October 7, 2025 • 33 mins
Buckeye Weekly Podcast: In-Depth Analysis of Ohio State's Dominant Win Over Minnesota
In this episode of the Buckeye Weekly Podcast, hosts Tony Gerdeman and Tom Orr provide an in-depth review of Ohio State's 42-3 victory over Minnesota. They discuss key performances, including Julian Sayin's impressive quarterback play and the emergence of factors like Eddrick Houston and Caden Curry on the defensive line. The hosts also touch on the strategies employed by both teams, the effective use of personnel formations, and the continued development of up-and-coming players. Additionally, Tony and Tom address potential future transfer opportunities and how Ohio State can continue to build on this momentum as they face upcoming opponents. Join Tony and Tom as they break down the key takeaways and moments that defined the Buckeye's dominant performance.
00:00 Introduction and Welcome
00:10 Rewatch Insights: Ohio State vs. Minnesota
01:12 Julian's Performance Breakdown
05:46 Offensive Highlights and Key Plays
12:58 Defensive Standouts and Strategies
22:56 Special Teams and Player Spotlights
32:33 Closing Thoughts and Future Outlook
In this episode of the Buckeye Weekly Podcast, hosts Tony Gerdeman and Tom Orr provide an in-depth review of Ohio State's 42-3 victory over Minnesota. They discuss key performances, including Julian Sayin's impressive quarterback play and the emergence of factors like Eddrick Houston and Caden Curry on the defensive line. The hosts also touch on the strategies employed by both teams, the effective use of personnel formations, and the continued development of up-and-coming players. Additionally, Tony and Tom address potential future transfer opportunities and how Ohio State can continue to build on this momentum as they face upcoming opponents. Join Tony and Tom as they break down the key takeaways and moments that defined the Buckeye's dominant performance.
00:00 Introduction and Welcome
00:10 Rewatch Insights: Ohio State vs. Minnesota
01:12 Julian's Performance Breakdown
05:46 Offensive Highlights and Key Plays
12:58 Defensive Standouts and Strategies
22:56 Special Teams and Player Spotlights
32:33 Closing Thoughts and Future Outlook
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello, everybody, Welcome to the Buckeye Weekly Podcast. I'm Tony
Gerdaman here as always with Tom or Tom.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
How's it going?
Speaker 3 (00:10):
Tony, Time to talk once again about the Ohio State
Minnesota game. And after watching it a second time, it
still went exactly like I thought it would before the
game even start.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Turns out this time it was fifty six to three
when I rewatched it. I don't know a copy you got, Tom,
mind may have enhanced by artificial intelligence just to you know,
sus it out a little bit more and add some
misdrives that should have taken place. But yes, here we
are with our rewatch to talk about the things that
maybe we missed watching it live that we got to
catch on the TV copy. And I always find these
(00:42):
informative because there's a rewind button on TV and not
necessarily in real life. So Tom, I'll let you go first.
Tell the people what's something that you learned from the rewatch.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
Let's see.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
I always find these instructive because I don't have large
people standing in my way, so you know, the rewind
button is nice, but also the can see everything on
the field is nice for me as well. Let's start
with the Let's start with the incomplete passes that Julian's
saying through, because I thought he was really good all game.
(01:17):
Four incomplete passes.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
All game.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
He completed eighty five percent of his passes in the game.
He was like twenty two for twenty six, I think.
But the four incomplete passes. One of them down the
sideline to Jeremiah Smith where hit him in the hands.
Great play by the defensive back to break it up.
Second one, slant to Jeremiah Smith and the end zone,
coy Perrich made a great play underneath to break it up,
almost picked it off. Third one was Carnel Tate in
(01:42):
the back corner of the end zone. Looked like he
maybe kind of just threw that one away. And then
the last one was kind of a fake pitch. And
then Max Claire was pretty well covered down the right
sideline and he were kind of high in a way
where no one else could get.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
It, and then it turned out Claire couldn't get it either.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
But there was really not a oh that was a
bad throw, or oh that wasn't the right decision, or
it was you know, you're twenty two of twenty six.
You're having a pretty good night. And I thought, okay,
let's let's go back and watch. Okay, what happened on
the ones where he didn't complete it and you looked
at him and they were all pretty much like, yeah,
that was that was probably the right decision. That was
(02:22):
a good throw. That was you know, sometimes you tip
your hat. The only thing you really could look at
was the one where it was in the end zone
and Koit Parritge was kind of underneath and I'm not
sure saying saw him underneath, but also that was a
heck of a throw, a heck of a play by
Perrige to get back and get his hands on the ball,
and it wasn't like he was right there.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
He made a nice move and kind of was sort
of lunging for it.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
So yeah, I looked at and I'm like, I don't
know how many throws he's going to be go looking
at in the film room this week and going, oh, oh,
wish I had that one back.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
That maybe the only one.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
And I thought, I just said quick Perriage did a
good job of maybe baiting the RP throw there and
just staying away long enough until the throw was winding up,
and then he kind of jumped that route and got
a hand on it. That was one of my notes
as well, because he was eight for eleven for one
hundred and seventy yards midway through the second quarter, which
(03:18):
means he finished fifteen of sixteen for one hundred and
fifty six yards and three touchdowns from like midway second quarter,
and on one incompletion that was the Max Claire little
wheel route on the sideline that was probably too high
for Max Claire but certainly too high for a defender
to catch as well. And the thing is like, this
is not the first time he's gone fifteen of sixteen
(03:40):
in a stretch. He did it against Grambling. I made wonder,
like how many times has he done this? Because you
go back and it's like, well, probably not fifteen of sixteen.
How many times has he been like ten of eleven
in a game? And it would shock me if he
did it against Ohio or Washington and might have to
go through and see what the what the stretches are
(04:01):
of just one incompletion over the course of you know,
eleven at times or something like that, just to get
an idea, because yeah, he was he was precise, and
it's it's crazy that we're now to the point of, well,
let's talk about the incompletions.
Speaker 4 (04:16):
Yes, won't take long.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Yeah, the completions are fine, but you know, he thought
this one was like a little too high, and that
one could have been you know, Jeremiah did have to
slow up a little bit.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
And meanwhile, what about all.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Of the others that were absolute dimes.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
And that's not what you're doing. It's just.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
It's interesting to look at his precision and and and
examine it because that was, like I said, that was
one of my notes, very very impressed by what he did.
And this is just now the norm, it seems, and
we'll see what happens against Illinois and on and on.
But like, if he does this against anybody, it's not
(04:57):
gonna shock me anymore.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
No, No, it feels like this is sort of the
baseline expectation right now. And you know, we'll we'll talk
about Illinois later, but Illinois defense has not been amazing
this year. Their offenses probably ahead of their defense. It
might be someone on our board compare them to kind of,
you know, more or less in the in the neighborhood
of Washington, sort of directionally in terms of what they
(05:20):
are as a team. And so, yeah, I mean, you're
gonna you will see what it looks like this weekend
on the road. But yeah, so far, Julian saying, I
had reasonably high expectations for him, and we're always kind
of a little cautious with first time starters that you
don't want to get too far out of your skis.
But I would say he's ahead of even what I had,
(05:42):
as you know, fairly high expectations for him coming into
the year.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Let me talk about two more throws for Julian saying.
The first one was the toe touch first down to
Carnel Tate. Watching this live because I had perfect angle
for it, Julian's saying, like through this right about the
same time that carnal Tate was breaking on this little
(06:07):
comeback scramble route, like he threw it and just assumed
where else is Cardinal Tate gonna go?
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Like this?
Speaker 1 (06:15):
It was an incredible throw, an incredible catch, and just
the result of a lot of work together by those.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Two and it's only going to get better. But that
was a great.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Result on a tough situation. And then the touchdown passed
to Carnal Tate, where they TV did a great job
of showing the entire defense going with Jeremiah Smith in motion,
and you've got like five guys running with Jeremiah and
then one guy in the secondary with Cardal Tate, and
he stood no shot. And so that's one of the
(06:46):
ways you can get a lot out of a guy
like Jeremiah Smith when he's not the intended target. And
you can do that for other guys as well. It's like,
let's we'll have the defense focus on Jeremiah Smith, but
who should be the beneficiary of all that, folks? And
on Saturday it was Cardinal Tate over and over again.
