December 5, 2025 • 21 mins
Key Indiana Players to Watch in Big Ten Championship | Buckeye Weekly Podcast
In this episode of the Buckeye Weekly Podcast, hosts Tony Gerdeman and Tom Orr discuss the upcoming Big Ten Championship Game between Ohio State and Indiana. They focus on key Hoosier players that should concern the Buckeyes, including quarterback Fernando Mendoza, wide receiver Elijah Sarratt, defensive lineman Stephen Daley, and more. The hosts provide an in-depth analysis of players' strengths and how they could impact the game. They also touch on Indiana's overall team dynamics and strategies that Ohio State must consider to secure a victory.
00:00 Introduction and Welcome
00:10 Key Indiana Players to Watch
00:18 Fernando Mendoza: Indiana's Star Quarterback
06:57 Elijah Sarratt: The Wide Receiver Threat
10:22 Indiana's Defensive Standouts
19:57 Special Teams and Final Thoughts
21:19 Conclusion and Sign-Off
In this episode of the Buckeye Weekly Podcast, hosts Tony Gerdeman and Tom Orr discuss the upcoming Big Ten Championship Game between Ohio State and Indiana. They focus on key Hoosier players that should concern the Buckeyes, including quarterback Fernando Mendoza, wide receiver Elijah Sarratt, defensive lineman Stephen Daley, and more. The hosts provide an in-depth analysis of players' strengths and how they could impact the game. They also touch on Indiana's overall team dynamics and strategies that Ohio State must consider to secure a victory.
00:00 Introduction and Welcome
00:10 Key Indiana Players to Watch
00:18 Fernando Mendoza: Indiana's Star Quarterback
06:57 Elijah Sarratt: The Wide Receiver Threat
10:22 Indiana's Defensive Standouts
19:57 Special Teams and Final Thoughts
21:19 Conclusion and Sign-Off
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello, everybody, Welcome to the Buckeye Weekly Podcast. I'm Tony
Gerdaman here as always with Tom or Tom.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
How's it going, Tony? We are doing Ohio Indiana players
that what are going to be a concern for Ohio State? Tony,
I'm just going to call dibbs right now. I think
their quarterback's pretty good, so we'll talk about that in
a minute. But I called DIBs on Fernando Mendoza. So Tony,
how are you well?
Speaker 1 (00:28):
I only have Fernando Mendoza written down, so I guess
I'll go first. No, there there are plenty of players
at Ohio State and Buckeye fans should be concerned about.
They are ranked the number two team in the nation.
After all, they are twelve and zero on a season.
They have run through a schedule that features a ranked opponent,
(00:49):
and they did it on the road at Oregon and
the rest of the Big Ten didn't hold up their
end of the bargain in terms of being ranked. Ohio
State is suffering through that same thing with Illinois. That's
why I like that curse Signetti still talks about. While
we beat Illinois team that was number nine at the
time and beat them into a pulp and perhaps ruined
(01:10):
the end of their season. So all of that, none
of that matters now the ranked opponents, the you know whatever,
because it's one versus two and it's the first tom
is this the first one versus two into Big ten
since two thousand and six, I'm gonna like there could
(01:31):
be another?
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Yeah, I think that. I think it has to be
since since the Ohio State Michigan gave me two thousand
and six, I can't think of anything else. So yeah,
that would be field played. Ohio State almost certainly would
have been involved in that if it had happened. So yeah,
I will go ahead and confidently say yes, first one
since two thousand and six, Ohio State Michigan. And if
you google it and get a different answer, it's probably
(01:52):
AI hallucinating something. So there you go. So all right,
Fernando Mendoza not haining any hallucinating anything there. He is
very much in the Heisman conversation. He has you know,
he is absolutely phenomenal, untouchable against bad competition like he
is like against Wisconsin. We just did a show with
(02:14):
the Wisconsin game and he was something like twenty two
to twenty four for like three hundred yards and four touchdowns.
He puts up Julian saying numbers against bad competition when
you get against better competition. Indiana's whole offense sort of
has some scaling issues because I think a lot of
the stuff that they can do can take advantage of,
you know, inferior talent and doesn't necessarily work as well
against you know, equal or superior talent. And he's kind
(02:37):
of a little more like a sixty five percent passer
in those you know, Penn State and Iowa and Oregon games,
you're still good, and he still has a positive touchdown
to interception ratio, but instead of like twenty five to one,
it's like five to four. So you know, it's a
it is a He is a a dynamic quarterback. He
(02:57):
can make a lot of plays with his legs, both
cold and sort of just sort of scrambling. He has
a lot of ways to hurt you. And he has
a very very tenenty group of wide receivers, a very
talented group of wide receivers that he can distribute the
ball to. And you know, we'll see how many of
their names we say later on in the show. But
(03:17):
Fernando Mendoza feels like someone who is going to be
This is probably going to be the single biggest challenge
that the Ohio State defense has faced this season. The
Indiana offense, but specifically the Indiana passing emens.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
Yeah, and he's he's gonna make it all go or
you know, that's that's the guy you're gonna have to stop.
