BONUS: Buckeye Huddle Primetime - Recruiting Updates and Playoff Predictions

Buckeye Huddle Primetime: Recruiting Updates, NFL Standouts, and Playoff Predictions

In tonight's episode of Buckeye Huddle Primetime, host Juck Miletti covers a wide range of topics for all Ohio State Football fans. The show includes breakdowns of key Ohio State recruits, upcoming announcements, and standout performances in the NFL. Juck also provides a comprehensive look at the playoff landscape and predicts potential outcomes for Ohio State's path to the championship. Tune in every Monday and Wednesday at 8:00 PM for extensive Buckeye coverage!

00:00 Introduction and Embracing the Noon Kickoff
00:28 Welcome to Buckeye Huddle Prime Time
01:49 Ryan Day's Coaching Interviews and Recruiting Updates
02:49 All-American Voting and Sonny Styles' Recognition
05:23 Buckeyes in the NFL: Weekend Highlights
06:17 Ohio State's Impressive Roster and Draft Prospects
10:54 Brian Hartline's Replacement and Coaching Strategies
23:41 Recruiting Class of 2026: Nationwide Talent
26:01 Player Introductions and Initial Thoughts
26:36 Offensive Lineup Breakdown
28:23 Defensive Lineup Breakdown
29:46 Class of 2027 Announcements
30:42 James Laurinaitis' Recruiting Success
37:04 Playoff Matchups and Predictions
48:23 Closing Remarks and Viewer Interaction

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, everybody, Tony Gerdaman here have a bonus episode of
the most recent edition of Buckeye Huddle Primetime with Juck.
He is recapping essentially the week that was for Ohio
State football, with some discussion on Brian Hartline and situation there,
as well as looking back on the twenty twenty six

(00:22):
recruiting class and had to the twenty twenty seven recruiting class.
So here you go, give a listen. If you have
not yet subscribed to Buckeye Huddle Primetime, you can find
it on all of your audio podcast platforms of choice.
Just search it up, hit the subscribe button and you'll
have it there for you. So thank you all for
tuning in.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Here you go, Hey, it's Juck. We are not bemoaning
the noon kickoff. We're 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 we're 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 that's a dude. Do I want miss you get

(01:00):
to beat Oklahoma? No way in hell. 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.
Welcome to Buckeyehitdle Primetime on a Wednesday, as we are
here every Monday and Wednesday at eight pm live. As always,

(01:21):
we do appreciate you joining us as we have an
unbelievable amount of coverage for you guys over here on
the Buckeyehuddle channel in at Buckehudle dot com bucke Huddle Primetime.
We got the Buckeye Weekly Podcast with Tom and Tony,
always breaking news, Buck Guys, Tomorrow Morning with Dad Tom
Orr Film breakdowns with Ross Fulton and he's one of

(01:43):
our ex's and those guys, that's just fantastic. We got
the Pregame, the Postgame, the Skull Session recruiting podcast, and
Mark and I recently have been doing time capsules for
every single Ohio State recruit in this class of twenty
twenty six, which has been a tremendous amount of fun.
I love doing the things about fifteen minutes dedicated to
all now twenty eight of those guys as legend Bay

(02:06):
in the books, kind of walking through each recruitment, what
the guy has to offer, maybe his future at Ohio State.
And we've been really enjoying that. Appreciate you guys for
popping in there in the live chat. Please do subscribe
to the channel. That's all we ask. We keep pumping
out the stuff. You keep subscribing, and everybody's happy. Tonight

(02:27):
on the show, Ryan Day interviews a potential wide receiver
coach we think might be a potential offensive coordinator coach.
I don't know, we got to figure that out, but
he did have an interview. We've got the final map
of the class of twenty twenty six, where did the
Buckeyes focus in on? And James Laurnidis. James Lournidis has

(02:47):
a huge announcement coming on Friday. We were reviewed just
how dominant James has been, just how much he has
changed that linebacker room, the entire complexion of it since
he has been in full time capacity now in that room,
and the recruiting prowess goes on as a big time
announcement coming Friday. Friday will also be the day that

(03:09):
the playoffs start and we will talk about our first
are Look, I'm not going to predict the first round, obviously,
we know how the first round is going to go.
I got some things to say about the G five,
two G five teams in the playoffs tonight. A little
bummed about that, man, as we look forward to the
first round of the playoffs, and two of them are
going to be utter blowouts. But today we start with

(03:30):
the monsters of the Shoe. The All American voting is
pretty much complete now and there are five big bodies
that are recognized in All American voting, the ones that
if you get three of them, you're a unanimous first
team All American. If you get five, you're a consensus.
And you just need to be voted by one of
them to be a first team All American and to

(03:53):
get a treat in the Buckeye Grove, which is one
of the close traditions in college football, and fans of
other programs here about the Buckeye Grove and hear about
the tree. They're so jealous. They just love it. Our buddy,
Tony Gerdaman wrote an article yesterday, Sonny Styles up until
that point had not been voted first team by anyone,

(04:15):
and it would have been an absolute travesty had Sonny's
career come and gone without a tree in the Buckeye Grove.
And then the Sporting News came out and they came through.
Sonny Styles will forever be remember with the tree and
the Buckeye Grove. Well deserved for a guy who skipped
his senior year at Pickerington. And I usually can't stand reclassifying.

