Breaking down Ohio State’s 52-6 win over Akron: Buckeye Talk podcast (2024)

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio State’s Buckeye Talk’s in-season Monday pod is back where Stephen Means and Stefan Krajisnik break down the game starting with the season-opener against Indiana in which Ohio State won 52-6. Each week the breakdown will be broken up into three categories:

• Quarterback Talk: Discussing the best and worst thing we saw from the QB and if his upside flashed in any capacity
• Offensive Talk: What’s the best and worst play from the offense plus who who thought was the Player of the Game
• Defensive Talk: What’s the best and worst play from the defense plus who who thought was the Player of the Game
• A look at the game’s around the country that matter to Ohio State

Then they’ll close things out every week by answering one question: Did the Buckeyes look like a College Football Playoff team?

Thanks for listening to Buckeye Talk.

Read the automated transcript of today’s podcast below. Because it’s a computer-generated transcript, it may contain errors and misspellings.

Stephen Means (00:09.609)

Welcome back to Buckeye Talk, I’m Stephen Means, that’s the Stefan Kreisnick and this is your Monday. I’ll name this later, I still don’t have a name. We’ve changed personnel on the pod, it still doesn’t have a name, I don’t know. Maybe it’s just a running thing at this point that will never have a name for what the Monday pod during the season is going to be, but it’s Stephen and Stefan and we’re re -watching Ohio State’s 52 to six win over Akron to open up the season. Will Howard making his debut 17, 28, 228 yards and three touchdowns.

Jeremiah Smith may be the star of the day, six catches, 92 yards and two touchdowns and a defense where, when we talk about this defense, Stephon, I’m gonna have a lot to say. Cause it’s just, I understand it’s Akron, but it’s fun watching this team just swarm everywhere and be everywhere. And it was awesome to watch. And again, we’re have to see it against obviously some like -minded opponents, but at least in week one, it lived up to the hype. But we’re gonna start with quarterback, Stephon.

You gave him a B after the game. gave him an A. In your rewatch, 17 of 28, 228 yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions, no sacks. I think he was only pressured three times, plus another 18 yards rushing. Do you stick with that B? Are you higher or are you lower after the rewatch?

Stefan Krajisnik (01:24.802)

I think I’m a little bit higher after the rewatch. think I’m going probably closer to an A minus, maybe even with you on an A. You noticed that in real time yesterday, you talked about it yesterday, and when I rewatched this, thing I really wanted to focus on on the mistakes, how much of them were his fault. And you were right. I mean, there was only probably like two or three plays where you’re like, he could have done something better. You know, there was just some odd plays in there like watching back that fourth and five where they threw it to Mecca and Mecca, even when he even if he had caught it, he was going to be short of the sticks. That was kind of just like a weird.

I don’t know if it was the wrong route. I don’t know if he just ran ran around shorter or what happened there, but that was kind of an odd place. There was a few of those where it seemed like things were off a little bit, but I walk away with a little bit. I think I may be a little bit more concerned about the offensive line than I was originally, but I think it goes back to what I talked a little bit yesterday of Will Howard can do a lot to make you kind of gloss over some struggles that may be there with the offensive line because because he made a lot of really good decisions with his legs either extending place holding the ball.

so, so I was impressed, man. I thought he played really well, you know, for a quarterback playing his first game at a new, new place, a new, system that throw the second touchdown to Jeremiah Smith. When I rewatched it, they had the, sky cam angle and I took a screenshot of like, that was insane. That throw was, was maybe one of the more accurate passes you’re going to see this season. It was in a window of three defenders and not only that.

It was kind of an option play where he had to decide to pull it, think was Judkens was in on the play, had to decide to pull it from Judkens and make that throw between three defenders. We’re not gonna see many better passes than that this season. I thought that was really good and I walk away, one of the main things I think some people had concerns with Will when he came to Ohio State was the accuracy. I thought some of his throws were really good, especially when watching him on replay. I don’t think accuracy is gonna be a problem with him this season.

So I bump it up, A - I thought he played really well. Better than I thought initially.

Stephen Means (03:26.537)

So this was a CBS broadcast with Brad Nestle and Gary Danielson, which they even pointed out, it’s been like 30 years since they’ve been to Ohio Stadium. And it was the first thing they ever did together. And then they haven’t been back for quite a while. Gary Danielson said something and I agreed with him. Will Howard has not had a bad throw yet. And that was during a first half where he was 10 of 21. I agree with him. The throw to Emeka Buka, I thought it was a bad throw in real time.

I think it was just Chip Kelly made a play call. Akron DC made a play call and Akron DC just won the snap, right? They, he, he called the perfect play for Chip Kelly’s play call. And I, the problem is a better defense probably just jumps that route and picks it off for a pick six, but that’s not what happened in that situation. And I’ll get into what happened before that when we get to the offensive start, but I just thought.

Who was on point, man? And the thing I liked the most in terms of a Chip Kelly standpoint when it comes to Will Howard, everything was on the table. There would be plays where he’s sitting back in the pocket, you know, just surveying the field. They got him on the run. We saw him make plays with his feet. They use him in the run game. It just. We haven’t seen the playbook this wide open since second year CJ Stroud, and I’m not again. I get it. CJ Stroud has turned into supernova.

Maybe he’s one of the five best quarterbacks in the world right now. I’m just saying we haven’t seen the playbook just wide open since then and it’s Akron. So let’s see it continue over the next 11 games here. But I like the early returns because of what it looks like. It’s not about the opponent. It’s not about the stat. Because the stat numbers aren’t that crazy. But it’s just when you watch it, it’s like, man, he, Chip Kelly can do some stuff here.

He can do some stuff with this guy. And I said it after the game. I saw what’s going to make Will Howard special, whether it was the third and four throw to Jeremiah Smith, where he evades a defender steps up, makes it look like he’s about to take off and instead zips it in there on the run. He had a run play for all all in one motion. Excuse me. He pumpfix a defender and then he takes off like it was he looks more twitchy than he did at Kansas State. And that’s

Stephen Means (05:47.601)

goes back into Stefan the way they’ve changed his body over the last nine months. But it’s, think Will Howard is going to be special. And it’s because of all the stuff Ohio state put on tape against Akron where nothing was off limits in terms of what play calls they could run with him.

Stefan Krajisnik (06:05.644)

Yeah, no doubt. I think, you another thing you try to grade these games with what you wanted to see coming into it too. And what did I talk a lot about leading into the game was kind of that the chemistry, right? Where, where Will and his receiver is going to be on the same page. There was not, I don’t think I saw any throws where it was like, like they were, they were not on the same page there. And there was, there was one throw that really impressed me to where it was an incompletion and it was a throw to Jeremiah. think Will had been under pressure a little bit, kind of threw it to Jeremiah.

Stephen Means (06:30.953)

Mm

Stefan Krajisnik (06:35.51)

And and and it looks like a throwaway. It was kind of put in a spot to where like Jeremiah there was two defenders by him. If anyone was going to catch it was going to be Jeremiah, but it ends up with like a throw like he knew when to make the smart play at the right times. Right. And that’s huge. When you play at Oregon, you’re playing against Michigan, right? One turnover can change the game. A in Notre Dame played on Saturday night and there was a turnover that basically decided the game late in that one. So it’s like if you play smart.

You’re going to have chances with these weapons to win a lot of games. And I thought he did that. And I thought there was no like a camera streaming those passes he made to Jeremiah, the back shoulder throw. That’s not easy to do when you’ve never played a game with that guy. Right. And he put it right on the spot. That’s a nice footwork there from Jeremiah. So overall, really impressed. I thought he looked comfortable in his first game. And I think going into this game against Western Michigan, I think we’re going to see him kind of get to a quicker start now that he’s got that game under his belt, got some film to watch.

I expect that by the time the Iowa game rolls around, we’re feel pretty good about what Will Howard’s doing and what he can do with his team this season.

Stephen Means (07:40.233)

So he’s 17 of 28. PFF officially gives him two throwaways, which, so I’m gonna knock those off of the completions for my evaluation, because again, it counts as a negative in the stat sheet, but that’s not a negative play. Most coaches will tell you, if there’s nothing there, throw the ball away and let’s live to see another day. Don’t make things worse. So now he’s 17 of 26. PFF also credited four blocks, four drops from the wide receivers. It’s 22, you’re down to 22 of 17.

17 to 22, 77 % of his completion percentage. That’s a lot better than what he actually ended up with with a 61 completion percentage. But then also a couple of other players as well. add in the, did you think a Mecha’s touchdown catch was a catch or not?

Stefan Krajisnik (08:25.262)

I thought it was, yeah, I watched it, was like, I want it not come loose. And also, Omexa should have had two touchdowns, because I forgot about that penalty, the pass interference. He should have had two touchdowns in that game, I feel bad for.

Stephen Means (08:26.375)

Okay.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Cool. Cause that’s a whole, that’s four touchdowns now instead of three. And we’ll get into the Jeremiah Smith drop in the, the tunnel screen, which that’s a 70 yard touchdown. It’s I’ll just say it now. It’s a 70 yard touchdown and we’re not going to harp on it because he had set 92 yards the rest of the day. It’s just, we’re using all of this to 17 of 28 does not tell the story of Will Howard’s day. Really what tells the story is, Hey, there’s a couple of drops. The refs.

were weird and said he was juggling the ball and it should have been a touchdown. So there’s four touchdowns right there. And then Jeremiah Smith dropping the 70 yard clearly would have been a 70 because it’s blocked up perfectly. It’s blocked up perfectly. So that’s a very different day than 17 of 28 for 228 three touchdowns. That’s more like 18 of 23 for like 310 yards and five touchdowns. We’re having a very different conversation about him and almost going the way you look at Nico Eamoleva.

I hope I’m saying that correctly at a Tennessee like the day he had Quinn yours that seemed to have a quality day. Kyle McCord had a quality day for Syracuse as well. It’s just right. It’s we’re having a, whoa, what a statement day. What a statement day for Will Howard. But what I do like is even with 17 of 28 to 28, three touchdowns, which is fine, but it’s not explosion explosive off the page. If you just watch this game, especially since Will Howard had to sit for like 45 minutes of real time between the end of the first half and

Stefan Krajisnik (09:40.95)

Jackson Guard had firecrack pounds.

Stephen Means (10:03.433)

Akron playing keep away for the first nine minutes of the third quarter. He was awesome. I thought it was it’s it was exactly what I needed to see from Ohio State’s quarterback to let you know that hey, the good stuff for last year will be built on but also the things that maybe were deficiencies from the quarterback play a year ago. Those are now strengths in 2024.

