Speaker 1: Hello everybody, welcome to the Buckeye Weekly Podcast.
Speaker 2: I'm Tony Gerderman, here as always with Tom or Tom.
Speaker 2: How's it going?
Speaker 3: Right before you hit record, you looked at me, you said,
Speaker 3: you ready? And before I answered, you just started the recording.
Speaker 3: So would you like to cut the rock.
Speaker 2: Promo on me?
Speaker 4: It doesn't matter if you're ready.
Speaker 2: Go ahead.
Speaker 4: Go ahead.
Speaker 2: We're going to shine this video up real nice. And
Speaker 2: I'm not going to go any further than that. Those
Speaker 2: of you who know what I'm saying, understand why. Welcome.
Speaker 2: We are here again on campus at Buckeye Grove, right
Speaker 2: behind us. All of Ohio State's All-Americans. recognized behind us.
Speaker 2: Their names are on plaques, or soon-to-be plaques. Everybody that
Speaker 2: they want to recognize back there. Fantastic place to be.
Speaker 2: And so, some future, perhaps, members of Buckeye Grove. And
Speaker 2: maybe that's the final question as we go through this.
Speaker 2: Who is going to be of this group that we're
Speaker 2: talking about today? Going to be memorialized? Not memorialized. Commemorated. Commemorated.
Speaker 2: Thank you. In Buckeye Grove as a first-team All-American. Today
Speaker 2: we're talking about basically looking at the first freshmen, the
Speaker 2: true freshmen, that are currently, they have lost their black stripes.
Speaker 2: There's eight of them so far as of the time
Speaker 2: of this recording. And Tom, as I'm thinking right now,
Speaker 2: didn't we think, you know what, we should record the
Speaker 2: show later?
Speaker 4: We did, but that's okay. You know, no time like
Speaker 4: the present.
Speaker 2: So if something happens... Two Wednesday nights, and there's another
Speaker 2: player added. Forgive us, all right? We're in the zone
Speaker 2: right now. We're cooking. But of these eight, and then
Speaker 2: we're going to compare them to the seven players that
Speaker 2: lost their Black Stripes by this point last year and
Speaker 2: see if there's any correlation, what to expect. So the
Speaker 2: guys who have lost their Black Stripes this year, in order,
Speaker 2: Brock Boyd, Chris Henry Jr., Jay Timmons, Luke Fahey, Kari Wilder,
Speaker 2: Simeon Caldwell, Jordan Thomas, Legend Bay. Shout out to Jordan
Speaker 2: Thomas for giving the best Blackstripe speech you've ever seen.
Speaker 2: That was fantastic. And so that's eight. The seven last year,
Speaker 2: I'm going to give them to you, okay? You ready?
Speaker 2: Quincy Porter, Riley Pettyjohn, Nate Roberts, Devin Sanchez, Bo Jackson,
Speaker 2: Baheem Delane, Jake Cook. What you've got there is you've
Speaker 2: got three guys that played a lot in Bo Jackson,
Speaker 2: Bo and Nate Roberts and Devin Sanchez.
Speaker 3: Yep.
Speaker 2: Riley Pettyjohn played a little. Fahim Delane played a little.
Speaker 2: Mostly special teams. Quincy Porter didn't play much, got hurt.
Speaker 2: So when you look at these, Jake Cook didn't play much,
Speaker 2: but made a splash by the job that he did
Speaker 2: in earning kind of a spot in the second team
Speaker 2: group there. When you look at the guys that have
Speaker 2: lost their black stripes this year. Like, I don't know
Speaker 2: that there's a thousand yard rusher, but of these guys,
Speaker 2: like I could say, I don't expect a lot from
Speaker 2: Luke Fahey, but anybody else here, you could see having
Speaker 2: a sizable contribution in my opinion. Although it's like, it's
Speaker 2: going to be tougher guy like Jordan Thomas.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Jordan Thomas is, there are enough corners on the depth chart,
Speaker 3: outside corners on the depth chart right now that it's,
Speaker 3: he's probably not going to be able to get regular playing.
Speaker 4: Time this year.
Speaker 3: Him losing his black stripe is a great marker for, okay,
Speaker 3: spring 2027, who are we talking about? About guys who
Speaker 3: have a chance to take a real big jump in
Speaker 3: 2027 in spring ball. Congratulations, you just made the list.
