December 16, 2025 • 22 mins
Buckeye Weekly Podcast: Listener Q&A - Ohio State Playoff Strategies and Transfer Portal Insights
Join Tony Gerdeman and Tom Orr in this episode of the Buckeye Weekly Podcast as they dive into listener questions on various topics. The hosts discuss the Ohio State offense's strategy heading into the playoffs, the importance of aggression, the potential impact of defensive performances, and analyze head coach Ryan Day’s decisions. They also tackle the transfer portal dynamics, speculate on which players might enter, and evaluate potential playoff opponents for the Buckeyes. Don’t miss this comprehensive discussion, perfect for any Ohio State fan!
00:00 Introduction and Overview
00:41 Ohio State's Offensive Strategy
02:45 Ryan Day's Coaching Decisions
07:44 Transfer Portal Speculations
12:34 Brian Hartline's Role in Playoffs
15:12 Ideal Playoff Path for Ohio State
21:31 Conclusion and Viewer Engagement
Join Tony Gerdeman and Tom Orr in this episode of the Buckeye Weekly Podcast as they dive into listener questions on various topics. The hosts discuss the Ohio State offense's strategy heading into the playoffs, the importance of aggression, the potential impact of defensive performances, and analyze head coach Ryan Day’s decisions. They also tackle the transfer portal dynamics, speculate on which players might enter, and evaluate potential playoff opponents for the Buckeyes. Don’t miss this comprehensive discussion, perfect for any Ohio State fan!
00:00 Introduction and Overview
00:41 Ohio State's Offensive Strategy
02:45 Ryan Day's Coaching Decisions
07:44 Transfer Portal Speculations
12:34 Brian Hartline's Role in Playoffs
15:12 Ideal Playoff Path for Ohio State
21:31 Conclusion and Viewer Engagement
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 Morton.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
How's it going, Tony?
Speaker 3 (00:10):
Another day, another another opportunity to take on the listeners.
They have brought multiple questions for us to try to
answer on a whole bunch of different topics, and we
are going to do our very best to.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Give you coherent and comprehensive answers.
Speaker 4 (00:25):
To all of them.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
WHOA no, no, am I over promising?
Speaker 4 (00:29):
Well, yeah, yeah, we'll do no more than our darnedest
fair enough.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
First one from at Perry Elias zero eight four four eight.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
Will will o Hio.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
State be able to get out of the meandering they
have gotten away with.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
All season long?
Speaker 3 (00:46):
And we're assuming this is a question about the offense,
and you know, the offense sort of doing enough but
not necessarily all it's capable of.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Is that fair?
Speaker 1 (00:56):
That's that's the way I am reading that to where
you've got a higher State offense that has basically slow
played the entire season, and now you've been so slow
playing this season for the playoffs, So now do you
continue to play this way because your defense is so good?
You know, you don't need a lot of points. You
don't want to put your defense in a bad way.
(01:17):
They costantly against Michigan last year when they did that,
but this is not last year.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
And to me, if you've got a defense that is.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Holding opponents to, oh, I don't know, eight points a game,
and if you choose to play aggressively on offense, it
might force the defense to give up seventeen points in
an entire game.
Speaker 4 (01:36):
What's the downside?
Speaker 1 (01:37):
But I don't think you need to shorten these games
any longer. I think you can go ahead and attack
and assume and know that your defense is going to
hold up. Back in the day, Ryan Day said you
needed forty points to win in the playoffs. You know,
if you can just go like you know in today's
(01:58):
game you need thirty points. Because I don't think he
even thinks she needs thirty points anymore. I think he
thinks twenty one points will get it done. But that
doesn't mean you need to shoot for twenty one points.
It's okay to know that twenty one points will get
it done and shoot for thirty five and be try
to score on six of your nine possessions. Because I
don't know that you can even expect to have ten
(02:19):
possessions at this point any longer unless you, you know,
you speed things up and you go tempo, and so
then then gets back to the question of after not
doing much tempo this season, can you completely change and
go more tempo and more possessions and can your defense
than handle being on the field more often? And so then,
tom Boy, that sure gets away from doing the routine.
(02:42):
Their routine, their routine doesn't.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
It It does.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
But I think the other side of this that you
haven't really talked about yet is Ryan Day has now
been the head coach at Ohio State for long enough
that he has seen virtually every scenario sort of play
out during his time in these big games, the postseason games,
Michigan games, ten championship games, whatever, close and low scoring,
you know, the games where Ohio State is trying to
(03:07):
you know, hang on to a lead or they're trying
to keep you know, the opponent is able to keep
it close and low scoring, you know, high of states,
maybe trying to rely on their defense. Those have been
a lot of the losses Ryan, They just hasn't lost
that many football games. But twenty nineteen against Clemson played
it a little bit conservatively, try to lean on the defense.
And yeah, I mean there's a lot of other stuff
that went into the way that game ended, but you know,
(03:28):
the sort of tried to play it a little conservative,
tried to sit on a lead, ended up losing. That's
one you go back through the twenty twenty two Peach
Bowl again Ohio State. That was not a conservative Ohio
State game plan by any means. But they had a
lead and then Marvin Harrison goes down with an injury,
and then they're not able to hold the lead, and
the defense gives up a couple of big scores and all,
(03:49):
and then they missed the field goal at the end.