I know coaches will always say, well, we got to
stop the run, that's fine. But if you stop the
run and he goes, you know, twenty nine to thirty
one on you, for three hundred and eighty seven yards,
how'd you do? And he's accurate. He will he loves
(03:52):
the RPO. He can pick up third downs on third
and seven. So it'll be interesting to see how much
they want to contain. Will they be preaching contained. He
will keep it on the read option, which makes things
even more of a pain. Helps that running game go.
He is able to bust one for thirty yards if
there's no le If Ohio State or the defender loses leverage,
(04:16):
he can get to the sideline. And he's a competitor.
We've seen him at cal and Indiana both bring his
team back and on the last drive of the game,
you need to have it. He's gonna get it for you.
So I think it's going to be difficult to phase
him in terms of the moment. The way that you
face him is get in his face, pressure him. That's
(04:40):
how just like you just get in the way and
make him have to do something and create these situations
that are difficult for him. You can't just try to like,
oh no, you're down ten points, what are you gonna
do about it. I don't think that bothers him. You
actually have to physically bother him. I don't know that
you can mentally bother him.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Yeah, I mean, he's he's had a couple times where
he's thrown picks late in games and you've thought, oh boy,
oh here we go, this is it, this is where
the roof falls in, and then he just comes right
back and they just go right down the field. That
happened against Oregon, that happened against Iowa, and those we
are on the road, good defenses, hostile environments, and it
was just kind of like, yeah, okay, And he did
(05:20):
the same thing against Penn State. He threw he had
like a late turnover against Penn State, or sort of
a semi late turnover against Penn State and they went
right down the field and just Boma score. Like this
is this is a like really you need to finish
the job, Like you really need to put this team away,
because if you let this team hang around, they are
going to be able to you know, we have seen
(05:42):
them multiple times in close games, always find a way
to win. And it's it is the wildest thing, you know,
Indiana losing his team in college football history until very
very recently. Now he has lost one regular season give
a twenty three and one in the regular season the
last two years. And Indiana, which could not win a
(06:03):
close game to save its life for huge chunks of
the early two thousands, now absolutely cannot lose a close game.
It does not matter what you do. They will come
back and find a way to win. It is like
we are as through the looking glass as you possibly
could be right now in the college football world. But
you know, frankly, it is like it's really this has
been a really fun team to rewatch this week because
(06:25):
it's like, all right, how are they going to do it?
You know, this is this is like mcgiver like, all right,
all he's got is a wristwatch and it doesn't even
have a swatchguard, and he's got some gum and he's
got a slinky. How is he going to get out
of this? And then you know, five minutes later, son
(06:45):
of a gun, they did it again. I don't understand
how they keep doing this.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Well, you know how they did it. They googled it.
I'm just gonna let us sit there. My guy, my
Never two guy, is Elijah Surat, wide receiver. He's my
favorite of their receivers. And against Iowa seven for one
hundred and fifty six yards in a touchdown, against Oregon
(07:11):
eight for one twenty one and a touchdown six two,
two thirteen. He's strong. He he's not played, didn't have
a catch against Maryland. I'm assuming that's when he got hurt,
didn't play against Penn State, didn't play against Wisconsin. Just
got back against Produce. So he's probably still trying to
shake off some of that rust. But he's a physical
(07:34):
X kind of receiver. Tom mentioned on a previous show
he's really good with the back shoulders. They're going to
throw those and you're gonna see Jamaine Matthews and Davis
nick Bunosen perhaps get called for PI or holding as
they start to run by and it's like, well, shoot
the here's the back shoulder, and try to keep him
(07:55):
from making those catches. But there's gonna be some physicality
between he and who is defending him, and there's it'd
be interesting to see if it gets called both ways
or if it only gets called one way. But he's
a touchdown machine. I guess he's got eleven on the year,
and he scored three against Kennesaw State. What good job.
(08:15):
But in a five game stretch from Illinois to UCLA
basically late September October through early October or through all
of October, he had seven, seven touchdown catches in a
five game stretch. And that's who he is. He's a
red zone guy. He can catch it run, as we
(08:36):
saw this season to win the game against Iowa. If
you don't tackle him, he can go the distance. He's
been very quiet of late because of injuries, but I
think if he's fully healthy, he's the guy to me
that scares you the most because of everything he can do.
(08:57):
But that's also like, don't don't let that trick you
into thinking you don't need to worry about the other receivers.
As I'm sure we will probably talk about as well.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Yeah, I don't know that he's the one that scares
me the most because I think if it's him against
Jermaine Matthews or him against Davis Igbuinosen, I think those
are gonna guys are going to kind of be able
to fight him to a draw at the least. And
it might, I mean, it really might literally be fighting
him to a draw. It's gonna be physical, as you said.
But I think I think Ohio State's corners are gonna
(09:27):
be the best that they've that Indiana's faced all year.
