December 22, 2025 • 21 mins
In this episode of the Buckeye Weekly Podcast, hosts Tony Gerdeman and Tom Orr recap Monday interviews at Ohio State with head coach Ryan Day, quarterback Julian Sayin, receiver Jeremiah Smith, tight end Max Klare, and center Carson Hinzman. The hosts discuss the latest injury updates for the Buckeyes, including a new starting offensive lineman, the healthy of Jeremiah Smith, and more.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello, everybody, Welcome to the Buckeye Weekly Podcast. I'm Tony
Gerdaman here as always with Tom or Tom.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
How's it going, Tony.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
We got a chance to talk to a bunch of
Ohio State football players this morning. Got to learn a
whole bunch about Ohio State football nicknames. It feels like
we need to start this show by giving each other nicknames,
or maybe just giving Kevin a nickname thoughts.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Well, we've got plenty of nicknames for Kevin, And as
Carson Hinsman said today, right, I can't share all of
the nicknames because some are beyond PG and so no,
that's that's I do have plenty of nicknames for you, Tom,
and some people offend me yelling them over, you know,
like in the press box. You don't get to hear those,
(00:46):
but other people do. So welcome everybody. Yes, we spoke
with Ryan Day today, spoke with Julian Saying, spoke with
Jeremiah Smith, Carson Hinsman, and Max clare Boom. Got them
all in your face, Tom, and what did we learn? First?
Let's talk about the major I guess the major the
major injury news. Yeah, in terms of the personnel taker
(01:08):
Sham bullet is out, is out for the foreseeable future,
maybe the maybe the season a few weeks. Ryan Day said,
so there's a possibility he could be back.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
The season could go any number of lengths.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
And so in his place for Ryan Day was asked, well,
gave Van Sickles start, and then immediately like the question
got furthered and Ryany started nodding, and then the question
went in a different like also Josh Padilla, So it
sounds like it's gonna be gave Ben Sickles starting at
right guard, and then you know, Josh Padilla will see
(01:41):
how practice goes, whether that continues to be a rotation.
And he's been off the injury port for weeks and weeks,
but I think it's just been a matter of getting
him back into the mix. And also it's difficult to
be the third guy in to a rotation, so you're
not actually getting into the.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Mix right And it's not like last year where it
was three guys for two spots. This is three guys
for one spot, so that that really changes the math there.
Gave Van Sickle Sicko mode, which is a tremendous nickname
that that is you know a lot of sports nicknames
are just like, oh they call him sicky like well
that like, yeah, okay, Sicko Mode, that's a great one.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
But yeah, it feels like mode.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Well it is one because it is a play on
his name, but also two because he does sometimes go
Sico Mode.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Also has been said, oh it's just a cooler name
than game.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Yeah it's true. That also is true, so yeah, it is.
It is a It does feel like that's probably where
things are headed.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
But I would not be surprised at all to see
the rotation there because it felt like Padilla was ahead
of Gave Van Sickle. But sometimes you get Wally pipped
when you know, when you go out with an injury.
So we have not seen Josh Padia on the field
for any kind of like real meaningful snaps in what
a month and a half at this point, it's been
a while. So but now you have this sort of
long stretch during this member to try and get some
(03:01):
of that stuff sorted out and you know, to sort
of get caught up on things. So yeah, that to
me is you know, this was not exactly news. This
is one of these things we've talked about on our
board for a while. It was a little news worthy
that got discussed publicly now, But yeah, that that feels like,
personnel wise, probably the single biggest piece of injury news.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Yeah, and it will be interesting to see Kate Prin
Sickle has played quite a bit. They've seen enough to
know that he can play, But what does this look
like now that he's the number one in practice? How
much will he grow from that? How much confidence will
he get from that? Just a preparation for going against
one of the best defensive lines they will see this
year and handling those like Miami doesn't do a lot
(03:43):
of stunts and twisting, but they will do some to
attack an area of vulnerability. It will be interesting to
see how they attack him. We've got plenty of shows
talk about all of that. But yeah, it does look
like they've solidified things in terms of what's going to happen.
There other injury news, Amia Smith healthy, all good as
(04:03):
you would expect, and basically he and Colonel Tate back practicing,
which is something that maybe we just people don't appreciate enough,
like the fact that they they kind of just came
off the gurney and went to the went to the
game against Michigan and Indiana and how that's not typical.
