Ohio State Football LIVE: Big Ten Media Days In Las Vegas

Buckeye Weekly Podcast: Big Ten Media Days Recap & Viewer Q&A

In this episode of the Buckeye Weekly Podcast, hosts Tony Gerdeman and Tom Orr recap the first day of Big Ten Media Days and answer questions about the Buckeyes from the livestream viewers. They discuss the schedule for Day 2, including coaches and player appearances, and delve into topics such as the upcoming football season, player performances, and positions. They also talk about Ohio State's linebacker and defensive end rotations, the quarterback battle, and the impact of the Big Ten's strategy on offensive line play. Finally, they engage with viewer questions about the team's depth, potential player rotations, and predictions for the upcoming games. 

00:00 Introduction and Banter 
00:45 Big 10 Media Days Preview 
03:37 Ohio State Football Insights 
05:20 Linebacker and Defensive Strategies 
06:21 Player Development and Versatility 
10:48 Comparing Generations: Sonny and Lorenzo Styles 
15:54 Cornerback and Safety Roles 
29:49 Quarterback Competition 
35:24 2019 Playoff Reflections 
35:55 Ohio State's Physicality in Key Games 
36:27 Big Ten Officiating Insights 
39:24 Memorable Defensive Touchdowns 
40:17 Ohio State's Success Against Michigan 
41:32 Player Performance Predictions 
46:29 Michigan's Potential Penalties 
48:36 Texas vs. Ohio State Analysis 
54:06 Defensive Strategies and Player Highlights 
57:20 Offensive Line and Running Back Depth 
01:06:47 Coaching Insights and Expectations

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hello, everybody. Welcome to you Buckeye Weekly Podcast. I'm Tony
Gerdaman here as always with Tom or Tom. How's it going? Good?

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Tony good that you might string the power pause out
a little bit more because we still have what three
and a half hours before at the start of official
events here today here very early, and I was like, oh,
there's no one here, Like the security guard kind of
gave me a look when I gave walked up earlier.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
Like well, what do you do? What's in the backpack? Sir?

Speaker 2 (00:32):
You know we're on Pacific time, right, yes, yes, we
just tend to get places early.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
Yeah. No, they may be on Pacific time. We are
on your time here at good old eight oh two
in the morning out west, and we've got plenty to
talk about. We will preview the day just so you
guys are where. Today's day two of the big ten
media days. It will start at eleven thirty our time
to thirty year time with PJ. Fleck. We'll talk for
fifteen minutes, then Northwestern head coach David Brown, then Luke Fickle,

(01:01):
then Dan Landing, then Jedfish, then James Franklin, and that'll
end at one o'clock and then that's when all of
the breakouts of the coaches and players start, and that'll
go until five o'clock our time, and then tom when
that is done around eight pm Eastern, we will be
back live for buck Ice tomorrow morning. With how many

(01:24):
days until the season right now.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
It would be it was thirty eight on today's show,
so on as of Wednesday's thirty eight days, So on
the show tonight, since it's tomorrow morning, it'll be thirty
seven days. It is getting there, yeah, for sure.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
And then also you should just add to the countdown
seven days until camp opens, which is pretty crazy. You
used to have with big tim media days. I have
like two weeks at least, like two weeks before camp started,
and now it's just like you get home and guests
start backing up three quarters and the cameras like what
do I need for camp? And of course we'll be

(01:58):
there for the first three days as well whatever else
they allow us to see. So I'm looking forward to it.
And of course there are questions in there. We'll get
to them as we can, super chats, regular chats, whatever
you got. We need to address everything.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
Yeah, and there is a lot to address because we
I was thinking about this. We always talk about this
as the unofficial start of the college football season because
it feels like as soon as you're here, you have
all this stuff to talk about. There's more that you
can more that we get at these events than we
could possibly get through between now and the start of camp.
And then as soon as the start a camp goes
then we're just talking about camp. We're not talking about

(02:33):
this stuff anymore. But there there is so much information
that comes out of this. You can talk to so
many people, you know, on camera, off camera, all that
kind of stuff. You end up with a ton of information.
And so we are going to do our best to
put out as much of that as we possibly can
in as many different forms as we can, writing and
video and here, yeah, live live shows where we can

(02:54):
just kind of go to dada dump as much as
we can of it to you. So, yeah, there's there's
definitely a lot of a lot of stuff that a
lot of stuff to talk about. You know. From the
Ohio State end of things. What was the most interesting
thing because I have been putting together a bunch of
shows about all the stuff that Ohio State said about Michigan,

(03:15):
all the supple High States said about PennState, all the
stuff Ohio States said about Texas, all the stuff Ohio
States said about Oregon. And then there's also all the
internal stuff. And then there's all the big pictures nil
and recruiting and the house settlement and all kind of
stuff college football playoffs, I mean, and that's just from
the Ohio State side of things, not even the other
five teams we talked to you.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
As, right, Well, I'll start with something local and and
let's start with Ohio State football. And that was because
I was I didn't get to talk to any of
the players yesterday, but going through and listening and seeing
the conversation Sunny Styles talking about Matt Patricia working with him,
and Matt Patricia told him, you're at the point where
you're smart enough to know exactly what you're doing, but

(03:59):
now I want you to figure out what the offense
is doing. So I think that's interesting, like start seeing
formations and understanding shifts and where the ball is going.
So that's something that he's been challenged to do. And
I think you're going to see the best Sonny Styles
you've ever seen. I think you saw some of it
in the Texas game. We're at two sacks, three tackles
for lossupports bumble. And then he also said that he

(04:20):
and r belt Reese probably the two most athletic linebackers
in the country, and that Peyton Pierce brings some physicality
to the position, which is like He's like, then we
don't already have.

Speaker 2 (04:31):
It, But I guse I saw Sonny Styles hit people
last year. It seemed like there was plenty of physicality there.

Speaker 1 (04:35):
So I think I come away with some interesting thoughts
on the linebackers, not that we didn't expect them to
be expect them to be very good. We talked about
Paye Pierce baking what our belt Reese was last year,
what Cody Simon was two years before that. I think
that Patrician is gonna find ways to get all three
of those guys on the field together.

Speaker 2 (04:54):
Yeah, and I'm sure James, Laura and Ice would be
in favor of three linebackers on the field together. And
you've got guys who were alone, little bit more dynamic,
who can do some different stuff Sonny Styles. If you
had to throw Sunny Styles into coverage a little bit
like they used to throw Pete Warner on you know,
these Peete Warner would rotate back and should just be
the deep safety, not a lot because you if you
know that's coming, you can take advantage of it. But

(05:15):
he's also athletic enough that you can if it's a
surprise and they don't know what's coming, you can get
away with that. You could also have Sunny Styles rushing
off the edge like you can and r l reas
you could. You have you have guys where you know,
Jim Knowles used to talk about Sunny Styles as a
Swiss army knife or a secret weapon. And I think
you're gonna see him continue to be used in a

(05:36):
bunch of different ways. Just that versatility makes you unpredictable,
and they've got that with I mean, this is an
incredible luxury to have someone like that on the second level,
to have someone like Caleb Downs on.

Speaker 1 (05:46):
The third level where he's a fourth linebacker.

Speaker 2 (05:48):
You want to you want to rush Caleb Downs off
the edge?

Speaker 1 (05:50):
Sure?

Speaker 2 (05:50):
Fine, you want to rush. You don't want to have
Caleb Downs be your deep safety, that's fine. You want
to have to say Caleb Downs but you're in the
box safety. Yeah, that's fine. What do you want to do?

Speaker 1 (05:58):
He can do it?

Speaker 2 (05:58):
And you have the luxury of having a linebacker like that,
while the luxury of having a safety like that, that
is that is something that most teams do not have.
And but if you look at Matt Patricia and what
they did with the Patriots over the years, they were
great at finding like what's the thing you can do
or what is the what are the things that you
can do and just putting you in a position to succeed.

(06:21):
Having that flexibility makes Ohio State allows Ohio State to
be complicated for the opponent without necessarily being complicated themselves,
which is really that's that's your best possible scenario as
a defense.

Speaker 1 (06:35):
And is T thirteen says Gunnerhill remembers some of the styles.

Speaker 2 (06:38):
Uh yeah, yeah, that was that was a hit and
a half.

Speaker 1 (06:41):
Yeah so, and he's got the ability to cover as well. Uh.
Caleb Downs talked about what his expectations for himself this year.
He's like, I expect to be multiple like I was
last year and there's no reason not to to just
play around and him being able to play the middle
of the field. The intermedia where the linebackers would be
then also allows you to move the line backers around,
maybe get to get them after the quarterback more so

(07:03):
from what I've been told, like the linebackers are going
to get after it this year. I don't know if
that means it's not gonna be constant blitzing or whatever,
but I think you're gonna see some stuff off the
edge as well. I think there's some versatility and some
light length and size in love with those guys.