Speaker 4 (07:04):
Yeah, that that play.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
I mean, Jeremiah Smith pulled a ton of the defenders
over there and pulled the high safety over with him,
and then it looked like the road runner.
Speaker 4 (07:13):
In Wiley Coyote. On the other side of the field,
the Carnel.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Tate just beat deep and then the defensive back just
holding up the sign that says yikes. And then Tate,
I mean, Tate was easily five yards clear of him.
And that was another one where he wasn't he wasn't
that far out of the breakley. He had not gotten
that far behind the defensive back, Like you could see
it happening. But when Julian Sane threw the ball, Tate
(07:36):
was not, you know, five yards clear. He was in
the process of getting five yards clear and saying, did
a nice job just sort of laying it right out
there right, I mean, right in the spot where Tate
didn't have to slow down at all, was not you know,
was not behind him, was just kind of right and
stride boom right in the end zone.
Speaker 4 (07:51):
So yeah, that was that was a great play. And
I thought that was a great.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
Example of what Jeremiah Smith can do without the ball
in his hands, that he can he can really kind
of pull the defense, you know, like almost a gravitational
attraction of him with the you know, pulling the defense
with him over to one side of the field. And
then you know, you have to do it because if
you don't, then Jeremiah Smith the one going beat deep
(08:14):
and taken off and running forever.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
So you kind of have to do it.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
But it was, you know, I thought that was a
really really just a game for that carnal tit had
in general, I think was really really an important one
for Ohio State to sort of show, Okay, this is
what happens if you can you can go ahead and
take Jeremiah Smith away.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
You know, we we have a Michael Jordan.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
We also have a Scottie Pippen, and this, you know,
this version of Scottie Pippen is probably also going to
make the NBA's top seventy five players of all time
or whatever it was. You know, this is this is
not this is not a one man show here. And
now that Cardinal Tait has shown that, well, now you
maybe can't shift all of your focus over to Jeremiah Smith,
which then potentially opens South up for Jeremiah Smith. And
(08:58):
after the game, PJ. Plack talk about it as a
pick your poison thing where you know, they they decided
we're going to really stop the run where we can't
let a High State run over us. So then that
opened up stuff deep and even in the passing game,
it's kind of.
Speaker 4 (09:11):
A pickure poison.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
You can't double everyone, and so if you're gonna double
Jeremiah Smith, Carninal Tates open, you want to try and
double both of them. Okay, but Max Claire is open,
and then you know you're also at that point you're
opening up things in the run game. So Ohio State
just so dynamic on offense and able to hurt you
in so many different ways that you can't you can't
stop everything.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
No, and it's like, why why do we have to
pick a poison at every turn? Is there a term
where we just can we pick a kool aid of
not poison? Can we just something nice, a refresher, a
palate cleanser. Why is the only option poison?
Speaker 3 (09:43):
Yeah, well that's a Unfortunately, when you schedule Ohio State,
that is that's what it is. Sorry sorry to tell you,
but that is. Just drink it, drink the delicious poison
and move on with life and go play. Go play
someone else next week. So one thing that I thought, well,
you know, what we had talked about and I think
we've talked about on our board as well, is Ohio
State going really thirteen and fourteen personnel heavy, especially in
(10:06):
short yardage and goal line situations. And they kind of
got away from that a few times during the game
on Saturday night, where you know, even when they were
in sort of a bunch formation, they were an eleven personnel,
so you had Brandon Innis and Carnell Tait kind of
packed in there where the tight ends normally would be.
But then that gives you kind of an even more dynamic,
you know, receiving threat in those sort of situations. The
(10:29):
Bo Jackson touchdown run that was eleven personnel. The Jeremiah
Smith touchdown catch where he caught it where he was,
you know, kind of along the sideline, not the one
that was like a slant, but the one that was
kind of in the corner, that was eleven personnel. I
just thought that was interesting that they had sort of
gotten away because I think a lot of people us included,
had sort of looked at that and thought, like, are
you really is this really the best option to take
(10:51):
Carnell Tate off the field, or take Jeremiah Smith off
the field, or take both of them off the field
if you're in fourteen personnel and I think you saw,
you know, maybe not, Maybe there's maybe there's ways to
make this work with kind of your normal personnel and
just you're do it with formation or something else.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
And they're gonna have to continue to grow that and
be able to operate with three receivers and run the
ball in that way and in a similar vein It's
something I've been watching all season because they've been throwing
the ball out of the pistol, which is something going
back a couple of years, they ran the ball like
ninety five percent out of the pistol and it became
a meme. Basically, it's like, well, if they're in the pistol,
(11:29):
they're going to run it. That's just how it goes.
And yet we're seeing them this season, especially in this game,
they threw out of it, and it's something where the
play action is effective, the rollout is effective. You know,
whatever they're doing from that has been effective because I
think generally you expect them to run, but now you can't,
(11:49):
so that should also then in theory, open up the run.
So it is these tendencies that maybe they're already starting
to break early in the season, I think is good.
That just keeps defenses guessing down the road for sure.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
Yeah, you know, we talk all the time about how
the defense has made itself unpredictable with both the fronts
and what they're doing in the secondary offense. If you
can break some of those tendants in this early, you know, Yeah,
sometimes sometimes you're gonna set people up, you're.
Speaker 4 (12:15):
Gonna you're gonna do something, and you're gonna do something.
You're gonna do something, you're gonna set something up for
later in the season.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
But if you were constantly having people guessing, it just
keeps people from being able to cheat. And you know,
much like you can't just always shift over towards Jeremiah
Smith's side of the field, Well now you can't just
automatically go, well, if they're in pistol, they're gonna run.
I mean, it was it was like you said, it
was something like forty out of forty one times or
something like that a few years ago that they had
run and they had stuff with the side that the
(12:43):
running back was on. They never ran same side like
they That was something that really changed last year with
Chip Kelly. They ran more same side counter So they
have broken some of that stuff and all that has
made them tupper defense to defend.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
I want to jump to the other side of the
ball and feel to go back to offense if you want.
But for me, this was the most active and the
most disruptive and most effective we've seen Edrick Houston, which
is very good to see. It's taken a while, but
he was only credited with one tackle on one hurry,
but you saw him around the ball. You saw him
making trouble for the offensive line and getting into the backfield.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
This is something that High State has been waiting.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
On and has been working towards. And maybe now he's
fully healthy, maybe he's fully motivated. Not that he's ever
had a bad attitude or anything, because when you watch
the videos that Ohio State produces where he's got the
microphone and he's going around talking to guys in cold tubs,
great personality, seems to love what he's doing. As maybe
(13:45):
you had to not mature, but just realize you worry
a starter.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
You're not. Now would you like to become a starter again?
Speaker 1 (13:53):
There's one way to do that, and that's by playing
well and making plays. And I thought several moments where
I wrote down his name and it's like, that's good
to see. And I think we're approaching the point where
he has his game and whether you know, two tackles
for loss and a sack and a force form or
something like that where the TV broadcast continues to talk
(14:16):
about him and and actually gets his name right, and
doesn't you know, it's like which these broadcasts so far
this season have not been great in terms of that
whole thing. But I think he's on the move to becoming.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
A very effective player.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
Yeah, he certainly seems like he took a good step
on Saturday night, and like you said, it didn't really
show up on the stat sheet. But that was true
of a lot of the guys for Ohio State on
the defensive line where the impact didn't necessarily match the
stat sheet. I mean, I felt like Taiwan Malone had
a decent game and he had one tackle. Will Smith,
you felt a couple times he had two tackles. But
(14:56):
all these names the factory, you know, and we haven't
even said Kate McDonald's name. Kid McDonald's kind of the
free space on the Bengo card right now. In terms
of the middle of the defensive line, that was the
area that we came into the year saying, oh boy,
you know, if they can't figure this out, oh boy,
this could be trouble. And it just hasn't been an
issue they. You know, Edward Houston maybe got off to
a little bit of a slower start than you expected,
(15:17):
but Taiwan Malone has been better than expected. Caden McDonald
that had high expectations for and he's been good.