(04:26):
And though the the improvement that the offense will see
from having their practice and getting that timing down and
when you when you the Jeremiah Smith getses a deep
pass against Indiana, but it's not a touchdown that sort
of thing. It's like timing like that that you spend
time on. You've got reps in and practice to get
that back and that becomes a touchdown. Just something as
(04:47):
simple as that. And so that's what they're doing now,
getting those two guys back healthy, and I would expect
things to work better downfield with that going on.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
Yeah, you've got a lot going for you that you
did a couple of weeks ago. I mean, you know
they both came back, Carnel Tate and Jeremi Smith both
came back for that Michigan game.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
You had win, you had snow.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
That's not going to be a factor in at least
the next two potential games and could potentially be three
games depending on what the weather forecast is in Miami
and whether Ohio States gets to Miami. But you have
the timing piece that back now, which, yeah, the practice
piece of that is big, but also the health piece
of that is big because, yeah, Julian Saying knows exactly
(05:30):
how fast Jeremiah Smith runs when Jeremia Smith is one
hundred percent. Jeremiah Smith said he was not a hundred
percent for that Michigan game. That is, you know, and
I don't know that Carnel Tate was one hundred percent
for that Michigan game.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
And I don't know that you do.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
Either of those guys were one hundred percent for the
Indiana game either.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
They're probably not one hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
You're no one's one hundred percent this time of a
football season, but it sounds like they're both going.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
To be a couple lot closer.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
And so then you have some you know, the practice time,
which is huge that doesn't get really an underappreciated piece
of this, but also you have the reps of, Okay,
I know where these guys are going to be when
they are one hundred percent, and you can maybe stick
your leg in the ground and plant and cut in
a way that you couldn't a couple or you just
have that extra half step to get behind the defensive back.
(06:13):
All that stuff is going to sort of add up
to potentially a much more explosive ole hosting pass.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Offense, because even at deep catch against Indiana, he then
turned into a yards after catch thing. You could see
him if he was one hundred percent healthy, scoring on
that after the catch as well and making somebody miss.
So getting those guys back obviously a key. And it
sounds like it was quite an effort to get Jeremiah
(06:38):
ready for the Michigan game. And he was really really
concerned that he was not going to be able to
play in that and that's what he was entirely focused on.
And Ryan Day sat down with them and basically said,
you're gonna have to will yourself to be healthy. And
they've got everything they need in sports science, they've got
the rehab, they've got everything that you need to get
him ready, but also you've got to believe that you
(06:59):
can do it. And he did and put in a
bunch of work and they talked about how his injury.
He doesn't even know how it happened. It was a
quad injury and practice at some point and then wanted
to play against UCLA and you know, went for a
little bit and realized I can't go, and then basically
became concerned. He gave like the actual name of the
(07:19):
injury and said it could keep guys out three to
four weeks, which was really concerning to him. But he
was able to get back obviously, and now he boy,
he seems ready to go against Miami.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Yeah, I think, you know, yeah, being back one hundred percent,
I'm sure you're rare and to go. You know, when
you think about when you're getting over the flu or
something like that, that first day where you're finally feeling better,
like you were ready to go attack the world, I
think it's probably a little bit of that, but also
a little known in fact, Jeremiah Smith is from Miami,
was Miami was going very very hard after him. I'm sure,
(07:50):
you know, made a very compelling case as to why
he shouldn't go to Ohio State. And you know, going
to Ohio State has worked out okay for Jeremiah Smith
so far. But also he's going up against a whole
bunch of guys who he has played with, played against
over the years.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
And I don't know, if you know much about.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
South Florida football players, they will talk sometimes. Wide receivers
will is a group that tends to talk a lot.
Defensive backs a group tony that tends to talk a
lot I'm going to guess some words have been said
back and forth, maybe via text or you know, WhatsApp
or whatever the kids are using today, Tony to communicate
with each other in.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
What I'm sure are very respectful terms.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
This is one where when you go home, you want
to be the one who won this game, not the
one who lost this game. And you want to be
the one who put up some numbers in this game,
and not the one who you know, showed up on
a poster in the not featured player portion of the
of the image.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Well, we talked with Brandon Ennis. I don't know at
what point it was the season, maybe before the season
in fall camp, or maybe it was two weeks ago.
I can't remember.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
At this point, it's all kind of bit a blur.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
But when he was talking about how people in South
Florida are angry that some guys went to Ohio State
and so, yeah, there will be plenty of energy folks
on the the the ridicule that that sort of thing
of you should have been you should have gone to Miami,
those sorts of things, and then talking about he didn't
(09:11):
say playing with the motion and not letting the motion
to play with you, but he was asked about the
back and forth with Miami's like, there's they'll get penalties,
I'll get penalties. It's gonna be some some back and forth.
Don't get two of those though, I think you get goood.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Yeah, he said, he said he didn't want to pick
up a fifteen yard penalty, so he's he's aware of
the fact that, you know, this is this is not
a game wortal house that has the luxury of you know,
it's it's grambling you you know, it's Ohio, You're gonna
win by you know, three scores, it doesn't matter. So
you can, you know, if you want to be Davisittingnosen
and take your helmet off after an interception against Michigan, Like,
(09:46):
you got to make sure the game is pretty much
analytically final before you do something like that. This is
a game that was probably not going to go analytically final,
so at least until very very very late one way
or the other. So yeah, this is one where you
have to Yeah, there's gonna be a lot emotion. Yeah,
there's going to be a lot of chirping. Yeah, there's
going to be a lot of There will probably be
some physicality on the field, you may see a little
(10:07):
trash talk. That's something you see with Miami football teams
every once in a while, is the you know, chirping
and pushing and shoffing and all that kind of stuff.
