't give me
advice from the PAC twelve. Youdon't have PAC twelve network. So he
got it, and I said,this is like watching I think Keith Jackson's
gonna start calling this game because itlooked the screen was small. It looked
like it was fuzzy, like Iwas watching the game back in the nineteen
eighties. I mean the quality,I understand why the PAC twelve is wanting
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a TV deal. Yeah. No, so San Jose State coach Brennan,
he's hung around that. This kid'splayed hard. It's all USC fifty six
twenty eight. Caleb Williams as astar, four touchdowns, zero turnovers.
USC has a ton of explosion plays. But their perimeter, I mean,
Zachariah Branch is electric. Yeah,but look at the wide receivers, Taj
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Washington, Deduce Robinson, Dorian Singer. Their fifth leading receiver was Mario Williams
in that game. So I meanthey're loaded for bear there. And we
know this. Lincoln Riley has agift. He can dial up a play,
he can dial up a call.They're gonna score points, they're gonna
throw the ball over your head.But again, I don't know if they're
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physical and up front on both sidesof the ball. And look, Alex
Scrench has got some heat on him. You don't give up. And again,
no, if you're in in thenational title conversation, you don't give
up four hundred yards and two hundredof it rushing. That was that was
the thing that was troublesome for meto see if I'm a Southern cow fan,
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as we just gave up two twohundred yards rushing to San Jose State.
So and USC had eight penalties.A lot of things that showed up
last year showed up in game one. So keep an eye on that defense.
Uh penalties. Look, they're gonnascore points. I mean, you
can bet bet the house as longas that guy's out there throwing that ball.
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Caleb Williams is gonna score points withthat offense and that play calling.
Have you ever had a quarterback beable to pick up a fumble and throw
a seventy six yard touchdown pass?That was amazing? No, because if
I did, I'd probably still becoaching. That's amazing. Josh Cribs could
do some things I mean, you'relike, how did he just pull that
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off? Julian two? But Joshhad an act, So yeah, that
was crazy. I tell you Iwas. I was blown away by that
one. Any other games last weekendyou want to mention? I know,
I know, Ohio you played andthat was an interesting game. I watched
a little bit of that. Ihope that they had found a way to
win that game, but they couldn't. Well, yeah, I mean Jacksonville
State FBS Rich Rodriguez. They getthe win over UTEP seventeen fourteen three UTEP
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turnovers costly again losing the game.Uh oh u, I watched, you
know, obviously the Mac I tryto watch MAC game or two every week
get beat at San Diego State twentyto thirteen. The bad thing was Curtis
Rourke, their star quarterback was earlyinjured early, so the backup Cjay Harris
has to step up. Through threeinterceptions, Brady Hoaks crew needs to get
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better, uh offensively on third down, and they need to if they're gonna
win a lot of games, createmore explosion plays. And lastly, Hawaii
made it tough on Vandy there inthe second half. Vandy let Hawaii back
in late aj Swan and the widereceivers Jade McGowan, Will Shepard for Vandy
had a good good night. Butagain the concern of the offensive line play
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in the Vandy run game. Youcan't run for that least amount of yards.
I didn't I don't even have itdown. I think it was like
thirty eight yards. I mean theywould rest for less than fifty yards.
That ain't good playing in the SEC. Neither team could run the ball.
But Hawaii's running shoot did provide threehundred and fifty one pass and had they
had a shot at the end.I did hear that Rourke is supposed to
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start for the Ou game on Saturday. They they they say that they pulled
him out of that game more asa precaution than anything else. So it
is what it is. But thatwas an opportunity for them to win a
big game. So I'm not realsure how that one's gonna fly out anyway.
Good stuff. Let's talk about thegames coming up this weekend and then
we'll dig into the Buckeyes coach.It all gets started today, that's what's
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awesome about it. We've got gamesThursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and
Monday and tonight ranked teams. Wegot Florida playing at Utah. Looking forward
to that one. You know I'ma huge fan of the Utah football program.
Well, here's the thing. Iknew something was up last week.
I don't gamble, but I dopay attention line because there's a reason Las
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Vegas is Law Vegas. They know. As I kept saying, it was
double digits, and now I'm lookingto six and a half today, I
look, it's four and a half, Utah's favorite at home against the Florida
team that has a ton of questionmarks. There's a good reason for that.
But yeah, we gotta get thisshow done because there's most of these
people are gonna be listening about thesetwo games tomorrow. When these games have
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been played, we're getting to watchat the same time. So we got
to have at least two screens infront of us. Right tonight, You've
got Florida. Year two of BillyNapier heats on after one year. You
got year one with Graham Mertz,who started a lot of games at Wisconsin
but had his struggles, especially takingcare of the football. Lots of new
faces in the portal. Now I'veheard from a couple pretty good sources.
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Florida's feeling pretty good about themselves.The coaches are where they are and what
the outsiders think, so we'll seetonight. But they have to improve defensively
a lot compared to what they didlast year. You look at Utah Utah
Kyle Whittingham, tough, physical footballteam. You know they're gonna smack you.
That's his again, that's the callingcard. They got seven back on
defense. But why has the spreadchanged so much? Your guy Cam Rising,
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He's not going to be playing tonight. I hate it. He's one
of college football's most enjoyable players towatch. He's a winner. So the
backup is gonna have to step uptonight. Yeah, we'll see what happens.
Nebraska at Minnesota coach. I'm veryinterested in this game. Obviously,
Nebraska brand new program coming out andeverybody knows that Minnesota is who they are
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and PJ Flex great football coach,but he has good years and bad years.
Look here's if you want to rootfor a team because of the head
coach is a terrific human being andcoaches the game the right way and builds
a program. It's Matt Rule.I think a lot of Matt. He
actually married a girl from my hometownof Portsmouth, Ohio. But look,
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Nebraska's got sixteen returning starters, andI can guarantee you not saying anything about
the past staff. I wasn't there. You respect the dead, But sixteen
returning starters. I'm excited to seethe Georgia Tech transfer Jeff Sims at quarterback
tonight. You got fourteen portal orfreshmen in the two deep. So this
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is a different team, but theydo have a lot of returning starters on
that football team that may not bestarting tonight. Then you look over at
Minnesota. You're seven for PJ.This is an O line rebuild. You
had a six year starter quarterback TannerMorgan that has gone. They had a
pretty good running back Tho Ibraham that'sgone. So I'm interested to see.
There's lots of questions about Minnesota.So yeah, I can't wait to watch
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that game today. I'll be goingback and forth on that one. Then
we get into the weekend. Louisvilleat Georgia Tech. Coach, you said
last week you thought Louisville was agoing to be a huge surprise this year
because of their strength of schedule onwhat they're putting together with a new head
coach. Now they get to startoff with Georgia Tech, who traditionally hasn't
been a good football team. Samething again, another team that's changed a
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little bit with portal and recruiting.I believe in Jeff Brown. The guy's
won. He's a winner, andhe is one of college football's best offensive
minds and play callers. And he'sgot a quarterback that knows his system and
Plumber. They are replacing a lotoffensively, but we'll see to it may
be an upgrade. I love theirschedule now Georgia Tech, if you'll remember
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last year, they were relieved ofduties as a staff. Brent Key was
on that staff. He was elevatedat I think he's in the lum actually
to be the head coach with fourand four as an intrim The players loved
him. The administration saw enough tobelieve in him. They hired him.
But again, we'll see if theyhave enough talent and playmakers at Georgia Tech
yet. Coach Boise State plays atnumber ten Washington. Washington's offense is going
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to be fun again this year.Yeah, I mean the last ten games
of the of the year with ninereturning on offense, this team went eight
and two Okay Boise State three thirtySaturday. I'll be watching. Led by
quarterback Taylon Green. They are theMountain West favorite UH ten and four a
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year ago, twenty twenty two deepon the on their defense returning which is
a lot plus transfer portals. Thiscould be a team that could give people
problem, even Washington in Week oneand then between their two running backs that
combined for twenty six hundred yards andtheir quarterback last year in Green Halani and
Jante I. Look at Washington,Klin de Boor was tremendous last year with
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what him and his staff did.UH Pennox in the offense. We gave
him ay pluses all year. Expectto see it. Other than the injury
at the running back this past coupleof weeks you don't want to see.
But transfer portal. They did agood job aiding themselves on the edge UH
and and look at their edge playerBraylan Trice, who was a super player
for him and probably will be again. He's a good player. They have
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to improve their past defense. Onehundred and Country is not going to win
a national title. You know,I keep saying that name a football team
that's won a national title that's defensewas subpar. It ain't gonna happen.
But if they can defend, theycan be your Pack twelveth champs. There's
no doubt about it. Should befun to watch them play all season long.
(28:18):
Number twenty one North Carolina plays atSouth Carolina. Once again we're featuring
the quarterbacks. Yeah, I meanyou got We've talked about Drake May.
