Speaker 1: Oh, everybody, welcome Jumi Buckeye Weekly Podcast. I'm Tony Gerdaman
Speaker 1: here as always with Tom or Tom, how's it going, Tony?
Speaker 2: Time for another one of your patented overreaction shows where
Speaker 2: we talk about the offense and then Tony tells us
Speaker 2: whether Ohio State should just cancel the season because they're
Speaker 2: just gonna go oh to twelve, or whether the rest
Speaker 2: of the college football world should cancel the season because
Speaker 2: Ohio State is an unstoppable sixteen and oh juggernaut that
Speaker 2: can be stopped. Tony, which one is it? Or do
Speaker 2: we need to let people wait till the end of
Speaker 2: the show.
Speaker 1: We can go right now eighteen and zero. Good night, everybody.
Speaker 2: So take that Mercury Morris.
Speaker 1: Yeah, pop that champagne. Tom. We did a show where
Speaker 1: I over reacted to the first two days seeing the defense.
Speaker 1: Now this show is probably gonna air after day three,
Speaker 1: but it's still just based on the first two days.
Speaker 1: And one of the things that I'm going to overreact.
Speaker 1: The fun stuff is the stuff that I'm overreacting to.
Speaker 1: You're gonna downplay but then see it and have to
Speaker 1: apologize for downplaying it. So I like the timing of
Speaker 1: this one. The juxtaposition of timing and opinions and overreactions,
Speaker 1: under reactions and then the media culpa coming from you
Speaker 1: or the ua culpa. I guess it would be, and
Speaker 1: it's gonna be fascinating theater.
Speaker 2: I like the idea that this is theater because as
Speaker 2: you were saying that, I was thinking of like those,
Speaker 2: you know, the theater masks that they have where it's
Speaker 2: like the one is the laughing face and the one
Speaker 2: is the sad face, and it's like doing the YouTuber
Speaker 2: face with me with one side is looking ah, one
Speaker 2: side of his meeting hmmmm. And that's me overreacting or
Speaker 2: underreacting to your overreactions, whether I was correct or you
Speaker 2: were correct.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you for giving me the image for the thumbnail.
Speaker 1: My first overreaction is Tom, I think Isaiah West is
Speaker 1: going for a thousand yards this year. Now. He was
Speaker 1: running with the ones on Friday practice too, who knows
Speaker 1: what he's gonna be doing practice three or whatever. But
Speaker 1: not just because he's running with the ones, he looks
Speaker 1: really really sharp, really really fast, big nimble. Now you're
Speaker 1: gonna say, but Tony, there's no tackling and there's no
Speaker 1: pads and I will say that's your opinion, but I
Speaker 1: will also remind people you had them at like seven
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty or eight hundred yards this season. So
Speaker 1: do you even think this is an overreaction? At this point?
Speaker 2: I simultaneously think that we don't have enough information to
Speaker 2: make any kind of real material change to our baseline
Speaker 2: expectations for this season, because, as you correctly mentioned and
Speaker 2: then try to disprove later, there is no tackling and
Speaker 2: there is no pads, and you know, the camp setting
Speaker 2: and the early you know, the June camp setting where
Speaker 2: you're not tackling guys to the ground, or the early
Speaker 2: fall camp setting where you're not tackling guys the ground
Speaker 2: is a notoriously difficult time to evaluate running backs. That
Speaker 2: being said, we've had people on our board for basically
Speaker 2: since we launched sort of saying like, Okay, what's the
Speaker 2: deal with Isaiah West? Why do you guys keep talking
Speaker 2: about Isaiah West? And it's like, because people keep talking
Speaker 2: to us about Isaiah. The people in the building keep
Speaker 2: talking to us about Isaiah West, and that, yeah, bo
Speaker 2: Jackson had a great freshman season. They're big expectations for
Speaker 2: Bo Jackson, but Isaiah West, and my general trend on
Speaker 2: all of these is I will probably I generally tend
Speaker 2: to be a little on the low side with some
Speaker 2: of the projections because it's like, this is the time
Speaker 2: of year that everyone goes, Yeah, everyone's gonna throw for
Speaker 2: five thousand yards and run for three thousand yards, and
Speaker 2: the receivers are all gonna have two thousand yards and
Speaker 2: they're all going to score fifty seven touchdowns and it's
Speaker 2: gonna be the best yearbook ever. And it's like, that's
Speaker 2: not typically how these seasons work. There are gonna be
Speaker 2: some people who exceed your expectations and some who don't.
