December 23, 2025 • 21 mins
Cotton Bowl Preview and Listener Q&A | Buckeye Weekly Podcast
In this episode of the Buckeye Weekly Podcast, hosts Tony Gerdeman and Tom Orr answer a variety of listener questions leading up to Ohio State's Cotton Bowl matchup against Miami. Topics include predictions on Jeremiah Smith's performance, the state of Ohio State's offensive line, the impact of a first-round bye, and potential changes in red zone play-calling. The hosts also delve into a lighthearted discussion about conspiracy theories, making for an entertaining and informative episode. Tune in for insights and predictions as the Buckeyes prepare for the big game.
00:00 Introduction and Listener Questions
00:29 Jeremiah Smith's Touchdown Predictions
05:41 Ohio State Offensive Line Analysis
11:02 Concerns About First Round Byes
14:44 Red Zone Play Calling
18:18 Conspiracy Theories and Closing Remarks
In this episode of the Buckeye Weekly Podcast, hosts Tony Gerdeman and Tom Orr answer a variety of listener questions leading up to Ohio State's Cotton Bowl matchup against Miami. Topics include predictions on Jeremiah Smith's performance, the state of Ohio State's offensive line, the impact of a first-round bye, and potential changes in red zone play-calling. The hosts also delve into a lighthearted discussion about conspiracy theories, making for an entertaining and informative episode. Tune in for insights and predictions as the Buckeyes prepare for the big game.
00:00 Introduction and Listener Questions
00:29 Jeremiah Smith's Touchdown Predictions
05:41 Ohio State Offensive Line Analysis
11:02 Concerns About First Round Byes
14:44 Red Zone Play Calling
18:18 Conspiracy Theories and Closing Remarks
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. How's it going, Tony?
Speaker 2 (00:12):
I have questions about your inflection, but based on your inflections,
you have questions too.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Hey, we've got a bunch of questions, Salma. In fact,
we've got a bunch of listener questions, and we are
thankful we put out the call. You guys answered. We
appreciate that always, and we've got a lot.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
To talk, we do. And we got to start with
one from at Alex and how many touchdowns will Jeremiah
Smith have? And why is it at least three?
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Tom? This is a good question. Is three three touchdowns
in this game against maybe, knowing this is Jeremiah Smith
som you'd have to go four touchdowns to get three
points on both predictions? How many?
Speaker 2 (00:52):
How many games that Jeremiah Smith had three touchdowns?
Speaker 1 (00:55):
I don't think you've had any with three Touchdow.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
I don't believe it has. Yeah, No, I don't think so.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
I mean he's eventually going to add one to you
a thing.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Well, this is a you know, this is a game.
I'm not expecting enormous No, No, three touchdown games for
Jeremiah Smith at least. I don't think he's done including
a rush. No, not even with a rush. So not
only two touchdowns per game? Yeah, three touchdowns seems like
a lot because I'm expecting this to be a relatively
(01:24):
low squarter game. You know, I think if you just
if you just tell me Ohio State score three touchdowns,
that might be enough for me to say Ohio State
wins this game. Let alone Jeremiah Smith score three touchdowns.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Well, yeah, if Jeremiah Smith scores three touchdowns, is that
because Ohio State's trailing and they're just throwing the ball
all over the place? Was letting them score a little bit?
You know, prevent defense prevents you for winning, that sort
of thing. But Ellie, why is it at least three?
It's because he is fired up from this game and
he's playing against guys he's been playing against since he
(01:56):
was a child, and there will be I can't even chirping.
Chirping is that's something that small animals do. This is
going to be some loud, boisterous bellowing from the Miami side,
and he will be bellowing it right back. So if remember,
how can yalla Jackson went to Matt Patrician says, hey, hey, coach,
(02:17):
can you let me rest the passer? What if Jeremiah
Smith says, hey, coach RYE Day, Coach ry Day, can
you just just throw me the damn ball?
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Well, I think you're going to have an opportunity. The reason,
the reason that you could see this be a two
to three touchdown game from Jeremiah Smith. I'm looking at
it a lot less from the you know he's going
to want to do it sort of perspective, and more
from the Miami has a pretty good red zone defense.