We know what kind of player isACC Player of the Year. The bad
news is Phil longoes catch coaching offenseand calling ball plays at Wisconsin. Now
new OC Chip Lindsay, it's niceto inherit inherit somebody that thinks is gonna
(28:38):
be a top two pick in thedraft. But the strength of this team
is at quarterback in O line.Again, the key for this team is
gene Chiswick's defense has to get better. South Carolina a new offensive coordinator,
which Spencer Ratler. Are we gonnaget? We know they finished hot?
Is that is that the offense andthe Ratler? We're gonna see the strong
(29:00):
in a secondary. We got tosee what that front seven's gonna do against
the run. This year I believein that defensive coordinator for sure. But
their schedule first six games UNC,Georgia, Mississippi State, Tennessee, and
Florida South Carolina is gonna We're gonnaknow where where they're at after the first
six ball games. Yeah, andmaybe after six Spencer Ratler again in that
pretty truck he's been doing those commercialsfor and drive the other way. You
(29:23):
don't know, We'll see how itgoes. West Virginia at number seven.
Penn State. A lot of folkslooking at this since I think is the
first big featured NBC night game thatthey're doing with the Big ten on Saturday
night. It looks good on paper. I don't know, but Penn State's
really really tough. You know.There's two kinds of coaches, those that
have been fired and those that willbe fired. Yeah, that's one reason
(29:45):
I got out after eighteen years.I never got fired, So I s
hey, I never got fired.Neil Brown's in the hot seat at West
Virginia. Yeah, And you lookup and down that schedule, you're like,
man, can they get to sevenwins? It's lots of questions,
lots of transfers. They got tobe better on defense, and they have
to be able to run the ballbetter than they did a year ago.
That's playe talk. I look atPenn State and keep wondering, is this
(30:10):
is this James year? Is thisCoach Franklin's year? Listen to some sports
talk with guys that no football orthe other day is people truly believe in
Drew Aller. I know some peoplethat have watched them practice. They say,
this kid's the real deal, whichhe was. That's why he was
recruited as highly as he was.I like Manny Diaz on defense. They're
talented. This is a night gameat Happy Valley, and maybe this tenth
(30:34):
year for coach Franklin, maybe thisis their year. The game on Sunday
night could be the best game ofthe weekend. Number five LSU plays at
number eight Florida State. Coach,you really like Florida State, and I
think you're a fan of what LSU'sputting together too. What's crazy about this
game? This game is going tosolidify a great start to a season against
a great opponent. You know,FSU went on the road and surprised LSU
(30:56):
last year, and people thought maybewe didn't get the right guy. Coach
Kelly kind to fix that. Buthere's the thing. Close game. The
Buckeyes lost the game first or secondweek of the year and won the national
title. Either of these teams canlose it. But because of their schedule,
if they run the table when thesec when the acc can still get
(31:18):
back in the picture at the end. We know that head football coach Brian
Kelly, Quarterback Jayden Daniels. Defense. I talked about Harold Perkins last week.
Maybe a best defender in the country, most talented. Sadly John Emory's
out again at running back, butthey have eight returners on offense. Is
(31:38):
this defense elite? And then Ilook at Florida State. I love what
Mike Norvelle has done. You know, last year, going into that first
game, the talk was maybe Primetimeis going to be the head coach at
Florida State. Now I'm looking atthe eighth ranked FSU, which I think
they're two point dogs. I didn'tI don't have that. You got a
quarterbacks in the Heisman talking Jordan tryUs. That's a great dual threat.
(32:00):
Quarterback edge player Jared Verse is oneof the best players in the country.
For Florida State. The riches inthe front seven improved vastly for Florida State.
They were one of the teams thatreally won in the portal, especially
in their front four. So noSunday Night must see TV. And you
(32:21):
got two blue bud bloods, twobig dogs gonna be hitting each other in
the mouth. And the reason whyyou're taking Tuesday off is because of this
game Monday Night, number nine,Clemson plays at Duke. A lot of
people think Clemson is going to beback in the CFP for the final year,
of the final four of the CFPthe way it has been, and
you don't disagree. You think Clemson'spretty good Clemson. This is a critical
(32:46):
year for Clemson because the shine iskind of gone. But here's the thing
about Clemson. They still have recruitedas well as anybody in the country.
There was a quarterback that was abackup last year at a place called TCU.
(33:07):
He ends up at the Heisman ceremonyby the name of Max Duggan.
The guy that coached him and calledball plays was a guy named Garrett Riley.
Garrett Riley's the offensive coordinator. Nowfor the Clemson Tigers, there's a
very talented quarterback by the name ofCade Clubnick. I'm wondering if we're going
to see another great year because GarrettRiley is on the fast track, and
(33:30):
if he can do for Max Duggan, if he can do the same thing
for cad Clubnick, and Clemson isgoing to play good defense that hadn't been.
The problem is if in their defensivedepth is tremendous, several players in
the top one hundred in college footballaccording to the experts. But then we
go over to Duke. Mike Elkocan coach. They're nine and four it
(33:53):
Duke in his first year. Ninereturners on offense, eight returners on defense.
They're playing at home. Do notsleep on the young man that's taken
snaps at Duke. His name's RileyLeonard, and he is one of the
best quarterbacks in the country. Performancelast year, this is a new year.
(34:14):
Hey, we're gonna get off thistopic, but go check out the
starting quarterbacks in the ACC. TheACC has a lot of high end quarterbacks,
maybe arguably as good as the PACtwelve. Wow, and we know
that the PAC twelve is probably asgood as they've ever been in the last
twenty years top to bottom. Soit's gonna be fun to watch them all
season. Coach, let's move onbefore we dig into the Buckeye game at
(34:37):
Indiana on Saturday. I want toknow who won the Day Coach JJ's Win
the Day award from the last week. Yep, I'm want through two other
games in there, keeping a watch. All go ahead, man Toledo.
You remember watching the Kwan Finn play. Oh yeah, okay, they play
at Illinois and they're only nine anda half point dogs. DC. Ryan
(35:00):
Walters is now the head coach ofProdue because if you remember, Illinois was
lights out defensively. Yes this year, absolutely, but they do return seven
starters. There are some questions there. I'm interested to see how things go
at Illinois. And the other oneis South Alabama at number twenty four two
lane. The amazing story last yearWillie Fritz going from two wins to twelve
(35:22):
wins. You got Michael Pratt backat quarterback, my nephew. But Tige
Spears is gone and he was abig time difference man. But South South
Alabama's got a good roster, sokeep an eye on the game. This
weekend. I saw pictures of thenew Green Wave facility. Holy smokes,
they have upgraded that tremendously. Ifyou get a chance to check that out,
(35:45):
just do a Google for the forthe new two lane football facilities.
There's no way I can forget thisone because I'm thinking we're NC State tonight.
Yeah, at Yukon that went toa bowl game with Jim Moore last
year. Brendan Armstrong from Alba's nowthe trigger Man. It went from Virginia
to NC State. It'll be interestingto watch that. And then how could
we miss the twelve o'clock noon Foxgame again? Like you see the car
(36:12):
wreck happening, you gotta watch.Yeah, because there's some things that came
out this week with Prime, You'relike, don't do that, don't go
there. Ten players returning from theroster that was at Colorado last year.
Listen, there's a lot of pressureon Schado or Sanders the quarterback. Prime
son a lot, and then you'vegot the opponent that's twenty and a half
(36:36):
point favorites that played in the NationalTitle Game in TCU. They lost a
lot, but Chandler Morris's back asthe quarterback. They did lose Garrett Riley,
but eight back on the defense.They didn't play very well in the
national title game. They got toget better on defense, but they do
have a lot back. It'll bean interesting game noon on Saturday. So
you got to win the day.Yeah, we want to wait, we
(36:58):
want to know who won the day? Coach, Well, I had a
change, all right, So therunner up was my win. Win the
day was the Notre Dame fan base. How they looked and played cool hand
luke out there that I'm thinking,and I got a couple of buddies that
love Notre Dame. They're loving it. But you're the runner up, but
(37:20):
you've got good things ahead. Yeah. Win of the day. Women's sports
and that Nebraska's women's volleyball and fanbase. Largest crowd to witness a women's
sport event at ninety two thousand andthree in that stadium, five time NC
double A champion, fourth rank Ladycorn Huskers defeat Omaha three nothing. Coach
(37:45):
John Cook, who used to bea football coach, said it was unbelievable.
He felt like the head football coachleading those women to that spectacular Look
again, lady coach's husband, I'ma girl, dad. That was freaking
awesome. So shout out to Nebraskaand that volleyball program. That is cool
as can be. That is fantastic. And a friend of mine commented online
(38:06):
this morning and said, hey,man, it's Nebraska. There's absolutely nothing
to do between Saturday and Saturday inthe fall. See, you might as
well go to a volleyball game andwatch the best. Okay, you're what
you say now, that was cool, good point. I appreciate that the
buck Eyes are getting ready to openthe twenty twenty three season. They are
(38:27):
at Indiana this Saturday, three thirty. The game will be on CBS.
