BONUS: BH Primetime - Breaking Down the Washington Win and What it Means Moving Forward

Tony Gerdeman joins Juck on Buckeye Huddle Primetime to recap the Washington win and what it means for the Buckeyes moving forward.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, it's Juck. We are not bemoaning the noon kickoff.
We are now owning it. It's a badge of honor.
We're the lunatic fringe that defines our coach's legacy when
it comes to this game. They don't get to define
that outside the family who were cut from a different cloth.
Bro Hiowans, He's got it all, man, He's even got
the jaw. You know the jaw. You see that jaw
and you're just like, yeah, man, that's a dude. Do
I want Michigan to beat Oklahoma? No way in hell.

(00:23):
I don't know what world I'm living in. This is
insane to me. And if you saw my outburst, I apologize.
It's showtime now, it is showtime. Thank you so much
for joining us here at Buckeye Huddle prime Time. We
appreciate you for coming in every Monday and Wednesday at
eight pm. We are here live, Emily, thank you so much.

(00:46):
A new member in Dead Air Sports has a proposed
name change, Goat Talk with Chuck and Tony. Thank you,
Thank you so much. I can't include myself in that,
but Tony definitely is and he will be here with
us as every Monday. So far this season, it's been
a victory Monday, of course, as the Buckeyes now four
and zero, sitting at number one in the country, the

(01:08):
number one odds to win the national championship in the country,
and to me, a very different feeling Buckeye team than
we had last year at this time, and it should
feel different. Obviously, you've got a new offensive coordinator, you've
got a new defensive coordinator, and we expected the defense, well,
some of us expected the defense to look very similar

(01:30):
to last year's defense. I didn't. I thought it looked
quite a bit different. About the middle of the middle
of the spring, when we started seeing how everybody was
reacting to Patricia, I thought we were going to see
him really catch on with everybody and start to introduce
some new things, and the way they were going to
be received was going to be very well because of
the relationship, and we would see quite a few differences.

(01:52):
I didn't expect this. This looks so much different than
it did last year. It's so much more exciting, it's
so much more fun. But we also have a new
offensive coordinator and the offense, right from a game plan perspective,
looking not so much fun, much more conservative. Are we
gonna see this conservative game plan continue, right, because we've

(02:15):
seen it in the first two games. Now, this ultra conservative,
run the ball a lot game plan, I'm wondering if
that is something that's going to be coming back up
every time we play a big game. It's a suffocating defense,
no doubt, a suffocating defense. In many teams with a
suffocating defense rely on that and just play offense and

(02:38):
score a little bit and rely on that defense. I
feel like the Buckeyes can do both, and I'd sure
love to see it. But Ryan Day has evolved as
a coach. He's in his seventh year. This is a
guy who said something the other day that just kind
of took me back, like it was not something I
would have ever imagined him saying, like, you know, we
don't need to score on every possession, like normally that

(03:00):
has always been like we're gonna score, we're gonna score,
We're gonna score. He's like, when you got a defense
like that, you don't need to and it just Man,
he's just evolving, right, It's a different coach and that happens.
That happens right now. I think he's running the best
program in college football most people would disagree with me.
Most people would say Georgia. I think it's definitely a

(03:22):
conversation between Georgia and Ohio State. Georgia doesn't look good.
Georgia twenty twenty five does not look too good. They
just lost to Alabama again. They don't have a sack
on the year. This isn't a defense that's a normal
Georgia defense like we remember in their dominant runs and
their national championship season at twenty one and twenty two.

(03:43):
What does Ohio State have to do now that they've
won the national championship in twenty four what do they
gotta do in twenty twenty five to kind of take
over that title? For more people to swing my way
that Ohio State is in fact the current top program
in all of college football. Do they have to win
a national championship? I think they can just get to
the national championship. Get to the national championship, and they

(04:05):
take over the mantle. I got a couple more questions,
and I want to ask them with Tony here. Is
there another option for Ohio State on the defensive line
next to Caiden McDonald, one that we have not seen
next to Cad McDonald Obviously, Edrick Houston has lost his
starting spot for the time being. He did not start

(04:26):
against Scrambling, he didn't start against Ohio, he didn't start
against Washington. Time alone's been in there starting and the
plays against Washington, I think he had eleven snaps obviously,
had the big penalty, didn't play good. Is there another option?
I think there might be, And I'm curious to get
Tony's thoughts on this, as Tony Gerdaman from Buckeyehuddle will

(04:48):
join us here on Buckeyehuddle Primetime where he belongs. But
we're going to discuss that recap quite a bit of
Tony's experience from the big game, as obviously him and
Tom went out to the game, bringing you the best
coverage on the internet over at Buckeheeddle dot com. And
I want to know what Tony has to think about
that game, and specifically versus Oregon as well. Right he

(05:12):
went to Oregon, he went to Washington. These two are arrivals.
I would love to know from a Buckeyes perspective, with
no dog in the fight, who did it better. But
I'd appreciate it all if you guys could like the
show today and if we could subscribe to the channel,
that'd be great. We hit our goal of thirty thousand,
but we're trying to get to thirty four thousand by
the end of the year. I don't know if that's

(05:32):
the stated goal. I just made that up, but we
would really appreciate it if you could do that for us.
But let's bring on our buddy, my buddy, your buddy,
Tony Gerdaman to join us and get his recap of
the of the fantastic trip out to Washington that resulted
in a big Buckeyees victory in a four and oh start.
Tony Gertaman, Welcome to Buckeyhudle Primetime.

Speaker 2 (05:54):
Buddy Jack, thank you for having me. It's been a
while since I go on. You've kept me a and
even before you texted me today, I was going to
text you like, hey, can I come on?

Speaker 1 (06:05):
And you made me feel good by me not having
to do that. So thank you fantastic Tony. Well, I'm
glad that you're excited to be here because I want
to know all about your trip. I want to know
about the fans because I was surprised they didn't show
us much on TV of the stands but the few
times they did flash, there was a lot more scarlet
in those stands than I was expecting. That is a

(06:26):
long trip. Obviously Ohio State folks are everywhere, but my gosh,
it looked to me from the TV. I can't trust
the photos. I'm seeing dueling photos come out on Twitter.
Some people are saying they're altered. I don't know. But overall,
what did you think of the Ohio State fan presence?

Speaker 2 (06:44):
It was impressive and we got an idea that it
would be on Friday when we went out to launch
to meet a couple of friends at a brewery type
place done in the market area, and every twenty minutes
somebody would yell out, oh and the entire place for
yelle Io. And there's also there are also Mariners fans
there because there was a Mariners fan the Mariners game

(07:07):
getting ready that night. But Ohio State took it over
and it was it was You could see it a
bunch of scarlett obviously walking around that whole area. I
don't know if it's normally that busy on a Friday afternoon.
I assume it's it's not, because his place was packed
and the whole area was packed and then you're watching

(07:27):
it and I'm taking pictures with my phone on Saturday,
as it looked like fifty to fifty in terms of
people coming into the stadium, you know, but Washington fans
know how late to wait to get into the stadium.

Speaker 1 (07:40):
So but the student section was off.

Speaker 2 (07:43):
To the west, and that was you know, already getting
filled within that first hour. But it just looked like
fifty to fifty coming in for a long period of time.
It wasn't fifty to fifty in the stands. I didn't
even get a chance to ask him may before he
told me, I think it was about fifteen thousand, Like, well,
I was thinking ten, So say ten to fifteen thousand

(08:03):
in seventy thousand is yeah, seventy And it still feels
kind of low based on you saw the pockets, and
you saw Ohio State fans everywhere, and as I was
told by the OSU folks, the Ohio State tickets were
up in the nosebleeds. So anything outside of the nose bleeds,
that's all secondary market where o High State fans coming in,

(08:24):
and they were everywhere, and they were paying good money
to see this game, and they were heard.

Speaker 1 (08:30):
Yeah, yeah, you could hear them through the telecast. So
comparing that last year to the Oregon game and comparing
those two venues too, that you know, I've always heard
all my life how great those two venues are. They're
obviously rivals. The stadiums. Both have a bit of the
benefit of construction for the noise, and that's for sure,

(08:51):
but they do love to brag about it despite that
massive architectural benefit. But when we talk about those two experiences,
and obviously or it turned tonight during the game, so
maybe a little bit of an added bonus there.

