August 29, 2025 • 10 mins
BCSN'S Mark Kunz joined Todd Walker to preview the huge Ohio State/Texas game.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Time out and talk Buck Guys with Mark Coons and
of course Ohio State Texas number one Texas the number
two or three Ohio State, depending on the poll you
look at. No matter how you rank them, it's the
biggest matchup of Week one, maybe the biggest matchup of
the regular season in a lot of ways, and Mark
(00:21):
Coons is here to talk buck guys with us. Let's
start with the quarterback battle, Julian saying, Lincoln Keenholtz it
was supposedly nip and tuck and saying, when's the job?
What are you saying to us about Julian saying, Well,
you know, a lot of.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
The talk in this preseason has been about how Julian
saying is perhaps more of a classic dropback quarterback and
Lincoln keenholds more of a dual threat, athletic type quarterback.
But there's been a little bit pushback on that from
the coaches this past week about, you know, Julian Sand's
pretty athletic as well. Ryan Day talked earlier this week
about who he's very quick in the pocket and he
(01:00):
can run if they need him to, and compared him
a little bit to CJ. Stroud, who was athletic, but
didn't run a whole lot and outside of maybe that
last game against George because they didn't need him to.
And so maybe that's what we're going to see out
of Julian Saying. Certainly he's got all the intangibles that
they like, the leadership he has shown throughout campy, he's
taking control of the huddle, and he's going to be
(01:22):
the guy going forward and highly touted coming out of
high school a couple of years ago. And you know
who'd have thought the ripple effect of Nick Saban retiring
because when Nick Saban retired, that's when both Caleb Downs
and Julian Saying left Alabama to come to Ohio State.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Hey, you just never know what can affect the makeup
of your team. And now Ohio State was a new
quarterback and not just new like last year with Will
Howard who hadn't played for the buck Geys, but new
as in hasn't played period. Lincoln Keen Olts would have
been basically the same thing. How much concern is there
about a guy who's never played a game starting with
(01:59):
this big of a game.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Yeah, that's out there. I mean saying, did get into
a couple of games last year, threw a touchdown pass
against Western Michigan. He appeared in three or four games,
all in blowout duty because he was the third string
behind Devin Brown and of course Will Howard last year.
So yeah, you know you're throwing him right into the
fire against the top ranked team in the country. I
suppose that the good news is you're at home, so
(02:24):
you're not starting him on the road, so that will
help a little bit. But you know, Ryan Day throughout
this process has been asking what's the expectation for Julian
saying in Week one he said, win the game. That's
all he has to do. Win the game, whatever way
it's possible. We have to win the game. Whether we
win this game by one point seventeen to sixteen, or
we win this game sixty four to sixty three. We
(02:45):
just got to win this game by one point. So
I think and Ryan Day's drawing on his own experience
as well. Back you know, twenty five thirty years ago,
and Ryan Day was a young starting quarterback in New Hampshire.
He talked about how he expected to start that first
game and throw a three hundred and three yards and
five touchdown. He goes, you can't have those expectations. The
expectation is simply to win the game, and we're gonna
(03:06):
put Julian Sane in the best position to help us
win this game on Saturday.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
With that said, Mark, how much different does this offense look?
Do you think with Julian saying now at quarterback with
that inexperience, and of course they lost to both the
running backs were very high level, does this become a
different looking offense or I guess take me through how
you see that play out.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
You still have number four, you still have Jeremiah Smith,
perhaps the best football player in all of college football.
I think the offense is going to look very similar
to what we saw last year. It starts up front.
You've got an experienced cores in your offensive line with
Luke Montgomery, Carson Hinzman, and Tiger Shabola. You've got Austin
Sarahveld who's going to be starting at left tackle. He
(03:54):
has really come on strong this past offseason. Still not
one hundred serve about what's going to happen at tackle,
but I think the offensive line, because of that strength
of that corps, because of last year's playoff run, you're
going to have a little bit of a comfort zone
there because you're going to have some time for your
quarterback and you're going to have a line that has
proven it can open up holes. Granted, the running back situation,
(04:15):
you got two new running backs, actually three new running backs,
so as Ryan Day did say, we're going to probably
see all three of the running backs, James people, c J. Donaldson,
the transfer from West Virginia, and true freshman Bojacks And
what a great name Bojackson for Ohio State. He's really
come on strong as well. Carlos Locksley has kind of
pushed back a little bit about, oh yeah, we're not
going to split reps like we did last year with
(04:37):
the guys we had. We might even go six deep.