Speaker 3: That's where you are there. There are certain spots where
Speaker 3: it's just you're not going to be– either because of
Speaker 3: the position where offensive line, it's almost impossible, like in
Speaker 3: Jake Cook's case last year, or outside corners this year.
Speaker 4: It's just they got some talent there, and it's going
Speaker 4: to be hard to get in that rotation.
Speaker 2: He could be number four and push battle with Cameron
Speaker 2: Calhoun and then maybe compete with Dominic Kelly. Now, we've
Speaker 2: not heard much about Dominic Kelly in a while. I
Speaker 2: haven't really been asking, but he was with the ones
Speaker 2: and twos at the start of camp. So it's like
Speaker 2: you expect him to be the number three Jordan Thomas
Speaker 2: at this point battling to be the four with the
Speaker 2: guy who was established as kind of the four in
Speaker 2: Camp Calhoun.
Speaker 3: He seems like a great analog to what Riley Pettyjohn
Speaker 3: was last year, where you come in, you're playing against
Speaker 3: Kent State. You could tell me that Jordan Thomas has
Speaker 3: an interception or a scoop and score or, you know, boy,
Speaker 3: you won't believe the play he made.
Speaker 4: And like, yep, absolutely. I could for sure see that happening.
Speaker 3: But in terms of like actual, oh boy, you won't
Speaker 3: believe the amount of snaps he played this year.
Speaker 4: Probably not just for situations outside of his control.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it is interesting. Like a Rod J. Burns, Riley Pettyjohn,
Speaker 2: Jermaine Matthews, true freshman getting these random touchdowns in kind
Speaker 2: of the blowout games.
Speaker 4: Three people whose careers have gone in very different directions.
Speaker 2: Very different directions. So like Jordan Thomas, it's just like
Speaker 2: a depth thing. Brock Boyd and Chris Henry Jr., those guys,
Speaker 2: Ryan Day has said they're going to play. And the
Speaker 2: closer we get to the season, the more we hear
Speaker 2: it's like the more they're going to play is how
Speaker 2: this is feeling, especially as Kyle Parker is slowed and
Speaker 2: not yet practicing as of the time of this recording.
Speaker 2: So somebody's going to play. And those two guys, to me,
Speaker 2: I don't see them– Do you still see them as
Speaker 2: typical freshmen in terms of your expectations?
Speaker 3: No, because we did a bold prediction show where we
Speaker 3: talked about some expectations for them. And I had Chris
Speaker 3: Henry with the third highest receiving total in Ohio State
Speaker 3: true freshman history.
Speaker 4: And you say, you know, would that be surprising to
Speaker 4: you if he did that?
Speaker 2: And you did not answer.
Speaker 4: No, not really. It would not be particularly surprising.
Speaker 3: But he's not the typical freshman.
Speaker 4: He's not.
Speaker 3: And I think Brock Boyd, you're sort of hearing some
Speaker 3: of the same things about him, where I think your
Speaker 3: Quaden Guilford is much more on that typical true freshman path,
Speaker 3: where it's like, yeah, very talented guy, probably going to
Speaker 3: play little bits and pieces this year, and then we'll
Speaker 3: sort of see you next spring and see where you
Speaker 3: are at that point.
Speaker 4: Boyd and Henry are not on that path. Boyd and Henry,
Speaker 4: it seems.
Speaker 3: Like, are well ahead of that, and you know, there
Speaker 3: isn't a Carnell Tate to hold them back this year.
Speaker 3: The fact that Kyle Parker has been banged up a
Speaker 3: bunch this fall has really sort of opened the door
Speaker 3: for a lot more reps for both of those guys,
Speaker 3: just because of the way you can move the different guys.
Speaker 3: You know, even if you don't play the same position
Speaker 3: as Kyle Parker, the way they move guys around, it
Speaker 3: might open up a position for someone else. So yeah, I,
Speaker 3: those two, I think I'm expecting to play notable amount
Speaker 3: of snaps this year in, and I, Play in the
Speaker 3: Texas game.
Speaker 4: Play in the USC game. Play in the Indiana game.
Speaker 3: Like, I think you're going to see those guys playing
Speaker 3: pretty much all season, even if it's not in a
Speaker 3: starting role.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, that to me is, if you play in
Speaker 2: the Texas game, you are in the rotation. You are established.
