August 1, 2025 • 39 mins
Buckeye Weekly Podcast: Ohio State Fall Camp Insights & Player Updates
In this episode of the Buckeye Weekly Podcast, hosts Tony Gerdeman and Tom Orr discuss their observations from Ohio State's second day of fall camp at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center. They provide insights on player performances, notably from quarterbacks and running backs, and discuss interviews conducted with coaches Brian Hartline and Matt Patricia, as well as players like Jeremiah Smith and Brandon Inniss. Tune in to hear updates on player progress, injury status, and coaching strategies as the team gears up for the upcoming season.
00:00 Introduction and Setting the Scene
01:00 Quarterback Observations and Analysis
05:53 Eddrick Houston Injury Update
10:55 Freshman Running Backs Impress
17:27 Defensive Strategies and Player Roles
19:59 Padded Practice and Tackling Drills
20:58 Matt Patricia's Coaching Philosophy
21:59 Kenyatta Jackson's Leadership
24:17 College vs. NFL Coaching Differences
26:33 Preseason Preparations and Scrimmages
29:48 Player Development and Roles
30:43 Wide Receivers' Insights and Experiences
38:35 Concluding Thoughts and Tomorrow's Preview
In this episode of the Buckeye Weekly Podcast, hosts Tony Gerdeman and Tom Orr discuss their observations from Ohio State's second day of fall camp at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center. They provide insights on player performances, notably from quarterbacks and running backs, and discuss interviews conducted with coaches Brian Hartline and Matt Patricia, as well as players like Jeremiah Smith and Brandon Inniss. Tune in to hear updates on player progress, injury status, and coaching strategies as the team gears up for the upcoming season.
00:00 Introduction and Setting the Scene
01:00 Quarterback Observations and Analysis
05:53 Eddrick Houston Injury Update
10:55 Freshman Running Backs Impress
17:27 Defensive Strategies and Player Roles
19:59 Padded Practice and Tackling Drills
20:58 Matt Patricia's Coaching Philosophy
21:59 Kenyatta Jackson's Leadership
24:17 College vs. NFL Coaching Differences
26:33 Preseason Preparations and Scrimmages
29:48 Player Development and Roles
30:43 Wide Receivers' Insights and Experiences
38:35 Concluding Thoughts and Tomorrow's Preview
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 Moore.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Tone.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
How's it going, Tony?
Speaker 2 (00:10):
I woke up this morning to walk the dog and
it was fifty eight degrees outside, and you know what
I thought, It feels like football.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Feels like football. Certainly did. We were out here at
we are curly still here at the Ohio State University
Woody Hayes Athletic Center following practice number two of fall camp.
Following interviews with Brian Harline and Matt Patricia and Jeremiah Smith,
Cardell Tay, Bryce and Rodgers, Brandon and as David Adolph
Mylon Graham. I think I got everybody.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
I think you got everybody. You got everyone. Those up
my tables.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
So we were going to discuss what we saw today,
what we heard. Of course, we get some super chats,
regular chats. Go ahead and throw them in there and
we'll get to them. As I think we probably have
to be out of here like twelve thirty, same as yesterday,
perhaps as I talked this out to the rest.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Of the team, and the tone of your voice, yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
So again, this was not a great day for viewing
the quarterbacks Tom because the quarterbacks were the far side
of the field yonder with people in between, players in
between for much of the day as well, so and
from what we could see, a lot of this is
again just swing passes, dump offs, checked outs, not a
(01:23):
lot of downfield stuff. So I don't know that there
are any grand conclusions to be made from the quarterbacks.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Today, No, I don't. I don't think anyone's ready to
proclaim a starter. I did think that Lincoln Kinghols had
another nice day. There were a couple downfield balls that
I saw. You know, there's two plays going on in
two different fields at the same time, so you're kind
of looking back and forth, and sometimes they're happening at
the same time, so you can only see one at
a time. I saw a couple downfield throws. He had
(01:49):
a nice one to Bryson Rodgers at one point. He
had a nice throw to Carneal Tit at one point.
He just he's looked very much in control of things.
And that's not to sedually insane, hasn't. It's just there
were a couple of times that I looked and saw
downfield throws. It feels like the checkdown stuff that's been
there very consistently. Both guys have got a really nice
(02:10):
job with that. I just I saw a couple of
times when keen holes had a nice ball downfield. I
don't remember a saying one that was kind of comparable,
and there were just a couple of keen holes. I
just I'm always very reticent to draw real firm conclusions
from a bunch of little anecdotal pieces of data, which is,
you know, I don't we don't have a head to head.
(02:31):
And you saw numbers coming out of the first practice,
like some people were kind of putting out, here's the
passing stats, and it's like, I don't know which portion
of practice that was from that was not comprehensive throughout
the day. So you know, I would be a little
hesitant to draw like real firm conclusions from like well
his completions aprenttages x versus why it's you know, there's
(02:53):
a reason that the coaches walk out of here every
day and say, well, we really got to get back
on the film and looks. I mean, Jeremiah Smith talked
about that when he was talking It just that Patricia
talked about that in terms of the defense. It's just
you're looking at individual things or watching one area of
the field, and when you're doing that, you're missing a
bunch of other stuff.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Yeah, I will say I did see Lincoln Kenots taking
a lap.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
He did take a lot.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Something happened.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
I think that might have been a fumbled snap, because
I don't think I saw an interception. But yeah, you
saw a couple of times. I did not see Julian
saying take a lap. I did see Eli Handlerrick Handler.
I asked, I made a put in a requestion Jerry
I made that he changed his name to Eli brick
Layer because I am just I'm never going to get
it right, and I'm very sorry. At some point it's
not my fault.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
If you get a petition going like four hundred, somebody has.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Changed dot org thing it worked in twenty twenty.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
You have to legally change your name just to make
it easier on people. So again with the quarterbacks, two
days and pads go on pretty soon and then not
still can't hit the quarterbacks right, but you know, it's
been interesting to watch things moving. And again these are
split fields. So well, this quarterback will have two fifths
(04:07):
of a starting offensive line, and this quarterback will have
three fifths and this quarterback will have one third of
the starting receivers. And you know, and.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Jere Smith was on one field, Carnel Tate was on
the other side.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
And you will Chasmerck was in and out today in
terms of his availability. So there is no one and two.
And I'm watching people like trying to write down the
defensive line and the offensive it's it's all just a mix.
Like the what you came out of spring knowing is
still the same, other than bo Atkinson is now in
(04:41):
the mix. So yeah, but yeah, overall with the quarterbacks,
it was interesting to see again with the split fields,
they're running the same plays and it looked to me
like they were running some rpo stuff because on this
field it would be a run and this field it
would be a pass. And I'm wondering if the coverages
are different, because if they're not, then they should be
the same, like the read should be the same unless
(05:02):
the coverages are different. And so then again, this guy
throws a completion, but maybe it's the wrong read, and
well that's what we talked about yesterday, where maybe you
go fifteen of nineteen, but if you're not watching the
first read long enough and you're checking down immediately and
you're completing a pass versus somebody else going six or fourteen,
but reading the right thing and throwing it and having
(05:24):
the number four, five six.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Receiver drop it or not get open.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Right. So that is that's the plus play, and the
completion over here is the negative place. So it's hard
to just judge on completion percentage. This is not the
spring game too. You can't just base everything on statistics.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Yeah, this is all of this stuff I think is
legitimately too soon to tell. On the quarterbacks, there was
stuff that I don't think was too soon to tell.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
Right.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Number one, I think very positive news. We should we
should get into the Etro Houston thing very quickly. Yeah,
because that was it was sort of the big news
of the day of day one of fall camp. There
was stuff that came out late on Thursday evening that Yeah, okay,
it's not you're you're far from the worst case scenario.
He was out there, he had his helmet on, he
had a big brace on his right knee, and it
(06:15):
seems like, you know, he wasn't out there doing a
bunch of stuff. He was kind of going inside and
working when they with the injured guys, so he was
not out there when they're doing seven on seven kind
of stuff or whatever, eleven on eleven, but he also
was out there running through individual drills like this is
you know, I think there was an immediate concern is
this a season ending thing? Definitely not a season ending
(06:38):
He did not look super thrilled to be having to leave,
and you know, at one point it said something you know,
kind of it just was not real thrilled about having
to keep going back and forth. But you know, it's
this is this is based on where we were twenty
four hours ago. With this, this feels like wonderful news
for Ohio State. Yeah, crisis averted. He was walked looking fine.
(07:00):
You didn't see any noticeable limp.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
It is pretty I mean, it's a it's a nice
leave embrace that he's got going on for stability of Matt.
Patricia was asked about it, and you know, like, was
it was it? Did you breathe a sigh of relieve?
He's like, well, it's always good when they're still out
on the field. So like, even though he's not practicing,
he's watching everything, he's taking taking it in and he's
not just oh, he's just rehabbing today, like he's not
(07:26):
even anywhere near the field because he's too like his
knee is two messed up. That's not the case. He's
he's out there, he's walking around, he's watching, he's taking
it all in, you know, the old mental rep aspect
of things, and you know, just being out there, I
think is that's a sign. I don't know how quickly
he's going to get back to practicing, and they're going
to take it very, very slowly and be as cautious
(07:46):
as you can. But I don't think this impacts his
ready his availability for Texas.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
I wouldn't think so. My guess and I am not
a doctor, but my guess would be days, two weeks
rather than weeks to months where you know, and if
he doesn't play for Texas, I would certainly expect him
to be ready for Washington. You know, we'll see you
have set backs, you have stuff that doesn't heals quickly.
