December 22, 2025 • 16 mins
In this episode of the Buckeye Weekly Podcast, hosts Tom Orr and Tony Gerdeman discuss their evening of interviews with the defensive side of Ohio State's ball. On Monday, they spoke with defensive coordinator Matt Patricia, linebacker Sonny Styles, defensive back Lorenzo Styles, Jr., defensive end Kenyatta Jackson, and defensive tackle Kayden McDonald. The common theme was how much of an impact Patricia has made on the entire team.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 3 (00:00):
Figure.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello everybody, Welcome to the Buckeye Weekly Podcast. I'm Tony
Gerdaman here as always and forever in constantly.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
How's it going, Tony?
Speaker 2 (00:12):
We got a college football media version of the baseball
Day Night doubleheader, separate separate admission double header.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
We were here earlier for the offense and head coach
Ryan Day.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Then they cleared the stadium, cleared out all the popcorn
boxes from the media section, and then came back in
for the back end of the double header involving Ohio
State head coach defensive defensive head coach defensive coordinator some
might call him Matt Patricia, and four of the Buckeye players,
So quitting all right, Two styles for the price of one.
(00:43):
Lorando Styles, Junior Sunny Styles, Kenyatta Jackson, and Kate McDonald,
who is one of the bigger personalities on this year's
team that I feel like people don't necessarily know as
well as they should for as high profile a player
as he is and as big a personality as he is.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
And he wears glasses, which tells you he said he
had ten pairs of glasses, and of course he's wearing
his favorite pair because they are a prescription, So it
makes sense. Good job as you're going to be out
and about wear your prescription glasses, especially at night people. So, yes,
this is our first time talking to Matt Patricia since
the bye week. The first bye week is my understanding
because I thought it was Phil fall Camp and somebody
(01:21):
corrected me. He said, no, we actually but a long
time ago. And again everything he had to say is
everything we see when we're watching him after practice, and
that he's having the time of his life, and that
the closeness with the players. And then as the players
were all asked about the same thing, like the first thing,
(01:45):
they would say like, well, what's it like, what's Matt
Patricia like? And everybody's just like he's a nice guy,
and it's like, yeah, that's all. That's all it takes.
It takes more than that, but like he is invested
in each one of them.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Well, and the first time we talked to Matt Patricia,
I'm like, is this an act?
Speaker 3 (02:01):
Like he's in a good mood, he's.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Friendly, he's like smiling, he's like and it's like this
is not what I was told to expect here, and
is this something where you know where he's gonna be
around for a while and then like the real Matt
Patricia is gonna come out. Tony, if this is an act,
he is selling the heck out of it, because it's
(02:25):
when we see you when you're in front of a camera.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Sure you can. I mean, you seem like a decent
person on the camera. I mean, it's anyone can sell
it when you're on camera.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
When we see him around the field, sure okay, but
maybe he's just doing it. Then when you see him
off in the corner with someone, and when you see
the way everyone in the building interacts with him, it's like,
I'm starting to think that he really is just super
happy to be here, really enjoying this and and you know,
(02:53):
I mean really one of the most genuinely beloved people
in this build. And there you know, there are a
lot of coaches in this building that people really love
playing for him. But man, oh man, it feels like
he is right at the top of that way.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
I don't think he's method acting. This is not Matt Patricia.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Day Lewis going on Daniel Dave Patricia, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
He's he one. One of the funny stories was talking
about he's a he's a hugger, and Kate McDonald's hugger
and somebody mentioned that you give him a big bear hug.
He's like, well, you kind of have to. You got
to really get in there. But then he also talked
about how he got some of the Cadenkden McDonald's.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Eye black, like that he does, but he Kate McDonald,
you haven't seen it, kayten donald like he does, like
the brave heart thing with the eye black.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
It is just whole face.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
And so then you know, they hug and was after
the game or whatever, he noticed like his beard on
one side looked like he was thirty years old and
beard on the other side looked like his natural age,
and that's when he realized, oh, this is a Caden
McDonald's eye black, and that's just you know, he wanted
to share that. It's like, that's year, here's a funny
story for you, that sort of thing to give you
an idea of the close one instance of the closeness.