Speaker 2 (07:17):
Well, and you can't just do the same thing over
and over and over again, because there is a counter
to anything you want to do. If whatever defense you're in,
there's an offense. You know, the the passing game, there
are zone beaters and there are man beaters. You can't
always be in zone, and you can't always be in
man if you're if you're always in man, guess what
you're gonna see a bunch of drag routes and you're
you know, and mesh routes and that you're gonna have

(07:40):
problem that if you're constantly in zone. Well, there's there's
easy easy zone beaters as well. You have to be unpredictable,
but having that, you know, having those guys who can
do so many different things allows you to do that.
I do want to give out a shout out to
our buddy, Mika. I hope you are feeling feeling better soon.
They'll always hate to hate to see that and meant
to help you. Help you were feeling feeling well soon,

(08:02):
and we will. I have already seen some good questions
and then we're gonna we'll star those, uh, and we'll
come back to those a little bit later on. So
go ahead and throw your questions in and or comments
in there, and we will. We will get to as
many as we can a little later on.

Speaker 1 (08:16):
Caylen Downs is also very high on Max Claire and
so I think Sony stylisics as well, talking about how
Max player is an elite, elite route runner and he's
he's also physical. He's not just a pass catching tight end,
a receiving tight end. You will have also get after it.
And he was talking. Caleb Downs talked about how he
and lath and Ransom were the guys we were we

(08:37):
were pretty much responsible for forgetting getting him here, telling
Keenan Bailey about him, and he was the best guy
they've faced last year. He's the best guy they saw
on film and preparation. And I don't know, maybe maybe
we need to start talking about him more. I remember,
so I've been doing this top ten ol higher State playmakers.
I've had to take a break daily busy. I've been

(08:58):
a little busy, but kind down. And I think I
had Max Player at maybe five, and Ross Polton said
I might have him like three or four. And that's
when you're talking about the higher state passing game and
the running back that James Peoples is and will be.
To have Max Fair, I think, I don't know. I'm
expecting the top end is kind of what Kate Stover did.

(09:21):
That's That's what I'm expecting. But I'm not expecting the
Tyler Warren season. But like, what are the odds that
he's a sixty catch cup?

Speaker 2 (09:35):
Probably not. I think ten to fifteen percent. That just
seems very high. And it's not that he can't do it.
We know he can. It's just Jeremiah Smith remains on
the team, Cardinal Tate remains on the team, Brandon Inness
remains on the team, Maylon Graham, Princy Porter. The running

(09:57):
backs James Peoples and C. J.

Speaker 1 (09:59):
Donalds. I mean, and also they're gonna want to run
the ball song.

Speaker 2 (10:02):
So I think you run into a number of football's problem,
rather than a, ye, you saw what Max Claire do
without a lot of other tools. Yea. Even even being
kind of the number one target the defense is focusing on,
he still caught fifty whatever passes it was last year,
So yeah, he he certainly could do it. I don't

(10:23):
think he will, but I don't think that's a Max
Claire issue as much as a number of footballs.

Speaker 1 (10:27):
You go back, We'll get to this, but did you
go back to the Jim Drestle thing where it's every
time I'm throwing to the tight ends, I'm not starting
to say Tonio Holmes and said, right, yeah, but granted
I don't think he had Max player. No.

Speaker 2 (10:38):
If best to Lewis hear AZERI yeah, yeah. Let's get
in the super sap from Ryan Dawes. Did you guys
see Lorenzo Senior play? Does Sonny have any similarity to
his dad's styles? See what he did there of play?
I actually asked asked Sonny yesterday about his brother and
his dad, and he talked about the fact that he,

(10:59):
you know, they have the luxury of sitting down because
of course his older brother Lorenzo is also going to
be the the nickel on the defense, and he talked
about the fact that he's had the luxury of, you know,
being able to sit down and watch stuff of this
dad and you know, he played in the NFL, knows what,
knows what that's like, and he's just been a great
resource for him. You know, I don't know how similar

(11:21):
they are in terms of players. You know, there's a
certain amount of you look at you look at a
mid nineties linebacker and they're wearing those enormous shoulder pads
and you know the yeah, all the picture and the
shoulder pads look like they're about four times the size
of the current ones. But guys are more athletic now.
And it's not just he's more athletic than it's that.

(11:42):
It's just every linebacker now is running faster than linebackers
then because they have an enormous you know, improvements in training.
So the game is a little in the game's a
little bit different. You know, what you're doing as a
linebacker in a in a big ten where everyone's lining
up in the I formation and running it up the
A gap. That's a very different big ten and a

(12:02):
very different linebacker job than you have now, where you
might be like I said, he might be dropping back
into deep coverage. He might be rushing the past around
the next play, he might be covering a tight end,
he might be covering a back out of the back.
Like you're doing a little bit of everything. It's not
just like, well, you got to watch up for the
full back or you know, they might give it to

(12:24):
the full back, or they might pitch it out to
the tailback and he might I mean, it's just it's
such a different game that even if they were identical people,
between the changes in training and the changes in the
what they have to do, because what the offense is doing,
it's it's kind of hard to compare up, don't you think.

Speaker 1 (12:43):
Well, and he was a senior my freshman year, so
I did get to watch him, and of course I
watched him in high school as well. He was a
two time All Big Ten, got All Big Ten linebacker.
He was listened six one two forty five. But here's
here's the other thing that makes it look bigger, the
big shoulder pads. Huh where it's ninety number ninety. Yes,
So good luck getting any linebacker today. Good good luck

(13:04):
getting sunny styles to wear ninety or anything in the
nightties back then. It was it was cool, it was okay.
But Lorenzo Styles was a middle linebacker. He was tough
and physical. Left after his junior year. Sonny he's I
don't know, he's probably two thirty five to forty, will
probably cut a little bit of weight, but you know,
he's six three six four, bigger, faster, athlete, longer. So

(13:28):
Sonny would have, like Sonny in in that era, would
have been an outside linebacker, like a Craig Powell who
played at that same time, where you maybe do a
little bit of pass rushing, the nile digs type of stuff.
But yeah, there there is certainly different. But like there's
there's a lot of trades from Lorenzo Senior that Sonny has.

(13:50):
The physicality and things like that, but the diagnosing and
all that stuff, like anybody can get better at that.
And Lorenzo was pretty good. He was he was fun
to watch.

Speaker 2 (13:59):
He was the that went to the Falcons and Craig
Powell went to the Browns, right right, yeah, okay, yeah.

Speaker 1 (14:04):
Yeah, he was a third round pick and Powell was
a first round pick because of the athletic.

Speaker 2 (14:07):
Yeah profile, Yeah, and you know that that's a local
family there from Pickerington. That is a just an awesome
family that dad, mom, both kids, just the easiest people
to root for in the world. Just just a just
a phenomenal, phenomenal family.

Speaker 1 (14:23):
And I was looking Sunny Styles was a second team
All Big Ten pick last year, so he will not
be able to match his father.

Speaker 2 (14:30):
And if you missed last night show, if you go
back and watch it, you can watch me taking psychic
damage from realizing that this is the fourth year for
Sunny Styles at Ohio Sate, Like, what how he just
he was supposed to be a senior in high school.
Just I don't I don't understand how that's how that's
possibly possibly the case. But yeah, so there you go.
There is there is the the Styles family breakdown. But yeah,

(14:53):
I am expecting big, big things from from Sunny Tal's
And I did get a chance to ask Sonny about
his brother Lorenzo, and you know he's going to be
sounds sounds like me starting Nickel this year, replacing Jordan Hancock,
and just called him a freak athlete, one of the
most athletic Nichols in the draft this upcoming year, said

(15:15):
he can cover it, can run with anybody, very smart,
just studies the game very well. Can you just about
anything you ask for? Him as a nickel, super versatile
and has great confidence in himself. So and he said,
that's what you need, your blank defensive back. You got
to believe that you're the best and that no one
can catch a ball on you. And sounds like he's
kind of got the got the whole thing. And as
I think I said on last night show, if you

(15:35):
can get one brother to say something nice about another
brother like the man, he must.

Speaker 1 (15:39):
Really mean it. And remember like he spent his first
two years of receiver at Yeah, and then so it
takes a while to build up that confidence. In Ohio
State always liked him as a defensive back. But now
you're you're finally I think you're finally going to see
him at his best. But it's always interesting to me
to see somebody accept and then race the nickel position.

(16:02):
I came here to play corner.

Speaker 2 (16:03):
Yeah, yeah, you know.

Speaker 1 (16:04):
And now, well, let me show you something else.

Speaker 2 (16:08):
I know you want to what can we do to
get you into this nickel position?

Speaker 1 (16:11):
Exactly? Let me just let's talk about it. The under well,
we'll throw in the undercoating, but you have to embrace it,
and it's I think it's easier now because it is
such a specific and important role. There's like no shame
to it now. I mentioned on the show a few

(16:32):
months ago when I asked Dunzel Burke at the combine,
does anybody talk to you about Nickel? He's like, yeah,
there's still some yeah, yeah, you know, I don't know
what's uh, some badness to it or some stigma. But
once you embrace it and you realize what Jordan Hancock
did for this team last year, like you have to

(16:53):
respect that. Lorenzo's house saw it. He was the dime lash,
he was back up Nickel back He understands the importance
that he happened to defense.