Speaker 2 (09:04):
How do you compare those two venues, Well, it's it's
venues and surrounding area and people. Both were great. In
terms of the noise, there's I've never been anywhere like
Oregon where it was just constant noise. Now, that game
was also fantastic, and Oregon was in it the entire time.

(09:26):
This game was a little bit different, and there were
more Ohio State fans here than there were in Eugene.

Speaker 1 (09:32):
But this was also loud.

Speaker 2 (09:33):
But you saw which team was having issues with the noise,
and it wasn't Ohio State. It was the Washington offensive
line that was having the issues with the fall starts
and things like that, but I don't I don't know
that anything will ever top a the Oregon game. Now,
the other thing to keep in mind is Oregon and
Washington have open press boxes. That means they most press

(09:54):
boxes you go to will have windows, and sometimes open windows.
Sometimes it won't. By the time you get to the
middle of October, they're not going to open them up anymore.
So these are all just you know, they roll up
the garage door windows and you're out in the open,
and so it's always going to sound louder when you're
to somebody up in a press box. So I've not
necessarily experienced any kind of open air press box at

(10:16):
Penn State for a white out. I've been to several
wideouts and they're very loud. But man, the Oregon thing,
I just keep telling people, it's just constant noise and
there's always something going on. And as you know, and
we've talked about this, I think Ohio State took a
lot of what they saw at Oregon that whole game
day atmosphere and wanted to implement that in Ohio stateum,

(10:37):
and that's why you're seeing some of the things that
they've done.

Speaker 1 (10:40):
And I think it's helped. I think it's helped. Now
the Ohio game, a MAC team comes in. It was
a night game. Curious to see how this Minnesota game
is going to review though I did just see the
line drop. It's over twenty one and a half points.
Minnesota not doing their job to give us a good
case study here. Also saw that you tweeted her PJ

(11:00):
Fleck talking about Jeremiah Smith and wow, number one, what
a suit he had on with the button down here
to the bound down the chest. But but man, I
don't know that I've ever heard a coach so complementarily
complimentary and succinct about a player in college football. That
was That was pretty cool to see. But I want
to talk. Uh sorry, I WASNA.

Speaker 2 (11:21):
You've got to go back to like the past, like
number one draft pick Aliens, where coaches are just like,
you know, what are you supposed to do?

Speaker 1 (11:28):
We're just human, they are no exactly exactly Big ten play.
That was the start of it, right and to me,
the location of this game, the build up of it all.
It was two weeks, we had a bye week. Obviously,
we talked a ton about this game. I've loved Big
ten expansion I think the benefits of it far outweigh

(11:51):
of the drawbacks. I think it's added so much more
excitement to the regular season. It's kind of like night
and day. If we can just go back to twenty
twenty three and think of our thoughts coming into that season.
We got another three game season, We got Notre Dame,
we got Penn State in the game, and whoever wins
that round robin between Iowa State, Michigan and Penn State.
And now we look at this conference. It is just

(12:12):
a totally different league, so much more exciting. I'm not
used to it yet. That game, to me felt like
part of the out of conference and now I feel
like it's time for Big ten play. Still trying to
wrap my head around it. Did it? Did it? Is
it feeling more normal to do yet?

Speaker 2 (12:26):
Are you excited for the Big Ten opener against Minnesota?
Is that what you're saying it?

Speaker 1 (12:32):
To me?

Speaker 2 (12:32):
It does feel like Big ten football because these people
were serious but also serious about the tailgating, and it
was a twelve thirty kick. I didn't hear anybody complaining
about having to do this. Now they haven't had to
do it eight weeks in a row or whatever. So
you know, come talk to me in a few weeks
when they've had to just continue to do the same
thing over and over again. But I think the fact

(12:53):
that you have most of these schools that have all
of these schools frankly that have been out West, I've
been playing Big ten teams forever, so there's a familiarity
to it, whether it's the National championship games, whether it's
you know, the Rose Bowl, or just random games here
or there. So there's familiarity. And Big ten fans know

(13:14):
the Pac twelve teams, especially the ones that came over,
and so when you go out to Oregon, you go
out to Washington, it feels like Big ten football, and
it's it's quality football. So I never felt like like
it's not like when you go to Maryland or Rutgers
and you have to tell yourself, this is Big ten football,
and this is like it's it's almost I don't let's

(13:38):
say it's a punishment. It's a long drive. We're drivers,
and and I'm not gonna hear I'm not here to complain.
I could complain about my day at the airport and
I'm playes yesterday. But that's part of the thing. And
it's coast to coast now, but the West coast feels
more big ten to me than Maryland and Rutgers. And
maybe that would be different if they were better, right.

Speaker 1 (14:01):
That could help too, if they had a little more
energy going on, if they were better. I wanted to
pull this up because I actually heard this as well.
TK says the Washington people were saying they don't like
night games. They love this twelve thirty kickoff. This is
what I heard too. Did you hear any of that
when you were out there, like this is their thing?

Speaker 2 (14:19):
No, I didn't, but we didn't really talk to if
we didn't get a chance to talk to too many
Washington folks. But doesn't surprise me when the rest of
the world is living the rest of the country lives
kind of on East Coast to some degree that out
west you start your day earlier anyway, because we're kind
of operating on East Coast time in some semblance, in

(14:40):
some ways for everybody, And so it doesn't surprise me.
But for something like this, you're not going to get
a night game anyway, so you're not even necessarily thinking
about it. So it's going to be a day game
one way or the other. But at least now you
get the game over with, you can get back out
on the water.

Speaker 1 (14:56):
I guess yeah. So, like I said, we had two
weeks to break this thing down and obviously a formidable opponent.
Washington was Mike tune changed on this game in the
way I was thinking about this game last Tuesday listening
to Ryan Day, and it just struck me the way
he was talking as so familiar to the way he

(15:19):
was talking, for instance, about the Oregon game, or the
way he talks about what he would refer to it
as a matchup game. The emphasis that he was putting
on it, like the no stone left unturned, the game plan,
the preparation, the focus, the attention, the way all the
players are going to be absolutely ready, And with a
team that has some talent on the come up for sure,
and a couple really really good players like Washington, still

(15:42):
nowhere near the caliber of twenty twenty three Oregon, and
despite Demon Williams and Jonah Coleman and Denzel Boston, I
don't know how many of their starting twenty two outside
of those three could potentially start on this Ohio State roster.
And when we look at regular season Ohio State upsets. Generally,
the element of overlooking the opponent is involved in there.

(16:04):
Obviously Day has been fantastic with this his entire career,
but it just certainly felt like it was not gonna
happen this week. Did you get the same feeling from
him that he was approaching this kind of like a
matchup game or like he did Oregon?

Speaker 2 (16:20):
Well, I don't know if I heard you say it
or saw you write it, Reggie write it that Ryan
Day was treating this like a matchup game, but it's
not a matchup game, and so that means Washington's in trouble.
And I agreed with that, because, yeah, when when you
watch Washington on offense, you see three guys and Jonah Colebman,
Denzel Boston and Demond Williams. When you watch the defense,

(16:43):
I mean, you know they have six four quarters because
that's rare, and then that's you know, they had a
linebacker who was hurt, and so nobody really just jumps out.
Because when we do these matchup games, you know, Tom
and I'll go on and I'm sure you get the
same way. You go watch their games and you see
who stands out, so you start to get a feel
for it. And I don't know that I wrote any
of the defensive linemen down, you know, other than maybe

(17:03):
a defensive end, Like there's there's not a lot going
on there. So if nobody's jumping out at you, like
I remember watching Tennessee and corners and defensive ends were
jumping out and you're like, okay, this guy, you know,
make sure good and bad they were jumping out out
here against the Washington State, some bad happen and you
see that. You're like, boy, that secondary shore looks like

(17:24):
a concern. And did they take advantage of it? We
can discuss that, yeah as well, But yeah, they just
didn't have enough. You were when we talked about this
time and I were talking about it probably like a
preview show. What Washington was going to need was to
steal a possession, which they did. You get the crowd,

(17:45):
have the crowd in there, have that cause issues, which
I don't think it did, and you know, you're gonna
need some luck, and they didn't really get any luck.
They stole a possession, but they had really not much
luck in that game.