And as I said earlier, this is gonna be the
best group of wide receivers Ohio State's corners are going
to have faced every year. I don't think he's gonna
put up one hundred yards on these guys. Well I would,
you know, And maybe we'll get into these guys later.
But I look at the fact that you've got three
of them, and if Charlie Becker's on one side, okay,
maybe you can kind of contain him, And if Sarat's
(09:49):
kind of on the other side, okay, maybe you can
kind of contain him. You know, what's the Omar Cooper
matchup is he you know, is that just always Lorenzo styles.
Problem is that, you know, is that Caleb Down's on
and some times you're going to have to really cover
all three of these guys. There is not a like, eh,
you can just kind of ignore him, don't forget about him.
So yeah, I mean, Sarat is a very good receiver.
(10:11):
I don't expect him to have a huge game, but
this is this is one where all he has to
do is have one big play. You have one big
play for a touchdown, and that could be, you know,
if this is a close enough game, that could be
what swings it. So all right, we got to jump
over to the defensive side of the ball, where we're
talking way too much about the offense. We got to
talk about Steven Day and number eight defensive lineman. Played
(10:32):
at Kent State last year and has been just sort
of continuously getting better. Eighteen eighteen tackles for loss for
him this year, his last three games at Penn State
two and a half tackles for loss Wisconsin three tackles
for loss at Purdue four and a half tackles per loss.
He is just constantly in the backfield. If Ohio State
(10:54):
can find a way to keep him just sort of
like at arms length. That will go a long way
towards allowing them to stay on schedule. You know, Ohio
State staying on scheduled not quite as crucial as is
for teams like Michigan or you know, Rutgers or UCLA
or whatever. You know, teams that we've been talking about, Like, boy,
(11:15):
they've got to stay on schedule because Ohio State has
found a way with the wide receivers to make third
and eight like kind of a yeah, that's like a
seventy percent conversion kind of thing, which is not normal,
but they are. You know, Stephen Dally, I think is
on a defense that has a bunch of impact players,
and we'll probably talk about at least one or two
of the linebackers here in a minute. Stephen Daly is
(11:38):
the one to me that it's like, man, he is
just it feels like he's always around the ball, always
in the backfield, and always disrupting.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
Some He's he said, ten tackles for loss in his
last three games last year at Kent State. He had
nine for the season. Goes to show you if you've
moved down a level, you become much more productive. If
you go from the MAC to the big ten. As
you know, one of the things that is interesting about
Stephen Daily and I think we've talked about this in
(12:05):
previous shows as well. He listened at six one, two
seventy three. He's not the the draft measurable kind of guy,
which allows him to fall through the cracks and then
have to climb back up through them. But he's not
your standard defensive end body type. And I do wonder
(12:26):
is this another instance where you run at him rather
than trying to let him make plays and just take
it to him and force the issue, because he's shown
that he can track down the backside, he can penetrate
and blow things up as you're you know, with the
delayed handoff or whatever you're doing. He's very active of late,
(12:50):
and yet he's only had two games this yearhere we
didn't have at least a half a tackle for loss.
So this isn't just a Johnny cum lately kind of thing.
He's maybe playing more snaps and because of that he's
more productive. But yes, number eight on the defensive line,
keep an eye on him for sure. Sticking with the defense,
I'm gonna go ahead, and I'm gonna go with number
(13:11):
four middle linebacker Aidan Fisher who basically runs things and
is the kind of guy that I don't know if
he's a coach's son. He's a middle linebacker coaches son
type of thing where you know, everybody loves him and
he's the gritty guy. He's he's at the point of attack.
He all of the stuff that people talk about linebackers,
(13:33):
that's that's him. And so he's the guy that a
pretty sound tackler. I've sent previous shows that you know,
he does have maybe some trouble getting through through the
through the traffic at times and or getting all the
way to the edge, but in between the hashes, he's very,
very solid. We even saw him against Wisconsin rushing from
(13:55):
the edge a little bit. So they'll move him around.
Smart super smart play has been around forever in terms
of an impactful defensive player. Another guy at Indiana now
that has been around and has adopted purer Signett's basically
is persona because they all came over from James Madison,
(14:18):
so it's been ingrained in him now and there is
no underdog thing going on. They expect to win that
he expects to run this defense perfectly. Expects to make
every tackle, and they expect to be the better team
on every field that they're on, and a lot of
it starts with him defensively.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Yeah, I mean a lot of everything starts with the
linebackers defensively for Indiana, and I think we could, you know,
if we did more than five, I think we would
probably have all three of the linebackers on this show.
