Speaker 1: With full camp already in full swing, there is a
Speaker 1: lot to talk about around the Ohio State football program.
Speaker 1: So we're getting a little bit of a bonus episode
Speaker 1: today sponsored by our friends at Jeff Ruby's Columbus, the
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Speaker 1: them out the menu and make a reservation today. All right,
Speaker 1: So this is the first of a couple of bonus
Speaker 1: episodes you're going to get in the next day or two.
Speaker 1: First one, want to let you hear a little bit
Speaker 1: from Ohio State head coach Ryan Day. We got a
Speaker 1: chance to talk to him after the first day of practice.
Speaker 1: That'd have been Thursday afternoon last week.
Speaker 3: So most of this.
Speaker 1: Stuff is very big picture, so still very very relevant,
Speaker 1: but some of it is going to be framed around
Speaker 1: the fact that, hey, it's.
Speaker 3: Just day one.
Speaker 1: They weren't in pads yet, so just sort of go
Speaker 1: in understanding that first day in pads was on Saturday,
Speaker 1: practice three. We have shows talking about that already for
Speaker 1: you if you want to hear those. So all right,
Speaker 1: let's start with Ryan Day talking about some of the freshmen.
Speaker 1: You know, they are a bunch of freshmen that seem
Speaker 1: like they may be ready to contribute this year and
Speaker 1: contribution as a true freshman. The whole conversation or in
Speaker 1: that has really changed with the change to the red
Speaker 1: shirt rule. Now you've got five years to play five years.
Speaker 1: You can play five seasons. You can play every game
Speaker 1: you want in all five seasons. That's totally fine. No
Speaker 1: more only playing in four regular season games. That's done.
Speaker 1: So anyone who wants to play can play in as
Speaker 1: many games as they want to this year without impacting
Speaker 1: their future eligibility. So all right, So what does he
Speaker 1: see out of the freshmen? Are they maybe ready to contribute?
Speaker 1: He was also specifically in the question here was asked
Speaker 1: specifically about people like Chris Henry Junior and Brock Boyd Well.
Speaker 2: I mean, everybody's playing now. The red shirt idea doesn't
Speaker 2: really exist moving forward. So first off, everybody in the
Speaker 2: program should have the idea that they're fighting for Physicians
Speaker 2: fighting for playing time, want to get on the field.
Speaker 2: I think those guys in particular are really fighting hard.
Speaker 2: I think they can see it We saw enough in
Speaker 2: them in the spring to lead us to believe that
Speaker 2: they can help us the year. The question is how
Speaker 2: early and how much? And that's what preseason is going
Speaker 2: to be about.
Speaker 1: One of the big storylines through fall camp is going
Speaker 1: to be the alignment of the offensive line and how
Speaker 1: they're going to line those guys up and who are
Speaker 1: those five guys going to be. It is something that
Speaker 1: we've been talking about a bunch on a bunch of
Speaker 1: these different shows, and it was a story quite a
Speaker 1: bit this week as well. They opened Day one with
Speaker 1: Austin Sirivald at right guard, ian Moore at left tackle.
Speaker 1: They then moved Austin Siravall back to left tackle Josh
Speaker 1: Padieta right guard on on Friday, then went back to
Speaker 1: Austin Seervel at right guard and Ian Moore at left
Speaker 1: tackle on Saturday. So what is the plan there? And
Speaker 1: you will notice he also mentions Philip Daniels in this
Speaker 1: answer as well, which is a little bit interesting.
Speaker 3: Yeah, We're going to try a couple different combinations today.
Speaker 2: We did two spots, so sort of just you know,
Speaker 2: Scarlett and Gray, not really ones and twos. You know,
Speaker 2: we are going to look at him playing tackle as
Speaker 2: you saw last year, also look at him playing guard,
Speaker 2: and I think you know when you look at Josh Badio,
Speaker 2: when you look at Ian Moore, and you look at
Speaker 2: Phil Daniels.
Speaker 3: Finding the best five is what we're going to do.
Speaker 2: But part of that five is knowing that Austin can
Speaker 2: play both guard and tackle, so he spent a lot
Speaker 2: of time to tackle here most recently, so I thought
Speaker 2: we wanted to get them some guard reps.