Speaker 2: Isay it was to someone I am firmly prepared to
Speaker 2: have exceed my expectations this year, and he's someone who
Speaker 2: I already have expectations that are probably out of alignment
Speaker 2: with what we saw on the field last year. And
Speaker 2: that's just again based on what we keep hearing about him.
Speaker 1: We talked about it about it, I think a day
Speaker 1: or so ago on the buck Einsider's message board, which
Speaker 1: if you want to talk to Iowa State Football, we're
Speaker 1: doing it there all the time. Great community, a not
Speaker 1: a hostile community. I will also say, but The question
Speaker 1: was posed, like what percent chance do you give Isaiah
Speaker 1: West to lead the team in rushing? And I said,
Speaker 1: you know, this is after practice one. I'm like thirty
Speaker 1: leaving today. It's not thirty anymore. It's more than that.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying it's fifty to fifty. But the the
Speaker 1: idea of a Trevon Henderson quinch On Judkins thing. Now,
Speaker 1: don't talk to Carlos Loughlan about that saying hey, do
Speaker 1: you have another one two punch, because he will remind
Speaker 1: you I got this guy, I got that guy. I
Speaker 1: got this guy. I got that guy. There's no one two,
Speaker 1: there's one, two, three, four five. So don't even if
Speaker 1: you see him if you're at practice one of these days,
Speaker 1: don't even mention it to him. But the idea that
Speaker 1: you've got these two guys. Either one could lead the
Speaker 1: team into rushing any particular day. One could start any
Speaker 1: particular day. But the thing that I've been saying to
Speaker 1: Juck these last few days as well and to you
Speaker 1: as well, I think it's not necessarily who leads the
Speaker 1: team in rushing that is the thing to make the
Speaker 1: most note of. It's who leads and carries that's the
Speaker 1: guy that is, I think that's the real separator. If
Speaker 1: somebody has to do it, That was quin Shawn Judkins
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty four. They both went for a thousand yards.
Speaker 1: I don't think you could say what Travian Henderson did
Speaker 1: was taking a back seat.
Speaker 2: No, no, Travian Henderson. I mean you go back through
Speaker 2: the absolute highlights of that year, and Travian Henderson was
Speaker 2: a big part of a whole lot of them. You know,
Speaker 2: he had that long touchdown against Oregon, he had the
Speaker 2: long touchdown on the screen against Texas, and then Quenchewn
Speaker 2: Judkins he had his big day in the National Championship game.
Speaker 2: Like that is That is a year where you cannot
Speaker 2: tell the story of that year, even just that postseason
Speaker 2: run without those two guys. Those two guys were crucial,
Speaker 2: huge parts of both of those get you know, all
Speaker 2: three of those games during that run, you know, not
Speaker 2: even include the Tennessee game, And I think Trayveon had
Speaker 2: a touchdown in the Tennessee game too, if I remember correctly.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, like thirty yards or something like that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So you know, you can't tell the story of
Speaker 2: that run to the National Championship without either of those guys,
Speaker 2: and I think it's going to be probably something similar
Speaker 2: to this. This was I think there was a separate
Speaker 2: thread about this a couple of days ago on the
Speaker 2: UH on the board at Buckeye Insiders dot com and
Speaker 2: someone asked, you know, the percent chance that Isaiah West
Speaker 2: starts game one? And I said, I don't really care
Speaker 2: who starts game one, but the percent chance that he
Speaker 2: has more carries in game one, I think, or more
Speaker 2: yards in game one. I think I was at about
Speaker 2: thirty five maybe forty percent at that point, and I
Speaker 2: nothing has happened since then to dissuade me from you know,
Speaker 2: having that number sort of stay where it is, or
Speaker 2: you know, maybe tick up a little bit more.
Speaker 1: Tom My second overreaction here and brace yourself, buckle in.
Speaker 1: I think Ohire's State has a second first round pick
Speaker 1: to go along with Jeremiah Smith right now, and his
Speaker 1: name is Devin McEwen. And we did our Devin McEuen
Speaker 1: expectation shows, or we're talked about other receivers and we're like,
Speaker 1: you know, maybe just you've got like three or four
Speaker 1: guys that are gonna between like twenty five and thirty
Speaker 1: five receptions including him, and I'd have to go through
Speaker 1: my back in my notebook to find all of the projections.