Stefan Krajisnik (10:27.532)

Yeah, no doubt. think, yeah, we’ll keep talking in circles here a little bit, but I just think he did so many things well that, listen, here’s the reality of what’s gonna happen this year. Everything he does is gonna be compared to what Kyle McCord did just because Ohio State made that decision to move on from McCord and go out and get Will Howard and transfer Portland. And I get it. That’s how people function, right? It’s always gonna be a comparison of the two. He did a lot of things though that McCord can’t do physically.

And I think that’s huge, man. Some of those runs, he also, another thing on those runs, I don’t think he slid on either of them. think he hit. But he didn’t take big hits, though. He’s smart and experienced to where he can avoid those big hits as well. It might not be a traditional slide, but he kind of falls gracefully, I guess you could call it, and kind of avoids some of those big hits. he’s not one of those running quarterbacks or run -able quarterbacks where you’re worried that he’s gonna get hurt or something like that because he’s wrecked.

So that’s another important thing I think that you take away from this game.

Stephen Means (11:28.819)

So in the name of basically being balanced here and not going too far either way, and we’ll do this with every position group, even the offensive.

Stephen Means (11:40.029)

That play at the end of the first half. It’s ugly.

Stefan Krajisnik (11:42.178)

Yeah.

Stephen Means (11:47.049)

Any worry, because sometimes with playmaking quarterbacks, sometimes they can go too far and you got to reel them back in. Now, Will Howard’s older, right? And so maybe that’s been worked out of him a little bit more than it would have if he was a second year quarterback making his first year as a starting quarterback. But still that’s ugly and kudos to Trevion Henderson for having the wherewithal to just jump on it and letting it be dead because it’s 17 to three at that point. It could be 17 to 10 very easily. Any concern?

At all about. Playmaker quarterback maybe tries to do something a little too much in a game where he probably just needs to let it the play die. Any concern about that at all? Just based off of we did see a small moment of it on Saturday.

Stefan Krajisnik (12:34.828)

Yeah, I don’t think so. I just think he’s if he was maybe a younger quarterback, I’d be a bit more concerned. I mean, he’s a veteran at that point. The offense was still kind of trying to find some rhythm. I think he was just trying to do too much at that point. It’s his first game at the shoe. The office struggling to find rhythm. You don’t want to go into halftime. You know, kind of just just putting the ball away and feeling like you left points on the board. And I think he tried to do a little too much on that play, no doubt. But but there were so many plays where he was smart and knew to threw it away.

or knew what to do with it, that I don’t know. I would have to see it happen a few more times to really think it’s a problem. I just don’t think right now that’s something I’m too concerned about. But it’s a fair question. It’s a fair question, no doubt. Because you’d see it with guy like, the guy we like to maybe jump a little bit too much and compare him to is Josh Allen without the arm train. Josh Allen has a lot of reckless plays, a lot of turnovers that I don’t think Will has as much of that in him that Josh Allen.

Stephen Means (13:24.616)

Yeah.

Stephen Means (13:31.165)

Josh Allen and Ben Roethlisberger’s names were brought up multiple times during the broadcast. think it’s fair, because he’s a bigger quarterback who can run and can make some things happen with his legs. Okay, I just wanted to bring it up just to be fair because.

Stefan Krajisnik (13:43.372)

Yeah, no, it could have been the worst play of the game easily. Maybe it was the worst play of game.

Stephen Means (13:46.494)

For sure. You know, it was definitely the worst offensive play. Definitely. He didn’t get asked about it after the game because it’s in that moment. It’s like, hey, first game and shoot. It’s a lot of just routine stuff. He did. He did bring it up himself. And I hope I get to ask Will Howard about that on Tuesday because it’s just it’s one of those plays in all seriousness where if you play sports, as soon as you make the play, all you’re thinking about is that film session is going to be annoying.

Stefan Krajisnik (13:49.646)

You

Stefan Krajisnik (13:56.814)

But Ryan Day brought it up himself though.

Stefan Krajisnik (14:14.386)

Hahaha

Stephen Means (14:14.409)

Cause you know, he’s, your coach is just going to run it back time after he’s not going to say anything. He’s just going to run it back like 12 times and stare at you. And you’re going to know, I don’t know what I was thinking. I don’t know. It’s just, you had a brain fart. It happens. Okay. That’s Will Howard. Let’s take our quick break here then we’ll come back and we’ll talk about the offense and we’ll talk about the defense here on Buckeye Talk. We’re back on Buckeye Talk talking Ohio State’s 52 to six win over Akron. We talked to Will Howard who was 17th of 20 after 228 and three touchdowns, another eight yards rushing.

Let’s start defense because I think the offense is going to be a longer conversation. Ohio State gave up 177 net yards against Akron, 47 rushing yards on 35 attempts, 130 yards passing on 29 attempts. Though I don’t even think they got over 100 yards until late into the fourth quarter when the backups are in. So what you’re talking about in that situation is yards per play. 2 .8.

yards per play for the defense. First question off of this, Stephane, who’s your defensive player of the game?

Stefan Krajisnik (15:25.09)

think it’s JT Tupeloa. He was in the backfield a ton. And he had a play too in the second quarter where he kind of undercut a screen and forced. think that was the third down play so he to force in a punt. He was all over the place in this game. And it helps when on the other side of line, Jack Sawyer was also having himself a game. But he’s a guy that I watched back and I’m like, it seemed like JT was just in the backfield every play, making something happen. So I thought he played really well.

And I think the defense, it was weird kind of walking out of it because you didn’t feel like it was necessarily a dominant performance by them. It was a pretty good performance. think Akron just like was so slow and ran so much time. It felt like the defense was on the field forever when they were like, I think Akron ended up winning the title possession. I know they were up a decent margin at some point in the fourth quarter. So I think it felt worse than it maybe was because like you said, the yards per play was really impressive.

But yeah, I think JT was a big part of what they were able to do and created so much up front that kind of opened some things up for the rest of the guys on the defense.

Stephen Means (16:33.385)

So I think a couple of things happen and you mentioned this on the Saturday pod after the game. The fact that Akron just kind of own the time of possession, which is what you have to do when you’re playing here. You’re playing keep away. Essentially they come out first drive of the game. It’s a 10 play 47 yard drive for five minutes and 18 seconds. And then all of a sudden they’re starting to just try to play football with Ohio State 236 56 and that’s where the interception happens. A three and out that’s 223.

Stefan Krajisnik (16:42.275)

Mm

Stephen Means (17:02.825)

12 play 45 yards, 326 that ends on a turnover on downs. Then you get the halftime. So that driver doesn’t really count. And they come out at the first drive of the half. And this is where I mentioned earlier, Will Howard was on the bench for 45 minutes of real time. Cause you have to take into account what a halftime is already in an off to the game. 10 plays that only went for 19 yards, but it’s six 15. So like.

Akron playing keep away is why Ohio State’s offense really probably didn’t get into a rhythm in the first half. But I think from a defensive standpoint, my Lord, Jack Sawyer, and I was talking with Jack after the game as he were headed up the tunnel, headed the interviews, he was very frustrated with how often he was hitting both of Akron’s quarterbacks, whether you’re talking about the starter Ben Finley or Taj Baloko came in as well. First and foremost,

If you’ve ever played college football 25, they have this wear and tear thing on the game. And if your quarterback gets hit hard enough, he’s all red. And it felt like a hackerage quarterbacks were like the worst possible version of wear and tear. Because during that second half, that first drive of the second half, that 10 play 19 yards, six men in 15 second drive, there were like a series of plays where Bullock and Finley, whoever was in the game at the time,

was getting smacked around by either Jack Sawyer, Lathan Ransom, JT Twin Malo out. Like they’re all just getting licks on him in a way that it was violent. It was quite violent. So I’m gonna say Jack Sawyer, who had four pressures and honestly probably could have had at least one sack if some things had gone the other way. think he had one close sack and then Tyler Williams got it at the end of that. But Jack Sawyer.

Stefan Krajisnik (18:44.024)

Hmm.

Stephen Means (18:52.103)

This was not a we’ve had this conversation about the defensive line in past. This was not a situation of, you can get pressure, but you can’t get home. No, no, Jack Sawyer was dominating for most of this game. It’s just Akron adjusted its game plan and was doing some RPO stuff. And quite frankly, Joe Morehead called a really good game, but he also did not do his quarterbacks any favors in terms of how many hits they were taking. So I would say Jack Sawyer, but then also you mentioned Lathan Ransom after the game. Those two were everywhere from.

Stefan Krajisnik (19:02.947)

Mm

Stefan Krajisnik (19:19.885)

Mm

Stephen Means (19:20.521)

bulk of the game on Saturday.

Stefan Krajisnik (19:22.732)

Yeah, no doubt. also I’ll just get it get into kind of along those same lines I went through and tried to find some guys that maybe Maybe I didn’t notice initially that played really good game I thought Mitchell Melton played a really good game It seemed like he was in on a few of those big plays and then about Kenyatta man. He was all over the place I’m pretty sure he was the one who put pressure on the quarterback when Denzel got that interception I think Kenyatta got a sack later in the game. Like he really impressed

It makes you feel pretty good about what you got on this defensive line when guys like JT and Jack, you know, aren’t here next season. So I was I was really impressed by him. He’s probably one of those guys that in terms of kind of the next unit I consider to be a player of the game. So really impressed with the depth on his defense and and Sonny Styles, too. And there wasn’t a lot of huge plays by him, but he was in a lot of plays. Ryan Day set it out to the game. That’s safety. Who was the Will Linebacker who just played Mike?

in the first game of the season, right? Like that’s really hard to do. That is not an easy transition to make. And he stepped in almost seamlessly. So I thought I was really impressed with the way he kind of conducted himself and the way he kind of ran this defense for lack of a better term. And then our Valries behind him came in and played some really good football as well. There’s the depth that we’ve talked about on this defense. You know, I know we’ve got some questions of safety, maybe more so than other spots, but the depth overall, really, really impressive in this one.

Stephen Means (20:19.347)

Mm

Stephen Means (20:47.593)

And especially on the defensive line where they played that depth, right? JT Turner -Milal plays 30 snaps, Jack Sawyer plays 31 snaps, excuse me, Mitchell Melton 15 snaps, Kenyatta Jackson plays 22 snaps, Houston who also made a play, Gabe Powers’ pick six was made possible because Edric Houston got his hand on the ball and popped it up in the air and Gabe Powers just ran in and he played 11 snaps, Joshua Mickens eight snaps.

I mentioned Mitchell Melton already. think Kaden Curry played 16 snaps and then on the interior, Kaden McDonald, 17 snaps. Jason Moore only seven snaps, which I thought that kind of thought he maybe could play more, but okay. It’s game one. Will Smith, seven snaps. Hiro Kanu, nine snaps. They credited Kaden Curry with the fumble recovery, but I think it was Hiro Kanu who actually forced that fumble, the fumble that made the American team for touchdown. Yeah.