Maybe he's a you know, we Lathan Ransom. I remember
(08:13):
them talking multiple times about what a fast heeler he was.
So everyone's body's gonna respond a little differently. And we
have not gotten the diagnosis on this it's just it's
a right knee, like he's he's out with a knee
right now, And it's like, okay, could you be more specific? No,
in fact, we.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Can't look then you're not on Twitter enough. Tom Well,
because we've seen the slow, slowed down videos. We've got
the doctors die I shoot. Kevin even added a doctor
who was famous on Twitter for like, uh diagnosing yeah,
football injuries, like yeah, it looks like a hyper extension.
He'll he'll be fine or whatever, as long as it's
not this or this. If it's just this, yeah, and
(08:48):
then you know, work comes out that it's i say,
relatively minor compared to what it could have been. Oh yeah, yeah,
and so now that's, as I said, crisis averted and
they can move on to the next day. Taiwan Malone
getting a lot of reps in his place with with
Will Smith because even like Caate McDonald and Will Smith
(09:10):
or you're you're one in two nose tackle, it's you know,
it's we assume it'll be Kate McDonald. But again, as
many reps as you can get for the other defensive
tackles they need them.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Well, it feels like this is one of those things
that could be a blessing in disguise, where this time
last year you had the virus going through the offensive
line room and it completely blew up the depth chart,
and you had guys all over the place and in
and out in different positions, and you're just mixing and
matching day to day because you never know who you're
gonna have, and a lot you know, this time last fall,
(09:40):
everyone's pulling their hair out in this building over that.
And then you get part way through the season and
it's like, well, good news, We've seen a bunch of
Donovan Jackson at tackle, because there was a while where
we had to throw Donovan Jackson at tackle to have
a functional practice. And then when you needed Donovan Jackson
to tackle, he had been there and it was okay,
and you had a lot of reps and you kind
of knew he could do it. This is something where
(10:03):
you came into the spring and out really out of
the spring, knowing depth of the defensive tackle positions was
the single biggest question mark on this team. Now you're
getting an opportunity for more reps or Taiwan along with
the ones more reps with you know, with Will Smith
more I mean you get, you're just sure and in guys,
would you love to have Edward Houston out there because
(10:23):
he's still relatively young. Absolutely, you would love to have
edricuci yet as reps. But if he's not getting those reps, well,
you're getting more reps for guys who are going to
need them. Jason Moore, You've got to get those guys
out the more because you're going to need more than
just your ones against Texas and Texas's this month.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
So there you go. There's there's the two main stories
of practice. That's basically no no news on the quarterback,
good news on Edric Houston. Let's talk about some of
the other things that we saw in practice toy today
that impressed me. I can start with Turbo Rodgers yep,
freshman running back and again running backs in camp, no pads,
(11:03):
no tackling, like you can only only blow up so
much basically, but every time we've watched him in these
two practices, yeah, sure he comes out of the scrum
because there's no tackling, but he just looks so slippery,
so quick and hard to find. Yeah, because you're like,
(11:25):
I don't even know who you know, what's going on?
And then here comes Turbo Rodgers out of it that
he's been impressive and he wasn't here for the spring,
and so I asked Brian Hartline, with all of these caveats, look,
I know you can't make any judgments about a running back,
but what have you what are your thoughts been? And
he's like, well, just likely said. You come in and
you're behind everything. You're learning how to do, how to
(11:47):
be a bucket, You're learning what the standards are, You're
learning all of these different things of how you have
to operate, let alone what's going on on in the
football field. But he's got it, wants to learn, has
a ton of energy and you can see it out
there every single time for sure.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
And yeah, getting here in June, this being your second practice,
like you're still learning how they practice here, and I
know they kind of talk about it and they will
kind of dry run it, but they have not had
everyone out here with the coaches and footballs and running
a full practice before. So that was Thursday with your
first practice. Friday's your second practice. I remember when Quinn
Yours got here in twenty twenty one and it was
(12:21):
like he's trying to figure out where locker room guy is,
you know, and and Turbo Rogers has been here since
June and along with some of the other guys. But
you're still, you know, your first time, your second time,
you're still sort of figuring out, Okay, I know we're running,
where are we running? Okay, okay, this goes, we go
to this station next, and all that kind of stuff.
But yeah, he was someone who you just you see
(12:42):
these flashes, and that's that's really all it is at
this point. But you see these flashes where you know,
every once in a while you'll get a drill where
it's a handoff and then he's kind of running right
at you. You can kind of get the sense for
if I was a defender trying to tackle this guy,
what would that be like? And there's there's a lot
of wiggle there, and it's it was the two they
jumped out to me today was Caleb Downs for sturning
(13:02):
a punt and Turbo Rogers running the ball. And it's
just like, if I was trying to tackle one of
those guys, my torso would go one direction, my lower
legend with the other would be like the magicians that
saw the people in half. That would have been me
trying to tackle some of these guys, but real yes,
where he would just be like and now I'm two people. Congratulations.
(13:22):
It's you see it with him early and he's listed
at five eight. Now, when you're listed at five eight,
it's never because you're five to nine and a half.
You might be five to seven. But he Yeah, you
see him get lost behind that offensive line and then
all of a sudden he pops out and it's like, oh,
there he is, and there he goes, and if Jack
you know he's probably. I was very impressive Bo Jackson
(13:46):
all through spring, and we saw little flashes from him
today as well. He had a nice reception out of
the backfield at one point. But man that the freshman
running backs as a West has been hurt. He's been
He's still not full go. But the other two freshman
running backs, Bo Jackson and Trobo Rogers. You can see
it right away. There is not a lot of I
wonder what Carlos Laughlan sees here. It's like, oh, nope,
(14:06):
I see it. I get it.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
Yeah. James Peoples again looks really really good and just
so sudden and I'd say jittery, but that doesn't jittery
just like you know, is like back and forth east
and west, like he's he can jitter north and south
kind of. It's like he can move all over the
place and pick up yards. I continue to like what
I'm seeing from Samuel Dixon. Yep, was sam Williams Dixon
(14:31):
on the last year's roster. On this roster, listen as
Samuel Dixon looks more comfortable running between the tackles. So
liking what I see from the running backs. But again
and CJ.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Donaldson too, Yeah, for sure about he's he is this spring.
You sort of saw him in the spring game. He
didn't run much, but when he ran, it was kind
of right up the gut and you boy, he was
moving the pile and picking up yards. You see that again.
And I think he was another one who you saw
maybe out of the backfield once or twice. If these
guys to be weapons in the passing vain, we were
(15:02):
talking earlier that if you know, you figure Texas is
probably going to try and do the same thing to
Jeremiah Smith, and they did the last time. So okay,
so now now that's that's shifting some guys out of
the uh you know, out of the box and taking
them away. That's gonna open some stuff up. Max Clayer
in the passing game and you know, threw down the scene.
But also, man, you get those guys out, you know,
you get those guys dropping off the uh off the
(15:24):
line of scrimmage and and you're spreading the field out.
You just dump one off one of those running backs
in the flat and if they can make a guy
or to miss. You know, we we saw an Ohio
State running back make a pretty big play in the
past game against Texas and the Cotton Bowl. You can
you could see it again.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
Well and and Kremlin Slocklan has told him, you can't
just run the ball at Ohios State. You've got to
be a complete player. And so catching the ball is
going to be a big thing. And we have seen
we've seen quite a bit of east west stuff and
these first two day is sure they'll start getting more
north and south. But yeah, I very much expect the
running backs to be involved, especially with CJ. Donaldson. New
(16:00):
came to college as a receiver and then was moved
to tight end and then moved to running back as
a true freshman. But talking with Lachlan back and at
the one of the ball trips. He's like, Hey, he's
a guy that we can do a lot of different
things with, and he's dropped away to make sure that
he can be more readily available for as much of
a game as possible. So yeah, I feel pretty good
about the running backs. The quarterbacks are you know, but yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
And quarterbacks are fine.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
Yeah, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
I think we came into the fall with the idea
that Julian sam is probably a little bit ahead. Lincoln
Keenhols has looked has looked perfectly fine the first couple
of days. So if it is Lincoln Keenholes, it's not
a by default thing. It's not a they're just defaulting
to seniority, Like I don't, I feel like they're going
to be okay with either one. And now it's really
(16:48):
more of a ceiling thing rather than a you know,
can anyone you know the old Casey Stingle line about
the Mets, Can anyone around here play this game like
they've got? They have a couple of good choices there,
and now the question is just how good and slash
great is that choice?
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Yeah, And the other thing to keep in mind is
that I think we can credit the defense for the
lack of downfield stuff, you know, because those reads aren't there.
And so the corners are playing well and the safeties
are playing well, and I think they're showing that they're
pretty deep at corner now they have four outside corners
that they like right and so they've got a good
(17:22):
too deep there. I think they're doing well, and of
course they're figuring out the safety stuff. I was talking
with Matt Patricia about the safeties. You know, Caleb Downs
continues to move around, and it was something that we've
talked about where I suggested that, you know, well, when
Malie Cartridge in Caleb Downs goes a strong safety, when
Jayalen McLean's and Caleb Downs goes to free safety, and
(17:42):
you're like, well, you can't be too predictable. Here's the
Patricia's talking about. One of the things. One of the
reasons they like Caleb Downs wherever is because he can
communicate with every everyone up and get everybody on the
same page. But also they can show him at any
position and that's not necessarily where he's going to be
coming from. And that's something he talked about. I asked
him about, how do you make sure you're not predictable?