Speaker 1 (17:57):
That's for sure. The first half. I want to say,
like I jogged my brain as much as I can.
You're a big stats guy. I mean, you always got great,
great stats, and you're, you know, excellent with the research
of those stats. I'm not I'm really sloppy with it.
But I couldn't recall in my memory a three offensive

(18:20):
possession first half. Obviously there was a contributing factor with
the punt return that got fumbled, but I was live
streaming the game and it was I want to say,
four minutes left and we were getting the ball, and
it was like, guys, is this the third possession? I
must have missed something. I'm trying to take notes but

(18:42):
also talk to the chat. Surely I missed something. I
didn't miss anything. That has to be some kind of record.
Can you recall it well?

Speaker 2 (18:51):
And I wanted to ask Grande about that afterwards, and
Julian saying, didn't get a chance to. But yeah, I'd
never remember anything like that. In twenty seventeen against Army,
they had four. Twenty twenty one against Minnesota they had four.
And that twenty twenty one Minnesota game was also that
game went two hours and fifty five minutes, just like
this one. That's the shortest, the quickest game of you know,

(19:13):
in years and it's crazy, even though they had five
against Texas and one was a kneel down, so they
only had truly truly four possessions in that one in
the first half. But when you go back to to
the twenty eighteen season to tell you how much the
game has changed with the clock rules and now Ryan
Day wanting to slow play things, for sixteen games they

(19:36):
had so they had seven possessions in the entire game.
Right in this game, that's what they averaged in the
first half back in twenty eighteen. Seven possessions.

Speaker 1 (19:45):
That just blows my mind. Man.

Speaker 2 (19:47):
So you're you're talking like I'm just looking here they
had in twenty eighteen in the first half. They had one, two, three, four, five, six, seven,
like nine games where they had at least seven possessions
in the first in twenty eighteen. And yes, they were
moving quickly and the first down rules were different, but
the game has changed, and you know, Ryan Day is

(20:08):
slowing things down and making every play more important. But
if you're going to do that, you can't have the
twenty twenty one defense. You've got to have the twenty
twenty four defense of twenty twenty five defense.

Speaker 1 (20:18):
We assume without a doubt, without a doubt, How did
you feel at that point, down three to nothing, with
them taking the ball back at that point, the way
things had gone, how were your feeling? What was your vibe?
Was just like, this is nothing like I expected.

Speaker 2 (20:34):
Well, I think one of my tweets was I would
throw on first down, I would throw on second down,
I would throw on third down, because it just seemed
like they were very, very conservative. But also when you
look at it, they went down the field, didn't pick
up the fourth down, they drove another you know, they
had a touchdown drive and they had one drive that failed.
So it's like two of their three drives were successful

(20:56):
in moving the ball. And eventually, as long as you're
moving it actually going to score, that's the thought. And
how many points do you need to score in this one?
Probably not a lot the way the defense is playing.
To me, it just felt like they just needed the ball,
needed throw it a little bit more things would open up,
and I think that's what happened.

Speaker 1 (21:13):
What happened.

Speaker 2 (21:13):
And one last thing on the possessions, because I remember
talking to Ryan Day about this in twenty twenty three,
when the first down rules went into effect, they had
nine possessions. Nine possessions against Indiana, and that was like
he was flipping out.

Speaker 1 (21:29):
He was flipping out, and I asked about it. It's like,
you know, what are you gonna do? I don't know.

Speaker 2 (21:33):
We're gonna have to figure out, you know what, We're
gonna have to evaluate how we're doing things if we're
only gonna have nine possessions. And now it's like nine
is maybe your average? I recalled right when you brought
that up. I remember he was mad about it. So, yeah,
like you're coming into a really hostile environment. First road
start for Julian. First two possessions run pass ratio eleven runs,

(21:56):
four passes, zero points. But like you said, that first possession,
they were moving the ball on the ground.

Speaker 1 (22:03):
CJ. Donaldson had like an eleven yarder and a twelve yarder.
Lanes were opening up humongous, and I was thinking at
that point, like, Wow, we're gonna run the ball over
these guys. He said, or you said it in an
article on bucke huddle dot com today, if death by
a thousand cuts still leads to a winning performance, is
it really necessary for an offense to be more explosive?
If you're asking Ohio State head coach Ryan Day. The

(22:25):
answer is an emphatic yes, which is music to my ears,
because I hate the way that felt. I hate the
conservative approach. I understand it, especially in the situation to
start off that way, but it felt a whole out
like Texas, which I didn't mind one bit. I was
totally on board with that. For Texas, it was a
one off, it was his first start, it was a

(22:46):
really tough opponent where it was a matchup game all
across the board. This was not that though. It was
a tough environment. Julian say has been pretty unflappable. But
possession three and four, you get to the middle eight,
three and then four. In in that section of the game,
we saw fifteen passes to eight runs, which yielded two touchdowns.

(23:08):
Leaning on the strength of this offense, that isn't looking
like the run game right now. Tone, do you see,
if you're looking forward, a change in the way they're
kind of calling this or do you think these are
just kind of one offs and we're gonna see more
of a balanced approach like we would have thought. You know,
they're gonna tell you that. It just it's also opponent

(23:30):
based and Washington. They played a lot of man so
maybe they were looking to take more shots, but then
they would drop back and try to eliminate those. But
you know, and seeing our ex's nose, guy Ross Folton
over at Buckehudell saying there are four or five shots
that Julian could have taken that he didn't. He said that.
I think that's what he said.

Speaker 2 (23:50):
He saw like four or five opportunities, and you can
see what there was a couple where you like, he
you know, would kind of just drop the shoulder and
get ready and it's like it wasn't there. So I
don't have the all twenty two like he does, so
I don't know which ones you know where it was,
but you know right now still, yeah, he's still young.
He doesn't want to make mistakes, and so you're gonna
have to battle that. Also understand recognize quicker that that's

(24:15):
that's a throw that you can make into like the
safety's not going to get there, that sort of thing.
And the longer you wait, easier it is for him
to get there. So maybe the recognition sooner that sort
of thing. So when we talked to Ryan Day on Tuesday,
that'll be something to ask him about because gosh, how
long was the deep ball problem last year in terms
of it being a topic of conversation, not because they

(24:35):
weren't throwing it much, but you know, they weren't throwing
it a ton, but also it wasn't very effective. Yeah,
they're not necessarily throwing it at all, other than you know,
like you can count the one you know on your
on your one hand, basically some of the deep shots.
But like as you said, he was, you know whatever,
he was fourteen to fifteen or whatever at some point
in those two you know, by taking what the defense

(24:58):
was giving him, and it was the short stuff. As
they're bailing it. Fine, we'll take eight yards, we'll take
eleven yards, and we'll just continue chopping up move down
the field. But as r they said, they need to
get better at explosives, and that's not just the passing game,
that's also the running game. They had no plays over
twenty yards, which is you want to talk about how

(25:18):
rare is that. There's some research for you go find
the last time they didn't have a twenty yard play
in a game, Because I think that happens, I don't
think it happens very often.

Speaker 1 (25:28):
Right, right. I was so you brought you brought that
up about the deep shots and what ross it said.
I was checking out not too long before we before
we came on, the college football nerds were tweeting about
Julian saying and being suspect of his deep ball, and
they said that the nine for nine stat that came
from PFF was incorrect as far as targets down twenty

(25:52):
yards downfield. I've been repeating that all week. And they
promptly pulled up the clip of that beautiful dime that
he dropped a Brandon, and it's over his show at Texas.
The Brandon drop which was twenty five yards downfield. Okay, okay,
that wasn't a completion, but it was right on the money.
And then they were trying to take shots at his
deep balls as having too much air. Now, that is

(26:13):
how Ryan Day is instructing him to throw that ball,
and he's talked about that philosophically and why it is
that he wants it like that with these special receivers.
It is he thinks it's a higher percentage to get
some a positive result, whether that be a PI or
a reception throwing the deep ball like that. But I
think that he throws a really nice deep ball. What

(26:35):
are your opinions on his deep ball?