Stefan Krajisnik (21:34.306)

Yeah, I noticed that as well. It was kind of hard to tell on a broadcast exactly who forced it, but Ryan Day was talking about Canoe as well after the game. think he’s the one who punched it out.

Stephen Means (21:41.737)

Yeah. Yeah, I think that was him. Tywhon Malone, four snaps. Ty Lee Williams, 40 snaps. Ty Hamilton, 35 snaps. So those two get the bulk, I just, and it felt like they were rotating. You saw a lot of different lineups of guys out there. You saw situations where, especially again, just cause the defense was on the field for so long to start the second half because of how Akron was doing things. They started out with Jack Sorin, JT Twiim with O -Hau, but Kenyatta Jackson and Kaden Curry finished out that drive by the end of it. And so,

Ryan Day has emphasized it the need to play a lot of these young guys and need to you might have 16 game season, but also something he said after the game that I think was extremely interesting and talking about the metrics of when you get to December, they’re paying attention to some of that stuff. And that’s I think some of those metrics are just health wear and tear. But I also think there is something to trying to show you’re a complete team when you’re worried about seeding, when you’re worried about, hey, are you going to be the number one seed? You’re going to be the number two seed three, four five. Right.

If you’re a deep, complete team on both sides of the ball, I do think that helps. So that might be something worth asking Rhydy about what he meant by those metrics and how much of that is health related versus just resume related when you’re trying to put together the best team in the country. I have one lingering question about the defense coming off of Saturday. And it’s about CJ Hicks. I thought CJ had some moments, six tackles.

a sack of a tackle for loss that sat came on the blitz. I thought he looked great in those moments, whereas James Lauren Nides was talking about he’s the best blitzer on the linebacker room. I think when you can send him to be a playmaker in a disruptor in the past game, I think he is wonderful. But I also saw why PFF and I understand we always say this PFF is not perfect. We understand that you take everything that they do, especially with the grades with a grain of salt. But of anybody who played at least

25 snaps on Saturday. He had significantly the worst grade 59 .1 in his 32 snaps and I think it’s because While he’s great at getting after the pastor great at being a blitzer blade it great at being a disruptor him out in space as a basic linebacker I think and sometimes still leave some things to be desired and that’s what the series of when he had the sack there were two plays before that where you saw that motion of all right out in space

Stephen Means (24:03.721)

He’s not always so quick to pull the trigger and just go. You can see him questioning himself a little bit. And it was fine because later ransom cleaned a lot of that stuff up. But while he’s aggressive as a disruptor, he’s not necessarily as aggressive as just a basic linebacker, which I think opens the door for like, hey, our Varese, who I thought was everywhere on Saturday and actually graded out pretty well because of that 75 grade on 33 snaps. And those two were rotating for most of the day. And depending on who was in the game was whether or not Sonny Stiles was the Mike or the will.

I think there’s an opening for even when Cody Simon comes back, Arval Reese might be a part of this linebacker rotation.

Stefan Krajisnik (24:40.94)

Yeah, I agree. And you pointed out even later in the game when some of the backups were in, CJ was still there. And I think it was for that reason of getting him some more reps where he’s not necessarily getting into the backfield and terrorizing a quarterback. So yeah, I agree. I think that’s a good observation. It’s definitely something to watch this year. But it is one of those reasons where you see Arvel play the way he did. And you’re like, that’s a good sign. Because if that’s case and you don’t feel comfortable with CJ out there on certain plays,

Then you’ve got another option that you feel really good about after walking away from this first game in our Val Reiss. think too, listen, it’s Akron, I get it. The talent level’s not great. And I know people have opinions on Joe Morehead and whatnot. I thought some of the play calling that they had was pretty intriguing and I think kind of tested Ohio State a little bit where it’s a play that you can usually be successful on, but just because you’re so much better than the other team in terms of talent.

But it’s something you can look on film and say, if it’s Oregon running this play, like we’re going to get burned here. Like I thought they had some fun play calls in there where, where you could kind of point at this and be like, you can at least watch the film from this game and take some things from it of how you defended certain things. I don’t know what Akron is doing with their quarterbacks. I’m a little bit confused. Bullock is, he’s a dude. Like he’s pretty good. That’s their best player at offense. should be in every snap of every game.

Stephen Means (25:58.609)

He’s a dude.

Stephen Means (26:07.593)

They were rotating the QBs. I think they had them both on the field at the same time during some plays. just, I get it, right? You’re not gonna win this game. So you’re probably just testing out things and trying to figure out. It’s funny. Both of these teams are using this game to get more information about their team. They’re just doing it in two very different ways. That is almost like, hey, don’t worry about the opponent. This is about us and getting ready to play big 10 player, getting ready to play mid American conference play. It’s just.

Stefan Krajisnik (26:12.802)

Yeah.

Stephen Means (26:34.833)

It was just weird. Every time I’d look up for my computer, there was a different quarterback in the game. And some of that might’ve just been because Ben Finley was getting knocked around and they were showing his face and it was like, he did not look like he wanted to play football by the end of that third quarter, which he went to Ohio State, but that was.

Stefan Krajisnik (26:42.094)

He feels the air.

Stefan Krajisnik (26:47.694)

That was tough. He got hit pretty hard out of your plays. There was one play where think it was the play where Jack, I think it was the second quarter, had like a clean spin move and then just rocked them. It wasn’t a sack. I think Fidley got up and was like, you’ve got to be kidding me, man. Like, I can’t take this anymore.

Stephen Means (27:03.975)

Yeah, no. Poor Ben. It’s tough. any other concerns that you might have about the defense based off week one?

Stefan Krajisnik (27:07.618)

you

Stefan Krajisnik (27:12.64)

Not really, to be honest with you.

Stephen Means (27:15.101)

It is what it is. Okay, switching over to the offensive side, player of the game first.

Stefan Krajisnik (27:22.946)

I think it’s Jeremiah It was so good, man I mean we’ll play a great game but but some of the routes that like we remember I remember the two touchdowns and in the deep ball There was a few other plays that kind of the sideline where we’re German Jeremiah made a nice catch It’s it’s impressive that in game one There was a few plays where if will Howard was trying to figure something out no one was open He was throwing it towards Jeremiah Smith. He was thrown away towards Jeremiah Smith like he he’s legit man

He’s legit and I thought he played really well and he did a lot of things for his offense even when the unit was kind of struggling to get some rhythm. But I will say if a Mecha has two touchdowns the game looks a lot different for him, right? Like if the referee’s given that one, if there’s no PI on the other one, I thought he played a really good game and it kind of gets glossed over I think just because of how good Jeremiah Smith was and how good his numbers were.

So I want to give him a shout out because I thought he did play really well and if he gets those two touchdowns, we’re talking about his game a lot differently than we are. I thought Jeremiah was really good man. I thought he was really good and I still hold on to him being the player of the game on the offense.

Stephen Means (28:30.633)

You had three receivers with at least 50 yards receiving, you two running backs with at least 50 yards rushing. I mean, that’s healthy balance right there, right? Especially in the game where you did spend a good amount of it on the sidelines because your opponent was playing keep away.

Stefan Krajisnik (28:44.04)

I was, I wrote this down and wanted to mention it too. The back shoulder throw to Jeremiah, I know it looks impressive because he kind of goes up and gets it. The footwork was so, like, land in balance with, like, how much of a struggle, anything like that, like, that’s a guy who’s ran that route a million times and is comfortable running that route a million times. And that was his first collegiate game. I mean, that’s hard to find,

Stephen Means (28:49.469)

Mm

Stephen Means (29:08.551)

Okay, I want to touch on the thing you said earlier about Will Howard and Jeremiah and on his throwaways, it felt like he was just throwing it away, but it was in Jeremiah Smith’s direction. But first, I don’t know if you heard this at the beginning of the broadcast, Smash and Dash as a nickname for Trayvon Henderson and Quincyan Judkins that they throw out there. I love it because it’s perfect. One is more Smash and one’s a Dash. I like that. I like that nickname.

Stefan Krajisnik (29:28.43)

I it.

Stefan Krajisnik (29:36.972)

Although Dash might have an argument after that block he laid out. That was my point of the game. That was awesome. He was so pumped.

Stephen Means (29:41.609)

That might be the most physical play Trevion Henderson has had in entire Ohio State football career. And he was more excited about that than I’ve ever seen him excited about something.

Stefan Krajisnik (29:52.428)

He was pumped, dude. He was celebrating on top of the defender and then he turned toward the sideline and was like pumping his ass. It was a cool moment.

Stephen Means (29:57.287)

Yeah. And the reason he turned is so he made sure he didn’t get a penalty for excessive celebration. I thought what made it so funny was that play came after the series on Akron when CJ slu*te picked out his blitz and the running back just didn’t do the right thing on his block. And like the announcers are talking about like that’s how you pick up a blitz right there. You see how it didn’t go under. But yeah, kudos to Treva Henderson there as well. I think the point you made about Jeremiah Smith and Will Howard and that connection, nine targets on Saturday.

Stefan Krajisnik (30:02.818)

Yeah.

Stephen Means (30:27.369)

One of which is a drop. So you take the drop out, it’s seven of nine, but it ends up being six of nine for 92 yards and two touchdowns. His longest was 45. That’s 15 .3 yards per catch.

Stephen Means (30:42.781)

Before the season, when we were talking about who was going to lead this team of receptions. And I think I was the only one who picked Jeremiah Smith. And a lot of that was just cause like he’s good, right? He might just be that good, but there is something to the connection with a quarterback and which wide receiver skillset maybe compliments what the quarterback is the best. Now when you’re also this good, that also helps, right? But that was the thing about Chris Olavi and Justin Fields is Justin really loved pushing the ball down the field.

Chris Olave was a speedster and a deep threat who could take the top off the defense. Perfect marriage. That’s why Chris Olave had 12 touchdown catches in 2019, even though he only had like 45 catches. In 2021, Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson are the two best receivers in the country coming into that season. But Jaxon Smith the Jigba ends up being the guy who has 95 catches for 1 ‚606 yards, right? Why? Because he maximized what made CJ special.

CJ’s ability to throw the ball over the middle, to anticipate throws, operate in the RPO, pull it and launch it. Him and Jackson Smith the Jigba were a quarterback wide receiver match made in heaven. And we didn’t get to see it again in 2022 because Jackson got hurt, unfortunately. Now Marvin’s everybody’s best friend because he’s Marvin, but also he and Kyle McCord went to high school together. So there is already a connection built in from high school. And so now that you’re restarting that,

Where’s the connection the strongest and it’s not saying that Carnell Tate and Will Howard don’t have a connection. Carnell Tate has four catch 58 yards. He also dropped the ball. That’s factual. He did drop a ball so he could have been five for five. Emeka Buka as we’ve already mentioned. Had a touchdown catch that for whatever reason they ruled not a touchdown catch, right? Emeka Buka’s very, very, very good. But it does seem like Will Howard and Jeremiah Smith might have something in a way that.

