December 1, 2025 • 23 mins
Buckeye Weekly: Ryan Day's Insights and Big Ten Championship Preview
In this episode of the Buckeye Weekly Podcast, hosts Tony Gerdeman and Tom Orr dive into their analysis of the upcoming Big Ten Championship Game between Ohio State and Indiana. They discuss Ryan Day's teleconference insights, reflecting on the team's performance, preparations, and the challenges ahead. The conversation covers topics such as the impact of travel delays, player injuries, game strategies, and the significance of winning the conference title. Additionally, they reflect on the depth and talent of both teams, and the importance of maintaining focus after a big win against Michigan. Tune in for an in-depth preview of this high-stakes matchup and thoughts on how Ohio State can secure the victory.
00:00 Introduction and Welcome
00:10 Big Ten Championship Game Preview
00:53 Ohio State's Preparation and Challenges
03:26 Balancing Emotions and Playoff Mindset
07:03 Player Health Updates
09:41 Offensive Line Performance
13:02 Importance of Winning the Big 10 Championship
17:20 Respect for Indiana and Final Thoughts
22:51 Closing Remarks and Upcoming Content
In this episode of the Buckeye Weekly Podcast, hosts Tony Gerdeman and Tom Orr dive into their analysis of the upcoming Big Ten Championship Game between Ohio State and Indiana. They discuss Ryan Day's teleconference insights, reflecting on the team's performance, preparations, and the challenges ahead. The conversation covers topics such as the impact of travel delays, player injuries, game strategies, and the significance of winning the conference title. Additionally, they reflect on the depth and talent of both teams, and the importance of maintaining focus after a big win against Michigan. Tune in for an in-depth preview of this high-stakes matchup and thoughts on how Ohio State can secure the victory.
00:00 Introduction and Welcome
00:10 Big Ten Championship Game Preview
00:53 Ohio State's Preparation and Challenges
03:26 Balancing Emotions and Playoff Mindset
07:03 Player Health Updates
09:41 Offensive Line Performance
13:02 Importance of Winning the Big 10 Championship
17:20 Respect for Indiana and Final Thoughts
22:51 Closing Remarks and Upcoming Content
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello, everybody, Welcome to the Buckeye Weekly Podcast. I'm Tony
Gerdaman here as always with Tom or Tom.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
How's it going, Tony? You would get to do the
second half of our first set of previews question Mark
for the Big Ten Championship game, did a show on
Sunday with Kurt, you know, reviewing what we learned from
Kurt Signetti on the Sunday press conference, and then ended
up talking so long about that that I was like, well,
it's a whole separate thing with what we heard you
(00:30):
heard from Ryan Day, and it was so interesting. I
don't think there was a single question about Purdue on
the Kurt Signetti press conference, and there were a whole
bunch of questions about Michigan on the Ohio State and
Predu obviously was a day earlier. I don't think that
was the reason why there was only you know, there
were no questions about that game, but I did. I
did think that was an interesting juxtaposition, and then that
(00:50):
sort of makes you wonder. Okay, Indiana very clearly was
able to turn the page immediately after that game and
had a head start of a day on Ohio State
and then Ohio State's playing up delayed and they didn't
get home until late on Saturday night. So you wonder
if Indiana is starting this week with a little bit
of a head start.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Yeah, I think I think coaches think that way.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
You know.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
That's why I say never wants to play a night
game before Michigan, and now they've effectively played a night
game before the Big Ten Championship game because they were
stuck on an airplane. But Ryan Day did admit that
it's not a bad place to be stuck. If you're
gonna be stuck on an airplane or at the airport,
do it after beating Michigan and you just get to
(01:35):
hang out with everybody. And I did like that, he said.
And basically pretty much everybody went to bed after that
because then they got home, you know, late, and it
kept them from going out running around. And he's like,
not that we have guys that go out and run around,
but after beating Michigan, you just never know, you know,
saying that laughingly, like you know, at least you didn't
(01:58):
you avoided all of that. And boy, looking at this,
it looked like he had not gotten much sleep since
since getting home, and I tried to ask him about that,
but he went in a different direction in terms of
like when does your when did your Sunday begin, because
I don't know that it may have begun on the plane,
which he did say there was already breaking some things
(02:19):
down on the plane, but it looked like a man
who had not slept much and I'm not sure he
will sleep much until next Sunday.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Yeah, I don't know if he has a pullout so
far or something in his cat in his office, but
he Yeah, this may be a live at the office
or as close as he comes to living at the
office kind of week. Because you know, they have they
have a challenge ahead, and I'm sure you know, I'm
sure they have had their q their gas and their
QC guys sort of breaking down Indiana stuff quite a
(02:49):
bit just over the course of the year in preparation.
You had a feeling they were going to play Indiana
at some point during the course of the year. So
this is something something that they probably have gotten a
good bit of a head start on breaking down some
of that film. But yeah, that is this is this
is going to be a little bit of a little
bit of a compressed week for them. But the fact
(03:10):
that it's a Saturday night game, you kind of get
a little bit of that time back. And then of course,
you know, they hate sitting in the hotel all day Saturday,
so they'll have to you know, it'll be you'll have
to they'll have to watch more film at that point,
just to keep themselves occupied. I guess, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
One of the first questions that he was asked was,
I think a fair one. How do you balance the emotion?