Speaker 2 (17:01):
Yeah, and you know, we talked, I think yesterday about
about Jordan Hancock being one of the most underrated players
from last year's team, because it feels like you look
at the guys who left last year's team and you know,
who are they going to have to replace this year?
And very quickly you'll say here j T two Moloil
and Jack Sawyer and you'll hear Denzel Burke and you'll
you know, Jordan Hancock played a very, very big role

(17:24):
and you. You know, Denzel Burke had the bad game
against Oregon, but was really very good. Other than that,
Davis and Ignosen got attention for good stuff and bad
stuff depending on you know, he had the incredible interceptions
against Penn State, but then every time someone threw a
flag everyone kind of went, oh, boy, here we go again.
And then Jordan Hancock was just kind of like quietly

(17:45):
extremely good and he didn't get positive attention, hitting get
negative attention. It just kind of he was just sort
of there and always doing his job and doing his
job at a very high level. And that's that's not
an easy thing to replace. But as you said, boy,
the third year for you know, it's the fifth year
for Lorenzo Styles in college, but they were a little
in the third year is a defensive back and it

(18:06):
feels like this is his this is now his time
to shine.

Speaker 1 (18:09):
He played the most. He played more snaps than Denzel
Burke did last year. Jordan Hancock, Yeah, yeah, I mean
just a few, but he was I think he was
a fifth or six on the team and snaps, so
that's I mean, there's no stigma there. You are an
important piece of the defense now, Tom Lorenzo Styles as
a senior, Lorenzo Styles senior as a senior.

Speaker 2 (18:31):
He's not listed as Lorenzo Styles on the nineteen ninety
four stats, which is weird.

Speaker 1 (18:36):
One hundred and thirty two tackles, ten tackles for loss,
no sacks, Uh, Sunny Styles. Last year one hundred tackles,
ten and a half tackles for loss and I think
six sacks, So still one hundred and thirty two tackles.
Back then, that's that's about what you expected from your
your starting liar state middle liacker because they were running
the ball. And of course no sacks because Matt Facus

(18:57):
and Mike Rabel were taking the ball.

Speaker 2 (18:58):
Uh huh yeah, boy. And this is just remembering some
guys like this is this is guys could just stand
around and just name old football players Runzo Styles, Marlon Serner,
Craig Powell, that think's Mike Frabele, Tim Pattillo, Greg Bella, sorry,
Sean Springs, Tito Paul, Derek Mason. He's not listed there,
but for some reason, Tito Paul's name reminds me of him.
Luke Thickele we'll be talking to him a little later on.

(19:20):
Ryan Miller, Preston Preston Harrison, Randall Brown, then a smag Bon.
How there's a good one.

Speaker 1 (19:26):
All right?

Speaker 2 (19:26):
Uh, here's this is interesting from John down I FK
feeling Nicholas Jermaine Matthews. Maybe I'm wrong, I mean you
may see that a little bit. I think they're gonna
I feel like you're outside corners are Davis Nigunosen and
Jermaine Matthews. And you know, maybe maybe Aaron Scott really
comes on, maybe uh, Devin Sanchez really comes on, and

(19:48):
or maybe you just move him inside occasionally. But I'm
expecting Matthews to be one of the outside cornsh can't you?

Speaker 1 (19:55):
I am? But to remember, Jermaine Matthews in twenty twenty
four spent the spring and nickel yep, So they know
he can do that, and they also know he can
do the outside thing. I guess it just depends on
what what are their best three quarters? If we're calling
a nickel a corner, So like is are they better
with Devin Sanchez or Aaron Scott on the field than

(20:17):
with Lorenzo Styles Junior on the field. I'm expecting Jermaine
Matthews to be the outside. If he's inside, we'll would
be shocked. Well, we've seen it before. But if he's inside,
that says a lot more to me about the other
two outside guys, like whether it's Aaron Scott or or
Devin Sanchez, that they want to get those guys on

(20:39):
the field and they can't. They also obviously want Jermaine
Matthews on the field.

Speaker 2 (20:44):
Yeah, it's it's a best eleven situation. You know, we
talk about the best five on the offensive line. You
figure out your best five and then you figure out
where those five pieces go, how they can fit together.
It's kind of best eleven or best best three in
terms of corners, best five in terms of defensive backs.
And it might be best too ish or it might

(21:05):
be a little bit more situational with with safeties as well.
Like that. That sounds like that's still very much an
open question in terms of who's gonna play. You know,
Caleb Downs is gonna be one of them? Who you know,
is it going to be one or both of Lee
Hartford and McLain on the back end?

Speaker 1 (21:20):
Now, well, and no move, I mean, well, Jermaine Matthews
will play some nickel this fall camp.

Speaker 2 (21:25):
Oh yeah, for sure, for sure.

Speaker 1 (21:27):
Yeah, So the dangerous thing is if he's there the
first day and then it's everybody's everybody's there watching. Oh yeah,
so then it's yeah, that's what it's become. And then
the next day he's outside, You're like, well, well, what
the what the heck? Man?

Speaker 2 (21:41):
The one day camp stories are always great. I was
going through the Caleb Downs transcript and he was asked
about playing an offense and I was like, oh, yeah,
the Caleb Downs is gonna play running back day when
Ryan Day just kind of like mentioned it off hand
and everyone like and then it nothing ever.

Speaker 1 (21:58):
Came Marvin Harrison returning punts at practice. Yeah. Yeah, I'm
fascinated to see what happens with Caleb Downs and Jalen
McLain and Lake Carford And I kind of wonder if
it's just gonna be those things. Will we know Caleb
Downs is going to move around? So when is that
free safety Jalen McLain is in the game of strong
See what is that strong safety? That is a Milie

(22:21):
Cartford in a free safety? So yeah, is it gonna
be one of those things where Caleb Down says eight
hundred stats on the season and Hartford and the Plaine
have four undered each type of thing.

Speaker 2 (22:31):
It could be that then you kind of fall into
being a little bit more predictable. If if you're you know,
if every time Wilike Cartfrid's in there, that means the
downs as you're in the box safety, then you know
what what Jim Knowle's called the bandit, Then you're you're
getting a little more predictable and you're maybe you're tipping
something to some degree. So everyone kind of has to

(22:53):
be cross trained, and this is true of you know what.
This is why they have guys work outside receiver and slot,
even if they're mostly to be in Walt spot or
the other, because you want to be able to do
a little bit of everything. So that's one of those
one of those things that you'll hear lots of coaches.
How you met and great point here from doub go ahead.

Speaker 1 (23:10):
Yeah, and it's gotten. Devin Santos should play. I think
they will play, and Bryce West is in the slouch.
I expect Bryce West to be the dime to be
what Lorenzo Styles was last year, which means he's the
back up Nickel and he's he's he's done. Glennville. He
played outside, he played inside, he played free safety, like
he would just be like the deep guy and keep

(23:30):
everything in front of you, go make plays when the
balls in the air. So that's stuff that they want
this Nicol to do to be able to play wherever
and also drop back and play safety. So he's got
some experience doing that. He may be the fastest Buckeye
on the team, So there's there's a role for you.

Speaker 2 (23:43):
Jeremiah Smith, we heard from both, well, I think we
sort of indirectly heard from Jeremiah Smith who didn't want
to He said he didn't want to brag about who
won all the races on the team. But uh, you know,
Ryan Day talked about I think that I think as well,
just that he's he's first and everything he does. So
I don't know if Fryce West is the fastest on
the team. He's I guess in the conversation for the
fastest on the team. Can you imagine if people born

(24:05):
here on playing that he may be the fastest on
the team.

Speaker 1 (24:08):
Let let's talk a little bit about Jeremiah Smith and
the uh the way he's watching his weight. Oh yeah, same,
because I think he said he said, what two twenty
five now and wants to play at two twenty three
and he was up to he was working out and
Nick was like, hey, stop, what did you have to
eat today? And and because he was looking, I guess

(24:31):
a little puffy. He was up at two hundred and
twenty eight pounds and say Jeremi. Jeremiah was like, I
had some oatmeal and look's like, okay, we gotta you know,
we gotta watch out. But you know, and we had
the question yesterday about is is there any concern that
Jeremiah Smith becomes gets as big as David Boston or
something happens like that. Yeah, okay, Hey the wait I

(24:53):
think I think you're okay. I don't think it's gonna
allow that because one more oatmeal and you're out of here. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (24:59):
Right, Yeah. I think that's a great example of how
closely monitored all of this stuff is. They that has
always been a you know, you've heard about guys I've
got to cut weight, or you know the guys come
in a little heavy and they have goals that they
want to got cut weight, or guys who the the
inverse of that, where Javante Jean Baptiste is always the

(25:21):
example I think of where he came in and was
at like two oh eight, and they're like, that's great,
You're not going to play until you're at least two forty.
And so he just was eating peanut butter sandwiches like
he would just like get up in the middle of
the night and eat peanut butter sandwiches to just try
and put weight.