Miami has a pretty good goal line defense. You may
(02:47):
have to throw the ball in the red zone in
order to score touchdowns, and so then you know, it's
not so much Jeremiah Smith has four hundred yards receiving
in three touchdowns. It's that Jeremiah Smith may be a
touchdown vulture in this game to a certain degree, where
you get the ball down there and then hey, if
the corners playing with outside leverage throma slant, if the
(03:07):
corners playing with inside leverage throma fade like it may
be one of those deals I could see it. I boy,
three touchdowns for two points seems I mean that seems real,
that that seems real stingy because I did. I'm expecting
(03:28):
such a low scoring game that three touchdowns by anyone
feels like, man, that would be a lot.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Two touchdowns is not worth two points.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
And in case you're wondering what we're talking about in
terms of points, I always forget. We have like new
people here. We do a show called Bold Predictions where
we compete extremely hostily for you know, whether our predictions
are for sufficiently bold, and you get points for getting
certain stuff correct, and we compete for the cud of
shame where if we are on you know, whatever the
(03:59):
next road trip is, the person who lose has to
have the pull up couch or the cod or whatever
it is in the hotel room. So, uh, that's that's
what we're talking about. We're talking about points. But yeah,
I this is going to be such a low scoring
game that I find it hard to believe any individual
player is gonna have three touchdowns. But if you were
going to take anyone, he might be the guy you'd take.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Well, that's a separate question because there's gonna be so
much focus on him. There goes Cardile tape, And now
might have be finish. We're not saying this this we're
answering the question. This is not us saying what what
what are these two guys you think is also going
to score three touchdowns? How many of these guys do
you think are going to score three touchdows? What about
Max Claire because he could also score three touchdowns? That's
nine touchdowns.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Yeah. I'm going to set the over under on three
touchdown scores for Ohio State or Miami at zero point five,
and I'm gonna guess there's not going to be more
than one three touchdowns score.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Where's Milica Tony on the the odds because he's second
or third?
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Yeah, Mark Fletcher, I mean.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Yeah, yeah, he's He's in that conversation. I don't know
Bo Jackson.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
You know, Bo Jason, he's not allowed to score touchdowns,
you know that.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Yeah, Well that's that has certainly seemed like the seemed
like the case. So yeah, I think Jeremiah Smith could
have a good game. But this is this is a
very good secondary, this is a very good pass rush.
A good game for Jeremiah Smith in this game might
constitute five catches for seventy eight yards in a touchdown
that would be a pretty good game in this game to.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Me, I was taking five for eighty.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Well, so you can tell we both shows for a
little while because we end up just coalescing around the
exact same stuff without talking about it next time. From
at Jordan six four eight zero nine eight nine zero.
It's useful to remember that the O line was much
more damaged. The Ohio State offensive line was much more
damaged last year and under much scrutiny and doubt than
(05:49):
this year. I think they will get it fixed and
this will be a different team. Well we know it's
going to be a different team because right guard Tager
Shabola is out for this game, out possibly for you know,
a potential semi final game. We'll see after that. It's
going to be a different offensive line. But they have
had a lot more consistency this year. Last year you
(06:12):
had Josh Simmons went out, and then they had Zen
Mahlsky went in, and then that didn't work, and then
they end up moving Donovan Jackson over from guard to tackle,
and then you had three guards rotating through the Sash.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
McLaughlin, the.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Starting center, who was the Roomington Award winner, got hurt,
so you had all sorts of guys shuffling in and
now moving around, and you know, they entered this time
last year with well, I don't know how Carson Hensman
is going to do at center. Well, I don't know
which of the You know, We've sat in a press
conference the week before the Tennessee game and Ryan Day
(06:51):
said they were going to rotate three guards and it
was like, I'm sorry, what you're going to do? What
in the college football playoffs and it ended up working
out fine. This year, it feels like really most of
the you know, there's been inconsistency at left guard at times,
it has been a consistent right tackle at times. Most
of the drama and uncertainty and rotation has happened at
(07:12):
the right guard position. So now that's the spot where
they've lost someone. So yeah, it has felt like gab
Van Sikel has done a pretty good job the last
couple of weeks. Josh Padilla, who's the other guy who's
potentially gonna be rotating the in there at right guard
during the playoff, he missed a bunch of time and
he's just now getting back. So you know, I would
(07:34):
be fascinated to know what the right guard position would
look like if Josh Patilla had been healthy all year.
But it feels like they've got a couple options there,
and they're potentially a couple good options. But you know,
news are those guys has like clearly won the job
from Tager Shabola so far, So I don't know what
to make of that.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
I'm just looking at the snap council last year, like
against Texas, Austin Seerveldt seventeen snaps, Tager Shabola forty three.
These are hearing the snaps for the last ten games
of the season for Luke Montgomery last year. Okay, four
zero fourteen three zero zero. Then the playoffs start, it's
(08:11):
thirty one, twenty nine and then sixty and sixty four
and he was not playing and then suddenly he is
your starting left tackle for the two biggest games of
the year. Austin Sea Revel, who's played out standing as
a left tackle this year and was rotating again, started
rotating in less and we're not even talking about the
other injuries with the Carson Hinsman and who was Kirstonnisman
(08:33):
didn't play twice early in this season that he played
pre snaps in another game because of the rotation and
the fact that well, you don't have a spot and
then boom, he's your study for the last five, six,
seven games or whatever and goes on to win a
national title. All of that has helped make this a
(08:55):
more cohesive unit this year. They can give guys a
lot of experience and so, yeah, there is less drama
at the bullet Yeah, yeah, yeah, Well I.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Look at Carson Hinsman and two years ago Carson Hinsman
had started all year and then lost his starting job
before the Cotton Bowl. Last year, Carson Hinson was the
starter in a dramatic win in the Cotton Bowl, and
now here he is back in the Cotton Bowl again.