(04:39):
Could you imagine if Sonny was just finishing his junior
year and wanted to come back, that would be so awesome.
But he comes in, starts at safety as a really
young guy, ends up moving down to linebacker full time
before the twenty fourth season, and James Lorini has said,
shortly after that move, I talked to him and he said,
if I don't turn him into a first round draft

(04:59):
pick by the end this year, I failed. Didn't happen
because Sonny didn't come out. But he's coming out at
the end of this year and certainly on pace to
be a first round draft pick. That Indiana game, I
think Sonny Styles, I think that was the best game
he's ever played. He was just sensational, had about twelve tackles.
We're talking about a guy who has not missed a

(05:20):
tackle the entire year. That is just absurd, especially when
you're someone who puts yourself in place to make a
lot of tackles. Like there's some guys who haven't missed
a tackle and they just don't get themselves in position
to make a lot of tackles. Sonny both there and finishes.
His wingspan is now, he's just so long, and he's

(05:40):
getting so just I mean, he's just a moose. But
when he hits guys, you can tell the difference. They
don't get another inch, like it not an inch forward
when he hits them, and it is it's just a
little difference. He's got a little different look to it.
And as far as the NFL goes, guy's gonna have
a very long career representing the Scarlet and Gray. Speaking

(06:02):
of which, what an unbelievable weekend for Buckeyes in the NFL.
With Trebion going bananas ties a record now with two
games of touchdowns over fifty yards that's only been done
once before. But I think the most impressive thing I
saw from Buckeyes in the NFL all weekend was Cam
Hayward is still just dominating cam with a sack up

(06:26):
the middle. And I think he might be one of
the least appreciated Ohio state legends ever. We just don't
talk about him much. The guy is still doing it
in the NFL, like thirteen years later, just amazing, amazing
when you hear him talk. He does a podcast now,
he's at jack On, so like, he's still like an
incredibly loyal, faithful Buckeye, always like on the forefront of

(06:50):
the conversation for him, which of course we love, so
shout out big cam Man. Dude is awesome. But considering
the All Americans on this squad, you got Jeremiah Smith,
Caden McDonald, rvel Reees, Caleb downs Sonny Carson Hinsman, and
Caden Curry, and that ties an all time Ohio state

(07:11):
record seven first team All Americans. Seven does not include
a Heisman Trophy finalist, and Julian saying does not include
Carnell Tate. And that's a shame Carnell got injured because
he certainly would have gotten it, which would have been
really cool to have two wide receivers on there. But
when we look at the roster, it's without a doubt

(07:33):
the most talented roster in the country. And we look
through those players. Six of those seven guys both recruited
and developed by Ohio State Jeremiah Smith from Florida, Caden
McDonald from Georgia, rvel Reees from Cleveland, Sonny from Pickerington,
Carson Hinsman from Wisconsin, and Caden Curry from Indiana. And

(07:55):
then you got the one loan transfer Caleb Downs one
season at Alabama to at Ohio State. More a Buckeye
than he ever was a Tide. So an incredibly pressive,
impressive testament to the Ohio State strength and development and
the way they just brought these guys along, all of them,

(08:16):
you know, four star or five star guys. None of
those guys are like you know, everybody expected those were
all gonna be dudes. But what they did with Kaden McDonald,
now that was really special. Obviously, he was a stud
in high school, the North Ginet or the Gwenett County
Player of the Year, but a little bit under size
for his position. And this is now a guy who's

(08:37):
We talked so much last year about ty Leek and
how many tackles ty Leak makes from the position he plays.
And incomes k maack Man and k mac I think
has more. The guy's just so awesome, but so impressive.
Is this Ohio State roster that we saw one of
these NFL draft gurus, right, he comes out and boy,

(09:00):
this guy was sure swinging for the fences with Buckeyes
in the draft. So he comes out with his mock
draft and he goes through the Buckeyes that he thinks
are going to be drafted, and he thinks that Ohio
State's apparently going to break the all time record for
amount of guys drafted. So I want to go through
this with you. In the first round, he has Caleb Downs,

(09:23):
rvel Reees, Carnell Tate, Sonny Styles, Kayden McDonald. It could
happen right. Second round Kenyatta, Jackson, igb Max Claire and
Austin Sarahfeld. Third round here's where he goes a little
off the rails. He's got Kayden Curry, Jermaine Matthews, and

(09:43):
Tegras Shabola in round three. Fourth round he's got bo Atkinson.
Fifth round he's got the Donaldson CJ. Donaldson, and then
round six he's got Brandon Innes. Round seven, Will kas
Merrick and CJ. Hicks. Could you imagine thinking that CJ.
Hicks took a red shirt this year to enter the

(10:06):
NFL draft. I mean, what an utter moron. I couldn't
believe it when I read this thing. But that would
be pretty cool to get seventeen guys drafted, though I
would rather plenty of those guys stay back, And of
course we will talk about that in the coming days,
guys that are on the fence, and maybe make some
predictions about who stays who goes. As I heard from Gosh,

(10:30):
Tony wrote an article that I love. Every week he
writes an article and it's called what I Think, What
I Know? And I forget the third one. It's a
speculation article, right, And he heard that Austin Seaveld wrestling
with the decision here, which is interesting because I personally