And you know, you've seen a couple Ohio State seasons
end with the you know, real devastating late game, close game.
Probably had an opportunity to put this game away earlier
and weren't able to. Twenty twenty three up at Michigan,
what happens, Well, they have the ball late, they aren't
able to you know, they're not able to get off
(04:10):
the field on defense. They have the ball late with
a chance to win, win, and the balls in Michigan territory,
and they throw the interception. There's been a lot of those,
like real close call kind of things, and they just
had one in Indianapolis and against Indiana just a week
or so ago. So again close late Michigan game last year,
close late, and you were you know, we've got a
great defense.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
We'll just lean on the defense.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Like just you've got a great offense too, Like you
can just try and put the You've got to sort
of be able to bet on your offense to beat
their defense more often than not, cause you know, yeah,
Ohio State probably would win more games than not by
scoring seventeen points. High State's going to win virtually every
game they play if they score thirty one points.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
So you know, I don't think they need to score forty.
This is not you know some of those like if
the Ohio.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
State defenses of the past, if Ohio State can score
thirty one, thirty five points, and I don't know that
there's a team in the field that I look at
and go, they absolutely cannot get to that point against
that team, Like it's gonna be a challenge to get
to that point against Texas Tech or Indiana, probably maybe Oregon.
But there there are teams that you know, there are
(05:15):
there are lots of teams that they could get to
thirty points against. They could get to thirty points against
Texas A and m They get to thirty points against Miami.
If you've looked at Georgia's stats in terms of sacks
and passing yards allowed, yards allowed for pass uh, they
could get there against Georgia. So you know, they they
they just have to decide how aggressive they're gonna be
want to be. I look at the track record there.
(05:38):
I think Ryan Day is probably keenly aware of the
track record there and is probably looking at that and thinking,
like a little more, you know, you just be a
little more aggressive, just as a treat and and don't
completely rely on the on the defense.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
I think losing to Indiana in that manner, we've we've
now heard Ryan Day start talking about something he has
made last year, which is leave no doubt.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
And when you play it close like that.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
You are you are bringing in the ability for doubt
to decide this. And so I think the pain the
reminder basically through that Indiana loss is it shouldn't come
down to shouldn't come down to one play, and it
shouldn't come down to missing a field goal. It shouldn't
come down to Julian saying slipping, and so the best
(06:27):
way to leave no doubt and to keep it from
coming down to one play is to be aggressive and
unleash the offense and swing away all these coaching cliches
that he has mentioned. When they want to be aggressive,
follow your own advice, I guess is what I would
say there. And you you'recruited, Jeremiah Smith, and you signed
(06:48):
Julian Saying for a reason, and go make the best
use of him that you can.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Well, And I think another piece of this is Jeremiah
Smith and Carnell Tate are only going to get healthier,
you know, unless they have a setback of some kind,
They're only going to get healthier. Those are guys who
were banged up against Michigan. They were not one hundred
percent against Michigan. They were you know, presumably in better
can you know, better shape for the Indiana game, but
(07:13):
still we're not one hundred percent. Still, you know, Carnel
Tate had not played in a number of weeks, so
probably a little bit of just sort of getting back
up to game speed, getting back up to you know,
the conditioning to run forty yards downfield and then come
back and then do it again and do it again.
You know that that's that's a challenge. I think having
the few weeks now to sort of continue to heal up,
(07:35):
continue to you know, get get yourself back on track,
all of that is going to help them potentially being
a little more aggressive moving forward in the playoff. Next
one from at our our underscore Buckeye vet, who do
you think puts their name in the transfer portal? Come
January and I will will reiterate our position that you know,
we don't We're not going to look and go this
(07:56):
guy should leave, like that's not really our position right now.
I think it's fair to talk about sort of some
broad strokes and you can apply that and you can
figure out if there are names that you think apply
to any of these guys who have lost their jobs,
to people who are coming back, guys who have been
here for you know, entering their third year and like
(08:20):
you're not.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Seeing them on the two deep.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Though that tends to be offensive, linemanutes really guys who
are at in their fourth year and who aren't anywhere
near the two deep, or guys who've gotten passed up
by people behind them on the depth chart. That's the
kind of thing that I'm generally looking at in terms
of thinking, you know, who might not be here next year.
If you are a you know, if you're in your
third year at Ohio State and there is a you know,
(08:45):
there's a guy who is on the second you know
with who's with the two's who's a recher freshman or
a sophomore or something like that, and he's ahead of
you on the depth chart, that would be a like,
you know this, maybe this is not the place for
you kind of thing. And and there's a I honestly
can tell you I have not given this all a
(09:05):
lot of thought yet in terms of who who might
be in the playoff or who might be in the
portal in a couple of weeks, because we have a
lot of other stuff we're trying to think about right now.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
But you know, it is.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
That that generally is sort of broadly and you may
have other thoughts, but generally sort of some of the
broad strokes of the types of players.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
That tend to enter the portal.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
Yeah, we talk about this every year about we're not
trying to put people into portal. We don't like to
speculate on it. The game has kind of changed over
the course of those talking points that we try to
give every year. And so you can look at, you know,
any quarterback. You look at Ketoltz, is he gonna go
because this is the question that he's going to face.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
When we talk to them for the the Bowl games
and to get his thoughts, and he can go back
to talking to Joe Burrow about these things, talking to
Tate Martel about these things, and you may get two
different answers that end up being the same exact truth,
where I'm yes, I had to consider my options, or no,
(10:04):
I'm not going anywhere. Both of those guys hit the portal.