So yeah, it is. It has definitely been a little
bit less of a tumultuous year on the offensive line,
(09:28):
and they did end up coming out in pretty good
shape last year. That doesn't necessarily mean well, the only
thing standing between this year's Ohio State offensive the line
and excellence is just two more starter injuries. Like, no,
that's not probably the takeaway I would have, but it
has definitely been a less tumultuous year and you could
potentially see a you know, a step forward again. This year.
(09:52):
I just the flip side of that is you're now
seeing most of these guys have been the starters all season,
So you're not necessarily going to see the guy who
after getting his first or second start, really takes an
enormous step forward. I don't maybe that, you know, maybe
that happens with Van Sikel. That's entirely possible if he's
working with the ones all month, and maybe you do
see that from him, but the rest of the line,
(10:14):
you're not necessarily going to see that from.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Just one last thing the Oregon game. Okay, Carson Hinsman
did not play. Josh Simmons, you know, twenty three snaps
gets hurt, Lookbug Demery did not play, and then the
game after that, Lookbug every four snaps, Josh Sibbons obviously out,
Carson Hitsman still does not play, and it's like this
is a wild season that it was last year and
(10:40):
everybody remembers it. But just but I think nine seven
or nine different starting lineups on the offensive line. I
think it's nine. But yeah, yeah, so far, so not crazy.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Yeah, So yeah, well we'll see. There's still there's still
potentially up to three more games still to go. There's
still time for things to get crazy. Not next one
from at Chadford William. How worried should we be about
every single buy team losing last year? Will we break
that trend? Or is that the time off plus the
opponent having momentum from a first round win too much
for any team to overcome. I think, you know, obviously
(11:15):
last year that was the big The big story was
all the teams that had the first round bys lost. Now,
how much of that had to do with the fact
that Boise State had a first round by, Arizona State
had a first round by, Georgia had a first round
by and lost its quarterback in the game before it
had a first round by, And Oregon had to play
the team that was, like pretty clearly in retrospect, the
(11:37):
most talent team in the country. I don't know that
this is the curse of the first round by as
much as it was a really lousy setup for the
bracket last year. And Oregon, you know, Oregon, if they
had played Penn State or Oregon, if they had played
you know who did it was Georgia? It was uh
(12:02):
who it was? Notre Dame had played one, Penn State won,
oh Texas, and yeah, Texas, So if Oregon had played
Penn State, I don't think Oregon's down thirty four to
nothing in the second quarter. So yeah, I don't. I
don't read a coole heck of a lot into that.
And you can also remember Ohio State played in the
first week of December, so they have not had a
(12:24):
month off like the people. I think Ohio State fans
in particular are sort of scarred by this because you
go back to two thousand and six, where the Ohio
State Michigan game was like November nineteenth or something like
that or eighteenth, and then they don't play again until
January seventh. This is like three weeks less than that.
So I don't I don't read a ton into last
year's results.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Yeah, and last year was they played on November and
Earth and then they played on December twenty first, So
that's that's a three week layoff. This one is what
a few days more than that. Yeah, that between games,
so they have the experience, but they would talk about
maintaining that edge and trying to make sure that they
(13:06):
maintained that edge because they I think it's important to
look at it as maybe like a disadvantage, like you
have to realize that you're not going to be as
you might have a little bit more rust than the
team that you're playing. So how do you keep that
rust off of you? How do you shake that off
rather than just saying I'm sure we'll be fine. I'm
sure we will be fine.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
What could possibly go or all exactly well, And you know,
Miami's coming into this game with a bunch of guys
who got banged up, especially in the defensive side of
the ball against Texas A and M. And you know
Mario Cryptable saying all the right things about everyone's can
you know, well, we hope to have everyone back, Like, yeah,
I'm sure you do. But you know, you would rather
come into this game perfectly healthy rather than you know,
(13:49):
I think health is probably more of a concern this
time of year than rust. Probably, you know, probably you
can you can sort of manage around that to a
certain degree now that you've kind of gone through the
playoff process.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Well, so Dan Landing, did they you know, they had
their mock home game last week where they even had
a halftime show and they had all of their they
did the the there's their third quarter song, not the
not the good one, the shout the shout. Yeah they
did not. Yes, I say not to you know I've
talked about but yes, that the show. They did all
of that just to get guys going, get their juices going.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Yeah, and you know, there's there's ways to work around that.
And you'll probably have some physical practices at Ohio State
and you know that's that's not usually a concern, was it?
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Juliet said? Who who said that? The practices? Maybe very
day they've ramped up. Yeah, they've ramped up the physicality
because they ramp it down over the course of the
season and now you've got to ramp it back up again.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Next one, I met Mike Meyer six one four who's
calling plays in the red zone? And can it be
someone different? Please? Tony? Why didn't you give our viewers
some good news?