Speaker 3: See how we felt in there, see how we looked.
Speaker 2: It's been a little while, so we'll see how it goes,
Speaker 2: and it's going to be really good competition. Good news
Speaker 2: is we have some different options, but we got to
Speaker 2: find the best five.
Speaker 1: One of the storylines this spring was the fact that
Speaker 1: they needed to get more from their receivers after catch,
Speaker 1: so yack yards after catch. You remember may remember John
Speaker 1: Madden talking about that back in the day. But right
Speaker 1: now they're trying to figure out, Okay, which receivers are
Speaker 1: going to get them more yardage after the catch. But
Speaker 1: that feels like that's kind of hard if you're not tackling,
Speaker 1: and they're really not tackling yet, so how do you
Speaker 1: figure out at who excels at evading tackles. If you're
Speaker 1: not tackling, how.
Speaker 3: Do you identify it in practice?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's when you're when you're not tackling, it's hard
Speaker 2: when you're not fudding. Like today it was just a
Speaker 2: homet's practice, it's even harder. It's a huge emphasis. We
Speaker 2: spent a lot of time on it. Quotes, he spent
Speaker 2: a lot of time on it, has some very strong
Speaker 2: thoughts on it. So we got to work it every
Speaker 2: day in practice the drills and then see a carry
Speaker 2: over to the teamwork. But once we get the pads on,
Speaker 2: we'll have a better idea and certainly when we start
Speaker 2: tacklet we'll have a you know, hopefully we'll see those
Speaker 2: drills translate to production.
Speaker 1: One of the names you've heard a lot from us
Speaker 1: over the last month or two after we've been talking
Speaker 1: to some folks in the program is Isaiah West. That
Speaker 1: is a running back who was banged up a bunch
Speaker 1: in his true freshman season, was quite a bit behind
Speaker 1: Bo Jackson in terms of both kerries and yardage in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five, and now this year, boy, it seems
Speaker 1: like he is really maybe competing for that starting job.
Speaker 1: So what has he done to get himself into that spot.
Speaker 2: Well, first off, you can see his body, we can
Speaker 2: see the work he's put in. Had a tremendous offseason
Speaker 2: and one of the best in the whole building consistency,
Speaker 2: and when he was in there last year he showed
Speaker 2: some real good things. So we want him to take
Speaker 2: the next step, just as we do Bo. But I
Speaker 2: mean just Isaiah one year in the program. By the way,
Speaker 2: You know, when when you have the injury like he had,
Speaker 2: sometimes it takes a year or two to get.
Speaker 3: Back into it.
Speaker 2: And we're seeing him look the best physically he's looked,
Speaker 2: and so that's exciting.
Speaker 3: But again, same thing just day one.
Speaker 1: Another name you've heard us talking about the bunch this
Speaker 1: week is Devin McEwan, the transfer from UT San Antonio.
Speaker 1: You had a big adjustment to make going from the
Speaker 1: road Runners to the Buckeyes this spring. So what has
Speaker 1: he done to get himself in a position to play
Speaker 1: a big role this season?
Speaker 2: No, it is and the same thing I tell a
Speaker 2: lot of the guys. If you want to have credibility here,
Speaker 2: you want to win, One, you play special teams. Two,
Speaker 2: you attach yourself to Nick in the way where He's
Speaker 2: had a great offseason.
Speaker 3: You can see his body's changed.
Speaker 2: He's earned a lot of respect but recognized for that,
Speaker 2: you know, with what he did this summer.
Speaker 3: So now he's going to go put it on the field.
Speaker 2: I thought he was consistent in the spring, but now
Speaker 2: he's going to, you know, take take a huge step
Speaker 2: here because that position, as we know, is going to
Speaker 2: be critical.
Speaker 3: And we saw what happened last year.
Speaker 2: We saw obviously the attention that that Jeremiah is going
Speaker 2: to get, Brandon's going to get, so that that that
Speaker 2: position is really going to be an important part of
Speaker 2: our offense. And you know, Devin certainly has put himself
Speaker 2: in a position to be that guy, but I was
Speaker 2: going to compete for it.
Speaker 3: We're in the job a lot.