Speaker 2 (26:37):
Well, first off, that throw to Brandon Innis that was
negated by a defensive penalty anyway, so didn't happen there
we go, Okay, it's not an incompletion. It says the
no play with a fifteen yard gain or whatever, but
I haven't, you know. The one issue was like, boy,
that that first throw to Carnal Tate. You had to
wait for it and you know, catch it twice and
it was still a touchdown. And others it's like, well

(26:59):
did Jeremiah Smith have to slow down one step? It's
like you're, as you said, Ryan Day is telling them,
telling him to let your receiver have a chance to
get it. Now, there are times where you could be like,
just try to outthrow Jeremiah Smith because I bet you can't,
you know. And there's there's that approach as well, like
the broken play, the broken coverage. He just you know,

(27:20):
zipped it out there on the line. But other than that, yeah,
go give your NFL receivers an opportunity to catch it.
Like if it's like when you know you need a
putt to win at least get it to the hole.
And this is at least give your receivers an opportunity
to catch the ball. So, you know, if if we're
all going to be we're all going to be super
critical of everything, and there's always guys that we can

(27:42):
look at and just.

Speaker 1 (27:44):
Micro analyze and write.

Speaker 2 (27:46):
Your freshman quarterback and four starts completing seventy nine percent
of his passes and you know, his three interceptions are
all like you know, tipped passes are just being greedy
against Grambling State, Like it's I have no issues with
how he's playing right now. Does he need to get better? No,
He's a perfect specimen of a quarterback. Like, yeah, certainly

(28:09):
be more aggressive downfield. I wanted I wanted to see
them throw the ball more against Washington. I felt like
this could have been a game where they had four
hundred yards passing, so right, but that was if.

Speaker 1 (28:20):
Right. I thought Walton would be scoring a lot and
that it would be necessary to keep it rolling like that,
and it would be a game with eleven offensive possessions potentially,
like I really, we'll get into the defense in a bit,
but I thought Washington was gonna be able to do
some damage and I was already mentally like I'm okay
with it because I was taken hang with it. But
as far as Julian goes, all things considered, this was

(28:43):
a fantastic game. I thought, you know, the first game
that he actually got some pressure and he made no
bad decisions. We even saw the potential of a bad
decision the play that he lined it to Carnel Taite
and he made the tiptoe catch like he was looking
right at for he was gonna throw, and he pulled
it back in rolled the other way and he hit Carnell.

(29:05):
I didn't think there was any way and I don't
know if this was just the way the game felt
to me, that he was gonna end up with hitting
his average of eighty percent and he was right there
like seventy nine points something, and that sixteen yard scramble
almost picking up that first down was tremendous. And we
have seen him now in fifty percent of his games

(29:26):
incredibly high pressure situations, won at home, won away. The
guy just looks unflappable, ice in his veins, and this
game tone, he looked like he was having fun. I
don't know if you saw it yet on the TV
copy but he was smiling and laughing early in the game,
like he was having fun. I think he's getting more
settled in and I'm super super pleased with him.

Speaker 2 (29:48):
Yeah, I don't know if you remember this, if you're
old enough to remember this around this time, a little
bit earlier than this, back in twenty twenty one, when CJ.
Stroud was a red shirt freshman starting quarterback, people fans
were already called for his job and wanting Kyle accord
in there because he was young and making some mistakes
or his receivers weren't doing what they needed.

Speaker 1 (30:07):
So he got the blame for it.

Speaker 2 (30:09):
And I'm not seeing any of that with Julian saying
like there's no everybody loves him, which is just about
as crazy as it can get for a college football
starting quarterback when you know you have thrown three interceptions
this season and yet you know people like have you?
Is there anybody clamoring for Lincoln Keenholds at this point

(30:29):
or TV in Saint Clair like I think people are.
Is this the happiest to High State fans I've ever
been with the quarterback? After four games? You know, a
new quarterback? I mean to Justin Fields was you know,
did very well as well, but like and there was
nobody behind him to clamor four.

Speaker 1 (30:44):
But like everybody's the.

Speaker 2 (30:47):
Only people who aren't happy with Julian saying maybe college
wall there's but they're also to just tell you, like,
we're only looking at data here.

Speaker 1 (30:54):
This is not an emotional thing. This is just data.
No that that it really is an excellent point. I
hadn't even thought about it. But yeah, normally this time
of the year, this is you know, early on, we
see a couple of struggles and it's immediately like, did
they make the wrong decision? Let's see that guy in particular,
when you're talking about a guy that is a favorite,
right everybody loves Lincoln and then a five star hometown

(31:15):
boy that everybody can't wait to see in the future,
like this would be the time, and people doubt Julian
because of his size, Like it all lines up for
that to be like a huge talking point right now,
and nothing not a word. So yeah, everybody's happy, it seems.
Demon Williams on the other end, when Washington started off

(31:36):
with the ball to start the game, I thought it
was a really important series. That was the strength on
strength matchup. The strength to both teams, and we talked
about it all week. How would the Buckeye's defense handle
this dynamic offense. In my thought, Demon would have a
serious adjustment running the ball because he's not used to
this caliber of athlete. He's not used to in RBL

(31:57):
Reese closing a gap like that. And we kind of
saw a similar thing with I'm not comparing these athletes,
but with Parker Navarro when Arvel closed the gap on
him so fast, like he just wasn't expecting it. There's
a getting used to you gotta have there when you're
not used to play facing guys like that. I thought
he'd get settled in and right off the rip. When

(32:18):
we saw how the defensive line was playing him, it
just looked like this is gonna work. They're gonna be
able to contain this guy. Kate McDonald just stacking his
man out in front of him, and they couldn't block
him one on one. They kept trying. I don't know why,
but right there, I thought it was a really important
possession because I was prepared to be pulling my hair
out with this guy picking up third down third downs

(32:41):
with his legs maybe ripping off a twenty five or
a thirty yard or here or there. I thought there'd
probably be several shutting him down in the run game.
I didn't think was on the table at all. I
just wanted to slow him down. And the fact that
if you'd have told me before, like he's gonna have negative,
negative rushing yards on the day, I just said, you're crazy,
and we win by far. That to me, one of

(33:02):
the more impressive things we'll see all year is the
fact that that guy did not have a rushing yard.

Speaker 2 (33:07):
Yeah, held one hundred and one yards below a season average,
which is pretty good if he can do that. And
when you watched his earlier games, he would kind of
struggle against the the inside blitz and right stuff right
in his face. He you know, he has an issue
with because he's, you know, fortunately fortunate to be about
five ten or so, and it's just a lot to

(33:29):
ask of him. But then you watch the way the
buck Geys handled him and I and I'm writing about it.
I'll eventually get it done, Jack, I haven't done anything today.
It's just been vegging after getting back from the West coast.
But trip man, it is. But one of the defensive
linemen said, yeah, and we're just we're just caging, and
then Coach j said he'll come to us, and that's

(33:50):
what happened. Like, you know, if as long as you're
just you're waiting and the coverage on some of these,
like this is one of those games where it may
not seem that exciting to go and re watch rewatch
the defense every single snap, because you're gonna see something
every single time, whether it's one of the few best
busted coverages that makes you angry. I promise you there
are more plays where everybody is locked up and Demond

(34:12):
Williams is just like, what the hell do I do now?
And it's like, well, I guess I could try to run,
and you know, you see him bust out of the
gate and arval Reice not only like tracks him down
but makes him makes it demand Williams trying to cut
back because he knows he can't beat him to the corner.
It's like, yeah, that's insane when you talk about, yeah,

(34:32):
he can't against a sixty pound guy. And I think
there's even one where the Davis Niguinosen kind of spying
like he was there was no cornerback on his side,
so he was a step on towards the line, and
he was the guy that came in and cleaned up
on the Caden McDonald get back here sack on third
down or whatever or fourth down. It was really impressive

(34:55):
to watch. And I know we just talked about this
is a three man offensive team, but that was an
eleven man d defense and they locked every bit of
it up.