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Yeah? Well, Ryan Day is going to be calling the
plays now again. Friends, it is a group effort and
everybody going to share their thoughts over the course of
the week, and maybe some guys will even be allowed
to have input during the game where Keatan Bailey might say, hey,
what about this or you know that, or you know,
is Ryan Day asking for that end play? It's like, Hey,
help me out here, guys, what do you do? I
(15:14):
don't expect that because he will be the most prepared
person in terms of the play calling. But yes, he
will be calling the plays in the red zone out
of the red zone everywhere else. Now, Tom, will the
plays that he calls in the red zone be the
same kind of plays that Brad Hartlight called in the
(15:36):
red zone? What would you like?
Speaker 2 (15:37):
What's so? The answer to that is, I am expecting
some different a little bit of a different approach in
the red zone. I'm expecting less thirteen and fourteen personnel
than we've seen because it has more.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
You can't have more.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
You don't don't tempt You're gonna upset the audience, tonics,
I'm not expecting. I'm expecting some different approaches in terms
of personnel and therefore in terms of probably plays as
well in the red zone. That's not because Brian Hartline
was calling the bad plays and Ryan Day is going
(16:17):
to call the good plays. I think it's the coaching
staff has probably coalesced around like maybe need a different
approach in that in that red zone. And so as
a result, the meetings they're having right now talking about this,
I'm expecting them to come up with a different approach
and then that will result in in different plays being called.
But it's not just that ding dong Brian hartline with
(16:38):
calling the bad plays and now we have fixed it
by putting a different guy in charge of talking into
the walkie talkie.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Yeah, because let's not forget Ry Day has ultimate vita
power on any play call. So he could have said,
what enough with the bad plays, it's not with the
good plays, and anybody else would have also voiced their
displeasure with the bad plays on Saturday, on Tuesday, on
Thursday as they're putting the the gate played together in
the team meeting rooms and be like, what if we
(17:05):
don't Yeah, what if we don't do the bad plays
of the red zone and only do the good plays?
And then it's like, don't get coffee, get out of here,
get out of my sight.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
You know well, and I think people should understand there
is a reason behind, like there was a thought process
behind some of the eleven or the thirteen person on
the fourteen personnel, and having different guys in there, you
can change blocking angles and all that kind of stuff,
and you can create some situational advantages and all that
kind of stuff. I think it may have been a
little bit of overthinking where if the opposing coaching staff
(17:34):
is happy to see you taking guys off the field,
I would consider not doing that, Like I don't want
to oversimplify it, but also if you've got two wide
receivers who are maybe your two best players on offense,
I would consider having them on the field and the
most important part of the field. Like it might it
might literally just be that simple. There are reasons for
what they did. It didn't always work out. That doesn't
(17:55):
mean they're dombin. It just means it didn't work out.
So now I would expect them to probably take a
little bit of a different approach.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Better to learned it lesson before the playoffs.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Speaking of lessons to learn, Tony for our last one,
and boy this was Do you remember the old Dull
Simmons columns, like mail bag columns on ESPN like twenty
years ago, where he would have the one at the
end that was just something that just wild and off
the wall and he would just his answer would just
be yep.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Those are my readers. Yes, yeah, from.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
At Chilean stud eleven. Since it is in Dallas dot
dot dot when I visited the Grassy Knoll, we all
agree that it was an inside job, right, you.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Know, I don't know a lot a lot of people
know this. We call Tom here que Top. He's very,
very into all sorts of these things. And so that's
why he's letting me answer this one. And so I
will speak for him and let you know what he
would say. I am speaking for Top. Yeah, totally inside job.
There's no way when you look at the bullet trajectory,
(18:50):
how does it take a left turn ended the right
or Tom can't do it. There's as you've told me before,
there's there's evidence of a shooting from the front and
it wasn't just the back. And if there was a
shooting from the back, sketchy, as you say, sketchy, we
don't know if that's actually true. How do you go
back into the left and back into the left Balllet's
(19:12):
don't do that. They don't go in and they pull
you back like a harpoon. Tom, that's what you've been
selling to me, Like this is a bullet, This is
not a hardpooon. This is not whale fishing. You don't
hook and then pull. That's you're You're always like, remember,
not whale fishing, is what you Tom was like, Okay, yeah,
it's not whale fishing. I know we're talking about back
to back into the left. How does it you can?
And that's where you're like, yeah, there's no magic bullet.
(19:32):
And so believe me, we've we've driven a lot of
roads over the years. I boy, did this is just
one of them. If you'd like to know more of
Tom's thoughts on other conspiracy theories, go ahead. We're here
throwing in the YouTube comments. Throw them, send them to
us on Twitter. There's a lot, and it's not a
It's a scary world out there, and Tom knows about it.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
My question for you is do we need to set
the camera right where Abraham's appruter was and do the
second greatest video or most famous video from that spot
for a live show at some point. But we're down there.
I'm not asking for an answer now.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
I'm just we'll think about it.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Also, was Lee Harvey Oswald on the sixth floor of
the Book Depository? Was he the sixth floor crew, the
spiritful predecessor to Miami and the seventh floor crew?
Speaker 1 (20:23):
There you go, there, you go deep cuts all around.
Thank you all for the I listened to questions, We've
got again, we've got more, we'll get you. I don't
know if they're all going to be conspiracy theory based.