When you’re looking for you’ve got three great options and really four because Brandon is and I’ll talk about Brandon in a second. He’s very, very good. But if there is a strong connection growing between Jeremiah Smith and Will Howard to where it’s kind of like as Joe Burrow said effort, Jamar is down there somewhere. Some of those throwaways for Will might have just been effort. Jeremiah is down there somewhere. What did Jeremiah say after the game?

Stephen Means (33:03.473)

If they’re one of these receivers are one on one, they’re open. And if that’s the mindset he’s going to take with Jeremiah Smith.

think he might end up leading this team and receiving because of just because of that that idea of I escaped pressure and I’m just looking for a guy. number four has one person guarding him tossing that bad boy up and I’m living with the results and more often than not Jeremiah Smith is going to come down with it. If those stack up enough over the next 11 games, that’s how Jeremiah Smith ends up leading this team and receiving as a true freshman.

Stefan Krajisnik (33:37.218)

Yeah, I could see it man. The connection’s already there. It’s all the hype with Jeremiah. It ain’t going away. It’s only going to be building. And if he keeps playing like this, he might be the most talked about player going into that Oregon game more than Wilhauer, more than Emeka, more than anyone on the defense because he’s the type of dude that you want to watch play and you want to watch him play against the best teams. And that’s going to be a player that’s going to get a lot of attention. So.

Stephen Means (33:45.321)

Mm

Stefan Krajisnik (34:04.622)

You want to say anything else on Jeremiah? I wanted to say something about the running backs unless you got anything to add on Jeremiah.

Stephen Means (34:09.801)

One last thing on right on Jeremiah and then can move on to the running backs. There are a couple of plays where Jeremiah Smith had his hands in the dirt as a tight end. Okay, it’s the it’s the fall start. He has his hand in the dirt and he just didn’t get his hand down fast enough and that’s why they called it. And then on Quintchon Judkins run, he’s got his hand in the dirt. Some of that just might be you’re not sure about your tight end depth yet and you’ve got a six four, 250 pound receiver. So why not? But also also

Stefan Krajisnik (34:18.092)

Yep, yeah, actually I did have that noted, so I want to, yeah, good call.

Stephen Means (34:40.425)

Back in 2006, Ted Ginn had his hand in the dirt against Michigan and he leaked out for a deep 40 yard touchdown catch from Troy Smith to put them up 21 to seven in that game. And I am just wondering, Jim Trestle has been around this program a ton over the past year. He was even at the game on Saturday. He’s been around a lot. And Chip Kelly is an offensive savant and he will pull stuff out of the dark ages if he can. And I am just wondering if...

What we saw with Jeremiah Smith is a setup and the setup ends in Oregon or Michigan or a playoff game where for 12 weeks they’ve been showing this formation where number four is at tight end. And so it’s just a part of it. And that’s to Caleb Downs’ point and why he said if he’s going to play offense, it’s got to be at least 10 steps because it can’t just be a one -off play because then Jeremiah Smith puts his hand in there, knows who’s going to get the ball.

It’s got to be a series of plays that are all executed at a high level. Well, we saw one of them get executed for a touchdown in the other one. It didn’t look like he was getting the ball on that one either. It looked like a handoff, but I’m just saying if they run that. 12 times over the next month and a half. I am going to be on alert for Troy Smith hits a leaking Ted Ginn Jr. out for a 40 yard touchdown only this time Troy Smith is Will Howard and Ted Ginn Jr. is.

Stefan Krajisnik (35:49.368)

Mm

Stephen Means (36:08.125)

Jeremiah Smith, I’m just saying I’m just saying it now so that when it happens I can say I told you so late

Stefan Krajisnik (36:14.862)

It didn’t happen by accident. I like this kind of stuff happened It’s they they show the replay this is living my thought process when I saw that they show the replay of the penalty that he had not putting his hand On the ground soon enough and I’m sitting there and watching like that’s kind of weird. I’m like, well wait He didn’t randomly decide to line up there with his hand on the ground like this stuff doesn’t happen by accident. So yeah, that’s listen man, should be all these offenses are fun and they do some weird things and

Stephen Means (36:17.395)

Correct.

Stephen Means (36:33.615)

No no no no no

Stefan Krajisnik (36:43.427)

And nothing that he does is really ever by accident. So hopefully Dan Lanning doesn’t listen to this podcast.

Stephen Means (36:47.817)

I’m just saying.

I’m just saying it was interesting because you did it twice. So I’m just saying, I’m just saying, go ahead. What do you have about the running backs?

Stefan Krajisnik (36:56.494)

Hmm.

Stefan Krajisnik (37:01.134)

So we got a text from, let me make sure I got the, we got a text from someone at 6104 area code and they were talking about the running backs and listen, I’ve stood on the table for Quinchaun, Steven has stood on the table for Trevion and the text here was like, hey, I think you’re wrong. think Trevion’s better. Listen, I’m fine being wrong on that. You know why? Because they’re both very good running backs and they compliment each other really well. And it was fun to watch. They’re just, two different styles, right? It’s so hard to say like,

Stephen Means (37:14.515)

Yeah.

Stefan Krajisnik (37:30.784)

It’s, I think Trevion can be a better, like in terms of being a traditional running back, Trevion’s closer to that than like a Jamiro Gibbs. think Jamiro Gibbs is kind of like more of, of kind of this new age running back, right? I think Trevion still has a little bit of that old style in him, but Trevion and Quinchon remind me a lot of what you see with Dave Montgomery and Jamiro Gibbs with the lion and how good they make that offense. And they work really well together. And I you’re seeing that.

Stephen Means (37:48.691)

Mm

Stephen Means (37:54.312)

Yeah.

Stefan Krajisnik (37:58.944)

You saw that in game one with Quincheon and Trevion. And one thing that I said about Quincheon in this off season is the yards per attempt are not eye popping like it is for Trevion, right? And that was the case in this game as well. But over the course of the game, is, from when he was a freshman at Ole Miss to now, he’s very patient and over the course of a game can just kill you. And he has his first three runs, I think he had a combined two yards.

Stephen Means (38:26.707)

Mm -hmm.

Stefan Krajisnik (38:26.958)

And the offensive line did him no favors there, but you know, I mean, listen, the offensive line wasn’t perfect for Trey Brown either. His last 10 runs, 53 yards, we’re talking about 5 .3 runs per carry instead of the 4 .2 that he ended up with. It’s a little bit of a different story. And you just saw in the second half, what when, and Akron obviously doesn’t have the depth of a team like Oregon have, but like defenses can wear out as the game goes on. I think you started to see the Akron defense wear out and Quinchon was just as great. And he did that, he was like that at Ole Miss when he would have 20 carries.

It’s going to be great for him in this offense when he’s splitting the carries and he broke some big runs, bigger runs kind of late in the game there as Ohio State started gets some momentum and you’re watching and you’re like those two guys are very hard to defend at running back because there are different styles of play and they compliment each other really well. So this debate of which one’s better than the other guy, it’s almost tough to do because they are different. It’s kind of like what style of back do you prefer? It’s probably what you’re going to say that the better guy is. The moral of the story is you could have that debate.

back and forth for a while and they’re both really good. And as good as Will Howard is as good as Jeremiah Smith is, a lot of what those two guys do is going to establish what this team can do. And it’s why Ryan Day was talking about it post game of needed to establish a run, needed to establish run. It’s an old term. think people get sick of it because there’s a lot of coaches that say we need to establish a run and it kind of glossed over the fact that the running game just is not good. Now, Ohio State to have a lot of success is going to need to establish a run in some games and they have maybe the two best running backs in the country to do that.

and they’re gonna be really good with that tandem back.

Stephen Means (39:59.049)

I liked how they were used in the way that maximizes what their skill set was. Trayvon Henderson had eight carries for 65 yards. He also had two catches for 18 yards. It’s 10 touches for 83 yards. Quincheon Judkins, all 13 of his touches were runs for 55 yards and a score. I am going to chalk up the early, it didn’t look great, Quincheon Judkins to.

there Ryan day talked about how it’s a lot first time a lot of these guys played in Ohio Stadium. I’ll chalk some of that up to him, but also the holes weren’t there as well. I am interested to see what this looks like in a real game now in terms of the distribution of touches and that’s not just carries that’s passing as well because I do feel like Quinn Sean Judkins is that we’re putting the team away running back, right? It’s 28 to 17 against Oregon.

Midway through the third quarter and it’s like we’re going to win this game and now we’re going to weigh on Oregon and test that depth that defensive line in that front seven. Quinn chime. Here’s the ball 25 times versus. We need a hit. We need a home run. We need to go. His offense needs to move. Hey Travion, here’s the ball 25 times.

Stefan Krajisnik (41:12.972)

You saw that a little bit too, when they were sluggish a little bit, was a few plays that Trey got made that’s like, alright, now we’re moving. Now we’re moving.

Stephen Means (41:17.225)

Yeah. Yeah. It’s it’s and that’s why I like smash and dash. I like that Nick because it describes two running backs who give you two different things that you’re going to need at different points in the season, which is why I firmly believe there’s going to be a game where Trevion gets it 20 plus times and Quintchon only gets it seven. And then there’s going to be a game where Quintchon Judkins gets the ball 20 times and Trevion only gets it seven because it’s just what do you need that day?

and they seem ego less enough to be like, yeah, okay, I only got seven today. All right, that’s fine. But also, all right, I’m getting the ball today. Let’s roll with it. They compliment each other very, very well, both in their skillsets, but also the fact that I don’t think one of them is going to be pouting on the sideline if it comes a day where it’s very clear the other one probably needs the ball a little bit more. And so they’re just not going to be as much a part of the offense. But I do think at least for the first couple of weeks,

I like the fact that they handled it where they were just alternating series and then you also sprinkled a little bit of James peoples, which again, I’m high on him. I’m buying stock now. I’m buying stock now.

Stefan Krajisnik (42:24.194)

Yeah, he was great. He was great. Another thing too with the the Quin -Shan just we talk about how they compliment each other him and Trey Beyond.

This is where the $20 million conversation specifically with Lane Kiffin, I guess, brubs me the wrong way would be the right way to say it because it’s, listen, Ohio State went on seven transfers this year and they got him at play, like they didn’t go out and get Ali Gordon and Quinlan Judkis to come in. They went and got Quinlan because he compliments Trevion. They went and got Will Howard because he fit what they were looking for at They went and got Caleb Downs.

because they felt like they probably needed some more safety. He’s also the best player on the portal. You’ll go get him. But like they didn’t go out and say, transfer from Florida. Big name will take you transfer from USC. Big name will take you. They went out and got players to fill specific needs and players that fit into what they do and what they have on the roster. They did it very methodically. Not to say that someone like link, even who goes out and they get a ton of transfers didn’t. I mean, listen, he went out and got players because Ohio Ole Miss almost needed depth to match up with.

the Georges and the Bambas. needed more from the portal than Ohio State did. But there’s two different ways to approach the portal. And it’s not necessarily right or wrong. And I think what Ohio State did is smart. you see it right there with Quin -Shon and Trevon. They didn’t go get Quin -Shon just because, ooh, big name running back into portal. They went and got Quin -Shon because, ooh, big name running back into portal who can play very well alongside the running back star that we already got.