All the TV stuff is all screwedup this year. So if you think,
oh, it's Big Ten, it'sgot to be on Fox, or
it's the SEC, it's got tobe on CBS, now it's it's all.
It's all messed up now. Sojust make sure you look before you
try to turn on your TV becausesome of them you gotta pay for it.
(38:47):
Just f y I I I lastweek's USC game. Coach. Let's
talk about what you want to seefrom the Buckeyes on Saturday in Indiana.
Well, let's start, because themost important thing is what you asked.
So let's get this out of theway. What we will see from Indiana
this is Tom tom Allen seventh season. He's coming off twenty twenty two four
(39:14):
and eight. He's coming off atwenty twenty one two and ten. His
seats so hot, he's got grillmarks on his rear end. Okay,
that is not an easy place towin, Paul. If you remember in
twenty twenty, yeah, COVID year, they were are darling on this show
a lot because they had a terrificseason. Now coach losing coach to boor
(39:37):
hurt them, But there is massiveturnover in their personnel in and out with
portal. They have ten plus thatthey've lost offensively, and then you look
defensively on returns two starters. Youlook at their too deep ten plus players
and they're twenty two too deep ondefense are transfers? Wow, So you
(40:01):
really don't know what you got,but things that things are tough that Indiana.
You know. On offense, it'skind of rare, but they have
shared coordinators between Walt Bell and AnthonyTucker. I think Walt Bell's the play
caller. Last year, if youremember, during the season, to help
with the heat, the offensive linecoach was relieved of duties in the middle
of the year and One of thegood gets for them, no doubt about
(40:23):
it, is Bob Bowstad, whowas at Wisconsin is coach in the NFL.
A long time well respected offensive linecoach is added to that staff.
The other good get that they they'rehopeful for is the transfer quarterback from Tennessee
and Tavin Jackson, who will seestart against the Buckeyes. You're gonna see
a lot of eleven and ten personnel, So you're gonna see spread, You're
(40:45):
probably gonna see tempo, You're gonnasee his own run, You're gonna see
rpo. Okay, and then youlook at defense. You've got again shared
coordinators named and Chad Wilt and MattGeier, and I think Chad Wilt is
the one that calls the defense.You're gonna see four two five, which
structurally is similar to what the Buckeyesrun. And expect pressures. Why am
(41:07):
I expecting pressures? Because the mostimportant topic for a high state football the
last two months is let's get afterthe young quarterbacks if they'll make mistakes.
So let's talk about the Buckeyes.Number one. We'll start on the offensive
side. Number one. I mean, it's the elephant in the room.
(41:30):
Ray Charles Ronnie Millsap can see thiscoming? Is calm Accordon, Devin Brown.
I mean, everybody's gonna have anopinion, and people are gonna hope
the opinion is pretty clear after thefirst game. Right. Two, this
offensive line, you got Josh Fryer, Josh Simmons playing at the tackle,
you got the new man snapping theball, making a call, and Carson
(41:52):
Hensman. Three. Third question aboutthis offense? Is Travion Henderson Travion Henderson
of twenty twenty one or is TravionHenderson the tra ViOn of twenty twenty two?
Was it bad luck? Was ita durability issue? Being Paul his
freshman year, We're thinking, whatthis guy is incredible? Absolutely, and
(42:15):
we're gonna find out tomorrow or Saturday. Okay, defense, we've already hit
on this or I can get throughquick better limiting explosion place. We're gonna
find that out. Mike Call.Second, it can Mike Call be a
disruptor that helps this whole defense asan interior defensive lineman. That is a
difference maker. Three. I can'twait to see Sunny Styles play. You
(42:39):
know, I've brought him up alot, just how he's built, how
fast he plays. His top sideceiling is incredibly high. Four cornerback and
secondary play where a lot of thesemistakes have been made. Are they going
to have a guy that can shutit down? Is Denzel Burke the guy?
And fifth, you need to seethis team not only give up less
(43:02):
plays, but see if we canincrease the takeaway number. That makes sense.
So anything else before I kind ofget into what I thinks we're gonna
see. Offensively, Nope, youkeep rolling bro all right. So offensively,
it's hard not to be an elevenpersonnel, right because you got at
least three stud receivers you want onthe field. You got a very very
(43:24):
good captain at tight end, andthat's the biggest room that's got an issue
there is the running backs because they'reabout five deep. Yeah, so,
but that's probably their best makeup isI think you can see more quick game
that means three step balls out.I think you can see more play action
naked and boot to change the launchpoint. That is complimentary to a more
(43:50):
consistent called run game. Takes pressureoff the quarterback, takes pressure off that
young offensive line, especially earlier inthe year. One thing you haven't seen
the Buckeyes do a lot of sinceJim Trestle is track gap scheme runs where
you have people blocking down, yougot people pulling and kicking out, you
got kicking out and leading. Ithelps bring up that that's the best way
(44:13):
to pick up pressures in the rungame, blocking through gaps to people,
and that may be a good fitthat carries over to better play action opportunities
for the quarterback in that game.I'm interested to see if they do that
because they have not done that muchwith the Urban Meyer and Ryan Day,
(44:34):
and it's critical for us to seethem still get the ball to the star
players that are phenomenal athletes in space. What I say with that is the
quarterback position. I think what you'regoing to see early, let's create early
success as a play caller. Obviouslyyou have things scripted, but there's things
where you can get the ball outquick without having to see coverages and protections
(44:59):
to perimeter passes where it takes pressureoff the quarterback. It's always important for
a young quarterback to have early success. Just get a completion, Yeah,
just get a completion. Okay,just get a third completion. Now,
all of a sudden, you geta rhythm there's some confidence. The newness
is worn off. Butterflies are gone. I'm playing ball like I have my
whole life. Defensively, this issimple that we're about done at the show
(45:21):
here. Bottom line, what doesJim Knowles four two five in year two
look like? Starting Saturday afternoon atIndiana. They're not going to win a
national title until they have a championshipcaliber defense, period. And I think
you're gonna see, you know,Georgia. One thing to think about Georgia,
(45:45):
it's gonna hurt Todd Munkin leaving togo to the Baltimore Ravens. I
think he's an incredible play caller.But you know, Georgia, really,
Kirby Smart was smart enough to followthe same process that next say and build
Alabama. And how did Alabama becomeAlabama up until the last few years,
which is hard enough to throw theball with Mike Jones to a to a
(46:07):
bright I mean they had two starsgetting back to hanging on physical football,
running the football, playing with somebigger personnel with tight ends, and winning
with defense. And you know who'sdone that the last two years. Georgia,
you got it. And I wouldlove for Buckeye fans to be able
(46:30):
to see more of that because it'sa toughness factor that matters in a game
like Michigan. Yeah, it's justa personality. Hang your hat. We're
gonna out tough you. We're gonnamake you quit. We're gonna hurt you
physically because we're gonna just keep bodyblow after body blow. Same thing with
(46:52):
the defense. This has to bea championship caliber defense like the team that's
won the last two and Alabama wasgreat on defense, Clemson was great on
defense, George has been great ondefense. When the Buckeyes can play defense
at that level, I think Columbuscould celebrate a national title this year.
That's fun stuff. I mean,Twemo Oil's gotta have a season. Sawyer's
(47:12):
gotta have a season. I agree, Mike Hall's got to have a season.
Man, Tommy Eikenberger's gotta have aseason. I mean, just look
at the power just in those fourguys on the front, you know,
I mean, you've got a lotgoing on, and then you look at
Proctor and Burke and it's just there'sa lot of things happening that are positives
on that defense. They just gottago out and do it. Well,
(47:36):
it is year two, so we'vewe've had We've had an off season,
a season, another offseason, andwe're getting ready to start the season.
Yeah, so obviously familiarity with thatdefense is going to be improved and for
the coaches, for the assistant coachesas well, they can coach it better.
Look, we're sitting here doing ashow. I'm not coaching at Ohio
State, but I do know enoughis when you got cats that can play,
(48:04):
sometimes too much strategy and calls andbeing more exotic can be a mistake
because if your guys are better thantheir guys, what happens is is when
you make airs with calls. That'swhen you see those explosion plays. They
don't have to do a lot.If these guys are going to come and
play physical football, they can doless and be really good. Coach,
(48:28):
we gotta get out of here becauseyou got to stop and make sure you
get enough to stock your fridge forthe next five days and make sure that
the lights on for whatever deliveries comingto the house. You know, for
five days of college football. Andthere's a good game not only every day,
but almost in every times time slotbetween now and Monday night. So
(48:52):
enjoy that, have fun, enjoyyour day off Tuesday, resting and compiling
your notes for a third friend.Yeah, I mean it's really looking for
a weekend. It is going tobe. I had a buddy of mine
today that's out this year hit footballcoach, and obviously he's missing it,
and he said, Aj, it'sweek one, So college football lovers soak
(49:14):
it in. Great job Nebraska fansand volleyball program. Again, that was
awesome, and thank you. Paul'salways leading and putting together. I hope
what people think is a pretty goodOH Show. Thank you so much,
sir. That is coach AJ Pratt. He is the brains behind this operation.