(03:58):
But everybody just talked about that sort of thing. And
it still goes back to what Sunny Style said a
while ago, maybe a month or so go is that
it didn't take long before they knew they were going
to be a much smarter defense, much smarter players playing
for them because the way he teaches it and the
way he Lorenzo Styles said it as well, the way
(04:19):
he uses what they do rather than trying to make
them do what he does.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Right.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Yeah, well, and that's sort of what coaching is. Coaching
is looking at what you've got and going, Okay, this
guy does this well. And that's kind of when you
go back to what the Patriots did all those years.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
Why was New England so good?
Speaker 2 (04:37):
They're always drafting twenty eighth and then they're always trading down.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
So how do they get take those guys.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Who you're you know everyone else is picking before them,
and they turn those guys into a Super Bowl championship defense.
And the answer as well, you pick guys who you know.
You can't necessarily get the guy who's the three down
pass rusher, but boy, you can get the guy who's
really good at this one thing and then put him
in a spot to do this one thing. He has
the advantage here, Big Matt Patricia does of being able
(05:06):
to look at the look at the talent around the
field and go, well, you know, in terms of the
opposing team's offense and my defense, I probably have, uh,
you know, seven of the ten best players out there
in most and you know it's ten out of ten
in a lot of games. You're getting to the point
of year where now it's going to be more like
six out of ten or something like that. But you
(05:26):
have a huge talent evage. You want to know why
he's smiling because he has r Vel Recent Sonny Styles
and Kate McDonald and Kleb Downs and on and on
and on.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
I mean you you just can.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
I can sit there and go name the eleven starters
and probably some of the top backups, and it's like,
all of these people are why Matt Patricia is smiling
all the time.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Well, and another thing, you know, Kenyata Jackson called this
a no name. I think he was the guy that
could coined them no name back in preseason, fall camp
or whatever. So the first team all Americans on this team,
Cad and Curry, Cad McDonald, Sunny Styles, Arvel Ree.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Out of Jackson, I don't think.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
But then you go into the secondary with Caleb Downs,
a lot of no names, they're earning, some earning a
tree and buck Eye Grove and that's a lot of
fun for a guy to coach, and it's not just
the players, it's the people as well. You know, I
think there's a level of person here. Oh yeah, that
(06:24):
mesh as well with what he wants to do well.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
And you know, I think, first of all, it's fun
to coach all those guys. But it is not a
coincidence that those guys are all getting trees in the
year that Matt Patricia's here. Because Matt Patricia is taking
those guys who are very talented and putting them in
a position to succeed in a way that a lot
of people have.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
Not in the past.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
This is not the most talented Ohio State defense in
the history of the program.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
I don't think.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
I mean, maybe we'll see what the NFL, you know,
what comes in out of the NFL Draft. I don't
think this is I don't think this year's Ohio State
defense is wildly more you know, more talented, just pure
talent then last year's ohiostated defense.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
But the results have.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Been better and a lot of that is just Matt
Patricia number one, putting them in position to succeed. But
number two, you know, this goes back to something you
said earlier. I feel like they understand the why, you know.
With with Jim Knowles, it was kind of you know,
it's a set of rules. And believe me, I have
been effusive in my praise of Jim Knowles over the
(07:23):
you know, Jim Knowles did a phenomenal job at Ohio State.
Jim Knowles won a national championship Ohio State with the
best defense in the country. Like this is not a
slight on Jim Knowles, but it just you get the
sense talking to these guys that maybe they.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
Understand the why a little more.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
And if you understand the why, then you can also
understand what the guy you know, not just what the
guy next to you is doing, but why he's doing
that and how all the pieces fit together, and then
you can do all sorts of crazy complex stuff and
if everyone understands, they can still do it quickly. I
think with Jim Knowles, like there is sort of that
(07:58):
Jim Noles learning curve where the first year look like
the first year looks, and then the second year is
better because people understand the why a little more, and
then the third year looks better because they understand the
why a little more. With Matt Patricia, whether it's because
of it's simpler in some ways, or just because he
teaches it in a more effective or a quicker way.
You get to you get to the year three Gymnoles
(08:18):
defense in year one here.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Well you wonder what would a year three with a
whole bunch of talent look like here. But yeah, one
of the things that Sonny Style said is, you know
his progression from last year to this year. And something
that Matt Patricia told him is, like, know the defense
so well that you only have to worry about the offense.
You can focus on the offense. And now he knows
that the Ohio State defense so well that I can
just worry about the offense and what they're doing, know
(08:42):
where they're going, where they're going, and I can get there.