And that's just the nature of the game in terms
of there's also the guys that are backups who could
go make money as starters. That is now a new
factor in all of this. So even guys that have
(10:25):
a good spot or are you know, a play away
from a good spot, they they are going to be
enticed and or try to be enticed to hit the portal.
Their agents will have numbers and it's not like they'll
need to talk with anybody.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
The agents are all out there.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
There's there's no tampering as long as they're just talking
to agents. Nobody's talking to players generally. You're just the
agents are just out there floating in the ether, and
you can just talk to a wall and somehow it's
hitting the agent, you know. And so there's there's also that,
which is the case anywhere.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
But yes, it must. It used to be much easier.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
The guys that were here for three years and not
playing probably going to hit the portal. Now it's like, well,
you just it may be a little bit different than
that moving forward with with all of the numbers, and
then the Ohiostasen side, how much, how much?
Speaker 4 (11:17):
How close do you want to pay pay a backup
that is going to.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Make starter money elsewhere, and so those kinds of factors
can get into play.
Speaker 4 (11:27):
Here as well.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
Yeah, I mean I go back to zen Maholski last
year for Ohio State where he came in after the
injury to Josh him and played against uh Nebraska. It
didn't go well, he uh and then really you didn't
really see him on the field after that. And then
he was at Indiana this year and was not really
starting for them, but was kind of their sixth offensive
linemen and he started for them in the Big Ten
(11:49):
championship game and didn't go great for him. I mean,
you saw a lot of Kayden Curry earlier in that
game and that way, and then all of a sudden
you didn't see Zen Maholski out there anymore. But you know,
he can you can have some real financial opportunity in
the portal if someone is looking for an offensive lineman
or a defensive lineman or you know, whatever position you play,
(12:11):
someone is looking for that. And you know, the Ohio
State logo next to your your headshot in the in
the portal is probably, you know, probably makes you a
little bit a little bit appealing because it's very explainable
that you know, yeah, well I wasn't starting there, but
I mean, look how good they are, so think about
how good I could be for you.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
And so yeah, that's it is.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
That is certainly a complicating factor there. Next one from
at termin Eater thirteen. Could Ryan Day allow Brian Heartline
to call plays in the Cotton Bowl then take over
play calling duties for the rest of the playoff. Not
this Missheartline completely like saman did with Kiffin, mostly because
January second, the portal opens, which increases Heartline's time needed
for US f Ryan Day did.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Say the right line's going to call plays during the playoffs,
but also did say basically they will continue to evaluate
how they are going later on this month, and excuse me,
and further on beyond that, because I think it's a
very good point here where I think it's okay to
(13:12):
pointing to Bright Heartlines distractions and say like that probably
didn't help Ohio State against Indiana. So you're gonna want
to eliminate those distractions as much as you can in
the next games. But also you've got more time to
deal with it, and he's got And that was a
very compacted, congested period of time where Bright Heartline was
(13:35):
interviewing and then named and then going and signing and accepting.
And now you can spread all of this USFOSU stuff
out over the course of time, and he'll be in Columbus.
I think he may be about back, although with the
way the weather is right now, might be holding off
just a little bit further in Tampa just a couple
(13:55):
more days and then I'll be back this, you know, later.
Speaker 4 (13:58):
In the week. But they'll have a.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
Better plan in place on how to move forward, because
the plan they had in place last week was the
best of a bad situation, or they presume it was
the best of a bad situation.
Speaker 4 (14:15):
I don't know if it wasn't actually the best.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
Well, and the other thing is, it wasn't just Brian
Hartline who had to leave the Ohio State with dealing
with some of the recruiting class fallout of Brian Hartline leaving,
and that showed up a bunch of times. And so
in the end, scheat up a lot of attention and
shoot up a lot of everything. And you know, now
that is at least behind them, and then January second,
everyone is you know, you can say, well, Ryan Day
(14:39):
has to worry about the portal. I mean, Ryan Dea
has Mark Pantoni to worry about that kind of stuff
and to oversee the I mean they get a whole
team of people looking at looking at folks in the
portal and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Every every program is worrying about that at that point.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
So that's not a unique disadvantage as it was in
the week before the college before the Big Ten championship game.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
So yeah, I don't I.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
Don't think this is going to be an issue, but
we'll see. You know, Ryan Day sort of left the
door open. I'm not expecting it, but Ryan Day sort
of left the door open there where, you know. Maybe
So all right, last one from at mister underscore plow.