We go how deep we are a running back this year,
according to Carlos Lockley, the running backs head assistant coach,
So you got a different look at running back. I
think it's still going to be just as effective. I
think what they did last year worked so well, pairing
off the two of them so they didn't get to
necessarily mileage. But then, like I said, going back, you
(04:57):
have Jeremiah Without granted, Texas that have fan tastic job
of getting keeping Jeremiah Smith out of the game in
the Cotton Bowl. Really didn't have a lot of them.
You know, they're bracketing him at times. Times three guys
were on Jeremiah Smith and Ohio s they found other
ways to beat Texas. Colonel Tate had a big game
in the Cotton Bowl. They went to tight ends quite
a bit. The tight end room this year is quite
(05:18):
deep as well. You remember they bringing the kid from Purdue,
Max Claire, and you got Jelanie Thurman, You've got Christiansen,
you got cash. America got hurt last year, So the
tight ends are going to be a strong group for
Ohio State as well. I think ofventually there Will Hard
was a tremendous game manager, made fantastic decisions. You don't
need Julian Saying to be a C. J. Shroud or
(05:40):
a justin Field. You need him to just manage what
you've got. You've got so much good talent around him.
I think offensively they're going to be fine.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
We're talking Buck Eyes and Mark Coons. Let's go to
the other side of the ball of Ohio State. Maybe
we haven't focused as much on that in the preseason,
but there were some losses there as well. Obviously, Caleb
Downs's back sunny styles the captain. Is this defense capable
of being as good as it was last year?
Speaker 2 (06:10):
The question at defensive starts up front. Because you no
longer have Jack Sawyer, you no longer have JT. Tuumow,
you lose the entire starting front defensive line. And they
didn't rotate as much last year on the defensive line
because those guys were so good. So you've got a
junior class that is really chomping at the bit ready
(06:32):
to prove what they can do, a little bit of
a scare in preseason Edric Houston, defensive tackle. They're extracting
big things out of him. Had an injury early on.
He has been back, he's been working. They believe he's
gonna be ready to go for Texas. If he's one
hundred percent, who knows, but he's going to be out
there Saturday, well, Saturday morning, Saturday noon. We'll get a
(06:53):
warm up for the game, obviously, But that's a question
that's a concern just because you haven't seen what these
younger defensive lineman's been able to do the last couple
of years. I think it's going to be okay. There
but that's going to be And keep in mind Texas
is this offensive line is kind of young as well,
so that's going to be an interesting matchup. You've got
two question marks going head to head on Saturday. But
(07:14):
the back seven for Ohio States so strong this year. Obviously,
Caleb Downs an impressive young man. He's going to anchor that.
They're gonna put him in a couple different positions. Sometimes
we be playing nickel, Someonime's been playing safety. They love
bringing him up closer to the line of scrimge because
he's such an effective tackler. And then Sunny Styles the
captain in so many ways for the Ohio State team.
(07:35):
He's wearing the bloco this year. He has earned it
from what he has done. And Harvel Reeves has come
on strong. Peyton Pierce is going to see the field
sometimes when they go to the three linebacker set, and
he might even be subbing in for both Rees and
Styles as well. So I think the linebackers are going
to be strong. The secondary is going to be good.
It's just that defensive line is where you got the
question mark, simply because we haven't seen what Kenyatta Jackson
(07:58):
and those guys Kate McDonald and those guys what they're
capable of doing.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Mark, let's flipping around to talk about Texas. Of course
they have a first time starting quarterback as well, Arch Manning,
who comes in with the most hype of quarterback at
a long time. What's your read on this Texas team?