And we saw that against Indiana when he's he's in
the hall making all of the tackles. No miss tackles
this year according to PFF, And is that good. It's
pretty pretty darn good.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
For someone that makes as many tackles as he does.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Now, the first time he misses one, you're out of here.
But yeah, the idea that I know everything about this,
so I don't need to worry about this. I'll just
worry about you.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Well, and what's interesting is you're you know, we're talking
a guy going through a season without missing a tackle.
But the standard is what the standard is here? And
he talked about the Big Ten Championship and Suny Styles
talked about the Big Ten Championship game as well. The
defense wasn't good enough because why was the defense not
good enough? Well, they gave up thirteen points, but the
other team's defense only gave up ten, so their other
(09:26):
team's defense beat them.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
This is this is not a.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Finger pointing thing where it's like, well we you know,
we scored, we gave up only thirteen points.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
That should be good enough to win.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Well, the other team's defense only gave up ten, so
the other team's defense outplayed you.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
That's that's the mindset.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
And you know, we heard a couple of different people
get asked today, is this still an angry team? And
it feels like the answer is yeah, yeah, very much so.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
And it's it's not that you get over the loss
or whatever. It's like time starts to heal and you're like, yeah,
you just feel good. No, there's still pretty upset that
that thing happened. And now they're planning to use that,
and I don't know if it's I think maybe, as
Lorenzo Styles said that they needed to lose that game
to get to where they are now to have this
(10:12):
feeling that they have now. And well we'll see if
that's true or not. But there's no way to know the.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Ultimate yes of that.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
But clearly you've had this happen. The only thing to
do now is use it for the positive and try
to get as much out of that as you can
get a win out of it instead of getting a
second loss out of that same game.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Right, And you know you've seen teams, you know, Texas
A and M. Did you lost the last game and
then what did you do with it? Well, not not much,
and now you lost two games and now your season's.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
Over before Christmas.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
We saw this team last year take a very very
similar circumstance with a thirteen to ten loss in their.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Final game before the college football playoff and turn it
into a positive.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
And you think you would assume there's a lot of
the same guys, both in terms of the coaching staff
and in terms of the player in this building as
there were last year. You would certainly assume they took
they took the correct lesson from it last year, you
would certainly assume that they have the ability to take
the correct lesson from it this year as well.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Yeah, especially when you're being reminded and taught by everybody.
Everybody's been through it and including the coaches, and the
reliance on the coaches is something that Matt Patricia talked
about with. You know, boy, is it tough to lay
off for this this amount of time. You're like, how
do you apply this? Or what do you think?
Speaker 3 (11:29):
You know?
Speaker 1 (11:29):
How would you how does your experience in the NFL
help you with this? He's like, I've never experienced anything
because I'm following everybody else's lead on this one. And
the lead last year led to a national championship, So
why not follow this lead again? And it's just interesting
where it's like he wants to play. The players are
all like, you know, do you are? You? Are? You like?
Do you like this? Left?
Speaker 2 (11:49):
No?
Speaker 1 (11:49):
I want to play it? And you've got this excitement
and it right reminds you of something that urban Meyer
would say when he would talk with lou Holtz. Maybe
we shouldn't even go.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
Down that road, but it's I like to know where
this quote is going.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
It's like, you can't win this game now, you know,
so you have to ramp up in the right way.
But clearly the practices have been ramped up in their
physical and people are ready to play. But the thing is,
you've got nine days.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Hey, hey, they count down. It's my gimmick, not yours.