Speaker 4 (15:23):
Will Smith, you.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
Start to started to see him a little bit he's
been good, So you know, that was that was one
of the areas that we looked at and said, boy,
if they get dot at some point, that's maybe where
it happens.
Speaker 4 (15:34):
And there's still you know, they still have plenty of teams.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
We'll see how Penn State runs the ball against them,
We'll see how Michigan runs the ball against him, and
you know, we'll see what it looks like in the postseason.
But you know, so far, so good with those guys.
And you know, you mentioned, you know, the the fill
in the blank game and the Edric Houston game maybe
coming last week was the Caden Curry game. This week,
Cayden Curry had four tackles and you know, you look
at that after a left tackle, so it's like, boy,
(15:59):
Kaden Curry didn't do any thing, and you know, four
tackles is already pretty good. But he had a couple
of plays where he really impacted things without getting on
the stat sheet. One of them, he was kind of
lined up on the edge and a guy motioned over
and then he just kind of like took one step
out and just jammed the receiver and then you know,
threw the timing off on that and there was another
one where Minnesota was setting up sort of a middle
(16:20):
screen and Kayden Curry's rush in the passer and you
see you can see him on the end zone angle
recognize it, stop, go back and just erase the play.
And it's just you know that obviously the tackles showed
up on the stat sheet, but you know, the he
shows up as a tackle, it doesn't show up as
he made this tackle for no gain.
Speaker 4 (16:39):
If he didn't make this tackle, it's probably a first down.
You know that was that.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
Was a you know, ten yards saved kind of play,
and that's just a very high IQ football play. And
you know, you have seen him line up on the edge.
You've seen him line up kind of over the center
this season, and he can do lots of different stuff,
but those are two examples of him making plays kind
of a space and not you know, not getting to
the quarterback, not tackling the running back on a you know,
(17:05):
a off tackle run. He's he's doing stuff in all
sorts of different ways and impacting the game, whether it
stows up shows up on the stat shoot or not.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Yeah, bo Atkinson. Atkinson had one of those where like
he've retraced the steps to to tackle a screen and
you've just seen very smart play. And I tweeted this
out after watching rewatching the game. Like Will Smith has
shown up at least once a week, he's showing up
more than that now and and again it doesn't always
(17:34):
lead to a tackle, but when you're a nose tackle,
it's not necessarily supposed to. He's creating, he's getting in there.
He's a creating disruption and it's it's impresive. It's positive
for now, but it's also very positive for the future
when you figure Kate McDonald might not be around next
year and he might be off to the NFL. To
(17:54):
see that they've got that depth and they've built it,
which is pretty surprising. I would say at this point.
One other aspect of the defense this I don't even
know what to call it, Tom because it's is a
four to three when you've got Peyton Pierce at linebacker,
but you've also got Sunny Styles and r Vel Reese
(18:15):
on the ends. It's basically a sixth man. It's like
a six to one that they're throwing out there. And
you can talk to Ross about what is actually this call?
Because they did have four down linemen, and then r
vel Rees and Sunny styles would be the five into
six on the the line. And then you've got Peyton
Pierce just playing the like the one middle linebacker role
(18:38):
and fighting through blocks and making plays. And it's just
interesting to watch this defense continue to grow. And there
were times where they had eight guys on a line
of scrimmage and they bring four, and good luck if
you're the quarterback trying to figure out who those.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Four are and and where to go.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
But yeah, I don't It's it's an interesting look when
they finally get the three linebackers out there again. And
if you look at their schedule, I think there's gonna
be other games where they've got three linebackers on the
field again. Because you're talking about you know, Michigan, you're
talking about Penn State. Could be a game like that.
(19:18):
We'll see about Illinois, got Wisconsin where you're probably gonna
play some some multiple use some free linebackers. Rutgers perhaps
where it's like this. Again, it's not a four to three,
but it's it's four linemen and three linebackers. I guess
I just don't know what else to call it. You
can ask Ross or somebody when when you talk to
(19:38):
them about this defense.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
Well, I mean if a four to two where you
walk one of the guys up and you get a
five five to one, if that's a penny, then I
guess a four to three tony.
Speaker 4 (19:47):
I think I would call it a hay penny.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
And if that, if that's not the technical term, then
the technical term is wrong.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
So there you go.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
Yeah, I thought it was interesting. I saw Peyton Pierce
out there starting and thought, oh, that's interesting, and I
kind of looked around. I was like, oh, no, they're
in three linebackers, okay.
Speaker 4 (20:03):
And it worked.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
And this is one of these examples where you look
at the Ohio State defense and you've seen them in
dime and it's okay, you've got Lorenzo Styles and you've
got Devin Sanchez out there, and then now you're in
four to three and they they have the personnel where
I think Matt Patricia kind of shrugs and goes, yeah, whatever, man,
we can that's fine, that's not a problem.
Speaker 4 (20:25):
We'll figure it out.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
And you kind of have the personnel for all of
these groupings where you're not looking and going, well, if
you can get them in this personnel, like you could
maybe see a problem there right now.
Speaker 4 (20:39):
It just sort of feels it feels like.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
They're in reasonably good shape no matter who's out there,
and that's you know, they're gonna they're gonna get tested
this weekend. I think you're gonna see a lot of
Lorenzo Styles this weekend. You know where where Illinois's best
receiver is in the slot a lot, So you may
have a busy weekend for Lorenzo Styles. Dives on the
Lorenzo Styles career high tackles bold prediction, just calling that
(21:04):
I shot.
Speaker 4 (21:04):
There right now. But yeah, it Peyton Pierce.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
Was just very solid, and you know, r vel Reese
has been like the breakout star and Sonny Styles is
the guy who it's his fourth year and everyone knows
who he is and he's you know, the established, you know,
the established future NFL high draft pick, and then you
got Peyton Pierson. It's just like, oh yeah, there's not
really a fall off there either. So yeah, I think
(21:28):
James Florinitis deserves a lot of credit for you know,
you know, if you want to give him credit for
r vel Reese, even though r val Reice is kind
of a little bit of an edge guy. Now he
certainly recruited r vel Res, you know, getting Peyton Pierce.
That was very much a James Lauriniitis relationship and that
has turned into a really really nice addition for the
Ohio State linebacker room.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
The uh you mentioned like Matt Patricia, just yeah, whatever,
we'll put people wherever. You go back to two thousand
and one having to play like c Grant at corner
and was it two thousand and four against where their
corners were like they were injured, so they just had
to stay into four to three the entire time. And
I was just lighting them up in the past game.
And you just look back in the past and you know,
(22:10):
Zach Borne having to play middle linebacker where it's.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Not always like this.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
There's not always depth and there's not always quality depth
that you can turn to. So just appreciate it while
you've got it, because things can get bad quickly, if
you know, if recruiting isn't there, if development isn't there,
if injuries take place. But so far, so good, they've
been able to handle everything that's been put in front
(22:35):
of them.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
Yeah, it's been it has been so far, so good
on the defense and I'll be interested to see what
Illinois looks like this week, and it's gonna be another
kind of challenge and we'll we'll do an Illinois rewatch
show or maybe two, depending on how much time we.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Have this week.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
But yeah, it's gonna be a different a different type
of offense, certainly from what they faced last week. I
want to swing back to the offense real quick, and
just mentioned James. James People's looked fantastic now late in
the game. The Minnesota defense has kind of worn down
and he's got fresh legs. But man, he had bursts
that you have not seen from him.
Speaker 4 (23:10):
Hit the hole hard.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
He looked on Saturday night, the way that he looked
in the spring, the way that we saw him look
at times last year where we were anticipating, you know,
big things from James People's and then he didn't really
show up on the field early in the season. You know,
this is this is not me saying he is so back.
This is me saying, all right, I'm officially intrigued again.
(23:34):
Let's see what it looks like. Let's see what the
number of the distribution.
Speaker 4 (23:37):
Of carries looked like.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
I mean, it was bo Jackson has very much taken
over as RB one for this team because C. J.
Speaker 4 (23:44):
Donaldson only had three carries.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
People's had seven, but most of them were kind of
in the late the late moments of the game. Bo
Jackson had thirteen carries, So there's not really a question
who is RB one right now? And Donaldson feels like
he's kind of carved out a little bit of a
role as a goal line back.