(18:03):
And he's like obviously self scouting. But as we know,
just because a guy's lined up at nickel doesn't mean
he's not going to be the deep safety because of
you know, the receiver goes in the motion. So they're
still working on getting everybody capable of playing every spot. Sure,
Kaleb down skin, Yeah, but in the defense that they
want to run, the safety also has to be able
to play the nickel, and Nichol has to be able
(18:24):
to play safety. And so you're seeing some of that
going on right now.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Well, and I want to make sure we're sort of
explaining the why behind that where you don't want to
be too predictable, where they kind of ran into this
a little bit under Jim Knowles at times where you
could they were you could predictably use motion to get okay,
if I use motion, if I start in this formation
and I use motion, then they're going to rotate, and
they're going to rotate predictably in this way. This is
something that Ross Fulton talked about a number of times.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Georgia got him on it for a long touchdown with
Plaython Ransom rotating to the slot.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Yep, yep. So you've got to be able to have
multiple answers in multiple ways to approach things and be
the disguise things as well. If you can disguise things,
then that doesn't necessarily make it harder on you, but
it makes it potentially harder a lot harder on the offense.
So being able to sort of disguise things is really
really important. And this is kind of this goes to
the same thing we talk about with the wide receivers,
(19:15):
where they want guys to be able to play outside
ad in the slot, because then you can put Marvin
Harrison in the slot, and boy does that create a
mismatch potentially. We saw that with a Nakabuka playing in
the slot at Also outside you're gonna see, you know,
wide receivers doing that all the time. You want to
be able to do that with your safeties as well,
so that you're not predictable. So it's not just you know,
you point out the mic. There's the mic, okay, but
(19:35):
you're also like, okay, there's the deep safety, there's the
boundary safety, there's the nickel. If you can share to
be a little bit more unpredictable, that that complicates things.
That's when you get confusion and that's when you get turnovers.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
Anything else in practice stand out to you what you
wanted to get in here.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
We didn't see a ton of offensive line versus defensive
line stuff, really, and that's just it's not a padded practice,
I believe me. Patricia said that Saturday's practice will be padded,
so maybe potentially we'll see a little more of that.
So a bunch of tackling drills, like day one was
a lot of you know, the fun visual drills were
they are falling on fumbles or they scooping up fumbles.
(20:15):
Today they had the big donut, so they're doing the
take a running leap at the donut you land on
the big mattress pad kind of thing. So you know,
a lot a lot of you're you're in the sort
of fundamentals portion of a lot of this stuff, and
a lot of wide receivers. You run a route, you
run a little hitch, you catch it, then you toss
the ball, and then you run a different route and
you catch it, and you're just you know, trying to
work on getting the right number of steps ending on
(20:38):
the right the right foot to show hey, I'm ending
on this the foot that I would be running to
run a hook or a pearl or whatever and then
keep going so you're sort of you're you're doing it
to then sell it in the future for a you know,
some kind of a stop and go kind of route.
So lots of fundamental stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Let's move to the interviews because Matt Patricia we talked
about how he's good at getting players to do little
things in terms of like, you're good at this, so
we're gonna work on this, We're gonna specialize you in this,
but also maybe add this, and he was talking about
that one of the goals of that. Obviously, yes, you
want to accentuate what players can do, but also it
(21:21):
forces the offense to study, like really predict and study
each player what they're going to have to deal with.
And so the different things that you can have gives
them certainly the edge of having them do stuff, but
then it also just takes time of the offense worry
about all of the different ways that that player might
be involved. But yeah, he still seems very very excited
(21:44):
about all of the toys that he has to work
with here at Ohio State in terms of just what
can I do with sunny styles, what can I do
with r bel rees, what can we do with Caleb
downs and and then mixing those safeties in behind him
or with a nickel or whatever. And he was also
asked about ken YadA Jackson yep, and he was like,
I co sign all everything that everybody's saying about Kenyada Jackson,
(22:07):
I would completely agree with. He was talking about how
ken YadA Jackson like immediately he's like, put me in
front of every line. I want to go first. I
want to do everything. I want to show everybody how
to do everything. I want to be pushed. I want
to push everybody. And he even said like ken YadA
makes him work harder, Like when you're watching him work,
it's like you don't want your players out working you
(22:27):
and certainly other players watching that seeing somebody that is
a leader like that, setting the example that he seems
to really really like Kenyatta Jackson. And at this point,
the way everybody's talking about him, I'm not gonna yeah,
but he only has two and a half for three
and a half career sacks, Like oh.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Whatever, Yeah, let me tell you about the guys who
were here last year who he was playing behind. But
you know, your best teams are your teams where your
best players are your hardest workers, because then you don't
have you know, you don't have the Well I'm going
to coast on this and I can. What do you
hear about Jeremiah Smith all the time? What do you
hear about Caleb Downs all the time? Well, now you're
hearing about how well Kenyata Jackson doing, but also how
(23:07):
well k came out of Jackson's working like those sunny styles.
You hear that about him all the time. You know,
you're hearing it about some of the offensive lineman, Austin
Seerveld maybe one of their best offensive lineman. He was
an iron Buckeye for another you know, a second time.
Maybe this is this is the stuff that that's what
you need in order to be you know, be a
great team. It's not just have talent, but also have
leaders who are going to also sort of set the standard.
(23:30):
And that's been kind of the one of the mantras
around here for years where we talk all the time
about the wide receivers, going back to Evan Spencer and
then then he he showed, you know, he showed.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
Laura.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
Yeah, yeah, those guys had to do it. And then
they showed, they showed how to do it, and Wilson
and on and on and on. But you have that
in a lot of different rooms, and that's sort of
I think these guys all saw from it. T Mololaw
and Jack Sawyer and Cody Simon and all those guys.
Here's what it takes, Denzel Burke, Here's what it takes
(24:06):
to be great, and that you know. So now now
you've seen it, and now the decision is just do
I want to do that or do I not want
to do that? And it seems like a lot of
the people are making the making the decision that they
do want to do that. One thing that strikes me
every time we see Matt Patricia is just how much
he's smiling out there, like and I'm watching it, and
at first I was like, is this just sort of
like a it's just like a show. Is this again?
(24:29):
It's just but it's like every time we see him,
he's out there smiling, He's out there very enthusiastic, very energetic.
And I was thinking today about what he he was
discussing some of the difference between high school or not
high school in college in the NFL, and you know,
the first thing you hear from coaches all the time
it is hash marks. And then you know that the
hash marks is much wider. In college. You end up
(24:50):
with formation, the field formation that it's a much bigger
difference than in in the pros. And that does make
a very big difference. But he also talking about some
formation stuff and all that kind of stuff, and I
was thinking, you know, something else is different about college.
In the NFL, the talent discrepancy between the top teams
and even the middle teams is night and day difference.
You know, the top NFL team to the worst NFL
(25:13):
team is what a two touchdown favorite, you know, seventeen
point favorite.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
It's rare to see something like that.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
Yeah, it's rare to see something even in seventeen twenty points.
Ohio State might be a seventeen to twenty point favorite
in eight games this year, I mean nine games this year.
So you have he has all these different players and
all these talent, really talented players that he can find
these unique roles for that you're stretching. What could be
(25:39):
if he just sort of played it straight up, could
be a twenty point advantage of twenty four point advantage,
like oh let's come up with a creative way to
make this a thirty one point advantage and to have,
you know, to have all of those options, all of
those players available, you know, that is just Yeah, I'd
be smiling too.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
Yeah, because you're coming from a place where you are
trying to find two points three points advantage and you're
you're combing everything that you've got and your twenty odd
defensive players because you don't have a lot, you know,
fifty three man roster. So then now you're like, well,
I'm just gonna have so much more room for activities
(26:20):
and the things that you can can not only come
up with, but you know, like, pretty good chance this
will work. Yeah, and the trial and error and you've
got you know, you got a month to work through it.
But he did say the other big difference is it
would be nice to have some preseason games.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Yeah, opening up against Texas is not ideal, but you've
got to be ready. That's that's one of the fun
parts about college NFL players complained about preseason all the time.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
Yeah, and so coach is not so much. Yeah, you
complain it about it if you have it, you complain
about it if you don't, and you know, the closest
analog that they have two preseason games is they've got
the scrimmages inside Ohio Stadium, and you're gonna have those
coming up. Not this Saturday, not not not the second
of August. You have one presumably on the ninth of August.
(27:07):
You could have one presumably on the sixteenth of August.
That's where you're gonna work out.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
A lot of the kink, because he was talking about
just the mechanics of the event and the mechanics of
getting the you know, getting the play calls down from
from the booth and talking on the headsets and.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
All that kind of stuff, getting all that stuff sorted out.
They're gonna do that. They'll figure that out. But that's
gonna be that's gonna be happening during the scrimmages because
you don't have the preseason game against the against the
Jets in in Canton coming up. You've got to you
gotta figure that out. They have opportunities to do that,
but it's gonna look a little different.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
I was he asked if he's gonna be upstairs or downstairs.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
He was not, but I'm sure he's gonna be upstairs.
I can't imagine. We get asked this a lot, and
I don't. I was not over with Brian Hartline, but
I assume, I assume that Brian Hartline is going to
sort of they'll probably try being upstairs during the scrimmages.