What would be the ideal path for the Buckeyes in
the playoffs. So this one, I actually did a series
(15:21):
of shows, the two barning shows on the Buckeyes to
our morning podcast feed, ranking the eleven teams in terms
of which one presented the biggest challenge, just sort of
looking statistically in terms of profile. You know, they every
March they talk about the NCAA tournament, it's it's all
about matchups. Well, where are the teams that present maybe
matchup challenges for Ohio State? And so among the teams,
(15:44):
you know, I'm looking at teams with really good defense.
You know, this is this is kind of the Indiana profile.
Who fits the Indiana profile where they've got a very
good defense, They've got a pass rush that can really
get there. They have at least a decent pass defense
on a yards per play basis, You're not gonna be
able to just completely run over them, you know, in
terms of rushing the ball, and their offense is at
(16:05):
least decent. You know that they're not a completely lifeless
offense with a really good defense attached. And I think
the the five teams in order that I had as
these are the teams that are going to present the
biggest challenges to Ohio State number one, Indiana number two,
Texas Tech number three, Oregon number four, wait for it,
(16:26):
wait for it, Miami, Miami number five, Georgia. Georgia's Georgia's
defense one hundred and ninth in the nation in sacks
and real unimpressive in terms of yards per pass allowed.
They've had some real issues with getting beat over the
top in the passing game. So Georgia, just I mean,
george is obviously a more talented team than a number
(16:47):
of the teams ranked ahead of them, but just in
terms of matchups, I don't think they're that phenomenal. So,
you know, in terms of an ideal path through the
playoff for Ohio State, Texas A and M is six
on that list, and they're good, but they're not phenomenal.
And they're another team that has a defense that's their
defense is fifty seventh yards per rush allowed, nineteenth yards
(17:08):
per pass allowed.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
First in sacks.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
That's the only thing that would really be a concern there,
but like they're the twenty first ranked SP plus defense,
and so if the pass rush isn't getting there, they're cooked.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
They're they're in big trouble.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
The pass rush could get there, but but not so
the probably you'd probably prefer to play Texas A and
M in your quarterfinal. You'd love for Georgia to lose,
like if you could get if you could somehow get
All Miss in there. I mean, we'll be realistic and
acknowledge it. Tou Lane is not going to win two games,
but if you could get All Miss in there instead
of Georgia, that would be great. And then from the
(17:43):
other side of the bracket that I mean, the top
three seams that I mentioned are all from the other
side of the bracket. So you know, if if you're
gonna get you know, you've got you've got.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Indiana over there, You've got organ over there.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
You've got you've got Texas Tech over there. So you know,
you'd love for in Oklahoma or in Alabama to get through.
I hate to spoil the surprise that's probably not going
to happen, but you know, you'd probably love of the
three realistic teams from that side of the bracket. I
think you'd probably prefer Oregon to to the other two.
(18:19):
You know, Texas Tech, Texas Tech is Texas Tech is
better than you think, Like Texas Tech is second in
SP plus and offense, fourth and SP plus and defense,
which is basically the inverse of Indiana. Indiana's fourth on offense,
second on defense, and both of them they're tied for
fifth in the nation in sacks per game. So those
are two teams that profile very similarly. And you know
(18:41):
you have seen what an Indiana team can do to
Ohio State on a neutral field, and so yeah, I
think those those are gonna be the ones that would
be the biggest challenge. So I guess you'd prefer to
face Oregon if the more unrealistic opstas are not realistic.
Speaker 4 (18:55):
I Tom, I'm I'm funished.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
I have nothing to add either than I wish I
could have said something that was in disagreement with anything
you said there. I Unfortunately I can't, and so you
must be correct about all of this. I do agree
with you, like the Text Tech defense is their their
past rush and the defensive line they've They've paid good
(19:20):
money for a good team, and I don't know enough
people are talking about that the way they did Ohio
State's twenty three million dollars roster or whatever last year.
I don't know if they're calling this a forty million
dollar roster. I forget the numbers, but.
Speaker 4 (19:34):
I do fully believe.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Ohio State would love to see Indiana again, just based
on the way things went and the emotions of a
little bit of revenge and getting them locked in. But
they'll be locked in regardless of the opponent if they
make it that far. But I do think some Ohio
State players would be rooting for Indiana, And then of
course Indiana fans are being you know, just be careful
(19:57):
what you be, careful what you asked for.
Speaker 4 (19:59):
You just I get it.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
And yeah, I think that's gonna be a relatively low
scoring bracket on the top half of this bracket, where
other than Oregon probably running through James Madison perhaps, like
everything else is gonna be two lane.
Speaker 4 (20:15):
All this might be a bit of.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
A shootout, but like once you get into the quarters, yeah,
I don't foresee a ton.
Speaker 4 (20:21):
Of scoring going on up there.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
But again, looking forward to all of it, it is
almost here, It is almost upon us, and we will
be all of us will be very much in tune
to what is going on watching this as we prefer
for our higher states next opponent, which will be either
Miami or Texas A and M. Tom says, you should
prefer Texas A and m just so you know he
(20:46):
is afraid. He is terrified of the Miami. She feels
like you should be terrified of Miami's defensive line.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
And their fan base.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
And I would agree about the second part. Frankly, some
of these comments from the one Miami rewatch that we did,
We're throughout the entire show, we're saying, this is the
only time we've seen Miami. This is just the first
of a rewatch series, and then half of the comments
are like, these guys have not watched much Miami, Like, yeah,
it was one game. We said, it's one game, and
(21:18):
they're like, they don't know half these players, they don't
even know if this guy's out.