Speaker 4 (24:00):
Short yard is back.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
But I'm really interested to see if James Peoples can
kind of work his way back into getting first half carries,
getting first quarter carries, because you've you've seen it a
little bit and I think he had I'm gonna pull
it up right now. He had He had one carry
in the second quarter, three yard gain on second and
(24:21):
one in the second quarter, but that was it, you know,
and then everything else is in the fourth quarter. And
when he came into the fourth quarter it looked fantastic.
I'm I'm really intrigued to see if you can get
him looking like he has in the past where we
have been really really intrigued by him.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
That was one of the only times he's gotten into
like the second level with freedom of movement, and you
saw what everybody likes about him. He's averaging five point
six yards per carry right now, which you would take
for the season if you could get that.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
I did kind of like.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
The the fact that Carlos Laughlin played four guys in
this game. We saw Isaiah West out there as well,
and not just as throwaway snaps, but he was out
there when they still had starters out there, and you're
feeling things.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
Out overall, Like.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
I was told before the Washington game that that Bo
Jackson was probably gonna start getting some of CJ. Donaldson's snaps,
and then of course CJ. Donaldson starts that game and
they run them right down the field and James Peoples
doesn't hardly play at all, so it's like, well, maybe
the information was wrong. And then you look at this
(25:31):
one and it looks like, well, yeah, maybe he got CJ.
Donaldson snaps because James People's got to get more run.
I think they know what they're gonna get out of CJ. Donaldson,
and there's a place for that. I think they're still
trying to figure out how best to get what James
Peoples can give them, because there's more to give, and
they're still trying to figure out this running game.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
Yeah, it feels like there's a little bit they're still
sorting out there.
Speaker 4 (25:56):
The passing game, it feels like they kind of know
what they got. Running game.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
You would like to see them have a game where
they just run over some people because the offensive line
has been pretty good this year and the running backs
have been good at times, but it just hasn't you
haven't had quite the you know, we watch the Michigan
games and you haven't seen the runs that you see
out of Justice Haynes. And I'm not talking about the
forty yarders. I'm just talking about you don't see the
(26:21):
eight to twelve yarders with quite the consistency out of
the Ohio State offense that you do out of Michigan
at times. So that's one of the things that you know,
I'm sure they would take more sixty yarders. That would
be fine, but I'm sure they would also like to
have you see them. You just like to see them
a little more consistent.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
One other thing about the offense down the stretch when
Lick and Kinos was in there, interesting to see Julian saying,
with his still paying attention to what's going on, had
the helmet to his ear listening to that, so you
know he's not completely checked out, which is good. You
want him engaged and.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
All of that. Back to the defense.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
One of the last things for me igb is was
everywhere in the evolved in the run game as well
as that boundary corner. He has no problem sticking his
nose in there against the run and letting everybody know
about it, letting the opposing sideline know about it, whoever,
anybody there to listen, He's gonna let you know that
he's there to defend the run as much as he
(27:18):
is there to defend the pass. He did get away
with the pass interference though, when he was running down
the field grabbing a grabbing a receiver.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
I shouldn't say grabbing.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
He just grabbed and stay grabbed, so there's no ing.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
It was just it was just a thing this present tense.
It's just grabbed.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
But overall, again he continues to excel, and I think
that's about all I have from this game. Oh that
fourth down that Minnesota went for that PJ Flex said
they had to like everybody on the High State defensive
line won their battle, Like everybody on that play won
their battle, and there was just nowhere from Minnesota to
(27:57):
go and we've seen that on many occasions where everybody
on the Ohio State defense does their job. And we
know they always say, just do your job. It's easier,
much easier said than done. But there are so many
occasions this season where everybody has done their job and
there's nothing available for the quarterback or the running back.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
Yeah, if you can win the line of scrimmage in
those third and short, fourth and short kind of situations,
you're gonna win the play more often than not. You'll
you'll every once in a while get the you know
the play action, you know, almost trick play where you know,
okay that that you get, you get got sometimes. But
just winning at the point of attack in those situations
will win you the play a lot more often than not.
(28:39):
I thought it was interesting that, you know what stopped
the Ohio State drives. One was that Carnel Tate borrowed
Will Howard's cleats on the first drive. Turf Monster got
him but would have otherwise been a first down. Lincoln
Keenhols the first down was there on that that one
if he had, you know, followed the blocking what were
the play was Brian Date and not real happy about
(28:59):
that on the side, and I had not seen that
until they showed it on TV, but I had not
noticed that during the thing.
Speaker 4 (29:04):
But yeah, he was not real happy about that.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
But you know, there were a couple of times, you know,
those are those are two plays where Ohio State really kind.
Speaker 4 (29:10):
Of stopped themselves.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
It wasn't that they got beat at the point of attack.
It wasn't that they you know, they you know, made
a bad throw or something. It was just, you know,
one guy, the guy went the wrong place and one
guy tripped over his feet. It happens like that that
that will happen from time to time. So basically it
could have been worse, is my takeaway there, because that
was that was two of the That was two of
(29:32):
the three times that they got stopped on non kneel
down possessions.
Speaker 4 (29:37):
They missed a field goal in the first one and
punted on the other one.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
So that was, you know, pretty pretty good overall for
Ohio State. The last thing I had, Tony, I took
a lot of pictures of Koy Perrich on Saturday before
the game, during the game, more than any other Minnesota player.
Speaker 4 (29:53):
Tony.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
Can you guess why, I thought I maybe want to
have Koy Perrits pictures because I thought it a couple
of times during the game as well.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
Because he might be a nice replacement for Caleb Downs
next year.
Speaker 3 (30:05):
You know, and we don't, you know, we don't want
to put guys in the transfer portal. But the reality
of modern college football is when you have a guy
who is like more talented than all of his teammates
a lot of times still in Theneman ends up playing
for Oregon and not for Purdue, or Max Clayer ends
up playing for Ohio State and not for Purdue. And
I looked at Coy Perrich and I thought, you watch
(30:27):
him return that punt. You watch him, you know where
he's you know, he looks like he's gonna get tripped up,
and he just maintains his balance and spins and jukes
a couple of guys and you know, I don't know
they even got anything, but it was just like that
was a really impressive athletic play, that drop, you know,
dropping into coverage on the on the one pass breakup
that we mentioned earlier in the end zone, he had,
(30:49):
you know, he was he was in coverage a few times,
made a lot of tackles, He was really impressive, and
it's just, you know, stuff happens in college football. Nine
tackles for him plus a plus that PBu you know,
stuff happens in college football. You're not necessarily there forever.
He may stay at Minnesota for his whole career.
Speaker 4 (31:09):
We'll see. I did think it was very interesting at
the end of the game.
Speaker 3 (31:11):
I don't know if they showed it on TV or not,
but Perrich was over talking to PJ. Fleck, like, had
a long conversation with PJ Fleck on the sidelines at
the end of the game. And Flack was actually asked
about it in the postgame and just said he was
sort of talking and talking to him about, you know,
moving forward and not necessarily about the game itself. But
you know, it's just it's not great that you watch
(31:34):
college football right now and everything is sort of done
for the filter of what does this mean for the
college football playoff? And boy, you know, a group of
five team where their head coach can be coaching next year.
But it feels like that's just kind of the nature
of college football. And you know, you could see Coy
Perrich wearing a you know, wearing a different team's jersey,
and playing in the College Football Playoff next year.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
Last year it was Life and Ransom and Caleb Downs
telling Keenan Bailey, Hey, if Max Claire jumps in that portal,
you should go after him. And so yeah, they went
after Dylan Thieneman. They would go it again. We're not
throwing people in but QUI parents. I don't know that
it came down to Ohio State Minnesota and his recruiting,
but I know Wio State was very, very involved. I
(32:17):
don't know if they were the runner up, but it
won't surprised you if they were. And he's somebody that
they definitely wanted, and I have no trouble believing they
would take in an instant if you wanted to come
aboard in January when the portal opens for him or
for Ohio State.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
So anything else, Tom.
Speaker 3 (32:34):
I think we've I think we've covered it pretty much.