Speaker 1: Like the offensive line, things were shuffled around a good
Speaker 1: bit in the secondary this week as well. Day one,
Speaker 1: dominic Kelly was with the ones on the outside across
Speaker 1: from Devin Sanchez, with Jermaine Matthews at nickel or maybe
Speaker 1: with the twos at times. But is that a sign
Speaker 1: that dominic Kelly is really a legitimate contender to start
Speaker 1: this year? Is that a sign that they're just sort
Speaker 1: of moving stuff around figure out what they have, what
Speaker 1: what to what to make of the corner.
Speaker 2: So far, yeah, we're just we're just rolling guys right now,
Speaker 2: but we want it is a competition and we want
Speaker 2: guys to compete, and a lot of guys have earned
Speaker 2: the right to do that.
Speaker 3: So now's the time. We're going to re roll these
Speaker 3: guys and then.
Speaker 2: These reps accumulate, we evaluate the reps and see where
Speaker 2: it goes. And we've seen, you know.
Speaker 3: Certain competitions be over in a week.
Speaker 2: We've seen competitions last all the way up until game week.
Speaker 2: But we need to find, you know, what that combination
Speaker 2: is going to be there. And do we feel like
Speaker 2: we have two corners that we can just play all
Speaker 2: the time.
Speaker 3: Do we feel like there's three that we can rotate?
Speaker 3: How does that play into the nickel position?
Speaker 2: Those are all parts of what we need to solve
Speaker 2: here in the next couple of weeks.
Speaker 1: It's easy to forget about special teams. We do shows
Speaker 1: on offense, shows on defense, and then it's like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: they also have special teams, and boy, when you need
Speaker 1: special teams, you really really need special teams. And it
Speaker 1: feels like it's more of an emphasis this year, they
Speaker 1: brought in Robbie Disher, the special teams coordinator from Illinois.
Speaker 1: He is now the special teams coordinator at Ohio State.
Speaker 1: Brought in Connor Hawkins, the kicker transfer from Baylor. Brought
Speaker 1: in Dalton Riggs, a long snapper transfer out of UCF
Speaker 1: Rush Joe Maguire is back to do the punting. So
Speaker 1: how much are they going to be stressing special teams
Speaker 1: this month and how are they going to find ways
Speaker 1: to test Connor Hawkins to understand what they really have
Speaker 1: to work with.
Speaker 2: Well, first off, the kicking game in general, special teams
Speaker 2: are a huge part of what we do in just
Speaker 2: our foundation of how we teach fundamental football. So everybody's
Speaker 2: involved with those meetings. The kicking game in particular with
Speaker 2: the battery. You know, Dalton is new, but but he's
Speaker 2: really getting a good a good feel with with Joey.
Speaker 3: So in the.
Speaker 2: Punting game, you know there you know snap to a
Speaker 2: kick operation. I think Joey's taking a next step, but
Speaker 2: we've got to build depth there as well.
Speaker 3: So that's been good.
Speaker 2: And then getting a feel for Dalton as a long
Speaker 2: snap for what he can do. But then in the
Speaker 2: field goal kicking games to your point, you know, every
Speaker 2: single snap matters. I mean, we're chasing small margins. So
Speaker 2: we'll quickly get in the situations here and and that's everybody,
Speaker 2: so that everybody can feel how important that is. It's
Speaker 2: one thing to go out and kick seven field goals
Speaker 2: and then at the end, say, you know, at this
Speaker 2: one counts type of thing, and you know, we all
Speaker 2: got to run ten laps, do twenty five updowns. If
Speaker 2: he misses it, but he's already kicked seven in a row,
Speaker 2: it's not realistic. So what we'll try to do is
Speaker 2: we'll try to create situations like you put a sure
Speaker 2: certain time on the clock, balls around midfield, Okay, we're
Speaker 2: going to play this out. Offense needs a field goal,
Speaker 2: and then put him in that situation where he doesn't
Speaker 2: have a bunch of field goals to war.
Speaker 3: It's like being at the driving range.
Speaker 2: You don't get to go to the driving range, you know,
Speaker 2: you know when you are the back nine. So that's
Speaker 2: what we're trying to do, and see how we responds
Speaker 2: to the different environments. We'll look to see, you know,
Speaker 2: how to win the weather. Hopefully we get different variations
Speaker 2: of that during the preseason, they get a field for
Speaker 2: his range and how we can handle it.