Where is the I guess the matchup best for Ohio
State unit or what side of the ball.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Well, certainly Arch Manning, grandson of Archie Manning, nephew of
Elion Payton. He had a couple of starts last year
and Quinn Eewers got hurt, so we've got a little
more film on arch We understand he's a strong quarterback. Mobile,
not necessarily mobile, but he's good on his feet. He's
not going to run necessarily, but he's a strong quarterback,
very accurate, has what you want out of a prototypical
(08:43):
Manning quarterback. He's not going to make mistakes. I think
Ohio State with Matt Patricia, first year defensive coordinator, it'll
be interesting to see what he does differently than what
they did in the Conon Bowl. There's a lot of
different changes on personnel coaching standpoint from player personnel on
both teams. So I'm not sure how much we can
(09:04):
take out of that Cotton Bowl matchup to the great
matchup where Ohio State set the tone early and then
some penalties really helped Texas stay in that game. And
then obviously Jack Star come with a big play late
in the fourth quarter to steal the victory for Ohio State.
If that young defensive line can get some pressure on
arch Manning, I think that's all the difference. And one
thing Ryan Day talked about this week as well, he
(09:26):
wants the crowd in that game. He talked about how
last year the Indiana game, how they made Indiana go
away from the head, to go away from the clap,
go to the silent count because it was so loud
and that really disrupted Indiana. Really loved to Ohio State
defense to put pressure on the Hoosier. So Ryan Day
asking the Ohio State fans to become a major part
of this game on Saturday, Well.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
I don't know. I've been told if the games at
noon the fans are not a factor, Mark, we can't
have any more new games, don't you know.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Well, there's a lot of things that are said that
aren't exactly true or know isn't there.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Well, we know what is true. Mark Kuon's the tried
and true prediction. Mark, How's it gonna go?
Speaker 2 (10:08):
I think we're looking at another classic in the Horseshoe.
I mean it seems like every time we'll have stateon
Texas get together, it's a close game. I think it's
gonna be another close one. I think the Buckeyes pull
this game out. Twenty eight, twenty seven,
Time out and talk Buck Guys with Mark Coons and
of course Ohio State Texas number one Texas the number
two or three Ohio State, depending on the poll you
look at. No matter how you rank them, it's the
biggest matchup of Week one, maybe the biggest matchup of
the regular season in a lot of ways, and Mark
(00:21):
Coons is here to talk buck guys with us. Let's
start with the quarterback battle, Julian saying, Lincoln Keenholtz it
was supposedly nip and tuck and saying, when's the job?
What are you saying to us about Julian saying, Well,
you know, a lot of.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
The talk in this preseason has been about how Julian
saying is perhaps more of a classic dropback quarterback and
Lincoln keenholds more of a dual threat, athletic type quarterback.
But there's been a little bit pushback on that from
the coaches this past week about, you know, Julian Sand's
pretty athletic as well. Ryan Day talked earlier this week
about who he's very quick in the pocket and he
(01:00):
can run if they need him to, and compared him
a little bit to CJ. Stroud, who was athletic, but
didn't run a whole lot and outside of maybe that
last game against George because they didn't need him to.
And so maybe that's what we're going to see out
of Julian Saying. Certainly he's got all the intangibles that
they like, the leadership he has shown throughout campy, he's
taking control of the huddle, and he's going to be
(01:22):
the guy going forward and highly touted coming out of
high school a couple of years ago. And you know
who'd have thought the ripple effect of Nick Saban retiring
because when Nick Saban retired, that's when both Caleb Downs
and Julian Saying left Alabama to come to Ohio State.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Hey, you just never know what can affect the makeup
of your team. And now Ohio State was a new
quarterback and not just new like last year with Will
Howard who hadn't played for the buck Geys, but new
as in hasn't played period. Lincoln Keen Olts would have
been basically the same thing. How much concern is there
about a guy who's never played a game starting with
(01:59):
this big of a game.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Yeah, that's out there. I mean saying, did get into
a couple of games last year, threw a touchdown pass
against Western Michigan. He appeared in three or four games,
all in blowout duty because he was the third string
behind Devin Brown and of course Will Howard last year.