I don't know how much you're really going to see
all three linebackers in this game on Saturday, because you know,
I don't think. I think Ohio State has generally been
(14:58):
trending away from the thirteen personnel certainly and maybe even
somewhat for the twelve personnel, and I think they're gonna
on a track like you're gonna have in Indy. I
think you may see more wide receivers rather than less,
but it's gonna be whichever linebackers are out there. For Indiana,
they are really good. They have they have three guys
(15:18):
who they can rotate through and it doesn't feel like
there's much of a drop off. And I was gonna
I was gonna have Elijah Hardy, who's one of the
other linebackers. He's gonna be my next guy. So he's
number twenty one. I look at his I look at
his bio and see Naval Academy Preparatory School on there,
and it's like, man, if this guy was at Navy,
holy smokes, he would just be like the Army Navy game,
(15:41):
he would have like seventeen tackles in that game if
he had ended up going to the Naval Academy. But
you know, you look through his stats and it's like
he's had a tackle for loss or you know, at
least half of a tackle for loss in all but
two games. One was the season overparting against Old Dominion
and one was against Indiana State, where he didn't seem
me play a whole heck of a lot. But against
(16:02):
Oregon thirteen tackles, two tackles for loss. Against Penn State
twelve tackles, one tackle for loss. You know, he is
in these games where it's you know, these are teams
that really want to run the ball. Man, oh man,
is he always around the ball and always making plays?
And now this is this is three really really good
(16:22):
linebackers for Indiana. This is this is as well rounded
a linebacker unit as I think we've seen probably all
season against anyone. Isaiah Jones is the third one and
we may not see as much of him, but you know,
Aiden Fisher kind of gets most of the hype there,
but Isaiah Jones twelve tackles for loss, for Elijah Hardy
eleven and a half tackles for loss. It is just
(16:44):
a really really good, solid, disciplined linebacker group. They're not
at a position a lot. It's it they are going
to They're going to make you earn it. And I'm
really interested to see, you know, with as good as
this defensive line is on the whole and as good
as the linebackers are on the hole, how much push
can the Ohio State offensive line get? How many holes?
(17:06):
You know, how big are the hole is going to
be that they can open up? And then can Bo
Jackson run through tackles? We saw Bo Jackson run over
some guys last week at Michigan and get some extra yards.
Can he do that here? Can he get around the corner?
Can he turn the corner on these guys or not?
This is if Ohio State can run the ball, Ohio
State can probably pull away and win this game by
a couple scores. But if Ohio State really can't, and
(17:29):
I think they are going to be challenged to run
the ball kind of consistently. Then I think Indiana can
really make this a full sixty minute game.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Can I throw one more in here? And that's a
boundary cornerback D'Angelo Pond's number five All Big Ten type
of player is five to nine, as we have talked about,
and Ohio State will not feeld a receiver that is
under six foot in this game, and the outside receivers
are all generally going to be six two six', three
(17:57):
so that's going to provide somewhat of an advantage for.
Him but he's been five to nine for his entire
college life and has learned to deal with that former
teammate Of Jeremiah smith back back in high, school so
certainly some familiarity. There but a guy with eight pass
breakups this, year three and a half tackles for, loss
(18:17):
thirty eight, tackles he has an, interception he can attack,
screens he can attack the. Run he's an aggressive. GUY
i think anytime you're a five to nine, corner you're
also gonna be more one of the more aggressive types
because you've just had to. Be this is just how
you've had to play football your entire, life so they're
(18:38):
generally okay against the run as. Well and you, KNOW
i think we haven't talked a whole bunch about the
secondary overall because you, know in terms of our, rewatches
because we haven't really seen them play too many passing.
Games even Against, Oregon organ threw the ball at thirty
four times for one hundred and eighty yard cards and it's,
(19:00):
like that's not. Great and so we'll see a lot,
MORE i think from the secondary On saturday and have
a much better idea of what they. Are but D'Angelo
pond's another guy that just keep an eye out For buckeye. Fans.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Yeah one thing that's nice about being five nine is
when you've got the much bigger, guys you're probably not
going to get called for being for being physical because
generally the bigger guy is going to get called for
that because it's just the way things work with. Officials
so you can probably get away with a little bit,
more which should help sort of even things out. There but,
yeah that's that's one that you sort of look at
and you, go you, KNOW i WOULD i would explore
(19:38):
the studio space in terms of throwing one up and
trying to you, know is a fifty to fifty ball
truly fifty to fifty or can you maybe skew that
a little bit in your? Favor SO i would be
looking For Ohio state to maybe explore, That like if
you can Get Jeremiah smith on him in the red,
ZONE i would throw up a fade or two and
see what. Happens. There one other guy that we should
(19:59):
talk about in really this is two guys we should
talk About Nico radiciic the placekicker thirteen for. Thirteen he's
six of six from twenty to twenty, nine three of
three from thirty to thirty, nine and four to four
from forty to forty. Nine long of a forty. Six,
however don't worry if they need a longer. One Brendon.
Frankie we saw him AGAINST i think it was The oregon,
game hit a fifty eight, yarder so you, know and
(20:23):
that was you, know that was outdoors In. Oregon inside you,
know he could be lining up on the logo and you,
know just Like Steph, curry he could hit a three
from the. Logo is that is a legitimate, possibility, which,
again if it's a close, Game boyle, boy is that
a really nice advantage to have at the end of
the first, half especially for a coach Like kurtzignetti who
(20:44):
will be super aggressive in those late first half kind
of you know that you get the ball twenty two
seconds left and it's like most people are kneeling it.