Uh yeah, pretty pretty dominating game it was. It was
maybe more dominating for long stretches than it even seemed
on Saturday night, where it was just Minnesota just got
they had that opening drive and then it was just
a whole lot of nothing for basically the whole rest
of the game until it was thirty five to three.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
So yeah, good job, we've dissected this entire game. Any
of the Minnesota fans that are watching, we've depressed you
and then also supremely angered you talking about your best
player and how hey, good luck holding on to him
next year. So fantastic. If everybody butt the Minnesota fans
get it the thumbs up, we'd appreciate it. If you're
(33:17):
watching on YouTube, and of course whatever kind of review
five star or greater that you would like to leave
on your podcast platform and choice, we would appreciate. And
as always, you can continue to find us at Buckeyehuddle
dot com. It is the absolute best way to support
what we do. Sign up, become a member, say hello
to us there, and the Buckeye Huddle message board presented
by Jeff Ruby's Columbus. So that will do it from here.
Thank you all for tuning in, and we will talk
(33:39):
to you all later
Hello, everybody, Welcome to the Buckeye Weekly Podcast. I'm Tony
Gerdaman here as always with Tom or Tom.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
How's it going?
Speaker 3 (00:10):
Tony, Time to talk once again about the Ohio State
Minnesota game. And after watching it a second time, it
still went exactly like I thought it would before the
game even start.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Turns out this time it was fifty six to three
when I rewatched it. I don't know a copy you got, Tom,
mind may have enhanced by artificial intelligence just to you know,
sus it out a little bit more and add some
misdrives that should have taken place. But yes, here we
are with our rewatch to talk about the things that
maybe we missed watching it live that we got to
catch on the TV copy. And I always find these
(00:42):
informative because there's a rewind button on TV and not
necessarily in real life. So Tom, I'll let you go first.
Tell the people what's something that you learned from the rewatch.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
Let's see.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
I always find these instructive because I don't have large
people standing in my way, so you know, the rewind
button is nice, but also the can see everything on
the field is nice for me as well. Let's start
with the Let's start with the incomplete passes that Julian's
saying through, because I thought he was really good all game.
(01:17):
Four incomplete passes.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
All game.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
He completed eighty five percent of his passes in the game.
He was like twenty two for twenty six, I think.
But the four incomplete passes. One of them down the
sideline to Jeremiah Smith where hit him in the hands.
Great play by the defensive back to break it up.
Second one, slant to Jeremiah Smith and the end zone,
coy Perrich made a great play underneath to break it up,
almost picked it off. Third one was Carnel Tate in
(01:42):
the back corner of the end zone. Looked like he
maybe kind of just threw that one away. And then
the last one was kind of a fake pitch. And
then Max Claire was pretty well covered down the right
sideline and he were kind of high in a way
where no one else could get.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
It, and then it turned out Claire couldn't get it either.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
But there was really not a oh that was a
bad throw, or oh that wasn't the right decision, or
it was you know, you're twenty two of twenty six.
You're having a pretty good night. And I thought, okay,
let's let's go back and watch. Okay, what happened on
the ones where he didn't complete it and you looked
at him and they were all pretty much like, yeah,
that was that was probably the right decision. That was
(02:22):
a good throw. That was you know, sometimes you tip
your hat. The only thing you really could look at
was the one where it was in the end zone
and Koit Parritge was kind of underneath and I'm not
sure saying saw him underneath, but also that was a
heck of a throw, a heck of a play by
Perrige to get back and get his hands on the ball,
and it wasn't like he was right there.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
He made a nice move and kind of was sort
of lunging for it.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
So yeah, I looked at and I'm like, I don't
know how many throws he's going to be go looking
at in the film room this week and going, oh, oh,
wish I had that one back.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
That maybe the only one.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
And I thought, I just said quick Perriage did a
good job of maybe baiting the RP throw there and
just staying away long enough until the throw was winding up,
and then he kind of jumped that route and got
a hand on it. That was one of my notes
as well, because he was eight for eleven for one
hundred and seventy yards midway through the second quarter, which
(03:18):
means he finished fifteen of sixteen for one hundred and
fifty six yards and three touchdowns from like midway second quarter,
and on one incompletion that was the Max Claire little
wheel route on the sideline that was probably too high
for Max Claire but certainly too high for a defender
to catch as well. And the thing is like, this
is not the first time he's gone fifteen of sixteen
(03:40):
in a stretch. He did it against Grambling. I made wonder,
like how many times has he done this? Because you
go back and it's like, well, probably not fifteen of sixteen.
How many times has he been like ten of eleven
in a game? And it would shock me if he
did it against Ohio or Washington and might have to
go through and see what the what the stretches are
(04:01):
of just one incompletion over the course of you know,
eleven at times or something like that, just to get
an idea, because yeah, he was he was precise, and
it's it's crazy that we're now to the point of, well,
let's talk about the incompletions.
Speaker 4 (04:16):
Yes, won't take long.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Yeah, the completions are fine, but you know, he thought
this one was like a little too high, and that
one could have been you know, Jeremiah did have to
slow up a little bit.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
And meanwhile, what about all.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Of the others that were absolute dimes.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
And that's not what you're doing. It's just.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
It's interesting to look at his precision and and and
examine it because that was, like I said, that was
one of my notes, very very impressed by what he did.
And this is just now the norm, it seems, and
we'll see what happens against Illinois and on and on.
But like, if he does this against anybody, it's not
(04:57):
gonna shock me anymore.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
No, No, it feels like this is sort of the
baseline expectation right now. And you know, we'll we'll talk
about Illinois later, but Illinois defense has not been amazing
this year. Their offenses probably ahead of their defense. It
might be someone on our board compare them to kind of,
you know, more or less in the in the neighborhood
of Washington, sort of directionally in terms of what they
(05:20):
are as a team. And so, yeah, I mean, you're
gonna you will see what it looks like this weekend
on the road. But yeah, so far, Julian saying, I
had reasonably high expectations for him, and we're always kind
of a little cautious with first time starters that you
don't want to get too far out of your skis.
But I would say he's ahead of even what I had,
(05:42):
as you know, fairly high expectations for him coming into
the year.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Let me talk about two more throws for Julian saying.
The first one was the toe touch first down to
Carnel Tate. Watching this live because I had perfect angle
for it, Julian's saying, like through this right about the
same time that carnal Tate was breaking on this little
(06:07):
comeback scramble route, like he threw it and just assumed
where else is Cardinal Tate gonna go?
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Like this?
Speaker 1 (06:15):
It was an incredible throw, an incredible catch, and just
the result of a lot of work together by those.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
Two and it's only going to get better. But that
was a great.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Result on a tough situation. And then the touchdown passed
to Carnal Tate, where they TV did a great job
of showing the entire defense going with Jeremiah Smith in motion,
and you've got like five guys running with Jeremiah and
then one guy in the secondary with Cardal Tate, and
he stood no shot. And so that's one of the
(06:46):
ways you can get a lot out of a guy
like Jeremiah Smith when he's not the intended target. And
you can do that for other guys as well. It's like,
let's we'll have the defense focus on Jeremiah Smith, but
who should be the beneficiary of all that, folks? And
on Saturday it was Cardinal Tate over and over again.
Speaker 4 (07:04):
Yeah, that that play.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
I mean, Jeremiah Smith pulled a ton of the defenders
over there and pulled the high safety over with him,
and then it looked like the road runner.
Speaker 4 (07:13):
In Wiley Coyote. On the other side of the field,
the Carnel.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Tate just beat deep and then the defensive back just
holding up the sign that says yikes. And then Tate,
I mean, Tate was easily five yards clear of him.
And that was another one where he wasn't he wasn't
that far out of the breakley. He had not gotten
that far behind the defensive back, Like you could see
it happening. But when Julian Sane threw the ball, Tate
(07:36):
was not, you know, five yards clear. He was in
the process of getting five yards clear and saying, did
a nice job just sort of laying it right out
there right, I mean, right in the spot where Tate
didn't have to slow down at all, was not you know,
was not behind him, was just kind of right and
stride boom right in the end zone.