(10:50):
wasn't even really considering that Serevel would leave. I thought
that Sarahvell would be back for sure, and he's going
to have a decision to make, and you know that one.
I don't know what it is about Lineman, but it
seems like Lineman always, for the most part, are more
cautious about going out early. It feels like they always
usually lean towards I'm gonna stay another year, and I

(11:13):
just assumed steabell Wood that would be a real bummer
to lose him. But who knows. Man, he's gonna go in.
Obviously he's gonna play guard at the next level, and
he knows that he's not gonna leave tackle. So what
more does he have to gain if he's gonna be
playing tackle again next year in college and not playing guard.
I don't know. It is an interesting one. But let's

(11:35):
get into the big news of the day that dropped
at about four pm as Ryan Day. Actually, let's start
back with with Brian Hartline. So over the weekend, Brian
Hartline was down at USF right and he's getting his
staff together. Was down there all week, and he went
to the Buccaneers game to see a Mecca play and

(11:57):
got a picture with the family and such on the
field with a ECA and a lot of Ohios. Dave
fans were saying some some you know things like, oh,
he's working really hard for the game plan, et cetera.
Don't even have an opponent yet, right, Like, I don't
know what they expect here, but he's down there already,
might as well go in take the game. There's a
reason that his players love him so much. But we've

(12:19):
talked about the replacement for him and the situation yesterday
where Heartline was occupying two spots. Right there are ten
countable coaches. He was occupying the offensive coordinator position and
the wide receiver position. Now, you can have as many
coaches as you want, but only ten can travel. And

(12:40):
it's just like, what direction do we think Ryan Day
is going to go here? We don't really know. We
do have our first confirmation that he had an interview.
Was it for offensive coordinator, was it for wide receiver?
Was it for a combination? We're still not sure that either,
but it was Cortes hankedon. Cortes hanked in from LSU
where he was the wide receiver coach, and he is

(13:03):
a wide receiver coach by trade, he's been in that
for a long time, but he was also the co
offensive coordinator at LSU. So I wanted to run through
some things about him as a candidate. What are his strengths,
what are his weaknesses? But there's still some things that
we don't know. Obviously, when Ryan Day's looking at him here,
is he looking at him as a candidate specifically for

(13:26):
a wide receiver coach role or potentially both. As the
accountable coaches situation, you would be taking on a lot
more budget, right, You would be taking on a whole
nother coach in a whole nother payroll if you decided to,
let's say, hire him as the wide receiver coach and
then bring in an offensive coordinator in addition to him,

(13:48):
an offensive coordinator who didn't do anything, didn't travel, just coached,
and that's fine as a system, there's nothing wrong with that.
Is Ohio State going to do it? We saw that
they weren't not scared or shy at all to go
ahead and bring in some assistant offensive line coaches to
make that a total of three. But an offensive coordinator

(14:10):
whole another ball game. We're talking a couple million bucks
a year, and now we're talking serious bucks. So gonna
be interesting to see what direction they go when we
look at if they were to This all kind of
became because Billy Fessler moved from an analyst role into
accountable coach. Obviously, you can't pull that away from Billy

(14:30):
now and say go back to being an analyst and
we'll still pay you the same. That's not cool. I
don't really see that happening. So we'll find out what
direction Day is going to go. But it's something to
keep in mind now as far as Cortes, when we
look at him as a candidate, I think that Ryan
Day has vastly different requirements of what he's looking for

(14:51):
for a wide receiver coach and for an offensive coordinator.
For the wide receiver coach, he's looking for a superstar, right,
He's not not looking for a superstar from his offensive coordinator.
What he's looking for from his offensive coordinator is a
guy who is competent, has some experience, and who is
ready to come in and learn Ryan Day's system and

(15:15):
implement Ryan Day's Ohio State system. That's what he's looking
for from his offensive coordinator. That's not the easiest thing
to find because when we talk about offensive coordinators, the
hot guys on the market, well, these are highly regarded
offensive minds. These are guys with egos. These are guys
with systems and things they've learned and the way they

(15:37):
do things, and they don't want to come in and
call somebody else's offense. That's not the way that usually operates.
So if you can get a guy who's got experience,
but isn't one of those, you know, a will Stein
type of offensive mind, type of dude that would be ideal.
What's the most important thing when you're looking at your
wide receiver coach, Well, you're replacing the best ever Brian Hartline.

(16:02):
That standard will not be met, obviously, we all know that.
But you want the total package and a guy who
can not only recruit, but develop. And I think it's
really important that the next guy coming in has chops
in a resume that will continue to impress sixteen seventeen
year old guys. I think this is a really consequential

(16:23):
period as Ohio State moves on from Brian Hartline to
somebody else, to make sure that the Ohio State wide
receiver room still is the place to be, that it
plays for those young guys. And this decision is really big.
Now we know nobody's going to be Heartline's equivalent, but
if you can get a guy and he comes in
and he can bridge that gap and continue to make

(16:47):
play similar to Alabama last year. So last year, Alabama
loses Nick Saban and they lose Nick Saban, and everybody
thought we would see the recruiting drop off because the players.
You know, it's Alabama still and they'll they'll do well,
but they're not going to be top three because they
don't have save it anymore. So Alabama intentionally went and

(17:10):
invested heavily in the class, and the reason that they
did it was because they realized that they needed to
send a message to high level kids that Alabama is
still the place for five star kids to go. It
is still that it plays, and they took it on
the chin, made some really poor deals, really pump money
into the class, but it was absolutely worth it as