I can't come up with a scenario where it doesn't
make sense for them to both be upstairs, because Heartline,
(28:09):
you've got Bryan Day on the sideline already, so you've
got an offensive guy down there. You want someone upstairs
because those are gonna be guys who are probably talking
a little bit on the headset and then what did
you see? What did you see? And if you're both
in the same place, then you got to bring in
a third party. And they have Devin Jordan, who's the
assistant wide receivers coach, who has been here for quite
a while, obviously former Ohio State player, just like Brian Hartline,
(28:30):
knows the room extraordinarily well, knows how Brian Hartline likes
to do everything extraordinarily well. You have Devin Jordan on
the sideline running the wide receiver stuff, you have Brian
Hartline upstairs. That I mean, no one I don't think
has said that out loud. But having Patricia and Heartline
upstairs makes just perfect sense in my mind.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
Yeah, and I wasn't over with Brian Hartline too much
because they had everybody going up the same time, so
you were with Patricia mostly. I had to run over
with some receivers. And I don't know that Bryan Light
had anything major to say, because he also said he
was asked, hey, give us your impression of the first
two days, like well anymore because they can't spend more
time with him during the summer. It doesn't really necessarily
(29:09):
feel like the beginning of something. It's the continuation of
spring and summer. And he did say everybody the team
had a good, good summer. Everybody's bigger, stronger, faster, all
of those things that they should be getting during the season,
and then now this is just a continuation up. You
build up. But I don't know that there's anything I
(29:31):
shouldn't say. I don't know that there's anything breaking from
Brian Harlane because I'll say that and like, yeah, everything
on Twitter right now is probably about what Brian Hartline said,
and I'm totally oblivious to it.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
Yeah, I did not hear it. I didn't hear it,
like an audible gasp or anything like that, so I
think you're probably okay. One thing that d Patricia did
mention CJ. Hicks at one point, he's up to two
forty three. He looks you mentioned guys getting bigger, stronger, faster.
He looks noticeably bigger than the spring. And we get
an updated roster for day two and with updated heights
(30:02):
and weights, and he's up to two forty three. So
that's I think he was in the two thirties this spring.
So he just he looks like a defensive end now.
He doesn't look like a linebacker in the process of
turning into a defensive end. He looks like he's ready
to play some kind of role and he's you know,
he's the kind of guy that Matt Patricia like, find
a role for that guy. There's there's going to be
(30:23):
a role for him somewhere because he has just there's
lots of different unique skill sets in that room. It
feels like he's probably mind those guys.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
And as James Lorenidis said the spring, when the news
came out there, when he found out that they're hiring
Matt Patricia, the first player he thought of was C. J. Hicks,
and what this could do for him, and you know,
we'll continue to see that. We also talked with receivers. Yeah,
I spent some time with Brandon Innis, who is just fantastic.
(30:50):
He's he's been a didn't retched as a t refreshman,
but hardly played. Then was a backup last year and
I was primed for a starting role. And he's always
been an energy guy, but now he's more of an
energy guy. And as he said, it's like Jeremiah doesn't
talk much, Carnell is talking more. But he is one
(31:11):
of the leaders of this room. It's it's a kind
of the top three guys are all leaders, and Bryson
Rogers is a leader as well. So it's you know,
he's he's maybe the vocal, yeah, the voice of the room.
But this guy is so excited to finally be a
regular piece of the offense. He's dropped weight, he's you know, faster,
(31:32):
and he's quicker. And he said he'd never been a
backup anywhere until he got to Ohio State.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
And meet a Mecca Abuka.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
Yeah, and I'll tell you something about that in a
bit as well. But the the you get to Ohio
State and it's like this is different because I'm not playing,
but also I understand that where I am is extremely beneficient,
and once to get on the field, everybody will see
(32:01):
what I can do. But the development and the learning
and the guys that have come through Io State, was
he ever tempted to leave? He's like, you know, he
his people around him. He mentioned like his financial advisor
is basically like stay put like this, like you're in
the right place. It's just gonna you know, take.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
A explain to you the concept of long term dividends, right.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
And you know, because the Mecca was not supposed to
come back last year, that he gets hurt and so
then it's like now I got to wait again. But
he's he's been patient. I think patience is done. He's
ready to to get going. I was talking about, you know,
practice out here. Today. He was asked about Caleb Downs.
She's been lining up at nicol a little bit little bit,
So what's that like, He's like the problem with it
(32:44):
is that Caleb Downs knows the play before it's gonna happen.
And so like he's lined up against Caleb Down, Downs
lines up over brandon Edis and then Downs calls the
playout that the offense is runnings and Brandon ins is like, well,
this is not gonna work.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
I do in person advanced electronic scouting perhaps perhaps.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
And so on. He was asked, is is is Cale
Down's the smartest player you've ever played with? He's like, no,
do you know the answer?
Speaker 2 (33:14):
I'm not on the team.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
So's Yeah, the high level conversation, high level conversations with
the Mecca Abuka. That's another reason why Brandon and has
played some last year, but he learned a lot last
year from a Mecca Abuka.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
Wasn't a Mecca abooka the one where the video on
the on the sideline and against Notre Dame where he's
pointing out yeah right, yeah, yeah, pointing pointing out the
little the little coverage things that ended up with the
third and Jeremia play. Yeah, I mean that's They do
not have a lot of dumb dums. No, it is.
It is a you could be sort of selective about
(33:50):
character and football IQ and all that kind of stuff
because they do have there is a certain draw to
come to play Ohios for Ohio States, so they could
be pretty selective about that stuff. Speaking of players who
are pretty good at wide receivers. Jeremiah Smith was asked
about Someone asked, you know, what has it been like
getting back into it after taking a break, And he's
like a brace. No, I don't think Jeremiah Smith has
(34:13):
taken a break. No, he has been been pretty activist.
Sounds like, so yeah, he's you know, he was, you know,
happy to be back out there and happy to be
sort of counting the days down to Texas. But you know,
it does does not sound like he took a long,
long vacation between point A and point B of his
off season.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
Doesn't it take two months to film an Adidas commercial?
Speaker 2 (34:33):
Yeah, I don't. I don't think so.
Speaker 3 (34:34):
No.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
He was also speaking of that, asked about sort of
being a celebrity and what that's like, and just he's like,
I love to just go to the store. He mentioned
going to Target, which I don't know if Target's a
sponsor sponsor of his or not. If not, this opportunity there,
but he talked about just not being able to just
go to the store, like just being a celebrity just
to the point where you're just you're going out in
public and just getting bobbed everywhere you go. So that's
(34:57):
you know, that's sort of been an adjustment for him,
which at the age of what nineteen, that that's got
to be weird. It was tough that it happened for us. Yeah,
for sure, we're much older. He was also asked about
being able to play faster now that he knows, because
he's talked about knowing, you know, recognizing stuff better, recognizing
what the defense is trying to do, all that kind
of stuff. One of the part of the quote was
(35:18):
it's going to be scary this year.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
That was a direct quote.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
And then just you know, talk just stuff about ID
and coverages, pre snap and things like that. Just everything
was going a little fast for him last year and
you saw how it went then. So now the game
is going to slow down a little bit for him
this year, and oh boy, what might that look like?
He was asked also asked about Texas, you know, another
shot at Texas after how the cotton boll went, and
(35:43):
you know, I mean the short answer is, yeah, man,
looking forward to it. So I think he's looking forward
to the opportunity to potentially make a little bit of
a statement there.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
Ryan Day talked about that media days where the more
things slowed down for Jeremiah Smith. The speeds up for
the defense, and that's a very good thing for the Buckeyes.
Milon Graham, you know, he's like, all I want to
do is help the team. However I can offense are
special teams. Because I asked him, like, what do you
what's a realistic role for you this year? Is like whatever?
(36:12):
You know? Yeah, and again he's he watched last year.
He watched I mean he watched Brandon Innis, like he
learved for Brandon Innis. Hey man, sometimes you can come
in here with five stars. Doesn't matter here. Yeah, look
at the room that you're coming into. This is why
you came here. This is you know, Brian Hartland was
your first offer. He said you could play here. He
(36:33):
thinks you can play here. But there's Jeremiah, there's car
no there. It was on Mecca. Yeah, so understand that.
And but he getting into the spring last year, or
not getting in in for spring last year, as we know,
set him apart, set him back. But he seems completely comfortable,
comfortable talking, comfortable like with whatever. And again, I think
(36:55):
it's gonna be hard for Brian Hartline to keep him
off the field in as much as you would put
a fourth or fifth receiver on the field with these
three receivers.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
Well, I look at him and I just go, if
he's out there, it'll be fine, Like yeah, you know,
I don't know. I don't know how much of a
drop off there is. It could be a drop off
from Jeremiah Smith to literally any other receiver on the
planet at this point, but I don't know how much
of a drop off there is. There's gonna be some
from Carnell Tate to Mile and Graham or you know,
Brandon Istamount, not that they're playing in the same position,
but you're gonna have probably a little bit of a
(37:26):
drop off. But I don't think it's gonna be a
huge one, And I think I don't think it's gonna
be big enough that it'll keep him off the field.
He's another one of those guys where you just you
look up. It's like, oh, there's someone's making a play
over there. You're watching one field and someone's making a
play over there, and you look it's like, oh, smiling
Graham again making another play, and that again. It's you're
not bringing anyone to the ground. It's it's easy to
just keep running when the defender would have probably tackled
(37:49):
you normally, but you just keep looking up and there's
number five making another play. And this is a good secondary. Yeah,
the ones and the twos in the secondary, this is
the twos in Ohio State secondary are probably among the
better secondaries of this team's going to go up against
this season. And you're still seeing them make plays. And
(38:10):
it's that, to me, is a pretty good like this.