How do you come back from like how do you
resettle and regroup after a win on the field felt
like a national championship where everybody's just so happy, or
a big ten championship where you've accomplished this thing. It's like,
(03:49):
that's great, but we also need to go accomplish something
else next week as well, and then after that. But
he mentioned that you going through the playoffs last year,
it's great to win a playoff game, you know, like
he didn't say this, but you know, the worst thing
about winning a playoff game, there's another one, and someone'll
say that's the best thing. That's the worst thing. It's
like it just keeps coming until they're finally done and
(04:11):
you can breathe and relax. So yes, We saw them
last year up on every stage celebrating. Boy, they're having
the time of their lives. And then ten days later
they're locked in. And so I get that it's a
concern for us on the outside. These guys have been
(04:31):
so locked in all season long that I would be
surprised if emotionally they're not ready for this game.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Yeah, this is a team that it's not necessarily the
guys that played in those games last season, or at
least the guys that started in those games last season,
but most of the guys, virtually all the guys on
this roster saw what it took to run that gauntlet
last year. You know, Julian Sane wasn't one taking the snaps,
but Julian Sane was sitting in the quarterback room and
(05:00):
it probably watching all the film was that Will Howard
was watching, and you know, seeing what it actually takes
to get through that, and that you can't spend the
next two nights after you beat Tennessee going out and
you know, living it up. You've got to you've got
to turn the page and get ready for Oregon. And
then when you beat Oregon, you got to turn the
page and get ready for Texas and right now they
(05:20):
have to handle their business against Indiana this week. They've
got to turn the page in the Michigan game. You won,
you know, right, Ryan Day Will Will his standard line is,
we're going to enjoy this one tonight and then we're gonna,
you know, we're gonna and and they got to enjoy
it on an airplane and that was it, and then
it's on to the next one. And now they're on
to the next one. The experience that they had last year,
(05:42):
I think it's going to be immensely beneficial for that
moving forward, you know it, having seen what it takes,
se having you know, knowing what that grind is like.
Because you know, a team like Oregon, for example, they
were the number one team in the nation this time
last year. They won the Big Ten championship game, and
then they lost their first playoff game and then they
(06:03):
were out and that was basically just a normal season.
That was a okay, you you know, you win the
Big Ten in two thousand and fifteen and you don't
make the playoffs, but you go and you win one.
You go to the Rose Bowl and you win or
you lose, and that's ending. Your season's over. And so
they didn't really have to do that grind the way
(06:25):
that Ohio State did and Indiana didn't have to do
that grind last year. So it'll be interesting to see
what this you know, how much that benefits. And but
you would you would think having done it once and
having you know, lived it and seen the rewards of
doing it the right way would potentially pay off of them.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
This year, Ryan Day talked so much about routine and
the impact of learning and going through things and experiencing
it so that you can fall back on it. Having
so many of these players that have experienced the playoffs
and the winner go home type of thing, it can
only be unofficial also beneficial. Carnel Tate and Jeremiah Smith.
(07:05):
He was asked how they have recovered, and they said
they came out as good as could be expected. So
that was great, he said, and they will be excited
to play in this one for sure. So tom our
long national nightmare is over. We no longer have to ask,
are you any update on Carnel Tate or Jeremiah Smith?
And Ryan Day doesn't have to talk about it. He
(07:26):
can just say he look, I already said, we're excited
for them. To play. You know, they'll be excited to
play in this one on Sunday, So maybe maybe we
can just allow them to be healthy again and good
enough to go.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
And I think that they were very fortunate the way
the game played out, where I didn't go back and
watch when we did the show rewatching the game, I
didn't really pay attention to how much Carnel Tate and
Jeremiah Smith were out there, for example, in the drive
where they ran nearly twelve minutes off the clock, but
I don't think it was much. I feel like you
didn't see a ton of them, at least in the
(08:04):
last quarter of the game. So you know, to to
have a win over Michigan on the road in a
way that you didn't have to have those guys catching
a bunch of ball, like I think the last target
for Jeremiah might have been maybe right after halftime. Maybe
it just you didn't you didn't see much of them,
(08:25):
I don't think, and I haven't seen like official snap counts,
but I would bet they didn't play more than a
half or two thirds of the snaps in the games.
That helps because then they're safely off on the sideline
and you don't need to worry about someone aggravating something whatever.
Like they were in decent shape last time you saw
them on the field, they should presumably be in just
(08:47):
as good or better shape next weekend. And you know,
as Ryan Day said on the in the postgame press conference,
you know, if that was a if that was an
indoor game, that would have been a very different game.
You know, playing indoors this weekend. I think the game
plan might be a little different this weekend.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
And I think it was interesting after the game. And
sure players are probably feeling no pain after the game.
Jeremiah Smith is running, jogging up and down, slapping fives
with all of the fans. There's certainly no limp like
you had two weeks ago. Never saw any limps in
this game from him or Carneal Tate throughout. And I
was watching for that. So if you didn't know that
(09:27):
they were questionable going into that game, you would have
never known they were questionable. They all seemed fine. And yeah,
we saw a lot of David Adolph again to help
get those guys some arrest as well on some of
the running plays essentially, and then speaking of run the
running plays, Tom and also the offensive line, Ryan Day
(09:49):
said this past game was as good as he's seen
from his offensive line. Forty three knockdowns, as he said,
which I've never heard of before. If you're gonna do
something you've I never heard of before in a good way,
save it for the Michigan game. And they were physical
and you can just dial up a random play. There
(10:09):
is one where I couldn't tell if it was Bennett
Christian or will chas Merrick, but they put TJ guy
down on the ground on a running play. You never
get a great look at his number. But Luke, look,
Montgomery is pulling on one and I don't know if
as a linebacker that fills the hole or whatever. And
he went immediately down to the ground. So there's all
(10:29):
kinds of plays. Maybe that's a good super cut for
somebody to put Together's all forty three knockdowns in this one,
because there were a bunch. And then as he's talking
about his offensive line and how good they do, his
last words were, who got to reload the clip?