Speaker 1: We've done a bunch of shows about the storylines we're
Speaker 1: watching this month and the positional battles were watching this
Speaker 1: month and the players the most approved this month. Ryan
Speaker 1: Day was asked about what he's watching for this month storylines,
Speaker 1: position battles. What is he most interested to see this
Speaker 1: one this month?
Speaker 2: Well, I think we all want to see how how
Speaker 2: the offensive line shakes out here, that's for sure. I
Speaker 2: think the tight end room is an interesting room. I
Speaker 2: think we do have some depth there, but who's actually
Speaker 2: going to take the majority of those reps? And you
Speaker 2: guys who can count on us that third, fourth, fifth,
Speaker 2: sixth wide receiver position? I think. I think the running
Speaker 2: back position is very unique, and we have in the room.
Speaker 3: We have some talent, we have a little bit of experience, but.
Speaker 2: If we're going to get to where we need to go,
Speaker 2: when we've made major runs here, running backs have run
Speaker 2: really well here. You look what Zeke did, obviously, you
Speaker 2: look what you Travion did. You look up good Sean did?
Speaker 2: Like in those games, I mean, they take over and
Speaker 2: that's what we're gonna be out of that room. So offensively,
Speaker 2: I would say those are the things we're looking at. Also,
Speaker 2: you know, backup quarterback position critical. Certainly we are going
Speaker 2: to talk about Julian, but we need to have depth
Speaker 2: in that room as well, so those guys got to
Speaker 2: step up.
Speaker 3: And then on defense.
Speaker 2: Yeah, how the back end shakes out in terms of
Speaker 2: depth there and then you know, seeing how it all
Speaker 2: comes together up front or all the things we're looking at.
Speaker 1: Things are very different in terms of fall camp from
Speaker 1: how they used to be. No more two days, no
Speaker 1: more walking in and not having seen guys for months
Speaker 1: and not knowing what's going on. So what is a
Speaker 1: very very different thing. The coaches can work with the
Speaker 1: players a lot more than they used to under some
Speaker 1: new NC double A rules, but still is there a
Speaker 1: little bit of an extra juice or an extra jolt
Speaker 1: of energy for the start of fall camp.
Speaker 3: It definitely is different than it used to be.
Speaker 2: I remember, you know back when I played, you know,
Speaker 2: you showed up with your box fan and you met
Speaker 2: your roommate for the first time, and you know camp
Speaker 2: started the next day. You know, it's like either you
Speaker 2: show up, well, you had a conditioning test before he's
Speaker 2: that conditioning test and either made commissioning test and you
Speaker 2: came back every mornings you made commissioning test. There's just
Speaker 2: nothing like that anymore. There's just such a lead up
Speaker 2: with the workouts and everything that we do. But anytime
Speaker 2: you put the helmets on, anytime you start going against
Speaker 2: each other, it's completely different. And you know, we get
Speaker 2: a chance yesterday to get together talk about our goals,
Speaker 2: talk about the vision for the team, talk about our identity,
Speaker 2: talk about where we.
Speaker 3: Want to go.
Speaker 2: It kind of gives us a focus on football. I
Speaker 2: think physically we look as good as we have. I
Speaker 2: think we had the talent and now we got to
Speaker 2: go play.
Speaker 1: So you go a little bit from Ryan Day earlier
Speaker 1: in the week. We'll have a show with Julian saying
Speaker 1: some of the stuff from him on Saturday coming up
Speaker 1: in this feed in just a little bit. Want to
Speaker 1: let you know that you can find all sorts of
Speaker 1: content about the Ohio State fallcamp, Ohio State recruiting. They
Speaker 1: got a five star quarterback signee committed on Saturday.
Speaker 3: And talk about that.
Speaker 1: You can talk about the season, positional battles, all sorts
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Speaker 1: you can find Tony and Me covering the team. We've
Speaker 1: got Juck covering recruiting. We got Ross and Michael Pettitt
Speaker 1: covering x's and o's. We've got Marcus Hartman as your
Speaker 1: basketball insider. That is all at Buckeye Insiders dot com
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Speaker 1: you guys all for joining us. We'll be back soon