(17:33):
they rolled into this next class and it worked, it
paid off and they didn't have to overextend themselves this year.
I would look at the Ohio state wide receiver class
in a similar way. You've got to make sure that
this next wide receiver class under the new wide receiver
coach is a very very good class. And obviously when
we talk about this guy, he's a guy that knows

(17:55):
what he's doing. He knows what he's doing. He's forty
four years old from New Orkans. He was a six
foot two hundred pound wide receiver out of Texas Southern
who made it to the NFL as an undrafted free agent.
And stayed in the league for six years, which is
pretty dog on impressive as an undrafted free agent. Gets

(18:16):
into coaching in twenty twelve Dartmouth, then straight to the
SEC at Vanderbilt Vanderbilt wide receivers coach, and from there
he parlayed that into getting hired at Georgia in twenty eighteen,
stays there till twenty twenty one when he becomes their
pass game coordinator and wide receivers coach, and then he

(18:37):
gets his dream job, essentially gets to go back to
Louisiana to LSU, and in twenty two and twenty three
he was their passing game coordinator and wide receivers coach.
Then in twenty twenty four he gets promoted to the
co offensive coordinator role at LSU. So you got a
guy from Louisiana at LSU and as their wide receiver coach,

(19:02):
he's going to focus in Louisiana. He probably believes as
a guy from Louisiana, like, if you stuck me at
a position coach, as a position position coach at Ohio State,
I would focus on Ohio because I feel like we're
the best, right And this guy a similar philosophy. Now
Malik Neighbors, Brian Thomas Junior, they were already there. He

(19:23):
didn't bring them in. They were monsters. When we look
at him and the guys that he's brought in throughout
his career. His biggest win, five star George Pickens. That's
a monster win. But when he gets to LSU, he
ends up taking a ton of Louisiana guys in this
past class. Jabari Mack, who's the guy that Brian Hartline

(19:45):
was in on from Louisiana. Bryden Allen from Louisiana, big
time guys. He got what he was at Georgia, Dylan
Bell pretty good, Lad McConkie. Lad McConkie was a three
star he developed, so that's pretty good there. But at LSU,
when we look at the guys that he brings in,

(20:08):
it's like nine out of twelve guys from the state
of Louisiana. Not all of them top notch guys, just
Louisiana dudes. He did have some big wins that didn't
end up sticking to Coreyan Moore, the number one wide
receiver last year, and Tristan Keys this year. Both of
them committed to LSU. Both of them ended up flipping.

(20:30):
If that's over nil, how much can we blame that
on the wide receiver coach? I don't know, man, it's
a results business, you know what I mean, Either get
him or you don't. It's a different era. I get it,
but he didn't end up with him. But getting all
those LSU guys, you could say, all right, this is
a guy who really maybe wasn't trying to spread his

(20:50):
wings go coast to coast and maybe might have been
settling for guys there, like there's a lot of talent there.
But it you know, this is the LSU wide receiver room.
You should be getting the best of the best, similar
to the Ohio State wide receiver room, and he wasn't.
He was not doing that while he was there. In
his career, six top one hundred wide receivers, Brian Hartline
brought in four in one class at one point. I'm

(21:13):
not saying everybody should be like Brian Hartline, but if
you are the wide receiver at LSU, you've got a
lot of advantages like you do at Ohio State. Now
there could be another caveat to that, and that could
be this all happened during the NIL era and Brian
Kelly may have said to him, listen, we're going to
invest in areas where we don't have those guys at home,

(21:36):
So I want you to stay home and get the
guys at home. They can play wide receiver and you
know you got plenty coach them up, and we're going
to go out and spend on positions. Maybe we don't
have the most of so that could have happened as well.
But when we look at the total results, not a
fantastic recruiter, not like it's not like a guy coming

(21:58):
in where everybody's going to be umping up and down
looking at the results, and some of the classes that
he ended up bringing in Ohastate fans would not have
been happy about. We'll put it that way. So in general,
when we talk about the LSU fans and what they
feel about this guy, Lane Kiffin comes in, he gets

(22:18):
asked he's leaving, and I've read a lot of the
message boards about him since this broke. It's kind of split.
And you can't take everything from fans because you know
how when a coach leaves right or is fired, even
if it's not for poor for poor per porm poor

(22:39):
poor performance, fans tend to turn on a guy. It
was a lot of negative. It was a lot more
negative than I thought it would be. One of the
things that they really seem to have beef about was
his rotation. So remember years where you had Larry Johnson.
There's been some years where he would rotate a lot,

(23:00):
and a lot of the times you'd see complaints from
Ohio State fans in those years that as he was rotating,
there would be like high Ridge moments where he would
have the second string guys in because he was following
his rotation where it would be like, no, man, get
the starters in right now. This is the game here,

(23:21):
it's third and fourth down, it's big time. We don't
need the backup in now. That's not what anybody meant
by rotate, And it sounds like this guy kind of
had a similar system oftentimes not having like Malik Neighbors
or Brian Thomas in the game in big time moments,
and that's something that really really seemed to bother some people.
But all in all, when it comes down to Ryan Day,

(23:45):
his track record recently with hiring, like if this was
the guy he said, I want this guy like, I'm
gonna feel good about it, regardless of what LSU fans
feel about it or what that track record says, because
I'm gonna feel that they've already discussed any potential issues
that he's had in the past and how they're going
to address them. And if Ryan Day, with the reign