Speaker 1: But what I have seen these first two days has
Speaker 1: been all of the spring practices that we've talked about
Speaker 1: with Jackson Smith and Jigbat and Jeremiah Smith and Garrett Wilson,
Speaker 1: just like lighting everybody up, catching everything, doing all kinds
Speaker 1: of insane stuff. That's what Devin McEwen has done the
Speaker 1: first days. The first day he looked good. Second day
Speaker 1: he looked incredible. And he's making contested catch over the middle.
Speaker 1: He's making contested catches in the end zone. He's getting open.
Speaker 1: He had one catch where he's going over the middle
Speaker 1: and goes way up high for it. He's six foot
Speaker 1: but he went up and got it, immediately evaded attacker
Speaker 1: with a spin move, and then kicked it into gear.
Speaker 1: And it was like, if that's Garrett Wilson or Chris
Speaker 1: O Lave or Jackson Smith and Jigbtes, I believe it
Speaker 1: because they've done those same things. And so I am way,
Speaker 1: way way in on Devin McEwan. Been you shoot a
Speaker 1: thousand yarder, Like, I'm not saying he's sixteen hundred or whatever.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying, based on what I've seen these first
Speaker 1: few days, if I'm going to be asked asked to overreact,
Speaker 1: Jeremiah Smith has a running mate.
Speaker 2: So if Devin McEwen gets a thousand yards receiving this season,
Speaker 2: and Devin McEwan is a first round or first round
Speaker 2: to Jason Wide receiver in the NFL Draft top forty
Speaker 2: five fifty picks, whatever somewhere in that ring, what does
Speaker 2: that mean for the Ohio State offense this year?
Speaker 1: Boy, that means feels like that was like one.
Speaker 2: Of our big questions is who else is there? And
Speaker 2: I'm not you know, without having seen it, I'm I'm
Speaker 2: pumping the brakes on this one a little bit. But
Speaker 2: what does that mean for the offense if he is
Speaker 2: playing at that.
Speaker 1: Level with because some of the stuff is coming out
Speaker 1: of the play action and there's no safety over the
Speaker 1: top to help, so it's like he's getting open one
Speaker 1: on one routinely. He's also finding the open zones and
Speaker 1: if that continues with an improved running game, I the
Speaker 1: schedule is still going to be very difficult, though, So
Speaker 1: you give them last year's schedule and you can start
Speaker 1: being talking all of these grandiose things. But if he
Speaker 1: can be that guy, then this offense really, what's the weakness.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's that's kind of my question because going into
Speaker 2: even over the summer, that was kind of my big
Speaker 2: lingering question mark with the offense was I think the
Speaker 2: offensive line they're gonna figure it out. I think Julian
Speaker 2: Saying's gonna be better. I think the running backs are
Speaker 2: going to be better. I think the tight ends are
Speaker 2: gonna be perfectly fine. You know what Jeremiah Smith is,
Speaker 2: and it's just you gotta find one more guy who
Speaker 2: is you know, you're not looking for another Jeremiah Smith.
Speaker 2: You're looking for another guy who can at least make
Speaker 2: opponents have someone else they got to worry about in
Speaker 2: the passing game other than Jeremiah Smith. If you can
Speaker 2: check that box, then it's like you're really you're you're
Speaker 2: really getting down to, you know, complaints about the you know,
Speaker 2: the temperature of your wine fridge on your yacht, Like,
Speaker 2: I mean, yeah, that's a problem, but I mean that's
Speaker 2: not really as far as problems go, that's not really
Speaker 2: too bad. If you could if you have another wide
Speaker 2: receiver who is in that thousand yard top round two
Speaker 2: rounds of the NFL Draft. Kind of conversation. Boy, that
Speaker 2: that checks one of the big big boxes that I
Speaker 2: have kind of open right now for the offense. And
Speaker 2: again Tony's saying, this kind of want to see it.
Speaker 2: I want to see it on Saturday. But go back
Speaker 2: to the intro of the show when Tony's saying, you
Speaker 2: know this is gonna get released by the time you
Speaker 2: hear this, I may already be on board. I don't know.
Speaker 2: I'm just I'm just I'm being the voice of reason
Speaker 2: here once again saying I kind of want to see it.