So yeah, it would not not be a surprise at
all to see that. You just have to you can
do that to a certain degree. Just make sure number one,
you can back it up and number two, you don't
do too much of it.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Well. And last thing on this is that with this
relationship to Miami, having watched Miami, now they've got a
lot of corners, would you put it past Miami to
sign out a sacrificial cornerback to try to get into
a fight with Jeremiah and to remove him from this game. Frankly,
whichever corner you know, it doesn't have to be a
(10:46):
sacrificial corner. It could just be any other corners.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
The twenty thirteen Michigan gambit. Yes, that is something we
have seen in the past.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
So yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
But we also, as you mentioned, we did talk with
Carson Hensman who still has the bleach blonde hair, and
as he found out that you know, the bleach doesn't
wash out. It's a little known fact. It was not
crazily enough, it was not gone the next day. But
this is also a guy who is getting ready to
(11:14):
face a very, very good defensive line in Miami, and
they're coming off of a game. Miami's coming off of
a game where they had seven sacks. Ohio State's coming
off of a game where they gave up five sacks.
So the protection between Jeremiah, between Julian Saying and Carson
Hinsman and everybody else on the offensive line is going
to be key because the last time we saw both
(11:35):
of these teams, it did not go well for the quarterback,
the opposing quarterback or the Ohio State quarterback. And this
is one of those things where they've got time to
work on it, fix it, but it's still you can
get back to basics, get back to fundamentals, but it's
also still a matter of doing your job against. Is
this gonna be the best defensive the best exterior defensive one, yes, yes,
(11:59):
one of the best interior defensive lines that Ohio State
a scene.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
I would put Miami certainly ahead of Texas. I'd put
Miami ahead of Michigan. They're probably ahead of everyone. I
would say they're probably clearly ahead of everyone except for
maybe Indiana and Indiana is you know, the Indiana that
you see in the Rose Bowl is going to be
missing Stephen Daily, which, boy, is that a.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Big loss for Indiana.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Ohio State had the misfortune to have to play Stephen
Daily throughout the course of their whole game. But also,
the Indiana defensive line does a bunch of the twisting
and stunting stuff that Miami doesn't do. So this is
going to be a little bit more of a straight
up thing where Ohio State has really struggled with picking up,
identifying and picking up some of those twists and stunts
just the games that teams.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Will play up front. Miami is not gonna do that
nearly as much.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
You may see a little bit, but this is also
not a time of year where you're going to say, okay, well,
Higo State struggles to do this, so we're going to
do something completely different. They don't have time to install
a completely different defensive front scheme for this game, so
this is going to be you know, this is personnel wise, yes,
this is as good or better than Indiana. Scheme wise,
(13:09):
it might be a little bit of a better matchup
for Ohio State, but still Okay, if one's a little
better and one's a little worse, you still don't want
to give up five sacks in this one. So you
don't want to give up three sacks in this one
because in a game once, once you're at this point
of the season, all the bad teams are home. You know,
all the teams that are like extremely flawed. You watch
them all lose last weekend. There there are not a
lot of obvious flaws left in the field. So this
(13:32):
is your You've now gotten to the point where one,
you know, one blindside hit you where you strip the quarterback,
or you know, you forced the Ohio State to throw
the ball away. I think there are going to be
opportunities for Ohigo State and offense. But you got to
give Julian Saying time. That is going to be such
a huge piece of this game.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Yeah. So, and we did talk with Julian saying, I'm
trying to think of anything that he had to say.
He's very political, yes, and so when you ask questions,
he gives you basically the answer that you're expecting. And
I don't know that there's anything earth shattering from him,
which is the way that Ryan Day wants it. That's
good quarterbacking. As Ryan Day said, do the routine things
(14:10):
routinely if you're a quarterback, including answering questions. But certainly
he had the same issues, the same questions and answers
regarding protection and got to get rid of the ball
that's on him. Got to get rid of the ball quicker.
And sometimes some of the issues that he had holding
on to it was just you're just waiting for that
deep shot to open up solo. Some of that is
(14:31):
just scheme as well, where you're calling plays and it's
just taking just a little bit longer than your offensive
line can block. And as Ryan Da says, receivers are
running routes against the pass rush, yes, and so it's
all intertwined. And as Julian is waiting, you know, just
like one split second, and sometimes that was a little
(14:52):
too much for him.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
Well, and he said, you have to be quick in
your decision making against this Miami defense because he knows
you're not going to be able to sit back in
the pocket for three and half seconds and just you know,
which is going to limit your route tree to a
certain degree. So they're gonna have to You're gonna have
to have Ohio State receivers beating Miami corners off the line,
and you're gonna have to know where the safeties are.
You're gonna have to You're going to have to recognize it.
(15:14):
You know, you you have seen sort of the you know,
the mistake against Michigan was a little different than the
mistake against Indiana, but you had an early turnover and
interception in both of those games. You can't afford that
now you've got. But you also can't be super conservative
in this game. You can't call this game like it's
a Texas game, like, well, he can't make any mistakes.
So it's really gonna be an interesting spot for him
(15:35):
because he is, you know, he is still a young quarterback.