Speaker 1 (25:39):
On Nicholas petk Rare. All of the French guys.

Speaker 2 (25:45):
Have to act acts Max LeBlanc, Are you.

Speaker 1 (25:48):
Have an eight thousand calorie?

Speaker 2 (25:49):
Are you in the croake? Monsieur diet or how many croissants?
They manage all this stuff so closely, and they and
but now they also have the catapult stuff where they're
measuring how do they maintain their speed throughout practice? How
you know, how many what? What? What is the amount

(26:10):
of running that they've done?

Speaker 1 (26:11):
Have they?

Speaker 2 (26:12):
You know, are the there's like load management stuff in there.
There's does their performance fall off at a certain point?
Why does that happen? All of this stuff is managed
at such an incredibly minute level. And that's not just well,
we got to you know, we're gonna keep a close
eye on Jeremiah Smith because he's a really important player.
They're doing this for everyone and it's just the the

(26:33):
amount of detail that goes into this. They have a
nutritionous Taylor Olsen. Individual players have their own individual It's not.

Speaker 1 (26:41):
Just like, yeah, you know you take the safety food.

Speaker 2 (26:43):
Yeah yeah, I remember. I remember in the like to
early two thousands, the pre mic Barwist days for the
Michigan program, when people are complaining that like they're they're
planned to beep up their defensive line move just eat
more pizza, like we are light years past that.

Speaker 1 (27:04):
Paul Brown is famous for like creating a whole bunch
of football stuff that is still in play today because
he in the advancement of the game. I wonder what
he would do with like all of this spread seeds
stuff like this would be first it would take him
a little while to like understand a spreadsheet, what's a report?
But I think you would allowed to kiss you again.
He's the guy that invented the forty yard dash things

(27:26):
like that to see how how well sobody you you
one of the fastest guys to be able to cover
a punt. So it's like, let's run forty yards because
that's the average like it withould punt and the fastest
guys would cover that. That's back when tom The punt
was the most important play. It's sports practically.

Speaker 2 (27:42):
Sure we may be Intovada, but this is still big
ten country this week. So you watch your mouth and
you're talking about punt.

Speaker 1 (27:47):
Kirk Farrance is tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (27:48):
I blieme me. He was walking around. There's a there's
a video that you can find on our YouTube channel.
I think about up this morning, a behind the scenes
video where I'm walking around just kind of letting you
see every thing you don't get to see normally around here,
like you see the guy in the podium whatever, but
like letting you see, like what does it actually like
to be here? And they have all the bold trophies,
but they also have all the individual trophies. And I'm

(28:10):
walking around. Here's sure heismand trophy. Belitt in a CAF
trophy and I walked, I saw a bunch of stuff
and I hadn't seen the ray Guide trophy. I'm like, oh,
come on, you can't have a big ten of that
moment ray guy and it was there. Don't worry. So
the ray Guide trophy is is in who are you
talking to? Come on, gotta get it before Kirk Ferran's days.

(28:34):
So you want to hit some of the questions. Okay,
let's hit some of the questions. All right, t thirteen
months to know if we are staying all three days, Yes,
we are staying all three days. Day one was yesterday. Yesterday,
but that was but that was like, really, there are
six teams each day. Day one was really the Ohio
State Day. And you kind of think of the Big

(28:56):
Ten right now as kind of like there's five teams
that are sort of at the top, and Kirk Signetti
is now safely out of state, so I can say
that and not include Indiana and that group. But Indiana
was here, Illinois was here, so those, you know, those
are teams that are college football playoff contenders. But really
you look at you know, the crowds around the people
and it's it's the Ohios date and day Today is
there's six more teams here, and you know, the stars

(29:20):
of the show are going to be Penn State in Oregon.
It's also Washington, it's also Wisconsin. So plenty of plenty
of stuff to talk about today. And then on Thursday
that is going to be Michigan Day and USC Day, so.

Speaker 1 (29:32):
There's going to be plenty n UCLA Day.

Speaker 2 (29:37):
Where do they play. Where are they from Los Angeles, Oh,
which is in California? I think I heard about that
last year. Adam Baker says, starting quarterback for the OSU
for OSU for the Texas game. Does Lincoln have a
real shot or is this just coach speak?

Speaker 1 (29:52):
I always say that, yes, he has a legit shot,
because if he performs better than Julian's saying, then he's
gonna get it. Now does he have a legit shots
to form better than Julian saying? I mean everybody talks
very highly on Julian saying and his quick release and
this and that, and how advanced he was as a freshman.

(30:12):
Tip tip Kelly could go on and on about he
would talk about Julian saying almost in the same breath
as he would talk about Jeremiah Smith in terms of
the maturity and their advancement and their understanding. So that's
hard to ignore. Lincoln Keenolds is a little more experience,
but I don't the experience two years ago I don't
value as much as his experienced last year. And that

(30:34):
was Julian saying last year he'd beat out Lincoln Keenolds
slash yeah to be the number three quarterback. So and
he did that as a true freshman, so why wouldn't
he do that as a second year guy. But if
Julian doesn't perform well in camp, and he's not, he
may still win the job because Lincoln is not performing
well either. But yeah, I think he's real shot or shot.

Speaker 2 (30:58):
I think that right now. My view is that Julian
Sane is ahead. Julian Saye was ahead last year despite
coming in, you know, being kind of a at least
a half a year behind. So my assumption is that
it's juliansyan, but that the issue right now is not
that the it's it's super unclear who it's going to be.

(31:23):
Is boy, It's really it's much more. You gotta you've
got to hit a certain threshold. You've gotta you know,
you have to be able to you're doing the testing
at the end offl combine. You've got to be hit
a certain number of those little slat things on the
vertical jump, and neither of them is jumping quite high
enough to hit the number that they need to just
in terms of their overall play and all that kind
of stuff. Ryan Day sounded like he was happy with

(31:47):
a lot of the leadership pieces and that kind of stuff.
But what he said is when the you know, the
locker room knows, and when the locker room knows, that's
when you kind of have a decision. And it sounds like,
you know, these are both guys who are very well respected.
These are both guys who the coaching staff likes a lot.
These are both guys who are really really good athletes.
He talked. He went on and on about what an
incredible athlete Lincoln Keitholes was. Uh, he's like a four

(32:10):
handicapped golfer, was a Major League Baseball, major League Baseball prospect,
can win mill dunk on the basketball court. Yeah, it's
just it's just, you know, one of those people you
ad he's an incredibly nice kid, like but one of
those people you absolutely just like son of you know,
just the kind of people that are just good at everything,

(32:32):
Like Justin Fields was like that just and feels like
started playing golf and immediately was basically a scratch golfer.

Speaker 1 (32:38):
Like what That's not?

Speaker 2 (32:39):
What? What was that possible?

Speaker 1 (32:41):
Now? I see why people play it. It's so easy.

Speaker 2 (32:43):
Yes, yeah, not frustrating at all. Uh. He You've got
two guys who I think are absolutely can lead Ohio
State to a college football playoff caliber quarterbacks, and it's
just a matter of that's not necessarily a standard Hio.
The standard is a little higher than that. So who's
going to get there? I, you know, in terms of
odds that you know, starting.

Speaker 1 (33:04):
Quarterback, I got a number in my head.

Speaker 2 (33:05):
Let's see what you say, eighty percent, eighty five percent, yeah,
eighty yeah, eighty I think that's I think that's about right.
Like there, Wed we saw two years ago in the
twenty twenty three camp. All year we've said commic coord
comm acord, Commic coord is going to be commic cord
almost certainly going to comm acord. Devin Brown was in

(33:26):
the mix. Devin Brown was there, but comic Cord is
consistently a little ahead. There was a week during fall
camp or Devin Brown kind of took the lead to
a certain degree and then it went back to comic
coord again. And you know, my assumption is if Lincoln
Kingholes has a couple of good weeks to start ball
camp and is ahead of Julian saying absolutely, it could

(33:48):
be Julian saying's it could be Lincoln king Holes's job.
But going into camp I think Julian Saying is ahead
and it would take you know, if if there, if
he's even here. Leavin probably at this point based on
the entirety of the body of the work, So Lincoln
Keenholes would have to really almost kind of leap fraud
there to win the view.

Speaker 1 (34:08):
It kind of like a Mortal Kombat Street Fright or
type of game where you got the health bars.

Speaker 2 (34:13):
I was gonna say, we're talking about some significant injuries potentially,
where like Julian.

Speaker 1 (34:17):
Sands health bar is higher than lick you Ketols, so
le is gonna have to do a lot of work
to get Sance health bar below his.