I hope they are. Top hopes they are ahead, and
if they are, got some wild shows Kevin. But also
we'll probably talk a little bit about the Bowl as well.
Through all of these questions. Doing to thank you all.
(20:44):
If you have done that thumbs up, and I know
you have go ahead, to make sure you hit it again,
although if you do it one more time, then you've
actually removed the thumb, so hit it again, hit it
three times, just to make sure again. Another conspiracy theory
for Tom. Also, the audio podcast platforms you only have
to you don't even have to hit thumbs up on those,
you can just five star rating interview. Of course, you
(21:06):
can continue to find us at buckehuddle dot com. Sign up,
say hello to us there on the buck i huddle
message board presented by Jeffreyies Columbus would love to see there.
So that will do it from here for now. Thank
you all for tuning in, and we'll talk to you
all later
Hello, everybody, Welcome to the Buckeye Weekly Podcast. I'm Tony
Gerdaman here as always with Tom or Tom. How's it going, Tony?
Speaker 2 (00:12):
I have questions about your inflection, but based on your inflections,
you have questions too.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Hey, we've got a bunch of questions, Salma. In fact,
we've got a bunch of listener questions, and we are
thankful we put out the call. You guys answered. We
appreciate that always, and we've got a lot.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
To talk, we do. And we got to start with
one from at Alex and how many touchdowns will Jeremiah
Smith have? And why is it at least three?
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Tom? This is a good question. Is three three touchdowns
in this game against maybe, knowing this is Jeremiah Smith
som you'd have to go four touchdowns to get three
points on both predictions? How many?
Speaker 2 (00:52):
How many games that Jeremiah Smith had three touchdowns?
Speaker 1 (00:55):
I don't think you've had any with three Touchdow.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
I don't believe it has. Yeah, No, I don't think so.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
I mean he's eventually going to add one to you
a thing.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Well, this is a you know, this is a game.
I'm not expecting enormous No, No, three touchdown games for
Jeremiah Smith at least. I don't think he's done including
a rush. No, not even with a rush. So not
only two touchdowns per game? Yeah, three touchdowns seems like
a lot because I'm expecting this to be a relatively
(01:24):
low squarter game. You know, I think if you just
if you just tell me Ohio State score three touchdowns,
that might be enough for me to say Ohio State
wins this game. Let alone Jeremiah Smith score three touchdowns.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Well, yeah, if Jeremiah Smith scores three touchdowns, is that
because Ohio State's trailing and they're just throwing the ball
all over the place? Was letting them score a little bit?
You know, prevent defense prevents you for winning, that sort
of thing. But Ellie, why is it at least three?
It's because he is fired up from this game and
he's playing against guys he's been playing against since he
(01:56):
was a child, and there will be I can't even chirping.
Chirping is that's something that small animals do. This is
going to be some loud, boisterous bellowing from the Miami side,
and he will be bellowing it right back. So if remember,
how can yalla Jackson went to Matt Patrician says, hey, hey, coach,
(02:17):
can you let me rest the passer? What if Jeremiah
Smith says, hey, coach RYE Day, Coach ry Day, can
you just just throw me the damn ball?
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Well, I think you're going to have an opportunity. The reason,
the reason that you could see this be a two
to three touchdown game from Jeremiah Smith. I'm looking at
it a lot less from the you know he's going
to want to do it sort of perspective, and more
from the Miami has a pretty good red zone defense.
Miami has a pretty good goal line defense. You may
(02:47):
have to throw the ball in the red zone in
order to score touchdowns, and so then you know, it's
not so much Jeremiah Smith has four hundred yards receiving
in three touchdowns. It's that Jeremiah Smith may be a
touchdown vulture in this game to a certain degree, where
you get the ball down there and then hey, if
the corners playing with outside leverage throma slant, if the
(03:07):
corners playing with inside leverage throma fade like it may
be one of those deals I could see it. I boy,
three touchdowns for two points seems I mean that seems real,
that that seems real stingy because I did. I'm expecting
(03:28):
such a low scoring game that three touchdowns by anyone
feels like, man, that would be a lot.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Two touchdowns is not worth two points.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
And in case you're wondering what we're talking about in
terms of points, I always forget. We have like new
people here. We do a show called Bold Predictions where
we compete extremely hostily for you know, whether our predictions
are for sufficiently bold, and you get points for getting
certain stuff correct, and we compete for the cud of
shame where if we are on you know, whatever the
(03:59):
next road trip is, the person who lose has to
have the pull up couch or the cod or whatever
it is in the hotel room. So, uh, that's that's
what we're talking about. We're talking about points. But yeah,
I this is going to be such a low scoring
game that I find it hard to believe any individual
player is gonna have three touchdowns. But if you were
going to take anyone, he might be the guy you'd take.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Well, that's a separate question because there's gonna be so
much focus on him. There goes Cardile tape, And now
might have be finish. We're not saying this this we're
answering the question. This is not us saying what what
what are these two guys you think is also going
to score three touchdowns? How many of these guys do
you think are going to score three touchdows? What about
Max Claire because he could also score three touchdowns? That's
nine touchdowns.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Yeah. I'm going to set the over under on three
touchdown scores for Ohio State or Miami at zero point five,
and I'm gonna guess there's not going to be more
than one three touchdowns score.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
Where's Milica Tony on the the odds because he's second
or third?