He's still just a red shirt freshman. You can get
Carson back on the other side. Who is I think
he I think he is a sixth year senior. I
think he was on the I believe I saw him
almost positive he had at least one or two games
that he played in twenty twenty that didn't end up counting. So,
you know, you have a real, real veteran quarterback on one
(15:55):
side and a young but you know, rapidly and vastly
improved quarterback. On the other side, watching the Miami Notre
Dame game, you know, they're talking about the Ohio State
Texas game and on that broadcast, and it was like, boy,
you think about how different Julian Sayin was then in
(16:17):
terms of as a player, but also in terms of
what they trusted him to do as compared to now.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Yeah, it's night and day and now they trust him
with everything, and why wouldn't you The last guy, the
last player we talked with, Max Claire. He was asked
about his journey to Ohio State and how this is
basically a childhood dream. That's why, that's why you go
from Purdue to Ohio State and you bet on yourself.
(16:43):
And yeah, it wasn't easy coming to Ohio State and
going through all of that, learning the physicality that it requires.
But clearly this is a guy that's pretty excited about
what is to come.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
Yeah, And he was asked about whether this is still
an angry team because you've had you know, it's been
a couple of weeks now since the since the Indiana game.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
He said, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, this is still.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
An angry team with the team with a story to write.
And you know, this is a I think they saw
what a loss can do for your program last year
against Michigan they lose, they channeled that into a very
positive way. And you know, he was not playing last year,
but he was along for the ride on a lot
of these, you know, a lot of those playoff games.
(17:24):
You know, you saw a bunch of these the freshman
class and a bunch of the transfers on the sidelines
of those games and at practices, and you know, so
these guys have been around for a playoff run. Because
I think it's very easy to look at him and go, well,
he was at Purdue last year.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
What would he know about winning a championship?
Speaker 3 (17:39):
So well, he was around this program a lot, so
he's sort of seen it. And a lot of the
guys who were probably sitting in that meeting room after
the Indiana game are the same guys that were sitting
in the meeting room after the Michigan game a year ago.
And so you know, you know, the old you know,
this is not quite live laugh love in terms of sports,
But all my lesson losses are lessons like you that's
(18:01):
one of those things you could see, you know, like
hanging in someone's bathroom. These are guys who have learned
the loss, the lessons from a loss in the past,
and they know how to turn it into a positive.
I am expecting to see you know who was on
the live chat during the press conferences and there were
a whole bunch of people very concerned that, well, they're
(18:22):
just gonna run it back in terms of everything they
were doing offensively against Indiana. It's like, I don't I
think that the lessons that you have learned from that
loss are probably going to result in a different looking
offense in this one.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Well, and that takes us to Ryan Day, and we
talked about this on Tuesdays buck Eys Tomorrow Morning about
the play calling going back from going from Brian Harlin
to Ryan Day. For this one, Brian Harlan will be
with receivers and so yeah, you're gonna have a different
play caller. You're gonna have different schemes as well. In
terms of what didn't work against Indiana, well, let's not
(18:54):
do that stuff anymore, and well has it worked and
later in other games, more recent games, let's not do
that anymore. So you're getting away from stuff that isn't
work and going towards more stuff that is and working
on that practice. What a successful let's stick with that,
so offensively, pretty big news that Brian Day is taking
(19:14):
things over to make things easier. He made this sound
the way that he's very happy for Brian. Brian's been
great and this is just one thing he wanted to
take off of his plate. Was the way it was
portrayed by Ryan Well.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
And you got to appreciate the fact that Brian Hartline
right now is juggling two jobs.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
He is.
Speaker 3 (19:33):
You know, as we were sitting in there, news broke
that USF's quarterback has entered the transfer portal. So now
twenty twenty six USF head coach Brian Hartline has to
figure out, Okay, now I need a new starting quarterback
because my old starting quarterback is probably going somewhere in
the SEC. So now he's got to figure that out.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
But and the.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
Calendar here is really working against him because that transfer
portal opens on January second, and Brian Hartline is sure
hoping to have more games to coach at Ohio State
on January second. So yeah, there's just that's a lot
of plates to keep spinning. And so you know, and
this is Also, this is not the Brian Hartline offense
where it's like, well, okay, how is Brian going to
(20:12):
teach Ryan Day this offense?
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Like, this is the Ryan Day offense.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
This has always been the Ryan Day offense since Ryan
Day has been here. So this is going to be
you know, this is not Ryan Day has to do
something completely entirely new or learn a whole.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
New playbook like this is.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
This is I thought, a very natural solution to you know,
sort of a challenging situation.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Yeah, and perfectly encapsulated by the news that's breaking as
Ryan Day is talking about Byron Ground and I'm sure
like when he finds that out, he's like, this is why. Yeah,
this is yeah, why we have to do it this
way and move forward this way. So, Tom, anything else
from today that you wanted to touch on, I think that's.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
The big stuff.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
But if we have forgotten anything, don't worry. We will
have another podcast coming in about fifteen minutes or so.
This is going to be a week a little like
the week before the Michigan game, where we know a
lot of people are going to be traveling. We're going
to try and load you up with podcasts early in
the week and then you can listen to the Metro Leisure.