Speaker 2: But but but I have heard, I have heard the tales,
Speaker 2: Tony from those who have been there, that that there
Speaker 2: may be there may be some some happenings afoot there.
Speaker 2: And the at the easy.
Speaker 1: Position, I did like how you tried to slip in
Speaker 1: the voice of reason once again the second time. Ever,
Speaker 1: once again, I mean, technically you're.
Speaker 2: Correct, but that's the best kind of correct to be.
Speaker 2: Go on, what's your third one?
Speaker 1: Well, let me just finish on the first round.
Speaker 2: Thing.
Speaker 1: People are saying, well, he's too small this and that
Speaker 1: he's listened to six foot one ninety five over the
Speaker 1: last five years, twenty six wide receivers have been drafted
Speaker 1: in the first round. The average height six foot and
Speaker 1: a half, the average weight one hundred ninety seven pounds.
Speaker 2: So if he can just throw a half an inch
Speaker 2: and two pounds.
Speaker 1: Right and if you grow the right pounds, you got
Speaker 1: the inch right there. I will also say eleven guys
Speaker 1: six foot and under of those twenty six have been
Speaker 1: first rounder. So definitely, Now this is way out with
Speaker 1: this is way overreacting, because I know if he ends
Speaker 1: up like sixteen catches this year, this show will be
Speaker 1: deleted from the internet. It'll be the only thing that
Speaker 1: will ever be able to remove from the Internet. But
Speaker 1: he's been he's been really really good these first two days.
Speaker 1: Last thing, I think the tight ends this year is
Speaker 1: going to be better than the tight ends last year.
Speaker 1: And that's true, Like we're not seeing anybody get mulled
Speaker 1: in the running game, but it just they've got they know,
Speaker 1: they played five different guys running with the ones on
Speaker 1: day two, and I know the old saying, if you've
Speaker 1: got five tight ends, you ain't got one. But they
Speaker 1: are they're deep. I asked Nate Roberts if he thinks
Speaker 1: they could be deeper this year, you think, He said, yeah,
Speaker 1: this year than last year. He said, he thinks they
Speaker 1: will be. I said, are you more versatile? He's like,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, this group is way more versatile than it
Speaker 1: was last year. So I think there's some different things
Speaker 1: that you can do with that. Arthur Smith and and
Speaker 1: Ryan Day and Keenan Bailey and all those guys can do.
Speaker 1: So I don't even know how much of an overreaction
Speaker 1: that says, although you did have two NFL draft picks
Speaker 1: at tight end last.
Speaker 2: Year, yeah, they had. That was and that's that's a
Speaker 2: really like an outlier tight end class to have two
Speaker 2: guys drafted off your team as tight ends one season.
Speaker 2: So that this is another one where I'm a believer
Speaker 2: in the tight ends this year. And I think, you know,
Speaker 2: Nate Roberts is the guy that I am expecting to
Speaker 2: take a big, big step this year. I saw that
Speaker 2: Hunter Wilson was named to the Mackie Award watch list,
Speaker 2: and I thought, do they know something or are they
Speaker 2: just sort of looking and going, Well, he did some
Speaker 2: stuff at Northwestern and now he's playing at a school
Speaker 2: that's on TV in bigger places, so maybe yeah, that's
Speaker 2: he's a guy who has not been able to stay
Speaker 2: healthy when he was on the field last year. We
Speaker 2: saw him against Michigan. He had four catches for eighty
Speaker 2: something yards against Michigan in that game they played at
Speaker 2: Wrigley Field last year. And you watch that, you're like, man,
Speaker 2: if he could do this every game, then yeah, the
Speaker 2: then he'd be a thousand yard receiver at tight end.
Speaker 2: Now has he done that every game?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 2: In fact, that was his career high so and this
Speaker 2: is his seventh season of college football, so you kind
Speaker 2: of want to see it on an assistant basis, And
Speaker 2: I he didn't do a ton this spring, but the
Speaker 2: passing game on the whole of the spring was a
Speaker 2: little wonky and a little just a little just kind
Speaker 2: of rickety at times, which that happens in the spring.
Speaker 2: That was one of the things that we were telling
Speaker 2: you don't overreact to the fact that the passing game
Speaker 2: looks a little wonky in the spring, because the passing
Speaker 2: game always looks a little wonky in the spring. This
Speaker 2: is one where I want to see it. Was there
Speaker 2: anything that you've seen in terms of Welsing or Mason
Speaker 2: Williams or Nate Roberts or any of the other guys
Speaker 2: that jumped out to you just from the on field
Speaker 2: portion of it.