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Yeah, Mark Fletcher, I mean.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Yeah, yeah, he's He's in that conversation. I don't know
Bo Jackson.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
You know, Bo Jason, he's not allowed to score touchdowns,
you know that.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Yeah, Well that's that has certainly seemed like the seemed
like the case. So yeah, I think Jeremiah Smith could
have a good game. But this is this is a
very good secondary, this is a very good pass rush.
A good game for Jeremiah Smith in this game might
constitute five catches for seventy eight yards in a touchdown
that would be a pretty good game in this game to.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Me, I was taking five for eighty.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Well, so you can tell we both shows for a
little while because we end up just coalescing around the
exact same stuff without talking about it next time. From
at Jordan six four eight zero nine eight nine zero.
It's useful to remember that the O line was much
more damaged. The Ohio State offensive line was much more
damaged last year and under much scrutiny and doubt than
(05:49):
this year. I think they will get it fixed and
this will be a different team. Well we know it's
going to be a different team because right guard Tager
Shabola is out for this game, out possibly for you know,
a potential semi final game. We'll see after that. It's
going to be a different offensive line. But they have
had a lot more consistency this year. Last year you
(06:12):
had Josh Simmons went out, and then they had Zen
Mahlsky went in, and then that didn't work, and then
they end up moving Donovan Jackson over from guard to tackle,
and then you had three guards rotating through the Sash.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
McLaughlin, the.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Starting center, who was the Roomington Award winner, got hurt,
so you had all sorts of guys shuffling in and
now moving around, and you know, they entered this time
last year with well, I don't know how Carson Hensman
is going to do at center. Well, I don't know
which of the You know, We've sat in a press
conference the week before the Tennessee game and Ryan Day
(06:51):
said they were going to rotate three guards and it
was like, I'm sorry, what you're going to do? What
in the college football playoffs and it ended up working
out fine. This year, it feels like really most of
the you know, there's been inconsistency at left guard at times,
it has been a consistent right tackle at times. Most
of the drama and uncertainty and rotation has happened at
(07:12):
the right guard position. So now that's the spot where
they've lost someone. So yeah, it has felt like gab
Van Sikel has done a pretty good job the last
couple of weeks. Josh Padilla, who's the other guy who's
potentially gonna be rotating the in there at right guard
during the playoff, he missed a bunch of time and
he's just now getting back. So you know, I would
(07:34):
be fascinated to know what the right guard position would
look like if Josh Patilla had been healthy all year.
But it feels like they've got a couple options there,
and they're potentially a couple good options. But you know,
news are those guys has like clearly won the job
from Tager Shabola so far, So I don't know what
to make of that.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
I'm just looking at the snap council last year, like
against Texas, Austin Seerveldt seventeen snaps, Tager Shabola forty three.
These are hearing the snaps for the last ten games
of the season for Luke Montgomery last year. Okay, four
zero fourteen three zero zero. Then the playoffs start, it's
(08:11):
thirty one, twenty nine and then sixty and sixty four
and he was not playing and then suddenly he is
your starting left tackle for the two biggest games of
the year. Austin Sea Revel, who's played out standing as
a left tackle this year and was rotating again, started
rotating in less and we're not even talking about the
other injuries with the Carson Hinsman and who was Kirstonnisman
(08:33):
didn't play twice early in this season that he played
pre snaps in another game because of the rotation and
the fact that well, you don't have a spot and
then boom, he's your study for the last five, six,
seven games or whatever and goes on to win a
national title. All of that has helped make this a
(08:55):
more cohesive unit this year. They can give guys a
lot of experience and so, yeah, there is less drama
at the bullet Yeah, yeah, yeah, Well I.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Look at Carson Hinsman and two years ago Carson Hinsman
had started all year and then lost his starting job
before the Cotton Bowl. Last year, Carson Hinson was the
starter in a dramatic win in the Cotton Bowl, and
now here he is back in the Cotton Bowl again.
So yeah, it is. It has definitely been a little
bit less of a tumultuous year on the offensive line,
(09:28):
and they did end up coming out in pretty good
shape last year. That doesn't necessarily mean well, the only
thing standing between this year's Ohio State offensive the line
and excellence is just two more starter injuries. Like, no,
that's not probably the takeaway I would have, but it
has definitely been a less tumultuous year and you could
potentially see a you know, a step forward again. This year.