Out kurtzignette is, like twenty two, seconds we can we
might be able to score a. Touchdown we can certainly get.
Three and when we've seen him try, that it's generally.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
Worked, yeah he has no problem exploring the room of the.
Possibilities And, frankie if they also need a short field,
goal he had a twenty two yarder for some reason
Against oregon as. Well so another thing to keep in.
Mind he's your, putter he's your, driver and then all's
good from. There so that will do. It just some
guys that you're going to want to keep an eye.
(21:23):
Out that could be the difference in this game On saturday.
Night if you want to hit the, thumbsup we'd appreciate.
That subscribe to the Channel All That jazz as you,
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huddle dot, com so that will do it from. Here
thank you all for tuning, in and we will talk
to you all later
Hello, everybody, Welcome to the Buckeye Weekly Podcast. I'm Tony
Gerdaman here as always with Tom or Tom.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
How's it going, Tony? We are doing Ohio Indiana players
that what are going to be a concern for Ohio State? Tony,
I'm just going to call dibbs right now. I think
their quarterback's pretty good, so we'll talk about that in
a minute. But I called DIBs on Fernando Mendoza. So Tony,
how are you well?
Speaker 1 (00:28):
I only have Fernando Mendoza written down, so I guess
I'll go first. No, there there are plenty of players
at Ohio State and Buckeye fans should be concerned about.
They are ranked the number two team in the nation.
After all, they are twelve and zero on a season.
They have run through a schedule that features a ranked opponent,
(00:49):
and they did it on the road at Oregon and
the rest of the Big Ten didn't hold up their
end of the bargain in terms of being ranked. Ohio
State is suffering through that same thing with Illinois. That's
why I like that curse Signetti still talks about. While
we beat Illinois team that was number nine at the
time and beat them into a pulp and perhaps ruined
(01:10):
the end of their season. So all of that, none
of that matters now the ranked opponents, the you know whatever,
because it's one versus two and it's the first tom
is this the first one versus two into Big ten
since two thousand and six, I'm gonna like there could
(01:31):
be another?
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Yeah, I think that. I think it has to be
since since the Ohio State Michigan gave me two thousand
and six, I can't think of anything else. So yeah,
that would be field played. Ohio State almost certainly would
have been involved in that if it had happened. So yeah,
I will go ahead and confidently say yes, first one
since two thousand and six, Ohio State Michigan. And if
you google it and get a different answer, it's probably
(01:52):
AI hallucinating something. So there you go. So all right,
Fernando Mendoza not haining any hallucinating anything there. He is
very much in the Heisman conversation. He has you know,
he is absolutely phenomenal, untouchable against bad competition like he
is like against Wisconsin. We just did a show with
(02:14):
the Wisconsin game and he was something like twenty two
to twenty four for like three hundred yards and four touchdowns.
He puts up Julian saying numbers against bad competition when
you get against better competition. Indiana's whole offense sort of
has some scaling issues because I think a lot of
the stuff that they can do can take advantage of,
you know, inferior talent and doesn't necessarily work as well
against you know, equal or superior talent. And he's kind
(02:37):
of a little more like a sixty five percent passer
in those you know, Penn State and Iowa and Oregon games,
you're still good, and he still has a positive touchdown
to interception ratio, but instead of like twenty five to one,
it's like five to four. So you know, it's a
it is a He is a a dynamic quarterback. He
(02:57):
can make a lot of plays with his legs, both
cold and sort of just sort of scrambling. He has
a lot of ways to hurt you. And he has
a very very tenenty group of wide receivers, a very
talented group of wide receivers that he can distribute the
ball to. And you know, we'll see how many of
their names we say later on in the show. But
(03:17):
Fernando Mendoza feels like someone who is going to be
This is probably going to be the single biggest challenge
that the Ohio State defense has faced this season. The
Indiana offense, but specifically the Indiana passing emens.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
Yeah, and he's he's gonna make it all go or
you know, that's that's the guy you're gonna have to stop.
I know coaches will always say, well, we got to
stop the run, that's fine. But if you stop the
run and he goes, you know, twenty nine to thirty
one on you, for three hundred and eighty seven yards,
how'd you do? And he's accurate. He will he loves
(03:52):
the RPO. He can pick up third downs on third
and seven. So it'll be interesting to see how much
they want to contain. Will they be preaching contained. He
will keep it on the read option, which makes things
even more of a pain. Helps that running game go.
He is able to bust one for thirty yards if
there's no le If Ohio State or the defender loses leverage,
(04:16):
he can get to the sideline. And he's a competitor.
We've seen him at cal and Indiana both bring his
team back and on the last drive of the game,
you need to have it. He's gonna get it for you.
