The Buckeyes head to the White House!

Steve Helwagen of 24/7 Sports is in DC to celebrate the Buckeyes' 2024 National Championship. Plus, Steve breaks down the Spring Game from Saturday, and how some of the young talent performed

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's jump over to the Legacy Retirement Group dot com
phone line at eight forty and go live to Washington, DC.
That's where we find our buddy from twenty four to
seven Sports, Steve hell Wagon traveling with the buck Eyes.
On your way to the White House today? What are
you wearing? Do you got your your best coat and
tie on today?

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Yes? And you know, I was sitting there last night
trying to pull out the clothes, and I have a
lot of blue dress shirts, and I just politely said
to my wife, I said, I can't wear blue. I mean,
you know. So we found this is kind of neat
a Tommy Hill figure like off red with a gray suit,
and so that's what I'm wearing, a gray suit and

(00:39):
kind of an off red shirt. Perfect. I'm not meeting
because everyone there is going to be wearing a white shirt.
Probably I'll be sticking out like a sore thumb. But
I just didn't. I just don't. I don't have these
type of clothes. I'm not don't. I don't dress like
this every day.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
None of us. I gotta wear a tie. Yeah, you're
going to the White House, Oh okay, I guess I'll
I mean.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
A blue shirt one hundred percent of the time is
usually good.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
Sure, I don't today. I don't blame you. I think
you're making the right choice. Steve Hellwagon twenty four to
seven Sports. So what's the schedule today to go to
the White House with the team?

Speaker 2 (01:13):
Well, the team is going to fly out a charter
fight and they're going to arrive I think at the
Dulles Airport around ten and then they're going to bust
down to the Lincoln Memorial at ten thirty, hang out
down there and get some pictures and sight seeing and
that type of thing. Then they're going to go to
a law firm here in Washington, D C. For a

(01:33):
lunch reception. Then they'll get to go over to the
White House around one or one thirty for a tour
and just kind of cool out over there for a
little bit. And at three o'clock is the ceremony. I'm
not sure if anybody will be carrying it live, but
three pm with President Trumpet. It was supposed to be outside,

(01:53):
but the weather today is kind of spotty with chance
of rain, so I think they've moved it into the
East Room of the White House. I've been there twice
before in two thousand and three in twenty fifteen with
those national championship teams. So my third trip on this detail.
So I know the drill probably better than the Trump
people know it. But you know, we'll see how it goes.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
Well, you're an old hat man, You've probably got preferred
access to the White House by now. This is your
third visit with the black eyes. That's pretty cool, man.
It probably does not get old it is.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
It is really neat. And one of the things is
they staged us in the briefing room, you know where
the press secretary then you see that on TV. In
that room is about the size of your closet. It
is not really big, and so we sit in there
sometimes or we have the last two trips waiting on
the event to happen. But yeah, it should be a
lot of fun today and then the team will be

(02:47):
flying back to Columbus a little bit later this afternoon,
and I'll be up to us to post all the
pictures in the videos. I'm sure we'll get to talk
to coach today and a couple of the players after
the ceremony is over. And yeah, just a great way
to recognize a championship team that went on and you know,

(03:08):
we say it historic playoff run. It's going to be
a long time till somebody does what they did last
December and January.

Speaker 1 (03:15):
No doubt. It's going to be a great day of
fun day for you. Steve covering the Buckeyes in Washington,
DC at the White House, Steve hell Wagon twenty four
to seven sports fun day, but long day. Enjoy it.
And I mean you're on a whirlwind, man, You're at
the spring game on Saturday at the Shoe. We're a
little surprised forty thousand people, I did, you know, I
didn't think it was going to be quite as you know,

(03:37):
big as last year, but forty thousand seemed a little
low to me.

Speaker 2 (03:41):
Yeah, I joked that I've never had been to the
spring game in January before. You know, with this weather
that we've had where it's like twenty thirty degrees in
the morning, I mean, it's it's you know, I can
understand where people didn't think the weather was going to
be good, although it did get up to about fifty
or so, you know, in the afternoon. But they originally
weren't called it a game. They were basically saying to

(04:01):
be a practice with some scrimmage situations in there, and
I think that's what held the crowd down that you know,
a lot of people didn't buy tickets, and it is
strange they've had as many as ninety thousand people in there,
and this believed to be the smallest crowd they've had
in twenty years back to two thousand and five. So
it is weird coming off a national championship. But you know,

(04:24):
there's probably still some fatigue with how long the season
went and how many games and all that that, you know,
people can't believe it's time for football already and probably
still trying to throw out from that Tennessee game. My goodness,
that was a cold one.

Speaker 1 (04:39):
For sure, no doubt, no doubt, Steve, it was all
the action, was what really matters and not what was
going on in the stands, and looked like, by all accounts,
a pretty good day by Julian saying, yeah.

Speaker 2 (04:50):
I thought the quarterbacks all did pretty well eventually, I think,
saying what was remarkable was he came out of the
gate firing and he let his team down the field
I think eighty two yards, sixty five and sixty five
three touchdown drives the first three times he was on
the field and he was very efficient. He ended up
seventeen of twenty four passing, which is not bad, no interceptions.