There's probably some there there for him this year, for sure. Yeah,
he looks and and he makes the number five. The
legacy of the number five look pretty good. Tory and
Washington the first place everyone's name mine goes. Yes, Michael
Wiley is a true freshman. Uh huh, I believe that's it. Yeah,
(38:31):
that's it. I can't think of anyone more recent in
the early twenty twenties.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
Or so anything else from today that you wanted to
touch on before we get out of here.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
I think we are. I think we've touched on everything,
and if not, great news, we will be back here
tomorrow to talk about it more. I'll I can, I
can go, I can go over and the show if
we need to. But okay, here we're good, Okay, all right, So.
Speaker 1 (38:53):
That will do it. We thank you all for tuning in.
We will be back tomorrow as well because we'll be
back at practice Toros. So thank you all for tuning
in and we'll talk to you guys later
Hello, everybody, Welcome to the Buckeye Weekly Podcast. I'm Tony
Gerdaman here as always with Tom Moore.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Tone.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
How's it going, Tony?
Speaker 2 (00:10):
I woke up this morning to walk the dog and
it was fifty eight degrees outside, and you know what
I thought, It feels like football.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Feels like football. Certainly did. We were out here at
we are curly still here at the Ohio State University
Woody Hayes Athletic Center following practice number two of fall camp.
Following interviews with Brian Harline and Matt Patricia and Jeremiah Smith,
Cardell Tay, Bryce and Rodgers, Brandon and as David Adolph
Mylon Graham. I think I got everybody.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
I think you got everybody. You got everyone. Those up
my tables.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
So we were going to discuss what we saw today,
what we heard. Of course, we get some super chats,
regular chats. Go ahead and throw them in there and
we'll get to them. As I think we probably have
to be out of here like twelve thirty, same as yesterday,
perhaps as I talked this out to the rest.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Of the team, and the tone of your voice, yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
So again, this was not a great day for viewing
the quarterbacks Tom because the quarterbacks were the far side
of the field yonder with people in between, players in
between for much of the day as well, so and
from what we could see, a lot of this is
again just swing passes, dump offs, checked outs, not a
(01:23):
lot of downfield stuff. So I don't know that there
are any grand conclusions to be made from the quarterbacks.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Today, No, I don't. I don't think anyone's ready to
proclaim a starter. I did think that Lincoln Kinghols had
another nice day. There were a couple downfield balls that
I saw. You know, there's two plays going on in
two different fields at the same time, so you're kind
of looking back and forth, and sometimes they're happening at
the same time, so you can only see one at
a time. I saw a couple downfield throws. He had
(01:49):
a nice one to Bryson Rodgers at one point. He
had a nice throw to Carneal Tit at one point.
He just he's looked very much in control of things.
And that's not to sedually insane, hasn't. It's just there
were a couple of times that I looked and saw
downfield throws. It feels like the checkdown stuff that's been
there very consistently. Both guys have got a really nice
(02:10):
job with that. I just I saw a couple of
times when keen holes had a nice ball downfield. I
don't remember a saying one that was kind of comparable,
and there were just a couple of keen holes. I
just I'm always very reticent to draw real firm conclusions
from a bunch of little anecdotal pieces of data, which is,
you know, I don't we don't have a head to head.
(02:31):
And you saw numbers coming out of the first practice,
like some people were kind of putting out, here's the
passing stats, and it's like, I don't know which portion
of practice that was from that was not comprehensive throughout
the day. So you know, I would be a little
hesitant to draw like real firm conclusions from like well
his completions aprenttages x versus why it's you know, there's
(02:53):
a reason that the coaches walk out of here every
day and say, well, we really got to get back
on the film and looks. I mean, Jeremiah Smith talked
about that when he was talking It just that Patricia
talked about that in terms of the defense. It's just
you're looking at individual things or watching one area of
the field, and when you're doing that, you're missing a
bunch of other stuff.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Yeah, I will say I did see Lincoln Kenots taking
a lap.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
He did take a lot.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Something happened.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
I think that might have been a fumbled snap, because
I don't think I saw an interception. But yeah, you
saw a couple of times. I did not see Julian
saying take a lap. I did see Eli Handlerrick Handler.
I asked, I made a put in a requestion Jerry
I made that he changed his name to Eli brick
Layer because I am just I'm never going to get
it right, and I'm very sorry. At some point it's
not my fault.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
If you get a petition going like four hundred, somebody has.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Changed dot org thing it worked in twenty twenty.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
You have to legally change your name just to make
it easier on people. So again with the quarterbacks, two
days and pads go on pretty soon and then not
still can't hit the quarterbacks right, but you know, it's
been interesting to watch things moving. And again these are
split fields. So well, this quarterback will have two fifths
(04:07):
of a starting offensive line, and this quarterback will have
three fifths and this quarterback will have one third of
the starting receivers. And you know, and.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Jere Smith was on one field, Carnel Tate was on
the other side.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
And you will Chasmerck was in and out today in
terms of his availability. So there is no one and two.
And I'm watching people like trying to write down the
defensive line and the offensive it's it's all just a mix.
Like the what you came out of spring knowing is
still the same, other than bo Atkinson is now in
(04:41):
the mix. So yeah, but yeah, overall with the quarterbacks,
it was interesting to see again with the split fields,
they're running the same plays and it looked to me
like they were running some rpo stuff because on this
field it would be a run and this field it
would be a pass. And I'm wondering if the coverages
are different, because if they're not, then they should be
the same, like the read should be the same unless
(05:02):
the coverages are different. And so then again, this guy
throws a completion, but maybe it's the wrong read, and
well that's what we talked about yesterday, where maybe you
go fifteen of nineteen, but if you're not watching the
first read long enough and you're checking down immediately and
you're completing a pass versus somebody else going six or fourteen,
but reading the right thing and throwing it and having
(05:24):
the number four, five six.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Receiver drop it or not get open.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Right. So that is that's the plus play, and the
completion over here is the negative place. So it's hard
to just judge on completion percentage. This is not the
spring game too. You can't just base everything on statistics.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Yeah, this is all of this stuff I think is
legitimately too soon to tell. On the quarterbacks, there was
stuff that I don't think was too soon to tell.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
Right.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Number one, I think very positive news. We should we
should get into the Etro Houston thing very quickly. Yeah,
because that was it was sort of the big news
of the day of day one of fall camp. There
was stuff that came out late on Thursday evening that Yeah, okay,
it's not you're you're far from the worst case scenario.
He was out there, he had his helmet on, he
had a big brace on his right knee, and it
(06:15):
seems like, you know, he wasn't out there doing a
bunch of stuff. He was kind of going inside and
working when they with the injured guys, so he was
not out there when they're doing seven on seven kind
of stuff or whatever, eleven on eleven, but he also
was out there running through individual drills like this is
you know, I think there was an immediate concern is
this a season ending thing? Definitely not a season ending
(06:38):
He did not look super thrilled to be having to leave,
and you know, at one point it said something you know,
kind of it just was not real thrilled about having
to keep going back and forth. But you know, it's
this is this is based on where we were twenty
four hours ago. With this, this feels like wonderful news
for Ohio State. Yeah, crisis averted. He was walked looking fine.
(07:00):
You didn't see any noticeable limp.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
It is pretty I mean, it's a it's a nice
leave embrace that he's got going on for stability of Matt.
Patricia was asked about it, and you know, like, was
it was it? Did you breathe a sigh of relieve?
He's like, well, it's always good when they're still out
on the field. So like, even though he's not practicing,
he's watching everything, he's taking taking it in and he's
not just oh, he's just rehabbing today, like he's not
(07:26):
even anywhere near the field because he's too like his
knee is two messed up. That's not the case. He's
he's out there, he's walking around, he's watching, he's taking
it all in, you know, the old mental rep aspect
of things, and you know, just being out there, I
think is that's a sign. I don't know how quickly
he's going to get back to practicing, and they're going
to take it very, very slowly and be as cautious
(07:46):
as you can. But I don't think this impacts his
ready his availability for Texas.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
I wouldn't think so. My guess and I am not
a doctor, but my guess would be days, two weeks
rather than weeks to months where you know, and if
he doesn't play for Texas, I would certainly expect him
to be ready for Washington. You know, we'll see you
have set backs, you have stuff that doesn't heals quickly.
Maybe he's a you know, we Lathan Ransom. I remember
(08:13):
them talking multiple times about what a fast heeler he was.
So everyone's body's gonna respond a little differently. And we
have not gotten the diagnosis on this it's just it's
a right knee, like he's he's out with a knee
right now, And it's like, okay, could you be more specific? No,
in fact, we.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Can't look then you're not on Twitter enough. Tom Well,
because we've seen the slow, slowed down videos. We've got
the doctors die I shoot. Kevin even added a doctor
who was famous on Twitter for like, uh diagnosing yeah,
football injuries, like yeah, it looks like a hyper extension.