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Now? Yeah, I'm sure that getting to forty three knockdowns
involves finishing the play and playing to the echo of
the whistle more than you probably do against rambling or
Ohio or an opponent like that. But yeah, it was
the offensive line was conspicuous in their inconspicuousness, where you
just other than kind of going, boy, the running backs
(11:06):
are really running through some decent sized holes and boy
Julian saying, sure, seems like it has a decent amount
of time in the pocket. You really didn't notice the
offensive line, and you've been noticing the offensive line in
bad ways a lot this year. So yeah, that was.
That was clearly one of the areas where they won
that game. For them to have forty three knockdowns and
the defense to play a total of forty four snaps,
(11:27):
those are two winning numbers for Ohio State, and they
certainly were on Saturday. And the fact that they only
played forty four snaps on Saturday on defense, that's only
going to help keep the defense fresh because they had
the starters out there all the way to the end
of the game. And it was kind of at the time,
it was like, why are you, you know, putting these
guys in peril? You know, relatively, you know, they weren't
(11:48):
out there very much. It was kind of for you know,
three plays or four plays here and there, but you know, boy,
why are those guys still out there when everyone knows
the game's over, And it was like, well, they need
to get their work in. You know, this is this
is the you know, the pitcher who hasn't thrown in
a while. It's like, well, he's just going to have
to throw a couple of a state. He's got to
get some work in. That was kind of the Ohio
(12:10):
State deepen where they they hadn't played long enough and
enough snaps that they had really you were getting to
the point of fatigue. So yeah, that there's a lot
of reasons to feel pretty good about where Ohio State
is right now going into this week. You wonder how
physical there's a week of practice this is because you're
at the point of the year where you don't want
(12:31):
to have anyone get hurt in practice. That might be
an interesting thing to ask Brian about at some point
this week, just how physical is practice this week? Because
you know Indiana is going to be doing some hitting
this weekend, because this is this is a game that
Indiana is going to be coming one thousand miles an hour,
so you need to be ready for that. But also
you've got to balance that with not wanting someone to
get banged up in practice.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Yeah, and there will be recovery time after this game,
but you've got to get to the game first, and
it is an important game for Ohio State. This is
something that he was asked about where the question was
basically Ryan went, you know, every since you got here,
and even before then, it always felt like Ohio State,
it was just a foregone conclusion. Ohio State was going
(13:15):
to be going to the Big Ten championship and that
was just like it was the thirteenth game on the schedule.
And he's like, it may have felt like that may
have felt like a given to the fans of the media,
but it never felt like a given to him. And
it's harder than ever to win this conference, and so
it is important if you have an opportunity to win
it create environment, great crowd as meaning. And then when
(13:39):
he was asked about balancing health and being rested for
the playoffs versus wanting to win the game, he thinks
it's important to win the game to get that one
seed going into the playoffs. It means something. He thinks
it should mean something. But then he's also like, but
there's also if you start changing and expanding the playoffs,
(14:00):
it would it be better three through six play instead
of or along with one and two. To me, it
sounds like if the playoffs, playoffs are gonna expand he's
he's with me. There's no reason to play these games,
no reason to play the conference championship games because conference
championships have been determined long before there are conference championship games.
(14:22):
And it starts to become as much of a punishment
as it does a reward, because eventually you're gonna be like,
so the reward is what it's like a trophy, but like,
it could still be detrimental, and well, I'd rather not
(14:43):
be detrimental. So there is really an outweigh. It does
not outweigh the negativity that could come from it.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Right, You're putting guys in physical peril every time you
go out on the field, so that's you know, that's something.
And you're also putting a bunch of stuff on film
every time you go out on the field. And I
think the biggest thing, though, is that you don't want
and the folks in charge of the sport pretty clearly
do not want teams to go into these games thinking
if we lose, we could drop in the rankings, so
(15:15):
therefore we would be better off not playing these games
at all. And they very last year. They came in
very clearly with the mindset that these teams, you know,
if you lost one of these games, you were not
going to be you know, knocked way down the rankings
for losing. And Day was asked, should these teams, you know,
win or lose? Should both Indiana And'll have to see
you get a buye in the playoff? He's, you know,
(15:36):
sort of started saying he had no idea, I didn't know.
The other teams evolved and then you know, but then
the answer kind of turns a corner and it's like
here comes, here we go. You know, but you're not
supposed to be penalized for losing this game, so both
teams probably deserve a by So it's like, well, so
you do you do know? Then what you think about this?