But this is a little like you know, you hear
this all the time. This is one of these great
sports axioms where you can't win the World Series in
spring training, but you can lose it, or you can't
lose you can't win the National Championship during fall camp,
but you can lose it. You have to make the
best use of your time that you can, and you
(12:37):
have to you know, I think the combination of the
loss and the combination of a real clear stated goal
like this is one of these things where when we
hear the same thing out of everyone's mouth, Boie, Tony,
did you know that this is the opportunity for the
first time to be a repeat National Championship winner. I've
heard that once or twice in the last month. They
(12:58):
are very very clearly stated goals and very clear, you know,
very clear opportunities in front of this team, which all
of that makes you think, boy, all that should add
up to a very focused team, a very you know,
and you're coming off a loss. Once you're coming off
a loss, then then the band aid comes off. It's
no longer well good enough once. Once you lose, that
(13:19):
band aid comes off, and that's when you can do,
you know, the real significant changes that maybe you have
been coming for a while.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Yeah, I'm not expecting some sort of like feeling things
out in this game. I'm expecting the gas to be
you know, the penalty to be down, both offensively and defensively,
because this is what you've been waiting for, this is
what you've been building for. And you still have the
taste of that loss in your mouth and you want
to just get rid of it and move on to
the next thing and start this process going for the
(13:47):
next three games. And of course now when you're asking
them about it, it's always it's just it's Miami. It's
a one game season. You play Miami for the opportunity
to play somebody else. And what they would say last year,
the opportunity play one more game with your brothers. You
never heard that one yet. This year, I'm assuming we will.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
We literally just talked to two brothers, the Styles junior
at Sunny Styles, and they didn't use that, which is like,
I mean, it is one more chance of play with
your literal brother in some cases. So yeah, And I
mean there's the what the prayers, the offensive lineman, the
walk on offensive linemen.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Who are also brothers. Yeah. So but this is that's
what's on the line.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
What's on the line is you don't get on an
airplane back here in the early morning of January first
and come in the next morning and everyone clears your
stuff out and that's it for you know, this group.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
Of players is never together again.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
That's that's what's on the line here in this in
this Cotton Bowl. And then if they win, well, then
they get to do it again and they get to
play someone from the SEC and try and you know,
make the make everyone from one area of the country
or another yell at each other in very specific regional ways.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Anything else, anything else that you wanted to touch.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
On, I think we I've covered it, But we do
have a whole bunch of stuff coming for you this week.
We are treating this a lot like Michigan Week, where
we know Number one fairly consequential football game coming up
relatively soon. And number two, a bunch of you are
going to be traveling, so we are going to be
sort of front loading, especially on the podcast apps, a
(15:20):
ton of content, especially in the Buckeye Weekly podcast feed.
We have started recording a whole bunch of stuff to
fill your to fill your podcast feeds, whether you've been on,
whether you're on the nice list or the naughty list,
you get podcasts for Christmas this year.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Hope you hope you like it.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Hope you like it. I'm not great at rapping WR
or just R, but that will do it from here.
Thank you all for tuning in, getting into thumbs up
if you could. Of course, the five star rating interviews
are always appreciated, so that will do it from here.
Thank you all for tuning in, and we will talk
to you all later
Figure.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello everybody, Welcome to the Buckeye Weekly Podcast. I'm Tony
Gerdaman here as always and forever in constantly.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
How's it going, Tony?
Speaker 2 (00:12):
We got a college football media version of the baseball
Day Night doubleheader, separate separate admission double header.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
We were here earlier for the offense and head coach
Ryan Day.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Then they cleared the stadium, cleared out all the popcorn
boxes from the media section, and then came back in
for the back end of the double header involving Ohio
State head coach defensive defensive head coach defensive coordinator some
might call him Matt Patricia, and four of the Buckeye players,
So quitting all right, Two styles for the price of one.
(00:43):
Lorando Styles, Junior Sunny Styles, Kenyatta Jackson, and Kate McDonald,
who is one of the bigger personalities on this year's
team that I feel like people don't necessarily know as
well as they should for as high profile a player
as he is and as big a personality as he is.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
And he wears glasses, which tells you he said he
had ten pairs of glasses, and of course he's wearing
his favorite pair because they are a prescription, So it
makes sense. Good job as you're going to be out
and about wear your prescription glasses, especially at night people. So, yes,
this is our first time talking to Matt Patricia since
the bye week. The first bye week is my understanding
because I thought it was Phil fall Camp and somebody
(01:21):
corrected me. He said, no, we actually but a long
time ago. And again everything he had to say is
everything we see when we're watching him after practice, and
that he's having the time of his life, and that
the closeness with the players. And then as the players
were all asked about the same thing, like the first thing,
(01:45):
they would say like, well, what's it like, what's Matt
Patricia like? And everybody's just like he's a nice guy,
and it's like, yeah, that's all. That's all it takes.
It takes more than that, but like he is invested
in each one of them.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Well, and the first time we talked to Matt Patricia,
I'm like, is this an act?