He'll he'll be fine or whatever, as long as it's
not this or this. If it's just this, yeah, and
(08:48):
then you know, work comes out that it's i say,
relatively minor compared to what it could have been. Oh yeah, yeah,
and so now that's, as I said, crisis averted and
they can move on to the next day. Taiwan Malone
getting a lot of reps in his place with with
Will Smith because even like Caate McDonald and Will Smith
(09:10):
or you're you're one in two nose tackle, it's you know,
it's we assume it'll be Kate McDonald. But again, as
many reps as you can get for the other defensive
tackles they need them.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Well, it feels like this is one of those things
that could be a blessing in disguise, where this time
last year you had the virus going through the offensive
line room and it completely blew up the depth chart,
and you had guys all over the place and in
and out in different positions, and you're just mixing and
matching day to day because you never know who you're
gonna have, and a lot you know, this time last fall,
(09:40):
everyone's pulling their hair out in this building over that.
And then you get part way through the season and
it's like, well, good news, We've seen a bunch of
Donovan Jackson at tackle, because there was a while where
we had to throw Donovan Jackson at tackle to have
a functional practice. And then when you needed Donovan Jackson
to tackle, he had been there and it was okay,
and you had a lot of reps and you kind
of knew he could do it. This is something where
(10:03):
you came into the spring and out really out of
the spring, knowing depth of the defensive tackle positions was
the single biggest question mark on this team. Now you're
getting an opportunity for more reps or Taiwan along with
the ones more reps with you know, with Will Smith
more I mean you get, you're just sure and in guys,
would you love to have Edward Houston out there because
(10:23):
he's still relatively young. Absolutely, you would love to have
edricuci yet as reps. But if he's not getting those reps, well,
you're getting more reps for guys who are going to
need them. Jason Moore, You've got to get those guys
out the more because you're going to need more than
just your ones against Texas and Texas's this month.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
So there you go. There's there's the two main stories
of practice. That's basically no no news on the quarterback,
good news on Edric Houston. Let's talk about some of
the other things that we saw in practice toy today
that impressed me. I can start with Turbo Rodgers yep,
freshman running back and again running backs in camp, no pads,
(11:03):
no tackling, like you can only only blow up so
much basically, but every time we've watched him in these
two practices, yeah, sure he comes out of the scrum
because there's no tackling, but he just looks so slippery,
so quick and hard to find. Yeah, because you're like,
(11:25):
I don't even know who you know, what's going on?
And then here comes Turbo Rodgers out of it that
he's been impressive and he wasn't here for the spring,
and so I asked Brian Hartline, with all of these caveats, look,
I know you can't make any judgments about a running back,
but what have you what are your thoughts been? And
he's like, well, just likely said. You come in and
you're behind everything. You're learning how to do, how to
(11:47):
be a bucket, You're learning what the standards are, You're
learning all of these different things of how you have
to operate, let alone what's going on on in the
football field. But he's got it, wants to learn, has
a ton of energy and you can see it out
there every single time for sure.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
And yeah, getting here in June, this being your second practice,
like you're still learning how they practice here, and I
know they kind of talk about it and they will
kind of dry run it, but they have not had
everyone out here with the coaches and footballs and running
a full practice before. So that was Thursday with your
first practice. Friday's your second practice. I remember when Quinn
Yours got here in twenty twenty one and it was
(12:21):
like he's trying to figure out where locker room guy is,
you know, and and Turbo Rogers has been here since
June and along with some of the other guys. But
you're still, you know, your first time, your second time,
you're still sort of figuring out, Okay, I know we're running,
where are we running? Okay, okay, this goes, we go
to this station next, and all that kind of stuff.
But yeah, he was someone who you just you see
(12:42):
these flashes, and that's that's really all it is at
this point. But you see these flashes where you know,
every once in a while you'll get a drill where
it's a handoff and then he's kind of running right
at you. You can kind of get the sense for
if I was a defender trying to tackle this guy,
what would that be like? And there's there's a lot
of wiggle there, and it's it was the two they
jumped out to me today was Caleb Downs for sturning
(13:02):
a punt and Turbo Rogers running the ball. And it's
just like, if I was trying to tackle one of
those guys, my torso would go one direction, my lower
legend with the other would be like the magicians that
saw the people in half. That would have been me
trying to tackle some of these guys, but real yes,
where he would just be like and now I'm two people. Congratulations.
(13:22):
It's you see it with him early and he's listed
at five eight. Now, when you're listed at five eight,
it's never because you're five to nine and a half.
You might be five to seven. But he Yeah, you
see him get lost behind that offensive line and then
all of a sudden he pops out and it's like, oh,
there he is, and there he goes, and if Jack
you know he's probably. I was very impressive Bo Jackson
(13:46):
all through spring, and we saw little flashes from him
today as well. He had a nice reception out of
the backfield at one point. But man that the freshman
running backs as a West has been hurt. He's been
He's still not full go. But the other two freshman
running backs, Bo Jackson and Trobo Rogers. You can see
it right away. There is not a lot of I
wonder what Carlos Laughlan sees here. It's like, oh, nope,
(14:06):
I see it. I get it.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
Yeah. James Peoples again looks really really good and just
so sudden and I'd say jittery, but that doesn't jittery
just like you know, is like back and forth east
and west, like he's he can jitter north and south
kind of. It's like he can move all over the
place and pick up yards. I continue to like what
I'm seeing from Samuel Dixon. Yep, was sam Williams Dixon
(14:31):
on the last year's roster. On this roster, listen as
Samuel Dixon looks more comfortable running between the tackles. So
liking what I see from the running backs. But again
and CJ.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Donaldson too, Yeah, for sure about he's he is this spring.
You sort of saw him in the spring game. He
didn't run much, but when he ran, it was kind
of right up the gut and you boy, he was
moving the pile and picking up yards. You see that again.
And I think he was another one who you saw
maybe out of the backfield once or twice. If these
guys to be weapons in the passing vain, we were
(15:02):
talking earlier that if you know, you figure Texas is
probably going to try and do the same thing to
Jeremiah Smith, and they did the last time. So okay,
so now now that's that's shifting some guys out of
the uh you know, out of the box and taking
them away. That's gonna open some stuff up. Max Clayer
in the passing game and you know, threw down the scene.
But also, man, you get those guys out, you know,
you get those guys dropping off the uh off the
(15:24):
line of scrimmage and and you're spreading the field out.
You just dump one off one of those running backs
in the flat and if they can make a guy
or to miss. You know, we we saw an Ohio
State running back make a pretty big play in the
past game against Texas and the Cotton Bowl. You can
you could see it again.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
Well and and Kremlin Slocklan has told him, you can't
just run the ball at Ohios State. You've got to
be a complete player. And so catching the ball is
going to be a big thing. And we have seen
we've seen quite a bit of east west stuff and
these first two day is sure they'll start getting more
north and south. But yeah, I very much expect the
running backs to be involved, especially with CJ. Donaldson. New
(16:00):
came to college as a receiver and then was moved
to tight end and then moved to running back as
a true freshman. But talking with Lachlan back and at
the one of the ball trips. He's like, Hey, he's
a guy that we can do a lot of different
things with, and he's dropped away to make sure that
he can be more readily available for as much of
a game as possible. So yeah, I feel pretty good
about the running backs. The quarterbacks are you know, but yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
And quarterbacks are fine.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
Yeah, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
I think we came into the fall with the idea
that Julian sam is probably a little bit ahead. Lincoln
Keenhols has looked has looked perfectly fine the first couple
of days. So if it is Lincoln Keenholes, it's not
a by default thing. It's not a they're just defaulting
to seniority, Like I don't, I feel like they're going
to be okay with either one. And now it's really
(16:48):
more of a ceiling thing rather than a you know,
can anyone you know the old Casey Stingle line about
the Mets, Can anyone around here play this game like
they've got? They have a couple of good choices there,
and now the question is just how good and slash
great is that choice?
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Yeah, And the other thing to keep in mind is
that I think we can credit the defense for the
lack of downfield stuff, you know, because those reads aren't there.
And so the corners are playing well and the safeties
are playing well, and I think they're showing that they're
pretty deep at corner now they have four outside corners
that they like right and so they've got a good
(17:22):
too deep there. I think they're doing well, and of
course they're figuring out the safety stuff. I was talking
with Matt Patricia about the safeties. You know, Caleb Downs
continues to move around, and it was something that we've
talked about where I suggested that, you know, well, when
Malie Cartridge in Caleb Downs goes a strong safety, when
Jayalen McLean's and Caleb Downs goes to free safety, and
(17:42):
you're like, well, you can't be too predictable. Here's the
Patricia's talking about. One of the things. One of the
reasons they like Caleb Downs wherever is because he can
communicate with every everyone up and get everybody on the
same page. But also they can show him at any
position and that's not necessarily where he's going to be
coming from. And that's something he talked about. I asked
him about, how do you make sure you're not predictable?
(18:03):
And he's like obviously self scouting. But as we know,
just because a guy's lined up at nickel doesn't mean
he's not going to be the deep safety because of
you know, the receiver goes in the motion. So they're
still working on getting everybody capable of playing every spot. Sure,
Kaleb down skin, Yeah, but in the defense that they
want to run, the safety also has to be able
to play the nickel, and Nichol has to be able
(18:24):
to play safety. And so you're seeing some of that
going on right now.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Well, and I want to make sure we're sort of
explaining the why behind that where you don't want to
be too predictable, where they kind of ran into this
a little bit under Jim Knowles at times where you
could they were you could predictably use motion to get okay,
if I use motion, if I start in this formation
and I use motion, then they're going to rotate, and
they're going to rotate predictably in this way. This is
something that Ross Fulton talked about a number of times.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Georgia got him on it for a long touchdown with
Plaython Ransom rotating to the slot.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Yep, yep. So you've got to be able to have
multiple answers in multiple ways to approach things and be
the disguise things as well. If you can disguise things,
then that doesn't necessarily make it harder on you, but
it makes it potentially harder a lot harder on the offense.