(24:08):
of terror that he's been on, thinks he's the guy,
I'll be happy about it. But again, this is I'm
not saying that's where we're at yet. This is just
the first interview we've known about, but curious to know
what you guys think about it. Obviously, we got the
big Legend Bay News yesterday as Legend now in the class,
another top one fifty prospect and that makes twenty eight

(24:30):
for the class. So with that twenty eight, I re
updated our map of the United States and here is
where the Buckeyes dipped into all around the country. I'm
really happy with how this class turned out. Obviously, when
we look at twenty five, which was kind of a
class we all loved, twenty six did not feel that

(24:53):
way halfway through, and as it ends, it looks really
really good. And if we go all the way out
to California, the Buck guys three kids from California, two
of their top Dogs with Chris Henry junior, Carrie Wilder,
quarterback Luke Fayhee Arizona. You got one in Tucker Smith,
an interior offensive lineman from Texas legend Bay and Brock

(25:18):
Boyd the legend from the state of Louisiana. Two guys
both who have older brothers at LSU, which is unbelievable.
Still can't I got balloons. I got balloons guys. We
got Blaine Bradford, we got Darius McKinley from Alabama, Emmanuel Ruffin,
and boy do I got a video to show you

(25:39):
of Emmanuel Ruffin. He has slimmed down and looks unbelievable.
Then we've got two guys from Georgia Braxton Rembert, Drake Quinn,
one guy from Florida Simeon Caldwell, one guy from Maryland
safety Kamari Bing, two from New Jersey defensive tackle Damari

(26:00):
Simeon and stud cornerback Jordan Thomas. We've got the top
ranked player in Pennsylvania, the number one cornerback in the country,
Jay Timmins. We've got the number one player from Indiana,
Jick Quaydon Guildford, and then from the state of Ohio,
eleven players. That's the most since twenty sixteen, and that

(26:23):
is Sincere Johnson left tackle, Sam Greer, interior lineman Maxwell Riley, safety,
Caden Gephart, his teammate, linebacker CJ. Sna running back, favor
a Key, tight end, Nick Lauder, wide receiver Jaden Ricketts,

(26:45):
interior offensive lineman, Mason Wilhelm defensive tackle out of Glenville,
Jamior Perez in offensive lineman, swing guy Landry Breed out
of Mentor. And that a wrap on the twenty eight
man class. And when we look at it broken down
offense defense, Now, oh geez, that's stupid. Banner's on the

(27:08):
bottom there. Can we pull that down quickly? There we go?
All right? So I always like looking at it like
this too and kind of give me a just a
clear view of who's the playmakers. I felt a little
uneasy without legend Bay. I feel like maybe it was
lacking some playmaking ability. Remember, you're in the off year

(27:29):
for a quarterback and for a running back where you're
not going to be investing a ton every year. You're
gonna be going every other year. So you went tav
In Saint Clair, Luke Fayhee, Brady Edmunds so Luke, a
three star quarterback, a guy who is rated like that
because he's a little short. If he wasn't that. I mean,
this guy will start somewhere in his career. It might

(27:51):
be at Ohio State, it might be somewhere else. I
love his tools. But then running back, you got favorite
key legend is you know, he's a util man. We
don't know where he's gonna play. I just threw him
in there. And then you go to wide receiver with
Chris Henry Jr. Total Stud, Brock Boyd, Jreck Quadon Guildford.
Those three polished wide receivers ready to go, and Jayden

(28:13):
Ricketts a burner who's got a lot of flexibility. We'll
see what happens with him. We don't know yet. Offensive line,
you got three really good guys here, Sam Greer, Total Stud,
Max Riley the same, and Tucker Smith is a really
high level interior guy. Then you took two swings on
some local guys in Landry Breed and Mason Wilhelm. Mason

(28:37):
Wilhelm obviously a legacy. You now got up to one
hundred and five guys. The goal was to be around ninety.
If you could take another guy like that who's a legacy.
Why wouldn't you, Why wouldn't you just give him a shot? Right?
So I'm happy that they took him and Landry. There
is one that they did not get, did not offer
that an offensive lineman that I'm pretty bitter about. Talk

(29:00):
about him in one of our superlatives here in the
show coming up. But as we move over to the
defensive side of the ball, this side is just legit
man defensive end, Carry Wilder, top dog in the class,
Drake Quinn a true defensive end body at tackle, Damari Simeon,
Emmanuel Ruffin, your top two, Darius McKinley, a guy who

(29:23):
I think maybe your two year three year four gonna
keep getting better and better and could eventually develop into
a real dude. And then Jamir Perez, your unique one
tech that you absolutely had to get. Linebackers Cincior Johnson,
cj Sonna and Braxton Rembert, who might stick at linebacker,
might end up moving down, We're not sure yet. At

(29:45):
six foot five, two hundred a ton of potential, a
ton of versatility cornerback, you end up with two studs again,
as Walt can often do that. Jay Timmins, Jordan Thomas,
and at safety Blaine Bradford. Simeon called, well, Kamari Bing
and Caden Geppart, you got a crew here, man, that

(30:05):
is one heck of a defensive crew. So all in all,
all smiles here about this, about this class and to
think of what it looked like at the end of
summer as the ninth rated class in the country to
where it is now post rating ten dudes from other
teams feels good, guys, it feels damn good. And the

(30:26):
class of twenty twenty seven with a big announcement coming
on Friday as Quentin Cipher, a top ten linebacker in
the class, will be making his announcement. He is down
to Ohio State in Georgia as James Lorinitis working on
his third class and as the Ohio State linebackers coach.