Speaker 4 (21:21):
How could I it's one game anyway, neither here nor there.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
Thank you Miami fans for tuning in, and thank you
for the comments as well. But of course, uh, thank
you for all you guys tuned in. If you want
to hit the thumbs up, we'd appreciate that. Five start
writing a review on the podcast platforms also appreciated, and
you could continue.
Speaker 4 (21:41):
To find this at Buckeye huddle dot com.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
Sign up, say a lot to us there on the
Buckeye head a message boar because a but Jeffreubies.
Speaker 4 (21:46):
Clumbus 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 Morton.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
How's it going, Tony?
Speaker 3 (00:10):
Another day, another another opportunity to take on the listeners.
They have brought multiple questions for us to try to
answer on a whole bunch of different topics, and we
are going to do our very best to.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Give you coherent and comprehensive answers.
Speaker 4 (00:25):
To all of them.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
WHOA no, no, am I over promising?
Speaker 4 (00:29):
Well, yeah, yeah, we'll do no more than our darnedest
fair enough.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
First one from at Perry Elias zero eight four four eight.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
Will will o Hio.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
State be able to get out of the meandering they
have gotten away with.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
All season long?
Speaker 3 (00:46):
And we're assuming this is a question about the offense,
and you know, the offense sort of doing enough but
not necessarily all it's capable of.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Is that fair?
Speaker 1 (00:56):
That's that's the way I am reading that to where
you've got a higher State offense that has basically slow
played the entire season, and now you've been so slow
playing this season for the playoffs, So now do you
continue to play this way because your defense is so good?
You know, you don't need a lot of points. You
don't want to put your defense in a bad way.
(01:17):
They costantly against Michigan last year when they did that,
but this is not last year.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
And to me, if you've got a defense that is.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
Holding opponents to, oh, I don't know, eight points a game,
and if you choose to play aggressively on offense, it
might force the defense to give up seventeen points in
an entire game.
Speaker 4 (01:36):
What's the downside?
Speaker 1 (01:37):
But I don't think you need to shorten these games
any longer. I think you can go ahead and attack
and assume and know that your defense is going to
hold up. Back in the day, Ryan Day said you
needed forty points to win in the playoffs. You know,
if you can just go like you know in today's
(01:58):
game you need thirty points. Because I don't think he
even thinks she needs thirty points anymore. I think he
thinks twenty one points will get it done. But that
doesn't mean you need to shoot for twenty one points.
It's okay to know that twenty one points will get
it done and shoot for thirty five and be try
to score on six of your nine possessions. Because I
don't know that you can even expect to have ten
(02:19):
possessions at this point any longer unless you, you know,
you speed things up and you go tempo, and so
then then gets back to the question of after not
doing much tempo this season, can you completely change and
go more tempo and more possessions and can your defense
than handle being on the field more often? And so then,
tom Boy, that sure gets away from doing the routine.
(02:42):
Their routine, their routine doesn't.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
It It does.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
But I think the other side of this that you
haven't really talked about yet is Ryan Day has now
been the head coach at Ohio State for long enough
that he has seen virtually every scenario sort of play
out during his time in these big games, the postseason games,
Michigan games, ten championship games, whatever, close and low scoring,
you know, the games where Ohio State is trying to
(03:07):
you know, hang on to a lead or they're trying
to keep you know, the opponent is able to keep
it close and low scoring, you know, high of states,
maybe trying to rely on their defense. Those have been
a lot of the losses Ryan, They just hasn't lost
that many football games. But twenty nineteen against Clemson played
it a little bit conservatively, try to lean on the defense.
And yeah, I mean there's a lot of other stuff
that went into the way that game ended, but you know,
(03:28):
the sort of tried to play it a little conservative,
tried to sit on a lead, ended up losing. That's
one you go back through the twenty twenty two Peach
Bowl again Ohio State. That was not a conservative Ohio
State game plan by any means. But they had a
lead and then Marvin Harrison goes down with an injury,
and then they're not able to hold the lead, and
the defense gives up a couple of big scores and all,
(03:49):
and then they missed the field goal at the end.
And you know, you've seen a couple Ohio State seasons
end with the you know, real devastating late game, close game.
Probably had an opportunity to put this game away earlier
and weren't able to. Twenty twenty three up at Michigan,
what happens, Well, they have the ball late, they aren't
able to you know, they're not able to get off
(04:10):
the field on defense. They have the ball late with
a chance to win, win, and the balls in Michigan territory,
and they throw the interception. There's been a lot of those,
like real close call kind of things, and they just
had one in Indianapolis and against Indiana just a week
or so ago. So again close late Michigan game last year,
close late, and you were you know, we've got a
great defense.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
We'll just lean on the defense.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Like just you've got a great offense too, Like you
can just try and put the You've got to sort
of be able to bet on your offense to beat
their defense more often than not, cause you know, yeah,
Ohio State probably would win more games than not by
scoring seventeen points. High State's going to win virtually every
game they play if they score thirty one points.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
So you know, I don't think they need to score forty.