But we'll have all sorts of shows for you on
the Buckeye Weekly Feed, the Buckeye Tomorrow Morning feed, and
(21:11):
of course on our YouTube channel as well.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
Listen to a mat your leisure or with family. As
we always say, so, thank you all for tuning in.
I will talk to you all later
Hello, everybody, Welcome to the Buckeye Weekly Podcast. I'm Tony
Gerdaman here as always with Tom or Tom.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
How's it going, Tony.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
We got a chance to talk to a bunch of
Ohio State football players this morning. Got to learn a
whole bunch about Ohio State football nicknames. It feels like
we need to start this show by giving each other nicknames,
or maybe just giving Kevin a nickname thoughts.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Well, we've got plenty of nicknames for Kevin, And as
Carson Hinsman said today, right, I can't share all of
the nicknames because some are beyond PG and so no,
that's that's I do have plenty of nicknames for you, Tom,
and some people offend me yelling them over, you know,
like in the press box. You don't get to hear those,
(00:46):
but other people do. So welcome everybody. Yes, we spoke
with Ryan Day today, spoke with Julian Saying, spoke with
Jeremiah Smith, Carson Hinsman, and Max clare Boom. Got them
all in your face, Tom, and what did we learn? First?
Let's talk about the major I guess the major the
major injury news. Yeah, in terms of the personnel taker
(01:08):
Sham bullet is out, is out for the foreseeable future,
maybe the maybe the season a few weeks. Ryan Day said,
so there's a possibility he could be back.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
The season could go any number of lengths.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
And so in his place for Ryan Day was asked, well,
gave Van Sickles start, and then immediately like the question
got furthered and Ryany started nodding, and then the question
went in a different like also Josh Padilla, So it
sounds like it's gonna be gave Ben Sickles starting at
right guard, and then you know, Josh Padilla will see
(01:41):
how practice goes, whether that continues to be a rotation.
And he's been off the injury port for weeks and weeks,
but I think it's just been a matter of getting
him back into the mix. And also it's difficult to
be the third guy in to a rotation, so you're
not actually getting into the.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
Mix right And it's not like last year where it
was three guys for two spots. This is three guys
for one spot, so that that really changes the math there.
Gave Van Sickle Sicko mode, which is a tremendous nickname
that that is you know a lot of sports nicknames
are just like, oh they call him sicky like well
that like, yeah, okay, Sicko Mode, that's a great one.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
But yeah, it feels like mode.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Well it is one because it is a play on
his name, but also two because he does sometimes go
Sico Mode.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Also has been said, oh it's just a cooler name
than game.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Yeah it's true. That also is true, so yeah, it is.
It is a It does feel like that's probably where
things are headed.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
But I would not be surprised at all to see
the rotation there because it felt like Padilla was ahead
of Gave Van Sickle. But sometimes you get Wally pipped
when you know, when you go out with an injury.
So we have not seen Josh Padia on the field
for any kind of like real meaningful snaps in what
a month and a half at this point, it's been
a while. So but now you have this sort of
long stretch during this member to try and get some
(03:01):
of that stuff sorted out and you know, to sort
of get caught up on things. So yeah, that to
me is you know, this was not exactly news. This
is one of these things we've talked about on our
board for a while. It was a little news worthy
that got discussed publicly now, But yeah, that that feels like,
personnel wise, probably the single biggest piece of injury news.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Yeah, and it will be interesting to see Kate Prin
Sickle has played quite a bit. They've seen enough to
know that he can play, But what does this look
like now that he's the number one in practice? How
much will he grow from that? How much confidence will
he get from that? Just a preparation for going against
one of the best defensive lines they will see this
year and handling those like Miami doesn't do a lot
(03:43):
of stunts and twisting, but they will do some to
attack an area of vulnerability. It will be interesting to
see how they attack him. We've got plenty of shows
talk about all of that. But yeah, it does look
like they've solidified things in terms of what's going to happen.
There other injury news, Amia Smith healthy, all good as
(04:03):
you would expect, and basically he and Colonel Tate back practicing,
which is something that maybe we just people don't appreciate enough,
like the fact that they they kind of just came
off the gurney and went to the went to the
game against Michigan and Indiana and how that's not typical.
(04:26):
And though the the improvement that the offense will see
from having their practice and getting that timing down and
when you when you the Jeremiah Smith getses a deep
pass against Indiana, but it's not a touchdown that sort
of thing. It's like timing like that that you spend
time on. You've got reps in and practice to get
that back and that becomes a touchdown. Just something as
(04:47):
simple as that. And so that's what they're doing now,
getting those two guys back healthy, and I would expect
things to work better downfield with that going on.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
Yeah, you've got a lot going for you that you
did a couple of weeks ago. I mean, you know
they both came back, Carnel Tate and Jeremi Smith both
came back for that Michigan game.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
You had win, you had snow.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
That's not going to be a factor in at least
the next two potential games and could potentially be three
games depending on what the weather forecast is in Miami
and whether Ohio States gets to Miami. But you have
the timing piece that back now, which, yeah, the practice
piece of that is big, but also the health piece
of that is big because, yeah, Julian Saying knows exactly
(05:30):
how fast Jeremiah Smith runs when Jeremia Smith is one
hundred percent. Jeremiah Smith said he was not a hundred
percent for that Michigan game. That is, you know, and
I don't know that Carnel Tate was one hundred percent
for that Michigan game.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
And I don't know that you do.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
Either of those guys were one hundred percent for the
Indiana game either.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
They're probably not one hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
You're no one's one hundred percent this time of a
football season, but it sounds like they're both going.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
To be a couple lot closer.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
And so then you have some you know, the practice time,
which is huge that doesn't get really an underappreciated piece
of this, but also you have the reps of, Okay,
I know where these guys are going to be when
they are one hundred percent, and you can maybe stick
your leg in the ground and plant and cut in
a way that you couldn't a couple or you just
have that extra half step to get behind the defensive back.