Stephen Means (43:51.497)

couple of the notes. One defensively, because I forgot to bring it up then. I love to the aggressiveness from the defense, even when it bit them in the butt. Denzel Burke snatches a ball away from a wide receiver for a pick later on in the game. He tries to jump her out. It doesn’t work. It didn’t end up in a 60 yard game, but I like it. I like it. I’m sorry. But last year they overcorrected with.

Stefan Krajisnik (43:59.842)

Mm

Stephen Means (44:17.449)

Jim Knowles’ philosophy of two to three explosive plays and you’re fine, right? Because we’re going to be aggressive and try to make plays. And if you’re going to be aggressive and try to make plays, sometimes you’re going to get burned. It comes with the territory of an aggressive defense. And I thought last year they overcorrected and were so, so focused on let’s not get beat deep. Let’s not give up explosive. Let’s not give up explosive. And yes, it worked. You didn’t give up a player 40 or more yards until Rutgers ran a trick play on you in order to do that. But it also.

You have all these stars and you’re not letting them be stars. You’re not letting them be playmakers. So again, this much talent, this much experience, I think it’s fine to trust Denzel Burke to pick his spots of when he tries to jump around. I think it’s fine to trust Jordan Hanco*ck who had a heck of a pass breakup, I think in the second quarter. It’s fine to trust him with that. It’s fine for Jack Sword to be able to pull off a spin move. Cause look what happens. Or JT doing to him a lot of pull off a spin move.

I think you have so many playmakers who are experienced and know what they’re doing that they know when it’s the right time to try to make a play versus when it’s not the right time to try to make a play. Did it get you burned one play against Akron? Sure it did. There was also one play where Lathan Ransom I think forgot his assignment and so a player leaked out behind him. So Akron got like a 25 yard gain off of it. But again, again, once out of every 20 plays, something went wrong because it’s football and it’s not gonna be perfect.

but I loved the aggressiveness where it felt like you had 11 guys on the attack and were not reckless with it. They picked their spots, but in a way that to Denzel Burke’s point that he made back in the spring, we’re dictating the offense, not sitting back going, let’s not get beat, let’s not get beat. And I love that. I just wanted to bring that up offensively just cause we’ve been glorifying Jeremiah Smith. You sometimes you just got to bring him back down to earth. He’s not a great blocker.

It just doesn’t matter because he’s Jeremiah Smith, but he missed the block on Ennis’s only target on another one of those bubble situations. Those quick, quick reads where it’s a very quick decision that I think I’m not sure if Dennis could have done much with it, but it’s the fact that Jeremiah misses his block. And so it throws off the entire play. Brand, speaking of Brandon, this is a note from my girlfriend who just happened to be sitting here with me while I was doing the rewatch. And so I’ll let her have her moment here. She comes in here as well. I’m in my, we’re in the office and

Stephen Means (46:41.833)

as Brandon this has this 36 yard punt return where he was and if you look at Brandon is that he’s like, I’m this close. I’m this close. And he was, he was very much that close. He is a super playmaker as a punt returner. So this is for my girlfriend. That boy, good number 11. That’s all he knows about it. I don’t listen. I just let her have her moment, but I’m going to say this on the record now because I’m probably going to make it my outrageous prediction later this week. Brandon is going to take one back to the house against Western Michigan. He is

Close and he is electric in the way that quite frankly. Yes, it’s going to be a thing on part return. But also if a Mecca Bucca had had a normal year last year and just gone pro and was a first rounder, I’d be like man Brandon Dennis. They’re going to be OK. That slot receiver spot is going to be a OK Brandon in this man. He’s got to play and I do like that Brian Heartline was rotating the receivers and it’s got to play. We got to see Bryson Rogers out there. Jaden Ballard played a little bit, but I just think.

I’m sold now that Brandon is actually going to take one down because he is active as a punt returner.

Stefan Krajisnik (47:46.988)

Yeah, I made a note of that. I made a note on the special teams as a whole. There was a couple of punt returns. I think they were both in the second half that there was a few penalties that brought him back. So that was a little bit sloppy at the end. thought overall, especially was good. thought Jayden Ballard was really good returning kicks. Obviously there was a field goal in there as well. So I think overall, I’m pretty happy with special teams. And I don’t think that’s too surprising because Ryan Day has talked about, you know, now that he’s not calling plays on the offense, he’s a bit more involved in special teams. And I think that’s something that

Stephen Means (47:59.934)

Mm -hmm.

Stefan Krajisnik (48:14.36)

You know, he didn’t make that guarantee of there’s going be a return for a touchdown this year for nothing. I think he knows, Hey, I’m involved. I’m going to make sure there is one. I’m going to make sure this unit is clean. and it wasn’t spotless against Akron, but it wouldn’t surprise me if you know, the game against Penn state game against Michigan, a game against Oregon, there’s a big play from special teams that kind of change some of the momentum in those contests.

Stephen Means (48:35.441)

Okay, so now let’s talk about the offense.

Stephen Means (48:43.273)

Only three pressures and only one of those pressures was actually given up by an offensive lineman. Quinshawn and Trey both gave up one and that can happen sometimes with running backs and pass bro. But Seth McLaughlin gave up the only QB hurry of the day by an offensive lineman. Here are the grades of the starters from best to worst. I’ll include Carson Hinsman as well because he played 10 snaps. It wasn’t as much of a rotation that right guards I thought it was going to be.

between Carson Henshman and Tegra Shibola and obviously Austin Serra ends up starting. So here are the starters. Carson Henshman has 68 .7, 10 snaps with starters. Austin Serraville, 66 snaps, 68 .7. Tegra Shibola, 56 snaps, 68 .6. Josh Simmons, 62 snaps with 67 .6, which before I continue there, Joshua Simmons, as we’re talking about Quinchun Judgkins and how sometimes it felt like he was not necessarily getting things blocked up for him the same way.

There was a pitch they ran the quinch on Judkins. I think could have gone for at least 12 or 16 yards and Joshua Simmons missed the blitzing safety that he was supposed to pick up. And even the announcers pointed that out. But Josh, Josh Simmons, 62 snaps, 66 point 67 .6. And then you have to go a little bit lower down. Josh Fryer, 59 .1 and 62 snaps and Seth McLaughlin, 62 snaps, 74 .9. He was the highest of any of the starters.

There was some good and some bad and it’s easy to react over to overreact after the game. But Stefan as you’re rewatching it back better, same or worse in terms of your evaluation of the offensive line.

Stefan Krajisnik (50:21.752)

Probably same, but I wasn’t too optimistic about it after after the game yesterday I I don’t know man. It just looked out of rhythm at times It looked out of sync and I know it some of that, you know, right? It’s fair, right? There’s there’s new pieces and new spots and guys that haven’t played here before I’m you’re trying to make it all fit and I get it also There’s a potential all -american who didn’t play in this game at left guard right like that that all matters And and it was the first game like there’s a million factors that did not help

this offensive line, right? Like there’s a lot that they had overcome in the first place, but it just didn’t look clean, right? And I think it’s, it’s just what I harped on yesterday, right? Like the benefit of the doubt thing, right? You don’t get that. The Ohio State offensive line doesn’t get that this year until they, until they give you something to prove otherwise. So it wasn’t like you’re nitpicking a little bit because of the struggles from, or not you specifically, but in general, we’re going to nitpick this offensive line just because of what happened last year. And that’s fine because

Today and yesterday overall, I think it was fine, but it wasn’t great. And it’s what we talked like this, this offensive line you wrote it yesterday is going to be or not going to be the reason Ohio State was a national championship because every other position on this team, you’re feeling pretty good about what you got, except for maybe tight end, right? And that might be Jeremiah Smith playing some tight end. You know, you might have the best receiver in the country getting a few snaps there. So it just, it was out of sync. It felt.

Odd it felt like even when the offense was finding a rhythm when will Howard was getting comfortable There were still times where the offensive line was a little bit off and you’re gonna get that over the course of a game I understand it’s football. All right, that’s gonna happen but You walk out and it’s still the one thing where it’s like I need to see this unit improve before I’m a hundred percent sold that this team’s gonna win a national title this year I think the offensive line is good enough still to win the big ten to win every game in the regular season But you see what Georgia did against Clemson and Clemson’s got a pretty decent offensive line

You see what Georgia did? Like that’s the kind of teams that you’re facing. And it’s definitely something that I walk away and I’m like, I need to see another step forward from this offensive line before I’m truly comfortable about what they can do in terms of the national skill, the national success this year.

Stephen Means (52:35.593)

So again, always taking PFF with a grain of salt. Here’s our run blocking grades. Seth McLaughlin and 29 run blocking snaps, 75 .9.

Stefan Krajisnik (52:46.254)

I thought Seth overall was pretty good.

Stephen Means (52:47.945)

I thought he was, I thought he was too. Tegra Shibola in 26 run blocking grades and that’s cause him and I think Carson Hinsman, his 10 snaps, a lot of those games with the ones when he rotated in. 26 run blocking snaps for Tegra Shibola, 66 .6. Carson Hinsman in his five run blocking snaps, 66 .5. Joshua Simmons in 29 run blocking snaps, 62 .2. And then you have to go a little bit further down. Joshua Fryer.

29 run blocking snaps, 55 .3 and an Austin Cereveld.

Stephen Means (53:22.697)

and 31 rumblocking snaps, because he got some work with the twos as well. Double -dipping again. 66 .2. So the grades are little more favorable than maybe First Watch would tell you. They’re not great, but they’re also not bad, right? They’re just kind of average.

Stefan Krajisnik (53:34.52)

Mm

Stefan Krajisnik (53:38.939)

It’s like I said, like it’s fine, but we’re talking about this team in terms of a national champion. Like that could be the difference being fine and being great as difference between the number two team in the country and the number one team in the country.

Stephen Means (53:48.689)

Right, right. I think on my second watch through...

My biggest problem with it isn’t that I feel like it’s going to fall apart like it did last year. It just feels like it takes some time to get going and the execution of the run game is not always there. And I think Chip Kelly being brought in to do some interesting things in the run game in terms of the style of runs they’re having, the style of blocks they’re doing, that’s all fine and dandy, but if it takes you...