You just kind of had to you know, him and
Hall and well, you know, I'm not in charge, but
also this is what the people in charge say, So
(15:57):
clearly this is what yeah, and I that would be
my expectation outside of even if someone gets fifty nine
to nothing on Saturday, which I certainly don't think is
going to happen. But even in that kind of circumstance,
I don't know how much you're dropping because these teams
both have good resumes at this point, so you're going
(16:18):
to you know, are you going to drop them? You
know if outside of like a real edge case like that,
if if this is a ten point game or something
like that, I think one's gonna one and three you're
going to come from the big ten and two and
four are going to come from the SEC. And hey,
look at that. You you don't have a rematch set
up in the in the semi finals, so you can
(16:40):
get some all new exciting matchups to watch and for
people in different part of the countries to argue about.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
One of the interesting things that Kurt Signetti said in
his teleconferences, he was asking about Ryan Day, said Ryan
Day is a great coach. He'll be one of the
legends of the game someday. And then Ryan Day was
made aware of those comments saying that, and you know,
it kind of catches him off guard, and you know,
it's very complimentary, appreciate the comment. He's like, I don't
(17:08):
know what to think about it. I've got a lot
of football to coach you, I still got still got
a lot of football ahead of me. And it's just
it's interesting to get other coaches perspective on what Ryan
Day is doing in Ohio State. We know what some
people up north think of Ryan Day and his ascension
for however, but interesting to see Chris Signetti who has
(17:30):
had to come from the FCS ranks and work his
way up and bet on himself essentially, and he thinks
very highly of Ryan Day, and of course Ryan Day
same way thinks very highly of Churse Signetti. Part of
a coaching family. You see, he even mentioned it. He's like, well,
(17:51):
there's a reason, you know, people laugh about googling him,
but he said, it's true. If you know there's it's
out there. You can see all of the history and
the winning that's been out there. And I just think
these are two teams that are gonna be very that
respect each other, and they know that these are the
best teams they've faced all year. It's gonna be the
(18:13):
best challenge, it's gonna be the best test. And the loser,
what do you lose? You gain more from what you like,
from what you learn, than what the loss will take
away from you. Basically, you know what I'm saying, Like,
if you lose, the worst thing that's gonna happen to
you is you probably five seed, which is actually a
(18:36):
pretty good spot. And if you win, you're the one seed,
and if you lose, you're probably still in the top four.
But at the even if you drop to five, that's
kind of where everybody would like to be in the playoffs,
be that five seed. But it's overall, Ryan Day very
respectful of Indiana knows that they can. I think you
(18:57):
have to be respectful when you talked about them the
way that Indiana runs the game, because if you don't
take that seriously, like, Indiana will run through you, run
around you. I never let you touch the ball. So
if you come into this game thinking a, you know,
I'm sure we'll be fine. This is this is a
much different offense, much different team. Last year, I think
(19:17):
Indiana was limited by Curtis Rourke and I again I've
said before, I don't think they're limited by their quarterback play,
and they sure don't seem to be limited by their
offensive line or their running games. So where exactly are
the limitations?
Speaker 2 (19:31):
Yeah? I don't I don't know that there is a
real obvious red flag on this year's team. Just watching them,
you kind of you can just kind of check the boxes. Like,
the offensive line is pretty good. The quarterback obviously, he's
in the highestman conversation. They got a couple of pretty
good running backs, they got a couple good they got
they got wide receivers that I look and I go, oh,
that's their Brandon Innis got it but he you know,
(19:52):
but but their Brandon Innis who has a much higher
usage rate than Brandon Innis. But you know, and then
they've got their their guy who they're going to throw
down the field. And they've got a defensive line that's
pretty good and deep and impactful, and they got a
couple of real good linebackers, and they got a couple
pretty good corners. And it's like all right, I mean
you're kind of you kind of go around the around
the field and you're checking their boxes. And you know,
(20:13):
in the Michigan game. Going into the Michigan game, we
spent all last week telling you, like, look, the middle
of the Michigan defensive line is just not that good,
and Michigan's quarterbacks are just not that good. And you
saw that on the field on Saturday. You're not gonna
hear us say that this week. I mean there's you know,
there's spots where it's like, this is what I would
expect Ohio State to attack first. And if there's stuff
(20:33):
that we can then well, don't worry. Don't worry, friends,
We'll have some podcasts this week to talk about that.
But this is not a team where it's like, oh man,
I look at this offensive lineman and I'm like, he
is going to have a bad time. Like, you know,
you're not seeing that really on this team. And the
running back talent is there. They run hard, they're they're talented,
they hang onto the football for the most part. They've
(20:55):
got good wide receivers. You know, this is this is
not the two thousand and one of Miami Hurricanes in
terms of talent, but it's it's a really well rounded
team where they are going to they are going to
make you earn every single thing that you get. And
so we'll you know, this is this is a mindset
(21:15):
game to a certain degree for Ohio State that it's
probably helpful that they have seen Indiana for two years
now and that this is no longer you know, Tom
Allen had the one year in twenty twenty where it
was sort of like, well, you know, yeah, boy, the
one Indiana is one of the best teams in the country,
but you know, you know, and you know when they
come to Columbus and they lose, and you know, and
(21:38):
then it was like, well, if Ohio State has enough
other teams back out on them, then Indiana can get
into the Big Ten championship game. And I'm sure that's
going to be a conversation this week. Can't wait to
relitigate that one this week, Tony. But you know that
was that was one year, and then you look at
the year before that and the year after that, and
it's like, okay, that's that was six and two for India,
(22:00):
six and one in the Big Ten. Uh they lost
to Ohio State and then they lost the outback bawl
that year, But the year before that they were five
and four. Of the year after that they were to nine.
Indiana has followed up this year's last year's eight and
one conference record with a nine to o season instead
of an to nine conference season. So about as different
as you could be, I would.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
Say, And yet they at least they didn't make the
same changes that what Cam Cameron did with the Helmets
back when he was at Indiana in the early but
oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah, no thanks, love to see
the Hoosias what they're doing now, staying true to themselves.