(06:13):
All that stuff is going to sort of add up
to potentially a much more explosive ole hosting pass.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Offense, because even at deep catch against Indiana, he then
turned into a yards after catch thing. You could see
him if he was one hundred percent healthy, scoring on
that after the catch as well and making somebody miss.
So getting those guys back obviously a key. And it
sounds like it was quite an effort to get Jeremiah
(06:38):
ready for the Michigan game. And he was really really
concerned that he was not going to be able to
play in that and that's what he was entirely focused on.
And Ryan Day sat down with them and basically said,
you're gonna have to will yourself to be healthy. And
they've got everything they need in sports science, they've got
the rehab, they've got everything that you need to get
him ready, but also you've got to believe that you
(06:59):
can do it. And he did and put in a
bunch of work and they talked about how his injury.
He doesn't even know how it happened. It was a
quad injury and practice at some point and then wanted
to play against UCLA and you know, went for a
little bit and realized I can't go, and then basically
became concerned. He gave like the actual name of the
(07:19):
injury and said it could keep guys out three to
four weeks, which was really concerning to him. But he
was able to get back obviously, and now he boy,
he seems ready to go against Miami.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Yeah, I think, you know, yeah, being back one hundred percent,
I'm sure you're rare and to go. You know, when
you think about when you're getting over the flu or
something like that, that first day where you're finally feeling better,
like you were ready to go attack the world, I
think it's probably a little bit of that, but also
a little known in fact, Jeremiah Smith is from Miami,
was Miami was going very very hard after him. I'm sure,
(07:50):
you know, made a very compelling case as to why
he shouldn't go to Ohio State. And you know, going
to Ohio State has worked out okay for Jeremiah Smith
so far. But also he's going up against a whole
bunch of guys who he has played with, played against
over the years.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
And I don't know, if you know much about.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
South Florida football players, they will talk sometimes. Wide receivers
will is a group that tends to talk a lot.
Defensive backs a group tony that tends to talk a
lot I'm going to guess some words have been said
back and forth, maybe via text or you know, WhatsApp
or whatever the kids are using today, Tony to communicate
with each other in.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
What I'm sure are very respectful terms.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
This is one where when you go home, you want
to be the one who won this game, not the
one who lost this game. And you want to be
the one who put up some numbers in this game,
and not the one who you know, showed up on
a poster in the not featured player portion of the
of the image.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Well, we talked with Brandon Ennis. I don't know at
what point it was the season, maybe before the season
in fall camp, or maybe it was two weeks ago.
I can't remember.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
At this point, it's all kind of bit a blur.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
But when he was talking about how people in South
Florida are angry that some guys went to Ohio State
and so, yeah, there will be plenty of energy folks
on the the the ridicule that that sort of thing
of you should have been you should have gone to Miami,
those sorts of things, and then talking about he didn't
(09:11):
say playing with the motion and not letting the motion
to play with you, but he was asked about the
back and forth with Miami's like, there's they'll get penalties,
I'll get penalties. It's gonna be some some back and forth.
Don't get two of those though, I think you get goood.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Yeah, he said, he said he didn't want to pick
up a fifteen yard penalty, so he's he's aware of
the fact that, you know, this is this is not
a game wortal house that has the luxury of you know,
it's it's grambling you you know, it's Ohio, You're gonna
win by you know, three scores, it doesn't matter. So
you can, you know, if you want to be Davisittingnosen
and take your helmet off after an interception against Michigan, Like,
(09:46):
you got to make sure the game is pretty much
analytically final before you do something like that. This is
a game that was probably not going to go analytically final,
so at least until very very very late one way
or the other. So yeah, this is one where you
have to Yeah, there's gonna be a lot emotion. Yeah,
there's going to be a lot of chirping. Yeah, there's
going to be a lot of There will probably be
some physicality on the field, you may see a little
(10:07):
trash talk. That's something you see with Miami football teams
every once in a while, is the you know, chirping
and pushing and shoffing and all that kind of stuff.