20 minutes of real of game time to figure it out and to hit the right marks and guys to execute. And that’s why I brought up the Josh Simmons missing the safety blitz on the on the toss, because if he just executes it, it’s an eight, nine, 10 yard game. But who and who knows what Clint John Jenkins does at the second level? Right. Because once it running back into the second level, that’s on him. That’s on his talent level. Right. That’s getting to the second level of the offensive line’s job.

doing more at the second level is on the running backs job. I just, it’s not executing right now. And again, some of this might be fall camp was not great for the, for the offensive line, not in terms of production. think they had actually really productive fall camp, at least from the practices we saw, it’s just guys are in and out dealing with sicknesses. Donovan Jackson seems to have a lingering thing injury wise. And I know Ryan Day talked about like they’re expecting to play, but he might have it if he doesn’t have a setback, but

Who knows with soft tissue things sometimes it can be a setback, right? It’s very easy. It’s that they’re not as quick and simple as maybe a bone injury where she’s like, all right, you’re out for a month and you’ll be back. So we’ll see what Donovan Jackson, but Austin Sarah Ville has never really worked with Joshua Simmons in a game. Seth McLaughlin has never worked with any of these guys in a game. This is Tegra Shabola’s first start. So he’s never worked with these guys in a game. Joshua Fry has never worked next to Tegra Shabola in a real game, even if they work together all of fall camp. And so some of that is continuity. I understand that, but

Stephen Means (55:49.001)

It wasn’t ability for me. And I think right after the game, you’re thinking ability. That’s always where you go first. It’s like, yo, is this going to be good enough? I am now in a place of after rewatching it and sitting with it for 24 hours as we sit down to do this pod, it’s more of a can this offensive line execute? If you are supposed to rub off on a defensive tackle and get up to the second level and get the mic linebacker, can you get there? If you’re supposed to pull.

and take this guy out, do you do that part of it? Can you just do step one of your job? Because if you can do that, the skill position can do that. It’s almost the same as we talk about the quarterback, right? Will Howard doesn’t have to be a superhero. Just get the ball to the weapons and let the weapons be awesome. Offensive line, you don’t have to be a superhero. Just hit your mark. If you hit your mark, Quin -Chan and Trevion can do the rest for the run game. If you do, if you hit your mark.

in the passing game and you give Will Howard enough time, he’s going to find a Mecca. He’s going to find a car now. He’s going to find Jeremiah Smith. He’s going to find Will Casmeric. He’s going to find Jelani Thurman, which we didn’t mention with the tight ends. But I love that Keenan Bailey just rotated all those guys. All those guys played around 20 snaps because it’s very clear they’re still trying to figure out who their top one is, but also learning from the fact that they kind of ran caged over into the ground the last two years without any snaps he was playing and he would get to the end of the year and not make it. Twenty twenty two. He gets hurt against Georgia.

2023 he’s he doesn’t play in the Rutgers game and he’s dealing with a lot of injury. So I like that Keenan Bailey is using these first for a couple of weeks. It looks like to build some depth there, but this offensive line doesn’t have to be awesome in my opinion. You brought up Clemson. You just have to do your job and it didn’t feel like they were doing their job for the first two and a half quarters. And then once they settled in things got a little bit better. You saw Quinshaw started to run a little better.

Trevion had kind of been exposed to the entire game. We talked about James Peoples and how he was running the ball, especially in the second half when he’s got a lot of his carries. But it’s just, I just want to see the offensive line do its job next Saturday. Let’s start there and then we can start building towards, hey, is this championship caliber? But right now, just do your job.

Stefan Krajisnik (57:51.918)

Yeah.

Stefan Krajisnik (57:58.572)

Yeah, there are not a lot of plays where I watched it. said, that’s a great, you know, designed by Akron or something like that that made it tough. There was a lot of just like, dude, like you got to block that guy. You got to see that coming, you know, and you didn’t get some of that on some of those plays. So it’s it might take some time. I still believe. mean, listen, you and I both said that this offensive line could be really good this year and maybe it just takes a little time, right? Maybe the offensive line that we see against Michigan is way better than the one we saw against Akron. It’s fine. And that one will probably be

you ideally would be healthier than the one they saw against Akron. But before we can really say it’s a better unit than last year, or at least a significantly better unit than last year, we’re gonna have to see it for a few more games. It’s gonna be hard to jump to any conclusions with this unit just because of the stuff that went into Fall Camp with the virus that was going around, of the stuff that, you know, some of these injuries that they’re dealing with and whatnot. It’s gonna take a little bit of time, but you know, that’s what’s nice about the schedule, but also like, yo, like,

By the time he gets out of Michigan State game, it’s gotta be better than what you saw against Akron, right? And that’s not that much time, that’s reps, but it’s not that much time.

Stephen Means (59:06.761)

I didn’t like the execution. I thought some of the play calls. Yeah.

Stefan Krajisnik (59:10.862)

It just felt off. It didn’t feel good.

Stephen Means (59:15.721)

Cause I thought Chip Kelly tried to dial up some stuff and they weren’t able to execute it on the offensive line. So they weren’t able to execute it, but it was in the past game of running game. So that’s where I’m at. It’s not about for me, is it good enough? I think this offensive line is good enough. I think I saw enough in practices to think this offensive line is good enough. Is it going to consistently execute? Cause if it does that, I think that’s, that’s where it all starts to click. And I know I wrote that after the game, a lot hinges on his offensive line. Well, it hinges on its ability to execute.

because the talent is there. do believe that going forward. Okay, so that’s offense. Let’s defense. Let’s take our last break and then we’re just going to do something. We’re going to try to do this every single week and just kind of look around the country to wrap up this Monday pod at some interesting things. Obviously we watched the 330 game, so it’s not like we were watching other games in full, but we’re paying attention because there’s 18 teams in the Big 10 and there’s what like 16 teams in the SEC right now. So we have to pay attention to these things because Ohio State is going to make the playoff unless something goes drastically long. So wrong. So we have to continuously check in.

and what the rest of the country is doing. So we’ll do that very quickly when we come back from this final break here on Buckeye Talk.

Lots of football. And it was kind of all over the place. You had some top 25 opponents playing each other. You had some teams who were playing similar to opponents to what Ohio State was playing against Akron, where it’s more about, hey, this is your first look at your team, but you’re probably going to blow this team out. It’s fine. You’re not really worried about the score. I’m Stephen. That’s the fine. We’re wrapping up our Monday. I’ll name this pod later. I have we have to talk about Oregon, Stefan. So let’s let’s put Oregon in Michigan to the side for right now.

Because obviously we’re gonna have to touch on those two games. Most intriguing game of week one for you that mattered to Ohio State outside of those two games.

Stefan Krajisnik (01:00:48.759)

Okay.

Stefan Krajisnik (01:01:00.758)

Yeah, I mean, it’s just kind of the easy answer, but I think it’s the Georgia game, man. Like it took George a little bit to get going. They were kind of sloppy at the start too. And it was kind of a reminder of, you know, they’ve got some moving parts as well that they’re trying to figure out. And you’re trying to figure out against a Clemson defense that at least I think is, better than average probably this year, right? They still got some talented guys on a defense. then when I started to click for Georgia, man, you’re, you know, we were watching that game in the press box that on the TV. And it’s like, when I started to click.

They just look bigger and stronger than anyone that they’re on the field with. Even a Clemson, even at times it’s been like that against Alabama. It’s been like that against SEC teams where when they start to click, it’s, it’s scary. And then they, they look like they’re on a mission to prove people wrong from last year. Right? A lot of the hype is a lot of the talk is on Florida state and you kind of forget that Georgia’s only loss was that SEC championship game and they were pretty good team too. And, you see the way they’re playing the way Carson Beck got comfortable.

as that game went on, they’re a force man. And I really hope things click for Ohio State so we can see Ohio State and Georgia playing the national championship game because I think those are the two best teams, right? And we wanna see them play against each other as the one seed and the two seed. But they’re scary, man. And it looks like Kirby Smart did all the right things this off season. And they played that game without ETN, which was probably their best.

transfer edition, right? was out, I’m checking to make sure. Yeah, he was out for the game. And Nate Fraser comes in as 83 rushing yards for them. It’s like, they’re deep. They’re built to play 16 or 17 games. I think they asserted themselves as the number one team in the country early in the year right now.

Stephen Means (01:02:44.457)

think Ohio State broke Clemson.

That’s what I think. also think, no, I also think Dabo helped Ohio State break Clemson by not adapting to what college football is today. You have to take transfers Dabo. You have to do these things. You have to participate in IL. You have to, you have allowed your program to become a tier two program because you decided that you were above where college football was headed. So this is your reward. You get blown out by Georgia. You would have blown out Georgia five years ago.

Stefan Krajisnik (01:02:49.322)

do you feel bad for Dabo?

Yeah.

Stephen Means (01:03:18.121)

I think that’s a fair thing to say. Five years ago, that score is 34 to three Clemson. And now this is where you’re at.

Stefan Krajisnik (01:03:26.242)

But I mean, and Ohio State were the only teams that could be on the field with Georgia a years ago.

Stephen Means (01:03:31.965)

Like, well no, Georgia was still building. Georgia had, five years ago.

Stefan Krajisnik (01:03:36.654)

I’m in Ohio State. Did I say Georgia? Yeah, Batman, Ohio State were the only two teams that could be on the field with them like five years ago.

Stephen Means (01:03:39.527)

Yeah, yeah, you make cleansing?

Stephen Means (01:03:44.393)

Yeah, and now because of your stubbornness, this is where your program is. You’re losing by 31 in a game that quite frankly, even with it, when it looked ugly in the first half, which we did get to see before how they clicked off, I think we were all saying, this looks like the type of game where it’s going to be a game for a half. And then eventually George is going to go, wait, we’re better than these guys. This is what happened. So this is where you’re at. I think.

Stefan Krajisnik (01:04:02.264)

Yeah, that’s exactly what happened.

It’ll be hilarious if Clemson moves on from dab on they go out and get like link if and or something. There’s like we’re changing everything.

Stephen Means (01:04:11.561)

Lord. Yeah, yeah, which entire entire philosophy changes over here. So I think that was a good one to bring up because the last time Clemson was seriously in the conversation was in the Sugar Bowl in the 2020 season. Ohio State got its look back and it’s been kind of downhill ever since. So great random bring up. I have a series of games here. There were a lot of top 25 teams who played and we’re recording this pod Sunday afternoon. So LSU and USC have not played yet Sunday.

night at seven thirty in Florida State who is and one already so they’re going to drop in the AP poll anyway but they play Boston College on Monday at seven thirty so we’re saying this while these two ranked opponents still have games to play but there were six shutouts in games that featured at least one ranked opponent and I just thought that was Iowa shuts out Illinois State for you to nothing you’ve got Alabama

63 to three over Western Kentucky Ole Miss 76 to zero against Furman, Texas, 52 to nothing against Colorado State and Missouri 51 to nothing against Murray State. That’s why I think I said this as a game two. I think it’s fine if you feel like Ohio State probably should have shut out Akron now also Joe Moreheads, probably a better play caller than a lot of those other teams have had. And so I get it. And but it’s OK to feel like, hey, man, we should have been amongst those shutouts. You only have six points. There was two field goals. So it’s fine. It’s fine.