Speaker 1 (35:03):
It was so fun. It was so fun to watch offensively,
the offensive line that first possession you had, Man, they
were blowing lanes wide open. Didn't end up staying like that.
The running game I thought was gonna be a little
bit better at that point, and as a whole, the
backs averaged a little less than four point five yards
of carry, somewhat leaky pass protection at times, which surprised me.

(35:28):
Though this defensive line with four man pressure, I guess
did have really good stats, but it's hard for me
to factor in how much that means playing Colorado State,
Wazoo and an FCS, but they did a pretty good
job on the Buckey's offensive line. We did have dual
offensive player of the game, two offensive linemen, and Luke

(35:48):
and Carson Hinsman, which surprised me. But again I haven't
rewatched it yet king in on those offensive linemen, Tegra
had another bad s He's always seems to have like
two or three bad plays in series, so it really
stands out. Phil Daniels had the penalties. What are your
thoughts about the offensive line, the performance in the game
against Washington and then maybe now four games into the

(36:11):
year as a whole, I feel maybe, like I thought
I would be feeling a little better about them at
this point.

Speaker 2 (36:19):
Well, I think you probably need to realize Philip Daniels
is going to get some sort of a fifteen yard
penalty every three games, whether it's a personal foul or
hands to the you know, the hands of the face,
which is a personal foul, but you know, something of
that nature. But then he needs to get out of it,
like he can't let that compound. And but overall, you know,

(36:41):
I think the left side is doing very well, including
you know, include Carson Hinsman there. I've been really impressed
with Carson Hinsman all season long. To be able to
do everything that he was that he did in this
one was good. I'm with you, though, like how much
of this, how much of the lack of the running
game do we put on the offensive line, or do
we put on the fact that they're still trying to

(37:01):
figure out how they're going to operate in the running game.
And I think part of the issue is they knew
Bo Jackson was going to play this year. Ryan Day
even said he just said probably not in that first one.
You know, they knew he'd have a larger role. I
don't know that they thought he'd have to have this
larger of a role this early to have seventeen carries,

(37:22):
which was the season high for any running back last year.
Quin Shawn Jenkins did that. Trevan Henderson's season high last
year was twelve. So Bo Jackson's already, you know, blown
by that, and so CJ. Donaldson's.

Speaker 1 (37:34):
I think.

Speaker 2 (37:36):
If you look at it, the long carry was sixteen
yards and they still averaged four yards of carry. So
they were consistent, but not great and not very good.
Like they it was like it was good enough, But
at some point, you know, good enough stops being good
enough against better defenses. And if Washington is considered a

(37:58):
better defense than this offense needs to the running game needs.

Speaker 1 (38:01):
To get a whole lot better. And I wonder if.

Speaker 2 (38:05):
That also means, you know, Ohio State needs to throw
the ball downfield more, to back the defense up a
little and be more successful with that, be more prone
to doing that. And if they just need to play
more eleven personnel, because the more twelve personnel you're playing,
the closer everybody's going to get. And I'm I saw
it's Brian Hartline that is in love with the twelve

(38:27):
personnel right now. And you wonder is that because they
feel that's what they need to get the running game going?
And I know all all a lot of offensive coaches
love the twelve because you can throw out of it,
you can run out of it, you can keep, you
can trap a defense that sort of thing. It's like, well,
you can trap a defense if you don't huddle. But
you huddle, there's no trapping anymore.

Speaker 1 (38:49):
I want to say, Tony, I think I counted it up.
I forget. I want to say, it's roughly like, out
of the sixty two offensive snaps, there were something like
a one hundred and twenty snaps by tight ends. Like,
that's a lot of snaps by tight ends, man in
this game. And we know that the twelve and thirteen
personnel way up. It feels I don't know, man, there's

(39:14):
a lot of things that just feel like they're still
trying to figure things out here. But I do think
that we saw a pretty defined role kind of situation
for these backs where Bo was definitely kind of like
the guy with seventeen carries, thirty snaps, CJ and People's
combined had thirty five Bo with the best yards per carry,

(39:37):
best yards after contact, which is good and what was expected.
Donaldson had two carries and kind of feels like, all right,
he's that RB two, really great in pass pro, got
the soft hands, so it lines up perfectly for him there.
People's just had three carries, but he did have three
receptions in addition to that, so maybe they're trying to
work him in that way. I'm wondering, is this kind

(39:58):
of what we can ex moving forward or was that
just because it was, you know, a tough opponent and
maybe you gave Bo a bigger workload and you're gonna
kind of flatten it out back a little more towards
even when you play a Minnesota, get peoples a little
more involved and save the wear and tear off a bow.

Speaker 2 (40:17):
Yeah, these games, the matchup games, the road games where
you're concerned where the coach is concerned. They're always live
detector tests, and it does you exactly what they believe
and what they feel they need to do to win.
And then against Minnesota they can lie a little bit
and get things back to even, but also with a purpose.

(40:39):
Like when we lie, we all lie with a purpose.
But now you can keep guys RESTful, and you know
you don't need you don't want to true freshman Bo Jackson,
who has a history of injuries in high school, you
don't need to give him seventeen carries against Minnesota. You
may need to have Illinois, you may need to down
the road. So I would expect to go back to
you know, thirty five carries split relatively evenly between three

(41:03):
guys on Saturday, and you know, maybe even throw a
couple of carries in there for Isaiah West if the
game is comfortable.

Speaker 1 (41:11):
Tony, listen, I'm like you're preaching the choir man. I'm
telling you, I honestly believe Isaiah West is that the
second most talented back on this team is the terms
of talent. I think if he wasn't a freshman, we'd
be seeing him play more. But when it comes to
the short yardage, I would like to see somebody else

(41:32):
get a shot here, whether that be Isaiah or bo
I honestly and CJ talked about it after the game.
I didn't get down low enough. I mean, he met
that safety one on one in the hole again, second
week in a row, and this pad level was way
too high. Guy, you know, thirty pounds lighter than him,
got under his pads and stopped him dead in his tracks.

(41:53):
And it's just like, Buddy, you've been playing football, U.
This iss your third year, playing a lot of running back.
This should be instinct for you at this point. So
I'd certainly like to see that. I want to talk
about Brandon Innes because he got so much grief the
last couple of weeks. He's a guy that's just like
I love him for his attitude, for everything about him,

(42:15):
for the way he carries himself, for the team first, attitude,
everything about him. And then we see him right off
the rip the first time we see him this game,
have a great punt return and I'm getting all excited.
He's got both hands on the ball like this, and
somehow the ultimate punt return curse at Ohio State, one

(42:38):
arm gets ripped away, the other arm gets ripped away,
the ball comes out, you lose the fumble, and I'm like,
not him, man, please anybody but him. He made up
for it. Tony three receptions thirty three yards. I think
he picked up two first downs, and I think he
looked like we saw him at practice. I think we
could see that extra juice. It looked different today Saturday

(43:01):
then it did the past couple of games.

Speaker 2 (43:04):
Have you had to tell people like I promised you
he looked quick and explosive at practice. I'm telling you, I.

Speaker 1 (43:10):
Was yelling on the stream there it is. That's what
I saw.

Speaker 2 (43:13):
And yet you know, they draw stuff up for him
and it starts to look like that, and they look
for him and it starts to look like that. And
so it was good to see him tie his career
high with three catches and perhaps lead to more. Now
these are all pretty much, you know, directly to him.
So you know, let's see what he does when he's

(43:34):
the second progression or the third read and as he opened,
can he do something with that? There's gonna be more there, obviously,
And I saw somebody in the chat mentioned that, you know,
one of the reasons O High State is playing so
much twelve and thirteen is because those tight ends are
better than the receivers three, four and five. And there's
some truth in that. Brandon Innis has to be better

(43:57):
than Max Claire. You know, Will Cosmerick's always gonna be
on the field almost so one of those guys. But
they don't look for Max Claire much either, which you
think they should start doing some of that. I think
there's there's some room to be more effective with both
eleven and twelve personnel, frankly and in the passing game,
which then I think leads to the running game being

(44:18):
more effective. But yeah, good to see Brandon Innis. Let's
see what he can do some downfield stuff. But we
could say that for any of the guys, and then
you just you just keep waiting for And we saw
Marlon Graham get a few snaps, saw Bryson Rogers get
a couple of snaps. What is it going to be
more than just cursory giving somebody a rest and giving
somebody great.