Speaker 2 (34:27):
It's some disagreement on the comments on who was the
one who hit arch Manning really hard. I believe it
was Leith and Ransom. There was someone suggested over where
someone suggested Sunny Styles. Sunny Styles had the hit on
Gunnar helmet tight end. I believe it was Leathan Ransom
who hit hit arch Manning and forced that fumble on
like it's the one play.

Speaker 1 (34:47):
But it was not a fumble, right it was. It was.

Speaker 2 (34:50):
It was not a fumble by like two frames of video,
so yeah, it was. It was not not a fumble
by only the both technical technical definitions the ball, the
ball got knocked out, put it that way, and you
know Doug's saying, you know the Texas players remembering how
how did the buck eye said, Yeah, I mean I
that There have been several over the years college football

(35:14):
playoff games that we've seen where it's like, man, that
was even by the standards of high level college football,
that was a physical game. I think back to the
Fiesta Bawl against Clemson in twenty nineteen. It was like, man,
whoever is coming out of this game? LSU gotta buy
against a crappy Lincoln Riley, Oklahoma team and then the
Clemson in Ohio State just absolutely beat the snot out

(35:36):
of each other for three hours. And you know that
was that was the national championship. Was really not a
fair fight after that. But yeah, that was definitely that
Texas game. There was that Ohio State defense last year
could hit you had you look at the hit in
that game. You look at Nico Nico email the ABBA's helmet.

Speaker 1 (35:51):
I mean they broke two helmets on him. Yeah, crack
two helmets. Yeah. Uh. The twenty fourteen playoff game against Alabama,
Ohio State was just much more physical than than Alabama,
and that was where he had Alabama fans complaining that
Cardile Jones was too physical on his runs. It was
cheap shotting, guys.

Speaker 2 (36:11):
Yeah, the quarterback is cheap shotting my safety. Okay, welcome
this classless, Big John. In the words of Kathy Ireland,
welcome to foot balls. Let's see next up, Jeffrey McDowell.
We got a chance to talk to our buddy Bill
Corolla yesterday about this. I'll have to put it up.

(36:31):
Be getting any phantom targeting calls this year, it would
be nice if you get a holding call or two
for the defensive line.

Speaker 1 (36:36):
Did you say there were fifty three targeting calls last year?
I think that was roughly fifty two to fifty three
targeting calls last year.

Speaker 2 (36:42):
But only like seventeen got upheld something like that.

Speaker 1 (36:46):
Yeah, I didn't understand what he was saying there. We'll
have to go back.

Speaker 2 (36:48):
I think there were fifty three where the flag got thrown,
but it was only forty percent of them or something
like that, were actually upheld and enforced as targeting. Some
of them may have been unforced. His late hit butt
not targeting, But what he was talking about and this
is Bill Crolo, the MiG ten's director of officiating, Tony

(37:09):
and I spend the entirety of his time at the
podium with him every year because he's one of the
most informative people we get a chance to talk to.
He sort of was explaining that they've sort of refined
the process. Everyone is sort of has a better grasp
on what it is, and the officials that they've gotten
better at calling it and they I think earlier they

(37:31):
were throwing flags on everything that was even close. Now
you kind of are a little more. You have a
better sense for what it is. So the number of
targeting calls has gone down, I think over the last
few years. And in terms of holding the he talked
about the fact that they tracked the number of penalties
that they call in a given game and that that

(37:51):
number of is lower than the all conference average across
college football. And that's something that the coaches in the
Big Ten like, they don't want this to give me
a rough show or a flag vest. They want it
to be, hey, you know, call it, keep it fair,
don't completely dominate the game. They throw about one fewer
flag than the average college football conference does. But he

(38:14):
talked about holding. What constitutes holding? They have very specific
because you know, he said, people always say you can
call holding on any play, and you could. The Big Ten.
The way they enforce it is, yeah, you can. You know,
guy to be grabby. You're not going to be throwing
the flag. Every time you see a jersey stretch out
a little bit. The threshold there is did he cost
him a step? So yeah, you see the jersey stretch

(38:37):
a little bit at the point of attack or on
the edge, you could call holding. But did he cost
him a step or was it you know, was it
just kind of like, yeah, he held him six inches
or whatever. That's sort of where the threshold is for
them there in terms of calling holding. I wish we
had thought about asking Hi about about that, but you know,

(38:58):
you also run the risk if you asked that question
and then everyone goes, what a bunch of hole, you know,
because talking about it in the more general sense, I
think you end up with a more informative answer. And
so I thought, I thought that was really really good
information in terms of how you know where that line
is for the Big Ten.

Speaker 1 (39:15):
Yeah, like, where did you call it holding? Against a
higher stated It's like, well, the coaches, the Big ten
coaches don't want many hold holding calls, So yeah, go
go talk to your own head coach about it.

Speaker 2 (39:23):
Yeah, this went from John Steve Miller, I bet told
going back to that, Steve Miller, I bet has told
the story of his touchdown a minimum of five thousand
times and not mad about it now because that was
a pick six, right, yeah, pick six for Steve Miller. Uh,
that was the That was certainly one of the one
of the great moments. Uh for a defensive one. We've

(39:46):
seen defensive pointment. Heava several really memorable touchdowns like Haskell
Garrett I think had a couple. You might have had
an age old scoop and score, jern Kate, you know,
drun King did drun kh had a scoop and score
against Penn State and twenty one Draymond Jones I think
had two. I think he might have had a scoop
and score and an interception or he had two interceptions

(40:06):
in a game or something like that. So yeah, they
anytime you can have a large man scoring a touchdown,
I am always two thumbs.

Speaker 1 (40:14):
I'm one hundred percent like they are allowed to talk
about that as much as they want. I remember, probably
ten years ago, I was at Ohio State Pro Day
and Jonathan Wells was there running back for running back
from Ohio State, and I wanted to talk to him
and write about like Ohio State's success at the time.
He gets Michigan and he's like, well you can't. Then

(40:34):
he's like, yeah, because you can't talk about the success
against Mischigan without talking to me. The thing that's right,
I was the guy that got this ball rolling in
two thousand and one when he rushed for one hundred
and twenty some yards in the first half and three
touchdowns and then was injured in the second half of
Ohio State had had to hold on. So he's like, yeah,
for sure, let's talk.

Speaker 2 (40:53):
Let's let's talk about how I definitely would have had
two hundred and fifty yard then six touchdowns and he
played the second half because just mess Yeah, that was
that was that fourth and one where it was it
was like a forty yard touchdown on fourth and one.
I was there and it was I had been in
Michigan Stadium for the ninety seven game, the ninety nine game,
and it was just like, oh, this is very dim

(41:13):
were twenty three nothing at halftime, and it was not
twenty three nothing Michigan at half done.

Speaker 1 (41:18):
That was.

Speaker 2 (41:19):
That was a very that was That was a real
old game. That was that did in terms of swinging
momentum in the series what the twenty twenty one game
did in terms of well, maybe the twenty twenty game
did in terms of Michigan h John Morre says, over
under on this is for Max Claire receptions. Over under

(41:39):
on Max Clair receptions this year, where are you? He's
saying thirty seven. Thirty seven is a dick number, because
that's a little less than a little less than Cad
Stover in twenty twenty two. I'm going to go I'm
gonna go over that. I think I'm just sort of
mentally trying to adjust for the number of plays, the
pace of play. Now you've got fewer snaps in twenty

(42:01):
twenty two, and I think Kate Silver had forty two,
forty one, forty one in twelve games in twelve twelve. Yeah,
good in some games. I'm going I'm going over thirty
seven for Max Clayer.

Speaker 1 (42:13):
That's why I like to use Kate Stover's entire season
twenty twenty two twenty twenty three as the over under
everywhere for max player. Yeah, forty one catches five hundred
and seventy six yards, five touch snowds. I think I'm
going over on the five. I might go forty one.
It's a lot, it's a lot. But thirty seven is
an easy over for me.

Speaker 2 (42:33):
So yeah, I think if thirty seven feels like an
over to me. But here's here's the real question. Here
from a question about TE to a question from TE
thirteen over under three and a half holding calls an
opposing offensive line for the season. Tell me this is
your area, this is your area of expertise.

Speaker 1 (42:50):
Why would well, what was the number last year? Again,
that's something that obviously was very low, but it was
the holding of the the defensive line that wasn't happening
as opposed to the holding. Maybe there's some holding some
linebackers and things like that. I would boy, that's that's
one a month. Yeah, yeah, I would go, I'll go over,

(43:14):
but not confidently. But three just seems low.