It’s just understandable. There’s six shutouts among ranked opponents in Ohio State, probably with the best defense in the country. Could have been among those, that’s a nitpicky thing to say at this point when you’ve a game by 40, which I saw a tweet from someone. I think it was the best tweet ever. Ryan Day’s ability to beat teams by 40 and still tick off the fan base is just like the most funny thing in the world. That’s his life. He wins by 40 and then we nitpick his team. So it’s fine. It’s fine.

Penn State Virginia Tech quality first win for Penn State on the road. I not Virginia is actually me, West Virginia. I think there may be Penn State was favored by like eight at one point, but it was one of those games where if you’re a better, thinking, I’m to go ahead and take West Virginia in that game because you might be able to steal some money there. And so you all look pretty quality in that game. We’ll see. Right. I think it was a decent win for James Franklin, but it also might fall under the category of these are the types of games Penn State wins, but they don’t necessarily win the games against.

Stephen Means (01:06:34.664)

Like minded opponents, Julian Fleming, no catches for Penn State on on Saturday, which is interesting. But you are in that game 11 for 17 to 16 and three touchdowns. Decent day for your hour. OK, let’s do it. Let’s talk about Oregon.

Stefan Krajisnik (01:06:47.694)

Well, I made the joke too when when Acre went up three nothing and I think Penn State was up like 20 to six against West Virginia. I was like, wow, if you were if you were to make the line right now for Ohio State at Penn State, how much is Penn State favored by?

Stephen Means (01:06:53.597)

yeah.

Stephen Means (01:07:01.481)

We say some reckless things in the press box sometimes guys good time, okay Let’s start with Oregon because they play them first It’s 14 to nothing at halftime and I think it’s 14 to 7 With going into the fourth quarter, I believe is a score and then Oregon eventually puts that game away and wins 24 to 14

Stefan Krajisnik (01:07:07.968)

Yeah, it’s a good time.

Stephen Means (01:07:28.841)

Dylan Gabriel, 41 of 49 for 380 yards and two touchdowns. That’s not a good day. 49 passes and you have 380 yards and two touchdowns. That’s not a day. just, it’s the reason we’re talking about this, because it’s putting some things in perspective. Ohio State had a weird half. I wouldn’t even call it a bad half. had a weird half against Akron. Oregon almost lost to Idaho on Saturday. So I do want to ask the question. Now we’ve seen both Ohio State and we’ve seen Oregon. Now obviously they’re both going to play

Stefan Krajisnik (01:07:36.59)

Don’t let the completion percentage fool you.

Stephen Means (01:07:57.737)

four or five more games before they get on the field with each other. But this is first impression of Oregon, where they have the quarterback that’s the preseason offensive player of the year, according to Cleveland .com. They have a team where it’s like, hey, is Dan Lenning coming? Can he finally, does Ohio State finally have a competitor here? Are we sure Ohio State’s the best team in the Big Ten this year? And then you win by 10 points against Idaho.

Stefan Krajisnik (01:08:07.736)

Favorite to win the Heisman.

Stephen Means (01:08:23.995)

Early reactions, early impressions of Oregon, early impressions on what to expect as we continue to watch this over the next couple of weeks of what that game might be like for Ohio State. you, are you more confident in Ohio State? Are you just like less confident in Oregon? Like how would you describe your feelings towards that October 12th game after first impressions of both of these teams?

Stefan Krajisnik (01:08:45.388)

Yeah, I mean, it’s definitely probably a little bit of an overreaction because I had Oregon winning that game and Eugene this year. I would like today I would flip my prediction because not that my opinion on Ohio State has changed much. I thought that they were a really good team. I still think they’re a really good team. But Oregon, I thought if nothing else was going to have a really good offense, I knew their defense was going to be all right. Maybe it would be the shaky part of the team if you had a nitpick. That’s I mean, we want to give Will Howard some slack for, hey, first game you’re trying to get some groove like.

Dylan Gabriel looked way worse in his first game and I’m not letting him complete. Listen, you threw the ball 50 times against Idaho. That’s not how it’s supposed to work. I hope that’s not the game plan. Bo Nix did not have to throw it 50 times against bad teams like that. Listen, maybe Idaho wins every game from here or not. We’re like, hey, Idaho is a pretty decent team, but I’m not counting on that. Let me find the game real quick because I just want to see some of the numbers. How many rushing yards are we going to have?

Stephen Means (01:09:22.526)

Not great.

Stephen Means (01:09:43.113)

107.

Stefan Krajisnik (01:09:44.206)

And 23 of that is is Dylan Gabriel sacks or negative yards. Let’s say you take that out 120 or like 130. That’s not Ohio State ran for 200 yards. Ole Miss and from some of the reports I saw like they’re running in and look great. They had 240 rushing yards against NFCS team. like still like your offensive line is supposed to dominate against these teams and you’re supposed to build an early lead and just run, run, run. You had 130 rushing yards against

Idaho? That ain’t clean. That ain’t promising.

Stephen Means (01:10:19.785)

I’m just, I think that.

Stefan Krajisnik (01:10:20.718)

And you didn’t pull away the way Michigan was able to pull away from Fresno. I know it was tight, but Michigan at least was able to get, you know, pick six and kind of pull away a little bit. Like Oregon, when we were recording last night, I think it was fourth and two, they were up three, it was 17 to 14 and they convert it for a touchdown. Like if your receiver drops that, if that pass is broken up, I don’t know as the ball, needing a field goal to send it to overtime, the touchdown beat you.

Stephen Means (01:10:37.395)

Yeah. Yeah.

Stefan Krajisnik (01:10:50.018)

Let’s have a good...

Stephen Means (01:10:52.519)

If Ohio State had played against Akron the way Oregon played against Idaho.

we would have had a very different first hour of this pop.

Stefan Krajisnik (01:11:02.706)

Yeah, would Ryan Day be coached? No, I’m kidding. I’m kidding.

Stephen Means (01:11:07.475)

we would have had a very different, I think it would not have been the tone that you would have wanted to set for a team that you spent nine months talking about in the way that.

created a unfair narrative of national championship robust. And so I think it just put some things in perspective of again, Ryan Day knows how to tick off a fan base, but still won by 40. But it just makes it makes me want to pay attention to Oregon again this week because I think Ohio State is just going to do what they did this past week. Maybe it’s a little cleaner to start the game, but Oregon gets to play like a real kind of real football team next week in Boise State, Ohio State doesn’t.

And I am now going to be paying attention to Oregon and see like, okay, it’s still gonna be a big game. Oregon’s probably still gonna win all these games, but we’re looking, we have to spend five weeks just poking holes in both of these teams. And Oregon has already has a bigger hole. They’ve already poked a bigger hole than Ohio. Cause our thing with Ohio State’s offensive line is can you execute? With Oregon, it’s like, hey, can you just play better on all three phases of college football? Can you do that? And so that 10 PM game,

Stefan Krajisnik (01:12:07.203)

Well, this.

Stephen Means (01:12:20.241)

is going to be kicking off essentially as Ohio State’s wrapping up its game with Western Michigan. So I’m sure as we’re recording that post game pile will be well have one that Oregon game in the background paying attention to it. But it’s just that’s what it could have been for your Ohio State and it wasn’t. And I don’t want to say that you shouldn’t, you know, have issues with your team because they’re not perfect either. But you didn’t struggle in a fourth quarter game with Akron the way Oregon struggled in a fourth quarter game with its act.

Stefan Krajisnik (01:12:46.99)

Yeah, no doubt. And the boys I was just looking at the line. DraftKings has Oregon as a 20 and a half point favorite. I thought it was honestly gonna be a little bit closer to that. Boise is one of those G5 teams that I think the reason everyone’s picking Liberty to be the G5 team is because Liberty is probably gonna go undefeated and Boise was probably gonna have a loss and was gonna be at Oregon. Boise’s got that game circle because they’re telling themselves, hey, if we win at Oregon, we have the clear path to getting that last playoff spot and going undefeated because the schedule after Oregon for Boise State is

Stephen Means (01:12:54.867)

in under.

Stephen Means (01:13:03.719)

Yeah. Yeah.

Stefan Krajisnik (01:13:15.79)

is pretty easy. I don’t know, man. I wasn’t convinced to think that, you know, we’re going to cover 20 and a half against a team like Boise. I mean, I don’t know. It’s always hard betting those games because maybe Oregon does click and you end up, you know, winning by third year, something like that. like based on what you saw in week one, it ain’t promising.

Stephen Means (01:13:36.169)

And from the Michigan standpoint, obviously they ended up winning that game 30 to 10 over Fresno State. They’re starting to walk on Davis Warren. Alex Orji’s role seems to be very similar to what it was last year where it’s more, just comes in as more of an option quarterback, very similar to what Tim Tebow was during Florida’s national championship season during his freshman year, where Devin Brown was last year when he was healthy. I just, the only reason we’re bringing up here, we’re not, it’s just, we have to keep an eye on Michigan.

And it’s very clear that their quarterback situation is still up in flux right now. The defense is really, really good, but the quarterback situation, I’m still not sure what to make of the Ohio State Michigan game. Again, there’s 11 weeks to play, so we’ll see. But it’s just early impressions. You’re starting to walk on quarterback because you’re that unsure about your quarterback situation heading into the season.

Stefan Krajisnik (01:14:27.15)

Yeah, it’s I don’t know the the final score they end up pulling away there obviously and it looked a lot different but it was 16 to 10 Like pretty well into the second half. Was it in the fourth quarter still 16 to 10? Yeah, yeah, so like that I don’t know it’s I Think Michigan’s a team that by the time we get to that that game against Ohio State I think they’re gonna be better than they are now because I think their team with some change and they got a you know Find a groove a little bit But there I mean their season might be over by then

Stephen Means (01:14:37.424)

It was and they scored 17 in the fourth quarter.

Stefan Krajisnik (01:14:57.846)

You think I’m gonna beat Texas? I don’t.

Stephen Means (01:15:01.033)

played Texas this week and obviously that’s something we’re gonna be paying attention to. Let’s close with this actually because we didn’t do it during the week because we said we were gonna wait till today. 90 seconds, just thoughts on the Connor Stallion’s documentary. Just 90 seconds. Go ahead.

Stefan Krajisnik (01:15:10.168)

Mm

Stefan Krajisnik (01:15:17.843)

yeah, I we’re going to do that. Wait, give me give me five seconds to pull up my notes that I had on that. Go you go ahead and let me find my notes here.

Stephen Means (01:15:22.889)

Okay, so I’ll go.