So yeah, it would not not be a surprise at
all to see that. You just have to you can
do that to a certain degree. Just make sure number one,
you can back it up and number two, you don't
do too much of it.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
Well. And last thing on this is that with this
relationship to Miami, having watched Miami, now they've got a
lot of corners, would you put it past Miami to
sign out a sacrificial cornerback to try to get into
a fight with Jeremiah and to remove him from this game. Frankly,
whichever corner you know, it doesn't have to be a
(10:46):
sacrificial corner. It could just be any other corners.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
The twenty thirteen Michigan gambit. Yes, that is something we
have seen in the past.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
So yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
But we also, as you mentioned, we did talk with
Carson Hensman who still has the bleach blonde hair, and
as he found out that you know, the bleach doesn't
wash out. It's a little known fact. It was not
crazily enough, it was not gone the next day. But
this is also a guy who is getting ready to
(11:14):
face a very, very good defensive line in Miami, and
they're coming off of a game. Miami's coming off of
a game where they had seven sacks. Ohio State's coming
off of a game where they gave up five sacks.
So the protection between Jeremiah, between Julian Saying and Carson
Hinsman and everybody else on the offensive line is going
to be key because the last time we saw both
(11:35):
of these teams, it did not go well for the quarterback,
the opposing quarterback or the Ohio State quarterback. And this
is one of those things where they've got time to
work on it, fix it, but it's still you can
get back to basics, get back to fundamentals, but it's
also still a matter of doing your job against. Is
this gonna be the best defensive the best exterior defensive one, yes, yes,
(11:59):
one of the best interior defensive lines that Ohio State
a scene.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
I would put Miami certainly ahead of Texas. I'd put
Miami ahead of Michigan. They're probably ahead of everyone. I
would say they're probably clearly ahead of everyone except for
maybe Indiana and Indiana is you know, the Indiana that
you see in the Rose Bowl is going to be
missing Stephen Daily, which, boy, is that a.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
Big loss for Indiana.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Ohio State had the misfortune to have to play Stephen
Daily throughout the course of their whole game. But also,
the Indiana defensive line does a bunch of the twisting
and stunting stuff that Miami doesn't do. So this is
going to be a little bit more of a straight
up thing where Ohio State has really struggled with picking up,
identifying and picking up some of those twists and stunts
just the games that teams.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Will play up front. Miami is not gonna do that
nearly as much.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
You may see a little bit, but this is also
not a time of year where you're going to say, okay, well,
Higo State struggles to do this, so we're going to
do something completely different. They don't have time to install
a completely different defensive front scheme for this game, so
this is going to be you know, this is personnel wise, yes,
this is as good or better than Indiana. Scheme wise,
(13:09):
it might be a little bit of a better matchup
for Ohio State, but still Okay, if one's a little
better and one's a little worse, you still don't want
to give up five sacks in this one. So you
don't want to give up three sacks in this one
because in a game once, once you're at this point
of the season, all the bad teams are home. You know,
all the teams that are like extremely flawed. You watch
them all lose last weekend. There there are not a
lot of obvious flaws left in the field. So this
(13:32):
is your You've now gotten to the point where one,
you know, one blindside hit you where you strip the quarterback,
or you know, you forced the Ohio State to throw
the ball away. I think there are going to be
opportunities for Ohigo State and offense. But you got to
give Julian Saying time. That is going to be such
a huge piece of this game.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
Yeah. So, and we did talk with Julian saying, I'm
trying to think of anything that he had to say.
He's very political, yes, and so when you ask questions,
he gives you basically the answer that you're expecting. And
I don't know that there's anything earth shattering from him,
which is the way that Ryan Day wants it. That's
good quarterbacking. As Ryan Day said, do the routine things
(14:10):
routinely if you're a quarterback, including answering questions. But certainly
he had the same issues, the same questions and answers
regarding protection and got to get rid of the ball
that's on him. Got to get rid of the ball quicker.
And sometimes some of the issues that he had holding
on to it was just you're just waiting for that
deep shot to open up solo. Some of that is
(14:31):
just scheme as well, where you're calling plays and it's
just taking just a little bit longer than your offensive
line can block. And as Ryan Da says, receivers are
running routes against the pass rush, yes, and so it's
all intertwined. And as Julian is waiting, you know, just
like one split second, and sometimes that was a little
(14:52):
too much for him.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
Well, and he said, you have to be quick in
your decision making against this Miami defense because he knows
you're not going to be able to sit back in
the pocket for three and half seconds and just you know,
which is going to limit your route tree to a
certain degree. So they're gonna have to You're gonna have
to have Ohio State receivers beating Miami corners off the line,
and you're gonna have to know where the safeties are.
You're gonna have to You're going to have to recognize it.
(15:14):
You know, you you have seen sort of the you know,
the mistake against Michigan was a little different than the
mistake against Indiana, but you had an early turnover and
interception in both of those games. You can't afford that
now you've got. But you also can't be super conservative
in this game. You can't call this game like it's
a Texas game, like, well, he can't make any mistakes.
So it's really gonna be an interesting spot for him
(15:35):
because he is, you know, he is still a young quarterback.
He's still just a red shirt freshman. You can get
Carson back on the other side. Who is I think
he I think he is a sixth year senior. I
think he was on the I believe I saw him
almost positive he had at least one or two games
that he played in twenty twenty that didn't end up counting. So,
you know, you have a real, real veteran quarterback on one
(15:55):
side and a young but you know, rapidly and vastly
improved quarterback. On the other side, watching the Miami Notre
Dame game, you know, they're talking about the Ohio State
Texas game and on that broadcast, and it was like, boy,
you think about how different Julian Sayin was then in
(16:17):
terms of as a player, but also in terms of
what they trusted him to do as compared to now.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Yeah, it's night and day and now they trust him
with everything, and why wouldn't you The last guy, the
last player we talked with, Max Claire. He was asked
about his journey to Ohio State and how this is
basically a childhood dream. That's why, that's why you go
from Purdue to Ohio State and you bet on yourself.