Speaker 2 (43:18):
Three seems low, and it's yes, it's one a month.
And then you get how you get an extra month,
you get you get it, you get you get an
extra at leap one game and then we'll see how
much further after that. But yeah, I I'll say, I'll
say over on that it's a dollar about that's all. Yeah, yeah,
And you know the only thing that gives me a
little hesitancy is sometimes you get those wide receiver holds

(43:41):
on the edge, and I guess that would against for
this technically not count So all right, So Mike Schaper
with an absolute all time avatar there using the old
dead schim beckers from back in the day. No, he says,
no quarterback in college football and some of the pros
have as many weapons as saying Keenholts will have this year,

(44:01):
expect great things that That feels like that has been
true for a lot of years at Ohio State. This year.
You know last year. I think the running backs were
a little more proven last year, but that doesn't mean
the running backs won't get there this year and the
wide receivers this year. I feel like we don't talk
about the loss of a Mecca Abuga enough. Just he

(44:23):
just is one of those like forgotten guys because he
was just he was behind you look at where he
is in the Ohistate record books, and he might not
have ever been the best wide receiver on the team,
but also he's one of the greatest wide receivers in
o High State history. He just had the misfortune of, well,
I'm also on the team at the same time as
Marvin Harrison Junior, and then I'm also on the same
team and it seem at the same time as as

(44:45):
Jeremiah Smith. And that's that's a heart that and Jackson
Smith and Jigball. I mean, it's just that's that's a
pretty elite company to be in.

Speaker 1 (44:54):
Imagine being Robbin, right, and then Batman and Marvin Harrison
retires Robins like, I finally get to be Batman. No,
I don't have to be the boy ward and then
here comes another bat Like, but I was next in line,
like the easy Robin. Robin's still good, so I think
he's Yeah, he's no time great. There was a nobody

(45:18):
would talk about him as on the Mount Rushmore of
Ohios thinking even though he's got like records. Jeremiah Smith
was asking the Big Big ten network to name his
Mount Rushmore of the higher state wide receivers, and he
said Chris Carter, Jackson Smith, and Jig but Marvin Harrison
and Ted Gin Junior and and then Ted G Junior
quot tweets that that video and he's like, you know,

(45:38):
thanks goats, basically acknowledging that the best of all time
is Jeremiah Smith. And then so I tweeted it out.
Jackquiz Green, former Florida receiver, gave his Ohio state Mount
Rushmore of receivers and he went with David Boston, Chris Carter,
Marvin Harrison, San Antonio Holmes, and Joey Galloway. Now I

(45:58):
know Kevin thinks there should be by president of Mount
rush War, but he's nodding.

Speaker 2 (46:09):
Milly Sillmore fan and and then says and then says
love Terry Gunno.

Speaker 1 (46:15):
And I mean it's that's one of the most difficult
positions to the Mount Rushmore thing for for Ohios date.

Speaker 2 (46:20):
Oh yeah, for sure.

Speaker 1 (46:22):
Uh but I agree, like he's got quarterback wherever the
quarterback is, has everything they need to succeed in in
the offensive lines.

Speaker 2 (46:28):
Yeah, yep, rushing, Jesse says odds. The NCAA announces Michigan's
penalties if they're severe, approximately fifteen minutes before Sharon Moore
speaks in Las Vegas. So that would be a lot
of the stuff from Michigan has come out right before
big things. You know, they had they had something that
came out right before the season last year, like a

(46:49):
week or two before the season last year. And they've
had stuff that came out, you know, right, but there
were stuff that came out once it was that the
was it the notice vllegations came out right before signing
day or something like that. Like some of the stuff
has lined up. You can you can decide how conspiratorial
you want to get in terms of what the what
the NCUAA is doing and when I do. You know,

(47:11):
one thing that I know is not a coincidence is
the Tony Pettiti wrote a letter supporting Michigan that leaking
the day before Big ten D D days, that's not
a coincidence. I don't think the I don't think the
big the y s the NCAA is going to drop
it right before then. You know, if if they do,

(47:32):
you know, this is this is something that they're not
coming up in a deadline. So if they do, it's
an extremely intentional thing like it's it's because they have
it was sixty to ninety days is sort of the
window from the hearing in early June, so you're really
not at sixty days yet. I'm expecting that sometime in
August before the season. Yes, this week probably if they were.

Speaker 1 (47:53):
To do it tomorrow before Sharon Moore speaks, it would
basically confirm all of the miss can fandom suspicions about
the NCAA is out to get us, and that you
know they would Well, what about.

Speaker 2 (48:05):
The state of New Hampshire confirm those or was that
a separate thing.

Speaker 1 (48:09):
Well, that's all folded in. It's all part of the
dossier that will eventually be released.

Speaker 2 (48:15):
And when they say that Private Eyers are watching you,
is that does that mean Holland Oates are in.

Speaker 1 (48:21):
I'm not gonna say no to that. I don't know
where they're from originally, but I'm just gonna say Oates
looks a little guilty. The per can't trust it.

Speaker 2 (48:37):
Mike Schaffer says, can Arch Manning, burn A, Caleb Downs
led secondary I think not. I was trying to think
back how Texas. Texas had a really good drive where
they scored a touchdown?

Speaker 1 (48:48):
Was it scripted? No?

Speaker 2 (48:50):
It was they scored one. They scored one right before halftime,
right and that was I think that was too I
think it was a pass to Jayden Blue where that
might have been the wheel styles like a wheel route
with sunny styles and coverage both both touchdowns which are
running back. Yeah, so you know there are ways to
do it without throwing over the top. I think Ohio

(49:12):
State secondary is going to be very hard to throw on.
And I don't you know, I don't know. Texas's wide
receivers I think are going to be okay but not
insanely great this year. They have they have some you know,
you remember Texas with wide receivers from last year and
they have a new they have a new tight end
this year. I think Ohio State is going to be
hard to beat over the top. So if you mean

(49:35):
burn that way, yeah, I think that's I think that's
going to be a challenge. And I think also Texas's
offensive line is a little bit uncertain right now. I
don't know that they're feeling like they have you know,
one hundred percent locked locked in stone. Uh. These five
guys are going to be amazing on the offensive line,
and that plays into that. You know, can you can
you throw deep? That plays into that too.

Speaker 1 (49:56):
Yeah. Last year in that game eleven of the twenty
three completions went through the running backs because they were
just outlets swinging them out, and then of course a
couple of wheel routes as well. Ohio State lockdown the
receivers pretty well. So I think you're looking at a
very good Ohio State secondary, very good corners. I don't

(50:18):
expect them to throw all over the Ohio State Buckeyes.
And again I'll say it's like a twenty one to
seventeen type of game, is what I'm expecting.

Speaker 2 (50:29):
Well, let's see, just answered that one market x one
s now who would be more excited about sanctions against
Michigan Muckeye fans were Paul fine.

Speaker 1 (50:38):
Belt Ohio State fans. Paul fine Baum would talk about
it for a little bit and then you got to
move on to the next story. Yeah, yeah, Ohio State
fans can just continue to talk about the sanctions, and
then of course the Ohio State media can talk about
the sanctions. Eventually, everybody's gonna have to move on. But
but there will always be best sanctions. It was staying

(51:00):
you know, whatever might be that you know, the asterisk
or or whatever, and the Ohio State fans will take
more joy in that than Paul spine Bob, because fine
and Bob will move on and Ohio State fans don't
have to.

Speaker 2 (51:11):
Alex Midlish has also loved how Tony Petitti said it
was customary for him to send a letter in Michigan's
defense proves nothing and that was you know, there was
a headline that you found from when you know. I
think I think Jim Delaney wrote a letter asking for
you know, basical leniency on behalf of Ohio State during Tatgate,

(51:32):
and you saw what, you know, how much good that did.
So I think I think that is a It is
a pretty typical thing and doesn't necessarily mean a.

Speaker 1 (51:41):
Lot, kind of like a nun writing a letter to
a governor on the day of a death throat in
getting the chair, this.

Speaker 2 (51:47):
Got bleak, the Mazon blue, the Mazon blue mile. Let's
see it's through here real quick? How about this one? Shattered?
Bel says can the offensive line and play calling scheme
neutralized Longhorn defense early on in the game, mainly their speed.

(52:11):
This is a yeah. Different questions this week about whoa
how different is it going to be with Brian hartline
calling plays. I don't think the answer is I mean,
Ryan Day really kind of said like that could be. Yeah, yeah,
you have a different calling plays. This is still kind
of the Ryan Day offense. Tyler Bowen also is going
to be a factor in this in the run game

(52:32):
as well, because he's kind of the run game coordinator
and he's going to have some impact on in that.
But I'm expecting this to kind of be the Ryan
Day offense and the Ryan Day offense. It feels like
they have come up with answers for just about everything
over the year.

Speaker 1 (52:46):
I think, we'll say, some twelve personnel until they realize
till they decided to think and handle Colin Simmons with
you know, just just one guy. Maybe they're their top
past rushing with sophomore, the freshman of the year nationally
last year, Colin Simmons, Oh that, well, best freshman in
the nation last year. I couldn't.

Speaker 2 (53:00):
I mean, can you think of any other freshmen who
were any good last year?

Speaker 1 (53:03):
Hey?

Speaker 2 (53:04):
Smooth transitioned to Sir Ericam, who says, my daughter's apparently
conditioned to respond. Quote, he's pretty good. Quote every time
she hears Jeremiah Smith's name because I said it so
much last year. Yeah, no, lies detected.