So I think it's going to be difficult to phase
him in terms of the moment. The way that you
face him is get in his face, pressure him. That's
(04:40):
how just like you just get in the way and
make him have to do something and create these situations
that are difficult for him. You can't just try to like,
oh no, you're down ten points, what are you gonna
do about it. I don't think that bothers him. You
actually have to physically bother him. I don't know that
you can mentally bother him.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Yeah, I mean, he's he's had a couple times where
he's thrown picks late in games and you've thought, oh boy,
oh here we go, this is it, this is where
the roof falls in, and then he just comes right
back and they just go right down the field. That
happened against Oregon, that happened against Iowa, and those we
are on the road, good defenses, hostile environments, and it
was just kind of like, yeah, okay, And he did
(05:20):
the same thing against Penn State. He threw he had
like a late turnover against Penn State, or sort of
a semi late turnover against Penn State and they went
right down the field and just Boma score. Like this
is this is a like really you need to finish
the job, Like you really need to put this team away,
because if you let this team hang around, they are
going to be able to you know, we have seen
(05:42):
them multiple times in close games, always find a way
to win. And it's it is the wildest thing, you know,
Indiana losing his team in college football history until very
very recently. Now he has lost one regular season give
a twenty three and one in the regular season the
last two years. And Indiana, which could not win a
(06:03):
close game to save its life for huge chunks of
the early two thousands, now absolutely cannot lose a close game.
It does not matter what you do. They will come
back and find a way to win. It is like
we are as through the looking glass as you possibly
could be right now in the college football world. But
you know, frankly, it is like it's really this has
been a really fun team to rewatch this week because
(06:25):
it's like, all right, how are they going to do it?
You know, this is this is like mcgiver like, all right,
all he's got is a wristwatch and it doesn't even
have a swatchguard, and he's got some gum and he's
got a slinky. How is he going to get out
of this? And then you know, five minutes later, son
(06:45):
of a gun, they did it again. I don't understand
how they keep doing this.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Well, you know how they did it. They googled it.
I'm just gonna let us sit there. My guy, my
Never two guy, is Elijah Surat, wide receiver. He's my
favorite of their receivers. And against Iowa seven for one
hundred and fifty six yards in a touchdown, against Oregon
(07:11):
eight for one twenty one and a touchdown six two,
two thirteen. He's strong. He he's not played, didn't have
a catch against Maryland. I'm assuming that's when he got hurt,
didn't play against Penn State, didn't play against Wisconsin. Just
got back against Produce. So he's probably still trying to
shake off some of that rust. But he's a physical
(07:34):
X kind of receiver. Tom mentioned on a previous show
he's really good with the back shoulders. They're going to
throw those and you're gonna see Jamaine Matthews and Davis
nick Bunosen perhaps get called for PI or holding as
they start to run by and it's like, well, shoot
the here's the back shoulder, and try to keep him
(07:55):
from making those catches. But there's gonna be some physicality
between he and who is defending him, and there's it'd
be interesting to see if it gets called both ways
or if it only gets called one way. But he's
a touchdown machine. I guess he's got eleven on the year,
and he scored three against Kennesaw State. What good job.
(08:15):
But in a five game stretch from Illinois to UCLA
basically late September October through early October or through all
of October, he had seven, seven touchdown catches in a
five game stretch. And that's who he is. He's a
red zone guy. He can catch it run, as we
(08:36):
saw this season to win the game against Iowa. If
you don't tackle him, he can go the distance. He's
been very quiet of late because of injuries, but I
think if he's fully healthy, he's the guy to me
that scares you the most because of everything he can do.
(08:57):
But that's also like, don't don't let that trick you
into thinking you don't need to worry about the other receivers.
As I'm sure we will probably talk about as well.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
Yeah, I don't know that he's the one that scares
me the most because I think if it's him against
Jermaine Matthews or him against Davis Igbuinosen, I think those
are gonna guys are going to kind of be able
to fight him to a draw at the least. And
it might, I mean, it really might literally be fighting
him to a draw. It's gonna be physical, as you said.
But I think I think Ohio State's corners are gonna
(09:27):
be the best that they've that Indiana's faced all year.
And as I said earlier, this is gonna be the
best group of wide receivers Ohio State's corners are going
to have faced every year. I don't think he's gonna
put up one hundred yards on these guys. Well I would,
you know, And maybe we'll get into these guys later.
But I look at the fact that you've got three
of them, and if Charlie Becker's on one side, okay,
maybe you can kind of contain him, And if Sarat's
(09:49):
kind of on the other side, okay, maybe you can
kind of contain him. You know, what's the Omar Cooper
matchup is he you know, is that just always Lorenzo styles.
Problem is that, you know, is that Caleb Down's on
and some times you're going to have to really cover
all three of these guys. There is not a like, eh,
you can just kind of ignore him, don't forget about him.
So yeah, I mean, Sarat is a very good receiver.