This is not you know some of those like if
the Ohio.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
State defenses of the past, if Ohio State can score
thirty one, thirty five points, and I don't know that
there's a team in the field that I look at
and go, they absolutely cannot get to that point against
that team, Like it's gonna be a challenge to get
to that point against Texas Tech or Indiana, probably maybe Oregon.
But there there are teams that you know, there are
(05:15):
there are lots of teams that they could get to
thirty points against. They could get to thirty points against
Texas A and m They get to thirty points against Miami.
If you've looked at Georgia's stats in terms of sacks
and passing yards allowed, yards allowed for pass uh, they
could get there against Georgia. So you know, they they
they just have to decide how aggressive they're gonna be
want to be. I look at the track record there.
(05:38):
I think Ryan Day is probably keenly aware of the
track record there and is probably looking at that and thinking,
like a little more, you know, you just be a
little more aggressive, just as a treat and and don't
completely rely on the on the defense.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
I think losing to Indiana in that manner, we've we've
now heard Ryan Day start talking about something he has
made last year, which is leave no doubt.
Speaker 4 (06:03):
And when you play it close like that.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
You are you are bringing in the ability for doubt
to decide this. And so I think the pain the
reminder basically through that Indiana loss is it shouldn't come
down to shouldn't come down to one play, and it
shouldn't come down to missing a field goal. It shouldn't
come down to Julian saying slipping, and so the best
(06:27):
way to leave no doubt and to keep it from
coming down to one play is to be aggressive and
unleash the offense and swing away all these coaching cliches
that he has mentioned. When they want to be aggressive,
follow your own advice, I guess is what I would
say there. And you you'recruited, Jeremiah Smith, and you signed
(06:48):
Julian Saying for a reason, and go make the best
use of him that you can.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
Well, And I think another piece of this is Jeremiah
Smith and Carnell Tate are only going to get healthier,
you know, unless they have a setback of some kind,
They're only going to get healthier. Those are guys who
were banged up against Michigan. They were not one hundred
percent against Michigan. They were you know, presumably in better
can you know, better shape for the Indiana game, but
(07:13):
still we're not one hundred percent. Still, you know, Carnel
Tate had not played in a number of weeks, so
probably a little bit of just sort of getting back
up to game speed, getting back up to you know,
the conditioning to run forty yards downfield and then come
back and then do it again and do it again.
You know that that's that's a challenge. I think having
the few weeks now to sort of continue to heal up,
(07:35):
continue to you know, get get yourself back on track,
all of that is going to help them potentially being
a little more aggressive moving forward in the playoff. Next
one from at our our underscore Buckeye vet, who do
you think puts their name in the transfer portal? Come
January and I will will reiterate our position that you know,
we don't We're not going to look and go this
(07:56):
guy should leave, like that's not really our position right now.
I think it's fair to talk about sort of some
broad strokes and you can apply that and you can
figure out if there are names that you think apply
to any of these guys who have lost their jobs,
to people who are coming back, guys who have been
here for you know, entering their third year and like
(08:20):
you're not.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Seeing them on the two deep.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Though that tends to be offensive, linemanutes really guys who
are at in their fourth year and who aren't anywhere
near the two deep, or guys who've gotten passed up
by people behind them on the depth chart. That's the
kind of thing that I'm generally looking at in terms
of thinking, you know, who might not be here next year.
If you are a you know, if you're in your
third year at Ohio State and there is a you know,
(08:45):
there's a guy who is on the second you know
with who's with the two's who's a recher freshman or
a sophomore or something like that, and he's ahead of
you on the depth chart, that would be a like,
you know this, maybe this is not the place for
you kind of thing. And and there's a I honestly
can tell you I have not given this all a
(09:05):
lot of thought yet in terms of who who might
be in the playoff or who might be in the
portal in a couple of weeks, because we have a
lot of other stuff we're trying to think about right now.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
But you know, it is.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
That that generally is sort of broadly and you may
have other thoughts, but generally sort of some of the
broad strokes of the types of players.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
That tend to enter the portal.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
Yeah, we talk about this every year about we're not
trying to put people into portal. We don't like to
speculate on it. The game has kind of changed over
the course of those talking points that we try to
give every year. And so you can look at, you know,
any quarterback. You look at Ketoltz, is he gonna go
because this is the question that he's going to face.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
When we talk to them for the the Bowl games
and to get his thoughts, and he can go back
to talking to Joe Burrow about these things, talking to
Tate Martel about these things, and you may get two
different answers that end up being the same exact truth,
where I'm yes, I had to consider my options, or no,
(10:04):
I'm not going anywhere. Both of those guys hit the portal.
And that's just the nature of the game in terms
of there's also the guys that are backups who could
go make money as starters. That is now a new
factor in all of this. So even guys that have
(10:25):
a good spot or are you know, a play away
from a good spot, they they are going to be
enticed and or try to be enticed to hit the portal.