(30:47):
James has been so dominant as he now pumping out
all Americans, two of them potentially both in the first round,
and when that hits his resume right the next guys
he's going after, it's going to be all the easier.
And the fact that he was able to utilize them
in totally different ways, two guys essentially the same size,

(31:08):
totally different ways. Both end up in the first round
and his first team All Americans. You kidding me. You
start putting that on your resume and it just gets
easier and easier. In the Ohio State linebacker room just
looking better and better. His first full class after taking
over as the linebackers coach, he gets Eli Lee out
of Akron Hobin and you don't hear much about Eli.

(31:31):
He's a throwback six three, two thirty. James said to me,
think Tommy Eikenberg, and that's exactly what he is. And
some people roll their eyes about that. But you want
a physical guy like that in the Big ten. And
we see trends all the time. I think we're seeing
a lot of trend backwards, right, it's going back to
how it used to be. It's slowing down, looking more

(31:52):
old school Big ten, round and pound. And James wanted
a guy like that on the roster. So he gets
Eli and I think we'll start to hear a little
bit more about him this year. James of course doesn't
stop there, goes down to Florida and gets one of
his top three targets in tj Alford finished the class
as a top two hundred guy, but at the time

(32:13):
he was to like seven linebacker in the country. I
really liked TJ a little bit, longer, fast, and TJ
I think has the potential to be the guy who
kind of rolls into that Rvel Reese role. Then James
hit it real big with Rivals five star Riley Pettijohn

(32:33):
out of Texas, another one of his top three targets,
and Riley obviously showed this year on the field. He
is definitely going to be ready next year. Most likely
if you needed him this year, he'd have been a really,
really good linebacker at Ohio State as a true freshman,
which is saying something next year five hundred snaps coming

(32:53):
his way, and that essentially was class number one for James,
Laura and I. Then he rolls into this year CJ.
Sauna top three hundred kid, Sincere Johnson Top fifty kid overall.
Sanna is a guy who has kind of been overlooked

(33:14):
here in this class. Long arms very quick in short spaces.
I love how fast he changes direction, lays the lumber
and he's not even played the position. Long just finished
his third year at linebacker and a stat stuffer as
is Sincere two hundred tackles on the year for Sincere.
Sincere a true mike, a total thumper. And then you

(33:35):
get Braxton Rembert in the end, and he may end
up in his linebacker room. He may not, as James
has got that kind of crossroads room right. Just last
year you look and last year you had CJ. Hicks
in his room. He moves down. This year when you
bring in these guys like Simeon Caldwell and Caden Geppart,

(33:58):
they could end up in his room. Braxen Rembert could
end up moving down. He's just got the crossroads room
where his room's going to change dynamic, it's gonna change looks.
But as for twenty seven, this one of the top
guys on his board in Quentin Cipher. Just an absolute
demon six three two point fifteen ton of speed, great instincts,

(34:22):
makes plays on offense, and there's some of those in here.
I don't know if you've been seen them, total dude.
And I know it's hard to watch watch films sometimes
when I shorten the screen here with my face on
the other side, so I apologize for that. But he'll
make his decision on Friday at two forty five now
we'll be live over at juck On Bucks for that decision.

(34:42):
I think it's a really big one. And you might
remember we talked about this guy before during the great
debate of the Big Noon Kickoff Debate, the Big Noon
Kickoff Debate. Part of the debate was that it affects
Ohio State recruiting, and it does. Guys can't get into town. Now,
this kid from North Carolina, but the Texas and the

(35:05):
West Coast guys they play Friday night, they can't get
into town for a noon game. And this is an
example of a guy who came in from North Carolina
after his Friday night game, asked about that game, did
really remember because he was so tired. He was so
tired from playing the night before then traveling, and that

(35:28):
was his sophomore year. So as junior year, he comes
up and they knew that he felt like he didn't
get the full it didn't feel like they wanted him
so much. But ever since then been the full court
press from James Lorinitis. And now he will make his commitment.
Also along with Georgia, he's got Alabama and Miami up there.

(35:51):
And ultimately he already said Georgia and Ohio State is
top two, and that was recently as to what's going
to make his decision, he said, it's hard to say.
My mind will just figure it out. But he's not
someone who wants to make the decision. More than once,
we've heard the same with Brock Williams, who is Keenan

(36:14):
Bailey's number one tight end on the board. And he'll
be making his decision soon either December or early January,
and that one gonna be Ohio State, Georgia or Texas.
So some big dogs on the board. Here are some
decisions coming soon for guys in the class of twenty
twenty seven. That already the Buck guy's sitting in third

(36:37):
place in that class of twenty twenty seven. That ranking
means nothing, but you're loading up dudes already. They got
three offensive linemen and Mason Welt, Kellen Weimer, Brody McNeil.
You've got two safeties and stud Eli Johnson and then
Angelo Smith. JJ's little brother, who I'm convinced is going

(36:57):
to hit a four inch gross at some point soon.
But even if he doesn't, he's a dog and you
got to take that kid, right, You got to take
that kid. He has got such a chip on his
shoulder from being overlooked, from being JJ's little brother. I'm
excited about him, I really am. You've also, of course,
got Brady Edmonds, who is a quarterback that was originally