(09:52):
I just the flip side of that is you're now
seeing most of these guys have been the starters all season,
So you're not necessarily going to see the guy who
after getting his first or second start, really takes an
enormous step forward. I don't maybe that, you know, maybe
that happens with Van Sikel. That's entirely possible if he's
working with the ones all month, and maybe you do
see that from him, but the rest of the line,
(10:14):
you're not necessarily going to see that from.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Just one last thing the Oregon game. Okay, Carson Hinsman
did not play. Josh Simmons, you know, twenty three snaps
gets hurt, Lookbug Demery did not play, and then the
game after that, Lookbug every four snaps, Josh Sibbons obviously out,
Carson Hitsman still does not play, and it's like this
is a wild season that it was last year and
(10:40):
everybody remembers it. But just but I think nine seven
or nine different starting lineups on the offensive line. I
think it's nine. But yeah, yeah, so far, so not crazy.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
Yeah, So yeah, well we'll see. There's still there's still
potentially up to three more games still to go. There's
still time for things to get crazy. Not next one
from at Chadford William. How worried should we be about
every single buy team losing last year? Will we break
that trend? Or is that the time off plus the
opponent having momentum from a first round win too much
for any team to overcome. I think, you know, obviously
(11:15):
last year that was the big The big story was
all the teams that had the first round bys lost. Now,
how much of that had to do with the fact
that Boise State had a first round by, Arizona State
had a first round by, Georgia had a first round
by and lost its quarterback in the game before it
had a first round by, And Oregon had to play
the team that was, like pretty clearly in retrospect, the
(11:37):
most talent team in the country. I don't know that
this is the curse of the first round by as
much as it was a really lousy setup for the
bracket last year. And Oregon, you know, Oregon, if they
had played Penn State or Oregon, if they had played
you know who did it was Georgia? It was uh
(12:02):
who it was? Notre Dame had played one, Penn State won,
oh Texas, and yeah, Texas, So if Oregon had played
Penn State, I don't think Oregon's down thirty four to
nothing in the second quarter. So yeah, I don't. I
don't read a coole heck of a lot into that.
And you can also remember Ohio State played in the
first week of December, so they have not had a
(12:24):
month off like the people. I think Ohio State fans
in particular are sort of scarred by this because you
go back to two thousand and six, where the Ohio
State Michigan game was like November nineteenth or something like
that or eighteenth, and then they don't play again until
January seventh. This is like three weeks less than that.
So I don't I don't read a ton into last
year's results.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Yeah, and last year was they played on November and
Earth and then they played on December twenty first, So
that's that's a three week layoff. This one is what
a few days more than that. Yeah, that between games,
so they have the experience, but they would talk about
maintaining that edge and trying to make sure that they
(13:06):
maintained that edge because they I think it's important to
look at it as maybe like a disadvantage, like you
have to realize that you're not going to be as
you might have a little bit more rust than the
team that you're playing. So how do you keep that
rust off of you? How do you shake that off
rather than just saying I'm sure we'll be fine. I'm
sure we will be fine.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
What could possibly go or all exactly well, And you know,
Miami's coming into this game with a bunch of guys
who got banged up, especially in the defensive side of
the ball against Texas A and M. And you know
Mario Cryptable saying all the right things about everyone's can
you know, well, we hope to have everyone back, Like, yeah,
I'm sure you do. But you know, you would rather
come into this game perfectly healthy rather than you know,
(13:49):
I think health is probably more of a concern this
time of year than rust. Probably, you know, probably you
can you can sort of manage around that to a
certain degree now that you've kind of gone through the
playoff process.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Well, so Dan Landing, did they you know, they had
their mock home game last week where they even had
a halftime show and they had all of their they
did the the there's their third quarter song, not the
not the good one, the shout the shout. Yeah they
did not. Yes, I say not to you know I've
talked about but yes, that the show. They did all
of that just to get guys going, get their juices going.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Yeah, and you know, there's there's ways to work around that.
And you'll probably have some physical practices at Ohio State
and you know that's that's not usually a concern, was it?
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Juliet said? Who who said that? The practices? Maybe very
day they've ramped up. Yeah, they've ramped up the physicality
because they ramp it down over the course of the
season and now you've got to ramp it back up again.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Next one, I met Mike Meyer six one four who's
calling plays in the red zone? And can it be
someone different? Please? Tony? Why didn't you give our viewers
some good news?
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Yeah? Well, Ryan Day is going to be calling the
plays now again. Friends, it is a group effort and
everybody going to share their thoughts over the course of
the week, and maybe some guys will even be allowed
to have input during the game where Keatan Bailey might say, hey,
what about this or you know that, or you know,
is Ryan Day asking for that end play? It's like, Hey,
help me out here, guys, what do you do? I
(15:14):
don't expect that because he will be the most prepared
person in terms of the play calling. But yes, he
will be calling the plays in the red zone out
of the red zone everywhere else. Now, Tom, will the
plays that he calls in the red zone be the
same kind of plays that Brad Hartlight called in the
(15:36):
red zone? What would you like?
Speaker 2 (15:37):
What's so? The answer to that is, I am expecting
some different a little bit of a different approach in
the red zone. I'm expecting less thirteen and fourteen personnel
than we've seen because it has more.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
You can't have more.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
You don't don't tempt You're gonna upset the audience, tonics,
I'm not expecting. I'm expecting some different approaches in terms
of personnel and therefore in terms of probably plays as
well in the red zone. That's not because Brian Hartline
was calling the bad plays and Ryan Day is going
(16:17):
to call the good plays. I think it's the coaching
staff has probably coalesced around like maybe need a different
approach in that in that red zone. And so as
a result, the meetings they're having right now talking about this,
I'm expecting them to come up with a different approach
and then that will result in in different plays being called.