(10:11):
I don't expect him to have a huge game, but
this is this is one where all he has to
do is have one big play. You have one big
play for a touchdown, and that could be, you know,
if this is a close enough game, that could be
what swings it. So all right, we got to jump
over to the defensive side of the ball, where we're
talking way too much about the offense. We got to
talk about Steven Day and number eight defensive lineman. Played
(10:32):
at Kent State last year and has been just sort
of continuously getting better. Eighteen eighteen tackles for loss for
him this year, his last three games at Penn State
two and a half tackles for loss Wisconsin three tackles
for loss at Purdue four and a half tackles per loss.
He is just constantly in the backfield. If Ohio State
(10:54):
can find a way to keep him just sort of
like at arms length. That will go a long way
towards allowing them to stay on schedule. You know, Ohio
State staying on scheduled not quite as crucial as is
for teams like Michigan or you know, Rutgers or UCLA
or whatever. You know, teams that we've been talking about, Like, boy,
(11:15):
they've got to stay on schedule because Ohio State has
found a way with the wide receivers to make third
and eight like kind of a yeah, that's like a
seventy percent conversion kind of thing, which is not normal,
but they are. You know, Stephen Dally, I think is
on a defense that has a bunch of impact players,
and we'll probably talk about at least one or two
of the linebackers here in a minute. Stephen Daly is
(11:38):
the one to me that it's like, man, he is
just it feels like he's always around the ball, always
in the backfield, and always disrupting.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
Some He's he said, ten tackles for loss in his
last three games last year at Kent State. He had
nine for the season. Goes to show you if you've
moved down a level, you become much more productive. If
you go from the MAC to the big ten. As
you know, one of the things that is interesting about
Stephen Daily and I think we've talked about this in
(12:05):
previous shows as well. He listened at six one, two
seventy three. He's not the the draft measurable kind of guy,
which allows him to fall through the cracks and then
have to climb back up through them. But he's not
your standard defensive end body type. And I do wonder
(12:26):
is this another instance where you run at him rather
than trying to let him make plays and just take
it to him and force the issue, because he's shown
that he can track down the backside, he can penetrate
and blow things up as you're you know, with the
delayed handoff or whatever you're doing. He's very active of late,
(12:50):
and yet he's only had two games this yearhere we
didn't have at least a half a tackle for loss.
So this isn't just a Johnny cum lately kind of thing.
He's maybe playing more snaps and because of that he's
more productive. But yes, number eight on the defensive line,
keep an eye on him for sure. Sticking with the defense,
I'm gonna go ahead, and I'm gonna go with number
(13:11):
four middle linebacker Aidan Fisher who basically runs things and
is the kind of guy that I don't know if
he's a coach's son. He's a middle linebacker coaches son
type of thing where you know, everybody loves him and
he's the gritty guy. He's he's at the point of attack.
He all of the stuff that people talk about linebackers,
(13:33):
that's that's him. And so he's the guy that a
pretty sound tackler. I've sent previous shows that you know,
he does have maybe some trouble getting through through the
through the traffic at times and or getting all the
way to the edge, but in between the hashes, he's very,
very solid. We even saw him against Wisconsin rushing from
(13:55):
the edge a little bit. So they'll move him around.
Smart super smart play has been around forever in terms
of an impactful defensive player. Another guy at Indiana now
that has been around and has adopted purer Signett's basically
is persona because they all came over from James Madison,
(14:18):
so it's been ingrained in him now and there is
no underdog thing going on. They expect to win that
he expects to run this defense perfectly. Expects to make
every tackle, and they expect to be the better team
on every field that they're on, and a lot of
it starts with him defensively.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Yeah, I mean a lot of everything starts with the
linebackers defensively for Indiana, and I think we could, you know,
if we did more than five, I think we would
probably have all three of the linebackers on this show.
I don't know how much you're really going to see
all three linebackers in this game on Saturday, because you know,
I don't think. I think Ohio State has generally been
(14:58):
trending away from the thirteen personnel certainly and maybe even
somewhat for the twelve personnel, and I think they're gonna
on a track like you're gonna have in Indy. I
think you may see more wide receivers rather than less,
but it's gonna be whichever linebackers are out there. For Indiana,
they are really good. They have they have three guys
(15:18):
who they can rotate through and it doesn't feel like
there's much of a drop off. And I was gonna
I was gonna have Elijah Hardy, who's one of the
other linebackers. He's gonna be my next guy. So he's
number twenty one. I look at his I look at
his bio and see Naval Academy Preparatory School on there,
and it's like, man, if this guy was at Navy,
holy smokes, he would just be like the Army Navy game,
(15:41):
he would have like seventeen tackles in that game if
he had ended up going to the Naval Academy. But
you know, you look through his stats and it's like
he's had a tackle for loss or you know, at
least half of a tackle for loss in all but
two games. One was the season overparting against Old Dominion
and one was against Indiana State, where he didn't seem
me play a whole heck of a lot. But against
(16:02):
Oregon thirteen tackles, two tackles for loss. Against Penn State
twelve tackles, one tackle for loss. You know, he is
in these games where it's you know, these are teams
that really want to run the ball. Man, oh man,
is he always around the ball and always making plays?