(37:20):
one of the top five quarterbacks in the country and
he has since dropped outside the top one hundred overall,
which is ridiculous. At six foot five, he's now up
to two hundred and thirty five pounds with a howitzer
for an arm. I have no idea how that happens,
but it happened. It's just a great looking class already
coming together for the Buckeyes. So the machine keeps on

(37:42):
a rolling. As for the playoffs, it's time for some
football here, guys. Friday night, we got some football. I
don't really like the way this is playing out here.
So we get Oklahoma and Alabama on Friday night game
in Oklahoma, and that's a sweet game that I'm really
looking for. Or two. Then Saturday at noon, we've got

(38:03):
Ohio State's next opponent, Miami or Texas A and M.
And then after that you got the old Miss James
Madison and then Oregon and or I'm sorry, old Miss
is playing Tulane Oregon, James Madison. You get the first
two games are the good games, and then you get

(38:24):
the two trash games to round out Saturday night, which
totally sucks. Man, I mean, this is just ridiculous. Here,
four playoff games in round one and fifty percent of
them guaranteed blowouts with a twenty point line. This is
just not fun. It's just so asinine. I mean, it's
the ACC's fault this year that there are two of them,

(38:46):
as they've failed to have a proper tie breaker seven
and five. Duke went to the ACC championship game. Now,
of note, that rule has been changed. Next year's playoff
specifically states that it is now the champions of the
sec ACC Big ten and Big twelve, and then the

(39:07):
highest rated group of five after that. Currently it's just
the five highest rated conference champions get that birth. So
next year it'll be different. We're not gonna see two
group of fives again. But the ACC, with their tiebreaker
instead of using the rankings the way they went about it,
got Duke in their championship game. It would have been Miami.

(39:31):
Miami would have most likely won, and then we would
have seen Miami and Notre Dame both in the playoffs,
James Madison would have not been included. And when we
look at these G five teams, what's gonna happen every
time one of these G five teams makes the playoffs, Well,
they're gonna lose their coach. Right, we know that's gonna
happen because we're looking at the two G five teams included.
They've both already lost their coach. John summerl of Tulane's

(39:55):
going to Florida, Bob what's his name from James Madison
is going to UCLA Ucla. I don't know what this chesney.
I don't know what he's thinking. Ucla is the worst
job in the Big ten. Their athletic department losing a
ton of money, they're not putting any money into football.

(40:16):
And this guy I thought was a sharp dude until
he made that decision, that is a loser job. I
used to think very highly of him. No more. But
imagine being Texas A and m or Miami or Oklahoma
or Alabama, and you gotta fight for your life in
round one, and you're over here looking at old Miss
old Miss in Oregon essentially having a scrimmage in round one.

(40:40):
Because that's what these are gonna be and this system
is ridiculous. Man. Somebody asked me my thoughts the other
day about the G five in their own playoff. I
will just speak. If I was a fan of a
G five team, like the G five used to have
some snap to it. Man. You used to have Cincinnati
in Houston, and you see if they all moved up. Man,

(41:03):
all the good teams moved up. And now with the portal,
they just get poached, their coaches get poached, and the
gap is so it's widened so much. It's just silly.
So if I'm the fan of a G five team,
I have two options. I can hope that one of
our G five teams represents all of the G five

(41:25):
and can win one game in the playoff, or sixteen
G five teams can play in an actual playoff of
our own. We can have fun. There might be three
more games for my team if they get hot. Why
in the world would you not want that? I don't
understand it. I almost think at this point it's like

(41:47):
they dug in so hard. They don't like when people
like me say that they should have a playoff, So
they've dug in so hard that now it's just like,
we're just gonna keep being a thorn in everybody's side
and listen to you wind up it. That's essentially what
it is. And I'll keep whining because it's ridiculous. It's

(42:07):
ridiculous that Oregon and Old Miss get a bye week
and those other four programs are fighting for their lives
in round one, Like what is this? This is insane. Obviously,
Penn State last year had boise but at least it
was a pretty good Boisey team. These teams are like
ten and two. They're not even undefeated. Tulane already got

(42:29):
crushed by Old Biss. That was when their coach was
checked in. He's already out the door. He's at Florida
telling DJ Lagway to get the hell out of there,
which I love, by the way, I really like some wrong.
I like that dude. I love the way he went
about the Lagway situation. And it seemed he did not
like his competitive fire, which is really cool. So when

(42:53):
we look at these playoff games, when we look at
Oklahoma hosting Alabama and now Oklahoma has beaten them twice
in a row, including this year in Tuscaloosa. And Brent Vetnables,
who was potentially on the hot seat entering into this
year with an incredibly tough schedule. Making the playoffs at
Oklahoma is really impressive to get the opportunity to beat Alabama.