Speaker 1 (44:37):
Like, Yeah, that's what it felt like. I saw a
tweet from from Bryson today that didn't sound great. Didn't
sound great like people, uh, people respect you most or
they don't. Something about you'll miss me when I'm gone.
It's just kind of a thing like it was something
like that, and I was like, I hope that's now.
He's not getting upset. I love Ryce.

Speaker 2 (44:58):
Yeah, And the thing to keep in mind right now
now is that Ohio State is a game number four.
So if anybody is looking to transfer, and I'm not
saying he is, but this is the time of year
where players start to like opt out and try to
preserve a recher. Now, Bryson Rogers has already used as recher,
so he's that that doesn't really apply to him, but

(45:21):
I would apply to the guys who still have.

Speaker 1 (45:23):
Not burned theres.

Speaker 2 (45:24):
But that's something you just may start seeing around college
football again this time of year or is it the
the and I all got to keep him around right right, But.

Speaker 1 (45:36):
No, Bray a little bit of a breakthrough I think
for for the Claire Innis combo in this game, and
we saw some more action and I think it's important
that they do get a third involved in there in
the rotation. So that was good. But let's go over
to defense. Obviously, the stars of the show Cayden and
Cayden when bo Atkinson, well, first, Logan George and then

(45:57):
bo Atkinson were signed in the in the in the
portal periods, full grown men with experience, and I was
looking at things thinking, all right, Kenyata Jackson, as much
as he played and played well during the playoffs and
kind of leading up to the playoffs, he's kind of
your clear number one at end. And now it looks
like Kayden Curry and maybe some combination of him and

(46:19):
bo Atkinson be on the other side, and are they
going to be good enough those two combined. Wow, I
didn't expect this. I love Kayden Curry, who always loved
him as a player for his motor and for everything
he brings to the table. But I never suspected he
would be like, that's a that's a count on him

(46:40):
guy as a starter every game to produce. And this
was just one of the more insane performances we've seen
in the last twenty years from an Ohio state defender.
When we look at that stat line of eleven tackles,
nine solo sacks, five tackles for loss. I went through

(47:03):
all the box scores last year looking at Jack and
j T and their best game both of them was
coincidentally against Tennessee you can add them both up and
they and they're barely reaching what Cayden Curry did on
his own.

Speaker 2 (47:17):
I do wonder what they could have done in this defense. Sure,
I think that that's something because you're seeing but you're
seeing Kayden Curry. And when I said go back and
watch the game, watch him every single step, because he
does something new every single time. It's like, you know,
you go watch a band and they're playing new music
and you're like, I love this song too, this is great,

(47:39):
you know. And and there'll be times where, you know,
one snap he goes in saxon quarterback, then another one
he's like putting out, hey, we got a wide receiver
screen coming, and then he goes and tackles the wide
receiver screen. There's one where he tackles Jonah Coleman five
yards downfield as he's like essentially playing dropping back in
his own and oh, here comes Jonah Coleman in my zone.
I guess I'll go tackle him, getting after the quarterback,

(47:59):
playing nose tackle and blowing up a screen and turning
it into a sack because he was there so quickly.
And you gotta feel bad for Washington Center because he
had a day at the office to but Kink Curry
like lined up and you know, one of the five
man ends and that in the Penny look playing defensive
tackle on a three man linet, just wherever he was,

(48:21):
And there was one where like he reached back as
a running back was running. It was it was the
inside give to like Desmond Roebuck, and Roebuck starts to
run by and he just like reaches out leaps and
it's like you know the painting on Assistine Chapel. He's
outreached and he just brings the guy down for like
a three yard gain. Wherever he was, he was like

(48:45):
insure tackler. He's now leading the team in tackles, bizarre
and like tied from the team lead, but by far
has the most solo tackles.

Speaker 1 (48:53):
Go find the last time he had a defensive end
doing that.

Speaker 2 (48:56):
After four games, one of the top sackers in the country,
one of tap tackles for lost guy in the country.
And yes, a lot of that was because of this game,
but it was not just because of this game. He's
been very good all season long. Oh not bad for
a guy you're wondering, boy, I hope he's okay with
bo Atkinson and logan George coming to take his job.

Speaker 1 (49:14):
Exactly exactly That's what I was thinking. And I feel
like such a boso. I feel like such a boso
on that one.

Speaker 2 (49:22):
And the thing is he's had better numbers every year
than Kenyanna Jackson, I know.

Speaker 1 (49:27):
But it's just the You look at Kenyata's frame and
it's just like, man, that guy is the prototype. Not
that guy, but here he comes just NonStop, NonStop, never
gives up down the field. It's just like he's like
the perfect player right now. And man, I'm enjoying it
and hoping it continues. And obviously, Cad McDonald maybe the

(49:48):
most dominant one TECH in all of college football right now.
Certainly by the PFF numbers, he is number one. Tony's
putting up numbers like Tylee did at three Tech. In fact,
his game again Washington better than ty League's best game
last year as well. Just from a stat stuff er
point of view, ken Yatta also had a sack. When

(50:09):
we looked at these defenses, looking at twenty four and
then coming into this year, I thought, all right, the
secondary I think might be a tick better. I think
the linebackers might be a tick better. It's just a
matter of how much worse or how much you're going
to drop down on the defensive line, and that's going
to kind of tell the tale of this defense. But

(50:31):
the way Patricia's got him playing, we're not really seeing
him have to rely on that too deep much. They
only played eleven snaps. The starters outside of one role,
and that is the time alone Edric, whoever goes in
that role role have all looked really, really good. And

(50:52):
I don't think it's dropped. I don't think it's dropped
at all. And I think that this defense overall, like
now through four games, I'm just I was saying it
first with a little bit of men. Am I sure?
I'm not just being a prisoner of the moment. This
is a better defense. It's a better, faster defense.

Speaker 2 (51:07):
And it's it's different from snap to snap, which is
part of the problem for the offense as well. And
Will Smith in there as well, he's playing.

Speaker 1 (51:15):
Well make next question. Yeah, And but like.

Speaker 2 (51:20):
The defensive line overall, I think has been very very good,
and it's been better than expected because it was the
question mark. Now I don't think all of those questions
have been answered. It's a long season, as we know,
but some of the answers that we've gotten have been
very emphatic and the affirmative, the affirmative that things are
going to be pretty good, but that we assume the

(51:40):
defensive ends would be good. I don't think anybody assumed
kayten Curry was going to have a game that rival
J T. Twomlowhile against Penn State in terms of best
individual all time performances, tying the school record for five
tackles for loss in the game, that sort of thing.
But just the different fronts and the constant I think

(52:01):
is helping slow things down, slow the offense down for
a tick, slow the quarterback down, which then of course
speeds up the defense. Yes, yes, and we got to
get in of course. Eric Biddle said that Caden Conan
the Destroyer was my sleeper pick on Juck on Bucks,
and I've got.

Speaker 1 (52:16):
A vouch for him. He said all off season, Juck,
you're sleeping on Curry. He did. So, kudos to our guy.
Now that I've shouted him out three times on the pick,
he could could stop putting in the chat. That's three
times Biddle. All right, So Edric Houston loses the starting
role before Grambling gets pulled twice in that game for penalties,

(52:40):
and the way it happened, like immediately off the field
almost felt like there was something more to it to me.
And then against Ohio he had a really rough day,
couldn't get off a block, was getting blown off his
spot on a double team. It was just a rough
rough day for him and obviously didn't earn that spot.