(05:13):
He was sacked three times, which got to perhaps do
a little bit better job with that and awareness in
the pocket. But you got to like the way he
threw the football and he came out. I'm not going
to say he's going to be the starter exactly, but
he's obviously got the inside track to this. Lincoln Keynolts,
who played pretty well the week before. He kind of

(05:34):
sputtered at the beginning, but then he got hot in
the second half and did pretty well. And the local
guy David in Saint Clair from Bell Fountain, true freshmen,
through two interceptions among his first four or five passes,
but then he settled down and he got a touchdown
pass to another freshman, Philip Bell on the last play
of the scrimmage. To kind of go away with a
better feeling about how it all went down. But great race.

(05:57):
Go into the fall camp and see.

Speaker 1 (05:59):
What happens in What are your thoughts on the height
of Julian saying there's I think that was asked of
Ryan Day, noting that he is I mean, I say
only six foot one, But as a quarterback, you like
somebody who's six three, six four six five. You can
see over some of the you know, these giant, massive linemen.
And Ryan Day addressed the fact that Julian Saying is

(06:21):
shorter than several of the past Ohio State quarterbacks.

Speaker 2 (06:25):
Yeah, it's interesting. Last year you took a picture of
the three quarterbacks, Will Howard, Devin Brown, and Julian Saying,
and the other two towered over. Julian saying, ticks one
is about as least tall. I don't know how to
say this, not sure right, sure, you'd want to want
to have a quarterback be in this day and age

(06:46):
because of the defensive linemen are six five sixty six.
They get their hands up and one of his passes
was batted down there the other day, and they don't
want that obviously, So I mean that could lead to
a tip pass interception or you know, kill a drive
with a bad completion. So he said, he's got to
have his arm angle up his shoulder. His elbow has

(07:07):
to be above his shoulder when he throws the football.
So that's what they're really drilling in with Julian Saying.
There have been shorter quarterbacks who've done well. Baker Mayfield
obviously has latched onto some success in the NFL. Was
a great college player. So there have been some guys
over the years. Ohio State hasn't had many of them, though,
most of them in that six two to six four range.

Speaker 1 (07:27):
Running Back CJ. Donaldson from the transfer from West Virginia
seems like he's going to be the guy.

Speaker 2 (07:34):
Yeah. I mean you had James Peeples coming back as
a sophomore and he only had two carries. They kind
of sent him to the bench. I think he's kind
of the odds on favorite to be the starter. But CJ.
Donaldson coming in from West Virginia has two thousand yards
in his career at West Virginia, the most experienced of
all these players. He looked really good. He kind of

(07:55):
had that Quinn Shawn Judkins look to him about running
guys over and then both and a freshman from Cleveland,
Bill Angela. Saint Joseph was there as well, and he
played really well as well. He's very physical back. So
those three and Sean Williams Dixon who played his last
year picked North there you know, red shirt last year

(08:15):
with the Buckeyes went into the transfer portal and decided
to come back, and he was pretty good. Caught a
touchdown pass out of the backfield on Saturday. They got
four pretty good ones, Mike, and I think that's that's
going to go a long way because you need several
of those guys throughout the season, no doubt.

Speaker 1 (08:30):
And then before we wrap up, a couple other playmakers
everybody knows Jeremiah Smith obviously, Carnell Tait, and about Milon
Graham made a couple of great catches, four receptions I
think over one hundred yards and a kind of a
bomb fifty one yard touchdown.

Speaker 2 (08:44):
Yeah. What was neat about Milon and Graham is he was,
you know, not radied to tie as Jeremiah Smith in
last year's class, but you know, in the same range,
high four star recruit, very well liked national top sixty
player out of Fort Wayne, Indiana, and he came in
and got into the rotation. He redshirted, so he's got
four years to play yet, and he has been dying

(09:06):
for this opportunity to jump into the top three of
the top four with Kate Ennis and Smith. And I
think you got four real good ones there. So Milon Graham,
he's a stud and he'll be out there this fall,
no doubt.

Speaker 1 (09:19):
Thirty seconds Steve Helliwag in twenty four to seven Sports
Spring game not necessarily designed for defense, and there's a
lot of a lot of new faces on that side
of the ball. It seems like at this stage Matt
Patricia has got his work cut out for him.

Speaker 2 (09:32):
Yeah, you only have three returning starters with you know,
Caleb Downs Davis and Higmanosen and Sunny Styles. You know,
those three are household names, but everybody else has no name,
you know, So they're coming in to still those spots. Yesterday,
or rather Saturday, they were very vanilla with what they
were doing defensively, didn't show the offense a lot of

(09:52):
exotic looks and blitzes and stunts and coverages. So I
kept it simple on Saturday. But they're to be fine.
I think once they get through preseason camps start big
with Texas that's a big one the first game, but
I think the defense by the end of the season
will be pretty good.