And if you're finding us for thefirst time, hit follow right there
(49:34):
on that app so you can getthe OH Show on iHeartRadio every single week.
We spell it the O eight Show, and we'll be back again next
week. Enjoy it, share it, let your friends know how awesome this
show is.
Welcome into the Oh Show on iHeartRadio. My name is Paul James. I
enjoined by coach AJ Pratty, formeroffensive coordinator at Kent State and Western Kentucky
University, and coach I know youare excited about week one. Week zero
was pretty dog gone good for acouple of games. Many Week zero.
I've watched at least pieces of everygame. It's football, and Paul,
(00:25):
it's good to see you, myfriend. It's good to see you.
It's not original. Now, whatis original is the Oh, the Oh
Show. This is the real Wesaid this last week. This is the
real absolutely show. But you said, what was it that you brought up?
Now I've lost my track. Oh, just how good the games were?
I mean it was you know,you get Week zero and we're here.
(00:46):
We've got ranked college football tonight,five days in a row of college
football. Week zero had a coupleof fun games. We really got to
dig into Notre Dame. It was. It was an enjoyable last Saturday.
My wife is so excited. Fivestraight days. I took Tuesday off just
(01:07):
so I could get over it.That's true, good guy. No high
school football Monday Nights game I thinkis huge I do. We're gonna hit
on We're gonna hit on all ofthem. But obviously Buckeye fans are excited
to see the Buckeyes get back onthe field. A lot of questions,
we'll talk about that, but Isaw this getting into football before we get
(01:30):
into our plan. This was fromFriday Night's postgame show. And we have
a good time, and and yourson and Racel. I'm doing a great
job, Eric, and then cancoach coach Couzio. We get to talk
ball, but some of the thingsthat come up at every level of football.
A really good football coach, amentor, one of my former bosses,
he listens. He said, look, you don't beat yourself because really,
(01:53):
honestly, at every level, alot of times you don't win a
game, the other team lost itbecause of mistakes and what you see at
all levels penalties, turnovers, mistackles, missassignments, poor clock management. In
my opinion, it all goes oncoaching. Yeah, it goes on coaching.
(02:15):
And one of my mentors told methis when I was a young coach.
And we don't say film, wesay tape. He says, AJ,
if you want to know what kindof coach you are. Watch the
tape. Watch the tape, andthat really hit home because why I say
it's coaching the next step in thatconversation, because if you're seeing stuff that's
(02:37):
not good and you wouldn't want thatto be your resume, you're either teaching
it wrong or you're letting them getby with it. And that was terrific
advice and is for any young coachlistening. Is you want to know how
good a coach you are, watchthe tape. YEP, I totally agree.
I'll tell you we get college footballevery week until the middle of January.
(02:59):
From here on out, I'm prettyexcited about it. Last one,
again, what a painful thing.I know, it's horrible, And what's
fun is last weekend really was thedebut of what we're gonna see. We've
got a Heisman Trophy winner who excelled, and we're going to talk about his
amazing play. I don't care whoyou're playing. That was an amazing play.
(03:22):
We heard some brand new names ofsome guys that are gonna make a
lot of waves this year. Imean, what impressed you the most coach
about last Saturday? May you bringgood questions? This isn't original this is
Rick Neuheisel calling his guy. ChrisChilder's the show. Pony. You are,
you are what makes this thing go. No. I mean last week,
(03:44):
I think what impressed me the mostwas Notre Dame hue their old line
play, their run game and theirbalance. Odrick Estime miniature, Jerome bettis
kind of Maybe he's a big guy, he's gonna gain yards after tax,
he's a powerhouse. But the waythey went into that game and dominated up
front, laying on guys with thatoffensive line was very impressive to me.
(04:09):
I thought Jared Parker in his firstgame as an offensive coordinator Notre Dame,
those guys did a great job.I thought Al Golden did a great job
on defense. Now I kept askingmyself, is Navy that bad? Or
is is Notre Dame that good?Probably somewhere in between. But look,
man, Sam Hartman, we're gonnabe talking about that guy. He is
(04:30):
kuhnd Luke, his leadership outstanding.Yeah, I've got a couple. Go
ahead, And my point for youis, I don't care who you're playing
in major college football, you savorany week. It's hard to win a
football game practically shutting a football teamout that is fully recruited players. I
don't care who you are. That'sgood. I mean that that kick at
the end of the game. Butthey almost shut that team out. I
(04:53):
thought that defense was stand up man. Now they played, they played well,
and it is I heard somebody onthe radio say this. It was
dead wrong. You'd rather face anoption team either the first game of the
year because you've got preseason to preparefor it weeks, or in a bowl
game because historically a triple option teamsare not their best the first game of
(05:14):
the year or in bowl games becauseprep time. But yeah, Sam Hartman's
the man. Caleb Williams in theUSC offense, Oh my gosh. You
know, they may be the greatestshow on turf this year, but they
can't defend. We'll get to that. We saw that again. They can't
defend. Well, let's talk aboutthe Buckeyes to get started. Let's dig
in a little bit. Go ahead, one last thing, because we'll see
if it shows up this weekend.I guarantee you will. Maybe even the
Buckeye game is special team explosion playslike Vandy's Jade McGowan and the electric Zacharai
(05:40):
Branch that I know we're gonna bringup later in the show for the Southern
Caltrow that kid, Wow, thatkid was amazing. But let's talk about
the Buckeyes. They do travel toIndiana. We're gonna dig into the game
and all of those specifics. Butwhere we're at at this point, Camp
is over. We're now ready forour first football game. And when you
look at it, the big thingthat came out in the last week is
(06:02):
we do have a QB one,But is it really a QB one coach,
or is it just well, let'slet's give him a cord the shot
and let's let Brown play and let'ssee how this thing plays out of me.
Is he really the starter or ishe just going to be the first
one out? We's on Saturday.The next three weeks for the Buckeyes are
(06:23):
huge because of what we saw outof Notre Dame for that road game in
the fourty. And I'm not I'mnot overlooking the Youngstown State next week,
and definitely not Western Kentucky University withthe way they can score points. But
you know what you're getting with thedepth of talent at Notre Dame. Here's
the thing with the quarterback, becauseI was gonna have that. Oh,
yeah, they did pick a quarterback. They have to run somebody out there
to take the snap, right,So it's either yesterday they name it,
(06:47):
or when the people wait and theywatch the game on TV or at the
stadium, who runs out You haveto have a starting quarterback. I guess
you don't have to, but tobe out in the first series, right,
I think there's going to be aresume built and it will be obvious
to everyone, even just the mostcommon fan that if you're watching the game
and it's not about stats, it'sgonna be hard for me to believe the
(07:12):
statistics will be what c. J. Stroud had last year. And we're
gonna talk about that because I thinkI think we may see a little bit
different style for more than one reasonoffensively. But yeah, that's that.
I think we know who's starting thefirst game, but we still don't know
who their best chance of winning gamesis playing quarterback until the next few weeks.
I was gonna say, so,you don't think we'll really know who
(07:34):
our official QB one is to startthe season until the Monday before we play
Notre Dame. Yeah, I've coachedquarterbacks that are really good in practice and
this is our guy. But whenthe bullets start flying and they get hit
in the mouth, they don't seethings. I don't know or don't think
that's what's gonna happen with calm accord. But it could or Devin Brown could
(07:56):
just go out and they're going upand down the field much better than they
are. I mean, yeah,we don't know. So you look at
the Michigan situation, and you know, for three games, hardball's not there
on Saturday. He's doing everything else. He's there for the practices, he's
part of everything. He just can'tbe, you know, in the stadium
coaching the football team on Saturday forthree weeks because of this self imposed thing.