Speaker 4 (07:51):
So yeah, that was that was a great play. And
I thought that was a great.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
Example of what Jeremiah Smith can do without the ball
in his hands, that he can he can really kind
of pull the defense, you know, like almost a gravitational
attraction of him with the you know, pulling the defense
with him over to one side of the field. And
then you know, you have to do it because if
you don't, then Jeremiah Smith the one going beat deep
(08:14):
and taken off and running forever.
Speaker 4 (08:16):
So you kind of have to do it.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
But it was, you know, I thought that was a
really really just a game for that carnal tit had
in general, I think was really really an important one
for Ohio State to sort of show, Okay, this is
what happens if you can you can go ahead and
take Jeremiah Smith away.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
You know, we we have a Michael Jordan.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
We also have a Scottie Pippen, and this, you know,
this version of Scottie Pippen is probably also going to
make the NBA's top seventy five players of all time
or whatever it was. You know, this is this is
not this is not a one man show here. And
now that Cardinal Tait has shown that, well, now you
maybe can't shift all of your focus over to Jeremiah Smith,
which then potentially opens South up for Jeremiah Smith. And
(08:58):
after the game, PJ. Plack talk about it as a
pick your poison thing where you know, they they decided
we're going to really stop the run where we can't
let a High State run over us. So then that
opened up stuff deep and even in the passing game,
it's kind of.
Speaker 4 (09:11):
A pickure poison.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
You can't double everyone, and so if you're gonna double
Jeremiah Smith, Carninal Tates open, you want to try and
double both of them. Okay, but Max Claire is open,
and then you know you're also at that point you're
opening up things in the run game. So Ohio State
just so dynamic on offense and able to hurt you
in so many different ways that you can't you can't
stop everything.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
No, and it's like, why why do we have to
pick a poison at every turn? Is there a term
where we just can we pick a kool aid of
not poison? Can we just something nice, a refresher, a
palate cleanser. Why is the only option poison?
Speaker 3 (09:43):
Yeah, well that's a Unfortunately, when you schedule Ohio State,
that is that's what it is. Sorry sorry to tell you,
but that is. Just drink it, drink the delicious poison
and move on with life and go play. Go play
someone else next week. So one thing that I thought, well,
you know, what we had talked about and I think
we've talked about on our board as well, is Ohio
State going really thirteen and fourteen personnel heavy, especially in
(10:06):
short yardage and goal line situations. And they kind of
got away from that a few times during the game
on Saturday night, where you know, even when they were
in sort of a bunch formation, they were an eleven personnel,
so you had Brandon Innis and Carnell Tait kind of
packed in there where the tight ends normally would be.
But then that gives you kind of an even more dynamic,
you know, receiving threat in those sort of situations. The
(10:29):
Bo Jackson touchdown run that was eleven personnel. The Jeremiah
Smith touchdown catch where he caught it where he was,
you know, kind of along the sideline, not the one
that was like a slant, but the one that was
kind of in the corner, that was eleven personnel. I
just thought that was interesting that they had sort of
gotten away because I think a lot of people us included,
had sort of looked at that and thought, like, are
you really is this really the best option to take
(10:51):
Carnell Tate off the field, or take Jeremiah Smith off
the field, or take both of them off the field
if you're in fourteen personnel and I think you saw,
you know, maybe not, Maybe there's maybe there's ways to
make this work with kind of your normal personnel and
just you're do it with formation or something else.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
And they're gonna have to continue to grow that and
be able to operate with three receivers and run the
ball in that way and in a similar vein It's
something I've been watching all season because they've been throwing
the ball out of the pistol, which is something going
back a couple of years, they ran the ball like
ninety five percent out of the pistol and it became
a meme. Basically, it's like, well, if they're in the pistol,
(11:29):
they're going to run it. That's just how it goes.
And yet we're seeing them this season, especially in this game,
they threw out of it, and it's something where the
play action is effective, the rollout is effective. You know,
whatever they're doing from that has been effective because I
think generally you expect them to run, but now you can't,
(11:49):
so that should also then in theory, open up the run.
So it is these tendencies that maybe they're already starting
to break early in the season, I think is good.
That just keeps defenses guessing down the road for sure.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
Yeah, you know, we talk all the time about how
the defense has made itself unpredictable with both the fronts
and what they're doing in the secondary offense. If you
can break some of those tendants in this early, you know, Yeah,
sometimes sometimes you're gonna set people up, you're.
Speaker 4 (12:15):
Gonna you're gonna do something, and you're gonna do something.
You're gonna do something, you're gonna set something up for
later in the season.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
But if you were constantly having people guessing, it just
keeps people from being able to cheat. And you know,
much like you can't just always shift over towards Jeremiah
Smith's side of the field, Well now you can't just
automatically go, well, if they're in pistol, they're gonna run.
I mean, it was it was like you said, it
was something like forty out of forty one times or
something like that a few years ago that they had
run and they had stuff with the side that the
(12:43):
running back was on. They never ran same side like
they That was something that really changed last year with
Chip Kelly. They ran more same side counter So they
have broken some of that stuff and all that has
made them tupper defense to defend.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
I want to jump to the other side of the
ball and feel to go back to offense if you want.
But for me, this was the most active and the
most disruptive and most effective we've seen Edrick Houston, which
is very good to see. It's taken a while, but
he was only credited with one tackle on one hurry,
but you saw him around the ball. You saw him
making trouble for the offensive line and getting into the backfield.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
This is something that High State has been waiting.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
On and has been working towards. And maybe now he's
fully healthy, maybe he's fully motivated. Not that he's ever
had a bad attitude or anything, because when you watch
the videos that Ohio State produces where he's got the
microphone and he's going around talking to guys in cold tubs,
great personality, seems to love what he's doing. As maybe
(13:45):
you had to not mature, but just realize you worry
a starter.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
You're not. Now would you like to become a starter again?
Speaker 1 (13:53):
There's one way to do that, and that's by playing
well and making plays. And I thought several moments where
I wrote down his name and it's like, that's good
to see. And I think we're approaching the point where
he has his game and whether you know, two tackles
for loss and a sack and a force form or
something like that where the TV broadcast continues to talk
(14:16):
about him and and actually gets his name right, and
doesn't you know, it's like which these broadcasts so far
this season have not been great in terms of that
whole thing. But I think he's on the move to becoming.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
A very effective player.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
Yeah, he certainly seems like he took a good step
on Saturday night, and like you said, it didn't really
show up on the stat sheet. But that was true
of a lot of the guys for Ohio State on
the defensive line where the impact didn't necessarily match the
stat sheet. I mean, I felt like Taiwan Malone had
a decent game and he had one tackle. Will Smith,
you felt a couple times he had two tackles. But
(14:56):
all these names the factory, you know, and we haven't
even said Kate McDonald's name. Kid McDonald's kind of the
free space on the Bengo card right now. In terms
of the middle of the defensive line, that was the
area that we came into the year saying, oh boy,
you know, if they can't figure this out, oh boy,
this could be trouble. And it just hasn't been an
issue they. You know, Edward Houston maybe got off to
a little bit of a slower start than you expected,
(15:17):
but Taiwan Malone has been better than expected. Caden McDonald
that had high expectations for and he's been good.
Speaker 4 (15:23):
Will Smith, you.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
Start to started to see him a little bit he's
been good, So you know, that was that was one
of the areas that we looked at and said, boy,
if they get dot at some point, that's maybe where
it happens.
Speaker 4 (15:34):
And there's still you know, they still have plenty of teams.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
We'll see how Penn State runs the ball against them,
We'll see how Michigan runs the ball against him, and
you know, we'll see what it looks like in the postseason.
But you know, so far, so good with those guys.
And you know, you mentioned, you know, the the fill
in the blank game and the Edric Houston game maybe
coming last week was the Caden Curry game. This week,
Cayden Curry had four tackles and you know, you look
at that after a left tackle, so it's like, boy,
(15:59):
Kaden Curry didn't do any thing, and you know, four
tackles is already pretty good. But he had a couple
of plays where he really impacted things without getting on
the stat sheet. One of them, he was kind of
lined up on the edge and a guy motioned over
and then he just kind of like took one step
out and just jammed the receiver and then you know,
threw the timing off on that and there was another
one where Minnesota was setting up sort of a middle
(16:20):
screen and Kayden Curry's rush in the passer and you
see you can see him on the end zone angle
recognize it, stop, go back and just erase the play.