So yeah, you know you're throwing him right into the
fire against the top ranked team in the country. I
suppose that the good news is you're at home, so
(02:24):
you're not starting him on the road, so that will
help a little bit. But you know, Ryan Day throughout
this process has been asking what's the expectation for Julian
saying in Week one he said, win the game. That's
all he has to do. Win the game, whatever way
it's possible. We have to win the game. Whether we
win this game by one point seventeen to sixteen, or
we win this game sixty four to sixty three. We
(02:45):
just got to win this game by one point. So
I think and Ryan Day's drawing on his own experience
as well. Back you know, twenty five thirty years ago,
and Ryan Day was a young starting quarterback in New Hampshire.
He talked about how he expected to start that first
game and throw a three hundred and three yards and
five touchdown. He goes, you can't have those expectations. The
expectation is simply to win the game, and we're gonna
(03:06):
put Julian Sane in the best position to help us
win this game on Saturday.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
With that said, Mark, how much different does this offense look?
Do you think with Julian saying now at quarterback with
that inexperience, and of course they lost to both the
running backs were very high level, does this become a
different looking offense or I guess take me through how
you see that play out.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
You still have number four, you still have Jeremiah Smith,
perhaps the best football player in all of college football.
I think the offense is going to look very similar
to what we saw last year. It starts up front.
You've got an experienced cores in your offensive line with
Luke Montgomery, Carson Hinzman, and Tiger Shabola. You've got Austin
Sarahveld who's going to be starting at left tackle. He
(03:54):
has really come on strong this past offseason. Still not
one hundred serve about what's going to happen at tackle,
but I think the offensive line, because of that strength
of that corps, because of last year's playoff run, you're
going to have a little bit of a comfort zone
there because you're going to have some time for your
quarterback and you're going to have a line that has
proven it can open up holes. Granted, the running back situation,
(04:15):
you got two new running backs, actually three new running backs,
so as Ryan Day did say, we're going to probably
see all three of the running backs, James people, c J. Donaldson,
the transfer from West Virginia, and true freshman Bojacks And
what a great name Bojackson for Ohio State. He's really
come on strong as well. Carlos Locksley has kind of
pushed back a little bit about, oh yeah, we're not
going to split reps like we did last year with
(04:37):
the guys we had. We might even go six deep.
We go how deep we are a running back this year,
according to Carlos Lockley, the running backs head assistant coach,
So you got a different look at running back. I
think it's still going to be just as effective. I
think what they did last year worked so well, pairing
off the two of them so they didn't get to
necessarily mileage. But then, like I said, going back, you
(04:57):
have Jeremiah Without granted, Texas that have fan tastic job
of getting keeping Jeremiah Smith out of the game in
the Cotton Bowl. Really didn't have a lot of them.
You know, they're bracketing him at times. Times three guys
were on Jeremiah Smith and Ohio s they found other
ways to beat Texas. Colonel Tate had a big game
in the Cotton Bowl. They went to tight ends quite
a bit. The tight end room this year is quite
(05:18):
deep as well. You remember they bringing the kid from Purdue,
Max Claire, and you got Jelanie Thurman, You've got Christiansen,
you got cash. America got hurt last year, So the
tight ends are going to be a strong group for
Ohio State as well. I think ofventually there Will Hard
was a tremendous game manager, made fantastic decisions. You don't
need Julian Saying to be a C. J. Shroud or
(05:40):
a justin Field. You need him to just manage what
you've got. You've got so much good talent around him.
I think offensively they're going to be fine.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
We're talking Buck Eyes and Mark Coons. Let's go to
the other side of the ball of Ohio State. Maybe
we haven't focused as much on that in the preseason,
but there were some losses there as well. Obviously, Caleb
Downs's back sunny styles the captain. Is this defense capable
of being as good as it was last year?
