The Buckeyes vs. The Badgers!

Former Ohio State DL Matt Finkes previews The Buckeyes' match up with a struggling Wisconsin team

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Another interesting dude. I'm a Legacy Retirement Group dot com
phone line. It's Matt Finkers fromer Ohio State defensive lineman
and owner and operator of Behind the oh. It's a
really cool app. We'll talk about that in a moment.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Matt.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
How are you this morning, sir?

Speaker 2 (00:14):
I'm doing good. Guys. How about you?

Speaker 1 (00:15):
I appreciate the time. We're doing great. You played with
Luke Fickle back in the nineties for the Buck Guys.
Have you texted him this week and see how his
team's preparing?

Speaker 2 (00:26):
No, I have not. Yeah, I haven't talked to Luke
for a little while, but yeah, played with Luke. Actually
was my roommate in college, and you know, he's having
a rough go this year up at Wisconsin, and that's
just sometimes how college football goes.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
Yeah, it is. We were before you came out. I
don't know if you were listening at all, Matt. We
were trying to figure out if you ever played against
Ron Dane. I think you missed. I think you missed
Ron by one game in ninety six, if I'm not mistaken.
I think he got in in game five against the
Northwestern and you guys played Wisconsin here at the shoe

(01:05):
in game four and of course beat them. So am
I correct in that you never faced Ron daye.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
Uh man, you would probably know better than I was.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
I have the Internet in front of you. You don't,
you're trying your goal by memory.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
Yeah, yeah, you would probably know better than me.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
Yeah, you missed them by a game if my research
is correct. But I mean that the Wisconsin running backs
aren't the Wisconsin running backs of you know, days past, though.

Speaker 2 (01:32):
Are they? Yeah? I mean it's it's you know, they're
they're going through just a bit of turmoil right now.
I mean, and the college football landscape has changed so
much that you know, the struggle of building an identity
and what you want your team to be and you know,
and and coaches being able to build around things that
has just has changed, you know. I mean, so you

(01:55):
see these teams and the game has changed so much too, right,
I mean, it's not the same. I mean you can
even see it in a little bit with Army and Navy,
you know, I mean, they're they're they've gone away from
you know, the the triple option things and they're doing
different stuff. So but yeah, I mean, right now, it's
they're they're kind of struggling, they're looking for an identity.

(02:17):
I mean, I've never seen a scheme with a with
a more unlucky stretch of starting quarterbacks in the past
three years. And Wisconsinent, I mean, they bring they bring
a guy in and I feel like he doesn't make
it a game or two and then you know he's
hurt and out for the season. So you know, there's
obviously they're struggling to score points. They're just they're you know,

(02:37):
they're struggling to kind of get anything done right now.
But I will say, like, you know, no matter what
the situation, I went up to a game last year.
I went to the Oregon was Wisconsin game last year,
a game that I think Oregon was favored by like
twenty eight or twenty nine points, and it was a
tie game going into the fourth quarter. I think Oregon
end up pulling that out by three points. So it's

(02:58):
a tough place to plays. Is always going to be
a tough place to play. They're gonna play really hard
at home. They're gonna be tough, they're gonna be disciplined,
They're going to you know, do the special teams and
do the little things right. And I mean you know,
teams that the Blue coaches are always going to do
those things, and it's just you know, they they don't
have the horses to run with an Ohio State right now, Matt.

Speaker 3 (03:17):
For the last few years, Ohio State has been you know,
more or less running back university. I mean, you know,
it's just an endless display of talent this year. You
know a little bit of questions, you know, is it
are they struggling? Are they waiting for them to explode?
Do you see that happening on Saturday? Because I know
Wisconsin's got a really good rush defense. I mean they're
only giving up like three yards of carry, but is

(03:39):
there Do you think this is going to develop into
a really dominant run game.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
You know, I think that it's going to be a
sufficient run game. I think that you know, you you
go with you know what what the what the what
the defense gives you at this point. And you know,
you've seen that defenses play a lot of soft cover two,
you know, not not trying to give up the big

(04:04):
play like they're trying to keep Jeremiah Smith and Carnell
Tait in front of them. They're playing you know, kind
of heavy in the box trying to stop the run,
and Ohio States had had a very conservative game plan
offensively for the first half of the season. You know,
we haven't seen a ton of you know, just you know,
explosive plays out of them. And sometimes that's just the
way it is. Sometimes that's what teams are going to

(04:26):
give you. I mean you you kind of have seen
that switch in the NFL now as well, where teams
are gonna sit when you when you look at teams
that have explosive wide receivers. I think you saw it
last night in that NFL game. You know, the way
the Steelers played against the Bengals with when you've got
a Jamar chasing the T Higgins, you know they're gonna
sit and they're gonna make you drive down the field.
And that's what teams are trying to do right now.