Speaker 4: That was Devin Sanchez last year.
Speaker 2: Right, you are established. And he was out there in
Speaker 2: the first drive. Yeah. As the dime. If you're doing that,
Speaker 2: especially on the road, you are in. And those two guys,
Speaker 2: by the way, Chris Henry Jr. finally shows up on
Speaker 2: the EA video game as an 84. So not bad.
Speaker 2: The highest ranked true freshman is what I just saw
Speaker 2: on Twitter. Sitting on the offensive side, Legend Bay, as
Speaker 2: of this recording, the most recent guy to lose his
Speaker 2: black stripe along with Jordan Thomas the same day, I recall. Yes.
Speaker 2: And Legend, this is a nice little climb for him. Now,
Speaker 2: he was in the spring, here in the spring, but
Speaker 2: he was a little banged up. Starts off not being
Speaker 2: able to practice the first two days of fall camp.
Speaker 2: Does enough and has made plays. There's been this concern
Speaker 2: about he just needs to continue getting better. All this
Speaker 2: concern that everybody has with freshman running backs because they
Speaker 2: have the ball and they can lose the ball. And
Speaker 2: so for him to have lost it at this point,
Speaker 2: I think this is a fantastic sign. I don't know.
Speaker 2: I guess I could look to see exactly how close
Speaker 2: it is. And I will look to see how close
Speaker 2: it is to Bo Jackson or the other two freshman
Speaker 2: running backs. But Legend Bay losing it now, we know
Speaker 2: he's going to play. And this tells me that he
Speaker 2: is progressing the way they want to see when they
Speaker 2: always give these caveats of he's going to play if. Yeah.
Speaker 2: It sounds like the ifs are there.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 3: He was banged up in the spring. So I feel
Speaker 3: like that pushed him a little back. And then missing
Speaker 3: the first couple of days of practice, you got to
Speaker 3: kind of earn your way back into the circle of
Speaker 3: trust after they sit you for a couple of practices.
Speaker 3: And This was one of those things where if this
Speaker 3: was purely based on on-field stuff, I think he probably
Speaker 3: loses his black stripe sometime in the spring, especially if
Speaker 3: he was healthy. There's more that goes into it than that.
Speaker 3: But this tells me, okay, he's back in the circle
Speaker 3: of trust. We had sort of projected, you know, he's
Speaker 3: going to get a handful of carries in the Texas game.
Speaker 3: I think that's probably, I'm still kind of on track
Speaker 3: for that. I don't think, you know, I'm not expecting
Speaker 3: him to have 12 carries. I'm not expecting him to
Speaker 3: not play at all. I think you're going to see
Speaker 3: him a little bit, this sort of just is a
Speaker 3: little bit of a mile post on the way.
Speaker 4: To that point.
Speaker 2: He was about a week behind Bo Jackson. Yeah. Isaiah West,
Speaker 2: who was banged up, lost his October 15th last year.
Speaker 4: But that was right before they went to Madison, right?
Speaker 3: Wisconsin was kind of late October last year, and that's
Speaker 3: where he sort of had his breakout game.
Speaker 2: Defensively, we did not mention Simeon Caldwell. We mentioned Jordan Thomas.
Speaker 2: Let's start with Simeon Caldwell, who has maybe more than
Speaker 2: anybody else been a surprise freshman, and certainly not a
Speaker 2: surprise that he lost his black stripe. If you're a
Speaker 2: member of the BuckeyeInsiders.com and saw us on the board,
Speaker 2: we were talking about him. in the days leading up
Speaker 2: to his losing of the Blackstripe. And if you want
Speaker 2: more insight like that, you can find us over at BuckeyeInsiders.com.
Speaker 2: Sign up. Get stuff like that before most others. We
Speaker 2: welcome you there. But they've got a role for him. So, like,
Speaker 2: his playing time is, at this point, dependent upon the
Speaker 2: situations that they find the defense in. But when you're
Speaker 2: a safety, true freshman safety, and they were already like,
Speaker 2: we want you to do this, that's only going to
Speaker 2: be the start of it. So once you're doing that,
Speaker 2: as Ryan Day said, as long as they're playing special teams,
Speaker 2: that's also going to factor into it. And anytime there's
Speaker 2: a depth chart tie, the winner goes to the guy
Speaker 2: doing stuff on special teams as well. And I think
Speaker 2: with Simeon Caldwell, he's doing as much as he's being asked,
Speaker 2: and he's keeping up with all of it.