Speaker 1 (53:16):
No, I probably similar. People have birds that will say
the same thing that they've been conditioned to say. Stuff
after Jeremiah Smith.

Speaker 2 (53:22):
Yeah, the four man's Colin Simmons. They're calling him. It's
just me. Tim says, it's My theory is that when
you were transferred out because he had the room with
Jack Sawyer. I mean they seem to get along just fine.
But I don't think when you ears enjoyed his last
interaction with Jack Sawyer.

Speaker 1 (53:38):
All that much.

Speaker 2 (53:39):
So yeah, possible.

Speaker 1 (53:41):
No, I obviously the reason he transferred is because Ohio
State took a walk on a road game.

Speaker 2 (53:52):
Nope, We're just gonna move on. It's just no cap now.
It just searched Jagger Laro on Twitter and I will
come up on sure. Matt Reynolds says, I think this
year the linebackers stress is good, if not better headhunters.
The jury is still out on the defensive ends. Hopefully
there's not a drop off and linebackers I think. I
mean Cody Simon's another guy who I think people sort

(54:16):
of around the end of the year sort of came
around on how good Cody Simon was. Just he wasn't
someone who came in with the five star, super mega
hype kind of pedigree, but was just so good for
Ohio State. He's someone who they're gonna be great this year.
They might even be a little more athletic this year.
He's still not going to be an easy guy to replace.

(54:38):
They shouldn't be head hunting because we talked about we
talked about targeting, but they are going to be hitting
with hitting with some authority. And as far as the
defensive ends, one of the things that's always very telling
to me at these events is the guys that people
talk about unsolicited. You know, you have a broad question
and you keep hearing the same guy's name. This year,

(55:00):
I think the guy who won that award was kan
YadA Jackson and and Caleb Downs talked about Kianada Jackson
and Kayden Curry. Both both of those guys sound like
you know they've Caleb Downs is not someone who's just
gonna be fire hosing praise around on everyone. Everyone talked
about Kenyatta Jackson, Caden Caleb Downs talked about Kayden Curry

(55:20):
as well. I think they're going to be okay at
defensive end. Is it going to be Jacksawyer and j
to touimolol level production. We'll see, but I think I
think they're gonna be fine there.

Speaker 1 (55:32):
Well. Yeah, and Sonny Styles was talking about basically ran
through all of the defensive ends, and he said, Kayen
Curry just he's always making plays when you look up.
And then you got bo Atkinson's a bigger guy like
Kenyata Jackson, a bigger logger, he said, Kanyada Jackson's even
bigger than he was last year. In terms of Cody Simon, again,

(55:52):
I think one of the more underrated guys will last
ten years or so because you know, you got to
see him for one year as a true starter. They
know he started back into twenty twenty one a little
and then the injuries kind of sidelined sidelined him. But
one hundred and twelve tackles, twelve and a half tackles
were lost, seven sacks, He was side of a third
of the team with seven passes broken up. Tide of

(56:12):
Jack Sawyer by the way. Yeah, it's just interesting.

Speaker 2 (56:15):
Well, yeah, and we'll get a smooth transition to John Dowd,
who says dropping back a defensive line downline and remains
an elite strategy that sort of zone Blitz kind of
walk talk to Ross Bolton about that on some of
the Scheme shows before. But that like Jack Sawyer interception
where you drop Jack Sawyer out in the flat and
he has that interception against Michigan. Yeah, that I think

(56:35):
you're gonna see a lot of creative stuff like that
out of Matt Patricia because as we said earlier, you
have other guys. You're not necessarily going to just have
you know, well, the defensive tackles will rushing drop both
the EO it's a two man rush. You can't do that.
But you can bring pressure from other areas because you've
got guys who can bring. You want r vlve Reeched

(56:55):
to come off the edge and drop a defensive end, Yeah,
you can do that. You want to bring Sney stuf
Was off the edge and drop a defense absolutely, you
want to drop a defensive tackle. You drop Edwrick Houston
in the middle. I mean tell you there's athleticism all
across that defense one. Even bigger dudes who don't look
like they should be able to move. Those guys can
move in a hurry. And do you know that that
makes you so unpredictable, And that's that's what you're going

(57:18):
for as a defensive coordinator. Here's an interesting one from
Mark Williams. Who is the backup center in your opinion
from what you've seen such an important position.

Speaker 1 (57:26):
I mean, I'm gonna say it's Josh Padilla at this point.
He's he's been He's the most experienced of these centers,
and there would just be a situation of would they
rather have somebody who is currently starting snap the ball?

Speaker 2 (57:38):
Right? He's going to be with the twos at center.
But when you're figuring out your best five, if Carson
Insman goes down and I don't be your best five
after that.

Speaker 1 (57:48):
I don't look Luke Montgomery snap some last year in
kid like, Yeah, there was a point where Luke Montgomery
looked like he was being groomed, yeah, to be the
next center, because that's how much he was playing center
in practice. But now he's back at guard and of
course starting at guard left guard most likely, so like
he's got that capability. It just depends on is the
number six guy better than Josh Padilla? Yeah? And is

(58:12):
look like gevery good enough to be that center if
if he can't, And so I still think it's Josh Padilla.
They really like him. They love his leverage, his understanding
of the offense and things like that. There's someone will
tell you who was the second best center on the
team last year as well. Yeah, he's they'll playing.

Speaker 2 (58:30):
Doug Sheppard says, you don't need to worry about the
running backs at Ohio State as long as coach Locke
is there. I yeah, the recruiting has been pretty good
with Lachland there. The development has been good. You saw,
you know, I think you saw Trevon Henderson and quinnch
On Judkins both take a significant step last year and
both really improve their draft stock and also have a
really really good year on the field. I think Ohio

(58:52):
State has something in Carlos Locklin.

Speaker 1 (58:55):
Yeah, and I'm fascinated to CSCJ. Donaldson. Looks like this
year who was really remarkable was of TU freshman to
West Virginia, a big, big play guy, and then the
next two years basically there five yards of carry and
just under five yards to carry. But what is he
now as a senior where he's in better shape, in
a better offense, in a more spread out against more
spread out defense, where there's room for him to run.

(59:17):
I think there's there's something to see there and then
ran day when you ask about I don't even have
to ask about bo Jackson. When he starts to talk
about bo Jackson, he dials himself back a little bit
because he doesn't want to go too far, not like
he did with Jeremiah Spith last year where he was
starting he'd be like, you'll see, yeah, yeah, he he

(59:39):
is very high on bo Jackson.

Speaker 2 (59:40):
You could just tell, well, and that's one of those
guys who jumped out to us in the times. We
got to watch it in the spring. You can just
you can see it. And he's not gonna necessarily be
a Day one he's getting fifteen carries against Texas kind
of guy.

Speaker 1 (59:53):
But during the course of.

Speaker 2 (59:54):
The season, you're going to see more and more of him.
He's going to take on a bigger rule the year.

Speaker 1 (59:58):
And then we're not even talking about James people, because
it's just understood and assumed at this point, just like
it wasn't the spring game he had two carries like
yeah from.

Speaker 2 (01:00:06):
Right, yeah, you know who you know who RB one
is this year. Matt wants to know how much does
Devon Stanchez make a difference this year.

Speaker 1 (01:00:13):
I mean, he's he's the three or the four at corner,
and I think he's gonna, well, he played more than
Aaron Scott did last year as that fourth corner, Yes,
because Aaron Scott was injured for a while. Yeah, but
also I'm interested to see if Scott or Sanchez can
get into that rotation the way Jermaine Matthews did last year,

(01:00:33):
because yeah, Jermaine Matthews didn't even play defense against Oregon
the first time. Yeah, it was just Iguanosin and Denzel
Burke at corner. And then after that they're like, we
need to get Jamae Matthews on the field board. Is
there gonna be some point this year where the like
they decide we need to get Devin Sanchez on the
field boarder, we need to get here In Scott on
the field board. Wouldn't shock me, especially when again the

(01:00:54):
long season. Ryan Day talked about it again yesterday. Yeah,
last year wasn't just a matter of well, we're just
going to take these guys slowly. It's like, no, we're
gonna take things everything slowly in terms of getting guys
on the field, maybe playing a little slower. I did,
like I always said, I didn't want to talk about
it last year, like before the season they were gonna
do that because I didn't want to like instead, I

(01:01:15):
don't know if it was last year the year before.
But it's like you talk about like Brian, you guys
only had sixty two plates, Like I know, I can't
believe it. The way of the game right now, it's
just it's tough.

Speaker 2 (01:01:25):
It.

Speaker 1 (01:01:25):
Meanwhile, it's like, yes, it was.

Speaker 2 (01:01:26):
A play, yes, yes, secretly doing the Jack Nicholson nod
from the Departed gift. Yeah, Doug wants to know. This
is sort of a transitioned from the Shepherd the Sanchez question.
What do you think the chances are O highest? It
rotates more of the defensive backfield and then the rotation
of offensive lineman is at fifty to fifty sixty forty.