(04:46):
With the Buckeyes, I think the offensive line has been
very much improved. It's tough when you probably don't have
two first round running backs you had field like we
had last year. Uh, you know, not to say Bo
Jackson isn't really and Donaldson isn't really good and people
aren't good players, but I mean you had guys in
there with Quinn John Judson and Trayvon Henderson who had

(05:11):
a you know, they were three four year guys and
had a ton of experience and we're grown men and
really you know, had explosive you know, had had years
under the strength program and developed top end speed and
all those different things. So it's just a different dynamic
in the backfield right now. But I think they've been
very effective. You know, I'd like to see him a
little bit more effective in the red zone, but other

(05:32):
than that, I think our run game has been very solid.

Speaker 1 (05:34):
And it hasn't really mattered. Just to continue that same
line of discussion, Matt finkis our guest, former Ohio State
defensive lineman, it hasn't mattered. I mean, if you had
to point to a weakness on the Buckeyes team and
it's it's kind of difficult to do that right now.
It is the running game. But it doesn't matter with
Julian saying and it just he is incredibly efficient, He's

(05:54):
he's incredibly talented. He's got the guys to get the
ball to, So you don't need the running game right
now to be is what it used to be as
far as last year.

Speaker 2 (06:04):
Yeah, I mean I don't think that you're you know,
it's not showing up. But I mean to your point,
like you've got to really look to call the running
game deficiency at this point because it's not. I don't
think you can label it a deficiency as have been
as the flowsive as last year. No, but I mean
it's it's not like we're averaging two yards of carry.
So again, I think the offensive line has improved over

(06:26):
last year of kind of the way that those guys
play together. You know, you've seen them in the protection
scheme and it's been really really, really really efficient for him.
So I mean, yeah, I think that you know, when
you've got all the firepower and the weapons and you've
got a Julian saying back there, who you know, really
is kind of like a Will Howard was his accuracy,

(06:46):
Like he can sit back there and he's if you're
going to sit and cover two, he's going to pick
you apart. That's and that's just what he's going to do.

Speaker 1 (06:53):
It's a good comparison. Matt Veks, Formeral House State defensive lineman.
Do you think Kurt Signetti at Indiana laughed himself to
sleep last night? Matt?

Speaker 2 (07:02):
I think he had a really good night. If I
was Kirk, I would have opened a really nice bottle
of wine and had a nice dinner with my wife,
been really happy. We were talking about that last night
with a couple of guys. I was talking with Zach Bourne. Actually,
I mean, and everybody's like, man, you know, you think
the pressures. I'm like, no, Indiana, Like Kirk Signette can
go nine and three at Indiana and they are going

(07:24):
to be happy as clams with his eleven million dollars.
That's not a pressure situation. I mean, people were talking,
you know, about him for the Penn State job, you know,
I mean coaching college football. I mean, if you can
get into a situation like that where you know you're
not expecting I mean, let's be honest, like he's not
expected to win the national championship every year. That's that's

(07:46):
not on Ohio State or even a Penn State expectations
type of job. And if you can get that kind
of money to coach that kind of job, and that's
just a gold mine.

Speaker 1 (07:54):
And it seems like the Buck guys are on a
collision course with Indiana if everything holds at this point,
and we'll see them in early December in the Big
Ten Championship game.

Speaker 2 (08:04):
Yeah, I mean they look really solid. Obviously a very
impressive win at Oregon. You know, their offense looks explosive,
quarterback improvement over last year. You know, they've got a
lot of veterans on that team that have been you know,
playing well. I mean not at Indiana, but you know
that whole James Madison transfer team that came in. They're
still there in their senior year. So there's a it's

(08:25):
a very experienced team and they're playing with confidence now,
you know. I mean it's not just kind of them
trying to be the upstarts anymore. You know, they made
the playoffs last year. They expect to win now. You know,
it's not a surprise for them to win. They expect
to win now. So I mean that's a different mentality
for them. So you know, you know, if that happens
in December, that's going to be a great game. And

(08:45):
I think you get two very kind of diametric teams
with the explosive offense there and the Highest States defense,
and what they've been able to show and do and
and and again O High States offense is no slouts,
and I don't even think we've seen half of the
potential yet of that offense.

Speaker 1 (09:01):
Matt, before we let you fly talk about behind the Oh,
it's an app that you helped create. What's it all about?

Speaker 2 (09:06):
Yeah, I mean it's a great opportunity to get a
little bit of behind the scenes look at a lot
of our student athletes. And it's not just football, it's
not just basketball, but it's all sports. I mean, you know,
you get soccer, gymnastics, lacrosse, wrestling, kind of across the
board and and just kind of gives you a peek
into what these athletes are going through in their daily lives.

(09:27):
I mean you'll see uh, you know, the golfers out
there doing you know, some extra work on the on
the practice range. You'll see our men's and women's volleyball
players in their in their shoot arounds and you know,
and and open gyms that they do before practices, and
also like just kind of what they eat, what they
do in their daily lives. So I mean, it's not
what they do on the court and what you see
on ESPN and and ABC six and all and you

(09:50):
know all the all the major networks, but it gives
you to look at kind of what they do in
their everyday lives and behind the scenes, and it's nil
opportunity for them as well, so we're able to kick
them a little bit of money and to be our
content creators and influencers, and it gives us fans a
nice sort of look into what they have to do.
And it's free for fans. All you got to do
is download and scroll and it produces nil for our athlete.