Speaker 3: Right. If they trust you to be out there early,
Speaker 3: and it sounds like by all accounts they do, then
Speaker 3: your role is only going to grow as the season goes.
Speaker 3: Because that is a hurdle that a lot of guys
Speaker 3: don't get over as true freshmen.
Speaker 4: And sometimes it's off-field stuff. Sometimes it's on-field stuff. Sometimes
Speaker 4: it's film room stuff.
Speaker 3: But he's gotten over those hurdles, it sounds like, already.
Speaker 4: So then you're setting yourself up for a bigger role.
Speaker 4: And this is.
Speaker 3: In the previous years, we've had that conversation where if
Speaker 3: you're out on special teams, well, it means you're burning
Speaker 3: your redshirt year. So then they're looking for reasons to
Speaker 3: put you out on defense. Now there's no more redshirting.
Speaker 4: So that's no longer a consideration.
Speaker 3: But they still do link those two things, because if
Speaker 3: they trust you to be out there on special teams,
Speaker 3: then they're going to trust you to be out there
Speaker 3: more on defense.
Speaker 2: And the more you do on special teams, the more
Speaker 2: you just get all of the football. Ryan Day says
Speaker 2: special teams is just teaching you football. Yep. And the blocking, tackling,
Speaker 2: that sort of thing. And the more you learn that,
Speaker 2: the better you're going to have a chance of playing
Speaker 2: later on in the season. Sticking with the secondary, we
Speaker 2: probably don't need to spend too much time on Jay Timmons.
Speaker 4: I expect him to play some this year, yes.
Speaker 2: I think he's going to play quite a bit. And
Speaker 2: if you're looking at last year, do you think he
Speaker 2: plays more than Devin Sanchez, who had, I think, what,
Speaker 2: 300 snaps last year as the dime? Got a couple
Speaker 2: of starts at corner. Yeah. I guess I should look
Speaker 2: and see how many snaps like Lorenzo Stiles.
Speaker 4: Yeah, my guess would be yes.
Speaker 3: I think you're going to see him more than you
Speaker 3: saw Sanchez just because you're going to be in a
Speaker 3: nickel more often than you are in a dime. Now,
Speaker 3: they're going to be in a nickel maybe less than
Speaker 3: they were last year because you're going to be playing
Speaker 3: more three linebacker lineups at times.
Speaker 4: And we've talked about, hey, maybe.
Speaker 3: Simeon Caldwell is going to steal some of those snaps
Speaker 3: if we're viewing him as that big nickel. So he
Speaker 3: may take some snaps away from Jay Timmons. But at
Speaker 3: the same time, I get the sense that you're probably
Speaker 3: going to be, even without having a start at an outside.
Speaker 4: Corner position like Devin Sanchez had last.
Speaker 3: Year, I still think you're probably going to see more
Speaker 3: snaps from Jay Timmons, assuming he's healthy all year, than
Speaker 3: you did from Sanchez last year.
Speaker 2: Devin Sanchez, 321 snaps. Lorenzo Stiles Jr., 404. So that's
Speaker 2: right in line with what you're saying. Jumping to the
Speaker 2: defensive line, which Kari Wilder is the only guy we
Speaker 2: haven't talked about in terms of losing his black stripe.
Speaker 2: Expectations for him, I think Zion Grady is the baseline,
Speaker 2: who had a tackle and a half for loss and
Speaker 2: eight or nine tackles last year.
Speaker 4: And like 100 snaps.
Speaker 2: Like 104 snaps.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: I would expect... I feel like we should expect more
Speaker 2: than that, but the depth chart is... better now than
Speaker 2: it was for Zion Grady last year, where he was
Speaker 2: competing against Bo Atkinson by the end of the season
Speaker 2: because C.J. Hicks had shut it down. Dominic Kirk, there
Speaker 2: was no, like, Logan George, they realized he couldn't play.