(43:18):
So far as my rooting interest, I'll be rooting for Oklahoma,
that's for sure. As far as the game, I just
don't think Alabama's going to be able to run the
ball at all against this Oklahoma defense again, because they
can't seem to run against any good defense. Now you
put Ty Simpson into the position where he's got to
do it all and he'll get his a little bit,

(43:40):
but a hostile environment, that defense, that defensive line at Oklahoma,
I can't see Bama scoring more than seventeen high water
mark seventeen. On the flip side, the Oklahoma offense has
been pretty dreadful as well. Remember all the buzz about
John Mattier early on, particularly after that Michigan game. So
he comes in, pieces up Michigan right, and him and

(44:05):
his offensive coordinator who had come into Oklahoma from Washington State,
all this Heisman buzz. He was the Heisman front runner.
He gets injured, hurts his hand, and comes back in
a couple of games, lays an egg against Texas, and
people keep making excuses about this injury, like week after
week after week, but it's clear he's totally healed. He's

(44:26):
just not that good. He puts the ball in danger,
not that great to a passer, and consistently tries to
play hero ball. He's not great at processing coverages. Fantastic athlete,
and he makes some really wild plays every now and again.
Hell of a competitor. You love a guy like that
on your team, but how far can that guy take you?

(44:48):
Boom er bus dude. Ultimately, I think Oklahoma wins that
game at home as one and a half point dogs.
I'm gonna take OU twenty one to seventeen. In they
will be the one heading to face Indiana. Now Indiana
awaiting the winner of these guys. And this is an
interesting question. So you've got a big ten SEC matchup regardless,

(45:14):
You've got Indiana in either Alabama or Oklahoma. For some reason,
I still have a hard time wrapping my mind around
Oklahoma being an SEC team, but they are, and Indiana
is going to be playing one of those guys. Now,
Indiana represents a much more difficult opponent for Ohio State

(45:36):
than either of those teams, so knowing that Ohio State
could meet Indiana again in the National Championship or potentially
one of these guys gets hot, beats them, beats Texas
Tech or Oregon and makes the National Championship. Who are
you rooting for? Are you rooting for Indiana because they're

(45:57):
a Big ten team, because you like the story, because
you like an Indiana Or are you rooting for Indiana
getting knocked off because they're a tougher opponent for Ohio
State potentially in the National Championship game? Or do you
want Indiana to be there to get revenge. Can't wait
to hear your answer on that one. The other big game,

(46:17):
of course, Miami heads to Kyle Field, a massive home
field advantage, a monster of a stadium, one hundred and
ten thousand, full of very very strange traditions and the
yell Boys. Miami not played many times outside of the
state of Florida this year, but a few times they
have hasn't gone great. They did what Pittsburgh. They're kind

(46:38):
of finishing the season strong. Texas A and m has
been waiting forever to be on the big stage. They
got lucky with the schedule this year. They made it
all the way to the end and just had one
kind of tough matchup that they lost, so they finished
eleven and one. I don't think they're that good, but
they're good enough to do everything they should have done.

(47:00):
There's a lot to be said about that. Mike Alco
has been fantastic for them, and you got to feel
good for fans who have not won anything in so long.
But at the same time, they throw so much money
at the problem that it's tough to feel It's tough
to feel good for them, you know what I mean,
Like they when you got that much money and you
just recklessly spend to try to get better, it's just like, yeah, whatever,

(47:22):
you guys are just idiots. But as far as the matchup,
who's the easier matchup for Ohio State? It is definitive
the easier matchup for Ohio State between Miami and Texas
A and m is Texas A and m And we
went over this the other night. Texas A and M's
defensive front. While good players, they're stagnant, they don't move.

(47:46):
Miami moves considerably. It's a lot more. They've also got
probably better players. They do got better players, but it's
the movement that the Ohios did offensive line has struggled with.
They've shown us this against Wisconsin, against Purdue, and again
in the most recent game against Indiana. So if Texas
A and M wins this game, I'm not the least

(48:08):
bit concerned about Ohio State's round one round their first game.
If Miami wins the game, and I am leaning towards
Miami winning this game, that's a matchup that is somewhat
concerning because Carson Beck can get hot. If he gets hot,
that's a very good offense. If he doesn't get hot,

(48:29):
he throws picks and it's a beat down. But he
has it in him to get hot. So in this game,
I'm leaning Miami. Texas A and M's defense just fifty
third and opponent points per game, and Miami, I think,
is probably gonna take this one in pretty healthy fashion.

(48:52):
That's where I'm leaning here, and I think it's gonna
be Ohio State Miami, though I would much prefer play
Texas A and M. I used to know what you
guys think about that one as well. Anyway, I think
this is like the third show I've done today. My pipes, man,
my pipes are hurting me. I do appreciate you guys
so very much. Let me pop in and make sure

(49:14):
you got nothing important in here for me to address
that I missed here. Oh my guy brandinggo Brady Edmonds
is awesome. Love seeing him lead the class. Kid bleeds
scarlet and gray and Brandigo's absolutely right any one of
these guys makes a decision. He's the first one to
get out there on Twitter and like, congratulate him. If
a guy has a decision coming, he's saying something positive.

(49:36):
He's done a fantastic job leading like you would expect
from a quarterback and that's just awesome to see. So
definitely a guy that makes you proud, makes you proud,
and a guy who's uh you know who grew up
a Buckeye fan out in California. So anyway, appreciate you guys.
Thank you so much for joining us here at Buckeye Huddle.

(49:57):
We hope to see you next Monday. Back here at
eight pm live Wednesday as well. In the meantime, you
can catch me over at Chuck on Books and catch
us on the book a Huddle channel for I mean
so much stuff, just tons of stuff. Me and Mark
will have some more capsules here coming up soon and
we appreciate you guys. Talk to you soon.