(08:18):
They've decided that they have four differentcoaches that are going to play head
coach over the next three games.Uh, you know, Dad's coming in,
his nephew's in there. I meanis looking at that, and everybody's
like, what kind of a gameis hardball playing? Is that kind of
the same sort of ploy that's goingon with We're not naming a starting quarterback
(08:41):
at Ohio State. We're just gonnago out and see what happens. No,
I think if it's a clear cutdeal that they didn't screw around safe
Justin Fields was or wasn't or cJ. Stroud was it wasn't. You
know what I'm saying, This isour guy. I just don't think it's
still clear to him. And they'regoing to see what happens when the bullets
are flying. And that's just JimHarball being Jim Harball. I mean it
is. It's Jim ben Jim Guysthat I know that have worked for him,
(09:05):
coach for him. It's every dayit's like you don't want to watch
a cart car accident, but yougotta watch because you don't know what's what
the result is going to be.I mean, that's him. But yeah,
other places for the buck Eyes,it still looks like there's a battle
of free safety between Proctor, MalikHartford and Jahad Carter. The transfer portal
from Syracuse and they did name.I'm sure you saw. Jayden Fielding is
(09:28):
their place kicker one that competition atthis point over Parker Lewis. And I'm
proud of Daview Johnson. He's gonnawear the block o this year. He's
kind of an inspirational story. It'llbe good to see him running out on
the football field on Saturday. Let'shope he stays healthy. Coach, my
big question for you before we startdigging into game by game, sitting here
(09:50):
right after camp, here's where we'reat it. We talked a little bit
about this last week, but nowwe know more this week. What is
the biggest thing that can derail thebuck guys in twenty twenty three. Obviously
injuries are a thing, but what'swhat could really derail them and get their
plans screwed up? Well? Ithink if I had to pick one,
(10:13):
is what has been the achilles heelof this football team for the last few
years. Defense? You got itis? Is there going to be an
improvement of the defense that it willbe derailing again at some point in the
season if they continue to give upbig, big plays, explosion plays that
has to be limited. If it'sbetter play, if it's if it's better
(10:35):
or different calls, whatever they haveto do. That second is, with
a young quarterback, the lack ofa run game could derail them. Now
that's hard for me to believe becausewe'll talk about more specifically at the end
of the show when we get intothe Indiana game things that I'm looking at
and looking for. But they haveto be able to have balance or improved
(10:56):
run game because of in my opinion. And then and that helps those young
linemen. We'll talk about that too. Those offensive linemen with the three new
starters at both tackles and center,it helps them because the hardest thing to
do as an offensive lineman is adrop back pass protection. And then the
other one is this is big picturebroad I'm not pointing fingers. Guy has
(11:20):
won a heck of a lot ofgames. Fans need to stay off this
case. But are they a physicalfootball team? Are they physical? You
know? That's my question about theSouthern cal up front as are they physical
enough. That's why people love Utahand Kyle Whittingham because his teams play smash
mouth football. That's that's their callingcard. My eyes see because a lot
(11:46):
of times offensively it's like video games. Watching the Buckeyes the last few years
is because you're gonna see this atAlabama, mark my words. They're getting
back to old school nixt saving football. They're gonna run the rock and they're
gonna beat you up up front,and they're gonna defend urban Myers teams were
tough, tough, they didn't getout toughed. Jim Trestle ran the power
(12:07):
play sixty eight times a game,and the Silver Bullets would hitch in the
mouth. They were tough. Physicaltoughness should not be underestimated with this football
team. Be interesting to see.I'm so looking forward to three thirty on
Saturday. We're going to talk moreabout that game in about fifteen twenty minutes
right now, though, I wantto ask you one of the biggest questions
(12:28):
that's come out over the weekend.All the analysts got a chance to get
back in their big chairs and starttalking college football because it is here.
And one of the biggest conversations thathappened last weekend into this week was all
the talk about the college football PremierLeague. Coach, it seems inevitable that
we are going to have a collegefootball premier league in the next five years.
(12:52):
Am I wrong for feeling that way? No, I'm with you on
that one, and a lot ofpeople would be that pay attention to the
sport as much as we do.What's crazy about it back in two thousand
and four, two thousand and five, two thousand and six is a staff
one of my former bosses that listensto this show. We talked about this
someday absolutely probably gonna not absolutely,but probably gonna happen. But you know
(13:18):
what we're daying there there. Now. We've talked about this a little bit
last week without calling it the PremierLeague. It's going to be more of
the havels and you're gonna have moreof the have nots. We said this
the word I use. It's sad. The money games are going to dry
up for the mid majors, soit's going to be two different types of
legs. Even Chip Kelly talked abouthaving the having a division of the Power
(13:45):
five and a division of Group offive and have two championships. What I
don't think they are are accurate aboutis how many actually would be in the
Power five side, because I thinkthe number is smaller than what some people
are saying. I don't think youcan find fifty five sixty teams that can
make it like that. I've heardthirty two, Okay, yeah, I
heard the conversation of thirty two.I think at three different conversations last week,
(14:09):
and I heard the number thirty twowould be ideal. You know what
kind of teams. That knocks outIt knocks out a lot of good teams.
I mean, think about it.In the Big Ten, you're only
going to get Ohio State, inMichigan and probably Wisconsin and Penn State.
And that may be it. Imean, you know, think about it.
I mean you know, and thenyou do. You do it like
(14:31):
a premier league. You drop ateam down because they haven't played well in
a few years, and you bringa team up because they have. I
mean, it's just interesting to seehow it might work. It all goes
back to what I said last week, and I will repeat the word.
It's one of two. It's thetwo driving forces money and or TV money
that has only to do with football, right, and the impotence of the
(14:54):
NC Double A. And that's whywe're here. They also said tell me,
tell me I'm right or wrong.When I heard this, it blew
my mind. It made sense tome, but it still blew my mind.
Eighty five percent of college sports,all college sports, eighty five percent
funded by football. Eighty five percentof all college sports funded by football programs.
(15:15):
Man, that blows my mind.I get it. I mean,
if you sit down and you startputting numbers, papers, on numbers on
paper, it makes sense, butthat's a mind blowing number. America loves
football. My wife got on methe other day and I said, sweetheart,
I'm a girl dad. You're agirl's hit ladies hit basketball coach.
I mean, you're not gonna findany more anybody more supportive of female athletes
(15:35):
than me. But she was baseball'sAmerica's past time. I said, yeah,
that's past. Yeah, America's gameis football. And I think that's
been pretty obvious for a while now. And there's gonna be a lot of
money spent on the betting apps thisweekend in the state of Ohio. I
will guarantee you. Let's look atthose Week zero games. We talked a
little bit about them. Notre Dameblows out Navy forty two to three.
(16:00):
The Sam Hartman story continues. Theyscored five touchdown drives in a row,
six touchdowns by five different players inthat football game. How balanced was their
offense and their solid defense? Manthat Notre Dame looked really good Saturday.
Yeah, forty two three victory.Sam Hartman, I mean, you can't
(16:21):
say enough. I mean he wascool and collected. They've talked about how
much a leader he is for thatfootball team, which is most important when
it's that position. I loved howtheir old line played. They pushed Navy
around. I mean they should.They're much bigger than the Navy's defensive front.
Again, I give aids to JaredParker now Golden for their plans.
The offense had balance one ninety onerush, two fifty three pass, which
(16:44):
you know I love balance. Thedefense seven negative plays. They were held
Navy to four of fourteen on thirddown, which is a big deal.
The team had zero turnovers and onepenalty, one ten yard penalty. And
this is the compliment that can't bebeaten when you say this to a coach.
Their team looked coached. So MarcusFreeman has to feel good about how
(17:08):
that looked, because I'm telling you, watching that game, that's the first
thing came to mind. They lookcoached. They looked like they were having
a ball on Saturday. And Iwasn't the only one who noticed that.
My wife came home from work.She walked in, she sat down,
we were eating dinner. Ten minutesin. She goes, at that point
in time, Notre Dame was upfour touchdowns, But she goes, they
(17:30):
looked like they're really having a lotof fun. I said, that is
a huge point. They really did. I mean, you can tell that
they like what Freeman's bring into it. They like what's going on. They
had a really good time playing.You knew he was going to bring some
young coach energy. Year two,he's got to be a heckful lot different
than year one. He's went throughit. And when teams have fun playing
(17:51):
together, good things happen. Butwhen you're beating the hell out of somebody,
it's a lot of fun. Definitelymakes it better. The other big
game last weekend, a lot ofpeople were upset because he couldn't watch it.
It was on the PAC twelve network, and if you didn't get the
PAC twelve network, you couldn't watchit. USC blows out San Jose State
(18:11):
coach. You said his name earlier, Zachariah Branch the most exciting freshman of
Week zero and maybe for the entirefootball season. That dude's fun. Hey,
I gotta get a jab in here, and I got friends in the
PAC twelve well soon to be knockedwhatever, right, But do you think
I pay for the PAC twelve network? Yes? I do, But I
(18:33):
called Ernie Adams. I said,hey, dude, you watching this pack.
I don't get it. I said, well, you can't give me
advice from the PAC twelve. Youdon't have PAC twelve network. So he
got it, and I said,this is like watching I think Keith Jackson's
gonna start calling this game because itlooked the screen was small. It looked
like it was fuzzy, like Iwas watching the game back in the nineteen
eighties. I mean the quality,I understand why the PAC twelve is wanting
(18:53):
a TV deal. Yeah. No, so San Jose State coach Brennan,
he's hung around that. This kid'splayed hard. It's all USC fifty six
twenty eight. Caleb Williams as astar, four touchdowns, zero turnovers.