But also, as Ryan Day said, Chris Signetti has adopted
(22:39):
modern football with the ability to change the rosters essentially
overnight and evaluate talent and develop it. So there you go,
some thoughts on what Ryan Day had to say. We
will be talking to players on Monday and probably Wednesday,
talking to Ryan Day on Tuesday. So againubscribe to the
(23:00):
channel if you've not yet done so, subscribe to the
podcast if you've not done so, and just stay locked
in with us. We'll keep you covered. We'll let you
know everything's going on. There's gonna be a lot going on.
It's a big, big game, one versus two. It does
not happen every year. Sometimes it does not happen at
all until you're not even guaranteed to one versus two anymore,
(23:22):
and yet you're getting one this coming weekend. So looking
forward to bringing that to you on Saturday, and then
every day between now and then, we will have something
for you as well, plenty for you in fact, so
thank you all for tuning in, and we'll talk to
you all later
Hello, everybody, Welcome to the Buckeye Weekly Podcast. I'm Tony
Gerdaman here as always with Tom or Tom.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
How's it going, Tony? You would get to do the
second half of our first set of previews question Mark
for the Big Ten Championship game, did a show on
Sunday with Kurt, you know, reviewing what we learned from
Kurt Signetti on the Sunday press conference, and then ended
up talking so long about that that I was like, well,
it's a whole separate thing with what we heard you
(00:30):
heard from Ryan Day, and it was so interesting. I
don't think there was a single question about Purdue on
the Kurt Signetti press conference, and there were a whole
bunch of questions about Michigan on the Ohio State and
Predu obviously was a day earlier. I don't think that
was the reason why there was only you know, there
were no questions about that game, but I did. I
did think that was an interesting juxtaposition, and then that
(00:50):
sort of makes you wonder. Okay, Indiana very clearly was
able to turn the page immediately after that game and
had a head start of a day on Ohio State
and then Ohio State's playing up delayed and they didn't
get home until late on Saturday night. So you wonder
if Indiana is starting this week with a little bit
of a head start.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Yeah, I think I think coaches think that way.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
You know.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
That's why I say never wants to play a night
game before Michigan, and now they've effectively played a night
game before the Big Ten Championship game because they were
stuck on an airplane. But Ryan Day did admit that
it's not a bad place to be stuck. If you're
gonna be stuck on an airplane or at the airport,
do it after beating Michigan and you just get to
(01:35):
hang out with everybody. And I did like that, he said.
And basically pretty much everybody went to bed after that
because then they got home, you know, late, and it
kept them from going out running around. And he's like,
not that we have guys that go out and run around,
but after beating Michigan, you just never know, you know,
saying that laughingly, like you know, at least you didn't
(01:58):
you avoided all of that. And boy, looking at this,
it looked like he had not gotten much sleep since
since getting home, and I tried to ask him about that,
but he went in a different direction in terms of
like when does your when did your Sunday begin, because
I don't know that it may have begun on the plane,
which he did say there was already breaking some things
(02:19):
down on the plane, but it looked like a man
who had not slept much and I'm not sure he
will sleep much until next Sunday.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
Yeah, I don't know if he has a pullout so
far or something in his cat in his office, but
he Yeah, this may be a live at the office
or as close as he comes to living at the
office kind of week. Because you know, they have they
have a challenge ahead, and I'm sure you know, I'm
sure they have had their q their gas and their
QC guys sort of breaking down Indiana stuff quite a
(02:49):
bit just over the course of the year in preparation.
You had a feeling they were going to play Indiana
at some point during the course of the year. So
this is something something that they probably have gotten a
good bit of a head start on breaking down some
of that film. But yeah, that is this is this
is going to be a little bit of a little
bit of a compressed week for them. But the fact
(03:10):
that it's a Saturday night game, you kind of get
a little bit of that time back. And then of course,
you know, they hate sitting in the hotel all day Saturday,
so they'll have to you know, it'll be you'll have
to they'll have to watch more film at that point,
just to keep themselves occupied. I guess, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
One of the first questions that he was asked was,
I think a fair one. How do you balance the emotion?
How do you come back from like how do you
resettle and regroup after a win on the field felt
like a national championship where everybody's just so happy, or
a big ten championship where you've accomplished this thing. It's like,
(03:49):
that's great, but we also need to go accomplish something
else next week as well, and then after that. But
he mentioned that you going through the playoffs last year,
it's great to win a playoff game, you know, like
he didn't say this, but you know, the worst thing
about winning a playoff game, there's another one, and someone'll
say that's the best thing. That's the worst thing. It's
like it just keeps coming until they're finally done and
(04:11):
you can breathe and relax. So yes, We saw them
last year up on every stage celebrating. Boy, they're having
the time of their lives. And then ten days later
they're locked in. And so I get that it's a
concern for us on the outside. These guys have been
(04:31):
so locked in all season long that I would be
surprised if emotionally they're not ready for this game.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Yeah, this is a team that it's not necessarily the
guys that played in those games last season, or at
least the guys that started in those games last season,
but most of the guys, virtually all the guys on
this roster saw what it took to run that gauntlet
last year. You know, Julian Sane wasn't one taking the snaps,
but Julian Sane was sitting in the quarterback room and
(05:00):
it probably watching all the film was that Will Howard
was watching, and you know, seeing what it actually takes
to get through that, and that you can't spend the
next two nights after you beat Tennessee going out and
you know, living it up. You've got to you've got
to turn the page and get ready for Oregon. And
then when you beat Oregon, you got to turn the
page and get ready for Texas and right now they
(05:20):
have to handle their business against Indiana this week. They've
got to turn the page in the Michigan game. You won,
you know, right, Ryan Day Will Will his standard line is,
we're going to enjoy this one tonight and then we're gonna,
you know, we're gonna and and they got to enjoy
it on an airplane and that was it, and then
it's on to the next one. And now they're on
to the next one. The experience that they had last year,
(05:42):
I think it's going to be immensely beneficial for that
moving forward, you know it, having seen what it takes,
se having you know, knowing what that grind is like.