(16:43):
And yeah, it wasn't easy coming to Ohio State and
going through all of that, learning the physicality that it requires.
But clearly this is a guy that's pretty excited about
what is to come.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
Yeah, And he was asked about whether this is still
an angry team because you've had you know, it's been
a couple of weeks now since the since the Indiana game.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
He said, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, this is still.
Speaker 3 (17:03):
An angry team with the team with a story to write.
And you know, this is a I think they saw
what a loss can do for your program last year
against Michigan they lose, they channeled that into a very
positive way. And you know, he was not playing last year,
but he was along for the ride on a lot
of these, you know, a lot of those playoff games.
(17:24):
You know, you saw a bunch of these the freshman
class and a bunch of the transfers on the sidelines
of those games and at practices, and you know, so
these guys have been around for a playoff run. Because
I think it's very easy to look at him and go, well,
he was at Purdue last year.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
What would he know about winning a championship?
Speaker 3 (17:39):
So well, he was around this program a lot, so
he's sort of seen it. And a lot of the
guys who were probably sitting in that meeting room after
the Indiana game are the same guys that were sitting
in the meeting room after the Michigan game a year ago.
And so you know, you know, the old you know,
this is not quite live laugh love in terms of sports,
But all my lesson losses are lessons like you that's
(18:01):
one of those things you could see, you know, like
hanging in someone's bathroom. These are guys who have learned
the loss, the lessons from a loss in the past,
and they know how to turn it into a positive.
I am expecting to see you know who was on
the live chat during the press conferences and there were
a whole bunch of people very concerned that, well, they're
(18:22):
just gonna run it back in terms of everything they
were doing offensively against Indiana. It's like, I don't I
think that the lessons that you have learned from that
loss are probably going to result in a different looking
offense in this one.
Speaker 1 (18:33):
Well, and that takes us to Ryan Day, and we
talked about this on Tuesdays buck Eys Tomorrow Morning about
the play calling going back from going from Brian Harlin
to Ryan Day. For this one, Brian Harlan will be
with receivers and so yeah, you're gonna have a different
play caller. You're gonna have different schemes as well. In
terms of what didn't work against Indiana, well, let's not
(18:54):
do that stuff anymore, and well has it worked and
later in other games, more recent games, let's not do
that anymore. So you're getting away from stuff that isn't
work and going towards more stuff that is and working
on that practice. What a successful let's stick with that,
so offensively, pretty big news that Brian Day is taking
(19:14):
things over to make things easier. He made this sound
the way that he's very happy for Brian. Brian's been
great and this is just one thing he wanted to
take off of his plate. Was the way it was
portrayed by Ryan Well.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
And you got to appreciate the fact that Brian Hartline
right now is juggling two jobs.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
He is.
Speaker 3 (19:33):
You know, as we were sitting in there, news broke
that USF's quarterback has entered the transfer portal. So now
twenty twenty six USF head coach Brian Hartline has to
figure out, Okay, now I need a new starting quarterback
because my old starting quarterback is probably going somewhere in
the SEC. So now he's got to figure that out.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
But and the.
Speaker 3 (19:50):
Calendar here is really working against him because that transfer
portal opens on January second, and Brian Hartline is sure
hoping to have more games to coach at Ohio State
on January second. So yeah, there's just that's a lot
of plates to keep spinning. And so you know, and
this is Also, this is not the Brian Hartline offense
where it's like, well, okay, how is Brian going to
(20:12):
teach Ryan Day this offense?
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Like, this is the Ryan Day offense.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
This has always been the Ryan Day offense since Ryan
Day has been here. So this is going to be
you know, this is not Ryan Day has to do
something completely entirely new or learn a whole.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
New playbook like this is.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
This is I thought, a very natural solution to you know,
sort of a challenging situation.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Yeah, and perfectly encapsulated by the news that's breaking as
Ryan Day is talking about Byron Ground and I'm sure
like when he finds that out, he's like, this is why. Yeah,
this is yeah, why we have to do it this
way and move forward this way. So, Tom, anything else
from today that you wanted to touch on, I think that's.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
The big stuff.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
But if we have forgotten anything, don't worry. We will
have another podcast coming in about fifteen minutes or so.
This is going to be a week a little like
the week before the Michigan game, where we know a
lot of people are going to be traveling. We're going
to try and load you up with podcasts early in
the week and then you can listen to the Metro Leisure.
But we'll have all sorts of shows for you on
the Buckeye Weekly Feed, the Buckeye Tomorrow Morning feed, and
(21:11):
of course on our YouTube channel as well.
Speaker 1 (21:13):
Listen to a mat your leisure or with family. As
we always say, so, thank you all for tuning in.
I will talk to you all later
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