(53:00):
Then we see him go into the Washington game and
you know, didn't do much but get a penalty, which
was pretty much an unacceptable penalty in my opinion, in
a spot like that, you just can't have it. You
cannot have it. Was more egregious than Phil's was. Phil's
maybe would have gotten away with that. It was in
the mix of the mix of the guys. Edric was

(53:20):
just kind of wide out in the open doing that.
But you coming into this season, like my thought, here
was all right, And I did some polls on this,
who do Buckeye fans kind of trust more to take
that next step? The group inside with Edric and Kmak
or Kurry and Kenyata, and pretty solidly the winners there
were Kamak and Edric. I believe Edrick was gonna take

(53:43):
this next step into being a pretty dominant three tech.
I think most people did. And you pointed out not
too long ago on the bucke huddle dot com board,
which everybody should subscribe to because it's the best chat
there is and lots of information that we don't talk
about on here, the proprietary stuff, But on the buckehuddle
dot com board, you said, what is it that he

(54:05):
did in his freshman year that would make you guys
think that he was going to bust out and be
some kind of dominant three tech this year? And I
thought long and hard about it, and it was absolutely right.
He didn't do anything his freshman year that would make
me think that other than the profile, the personality, the
fact that he's really smart, that he's really strong, that

(54:28):
he gained weight, and the way he interacted with everybody
on the team, it just looks like everything lines up
for him to take that next step. And I bought
at hook Line and Sinker, we've not seen it. I
don't think we're going to see it this year. I
am not giving up on him as a player and
potentially being a dominant player, but this, to me, when

(54:49):
we look at the year, there's been a lot of
really pleasant surprises, maybe like three to one pleasant surprises
versus this is not such a great development here. But
this is not such a great development here because time
alone in his place, he's doing okay, a little better
than he did. But to your point about will Smith,
who was a three tech now moved to one tech,

(55:11):
he's playing fantastic the second best interior linement right now,
for sure, I don't think it's close. Do you think
we could find a way to see him and Kamack
on the field together.

Speaker 2 (55:23):
I honestly don't see why not, especially when Cayden Curry
is getting some snaps at there, you know, at nose
tackle as well, like in that three man front. I
think that's doable. I'm I feel like Edric Houston is
going to eventually. I think this is the first part
of the story that he's going to write this year,
and I think the ending is going to be pretty good.

(55:45):
But in terms of like we came all everybody came
into the season is like, well, yeah, he's a he's
a known quantity. I'm like, no, he's not. He's he's
the five star defensive end that everybody wanted. But he's
been a defensive tackle for less than a year now
at this point, still and so what has been his
big play? What has been the play where you're like, oh,

(56:06):
there it is because it hasn't been near the ball.
So there's still that needs to happen. But one of
the reasons I was, we're all intrigued. But like his
teammates were saying, like his his NFL draft teammates were saying, Yeah,
I watch Edrick, He's gonna be He's gonna be the best.
He's gonna be this, he's gonna be that. I think
J T two molwhile may have said it at the combine.

(56:26):
So it's like when players tell me that or I
hear them say that, that means something to me and
I put it in the back of my mind. But
we still have to see it and they see they
may see things differently in practice than what we're seeing
in the games. The penalty has got to go. There's
gonna be so little tolerance for that as the season
goes on, because if you're gonna do it against you

(56:48):
know now, then you can't we trusted to not do it. Later,
He's still gonna have an opportunity to prove himself, and
there's a long way to go. I think the only
way he's gonna get better is to play him. But
Will Smith Man, I'm with you, like, there's a lot there.
And you know, Jason Moore, I don't believe he was
on the availability report. I'm not sure that he actually played.

(57:10):
That may have held him out of this one just
for precautionary purposes. But are they going to get anything
out of him, because that's you know, that's another guy
that is maybe an option, but I don't think anybody's
counting on that. So the most known quantity at this
point is Will Smith and Taiwan Malone. And Taiwan Malone,

(57:31):
like you said, hasn't been bad. He's been involved in plays.

Speaker 1 (57:35):
We've seen that.

Speaker 2 (57:35):
I think we've seen him make more plays than Edward
Houston has for sure.

Speaker 1 (57:39):
I agree.

Speaker 2 (57:39):
Yeah, So at some point Edric Houston needs to be
a playmaker and not just an occupier. And I remember
asking Larry Johnson to, you know, in preparation for this season,
and I'm like, where is he in relation to Draymond
Jones as the right shirt freshman because he made that
move to defensive end as an injured true freshman, did

(58:01):
not play red shirt freshman defensive tackle. He's incredible, and
Larry's like, you know what, he's not there yet. Let's
not you know, everybody has their own thing. We're not
gonna bring him to dreamont Jones right now, even though
they're the same age and education. Has been healthy during
his career at that point and Dreamont Jones hadn't. So

(58:22):
there's still time. I think it's going to go get better. Uh, Frankly,
I don't know that it could get worse.

Speaker 1 (58:28):
Right, And that's that's true, and that really surprising. Tell
when we look at the big picture here in the
Big Ten, we see Oregon go into Penn State and
uh and beat them. It certainly looks like now they
are a lock for the playoffs. I think they've only
got USC and Indiana left on the schedule that could
give them any kind of issues. Penn State, however, has

(58:51):
to come in and play Ohio State. Then they play
Indiana at home, and there is a chance here that
Penn State could be hosting Indiana for a potential playoff
on the line game there, which would be one of
the more exciting games I could imagine considering how they
came into the season, the hype around them, listening to

(59:14):
James Franklin again and he did the old same thing
he does after every loss, gets in the press conference
and reminds everybody about the twelve years of success he's had,
what he's been able to accomplish, which is just like,
I almost feel bad for this fan base. You're kind
you're kind of prisoners, Like, yeah, it has been really, really,
really good, but the chance of it being any any

(59:35):
better we're right now this year and it's starting to
look like it feels like it's getting away. Ola doesn't
look like he's taking the turn for the better. It
just doesn't feel there to me.

Speaker 2 (59:45):
Well, allerfie what twenty five passes for like one hundred
and thirty five yards, and he just looks scared and
in the biggest moments and the biggest games, he looks
like it comes off the field apologetically. And that's no
way talked about Julian saying looks like he's having a
good time. How often does Drew Aller in the big
game look like he's having a good time, Because I

(01:00:06):
don't think it's it does not happen. And he may
have looked like he was having a good time after
that touchdown pass to get them you know, closer late,
but he looks way more concerned than a starting quarterback should.
And you know, they went out and got them a
bunch of receivers and it's still There's the production, isn't there.
I don't care if you, you know, complete seventy five

(01:00:27):
percent of your passes, if you're throwing six yards downfield
and there's no yards after the catch, they if you
lose your tight end and now you have no ability
to move the ball dynamically. You never had an ability
to move the ball dynamically to begin with, because you're
just a tight end offense. And with Tyre Warren gone,
they need more and Aler's not the guy they can

(01:00:48):
get them there. And the running game is suffering. And yeah,
I've told this before, but walking out of the the
Penn State game last year, you know, getting to the
press conference postgame press conference, as the fans were leaving,
we're just kind of like, you know, going out in
the same way, and I'm shoulder to shoulder with an
older Penn State fan and I'm like, hey, man, you

(01:01:10):
guys are gonna go to the playoffs and He's like,
it doesn't matter, it does not matter. It's not going
to happen. It's not going to turn into anything that
is memorable. It's just going to be pain. Like you
lost to Ohio State again. We lost to Ohio State again,
and even if we make the playoffs, we still have
no faith in getting it done. That being said, like

(01:01:32):
James Franklin is right, I mean, this is what Penn State,
this is me saying, and this is what Penn State
has always been. Yeah, as like Joe Paterno wants national championships,
but the game is much different now than it was
back then. So can Penn State compete for national champion Sure?

Speaker 1 (01:01:50):
I mean if.

Speaker 2 (01:01:50):
Michigan can do it legitimately, if they can do it legitimately,
if they did it legitimately, I think Penn State can
do it, which is also why I think there's some frustration.
You see Michigan doing You're like, yeah, there's no dynas,
not much dimit dynamic offense there, So you know, why

(01:02:10):
can't Penn State have it? And it's always going to
go back to the the head coach.

Speaker 1 (01:02:16):
For sure. For sure, when we look at the rest
of this Ohio State schedule. When we look at Oregon,
it seems to me like right now, the odds on
money is is those two meeting in Indianapolis, and as
far as Oregon since they've been in the conference now,
they've they've beaten Penn State twice, they've beaten Michigan, they've

(01:02:37):
beaten Ohio State. Pretty damn impressive stuff. And should that
matchup happen, you know, there's the potential to meet in
the playoffs if it doesn't. But should they meet again
this year, I mean, we've got the real start of
a budding, nasty kind of rivalry developing here. We fight
NonStop on the recruiting trail. It's just uh that Dan

(01:02:59):
Lanning's whole persona and how he was after that game,
Like he's easy to hate or love, depending on what
side you're on. It's fun, It's it's a lot of fun. Again.
Back to the original point, I love the expansion of
this conference. It's so much more exciting.