Because you know, a team like Oregon, for example, they
were the number one team in the nation this time
last year. They won the Big Ten championship game, and
then they lost their first playoff game and then they
(06:03):
were out and that was basically just a normal season.
That was a okay, you you know, you win the
Big Ten in two thousand and fifteen and you don't
make the playoffs, but you go and you win one.
You go to the Rose Bowl and you win or
you lose, and that's ending. Your season's over. And so
they didn't really have to do that grind the way
(06:25):
that Ohio State did and Indiana didn't have to do
that grind last year. So it'll be interesting to see
what this you know, how much that benefits. And but
you would you would think having done it once and
having you know, lived it and seen the rewards of
doing it the right way would potentially pay off of them.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
This year, Ryan Day talked so much about routine and
the impact of learning and going through things and experiencing
it so that you can fall back on it. Having
so many of these players that have experienced the playoffs
and the winner go home type of thing, it can
only be unofficial also beneficial. Carnel Tate and Jeremiah Smith.
(07:05):
He was asked how they have recovered, and they said
they came out as good as could be expected. So
that was great, he said, and they will be excited
to play in this one for sure. So tom our
long national nightmare is over. We no longer have to ask,
are you any update on Carnel Tate or Jeremiah Smith?
And Ryan Day doesn't have to talk about it. He
(07:26):
can just say he look, I already said, we're excited
for them. To play. You know, they'll be excited to
play in this one on Sunday, So maybe maybe we
can just allow them to be healthy again and good
enough to go.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
And I think that they were very fortunate the way
the game played out, where I didn't go back and
watch when we did the show rewatching the game, I
didn't really pay attention to how much Carnel Tate and
Jeremiah Smith were out there, for example, in the drive
where they ran nearly twelve minutes off the clock, but
I don't think it was much. I feel like you
didn't see a ton of them, at least in the
(08:04):
last quarter of the game. So you know, to to
have a win over Michigan on the road in a
way that you didn't have to have those guys catching
a bunch of ball, like I think the last target
for Jeremiah might have been maybe right after halftime. Maybe
it just you didn't you didn't see much of them,
(08:25):
I don't think, and I haven't seen like official snap counts,
but I would bet they didn't play more than a
half or two thirds of the snaps in the games.
That helps because then they're safely off on the sideline
and you don't need to worry about someone aggravating something whatever.
Like they were in decent shape last time you saw
them on the field, they should presumably be in just
(08:47):
as good or better shape next weekend. And you know,
as Ryan Day said on the in the postgame press conference,
you know, if that was a if that was an
indoor game, that would have been a very different game.
You know, playing indoors this weekend. I think the game
plan might be a little different this weekend.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
And I think it was interesting after the game. And
sure players are probably feeling no pain after the game.
Jeremiah Smith is running, jogging up and down, slapping fives
with all of the fans. There's certainly no limp like
you had two weeks ago. Never saw any limps in
this game from him or Carneal Tate throughout. And I
was watching for that. So if you didn't know that
(09:27):
they were questionable going into that game, you would have
never known they were questionable. They all seemed fine. And yeah,
we saw a lot of David Adolph again to help
get those guys some arrest as well on some of
the running plays essentially, and then speaking of run the
running plays, Tom and also the offensive line, Ryan Day
(09:49):
said this past game was as good as he's seen
from his offensive line. Forty three knockdowns, as he said,
which I've never heard of before. If you're gonna do
something you've I never heard of before in a good way,
save it for the Michigan game. And they were physical
and you can just dial up a random play. There
(10:09):
is one where I couldn't tell if it was Bennett
Christian or will chas Merrick, but they put TJ guy
down on the ground on a running play. You never
get a great look at his number. But Luke, look,
Montgomery is pulling on one and I don't know if
as a linebacker that fills the hole or whatever. And
he went immediately down to the ground. So there's all
(10:29):
kinds of plays. Maybe that's a good super cut for
somebody to put Together's all forty three knockdowns in this one,
because there were a bunch. And then as he's talking
about his offensive line and how good they do, his
last words were, who got to reload the clip?
Speaker 2 (10:43):
Now? Yeah, I'm sure that getting to forty three knockdowns
involves finishing the play and playing to the echo of
the whistle more than you probably do against rambling or
Ohio or an opponent like that. But yeah, it was
the offensive line was conspicuous in their inconspicuousness, where you
just other than kind of going, boy, the running backs
(11:06):
are really running through some decent sized holes and boy
Julian saying, sure, seems like it has a decent amount
of time in the pocket. You really didn't notice the
offensive line, and you've been noticing the offensive line in
bad ways a lot this year. So yeah, that was.