Speaker 3 (02:01):
Like he's in a good mood, he's.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Friendly, he's like smiling, he's like and it's like this
is not what I was told to expect here, and
is this something where you know where he's gonna be
around for a while and then like the real Matt
Patricia is gonna come out. Tony, if this is an act,
he is selling the heck out of it, because it's
(02:25):
when we see you when you're in front of a camera.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
Sure you can. I mean, you seem like a decent
person on the camera. I mean, it's anyone can sell
it when you're on camera.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
When we see him around the field, sure okay, but
maybe he's just doing it. Then when you see him
off in the corner with someone, and when you see
the way everyone in the building interacts with him, it's like,
I'm starting to think that he really is just super
happy to be here, really enjoying this and and you know,
(02:53):
I mean really one of the most genuinely beloved people
in this build. And there you know, there are a
lot of coaches in this building that people really love
playing for him. But man, oh man, it feels like
he is right at the top of that way.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
I don't think he's method acting. This is not Matt Patricia.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Day Lewis going on Daniel Dave Patricia, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
He's he one. One of the funny stories was talking
about he's a he's a hugger, and Kate McDonald's hugger
and somebody mentioned that you give him a big bear hug.
He's like, well, you kind of have to. You got
to really get in there. But then he also talked
about how he got some of the Cadenkden McDonald's.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Eye black, like that he does, but he Kate McDonald,
you haven't seen it, kayten donald like he does, like
the brave heart thing with the eye black.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
It is just whole face.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
And so then you know, they hug and was after
the game or whatever, he noticed like his beard on
one side looked like he was thirty years old and
beard on the other side looked like his natural age,
and that's when he realized, oh, this is a Caden
McDonald's eye black, and that's just you know, he wanted
to share that. It's like, that's year, here's a funny
story for you, that sort of thing to give you
an idea of the close one instance of the closeness.
(03:58):
But everybody just talked about that sort of thing. And
it still goes back to what Sunny Style said a
while ago, maybe a month or so go is that
it didn't take long before they knew they were going
to be a much smarter defense, much smarter players playing
for them because the way he teaches it and the
way he Lorenzo Styles said it as well, the way
(04:19):
he uses what they do rather than trying to make
them do what he does.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Right.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Yeah, well, and that's sort of what coaching is. Coaching
is looking at what you've got and going, Okay, this
guy does this well. And that's kind of when you
go back to what the Patriots did all those years.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
Why was New England so good?
Speaker 2 (04:37):
They're always drafting twenty eighth and then they're always trading down.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
So how do they get take those guys.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Who you're you know everyone else is picking before them,
and they turn those guys into a Super Bowl championship defense.
And the answer as well, you pick guys who you know.
You can't necessarily get the guy who's the three down
pass rusher, but boy, you can get the guy who's
really good at this one thing and then put him
in a spot to do this one thing. He has
the advantage here, Big Matt Patricia does of being able
(05:06):
to look at the look at the talent around the
field and go, well, you know, in terms of the
opposing team's offense and my defense, I probably have, uh,
you know, seven of the ten best players out there
in most and you know it's ten out of ten
in a lot of games. You're getting to the point
of year where now it's going to be more like
six out of ten or something like that. But you
(05:26):
have a huge talent evage. You want to know why
he's smiling because he has r Vel Recent Sonny Styles
and Kate McDonald and Kleb Downs and on and on
and on.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
I mean you you just can.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
I can sit there and go name the eleven starters
and probably some of the top backups, and it's like,
all of these people are why Matt Patricia is smiling
all the time.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
Well, and another thing, you know, Kenyata Jackson called this
a no name. I think he was the guy that
could coined them no name back in preseason, fall camp
or whatever. So the first team all Americans on this team,
Cad and Curry, Cad McDonald, Sunny Styles, Arvel Ree.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Out of Jackson, I don't think.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
But then you go into the secondary with Caleb Downs,
a lot of no names, they're earning, some earning a
tree and buck Eye Grove and that's a lot of
fun for a guy to coach, and it's not just
the players, it's the people as well. You know, I
think there's a level of person here. Oh yeah, that
(06:24):
mesh as well with what he wants to do well.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
And you know, I think, first of all, it's fun
to coach all those guys. But it is not a
coincidence that those guys are all getting trees in the
year that Matt Patricia's here. Because Matt Patricia is taking
those guys who are very talented and putting them in
a position to succeed in a way that a lot
of people have.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
Not in the past.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
This is not the most talented Ohio State defense in
the history of the program.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
I don't think.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
I mean, maybe we'll see what the NFL, you know,
what comes in out of the NFL Draft. I don't
think this is I don't think this year's Ohio State
defense is wildly more you know, more talented, just pure
talent then last year's ohiostated defense.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
But the results have.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Been better and a lot of that is just Matt
Patricia number one, putting them in position to succeed. But
number two, you know, this goes back to something you
said earlier. I feel like they understand the why, you know.