Their agents will have numbers and it's not like they'll
need to talk with anybody.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
The agents are all out there.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
There's there's no tampering as long as they're just talking
to agents. Nobody's talking to players generally. You're just the
agents are just out there floating in the ether, and
you can just talk to a wall and somehow it's
hitting the agent, you know. And so there's there's also that,
which is the case anywhere.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
But yes, it must. It used to be much easier.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
The guys that were here for three years and not
playing probably going to hit the portal. Now it's like, well,
you just it may be a little bit different than
that moving forward with with all of the numbers, and
then the Ohiostasen side, how much, how much?
Speaker 4 (11:17):
How close do you want to pay pay a backup
that is going to.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Make starter money elsewhere, and so those kinds of factors
can get into play.
Speaker 4 (11:27):
Here as well.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
Yeah, I mean I go back to zen Maholski last
year for Ohio State where he came in after the
injury to Josh him and played against uh Nebraska. It
didn't go well, he uh and then really you didn't
really see him on the field after that. And then
he was at Indiana this year and was not really
starting for them, but was kind of their sixth offensive
linemen and he started for them in the Big Ten
(11:49):
championship game and didn't go great for him. I mean,
you saw a lot of Kayden Curry earlier in that
game and that way, and then all of a sudden
you didn't see Zen Maholski out there anymore. But you know,
he can you can have some real financial opportunity in
the portal if someone is looking for an offensive lineman
or a defensive lineman or you know, whatever position you play,
(12:11):
someone is looking for that. And you know, the Ohio
State logo next to your your headshot in the in
the portal is probably, you know, probably makes you a
little bit a little bit appealing because it's very explainable
that you know, yeah, well I wasn't starting there, but
I mean, look how good they are, so think about
how good I could be for you.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
And so yeah, that's it is.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
That is certainly a complicating factor there. Next one from
at termin Eater thirteen. Could Ryan Day allow Brian Heartline
to call plays in the Cotton Bowl then take over
play calling duties for the rest of the playoff. Not
this Missheartline completely like saman did with Kiffin, mostly because
January second, the portal opens, which increases Heartline's time needed
for US f Ryan Day did.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Say the right line's going to call plays during the playoffs,
but also did say basically they will continue to evaluate
how they are going later on this month, and excuse me,
and further on beyond that, because I think it's a
very good point here where I think it's okay to
(13:12):
pointing to Bright Heartlines distractions and say like that probably
didn't help Ohio State against Indiana. So you're gonna want
to eliminate those distractions as much as you can in
the next games. But also you've got more time to
deal with it, and he's got And that was a
very compacted, congested period of time where Bright Heartline was
(13:35):
interviewing and then named and then going and signing and accepting.
And now you can spread all of this USFOSU stuff
out over the course of time, and he'll be in Columbus.
I think he may be about back, although with the
way the weather is right now, might be holding off
just a little bit further in Tampa just a couple
(13:55):
more days and then I'll be back this, you know, later.
Speaker 4 (13:58):
In the week. But they'll have a.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
Better plan in place on how to move forward, because
the plan they had in place last week was the
best of a bad situation, or they presume it was
the best of a bad situation.
Speaker 4 (14:15):
I don't know if it wasn't actually the best.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
Well, and the other thing is, it wasn't just Brian
Hartline who had to leave the Ohio State with dealing
with some of the recruiting class fallout of Brian Hartline leaving,
and that showed up a bunch of times. And so
in the end, scheat up a lot of attention and
shoot up a lot of everything. And you know, now
that is at least behind them, and then January second,
everyone is you know, you can say, well, Ryan Day
(14:39):
has to worry about the portal. I mean, Ryan Dea
has Mark Pantoni to worry about that kind of stuff
and to oversee the I mean they get a whole
team of people looking at looking at folks in the
portal and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Every every program is worrying about that at that point.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
So that's not a unique disadvantage as it was in
the week before the college before the Big Ten championship game.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
So yeah, I don't I.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
Don't think this is going to be an issue, but
we'll see. You know, Ryan Day sort of left the
door open. I'm not expecting it, but Ryan Day sort
of left the door open there where, you know. Maybe
So all right, last one from at mister underscore plow.
What would be the ideal path for the Buckeyes in
the playoffs. So this one, I actually did a series
(15:21):
of shows, the two barning shows on the Buckeyes to
our morning podcast feed, ranking the eleven teams in terms
of which one presented the biggest challenge, just sort of
looking statistically in terms of profile. You know, they every
March they talk about the NCAA tournament, it's it's all
about matchups. Well, where are the teams that present maybe
matchup challenges for Ohio State? And so among the teams,
(15:44):
you know, I'm looking at teams with really good defense.
You know, this is this is kind of the Indiana profile.
Who fits the Indiana profile where they've got a very
good defense, They've got a pass rush that can really
get there. They have at least a decent pass defense
on a yards per play basis, You're not gonna be
able to just completely run over them, you know, in
terms of rushing the ball, and their offense is at
(16:05):
least decent. You know that they're not a completely lifeless
offense with a really good defense attached. And I think
the the five teams in order that I had as
these are the teams that are going to present the
biggest challenges to Ohio State number one, Indiana number two,
Texas Tech number three, Oregon number four, wait for it,
(16:26):
wait for it, Miami, Miami number five, Georgia. Georgia's Georgia's
defense one hundred and ninth in the nation in sacks
and real unimpressive in terms of yards per pass allowed.