USC has a ton of explosion plays. But their perimeter, I mean,
Zachariah Branch is electric. Yeah,but look at the wide receivers, Taj
(19:17):
Washington, Deduce Robinson, Dorian Singer. Their fifth leading receiver was Mario Williams
in that game. So I meanthey're loaded for bear there. And we
know this. Lincoln Riley has agift. He can dial up a play,
he can dial up a call.They're gonna score points, they're gonna
throw the ball over your head.But again, I don't know if they're
(19:37):
physical and up front on both sidesof the ball. And look, Alex
Scrench has got some heat on him. You don't give up. And again,
no, if you're in in thenational title conversation, you don't give
up four hundred yards and two hundredof it rushing. That was that was
the thing that was troublesome for meto see if I'm a Southern cow fan,
(19:59):
as we just gave up two twohundred yards rushing to San Jose State.
So and USC had eight penalties.A lot of things that showed up
last year showed up in game one. So keep an eye on that defense.
Uh penalties. Look, they're gonnascore points. I mean, you
can bet bet the house as longas that guy's out there throwing that ball.
(20:19):
Caleb Williams is gonna score points withthat offense and that play calling.
Have you ever had a quarterback beable to pick up a fumble and throw
a seventy six yard touchdown pass?That was amazing? No, because if
I did, I'd probably still becoaching. That's amazing. Josh Cribs could
do some things I mean, you'relike, how did he just pull that
(20:41):
off? Julian two? But Joshhad an act, So yeah, that
was crazy. I tell you Iwas. I was blown away by that
one. Any other games last weekendyou want to mention? I know,
I know, Ohio you played andthat was an interesting game. I watched
a little bit of that. Ihope that they had found a way to
win that game, but they couldn't. Well, yeah, I mean Jacksonville
State FBS Rich Rodriguez. They getthe win over UTEP seventeen fourteen three UTEP
(21:07):
turnovers costly again losing the game.Uh oh u, I watched, you
know, obviously the Mac I tryto watch MAC game or two every week
get beat at San Diego State twentyto thirteen. The bad thing was Curtis
Rourke, their star quarterback was earlyinjured early, so the backup Cjay Harris
has to step up. Through threeinterceptions, Brady Hoaks crew needs to get
(21:30):
better, uh offensively on third down, and they need to if they're gonna
win a lot of games, createmore explosion plays. And lastly, Hawaii
made it tough on Vandy there inthe second half. Vandy let Hawaii back
in late aj Swan and the widereceivers Jade McGowan, Will Shepard for Vandy
had a good good night. Butagain the concern of the offensive line play
(21:53):
in the Vandy run game. Youcan't run for that least amount of yards.
I didn't I don't even have itdown. I think it was like
thirty eight yards. I mean theywould rest for less than fifty yards.
That ain't good playing in the SEC. Neither team could run the ball.
But Hawaii's running shoot did provide threehundred and fifty one pass and had they
had a shot at the end.I did hear that Rourke is supposed to
(22:15):
start for the Ou game on Saturday. They they they say that they pulled
him out of that game more asa precaution than anything else. So it
is what it is. But thatwas an opportunity for them to win a
big game. So I'm not realsure how that one's gonna fly out anyway.
Good stuff. Let's talk about thegames coming up this weekend and then
we'll dig into the Buckeyes coach.It all gets started today, that's what's
(22:38):
awesome about it. We've got gamesThursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and
Monday and tonight ranked teams. Wegot Florida playing at Utah. Looking forward
to that one. You know I'ma huge fan of the Utah football program.
Well, here's the thing. Iknew something was up last week.
I don't gamble, but I dopay attention line because there's a reason Las
(22:59):
Vegas is Law Vegas. They know. As I kept saying, it was
double digits, and now I'm lookingto six and a half today, I
look, it's four and a half, Utah's favorite at home against the Florida
team that has a ton of questionmarks. There's a good reason for that.
But yeah, we gotta get thisshow done because there's most of these
people are gonna be listening about thesetwo games tomorrow. When these games have
(23:22):
been played, we're getting to watchat the same time. So we got
to have at least two screens infront of us. Right tonight, You've
got Florida. Year two of BillyNapier heats on after one year. You
got year one with Graham Mertz,who started a lot of games at Wisconsin
but had his struggles, especially takingcare of the football. Lots of new
faces in the portal. Now I'veheard from a couple pretty good sources.
(23:45):
Florida's feeling pretty good about themselves.The coaches are where they are and what
the outsiders think, so we'll seetonight. But they have to improve defensively
a lot compared to what they didlast year. You look at Utah Utah
Kyle Whittingham, tough, physical footballteam. You know they're gonna smack you.
That's his again, that's the callingcard. They got seven back on
defense. But why has the spreadchanged so much? Your guy Cam Rising,
(24:11):
He's not going to be playing tonight. I hate it. He's one
of college football's most enjoyable players towatch. He's a winner. So the
backup is gonna have to step uptonight. Yeah, we'll see what happens.
Nebraska at Minnesota coach. I'm veryinterested in this game. Obviously,
Nebraska brand new program coming out andeverybody knows that Minnesota is who they are
(24:33):
and PJ Flex great football coach,but he has good years and bad years.
Look here's if you want to rootfor a team because of the head
coach is a terrific human being andcoaches the game the right way and builds
a program. It's Matt Rule.I think a lot of Matt. He
actually married a girl from my hometownof Portsmouth, Ohio. But look,
(24:55):
Nebraska's got sixteen returning starters, andI can guarantee you not saying anything about
the past staff. I wasn't there. You respect the dead, But sixteen
returning starters. I'm excited to seethe Georgia Tech transfer Jeff Sims at quarterback
tonight. You got fourteen portal orfreshmen in the two deep. So this
(25:17):
is a different team, but theydo have a lot of returning starters on
that football team that may not bestarting tonight. Then you look over at
Minnesota. You're seven for PJ.This is an O line rebuild. You
had a six year starter quarterback TannerMorgan that has gone. They had a
pretty good running back Tho Ibraham that'sgone. So I'm interested to see.
There's lots of questions about Minnesota.So yeah, I can't wait to watch
(25:41):
that game today. I'll be goingback and forth on that one. Then
we get into the weekend. Louisvilleat Georgia Tech. Coach, you said
last week you thought Louisville was agoing to be a huge surprise this year
because of their strength of schedule onwhat they're putting together with a new head
coach. Now they get to startoff with Georgia Tech, who traditionally hasn't
been a good football team. Samething again, another team that's changed a
(26:02):
little bit with portal and recruiting.I believe in Jeff Brown. The guy's
won. He's a winner, andhe is one of college football's best offensive
minds and play callers. And he'sgot a quarterback that knows his system and
Plumber. They are replacing a lotoffensively, but we'll see to it may
be an upgrade. I love theirschedule now Georgia Tech, if you'll remember
(26:26):
last year, they were relieved ofduties as a staff. Brent Key was
on that staff. He was elevatedat I think he's in the lum actually
to be the head coach with fourand four as an intrim The players loved
him. The administration saw enough tobelieve in him. They hired him.
But again, we'll see if theyhave enough talent and playmakers at Georgia Tech
yet. Coach Boise State plays atnumber ten Washington. Washington's offense is going
(26:48):
to be fun again this year.Yeah, I mean the last ten games
of the of the year with ninereturning on offense, this team went eight
and two Okay Boise State three thirtySaturday. I'll be watching. Led by
quarterback Taylon Green. They are theMountain West favorite UH ten and four a
(27:08):
year ago, twenty twenty two deepon the on their defense returning which is
a lot plus transfer portals. Thiscould be a team that could give people
problem, even Washington in Week oneand then between their two running backs that
combined for twenty six hundred yards andtheir quarterback last year in Green Halani and
Jante I. Look at Washington,Klin de Boor was tremendous last year with
(27:33):
what him and his staff did.UH Pennox in the offense. We gave
him ay pluses all year. Expectto see it. Other than the injury
at the running back this past coupleof weeks you don't want to see.
But transfer portal. They did agood job aiding themselves on the edge UH
and and look at their edge playerBraylan Trice, who was a super player
for him and probably will be again. He's a good player. They have
(27:56):
to improve their past defense. Onehundred and Country is not going to win
a national title. You know,I keep saying that name a football team
that's won a national title that's defensewas subpar. It ain't gonna happen.
But if they can defend, theycan be your Pack twelveth champs. There's
no doubt about it. Should befun to watch them play all season long.
(28:18):
Number twenty one North Carolina plays atSouth Carolina. Once again we're featuring
the quarterbacks. Yeah, I meanyou got We've talked about Drake May.
We know what kind of player isACC Player of the Year. The bad
news is Phil longoes catch coaching offenseand calling ball plays at Wisconsin. Now
new OC Chip Lindsay, it's niceto inherit inherit somebody that thinks is gonna
(28:38):
be a top two pick in thedraft. But the strength of this team
is at quarterback in O line.Again, the key for this team is
gene Chiswick's defense has to get better. South Carolina a new offensive coordinator,
which Spencer Ratler. Are we gonnaget? We know they finished hot?