Speaker 1: Well, and here's the thing. As I'm going through my notes,
Speaker 1: and I take all kinds of notes as I'm watching
Speaker 1: these practices, and I throw them on the Buckeyinsider's message board.
Speaker 1: So if you want to see them, become a member
Speaker 1: and you'll see all of this stuff. But as I'm
Speaker 1: going through there, it's just like eighty six with a
Speaker 1: nice catch, eighty four with a good grab in traffic,
Speaker 1: eighty three with the ones, and it's just like, oh, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I remember that, and that's why you take notes, folks.
Speaker 1: But yeah, like they're making they're making catches now, no
Speaker 1: catch and run necessarily at this point, but they're catching
Speaker 1: the ball over the middle in traffic and getting tackled
Speaker 1: or tapped or whatever. And first down, move the chains.
Speaker 1: That's all you need really And then what the running
Speaker 1: backs are looking good, So I think it's okay to
Speaker 1: give the tight ends some credit there as well. And
Speaker 1: you know, they're running under center quite a bit at
Speaker 1: this point, and they're they're showing the physicality that is necessary.
Speaker 1: And maybe I'm the only person in this year of
Speaker 1: the tight end that thinks the tight ends are going
Speaker 1: to be okay, But yeah, just going through my notes,
Speaker 1: it's like, oh, yeah, he had that, and he did that,
Speaker 1: and he did that, so yeah, they're they've been making
Speaker 1: some plays all right.
Speaker 2: So yeah, okay, I will keep an eye on that
Speaker 2: on Saturday and see. I am expecting some good production
Speaker 2: out of the tight ends this year and some of
Speaker 2: the some of that is really some of the the
Speaker 2: tight end production may be dialed back a little bit
Speaker 2: if they do have two really good wide receivers and
Speaker 2: you do have two really good running backs, because then
Speaker 2: you get into a situation where, well, if you've got
Speaker 2: two thousand yard running backs as you just sort of
Speaker 2: more or less said they were going to have, and
Speaker 2: you have two thousand yard wide receivers as you more
Speaker 2: or less just said they would have, there's only so
Speaker 2: many snaps and so many passes and so many receptions
Speaker 2: to go around with the rest of the team. But
Speaker 2: that would be I am expecting whatever opportunities the tight
Speaker 2: ends have this year for them to be able to
Speaker 2: take advantage of them to whatever, you know, whatever, to
Speaker 2: red they're available.
Speaker 1: Even Brody Lennon had like a twenty five yard touchdown
Speaker 1: down the seam, running with the twos, threes and ones,
Speaker 1: and they're just rotating. So those are my overreactions. Look
Speaker 1: if all of these are crazy, like, I'm not doing
Speaker 1: this for me. Unless I get it right, then I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 1: look what I did. I'm mainly doing this for the
Speaker 1: people to have an idea of basically what players to
Speaker 1: get mad at when they don't live up to the
Speaker 1: to the to the the expectations. So I apologize for
Speaker 1: feeding into the fear. That was not my intent. I
Speaker 1: was just wanting to talk about some guys I had
Speaker 1: watched and thought, you know what, I think there's a
Speaker 1: possibility here. So forgive me for thinking players, the student
Speaker 1: athletes today have possibilities. Am I wrong for that? If
Speaker 1: I'm wrong for that, then I don't want to be right.
Speaker 1: What I would like for everybody else to do is
Speaker 1: hit that thumbs up, subscribe to the Channel five star
Speaker 1: rating interview on the audio side, and of course, as
Speaker 1: we've been saying, come and find us at Buckey Insiders
Speaker 1: dot com, would absolutely love to see you there. That
Speaker 1: will do it from here. Next time you'll see this
Speaker 1: will be a practice again. So subscribe to the channel.
Speaker 1: Subscribe to buck Eye Insiders and we will see you
Speaker 1: all at those places. Thank you all for tuning in
Speaker 1: and we will talk to you guys later.
Speaker 3: Happen this time? What about you rushing through a way?
Speaker 3: Don't no one tell me I wish it never then?
Speaker 2: Nothing where.
Speaker 3: Where my fa. If you can tell me that's a boy,
Speaker 3: it's all right. We could stee currently that