But it's not just that ding dong Brian hartline with
(16:38):
calling the bad plays and now we have fixed it
by putting a different guy in charge of talking into
the walkie talkie.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Yeah, because let's not forget Ry Day has ultimate vita
power on any play call. So he could have said,
what enough with the bad plays, it's not with the
good plays, and anybody else would have also voiced their
displeasure with the bad plays on Saturday, on Tuesday, on
Thursday as they're putting the the gate played together in
the team meeting rooms and be like, what if we
(17:05):
don't Yeah, what if we don't do the bad plays
of the red zone and only do the good plays?
And then it's like, don't get coffee, get out of here,
get out of my sight.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
You know well, and I think people should understand there
is a reason behind, like there was a thought process
behind some of the eleven or the thirteen person on
the fourteen personnel, and having different guys in there, you
can change blocking angles and all that kind of stuff,
and you can create some situational advantages and all that
kind of stuff. I think it may have been a
little bit of overthinking where if the opposing coaching staff
(17:34):
is happy to see you taking guys off the field,
I would consider not doing that, Like I don't want
to oversimplify it, but also if you've got two wide
receivers who are maybe your two best players on offense,
I would consider having them on the field and the
most important part of the field. Like it might it
might literally just be that simple. There are reasons for
what they did. It didn't always work out. That doesn't
(17:55):
mean they're dombin. It just means it didn't work out.
So now I would expect them to probably take a
little bit of a different approach.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Better to learned it lesson before the playoffs.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
Speaking of lessons to learn, Tony for our last one,
and boy this was Do you remember the old Dull
Simmons columns, like mail bag columns on ESPN like twenty
years ago, where he would have the one at the
end that was just something that just wild and off
the wall and he would just his answer would just
be yep.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Those are my readers. Yes, yeah, from.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
At Chilean stud eleven. Since it is in Dallas dot
dot dot when I visited the Grassy Knoll, we all
agree that it was an inside job, right, you.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Know, I don't know a lot a lot of people
know this. We call Tom here que Top. He's very,
very into all sorts of these things. And so that's
why he's letting me answer this one. And so I
will speak for him and let you know what he
would say. I am speaking for Top. Yeah, totally inside job.
There's no way when you look at the bullet trajectory,
(18:50):
how does it take a left turn ended the right
or Tom can't do it. There's as you've told me before,
there's there's evidence of a shooting from the front and
it wasn't just the back. And if there was a
shooting from the back, sketchy, as you say, sketchy, we
don't know if that's actually true. How do you go
back into the left and back into the left Balllet's
(19:12):
don't do that. They don't go in and they pull
you back like a harpoon. Tom, that's what you've been
selling to me, Like this is a bullet, This is
not a hardpooon. This is not whale fishing. You don't
hook and then pull. That's you're You're always like, remember,
not whale fishing, is what you Tom was like, Okay, yeah,
it's not whale fishing. I know we're talking about back
to back into the left. How does it you can?
And that's where you're like, yeah, there's no magic bullet.
(19:32):
And so believe me, we've we've driven a lot of
roads over the years. I boy, did this is just
one of them. If you'd like to know more of
Tom's thoughts on other conspiracy theories, go ahead. We're here
throwing in the YouTube comments. Throw them, send them to
us on Twitter. There's a lot, and it's not a
It's a scary world out there, and Tom knows about it.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
My question for you is do we need to set
the camera right where Abraham's appruter was and do the
second greatest video or most famous video from that spot
for a live show at some point. But we're down there.
I'm not asking for an answer now.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
I'm just we'll think about it.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
Also, was Lee Harvey Oswald on the sixth floor of
the Book Depository? Was he the sixth floor crew, the
spiritful predecessor to Miami and the seventh floor crew?
Speaker 1 (20:23):
There you go, there, you go deep cuts all around.
Thank you all for the I listened to questions, We've
got again, we've got more, we'll get you. I don't
know if they're all going to be conspiracy theory based.
I hope they are. Top hopes they are ahead, and
if they are, got some wild shows Kevin. But also
we'll probably talk a little bit about the Bowl as well.
Through all of these questions. Doing to thank you all.
(20:44):
If you have done that thumbs up, and I know
you have go ahead, to make sure you hit it again,
although if you do it one more time, then you've
actually removed the thumb, so hit it again, hit it
three times, just to make sure again. Another conspiracy theory
for Tom. Also, the audio podcast platforms you only have
to you don't even have to hit thumbs up on those,
you can just five star rating interview. Of course, you
(21:06):
can continue to find us at buckehuddle dot com. Sign up,
say hello to us there on the buck i huddle
message board presented by Jeffreyies Columbus would love to see there.
So that will do it from here for now. Thank
you all for tuning in, and we'll talk to you
all later
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