And it's just you know that obviously the tackles showed
up on the stat sheet, but you know, the he
shows up as a tackle, it doesn't show up as
he made this tackle for no gain.
Speaker 4 (16:39):
If he didn't make this tackle, it's probably a first down.
You know that was that.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
Was a you know, ten yards saved kind of play,
and that's just a very high IQ football play. And
you know, you have seen him line up on the edge.
You've seen him line up kind of over the center
this season, and he can do lots of different stuff,
but those are two examples of him making plays kind
of a space and not you know, not getting to
the quarterback, not tackling the running back on a you know,
(17:05):
a off tackle run. He's he's doing stuff in all
sorts of different ways and impacting the game, whether it
stows up shows up on the stat shoot or not.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Yeah, bo Atkinson. Atkinson had one of those where like
he've retraced the steps to to tackle a screen and
you've just seen very smart play. And I tweeted this
out after watching rewatching the game. Like Will Smith has
shown up at least once a week, he's showing up
more than that now and and again it doesn't always
(17:34):
lead to a tackle, but when you're a nose tackle,
it's not necessarily supposed to. He's creating, he's getting in there.
He's a creating disruption and it's it's impresive. It's positive
for now, but it's also very positive for the future
when you figure Kate McDonald might not be around next
year and he might be off to the NFL. To
(17:54):
see that they've got that depth and they've built it,
which is pretty surprising. I would say at this point.
One other aspect of the defense this I don't even
know what to call it, Tom because it's is a
four to three when you've got Peyton Pierce at linebacker,
but you've also got Sunny Styles and r Vel Reese
(18:15):
on the ends. It's basically a sixth man. It's like
a six to one that they're throwing out there. And
you can talk to Ross about what is actually this call?
Because they did have four down linemen, and then r
vel Rees and Sunny styles would be the five into
six on the the line. And then you've got Peyton
Pierce just playing the like the one middle linebacker role
(18:38):
and fighting through blocks and making plays. And it's just
interesting to watch this defense continue to grow. And there
were times where they had eight guys on a line
of scrimmage and they bring four, and good luck if
you're the quarterback trying to figure out who those.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Four are and and where to go.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
But yeah, I don't It's it's an interesting look when
they finally get the three linebackers out there again. And
if you look at their schedule, I think there's gonna
be other games where they've got three linebackers on the
field again. Because you're talking about you know, Michigan, you're
talking about Penn State. Could be a game like that.
(19:18):
We'll see about Illinois, got Wisconsin where you're probably gonna
play some some multiple use some free linebackers. Rutgers perhaps
where it's like this. Again, it's not a four to three,
but it's it's four linemen and three linebackers. I guess
I just don't know what else to call it. You
can ask Ross or somebody when when you talk to
(19:38):
them about this defense.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
Well, I mean if a four to two where you
walk one of the guys up and you get a
five five to one, if that's a penny, then I
guess a four to three tony.
Speaker 4 (19:47):
I think I would call it a hay penny.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
And if that, if that's not the technical term, then
the technical term is wrong.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
So there you go.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
Yeah, I thought it was interesting. I saw Peyton Pierce
out there starting and thought, oh, that's interesting, and I
kind of looked around. I was like, oh, no, they're
in three linebackers, okay.
Speaker 4 (20:03):
And it worked.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
And this is one of these examples where you look
at the Ohio State defense and you've seen them in
dime and it's okay, you've got Lorenzo Styles and you've
got Devin Sanchez out there, and then now you're in
four to three and they they have the personnel where
I think Matt Patricia kind of shrugs and goes, yeah, whatever, man,
we can that's fine, that's not a problem.
Speaker 4 (20:25):
We'll figure it out.
Speaker 3 (20:26):
And you kind of have the personnel for all of
these groupings where you're not looking and going, well, if
you can get them in this personnel, like you could
maybe see a problem there right now.
Speaker 4 (20:39):
It just sort of feels it feels like.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
They're in reasonably good shape no matter who's out there,
and that's you know, they're gonna they're gonna get tested
this weekend. I think you're gonna see a lot of
Lorenzo Styles this weekend. You know where where Illinois's best
receiver is in the slot a lot, So you may
have a busy weekend for Lorenzo Styles. Dives on the
Lorenzo Styles career high tackles bold prediction, just calling that
(21:04):
I shot.
Speaker 4 (21:04):
There right now. But yeah, it Peyton Pierce.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
Was just very solid, and you know, r vel Reese
has been like the breakout star and Sonny Styles is
the guy who it's his fourth year and everyone knows
who he is and he's you know, the established, you know,
the established future NFL high draft pick, and then you
got Peyton Pierson. It's just like, oh yeah, there's not
really a fall off there either. So yeah, I think
(21:28):
James Florinitis deserves a lot of credit for you know,
you know, if you want to give him credit for
r vel Reese, even though r val Reice is kind
of a little bit of an edge guy. Now he
certainly recruited r vel Res, you know, getting Peyton Pierce.
That was very much a James Lauriniitis relationship and that
has turned into a really really nice addition for the
Ohio State linebacker room.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
The uh you mentioned like Matt Patricia, just yeah, whatever,
we'll put people wherever. You go back to two thousand
and one having to play like c Grant at corner
and was it two thousand and four against where their
corners were like they were injured, so they just had
to stay into four to three the entire time. And
I was just lighting them up in the past game.
And you just look back in the past and you know,
(22:10):
Zach Borne having to play middle linebacker where it's.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Not always like this.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
There's not always depth and there's not always quality depth
that you can turn to. So just appreciate it while
you've got it, because things can get bad quickly, if
you know, if recruiting isn't there, if development isn't there,
if injuries take place. But so far, so good, they've
been able to handle everything that's been put in front
(22:35):
of them.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
Yeah, it's been it has been so far, so good
on the defense and I'll be interested to see what
Illinois looks like this week, and it's gonna be another
kind of challenge and we'll we'll do an Illinois rewatch
show or maybe two, depending on how much time we.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Have this week.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
But yeah, it's gonna be a different a different type
of offense, certainly from what they faced last week. I
want to swing back to the offense real quick, and
just mentioned James. James People's looked fantastic now late in
the game. The Minnesota defense has kind of worn down
and he's got fresh legs. But man, he had bursts
that you have not seen from him.
Speaker 4 (23:10):
Hit the hole hard.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
He looked on Saturday night, the way that he looked
in the spring, the way that we saw him look
at times last year where we were anticipating, you know,
big things from James People's and then he didn't really
show up on the field early in the season. You know,
this is this is not me saying he is so back.
This is me saying, all right, I'm officially intrigued again.
(23:34):
Let's see what it looks like. Let's see what the
number of the distribution.
Speaker 4 (23:37):
Of carries looked like.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
I mean, it was bo Jackson has very much taken
over as RB one for this team because C. J.
Speaker 4 (23:44):
Donaldson only had three carries.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
People's had seven, but most of them were kind of
in the late the late moments of the game. Bo
Jackson had thirteen carries, So there's not really a question
who is RB one right now? And Donaldson feels like
he's kind of carved out a little bit of a
role as a goal line back.
Speaker 4 (24:00):
Short yard is back.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
But I'm really interested to see if James Peoples can
kind of work his way back into getting first half carries,
getting first quarter carries, because you've you've seen it a
little bit and I think he had I'm gonna pull
it up right now. He had He had one carry
in the second quarter, three yard gain on second and
(24:21):
one in the second quarter, but that was it, you know,
and then everything else is in the fourth quarter. And
when he came into the fourth quarter it looked fantastic.
I'm I'm really intrigued to see if you can get
him looking like he has in the past where we
have been really really intrigued by him.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
That was one of the only times he's gotten into
like the second level with freedom of movement, and you
saw what everybody likes about him. He's averaging five point
six yards per carry right now, which you would take
for the season if you could get that.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
I did kind of like.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
The the fact that Carlos Laughlin played four guys in
this game. We saw Isaiah West out there as well,
and not just as throwaway snaps, but he was out
there when they still had starters out there, and you're
feeling things.