Is that is that the offense andthe Ratler? We're gonna see the strong
(29:00):
in a secondary. We got tosee what that front seven's gonna do against
the run. This year I believein that defensive coordinator for sure. But
their schedule first six games UNC,Georgia, Mississippi State, Tennessee, and
Florida South Carolina is gonna We're gonnaknow where where they're at after the first
six ball games. Yeah, andmaybe after six Spencer Ratler again in that
pretty truck he's been doing those commercialsfor and drive the other way. You
(29:23):
don't know, We'll see how itgoes. West Virginia at number seven.
Penn State. A lot of folkslooking at this since I think is the
first big featured NBC night game thatthey're doing with the Big ten on Saturday
night. It looks good on paper. I don't know, but Penn State's
really really tough. You know.There's two kinds of coaches, those that
have been fired and those that willbe fired. Yeah, that's one reason
(29:45):
I got out after eighteen years.I never got fired, So I s
hey, I never got fired.Neil Brown's in the hot seat at West
Virginia. Yeah, And you lookup and down that schedule, you're like,
man, can they get to sevenwins? It's lots of questions,
lots of transfers. They got tobe better on defense, and they have
to be able to run the ballbetter than they did a year ago.
That's playe talk. I look atPenn State and keep wondering, is this
(30:10):
is this James year? Is thisCoach Franklin's year? Listen to some sports
talk with guys that no football orthe other day is people truly believe in
Drew Aller. I know some peoplethat have watched them practice. They say,
this kid's the real deal, whichhe was. That's why he was
recruited as highly as he was.I like Manny Diaz on defense. They're
talented. This is a night gameat Happy Valley, and maybe this tenth
(30:34):
year for coach Franklin, maybe thisis their year. The game on Sunday
night could be the best game ofthe weekend. Number five LSU plays at
number eight Florida State. Coach,you really like Florida State, and I
think you're a fan of what LSU'sputting together too. What's crazy about this
game? This game is going tosolidify a great start to a season against
a great opponent. You know,FSU went on the road and surprised LSU
(30:56):
last year, and people thought maybewe didn't get the right guy. Coach
Kelly kind to fix that. Buthere's the thing. Close game. The
Buckeyes lost the game first or secondweek of the year and won the national
title. Either of these teams canlose it. But because of their schedule,
if they run the table when thesec when the acc can still get
(31:18):
back in the picture at the end. We know that head football coach Brian
Kelly, Quarterback Jayden Daniels. Defense. I talked about Harold Perkins last week.
Maybe a best defender in the country, most talented. Sadly John Emory's
out again at running back, butthey have eight returners on offense. Is
(31:38):
this defense elite? And then Ilook at Florida State. I love what
Mike Norvelle has done. You know, last year, going into that first
game, the talk was maybe Primetimeis going to be the head coach at
Florida State. Now I'm looking atthe eighth ranked FSU, which I think
they're two point dogs. I didn'tI don't have that. You got a
quarterbacks in the Heisman talking Jordan tryUs. That's a great dual threat.
(32:00):
Quarterback edge player Jared Verse is oneof the best players in the country.
For Florida State. The riches inthe front seven improved vastly for Florida State.
They were one of the teams thatreally won in the portal, especially
in their front four. So noSunday Night must see TV. And you
(32:21):
got two blue bud bloods, twobig dogs gonna be hitting each other in
the mouth. And the reason whyyou're taking Tuesday off is because of this
game Monday Night, number nine,Clemson plays at Duke. A lot of
people think Clemson is going to beback in the CFP for the final year,
of the final four of the CFPthe way it has been, and
you don't disagree. You think Clemson'spretty good Clemson. This is a critical
(32:46):
year for Clemson because the shine iskind of gone. But here's the thing
about Clemson. They still have recruitedas well as anybody in the country.
There was a quarterback that was abackup last year at a place called TCU.
(33:07):
He ends up at the Heisman ceremonyby the name of Max Duggan.
The guy that coached him and calledball plays was a guy named Garrett Riley.
Garrett Riley's the offensive coordinator. Nowfor the Clemson Tigers, there's a
very talented quarterback by the name ofCade Clubnick. I'm wondering if we're going
to see another great year because GarrettRiley is on the fast track, and
(33:30):
if he can do for Max Duggan, if he can do the same thing
for cad Clubnick, and Clemson isgoing to play good defense that hadn't been.
The problem is if in their defensivedepth is tremendous, several players in
the top one hundred in college footballaccording to the experts. But then we
go over to Duke. Mike Elkocan coach. They're nine and four it
(33:53):
Duke in his first year. Ninereturners on offense, eight returners on defense.
They're playing at home. Do notsleep on the young man that's taken
snaps at Duke. His name's RileyLeonard, and he is one of the
best quarterbacks in the country. Performancelast year, this is a new year.
(34:14):
Hey, we're gonna get off thistopic, but go check out the
starting quarterbacks in the ACC. TheACC has a lot of high end quarterbacks,
maybe arguably as good as the PACtwelve. Wow, and we know
that the PAC twelve is probably asgood as they've ever been in the last
twenty years top to bottom. Soit's gonna be fun to watch them all
season. Coach, let's move onbefore we dig into the Buckeye game at
(34:37):
Indiana on Saturday. I want toknow who won the Day Coach JJ's Win
the Day award from the last week. Yep, I'm want through two other
games in there, keeping a watch. All go ahead, man Toledo.
You remember watching the Kwan Finn play. Oh yeah, okay, they play
at Illinois and they're only nine anda half point dogs. DC. Ryan
(35:00):
Walters is now the head coach ofProdue because if you remember, Illinois was
lights out defensively. Yes this year, absolutely, but they do return seven
starters. There are some questions there. I'm interested to see how things go
at Illinois. And the other oneis South Alabama at number twenty four two
lane. The amazing story last yearWillie Fritz going from two wins to twelve
(35:22):
wins. You got Michael Pratt backat quarterback, my nephew. But Tige
Spears is gone and he was abig time difference man. But South South
Alabama's got a good roster, sokeep an eye on the game. This
weekend. I saw pictures of thenew Green Wave facility. Holy smokes,
they have upgraded that tremendously. Ifyou get a chance to check that out,
(35:45):
just do a Google for the forthe new two lane football facilities.
There's no way I can forget thisone because I'm thinking we're NC State tonight.
Yeah, at Yukon that went toa bowl game with Jim Moore last
year. Brendan Armstrong from Alba's nowthe trigger Man. It went from Virginia
to NC State. It'll be interestingto watch that. And then how could
we miss the twelve o'clock noon Foxgame again? Like you see the car
(36:12):
wreck happening, you gotta watch.Yeah, because there's some things that came
out this week with Prime, You'relike, don't do that, don't go
there. Ten players returning from theroster that was at Colorado last year.
Listen, there's a lot of pressureon Schado or Sanders the quarterback. Prime
son a lot, and then you'vegot the opponent that's twenty and a half
(36:36):
point favorites that played in the NationalTitle Game in TCU. They lost a
lot, but Chandler Morris's back asthe quarterback. They did lose Garrett Riley,
but eight back on the defense.They didn't play very well in the
national title game. They got toget better on defense, but they do
have a lot back. It'll bean interesting game noon on Saturday. So
you got to win the day.Yeah, we want to wait, we
(36:58):
want to know who won the day? Coach, Well, I had a
change, all right, So therunner up was my win. Win the
day was the Notre Dame fan base. How they looked and played cool hand
luke out there that I'm thinking,and I got a couple of buddies that
love Notre Dame. They're loving it. But you're the runner up, but
(37:20):
you've got good things ahead. Yeah. Win of the day. Women's sports
and that Nebraska's women's volleyball and fanbase. Largest crowd to witness a women's
sport event at ninety two thousand andthree in that stadium, five time NC
double A champion, fourth rank Ladycorn Huskers defeat Omaha three nothing. Coach
(37:45):
John Cook, who used to bea football coach, said it was unbelievable.
He felt like the head football coachleading those women to that spectacular Look
again, lady coach's husband, I'ma girl, dad. That was freaking
awesome. So shout out to Nebraskaand that volleyball program. That is cool
as can be. That is fantastic. And a friend of mine commented online
(38:06):
this morning and said, hey,man, it's Nebraska. There's absolutely nothing
to do between Saturday and Saturday inthe fall. See, you might as
well go to a volleyball game andwatch the best. Okay, you're what
you say now, that was cool, good point. I appreciate that the
buck Eyes are getting ready to openthe twenty twenty three season. They are
(38:27):
at Indiana this Saturday, three thirty. The game will be on CBS.
All the TV stuff is all screwedup this year. So if you think,
oh, it's Big Ten, it'sgot to be on Fox, or
it's the SEC, it's got tobe on CBS, now it's it's all.
It's all messed up now. Sojust make sure you look before you
try to turn on your TV becausesome of them you gotta pay for it.
(38:47):
Just f y I I I lastweek's USC game. Coach. Let's
talk about what you want to seefrom the Buckeyes on Saturday in Indiana.