Speaker 2 (01:03:14):
Well, with Penn State going off the schedule, Oregon's gonna
slide right in and be that rival for Ohio State,
that second second rival. And you know, when was the
last time there was a one versus two If that
happens in a Big Ten championship game. Has that I
thought that's happened before because was there certainly no number
two in the Big Ten West. I think that's that's

(01:03:35):
safe to say. So there's there's a lot of a
lot of possibilities there, and again it's more than just
rankings that they are probably the two best teams in
the nation this year and what they did. We all
know it's tough to win at Penn State. Just because
you do it doesn't mean it's easy. It is very
tough to do, and so credit to Oregon for doing that.

(01:03:57):
It was not pretty, but you can't go in there
expecting it to be pretty and you don't care how
it looks. Just get it done and move on absolutely.

Speaker 1 (01:04:04):
All right, ton I appreciate you so much for joining
me tonight on the Buckeye Huddle primetime. It was a
fantastic chat and I will catch you tomorrow, buddy, all right,
see you tomorrow, right, take care, Bud, and that our man,
Tony Gerdaman. That was a fantastic chat. I did notice
you guys had some questions here. I will pull up.

(01:04:28):
Let me get here to my start. Sean Duffy juck,
have you been to Madison. I'm thinking about going in
three weeks now. I've been to Kenosha, I've been a Kenosha, Wisconsin.
I've never been to Madison. But boy, man, you can
probably get well. I don't know what the Buckeye is
coming in. I was gonna say, like, maybe it'll sell out,

(01:04:48):
but man, they have such a such a negative energy
surrounding the program, surrounding Luke Fickle right now, that'll really
be an interesting one. I'm sure they'll sell out. Ohio
State fans sell it out if they don't. But it
just looks like such a disaster up there at Wisconsin.
And originally at the start of the year, I was

(01:05:08):
a little nervous. I was a little nervous, thinking like,
all right, this game could potentially be tricky. Remember Oregon
went in there and had a really tricky game last year.
It looked like Wisconsin might upset them. So that said,
it's always said to be a ton of fun there
if you're into that kind of thing. Fun right in
Madison definitely no longer the man says, if always you

(01:05:31):
can score twenty four points, they'll win the game. Our
defense is so good, However, With that said, I'm still
worried about Michigan at this point. I don't know how
you cannot be worried about Michigan because there's been so many,
like just logically times that you shouldn't have been worried
about him, and you needed to be worried about him
because they ended up winning the game. So I'm with you.

(01:05:55):
My man, Fisherman likes Minnesota's quarterback. They trust him more
than day trust saying Ouch, that's tough to hear, Man.
But honestly, I'm curious to see how this goes through
the next couple of games through Minnesota. Really, Illinois, I
think is the one I'm most curious about. I think
Minnesota we're gonna see things kind of open back up

(01:06:19):
a little bit. But then Illinois you go back on
the road. Illinois obviously just beat USC so they've bounced
back from the from the Indiana loss. And when Ohio
State goes in there to play them, I think they
will be considering this a really tough game. Are they
going to start the game like they did against Washington?
Is it going to be a similar game plan with

(01:06:42):
everything turtled up and we're gonna rely on defense? I
certainly hope not, because, look, I'm just a believer you
can do both. I'm a believer you can have a
suffocating defense and also trust your offense to go out
and just run your normal offense. But you know it works.
It works. My issue is, here's the thing. If you

(01:07:02):
try to be conservative and play like that all year long,
you're going to get in a game at some point
where you need to score points and now you're forced
to turn a switch, and all of a sudden, it's
just supposed to turn on. And I don't think that's
how it works. Gabriel says Chuck, how well do you
think Julian is getting through his reads. I think he's
getting through him really well. I think he's a fast processor.

(01:07:24):
I haven't seen the All twenty two yet from the
Washington game, but I'll definitely pay close attention to it
when I get it. But man, he's just smart as
a whip. And the guy, the kid's a dream man. Really,
he's a dream quarterback. Emily said, I heard Bo was
injured part of his senior year, so maybe they're slow
rolling him in well, not slow rolling him anymore. Seventeen carries.

(01:07:47):
That's a that's a heck of it. So what I
wanted to see was Bo Jackson getting you know, if
they do if they do a split and carries in
a big game, a game that matters a sixty to
forty kind split for bow and he ended up getting
seventeen carries to eleven for People's and Donaldson combined, So

(01:08:08):
that's even more than a sixty forty split. So he's
taking a big old bulk. But he was injured. He
had a knee injury. Wasn't the injury that it was
the opposite knee that he had dinged up this week?
Last week in practice? Fishermen, when will Day take special
teams seriously? Now? He told us last year entering the
year that they were taking it seriously, that they were

(01:08:31):
doing different things. And I just saw Nate Abner at
the Woody last week. Nate Ebner is on the job right, Like,
I don't know, man, it just feels like a cursed operation,
particularly punt return. I will say that they did snuff
out that fake, right, that was pretty good, So we
can hang our hats on that for the day that

(01:08:51):
they were able to snuff that out. That could have
been a disaster. Rod who else saw the Tyreek killing.
I didn't see it. He's done. Oh it was a
bad one. Was it gruesome? Will Smith is definitely getting
jiggy with it no longer. The man believes we have

(01:09:25):
the best players and the best staff in the country,
and I agree type one if you hate Dan Lanning
more than James Franklin. So, I don't know how many
of you guys saw Dan Lanning's post game interview on
the field, but it was something. I might have it

(01:09:51):
saved here to pull it up. I don't, but I
do have a couple of still shots of just the
faces he made in this one minute and thirty second interview.
You like, I don't know how in one minute, like
you're being interviewed. How does that face come out when
you're being in the middle of an interview? I don't
understand it. But it was more than that one. I mean,

(01:10:12):
it was just NonStop weirdness, like what is this? How
do you make this face when you're responding to questions?
And a lot of people were making a lot of accusations.
I'm not making any of those accusations. I think he's
a super, super intense guy, and it is It's still
a little weird. But at the same time, if he
was our coach, I love it. I'd love it so much,

(01:10:35):
and the Oregon fans love it so much. On the
other hand, our guy James Franklin, look at him, Look
at him, just standing at the end of the game,
looking around, nobody to talk to, no hands to shake.
That's got to be the loneliest feeling in the world,
that poor guy. Honestly, I'm starting to feel bad for him.

(01:10:57):
Mike Ferguson says, Signetti coming for that l I believe so.
I believe so too. If you're talking about to Oregon,
Penn State can definitely still beat Ohio State. Don't sleep
on him, no doubt. I believe they can as well.
Manfred was rooting for Georgia. Would laugh if Bama got
knocked out of the playoffs again, maybe we would steal

(01:11:19):
more of their talent. Yeah, I always root for Georgia
when the two of those are playing. I honestly, I
think I root for everybody against Bama, to be honest.
So but yeah, I definitely root for Georgia when those
two were playing as well. So all right, my friends,
I do appreciate you so much for joining us on

(01:11:39):
Monday's Buckeyehudle Live. We will be back of course on Wednesday,
and we'll have a lot of fun. Then we'll talk
about the game's upcoming this week. Of course, we got
the Minnesota and PJ Fleck. I hate PJ Flex, so
we'll cook on him a little bit. But thanks so
much for joining me. Please do like the video and
make sure your subscribe to Buokye Huddle and check me

(01:12:02):
out over at Chuck on Books, where I do videos
on the days that I'm not here on Buckeye Huddle. Also,
you can check out the articles I'm writing over at
buckeyehuddle dot com and they're usually free, so pop over
on that website put it on your board as a
daily check. Tony's always got like five articles a day.
I don't know how he does it. He just pumps
him out. Obviously, you've seen Tony as a fantastic sense

(01:12:25):
of humor. It comes through in the writing as well.
So I appreciate you guys. Thanks to Tony for joining us.
I will talk to you soon. Bucky Huddle Prime Time
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