They've had some real issues with getting beat over the
top in the passing game. So Georgia, just I mean,
george is obviously a more talented team than a number
(16:47):
of the teams ranked ahead of them, but just in
terms of matchups, I don't think they're that phenomenal. So,
you know, in terms of an ideal path through the
playoff for Ohio State, Texas A and M is six
on that list, and they're good, but they're not phenomenal.
And they're another team that has a defense that's their
defense is fifty seventh yards per rush allowed, nineteenth yards
(17:08):
per pass allowed.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
First in sacks.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
That's the only thing that would really be a concern there,
but like they're the twenty first ranked SP plus defense,
and so if the pass rush isn't getting there, they're cooked.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
They're they're in big trouble.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
The pass rush could get there, but but not so
the probably you'd probably prefer to play Texas A and
M in your quarterfinal. You'd love for Georgia to lose,
like if you could get if you could somehow get
All Miss in there. I mean, we'll be realistic and
acknowledge it. Tou Lane is not going to win two games,
but if you could get All Miss in there instead
of Georgia, that would be great. And then from the
(17:43):
other side of the bracket that I mean, the top
three seams that I mentioned are all from the other
side of the bracket. So you know, if if you're
gonna get you know, you've got you've got.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Indiana over there, You've got organ over there.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
You've got you've got Texas Tech over there. So you know,
you'd love for in Oklahoma or in Alabama to get through.
I hate to spoil the surprise that's probably not going
to happen, but you know, you'd probably love of the
three realistic teams from that side of the bracket. I
think you'd probably prefer Oregon to to the other two.
(18:19):
You know, Texas Tech, Texas Tech is Texas Tech is
better than you think, Like Texas Tech is second in
SP plus and offense, fourth and SP plus and defense,
which is basically the inverse of Indiana. Indiana's fourth on offense,
second on defense, and both of them they're tied for
fifth in the nation in sacks per game. So those
are two teams that profile very similarly. And you know
(18:41):
you have seen what an Indiana team can do to
Ohio State on a neutral field, and so yeah, I
think those those are gonna be the ones that would
be the biggest challenge. So I guess you'd prefer to
face Oregon if the more unrealistic opstas are not realistic.
Speaker 4 (18:55):
I Tom, I'm I'm funished.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
I have nothing to add either than I wish I
could have said something that was in disagreement with anything
you said there. I Unfortunately I can't, and so you
must be correct about all of this. I do agree
with you, like the Text Tech defense is their their
past rush and the defensive line they've They've paid good
(19:20):
money for a good team, and I don't know enough
people are talking about that the way they did Ohio
State's twenty three million dollars roster or whatever last year.
I don't know if they're calling this a forty million
dollar roster. I forget the numbers, but.
Speaker 4 (19:34):
I do fully believe.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Ohio State would love to see Indiana again, just based
on the way things went and the emotions of a
little bit of revenge and getting them locked in. But
they'll be locked in regardless of the opponent if they
make it that far. But I do think some Ohio
State players would be rooting for Indiana, And then of
course Indiana fans are being you know, just be careful
(19:57):
what you be, careful what you asked for.
Speaker 4 (19:59):
You just I get it.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
And yeah, I think that's gonna be a relatively low
scoring bracket on the top half of this bracket, where
other than Oregon probably running through James Madison perhaps, like
everything else is gonna be two lane.
Speaker 4 (20:15):
All this might be a bit of.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
A shootout, but like once you get into the quarters, yeah,
I don't foresee a ton.
Speaker 4 (20:21):
Of scoring going on up there.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
But again, looking forward to all of it, it is
almost here, It is almost upon us, and we will
be all of us will be very much in tune
to what is going on watching this as we prefer
for our higher states next opponent, which will be either
Miami or Texas A and M. Tom says, you should
prefer Texas A and m just so you know he
(20:46):
is afraid. He is terrified of the Miami. She feels
like you should be terrified of Miami's defensive line.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
And their fan base.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
And I would agree about the second part. Frankly, some
of these comments from the one Miami rewatch that we did,
We're throughout the entire show, we're saying, this is the
only time we've seen Miami. This is just the first
of a rewatch series, and then half of the comments
are like, these guys have not watched much Miami, Like, yeah,
it was one game. We said, it's one game, and
(21:18):
they're like, they don't know half these players, they don't
even know if this guy's out.
Speaker 4 (21:21):
How could I it's one game anyway, neither here nor there.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
Thank you Miami fans for tuning in, and thank you
for the comments as well. But of course, uh, thank
you for all you guys tuned in. If you want
to hit the thumbs up, we'd appreciate that. Five start
writing a review on the podcast platforms also appreciated, and
you could continue.
Speaker 4 (21:41):
To find this at Buckeye huddle dot com.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
Sign up, say a lot to us there on the
Buckeye head a message boar because a but Jeffreubies.
Speaker 4 (21:46):
Clumbus that will do it from here. Thank you all
for tuning in and we will talk to you all
later
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