Speaker 2: So the depth chart just kind of kept falling by
Speaker 2: the wayside. This year, I think the depth chart's only
Speaker 2: going to, like, get stronger as the season goes, but
Speaker 2: Kyrie Wilder's going to be part of that reason why.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's in an interesting spot right now where you
Speaker 3: know Kenyatta Jackson, you know Bo Atkinson. You've got the
Speaker 3: second-year guys, Epi Satonale and Zion Grady. And then beyond that,
Speaker 3: it's kind of like, all right, you know, we've talked
Speaker 3: about Drake Quinn at times. It seems like he has
Speaker 3: not lost his black stripe yet. That tells me that
Speaker 3: Kari Wilder is ahead of him. So he's probably fifth
Speaker 3: right now.
Speaker 2: Quay Rousaw.
Speaker 4: Quay Rousaw. How does he figure in there?
Speaker 3: I don't think of him as a defensive end because
Speaker 3: he's not playing with his hand in the dirt, but
Speaker 3: he's also probably taking.
Speaker 4: Snaps in that.
Speaker 2: Well, he's with Larry Johnson.
Speaker 4: Yeah, right.
Speaker 3: He's probably in that, but is that just a third
Speaker 3: down pass rushing role?
Speaker 4: We know what he's going to do, and we know... Situationally,
Speaker 4: a lot of the times when he's going to do it,
Speaker 4: but we don't know. If it's second and seven, are
Speaker 4: you ever going to see him out there? I assume
Speaker 4: you probably will.
Speaker 3: So he's a little bit of a wild card in
Speaker 3: all of this. But for Kari Wilder, someone's going to
Speaker 3: get hurt at some point.
Speaker 4: It happens.
Speaker 3: Someone is going to miss a game. And if he's
Speaker 3: in that conversation... I think the 100 snaps, give or take,
Speaker 3: for Zion Grady last year is a good benchmark. I'd
Speaker 3: probably expect him to go over that. But this is
Speaker 3: also a year where you don't have Brambling on the schedule.
Speaker 4: You don't have.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's 40 snaps right there.
Speaker 3: You're not getting nearly as much Rutgers and Purdue in
Speaker 3: the monitors as you did last year. So there are
Speaker 3: going to be fewer games where a true freshman is
Speaker 3: going to play 25 snaps.
Speaker 4: So he might play more snaps in.
Speaker 3: Six games, you know, pick a random six-game Big Ten
Speaker 3: sample than Zion Grady did, but not have the game
Speaker 3: where you get 20 snaps, the game where you get
Speaker 3: 25 snaps, and end up with fewer snaps.
Speaker 2: Well, and last year, Zion Grady was fourth with 104 snaps.
Speaker 2: Fifth was C.J. Hicks with 50, but he didn't play
Speaker 2: past the fourth for the season. Sixth was Josh Mickens,
Speaker 2: and he had 44. Like, I don't know. The distribution
Speaker 2: is going to be better this year because Caden Curry–
Speaker 2: And Kenyatta Jackson had like 1200 of the 1400 snaps.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So that will be better spread out between everybody. But
Speaker 2: I think, I think that's the baseline that I'm going with.
Speaker 2: I would expect, I expect more production, but it was out.
Speaker 2: Grady was getting close at times last year, but I
Speaker 2: don't know what we will see. What do you guys
Speaker 2: think of the, the black stripe guys this year so far?
Speaker 2: And again, If something happened Wednesday after practice and somebody
Speaker 2: loses a black stripe, I apologize. That was not our intent.
Speaker 2: We never wanted that to happen.
Speaker 3: Tony's like, I've never cared for that guy, and I'm
Speaker 3: going to leave him.
Speaker 2: Off this show. Specifically, that's going to be the title.
Speaker 2: This guy is not part of the show. But if
Speaker 2: you want to find the show when we drop it,
Speaker 2: hit the bell to be notified. Thumbs up. All of that.
Speaker 2: Of course, we're talking about everybody. If somebody has lost
Speaker 2: a black stripe, we're talking about it over at BuckeyeInsiders.com.
Speaker 2: We'd love to see you there. That will do it
Speaker 2: from here. Thank you all for tuning in, and we
Speaker 2: will talk to you all later. Love, this time, can
Speaker 2: what I feel be real?
Speaker 3: Well, she threw away the motel key. I wish it
Speaker 3: never meant nothing to me.
Speaker 1: Say you will, now say you will.
Speaker 3: Oh, yeah. Say you will, now say you will.
Speaker 4: If you tell me that Des Moines's alright, we could
Speaker 4: steal a car and leave tonight.