Speaker 2 (25:06):
Out overall, Like.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
I was told before the Washington game that that Bo
Jackson was probably gonna start getting some of CJ. Donaldson's snaps,
and then of course CJ. Donaldson starts that game and
they run them right down the field and James Peoples
doesn't hardly play at all, so it's like, well, maybe
the information was wrong. And then you look at this
(25:31):
one and it looks like, well, yeah, maybe he got CJ.
Donaldson snaps because James People's got to get more run.
I think they know what they're gonna get out of CJ. Donaldson,
and there's a place for that. I think they're still
trying to figure out how best to get what James
Peoples can give them, because there's more to give, and
they're still trying to figure out this running game.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
Yeah, it feels like there's a little bit they're still
sorting out there.
Speaker 4 (25:56):
The passing game, it feels like they kind of know
what they got. Running game.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
You would like to see them have a game where
they just run over some people because the offensive line
has been pretty good this year and the running backs
have been good at times, but it just hasn't you
haven't had quite the you know, we watch the Michigan
games and you haven't seen the runs that you see
out of Justice Haynes. And I'm not talking about the
forty yarders. I'm just talking about you don't see the
(26:21):
eight to twelve yarders with quite the consistency out of
the Ohio State offense that you do out of Michigan
at times. So that's one of the things that you know,
I'm sure they would take more sixty yarders. That would
be fine, but I'm sure they would also like to
have you see them. You just like to see them
a little more consistent.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
One other thing about the offense down the stretch when
Lick and Kinos was in there, interesting to see Julian saying,
with his still paying attention to what's going on, had
the helmet to his ear listening to that, so you
know he's not completely checked out, which is good. You
want him engaged and.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
All of that. Back to the defense.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
One of the last things for me igb is was
everywhere in the evolved in the run game as well
as that boundary corner. He has no problem sticking his
nose in there against the run and letting everybody know
about it, letting the opposing sideline know about it, whoever,
anybody there to listen, He's gonna let you know that
he's there to defend the run as much as he
(27:18):
is there to defend the pass. He did get away
with the pass interference though, when he was running down
the field grabbing a grabbing a receiver.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
I shouldn't say grabbing.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
He just grabbed and stay grabbed, so there's no ing.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
It was just it was just a thing this present tense.
It's just grabbed.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
But overall, again he continues to excel, and I think
that's about all I have from this game. Oh that
fourth down that Minnesota went for that PJ Flex said
they had to like everybody on the High State defensive
line won their battle, Like everybody on that play won
their battle, and there was just nowhere from Minnesota to
(27:57):
go and we've seen that on many occasions where everybody
on the Ohio State defense does their job. And we
know they always say, just do your job. It's easier,
much easier said than done. But there are so many
occasions this season where everybody has done their job and
there's nothing available for the quarterback or the running back.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
Yeah, if you can win the line of scrimmage in
those third and short, fourth and short kind of situations,
you're gonna win the play more often than not. You'll
you'll every once in a while get the you know
the play action, you know, almost trick play where you know,
okay that that you get, you get got sometimes. But
just winning at the point of attack in those situations
will win you the play a lot more often than not.
(28:39):
I thought it was interesting that, you know what stopped
the Ohio State drives. One was that Carnel Tate borrowed
Will Howard's cleats on the first drive. Turf Monster got
him but would have otherwise been a first down. Lincoln
Keenhols the first down was there on that that one
if he had, you know, followed the blocking what were
the play was Brian Date and not real happy about
(28:59):
that on the side, and I had not seen that
until they showed it on TV, but I had not
noticed that during the thing.
Speaker 4 (29:04):
But yeah, he was not real happy about that.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
But you know, there were a couple of times, you know,
those are those are two plays where Ohio State really kind.
Speaker 4 (29:10):
Of stopped themselves.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
It wasn't that they got beat at the point of attack.
It wasn't that they you know, they you know, made
a bad throw or something. It was just, you know,
one guy, the guy went the wrong place and one
guy tripped over his feet. It happens like that that
that will happen from time to time. So basically it
could have been worse, is my takeaway there, because that
was that was two of the That was two of
(29:32):
the three times that they got stopped on non kneel
down possessions.
Speaker 4 (29:37):
They missed a field goal in the first one and
punted on the other one.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
So that was, you know, pretty pretty good overall for
Ohio State. The last thing I had, Tony, I took
a lot of pictures of Koy Perrich on Saturday before
the game, during the game, more than any other Minnesota player.
Speaker 4 (29:53):
Tony.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
Can you guess why, I thought I maybe want to
have Koy Perrits pictures because I thought it a couple
of times during the game as well.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
Because he might be a nice replacement for Caleb Downs
next year.
Speaker 3 (30:05):
You know, and we don't, you know, we don't want
to put guys in the transfer portal. But the reality
of modern college football is when you have a guy
who is like more talented than all of his teammates
a lot of times still in Theneman ends up playing
for Oregon and not for Purdue, or Max Clayer ends
up playing for Ohio State and not for Purdue. And
I looked at Coy Perrich and I thought, you watch
(30:27):
him return that punt. You watch him, you know where
he's you know, he looks like he's gonna get tripped up,
and he just maintains his balance and spins and jukes
a couple of guys and you know, I don't know
they even got anything, but it was just like that
was a really impressive athletic play, that drop, you know,
dropping into coverage on the on the one pass breakup
that we mentioned earlier in the end zone, he had,
(30:49):
you know, he was he was in coverage a few times,
made a lot of tackles, He was really impressive, and
it's just, you know, stuff happens in college football. Nine
tackles for him plus a plus that PBu you know,
stuff happens in college football. You're not necessarily there forever.
He may stay at Minnesota for his whole career.
Speaker 4 (31:09):
We'll see. I did think it was very interesting at
the end of the game.
Speaker 3 (31:11):
I don't know if they showed it on TV or not,
but Perrich was over talking to PJ. Fleck, like, had
a long conversation with PJ Fleck on the sidelines at
the end of the game. And Flack was actually asked
about it in the postgame and just said he was
sort of talking and talking to him about, you know,
moving forward and not necessarily about the game itself. But
you know, it's just it's not great that you watch
(31:34):
college football right now and everything is sort of done
for the filter of what does this mean for the
college football playoff? And boy, you know, a group of
five team where their head coach can be coaching next year.
But it feels like that's just kind of the nature
of college football. And you know, you could see Coy
Perrich wearing a you know, wearing a different team's jersey,
and playing in the College Football Playoff next year.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
Last year it was Life and Ransom and Caleb Downs
telling Keenan Bailey, Hey, if Max Claire jumps in that portal,
you should go after him. And so yeah, they went
after Dylan Thieneman. They would go it again. We're not
throwing people in but QUI parents. I don't know that
it came down to Ohio State Minnesota and his recruiting,
but I know Wio State was very, very involved. I
(32:17):
don't know if they were the runner up, but it
won't surprised you if they were. And he's somebody that
they definitely wanted, and I have no trouble believing they
would take in an instant if you wanted to come
aboard in January when the portal opens for him or
for Ohio State.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
So anything else, Tom.
Speaker 3 (32:34):
I think we've I think we've covered it pretty much.
Uh yeah, pretty pretty dominating game it was. It was
maybe more dominating for long stretches than it even seemed
on Saturday night, where it was just Minnesota just got
they had that opening drive and then it was just
a whole lot of nothing for basically the whole rest
of the game until it was thirty five to three.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
So yeah, good job, we've dissected this entire game. Any
of the Minnesota fans that are watching, we've depressed you
and then also supremely angered you talking about your best
player and how hey, good luck holding on to him
next year. So fantastic. If everybody butt the Minnesota fans
get it the thumbs up, we'd appreciate it. If you're
(33:17):
watching on YouTube, and of course whatever kind of review
five star or greater that you would like to leave
on your podcast platform and choice, we would appreciate. And
as always, you can continue to find us at Buckeyehuddle
dot com. It is the absolute best way to support
what we do. Sign up, become a member, say hello
to us there, and the Buckeye Huddle message board presented
by Jeff Ruby's Columbus. So that will do it from here.
Thank you all for tuning in, and we will talk
(33:39):
to you all later
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