Speaker 1 (01:01:46):
I mean.

Speaker 2 (01:01:47):
They have it feels like they have the sense for
their top five right now, right I mean on the
offensive line. Oh yeah, So I don't know that you're
gonna see as much of the offensive line rotation as
you did during the playoff life, and you don't need.

Speaker 1 (01:02:03):
To rotate them because the guys that were rotating are Yeah,
they you'll have Ethan Austin Seervelt will be here too, tackles.
And then look, Montgomery, who was rotating it last year,
is gonna be your left guard? Arson hintsman is your center,
Beggars Shabal who was rotating with Siraveld, and Montgomery's your
right guard. So now the question is they liked what

(01:02:25):
they did last year there was of rotating. If somebody
get in there and rotate this year, can you had more?

Speaker 2 (01:02:30):
But that he's a backle he's attacked.

Speaker 1 (01:02:32):
Is it better to do the interior? Yeah? Is it
just a guard only thing? You don't want to you
don't want to rotate the center. So is it a
guard only thing? And if so, there's no Austin Seerveld
or or basically like pushing their way at guard into
the lineup right now. So I don't know that there's
gonna be a rotation this year.

Speaker 2 (01:02:52):
Yeah, I mean, we'll see how stuff goes during fall camp,
because you you know, we we know where things were
at the end of the spring, and we had not
you know, I don't there was forty five minute to
Brian Day, and so much of the time got chewed
up on nil stuff and college football playoff stuff and
big picture stuff that you didn't have the real nitty
gritty kind of hey, let's talk about the backup offense
and kind of questions like this is generally a place

(01:03:14):
where you get to do a lot of that stuff,
so that'll be those will kind of be full camp
kind of interview questions at this point. So we're we
don't have as much on how much of those guys
improved since the spring, but we'll know more when they do.
Iron Buckeyes. Is there are there? You know one of
those guys, like one of the big tells in the
spring most Austin Sirivald was an Iron Buckeye. Coming out

(01:03:36):
of the winner, it was like, okay, well, very clearly
he's going to have a role this year. That's that's
what that means. That's what they're telling you.

Speaker 1 (01:03:43):
So well, we'll uh and we weren't talking yeah, we
weren't talking about Austin Sierravald at this point last year. No, No,
it wasn't until camp. But he's like running with the
watch and two's you're like, well, I guess because we
got to talk about it then yeah, well, well it's
probably just because of the sickness.

Speaker 2 (01:03:56):
Right yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, it just stuff. Stuff will
change you know, stuff is in the process of changing
over the summer, and then we'll change probably again.

Speaker 1 (01:04:05):
In terms of the defensive backfield, I do think you're
could have some some stuff going on with with Willie
Dartford and Jailer McClay, because they obviously love those both
those guys, but one of them is not just gonna
say they both. They both have started games as true freshman,
so they're they're both advanced and mature. I'm fascinated to

(01:04:26):
see how they do it.

Speaker 2 (01:04:27):
Yep, thank you to sir Eric m new member of
the channel. If you want to become a member of
our channel, you can do that. Just go to YouTube
dot com slash Buckeye Huddle join get some get some fun,
fun benefits from that. It's particularly much, but we we appreciate.
It's a nice way to support us and with the
work that we do. Uh well, well, you know, we'll

(01:04:49):
finish with that one. What he says, Max Claire could
be a first round or of defensive to Jeremiah Smith,
I think Max Claire could be a first rounder no
matter what I mean. You look at Colston Lovelin's the
first rounder from Michigan line and he didn't even play well,
he was banged up, but I you know, I look
at what Colston Lovelan did at Michigan and that doesn't
seem like an outrageous you know, I don't know about

(01:05:09):
the numbers, but you know what he was able to
do and what he was able to be for their offense,
that doesn't seem like an outrageous possibility for what Max
Claire could be for the Ohio State. The Ohio State
to offense.

Speaker 1 (01:05:22):
Yeah, Loveland fifty six catches at ten games last year.
He had like forty forty five and fifteen the year before.
He's always been their best. He's such an effective receiver,
and I think there's a lot to compare Claire at
Colston Loveland and here you alls and you'll see Max
Claire popping up on mock drafts even though he's still
just a fourth year junior. Oliously would love to have

(01:05:46):
him for two years. I know that, So maybe maybe
keep him under raft when we throw the ball a
couple of times a game this year, and then that
way you don't lose him for next year.

Speaker 2 (01:05:55):
I just hope the NFL teams aren't reading the mock
drafts like who's this clare market X says Texas speed
reporter told me that Ryan Wingo is just as good,
if not better than Jeremiah Smith. Stuff gets It's easy
to say he.

Speaker 1 (01:06:09):
Was another one of those five star guys in that class.
Here's here's the thing, because there's another wing Goo that
committed somewhere tom in their heyday win. All of the
wing goes versus all of the roles, Like which badly
are you taking? I'm taking the roles because the wing goes.
They're well known in terms of recruiting, but the production
hasn't necessarily been there. Yeah, all of the role is

(01:06:31):
basically good.

Speaker 2 (01:06:31):
Are we including my Ron roll on the Yeah yeah, yeah, okay,
Maria Mari Andrell Ryan Rolling there? Yeah yeah yeah, I
think the roles, yes, for sure?

Speaker 1 (01:06:41):
Always all right, like to throw out take the roles?

Speaker 2 (01:06:44):
Last last one for today. We'll wrap it up on
this T thirteen. Which coach or player are you most
interested to ask the question too?

Speaker 1 (01:06:50):
Today?

Speaker 2 (01:06:52):
I have said this before. I think James Franklin is
fantastic at these events. There. I spent the full forty
five I've been as with Brett Bielili yesterday, and you
know there's a bunch of questions about Illinois's offensive line.
He's high on Illinois's offensive line. All five starters back.
They should be very.

Speaker 1 (01:07:08):
Good this year.

Speaker 2 (01:07:08):
But there's a bunch of crop that I don't care
about at all. But I think if people are asking questions,
you get a very honest answer for him, and there's
there's not the super cautious approach to things that you
get from some people. James Franklin is someone who you're
going to get an honest answer out of James Franklin
on a lot of stuff. So he is he is

(01:07:30):
probably at the top of the list for me today.
Just to hear from Luke fickele, I've I'm.

Speaker 1 (01:07:35):
Dur At the same time, though, why why do they
do this to me? This is?

Speaker 2 (01:07:40):
Is it a personal thing? Yes, it is a personal
attack on me. I'm interested to talk to Luke Fickle.
I was just hoping to ask him about you know,
you played for John Cooper, you coached under Jim Tressel,
you coached under Urban Meyer, and you were head coach
at Ohio State yourself, what have you What did you
take from each of those individual guys and incorporate into

(01:08:03):
you know, including your time as Ohio State's head coach,
that you've incorporated into your sort of approach to things
as a head coach. That's that's what I would be
interested to ask Luke Fickle today, James Franklin a lot more.
I mean, there's there's some big picture college football stuff,
all the interested and thoughts in the playoff, interested stuff,
thoughts on nil and their approach to nil. But also,

(01:08:26):
you know, it's last year Ohio State was talking about
Natty or Bust and Sunny Styles said he was asked
about Penn State and he said, you know this this
may be their kind of version of a Natty er
Bus season. I'm interested in you know, I don't know,
but I want to ask that question because that's one
of those things that's like if but you know, if
if someone asked that question, I'd be interested in his answer.

Speaker 1 (01:08:47):
Out here. Here's maybe the way that I would ask
is because there will there'll be two coaches today where
I'm there for the entire forty five minutes, so it's
Landing and it's James Franklin. But like asking James Franklin
or the players the rest of the big he is
talking about, you know, and you can frame it can
frame it that way because when you've got Ohio State
talking about you as now of your bus I think

(01:09:10):
that's significant that other players programs are they know that
that's out there, that the expectations are for the pet
State to win it. I don't know what the question is,
does it? Do you like that? Is that more? Note
that it's more pressure, there's already enough pressure.

Speaker 2 (01:09:23):
Well, as long as you start the question with talk
about it's a it is an official Media Days question.

Speaker 1 (01:09:28):
Yeah, there you go. So we have officially defeated all
of you as the viewers with all of your questions.
We do thank you for all of them. We always do.
We appreciate it, and of course go ahead if you
have not yet it combs up. We appreciate that as well,
and you can always find this at Buckeye idol dot com.
Thank you all for again. We will be back.

Speaker 2 (01:09:48):
In the eight pm eight pm Eastern so about I
can eight hours. I can do math about a little
under eight hours. We'll be back and probably do another
hour or so tonight, So put that in your calendars
the save the date. I will try and get you
a little more advanced notice. Sorry, I was doing some
other stuff this morning and just went, oh yeah, we're
doing a live show in five minutes.

Speaker 1 (01:10:07):
Oops. Sorry, so thank you all for tuning in. We
will talk to you guys later