Stephen Means (01:15:27.625)

I hated it. I hated every bit of it. I thought we learned absolutely nothing. I thought the most interesting information we learned is that Connor Stallions had grown up a Michigan fan and he just so happened to be at Navy in 2014 when JT Barrett made his debut as Ohio State starting quarterback. I to that season. just, clearly they cheated. I just didn’t feel like the documentary was a valuable piece of information.

I just thought it validated anybody who thought they were cheating. And now we just got to see the process play out and see what their punishment is going to be. Other than that, I hated it. And I tweeted this out. I was halfway joking, but I also wasn’t joking. I turned it on within 15 minutes. I turned it back off and it took me a good 45 minutes to an hour to just kind of reset my mind and turn it back on so I could actually watch the thing. I hated it. I hated every.

Stefan Krajisnik (01:16:18.22)

Yeah, it was it was not great. I thought the documentary as a whole was kind of boring. They they just like if you if you look up the Wikipedia of Conor Stallings and the science school scandal, just read that page. It just read it rehashes everything that happened. You don’t learn and you learn about Conor Stallings, who he kind of is as a person who he was growing up like that. Maybe we didn’t know because he was kind of a mystery man for a while. Outside of that, when it comes to scandal itself, you don’t really learn a whole lot new. Couple things I wrote down.

Stephen Means (01:16:30.322)

You good?

Yeah!

Stefan Krajisnik (01:16:46.432)

He joined the Michigan staff by going to like a Harbaugh coaching clinic and just casually walk up to Partridge and was like, hey, can I join the staff? And they were like, sure, show up at the first game, you’re going to do this. It’s that easy to join the Michigan coaching staff and get a sideline pass.

Stephen Means (01:17:00.563)

When Ohio State has its coaching clinic in April, I’m going to be on the Ohio State coaching staff next year because clearly it’s not easy to do it.

Stefan Krajisnik (01:17:06.574)

It’s like it’s very like I understand him walking into the Navy coaches office and getting himself a job easy. That’s whatever it’s Navy football. Come on Michigan football under Jim Harbaugh. That doesn’t make a lot of sense. He’s talking about his manifesto in the documentary and he has this whole detailed map of where you gotta recruit and where the best players are coming from and he’s like, well, I’m not going to share the details because I only Michigan to know that you can see on the map that all the dots are in the Southeast.

Stephen Means (01:17:16.851)

Yeah, man. Yeah.

Stefan Krajisnik (01:17:35.468)

Yeah, the best players to come in from Florida and Texas and Georgia and Alabama and Mississippi and Louisiana.

Stephen Means (01:17:40.581)

Also didn’t need you to tell me that. know where the players went. Elite players come from the South for lot of the time, especially trenches players and a lot of elite quarterbacks come from California. We know that already.

Stefan Krajisnik (01:17:42.838)

Yeah, exactly. I’m not sharing this.

Stefan Krajisnik (01:17:51.544)

He’s like, he’s like, I’m not going to share the secrets to this. I’m like, buddy, I see on your map that you have Florida, like highlighted, you have Georgia. Like, yeah, that’s how football works.

Stephen Means (01:17:59.529)

Just look around the country and see where the players are from.

Stefan Krajisnik (01:18:03.446)

Yeah. another note, don’t take anything he says seriously because he got caught in real time lying about the central Michigan thing. Cause Dave Portnoy, his buddy is on there saying, yeah, that was him at the central Michigan game. Two seconds after Connor claims to not be at the central Michigan game. He also says, look at the, he points out the picture. He’s like, does this look like me? And he starts laughing. Yeah. It looks exactly like you. You just shaved for the documentary and you had facial hair for that game. Really stupid. He admits to buying the tickets. He

The line where he’s like, yeah, I had friends who went to the game. Yeah, I had friends who sent me video. What was I going to say? It’s like getting a Christmas present that you don’t like. What are you going to say? Please don’t send me the video.

Stephen Means (01:18:42.471)

Yes!

Stefan Krajisnik (01:18:44.71)

Number one, yes. Number two, your friends happen to take video like you had all these friends who all happen to have the same idea of having to take videos of the opposing team’s sideline and send it to my one friend, Connor Stallions. Like. Just the whole thing is just it’s.

I don’t know what the punishment is going to be and we can go back and forth on what the punishment should be. Whatever. There is this deep underground sign stealing thing that I believe a lot of teams do. Maybe not to the extent that Michigan did it. And that’s where you cross the line and you kind of admit in the documentary that you did cross that line. So we’ll see whatever the punishment is. I don’t know. We can get into that for hours. The whole thing is just, it’s shady.

and you’re kind of admitted to it while also like kind of laughing about it. And that just, it just all rubs me the wrong way. It’s, if you’re an Ohio State fan, the documentary will make you very mad. So if you want to just enjoy your night, just don’t watch it. That’s what I would say.

Stephen Means (01:19:46.065)

He has a photographic memory, but can’t recall anything. That’s interesting. just, the sign, so it’s everybody still signs. Yes. Everybody doesn’t buy tickets to other teams games, show up, take videos of their signs and pictures of the signs and do advanced. That’s not, it’s all about sign stealing. It’s about advanced scouting. So that’s the one thing that has frustrated me. And I’m not going to go long on this because I promise you, I just don’t want to. Plus I don’t know if people want to hear about this anymore, but it’s just, this is not about sign stealing.

And there are a lot of people out there who are trying to dumb this down and go, people who don’t know about football think sign stealing is a bigger deal than it is. And it actually has that big of an impact. That’s not what this is about. Obviously, if you’re on the sideline during a football game and you have a person, because there are a lot of people on the sideline from coaches to GAs to QCs, there’s a lot of people down there. If one of those people just so happens to be looking at the people on the other sideline who are typically in all these bright colored polos,

so the players can see them and spins the first half looking at the signals, you can steal their signs. That is not illegal. We know that. Everybody knows that. That’s been very much said already. This is not about that. This is about buying tickets to another person’s game, to an opponent’s games and advanced scouting. So please stop insulting the intelligence of fan bases by making this about something simpler than what it is.

Cause it’s not that. And I think that has been the most frustrating thing for me is people trying to talk stupid to a fan base who feels insulted by how this has gone for the last three years. And that’s not just about Ohio State. Yes, they are the most impacted cause they are their arrival. And it’s greatly impacted the overall legacies of some really great players who have come through this program in recent years. CJ Stroud, Jackson Smith, the Jigba, Paris Johnson, Marvin Harrison Jr, Michael Hall.

elite football players who came through this program and never beat Michigan, never won a Big Ten Championship game. And if it comes to find out that the reason why is because someone was doing something illegal, we have to acknowledge that and stop making it this simple version of, Michigan was standing on the sidelines during the Ohio State game, figuring out its signs. No, they knew their signs because they bought tickets to games to learn them ahead of time. So please stop insulting the Ohio State fan base.

Stephen Means (01:22:09.693)

Dear national media, that’s all I have to say.

Stefan Krajisnik (01:22:09.698)

Yeah. I, there’s a lot of people in their car listening to this. We’re probably nodding along as you said that. And I’m, I agree with you on that. Another thing too, that they, they kept trying to make it in documentary of like their national championship. Like they only won it because of the Connorsallians. Listen, Michigan was really good last year. And we saw after, after Connorsallians got cut, after all this came out, they still won a lot of games, a lot of really tough games on the road at Penn State against Ohio State.

Stephen Means (01:22:29.555)

They’re good football team!

Stephen Means (01:22:33.993)

Sure.

Stefan Krajisnik (01:22:39.022)

in the playoff. They won a national title, all right? But no one’s saying that they were a bad team last year. They keep being like, we were out to prove everyone. You were favorites in every game. Yeah. The whole Maryland thing, were like, I think it was against Maryland, were like, we beat them by 50, and they felt like they needed to relay their play calling by having the quarterback run to the sideline. You were playing Maryland.

Stephen Means (01:22:52.357)

schedule. Terrible. So then...

Stefan Krajisnik (01:23:09.134)

You’re in you’re offended that Maryland was like come on dude, like you were gonna win those games, right? The preface is the years before before you got caught those are the games we’re talking about now and guess what you didn’t win a national title those years So that doesn’t you know, no one’s No one’s trying to vacate those national titles. You don’t Yeah, you cheated and you still didn’t win but they end up in 2023 when you had a really good team, you know the best team in the country Yeah, you won

And nobody’s saying otherwise. Nobody’s saying that Michigan was bad because we saw in the later games that they still won those games. That doesn’t change the fact that you cheated.

Stephen Means (01:23:47.411)

just want the narrative to stop. Yeah, yeah, yeah. just, I didn’t like how this was starting to be foreign when it talks about the science thing, because that’s not the point. I felt like it was insulting to a fan base who is frustrated by the fact that they have had to see this rivalry get flipped. And maybe it wasn’t completely clean by how it got flipped. It’s one thing to, a team was just better than you. That’s hurtful, but you have to learn to live with that. It’s another thing where it feels like a team might have cheated. And now people are trying to tell you that, the cheating actually wasn’t that big of cheating. Who cares?

Stefan Krajisnik (01:23:47.662)

So that was our 90 seconds on Michigan.

Stephen Means (01:24:17.289)

When is it happened? They’re allowed to be mad about that stop insulting the fan base anyway Ohio State 150 yeah, I’ll say 152 to 6. I thought I saw some promising things I saw that saw some things that obviously still need some work, but I thought it was a good first start for Ohio State They’ll take the field again next Saturday to play Western Michigan at 730 night game. We’ll talk with Ryan day on Tuesday I’ll probably talk with the coordinator as well and will Howard about a lot of these things to get the text six one four three five three three

Stefan Krajisnik (01:24:24.11)

That was my best part.

Stephen Means (01:24:46.857)

won five two week free trial through 99 after that. I thought that was fun. 90 minutes of Stefan and Stephen breaking down Ohio State’s football game, but also just airing our grievances about a very, very, bad documentary for stuff.

Stefan Krajisnik (01:24:57.606)

Let me say one thing. Let me say one thing, too. I met one of our textures at the Darcy Griffin unveiling and a real cool having conversation with him. He was the one who who pointed out the Downing Town pronunciation for Will Howard’s first name. I appreciate that. Steven and I and Andrew, we all appreciate the feedback you guys give us. And it’s cool to meet you guys at these statue unveilings and the games and things like that. So shout out to him. Shout out to our textures and those that listen to the pod, man. We appreciate you guys a ton, especially as the

Stephen Means (01:25:08.999)

Downingtown. Yeah.

Yeah.

Stefan Krajisnik (01:25:27.362)

Season gets going here, we know we might run into some of you, so feel free to come say hi.

Stephen Means (01:25:30.889)

Yeah, we have a good time man. Get text 61435 03315 for Stefan. I’m Stephen. We’re out of here. That was Buckeye Talk.