And now this is this is three really really good
(16:22):
linebackers for Indiana. This is this is as well rounded
a linebacker unit as I think we've seen probably all
season against anyone. Isaiah Jones is the third one and
we may not see as much of him, but you know,
Aiden Fisher kind of gets most of the hype there,
but Isaiah Jones twelve tackles for loss, for Elijah Hardy
eleven and a half tackles for loss. It is just
(16:44):
a really really good, solid, disciplined linebacker group. They're not
at a position a lot. It's it they are going
to They're going to make you earn it. And I'm
really interested to see, you know, with as good as
this defensive line is on the whole and as good
as the linebackers are on the hole, how much push
can the Ohio State offensive line get? How many holes?
(17:06):
You know, how big are the hole is going to
be that they can open up? And then can Bo
Jackson run through tackles? We saw Bo Jackson run over
some guys last week at Michigan and get some extra yards.
Can he do that here? Can he get around the corner?
Can he turn the corner on these guys or not?
This is if Ohio State can run the ball, Ohio
State can probably pull away and win this game by
a couple scores. But if Ohio State really can't, and
(17:29):
I think they are going to be challenged to run
the ball kind of consistently. Then I think Indiana can
really make this a full sixty minute game.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Can I throw one more in here? And that's a
boundary cornerback D'Angelo Pond's number five All Big Ten type
of player is five to nine, as we have talked about,
and Ohio State will not feeld a receiver that is
under six foot in this game, and the outside receivers
are all generally going to be six two six', three
(17:57):
so that's going to provide somewhat of an advantage for.
Him but he's been five to nine for his entire
college life and has learned to deal with that former
teammate Of Jeremiah smith back back in high, school so
certainly some familiarity. There but a guy with eight pass
breakups this, year three and a half tackles for, loss
(18:17):
thirty eight, tackles he has an, interception he can attack,
screens he can attack the. Run he's an aggressive. GUY
i think anytime you're a five to nine, corner you're
also gonna be more one of the more aggressive types
because you've just had to. Be this is just how
you've had to play football your entire, life so they're
(18:38):
generally okay against the run as. Well and you, KNOW
i think we haven't talked a whole bunch about the
secondary overall because you, know in terms of our, rewatches
because we haven't really seen them play too many passing.
Games even Against, Oregon organ threw the ball at thirty
four times for one hundred and eighty yard cards and it's,
(19:00):
like that's not. Great and so we'll see a lot,
MORE i think from the secondary On saturday and have
a much better idea of what they. Are but D'Angelo
pond's another guy that just keep an eye out For buckeye. Fans.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Yeah one thing that's nice about being five nine is
when you've got the much bigger, guys you're probably not
going to get called for being for being physical because
generally the bigger guy is going to get called for
that because it's just the way things work with. Officials
so you can probably get away with a little bit,
more which should help sort of even things out. There but,
yeah that's that's one that you sort of look at
and you, go you, KNOW i WOULD i would explore
(19:38):
the studio space in terms of throwing one up and
trying to you, know is a fifty to fifty ball
truly fifty to fifty or can you maybe skew that
a little bit in your? Favor SO i would be
looking For Ohio state to maybe explore, That like if
you can Get Jeremiah smith on him in the red,
ZONE i would throw up a fade or two and
see what. Happens. There one other guy that we should
(19:59):
talk about in really this is two guys we should
talk About Nico radiciic the placekicker thirteen for. Thirteen he's
six of six from twenty to twenty, nine three of
three from thirty to thirty, nine and four to four
from forty to forty. Nine long of a forty. Six,
however don't worry if they need a longer. One Brendon.
Frankie we saw him AGAINST i think it was The oregon,
game hit a fifty eight, yarder so you, know and
(20:23):
that was you, know that was outdoors In. Oregon inside you,
know he could be lining up on the logo and you,
know just Like Steph, curry he could hit a three
from the. Logo is that is a legitimate, possibility, which,
again if it's a close, Game boyle, boy is that
a really nice advantage to have at the end of
the first, half especially for a coach Like kurtzignetti who
(20:44):
will be super aggressive in those late first half kind
of you know that you get the ball twenty two
seconds left and it's like most people are kneeling it.
Out kurtzignette is, like twenty two, seconds we can we
might be able to score a. Touchdown we can certainly get.
Three and when we've seen him try, that it's generally.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
Worked, yeah he has no problem exploring the room of the.
Possibilities And, frankie if they also need a short field,
goal he had a twenty two yarder for some reason
Against oregon as. Well so another thing to keep in.
Mind he's your, putter he's your, driver and then all's
good from. There so that will do. It just some
guys that you're going to want to keep an eye.
(21:23):
Out that could be the difference in this game On saturday.
Night if you want to hit the, thumbsup we'd appreciate.
That subscribe to the Channel All That jazz as you,
know a five star writing review on the, podcasts and
of course you can continue to find us At Buckeye
huddle dot, com so that will do it from. Here
thank you all for tuning, in and we will talk
to you all later
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