With with Jim Knowles, it was kind of you know,
it's a set of rules. And believe me, I have
been effusive in my praise of Jim Knowles over the
(07:23):
you know, Jim Knowles did a phenomenal job at Ohio State.
Jim Knowles won a national championship Ohio State with the
best defense in the country. Like this is not a
slight on Jim Knowles, but it just you get the
sense talking to these guys that maybe they.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
Understand the why a little more.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
And if you understand the why, then you can also
understand what the guy you know, not just what the
guy next to you is doing, but why he's doing
that and how all the pieces fit together, and then
you can do all sorts of crazy complex stuff and
if everyone understands, they can still do it quickly. I
think with Jim Knowles, like there is sort of that
(07:58):
Jim Noles learning curve where the first year look like
the first year looks, and then the second year is
better because people understand the why a little more, and
then the third year looks better because they understand the
why a little more. With Matt Patricia, whether it's because
of it's simpler in some ways, or just because he
teaches it in a more effective or a quicker way.
You get to you get to the year three Gymnoles
(08:18):
defense in year one here.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Well you wonder what would a year three with a
whole bunch of talent look like here. But yeah, one
of the things that Sonny Style said is, you know
his progression from last year to this year. And something
that Matt Patricia told him is, like, know the defense
so well that you only have to worry about the offense.
You can focus on the offense. And now he knows
that the Ohio State defense so well that I can
just worry about the offense and what they're doing, know
(08:42):
where they're going, where they're going, and I can get there.
And we saw that against Indiana when he's he's in
the hall making all of the tackles. No miss tackles
this year according to PFF, And is that good. It's
pretty pretty darn good.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
For someone that makes as many tackles as he does.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Now, the first time he misses one, you're out of here.
But yeah, the idea that I know everything about this,
so I don't need to worry about this. I'll just
worry about you.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Well, and what's interesting is you're you know, we're talking
a guy going through a season without missing a tackle.
But the standard is what the standard is here? And
he talked about the Big Ten Championship and Suny Styles
talked about the Big Ten Championship game as well. The
defense wasn't good enough because why was the defense not
good enough? Well, they gave up thirteen points, but the
other team's defense only gave up ten, so their other
(09:26):
team's defense beat them.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
This is this is not a.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Finger pointing thing where it's like, well we you know,
we scored, we gave up only thirteen points.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
That should be good enough to win.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Well, the other team's defense only gave up ten, so
the other team's defense outplayed you.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
That's that's the mindset.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
And you know, we heard a couple of different people
get asked today, is this still an angry team? And
it feels like the answer is yeah, yeah, very much so.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
And it's it's not that you get over the loss
or whatever. It's like time starts to heal and you're like, yeah,
you just feel good. No, there's still pretty upset that
that thing happened. And now they're planning to use that,
and I don't know if it's I think maybe, as
Lorenzo Styles said that they needed to lose that game
to get to where they are now to have this
(10:12):
feeling that they have now. And well we'll see if
that's true or not. But there's no way to know the.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Ultimate yes of that.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
But clearly you've had this happen. The only thing to
do now is use it for the positive and try
to get as much out of that as you can
get a win out of it instead of getting a
second loss out of that same game.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Right, And you know you've seen teams, you know, Texas
A and M. Did you lost the last game and
then what did you do with it? Well, not not much,
and now you lost two games and now your season's.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
Over before Christmas.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
We saw this team last year take a very very
similar circumstance with a thirteen to ten loss in their.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Final game before the college football playoff and turn it
into a positive.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
And you think you would assume there's a lot of
the same guys, both in terms of the coaching staff
and in terms of the player in this building as
there were last year. You would certainly assume they took
they took the correct lesson from it last year, you
would certainly assume that they have the ability to take
the correct lesson from it this year as well.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Yeah, especially when you're being reminded and taught by everybody.