Speaker 2 (06:10):
The question at defensive starts up front. Because you no
longer have Jack Sawyer, you no longer have JT. Tuumow,
you lose the entire starting front defensive line. And they
didn't rotate as much last year on the defensive line
because those guys were so good. So you've got a
junior class that is really chomping at the bit ready
(06:32):
to prove what they can do, a little bit of
a scare in preseason Edric Houston, defensive tackle. They're extracting
big things out of him. Had an injury early on.
He has been back, he's been working. They believe he's
gonna be ready to go for Texas. If he's one
hundred percent, who knows, but he's going to be out
there Saturday, well, Saturday morning, Saturday noon. We'll get a
(06:53):
warm up for the game, obviously, But that's a question
that's a concern just because you haven't seen what these
younger defensive lineman's been able to do the last couple
of years. I think it's going to be okay. There
but that's going to be And keep in mind Texas
is this offensive line is kind of young as well,
so that's going to be an interesting matchup. You've got
two question marks going head to head on Saturday. But
(07:14):
the back seven for Ohio States so strong this year. Obviously,
Caleb Downs an impressive young man. He's going to anchor that.
They're gonna put him in a couple different positions. Sometimes
we be playing nickel, Someonime's been playing safety. They love
bringing him up closer to the line of scrimge because
he's such an effective tackler. And then Sunny Styles the
captain in so many ways for the Ohio State team.
(07:35):
He's wearing the bloco this year. He has earned it
from what he has done. And Harvel Reeves has come
on strong. Peyton Pierce is going to see the field
sometimes when they go to the three linebacker set, and
he might even be subbing in for both Rees and
Styles as well. So I think the linebackers are going
to be strong. The secondary is going to be good.
It's just that defensive line is where you got the
question mark, simply because we haven't seen what Kenyatta Jackson
(07:58):
and those guys Kate McDonald and those guys what they're
capable of doing.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Mark, let's flipping around to talk about Texas. Of course
they have a first time starting quarterback as well, Arch Manning,
who comes in with the most hype of quarterback at
a long time. What's your read on this Texas team?
Where is the I guess the matchup best for Ohio
State unit or what side of the ball.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Well, certainly Arch Manning, grandson of Archie Manning, nephew of
Elion Payton. He had a couple of starts last year
and Quinn Eewers got hurt, so we've got a little
more film on arch We understand he's a strong quarterback. Mobile,
not necessarily mobile, but he's good on his feet. He's
not going to run necessarily, but he's a strong quarterback,
very accurate, has what you want out of a prototypical
(08:43):
Manning quarterback. He's not going to make mistakes. I think
Ohio State with Matt Patricia, first year defensive coordinator, it'll
be interesting to see what he does differently than what
they did in the Conon Bowl. There's a lot of
different changes on personnel coaching standpoint from player personnel on
both teams. So I'm not sure how much we can
(09:04):
take out of that Cotton Bowl matchup to the great
matchup where Ohio State set the tone early and then
some penalties really helped Texas stay in that game. And
then obviously Jack Star come with a big play late
in the fourth quarter to steal the victory for Ohio State.
If that young defensive line can get some pressure on
arch Manning, I think that's all the difference. And one
thing Ryan Day talked about this week as well, he
(09:26):
wants the crowd in that game. He talked about how
last year the Indiana game, how they made Indiana go
away from the head, to go away from the clap,
go to the silent count because it was so loud
and that really disrupted Indiana. Really loved to Ohio State
defense to put pressure on the Hoosier. So Ryan Day
asking the Ohio State fans to become a major part
of this game on Saturday, Well.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
I don't know. I've been told if the games at
noon the fans are not a factor, Mark, we can't
have any more new games, don't you know.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Well, there's a lot of things that are said that
aren't exactly true or know isn't there.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Well, we know what is true. Mark Kuon's the tried
and true prediction. Mark, How's it gonna go?
Speaker 2 (10:08):
I think we're looking at another classic in the Horseshoe.
I mean it seems like every time we'll have stateon
Texas get together, it's a close game. I think it's
gonna be another close one. I think the Buckeyes pull
this game out. Twenty eight, twenty seven,
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