So being able to sort of disguise things is really
really important. And this is kind of this goes to
the same thing we talk about with the wide receivers,
(19:15):
where they want guys to be able to play outside
ad in the slot, because then you can put Marvin
Harrison in the slot, and boy does that create a
mismatch potentially. We saw that with a Nakabuka playing in
the slot at Also outside you're gonna see, you know,
wide receivers doing that all the time. You want to
be able to do that with your safeties as well,
so that you're not predictable. So it's not just you know,
you point out the mic. There's the mic, okay, but
(19:35):
you're also like, okay, there's the deep safety, there's the
boundary safety, there's the nickel. If you can share to
be a little bit more unpredictable, that that complicates things.
That's when you get confusion and that's when you get turnovers.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
Anything else in practice stand out to you what you
wanted to get in here.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
We didn't see a ton of offensive line versus defensive
line stuff, really, and that's just it's not a padded practice,
I believe me. Patricia said that Saturday's practice will be padded,
so maybe potentially we'll see a little more of that.
So a bunch of tackling drills, like day one was
a lot of you know, the fun visual drills were
they are falling on fumbles or they scooping up fumbles.
(20:15):
Today they had the big donut, so they're doing the
take a running leap at the donut you land on
the big mattress pad kind of thing. So you know,
a lot a lot of you're you're in the sort
of fundamentals portion of a lot of this stuff, and
a lot of wide receivers. You run a route, you
run a little hitch, you catch it, then you toss
the ball, and then you run a different route and
you catch it, and you're just you know, trying to
work on getting the right number of steps ending on
(20:38):
the right the right foot to show hey, I'm ending
on this the foot that I would be running to
run a hook or a pearl or whatever and then
keep going so you're sort of you're you're doing it
to then sell it in the future for a you know,
some kind of a stop and go kind of route.
So lots of fundamental stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Let's move to the interviews because Matt Patricia we talked
about how he's good at getting players to do little
things in terms of like, you're good at this, so
we're gonna work on this, We're gonna specialize you in this,
but also maybe add this, and he was talking about
that one of the goals of that. Obviously, yes, you
want to accentuate what players can do, but also it
(21:21):
forces the offense to study, like really predict and study
each player what they're going to have to deal with.
And so the different things that you can have gives
them certainly the edge of having them do stuff, but
then it also just takes time of the offense worry
about all of the different ways that that player might
be involved. But yeah, he still seems very very excited
(21:44):
about all of the toys that he has to work
with here at Ohio State in terms of just what
can I do with sunny styles, what can I do
with r bel rees, what can we do with Caleb
downs and and then mixing those safeties in behind him
or with a nickel or whatever. And he was also
asked about ken YadA Jackson yep, and he was like,
I co sign all everything that everybody's saying about Kenyada Jackson,
(22:07):
I would completely agree with. He was talking about how
ken YadA Jackson like immediately he's like, put me in
front of every line. I want to go first. I
want to do everything. I want to show everybody how
to do everything. I want to be pushed. I want
to push everybody. And he even said like ken YadA
makes him work harder, Like when you're watching him work,
it's like you don't want your players out working you
(22:27):
and certainly other players watching that seeing somebody that is
a leader like that, setting the example that he seems
to really really like Kenyatta Jackson. And at this point,
the way everybody's talking about him, I'm not gonna yeah,
but he only has two and a half for three
and a half career sacks, Like oh.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Whatever, Yeah, let me tell you about the guys who
were here last year who he was playing behind. But
you know, your best teams are your teams where your
best players are your hardest workers, because then you don't
have you know, you don't have the Well I'm going
to coast on this and I can. What do you
hear about Jeremiah Smith all the time? What do you
hear about Caleb Downs all the time? Well, now you're
hearing about how well Kenyata Jackson doing, but also how
(23:07):
well k came out of Jackson's working like those sunny styles.
You hear that about him all the time. You know,
you're hearing it about some of the offensive lineman, Austin
Seerveld maybe one of their best offensive lineman. He was
an iron Buckeye for another you know, a second time.
Maybe this is this is the stuff that that's what
you need in order to be you know, be a
great team. It's not just have talent, but also have
leaders who are going to also sort of set the standard.
(23:30):
And that's been kind of the one of the mantras
around here for years where we talk all the time
about the wide receivers, going back to Evan Spencer and
then then he he showed, you know, he showed.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
Laura.
Speaker 2 (23:45):
Yeah, yeah, those guys had to do it. And then
they showed, they showed how to do it, and Wilson
and on and on and on. But you have that
in a lot of different rooms, and that's sort of
I think these guys all saw from it. T Mololaw
and Jack Sawyer and Cody Simon and all those guys.
Here's what it takes, Denzel Burke, Here's what it takes
(24:06):
to be great, and that you know. So now now
you've seen it, and now the decision is just do
I want to do that or do I not want
to do that? And it seems like a lot of
the people are making the making the decision that they
do want to do that. One thing that strikes me
every time we see Matt Patricia is just how much
he's smiling out there, like and I'm watching it, and
at first I was like, is this just sort of
like a it's just like a show. Is this again?
(24:29):
It's just but it's like every time we see him,
he's out there smiling, He's out there very enthusiastic, very energetic.
And I was thinking today about what he he was
discussing some of the difference between high school or not
high school in college in the NFL, and you know,
the first thing you hear from coaches all the time
it is hash marks. And then you know that the
hash marks is much wider. In college. You end up
(24:50):
with formation, the field formation that it's a much bigger
difference than in in the pros. And that does make
a very big difference. But he also talking about some
formation stuff and all that kind of stuff, and I
was thinking, you know, something else is different about college.
In the NFL, the talent discrepancy between the top teams
and even the middle teams is night and day difference.
You know, the top NFL team to the worst NFL
(25:13):
team is what a two touchdown favorite, you know, seventeen
point favorite.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
It's rare to see something like that.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
Yeah, it's rare to see something even in seventeen twenty points.
Ohio State might be a seventeen to twenty point favorite
in eight games this year, I mean nine games this year.
So you have he has all these different players and
all these talent, really talented players that he can find
these unique roles for that you're stretching. What could be
(25:39):
if he just sort of played it straight up, could
be a twenty point advantage of twenty four point advantage,
like oh let's come up with a creative way to
make this a thirty one point advantage and to have,
you know, to have all of those options, all of
those players available, you know, that is just Yeah, I'd
be smiling too.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
Yeah, because you're coming from a place where you are
trying to find two points three points advantage and you're
you're combing everything that you've got and your twenty odd
defensive players because you don't have a lot, you know,
fifty three man roster. So then now you're like, well,
I'm just gonna have so much more room for activities
(26:20):
and the things that you can can not only come
up with, but you know, like, pretty good chance this
will work. Yeah, and the trial and error and you've
got you know, you got a month to work through it.
But he did say the other big difference is it
would be nice to have some preseason games.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Yeah, opening up against Texas is not ideal, but you've
got to be ready. That's that's one of the fun
parts about college NFL players complained about preseason all the time.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
Yeah, and so coach is not so much. Yeah, you
complain it about it if you have it, you complain
about it if you don't, and you know, the closest
analog that they have two preseason games is they've got
the scrimmages inside Ohio Stadium, and you're gonna have those
coming up. Not this Saturday, not not not the second
of August. You have one presumably on the ninth of August.
(27:07):
You could have one presumably on the sixteenth of August.
That's where you're gonna work out.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
A lot of the kink, because he was talking about
just the mechanics of the event and the mechanics of
getting the you know, getting the play calls down from
from the booth and talking on the headsets and.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
All that kind of stuff, getting all that stuff sorted out.
They're gonna do that. They'll figure that out. But that's
gonna be that's gonna be happening during the scrimmages because
you don't have the preseason game against the against the
Jets in in Canton coming up. You've got to you
gotta figure that out. They have opportunities to do that,
but it's gonna look a little different.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
I was he asked if he's gonna be upstairs or downstairs.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
He was not, but I'm sure he's gonna be upstairs.
I can't imagine. We get asked this a lot, and
I don't. I was not over with Brian Hartline, but
I assume, I assume that Brian Hartline is going to
sort of they'll probably try being upstairs during the scrimmages.
I can't come up with a scenario where it doesn't
make sense for them to both be upstairs, because Heartline,
(28:09):
you've got Bryan Day on the sideline already, so you've
got an offensive guy down there. You want someone upstairs
because those are gonna be guys who are probably talking
a little bit on the headset and then what did
you see? What did you see? And if you're both
in the same place, then you got to bring in
a third party. And they have Devin Jordan, who's the
assistant wide receivers coach, who has been here for quite
a while, obviously former Ohio State player, just like Brian Hartline,
(28:30):
knows the room extraordinarily well, knows how Brian Hartline likes
to do everything extraordinarily well. You have Devin Jordan on
the sideline running the wide receiver stuff, you have Brian
Hartline upstairs. That I mean, no one I don't think
has said that out loud. But having Patricia and Heartline
upstairs makes just perfect sense in my mind.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
Yeah, and I wasn't over with Brian Hartline too much
because they had everybody going up the same time, so
you were with Patricia mostly. I had to run over
with some receivers. And I don't know that Bryan Light
had anything major to say, because he also said he
was asked, hey, give us your impression of the first
two days, like well anymore because they can't spend more
time with him during the summer. It doesn't really necessarily
(29:09):
feel like the beginning of something. It's the continuation of
spring and summer. And he did say everybody the team
had a good, good summer. Everybody's bigger, stronger, faster, all
of those things that they should be getting during the season,
and then now this is just a continuation up. You
build up. But I don't know that there's anything I
(29:31):
shouldn't say. I don't know that there's anything breaking from
Brian Harlane because I'll say that and like, yeah, everything
on Twitter right now is probably about what Brian Hartline said,
and I'm totally oblivious to it.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
Yeah, I did not hear it. I didn't hear it,
like an audible gasp or anything like that, so I
think you're probably okay. One thing that d Patricia did
mention CJ. Hicks at one point, he's up to two
forty three. He looks you mentioned guys getting bigger, stronger, faster.