That was clearly one of the areas where they won
that game. For them to have forty three knockdowns and
the defense to play a total of forty four snaps,
(11:27):
those are two winning numbers for Ohio State, and they
certainly were on Saturday. And the fact that they only
played forty four snaps on Saturday on defense, that's only
going to help keep the defense fresh because they had
the starters out there all the way to the end
of the game. And it was kind of at the time,
it was like, why are you, you know, putting these
guys in peril? You know, relatively, you know, they weren't
(11:48):
out there very much. It was kind of for you know,
three plays or four plays here and there, but you know, boy,
why are those guys still out there when everyone knows
the game's over, And it was like, well, they need
to get their work in. You know, this is this
is the you know, the pitcher who hasn't thrown in
a while. It's like, well, he's just going to have
to throw a couple of a state. He's got to
get some work in. That was kind of the Ohio
(12:10):
State deepen where they they hadn't played long enough and
enough snaps that they had really you were getting to
the point of fatigue. So yeah, that there's a lot
of reasons to feel pretty good about where Ohio State
is right now going into this week. You wonder how
physical there's a week of practice this is because you're
at the point of the year where you don't want
(12:31):
to have anyone get hurt in practice. That might be
an interesting thing to ask Brian about at some point
this week, just how physical is practice this week? Because
you know Indiana is going to be doing some hitting
this weekend, because this is this is a game that
Indiana is going to be coming one thousand miles an hour,
so you need to be ready for that. But also
you've got to balance that with not wanting someone to
get banged up in practice.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Yeah, and there will be recovery time after this game,
but you've got to get to the game first, and
it is an important game for Ohio State. This is
something that he was asked about where the question was
basically Ryan went, you know, every since you got here,
and even before then, it always felt like Ohio State,
it was just a foregone conclusion. Ohio State was going
(13:15):
to be going to the Big Ten championship and that
was just like it was the thirteenth game on the schedule.
And he's like, it may have felt like that may
have felt like a given to the fans of the media,
but it never felt like a given to him. And
it's harder than ever to win this conference, and so
it is important if you have an opportunity to win
it create environment, great crowd as meaning. And then when
(13:39):
he was asked about balancing health and being rested for
the playoffs versus wanting to win the game, he thinks
it's important to win the game to get that one
seed going into the playoffs. It means something. He thinks
it should mean something. But then he's also like, but
there's also if you start changing and expanding the playoffs,
(14:00):
it would it be better three through six play instead
of or along with one and two. To me, it
sounds like if the playoffs, playoffs are gonna expand he's
he's with me. There's no reason to play these games,
no reason to play the conference championship games because conference
championships have been determined long before there are conference championship games.
(14:22):
And it starts to become as much of a punishment
as it does a reward, because eventually you're gonna be like,
so the reward is what it's like a trophy, but like,
it could still be detrimental, and well, I'd rather not
(14:43):
be detrimental. So there is really an outweigh. It does
not outweigh the negativity that could come from it.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Right, You're putting guys in physical peril every time you
go out on the field, so that's you know, that's something.
And you're also putting a bunch of stuff on film
every time you go out on the field. And I
think the biggest thing, though, is that you don't want
and the folks in charge of the sport pretty clearly
do not want teams to go into these games thinking
if we lose, we could drop in the rankings, so
(15:15):
therefore we would be better off not playing these games
at all. And they very last year. They came in
very clearly with the mindset that these teams, you know,
if you lost one of these games, you were not
going to be you know, knocked way down the rankings
for losing. And Day was asked, should these teams, you know,
win or lose? Should both Indiana And'll have to see
you get a buye in the playoff? He's, you know,
(15:36):
sort of started saying he had no idea, I didn't know.
The other teams evolved and then you know, but then
the answer kind of turns a corner and it's like
here comes, here we go. You know, but you're not
supposed to be penalized for losing this game, so both
teams probably deserve a by So it's like, well, so
you do you do know? Then what you think about this?
You just kind of had to you know, him and
Hall and well, you know, I'm not in charge, but
also this is what the people in charge say, So
(15:57):
clearly this is what yeah, and I that would be
my expectation outside of even if someone gets fifty nine
to nothing on Saturday, which I certainly don't think is
going to happen. But even in that kind of circumstance,
I don't know how much you're dropping because these teams
both have good resumes at this point, so you're going
(16:18):
to you know, are you going to drop them? You
know if outside of like a real edge case like that,
if if this is a ten point game or something
like that, I think one's gonna one and three you're
going to come from the big ten and two and
four are going to come from the SEC. And hey,
look at that. You you don't have a rematch set
up in the in the semi finals, so you can
(16:40):
get some all new exciting matchups to watch and for
people in different part of the countries to argue about.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
One of the interesting things that Kurt Signetti said in
his teleconferences, he was asking about Ryan Day, said Ryan
Day is a great coach. He'll be one of the
legends of the game someday. And then Ryan Day was
made aware of those comments saying that, and you know,
it kind of catches him off guard, and you know,
it's very complimentary, appreciate the comment. He's like, I don't
(17:08):
know what to think about it. I've got a lot
of football to coach you, I still got still got
a lot of football ahead of me. And it's just
it's interesting to get other coaches perspective on what Ryan
Day is doing in Ohio State. We know what some
people up north think of Ryan Day and his ascension
for however, but interesting to see Chris Signetti who has
(17:30):
had to come from the FCS ranks and work his
way up and bet on himself essentially, and he thinks
very highly of Ryan Day, and of course Ryan Day
same way thinks very highly of Churse Signetti. Part of
a coaching family. You see, he even mentioned it. He's like, well,
(17:51):
there's a reason, you know, people laugh about googling him,
but he said, it's true. If you know there's it's
out there. You can see all of the history and
the winning that's been out there. And I just think
these are two teams that are gonna be very that
respect each other, and they know that these are the
best teams they've faced all year. It's gonna be the
(18:13):
best challenge, it's gonna be the best test. And the loser,
what do you lose? You gain more from what you like,
from what you learn, than what the loss will take
away from you. Basically, you know what I'm saying, Like,
if you lose, the worst thing that's gonna happen to
you is you probably five seed, which is actually a
(18:36):
pretty good spot. And if you win, you're the one seed,
and if you lose, you're probably still in the top four.