Well, let's start, because themost important thing is what you asked.
So let's get this out of theway. What we will see from Indiana
this is Tom tom Allen seventh season. He's coming off twenty twenty two four
(39:14):
and eight. He's coming off atwenty twenty one two and ten. His
seats so hot, he's got grillmarks on his rear end. Okay,
that is not an easy place towin, Paul. If you remember in
twenty twenty, yeah, COVID year, they were are darling on this show
a lot because they had a terrificseason. Now coach losing coach to boor
(39:37):
hurt them, But there is massiveturnover in their personnel in and out with
portal. They have ten plus thatthey've lost offensively, and then you look
defensively on returns two starters. Youlook at their too deep ten plus players
and they're twenty two too deep ondefense are transfers? Wow, So you
(40:01):
really don't know what you got,but things that things are tough that Indiana.
You know. On offense, it'skind of rare, but they have
shared coordinators between Walt Bell and AnthonyTucker. I think Walt Bell's the play
caller. Last year, if youremember, during the season, to help
with the heat, the offensive linecoach was relieved of duties in the middle
of the year and One of thegood gets for them, no doubt about
(40:23):
it, is Bob Bowstad, whowas at Wisconsin is coach in the NFL.
A long time well respected offensive linecoach is added to that staff.
The other good get that they they'rehopeful for is the transfer quarterback from Tennessee
and Tavin Jackson, who will seestart against the Buckeyes. You're gonna see
a lot of eleven and ten personnel, So you're gonna see spread, You're
(40:45):
probably gonna see tempo, You're gonnasee his own run, You're gonna see
rpo. Okay, and then youlook at defense. You've got again shared
coordinators named and Chad Wilt and MattGeier, and I think Chad Wilt is
the one that calls the defense.You're gonna see four two five, which
structurally is similar to what the Buckeyesrun. And expect pressures. Why am
(41:07):
I expecting pressures? Because the mostimportant topic for a high state football the
last two months is let's get afterthe young quarterbacks if they'll make mistakes.
So let's talk about the Buckeyes.Number one. We'll start on the offensive
side. Number one. I mean, it's the elephant in the room.
(41:30):
Ray Charles Ronnie Millsap can see thiscoming? Is calm Accordon, Devin Brown.
I mean, everybody's gonna have anopinion, and people are gonna hope
the opinion is pretty clear after thefirst game. Right. Two, this
offensive line, you got Josh Fryer, Josh Simmons playing at the tackle,
you got the new man snapping theball, making a call, and Carson
(41:52):
Hensman. Three. Third question aboutthis offense? Is Travion Henderson Travion Henderson
of twenty twenty one or is TravionHenderson the tra ViOn of twenty twenty two?
Was it bad luck? Was ita durability issue? Being Paul his
freshman year, We're thinking, whatthis guy is incredible? Absolutely, and
(42:15):
we're gonna find out tomorrow or Saturday. Okay, defense, we've already hit
on this or I can get throughquick better limiting explosion place. We're gonna
find that out. Mike Call.Second, it can Mike Call be a
disruptor that helps this whole defense asan interior defensive lineman. That is a
difference maker. Three. I can'twait to see Sunny Styles play. You
(42:39):
know, I've brought him up alot, just how he's built, how
fast he plays. His top sideceiling is incredibly high. Four cornerback and
secondary play where a lot of thesemistakes have been made. Are they going
to have a guy that can shutit down? Is Denzel Burke the guy?
And fifth, you need to seethis team not only give up less
(43:02):
plays, but see if we canincrease the takeaway number. That makes sense.
So anything else before I kind ofget into what I thinks we're gonna
see. Offensively, Nope, youkeep rolling bro all right. So offensively,
it's hard not to be an elevenpersonnel, right because you got at
least three stud receivers you want onthe field. You got a very very
(43:24):
good captain at tight end, andthat's the biggest room that's got an issue
there is the running backs because they'reabout five deep. Yeah, so,
but that's probably their best makeup isI think you can see more quick game
that means three step balls out.I think you can see more play action
naked and boot to change the launchpoint. That is complimentary to a more
(43:50):
consistent called run game. Takes pressureoff the quarterback, takes pressure off that
young offensive line, especially earlier inthe year. One thing you haven't seen
the Buckeyes do a lot of sinceJim Trestle is track gap scheme runs where
you have people blocking down, yougot people pulling and kicking out, you
got kicking out and leading. Ithelps bring up that that's the best way
(44:13):
to pick up pressures in the rungame, blocking through gaps to people,
and that may be a good fitthat carries over to better play action opportunities
for the quarterback in that game.I'm interested to see if they do that
because they have not done that muchwith the Urban Meyer and Ryan Day,
(44:34):
and it's critical for us to seethem still get the ball to the star
players that are phenomenal athletes in space. What I say with that is the
quarterback position. I think what you'regoing to see early, let's create early
success as a play caller. Obviouslyyou have things scripted, but there's things
where you can get the ball outquick without having to see coverages and protections
(44:59):
to perimeter passes where it takes pressureoff the quarterback. It's always important for
a young quarterback to have early success. Just get a completion, Yeah,
just get a completion. Okay,just get a third completion. Now,
all of a sudden, you geta rhythm there's some confidence. The newness
is worn off. Butterflies are gone. I'm playing ball like I have my
whole life. Defensively, this issimple that we're about done at the show
(45:21):
here. Bottom line, what doesJim Knowles four two five in year two
look like? Starting Saturday afternoon atIndiana. They're not going to win a
national title until they have a championshipcaliber defense, period. And I think
you're gonna see, you know,Georgia. One thing to think about Georgia,
(45:45):
it's gonna hurt Todd Munkin leaving togo to the Baltimore Ravens. I
think he's an incredible play caller.But you know, Georgia, really,
Kirby Smart was smart enough to followthe same process that next say and build
Alabama. And how did Alabama becomeAlabama up until the last few years,
which is hard enough to throw theball with Mike Jones to a to a
(46:07):
bright I mean they had two starsgetting back to hanging on physical football,
running the football, playing with somebigger personnel with tight ends, and winning
with defense. And you know who'sdone that the last two years. Georgia,
you got it. And I wouldlove for Buckeye fans to be able
(46:30):
to see more of that because it'sa toughness factor that matters in a game
like Michigan. Yeah, it's justa personality. Hang your hat. We're
gonna out tough you. We're gonnamake you quit. We're gonna hurt you
physically because we're gonna just keep bodyblow after body blow. Same thing with
(46:52):
the defense. This has to bea championship caliber defense like the team that's
won the last two and Alabama wasgreat on defense, Clemson was great on
defense, George has been great ondefense. When the Buckeyes can play defense
at that level, I think Columbuscould celebrate a national title this year.
That's fun stuff. I mean,Twemo Oil's gotta have a season. Sawyer's
(47:12):
gotta have a season. I agree, Mike Hall's got to have a season.
Man, Tommy Eikenberger's gotta have aseason. I mean, just look
at the power just in those fourguys on the front, you know,
I mean, you've got a lotgoing on, and then you look at
Proctor and Burke and it's just there'sa lot of things happening that are positives
on that defense. They just gottago out and do it. Well,
(47:36):
it is year two, so we'vewe've had We've had an off season,
a season, another offseason, andwe're getting ready to start the season.
Yeah, so obviously familiarity with thatdefense is going to be improved and for
the coaches, for the assistant coachesas well, they can coach it better.
Look, we're sitting here doing ashow. I'm not coaching at Ohio
State, but I do know enoughis when you got cats that can play,
(48:04):
sometimes too much strategy and calls andbeing more exotic can be a mistake
because if your guys are better thantheir guys, what happens is is when
you make airs with calls. That'swhen you see those explosion plays. They
don't have to do a lot.If these guys are going to come and
play physical football, they can doless and be really good. Coach,
(48:28):
we gotta get out of here becauseyou got to stop and make sure you
get enough to stock your fridge forthe next five days and make sure that
the lights on for whatever deliveries comingto the house. You know, for
five days of college football. Andthere's a good game not only every day,
but almost in every times time slotbetween now and Monday night. So
(48:52):
enjoy that, have fun, enjoyyour day off Tuesday, resting and compiling
your notes for a third friend.Yeah, I mean it's really looking for
a weekend. It is going tobe. I had a buddy of mine
today that's out this year hit footballcoach, and obviously he's missing it,
and he said, Aj, it'sweek one, So college football lovers soak
(49:14):
it in. Great job Nebraska fansand volleyball program. Again, that was
awesome, and thank you. Paul'salways leading and putting together. I hope
what people think is a pretty goodOH Show. Thank you so much,
sir. That is coach AJ Pratt. He is the brains behind this operation.
And if you're finding us for thefirst time, hit follow right there
(49:34):
on that app so you can getthe OH Show on iHeartRadio every single week.
We spell it the O eight Show, and we'll be back again next
week. Enjoy it, share it, let your friends know how awesome this
show is.
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