He looks noticeably bigger than the spring. And we get
an updated roster for day two and with updated heights
(30:02):
and weights, and he's up to two forty three. So
that's I think he was in the two thirties this spring.
So he just he looks like a defensive end now.
He doesn't look like a linebacker in the process of
turning into a defensive end. He looks like he's ready
to play some kind of role and he's you know,
he's the kind of guy that Matt Patricia like, find
a role for that guy. There's there's going to be
(30:23):
a role for him somewhere because he has just there's
lots of different unique skill sets in that room. It
feels like he's probably mind those guys.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
And as James Lorenidis said the spring, when the news
came out there, when he found out that they're hiring
Matt Patricia, the first player he thought of was C. J. Hicks,
and what this could do for him, and you know,
we'll continue to see that. We also talked with receivers. Yeah,
I spent some time with Brandon Innis, who is just fantastic.
(30:50):
He's he's been a didn't retched as a t refreshman,
but hardly played. Then was a backup last year and
I was primed for a starting role. And he's always
been an energy guy, but now he's more of an
energy guy. And as he said, it's like Jeremiah doesn't
talk much, Carnell is talking more. But he is one
(31:11):
of the leaders of this room. It's it's a kind
of the top three guys are all leaders, and Bryson
Rogers is a leader as well. So it's you know,
he's he's maybe the vocal, yeah, the voice of the room.
But this guy is so excited to finally be a
regular piece of the offense. He's dropped weight, he's you know, faster,
(31:32):
and he's quicker. And he said he'd never been a
backup anywhere until he got to Ohio State.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
And meet a Mecca Abuka.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
Yeah, and I'll tell you something about that in a
bit as well. But the the you get to Ohio
State and it's like this is different because I'm not playing,
but also I understand that where I am is extremely beneficient,
and once to get on the field, everybody will see
(32:01):
what I can do. But the development and the learning
and the guys that have come through Io State, was
he ever tempted to leave? He's like, you know, he
his people around him. He mentioned like his financial advisor
is basically like stay put like this, like you're in
the right place. It's just gonna you know, take.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
A explain to you the concept of long term dividends, right.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
And you know, because the Mecca was not supposed to
come back last year, that he gets hurt and so
then it's like now I got to wait again. But
he's he's been patient. I think patience is done. He's
ready to to get going. I was talking about, you know,
practice out here. Today. He was asked about Caleb Downs.
She's been lining up at nicol a little bit little bit,
So what's that like, He's like the problem with it
(32:44):
is that Caleb Downs knows the play before it's gonna happen.
And so like he's lined up against Caleb Down, Downs
lines up over brandon Edis and then Downs calls the
playout that the offense is runnings and Brandon ins is like, well,
this is not gonna work.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
I do in person advanced electronic scouting perhaps perhaps.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
And so on. He was asked, is is is Cale
Down's the smartest player you've ever played with? He's like, no,
do you know the answer?
Speaker 2 (33:14):
I'm not on the team.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
So's Yeah, the high level conversation, high level conversations with
the Mecca Abuka. That's another reason why Brandon and has
played some last year, but he learned a lot last
year from a Mecca Abuka.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
Wasn't a Mecca abooka the one where the video on
the on the sideline and against Notre Dame where he's
pointing out yeah right, yeah, yeah, pointing pointing out the
little the little coverage things that ended up with the
third and Jeremia play. Yeah, I mean that's They do
not have a lot of dumb dums. No, it is.
It is a you could be sort of selective about
(33:50):
character and football IQ and all that kind of stuff
because they do have there is a certain draw to
come to play Ohios for Ohio States, so they could
be pretty selective about that stuff. Speaking of players who
are pretty good at wide receivers. Jeremiah Smith was asked
about Someone asked, you know, what has it been like
getting back into it after taking a break, And he's
like a brace. No, I don't think Jeremiah Smith has
(34:13):
taken a break. No, he has been been pretty activist.
Sounds like, so yeah, he's you know, he was, you know,
happy to be back out there and happy to be
sort of counting the days down to Texas. But you know,
it does does not sound like he took a long,
long vacation between point A and point B of his
off season.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
Doesn't it take two months to film an Adidas commercial?
Speaker 2 (34:33):
Yeah, I don't. I don't think so.
Speaker 3 (34:34):
No.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
He was also speaking of that, asked about sort of
being a celebrity and what that's like, and just he's like,
I love to just go to the store. He mentioned
going to Target, which I don't know if Target's a
sponsor sponsor of his or not. If not, this opportunity there,
but he talked about just not being able to just
go to the store, like just being a celebrity just
to the point where you're just you're going out in
public and just getting bobbed everywhere you go. So that's
(34:57):
you know, that's sort of been an adjustment for him,
which at the age of what nineteen, that that's got
to be weird. It was tough that it happened for us. Yeah,
for sure, we're much older. He was also asked about
being able to play faster now that he knows, because
he's talked about knowing, you know, recognizing stuff better, recognizing
what the defense is trying to do, all that kind
of stuff. One of the part of the quote was
(35:18):
it's going to be scary this year.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
That was a direct quote.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
And then just you know, talk just stuff about ID
and coverages, pre snap and things like that. Just everything
was going a little fast for him last year and
you saw how it went then. So now the game
is going to slow down a little bit for him
this year, and oh boy, what might that look like?
He was asked also asked about Texas, you know, another
shot at Texas after how the cotton boll went, and
(35:43):
you know, I mean the short answer is, yeah, man,
looking forward to it. So I think he's looking forward
to the opportunity to potentially make a little bit of
a statement there.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
Ryan Day talked about that media days where the more
things slowed down for Jeremiah Smith. The speeds up for
the defense, and that's a very good thing for the Buckeyes.
Milon Graham, you know, he's like, all I want to
do is help the team. However I can offense are
special teams. Because I asked him, like, what do you
what's a realistic role for you this year? Is like whatever?
(36:12):
You know? Yeah, and again he's he watched last year.
He watched I mean he watched Brandon Innis, like he
learved for Brandon Innis. Hey man, sometimes you can come
in here with five stars. Doesn't matter here. Yeah, look
at the room that you're coming into. This is why
you came here. This is you know, Brian Hartland was
your first offer. He said you could play here. He
(36:33):
thinks you can play here. But there's Jeremiah, there's car
no there. It was on Mecca. Yeah, so understand that.
And but he getting into the spring last year, or
not getting in in for spring last year, as we know,
set him apart, set him back. But he seems completely comfortable,
comfortable talking, comfortable like with whatever. And again, I think
(36:55):
it's gonna be hard for Brian Hartline to keep him
off the field in as much as you would put
a fourth or fifth receiver on the field with these
three receivers.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
Well, I look at him and I just go, if
he's out there, it'll be fine, Like yeah, you know,
I don't know. I don't know how much of a
drop off there is. It could be a drop off
from Jeremiah Smith to literally any other receiver on the
planet at this point, but I don't know how much
of a drop off there is. There's gonna be some
from Carnell Tate to Mile and Graham or you know,
Brandon Istamount, not that they're playing in the same position,
but you're gonna have probably a little bit of a
(37:26):
drop off. But I don't think it's gonna be a
huge one, And I think I don't think it's gonna
be big enough that it'll keep him off the field.
He's another one of those guys where you just you
look up. It's like, oh, there's someone's making a play
over there. You're watching one field and someone's making a
play over there, and you look it's like, oh, smiling
Graham again making another play, and that again. It's you're
not bringing anyone to the ground. It's it's easy to
just keep running when the defender would have probably tackled
(37:49):
you normally, but you just keep looking up and there's
number five making another play. And this is a good secondary. Yeah,
the ones and the twos in the secondary, this is
the twos in Ohio State secondary are probably among the
better secondaries of this team's going to go up against
this season. And you're still seeing them make plays. And
(38:10):
it's that, to me, is a pretty good like this.
There's probably some there there for him this year, for sure. Yeah,
he looks and and he makes the number five. The
legacy of the number five look pretty good. Tory and
Washington the first place everyone's name mine goes. Yes, Michael
Wiley is a true freshman. Uh huh, I believe that's it. Yeah,
(38:31):
that's it. I can't think of anyone more recent in
the early twenty twenties.
Speaker 1 (38:35):
Or so anything else from today that you wanted to
touch on before we get out of here.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
I think we are. I think we've touched on everything,
and if not, great news, we will be back here
tomorrow to talk about it more. I'll I can, I
can go, I can go over and the show if
we need to. But okay, here we're good, Okay, all right, So.
Speaker 1 (38:53):
That will do it. We thank you all for tuning in.
We will be back tomorrow as well because we'll be
back at practice Toros. So thank you all for tuning
in and we'll talk to you guys later
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