But at the even if you drop to five, that's
kind of where everybody would like to be in the playoffs,
be that five seed. But it's overall, Ryan Day very
respectful of Indiana knows that they can. I think you
(18:57):
have to be respectful when you talked about them the
way that Indiana runs the game, because if you don't
take that seriously, like, Indiana will run through you, run
around you. I never let you touch the ball. So
if you come into this game thinking a, you know,
I'm sure we'll be fine. This is this is a
much different offense, much different team. Last year, I think
(19:17):
Indiana was limited by Curtis Rourke and I again I've
said before, I don't think they're limited by their quarterback play,
and they sure don't seem to be limited by their
offensive line or their running games. So where exactly are
the limitations?
Speaker 2 (19:31):
Yeah? I don't I don't know that there is a
real obvious red flag on this year's team. Just watching them,
you kind of you can just kind of check the boxes. Like,
the offensive line is pretty good. The quarterback obviously, he's
in the highestman conversation. They got a couple of pretty
good running backs, they got a couple good they got
they got wide receivers that I look and I go, oh,
that's their Brandon Innis got it but he you know,
(19:52):
but but their Brandon Innis who has a much higher
usage rate than Brandon Innis. But you know, and then
they've got their their guy who they're going to throw
down the field. And they've got a defensive line that's
pretty good and deep and impactful, and they got a
couple of real good linebackers, and they got a couple
pretty good corners. And it's like all right, I mean
you're kind of you kind of go around the around
the field and you're checking their boxes. And you know,
(20:13):
in the Michigan game. Going into the Michigan game, we
spent all last week telling you, like, look, the middle
of the Michigan defensive line is just not that good,
and Michigan's quarterbacks are just not that good. And you
saw that on the field on Saturday. You're not gonna
hear us say that this week. I mean there's you know,
there's spots where it's like, this is what I would
expect Ohio State to attack first. And if there's stuff
(20:33):
that we can then well, don't worry. Don't worry, friends,
We'll have some podcasts this week to talk about that.
But this is not a team where it's like, oh man,
I look at this offensive lineman and I'm like, he
is going to have a bad time. Like, you know,
you're not seeing that really on this team. And the
running back talent is there. They run hard, they're they're talented,
they hang onto the football for the most part. They've
(20:55):
got good wide receivers. You know, this is this is
not the two thousand and one of Miami Hurricanes in
terms of talent, but it's it's a really well rounded
team where they are going to they are going to
make you earn every single thing that you get. And
so we'll you know, this is this is a mindset
(21:15):
game to a certain degree for Ohio State that it's
probably helpful that they have seen Indiana for two years
now and that this is no longer you know, Tom
Allen had the one year in twenty twenty where it
was sort of like, well, you know, yeah, boy, the
one Indiana is one of the best teams in the country,
but you know, you know, and you know when they
come to Columbus and they lose, and you know, and
(21:38):
then it was like, well, if Ohio State has enough
other teams back out on them, then Indiana can get
into the Big Ten championship game. And I'm sure that's
going to be a conversation this week. Can't wait to
relitigate that one this week, Tony. But you know that
was that was one year, and then you look at
the year before that and the year after that, and
it's like, okay, that's that was six and two for India,
(22:00):
six and one in the Big Ten. Uh they lost
to Ohio State and then they lost the outback bawl
that year, But the year before that they were five
and four. Of the year after that they were to nine.
Indiana has followed up this year's last year's eight and
one conference record with a nine to o season instead
of an to nine conference season. So about as different
as you could be, I would.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
Say, And yet they at least they didn't make the
same changes that what Cam Cameron did with the Helmets
back when he was at Indiana in the early but
oh yeah, oh yeah, yeah, no thanks, love to see
the Hoosias what they're doing now, staying true to themselves.
But also, as Ryan Day said, Chris Signetti has adopted
(22:39):
modern football with the ability to change the rosters essentially
overnight and evaluate talent and develop it. So there you go,
some thoughts on what Ryan Day had to say. We
will be talking to players on Monday and probably Wednesday,
talking to Ryan Day on Tuesday. So againubscribe to the
(23:00):
channel if you've not yet done so, subscribe to the
podcast if you've not done so, and just stay locked
in with us. We'll keep you covered. We'll let you
know everything's going on. There's gonna be a lot going on.
It's a big, big game, one versus two. It does
not happen every year. Sometimes it does not happen at
all until you're not even guaranteed to one versus two anymore,
(23:22):
and yet you're getting one this coming weekend. So looking
forward to bringing that to you on Saturday, and then
every day between now and then, we will have something
for you as well, plenty for you in fact, so
thank you all for tuning in, and we'll talk to
you all later
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