Everybody's been through it and including the coaches, and the
reliance on the coaches is something that Matt Patricia talked
about with. You know, boy, is it tough to lay
off for this this amount of time. You're like, how
do you apply this? Or what do you think?
Speaker 3 (11:29):
You know?
Speaker 1 (11:29):
How would you how does your experience in the NFL
help you with this? He's like, I've never experienced anything
because I'm following everybody else's lead on this one. And
the lead last year led to a national championship, So
why not follow this lead again? And it's just interesting
where it's like he wants to play. The players are
all like, you know, do you are? You? Are? You like?
Do you like this? Left?
Speaker 2 (11:49):
No?
Speaker 1 (11:49):
I want to play it? And you've got this excitement
and it right reminds you of something that urban Meyer
would say when he would talk with lou Holtz. Maybe
we shouldn't even go.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
Down that road, but it's I like to know where
this quote is going.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
It's like, you can't win this game now, you know,
so you have to ramp up in the right way.
But clearly the practices have been ramped up in their
physical and people are ready to play. But the thing is,
you've got nine days.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
Hey, hey, they count down. It's my gimmick, not yours.
But this is a little like you know, you hear
this all the time. This is one of these great
sports axioms where you can't win the World Series in
spring training, but you can lose it, or you can't
lose you can't win the National Championship during fall camp,
but you can lose it. You have to make the
best use of your time that you can, and you
(12:37):
have to you know, I think the combination of the
loss and the combination of a real clear stated goal
like this is one of these things where when we
hear the same thing out of everyone's mouth, Boie, Tony,
did you know that this is the opportunity for the
first time to be a repeat National Championship winner. I've
heard that once or twice in the last month. They
(12:58):
are very very clearly stated goals and very clear, you know,
very clear opportunities in front of this team, which all
of that makes you think, boy, all that should add
up to a very focused team, a very you know,
and you're coming off a loss. Once you're coming off
a loss, then then the band aid comes off. It's
no longer well good enough once. Once you lose, that
(13:19):
band aid comes off, and that's when you can do,
you know, the real significant changes that maybe you have
been coming for a while.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
Yeah, I'm not expecting some sort of like feeling things
out in this game. I'm expecting the gas to be
you know, the penalty to be down, both offensively and defensively,
because this is what you've been waiting for, this is
what you've been building for. And you still have the
taste of that loss in your mouth and you want
to just get rid of it and move on to
the next thing and start this process going for the
(13:47):
next three games. And of course now when you're asking
them about it, it's always it's just it's Miami. It's
a one game season. You play Miami for the opportunity
to play somebody else. And what they would say last year,
the opportunity play one more game with your brothers. You
never heard that one yet. This year, I'm assuming we will.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
We literally just talked to two brothers, the Styles junior
at Sunny Styles, and they didn't use that, which is like,
I mean, it is one more chance of play with
your literal brother in some cases. So yeah, And I
mean there's the what the prayers, the offensive lineman, the
walk on offensive linemen.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Who are also brothers. Yeah. So but this is that's
what's on the line.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
What's on the line is you don't get on an
airplane back here in the early morning of January first
and come in the next morning and everyone clears your
stuff out and that's it for you know, this group.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
Of players is never together again.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
That's that's what's on the line here in this in
this Cotton Bowl. And then if they win, well, then
they get to do it again and they get to
play someone from the SEC and try and you know,
make the make everyone from one area of the country
or another yell at each other in very specific regional ways.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Anything else, anything else that you wanted to touch.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
On, I think we I've covered it, But we do
have a whole bunch of stuff coming for you this week.
We are treating this a lot like Michigan Week, where
we know Number one fairly consequential football game coming up
relatively soon. And number two, a bunch of you are
going to be traveling, so we are going to be
sort of front loading, especially on the podcast apps, a
(15:20):
ton of content, especially in the Buckeye Weekly podcast feed.
We have started recording a whole bunch of stuff to
fill your to fill your podcast feeds, whether you've been on,
whether you're on the nice list or the naughty list,
you get podcasts for Christmas this year.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Hope you hope you like it.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Hope you like it. I'm not great at rapping WR
or just R, but that will do it from here.
Thank you all for tuning in, getting into thumbs up
if you could. Of course, the five star rating interviews
are always appreciated, so that will do it from here.
Thank you all for tuning in, and we will talk
to you all later
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