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COLUMBUS, Ohio -- On this episode of Buckeye Talk, Stephen Means, Stefan Krajisnik and Andrew Gillis discuss insights from Ryan Day’s recent press conference, focusing on the pressing questions surrounding the Ohio State football team, particularly the offensive line and running back performance. They evaluate the current state of the offensive line, the hierarchy of running backs, and the challenges faced in the run game. The conversation also touches on special teams and player evaluations, while looking ahead to the upcoming matchup against Penn State. Thanks for listening to Buckeye Talk and sign up to get text messages from experts Stephen Means, Stefan Krajisnik and Andrew Gillis at 614-350-3315. Get the insider analysis, have your voice heard on the Buckeye Talk podcast and connect with the best Buckeye community out there. Latest Ohio State Buckeyes news How much is Ohio State football favored by against Penn State? Here are the Week 10 odds Meet Ohio State’s ‘Piggy’: The best offensive tackle college football never saw coming How will NIL work for Ohio high school athletes? Here’s what other states do Why one Big Ten coach is rooting for Ohio State to go undefeated: Buckeye Breakfast Read the automated transcript of today’s podcast below. Because it’s a computer-generated transcript, it may contain errors and misspellings. Stephen Means (00:05.065) Welcome back to Buckeye Talk. I’m Stephen Means, that’s the fun Christ thinkin’ that is Andrew Gillis and this is your Wednesday pod. In the morning, this afternoon, we’ll be going live on YouTube. Come hang out with us, come check us out, come hang out. We’re gonna be comparing the 2024 Buckeyes to the 2025 Buckeyes and trying to decide which group is better. But right now, we talked with Ryan Day for literally 13 minutes. 13 minutes and like nine seconds. It was the most lightning round of lightning rounds that there ever was a lightning round of, I think we got like four five questions in, every, I think everything Stefan that was like pressing probably got hit. I know the one thing I think that didn’t get asked is this was probably the best opportunity non Michigan week to ask Ryan day about Michigan and you didn’t get a chance to do that. Cause again, this was going very quickly, but I do think everything else in terms of things that matter in the immediate. Probably got asked right and it’s probably centered around Tegra Shabola first with the is he or is he not still your starting right guard when you play football next Stefan Krajisnik (01:06.997) Yeah. And I think that’s an important question to get answered because what’s ahead. Can I actually start by talking about something that was said that wasn’t Ryan Day saying it? Steven Means, we did a, Steven Means, he’s the cohost of this podcast and on YouTube, we did a video that Andrew was part of as well, talking about, you know, guys that were riding the bus for kind of as a sidecar moving forward. You did, did Kate and Curry. Stephen Means (01:17.16) Yes. Stephen Means (01:22.769) Stefan Krajisnik (01:35.111) And you made fun of us for, you know, pointing out some talented players on Penn State’s roster. And apparently me and Gillis think Penn State’s good. And you said Kate and Curry, you know, is one of the best defensive ends in the Big 10 this year. And we didn’t expect that because the Big 10 is loaded with defensive line talent. And the first two guys you named were on Penn State’s roster. Stephen Means (01:57.137) I don’t remember or recall this information. Stefan Krajisnik (01:59.607) You guys can find it on YouTube. video just posted. But the point is that Penn State, despite how bad they’ve been, they do have some talent along the defensive line. And if Ohio State’s running game is going to take any sort of a step forward, as it goes down this home stretch of the regular season, it starts against Penn State in a tough defensive line, or at least a talented defensive line. And whoever is that right guard is going to be tested. And if that’s Tiger Shibola. Stephen Means (02:01.755) No, they can’t. I’m going to go delete the videos. Stefan Krajisnik (02:29.419) That’s another test coming your way. And if Ohio State wants to get this run game going and Ryan Day said he doesn’t want to point fingers, but blocking is obviously a big part of some of the struggles that they’ve had, whether it be throughout the season or, you know, at Wisconsin specifically, then that that’s got to get answered. Right? Right guard has to get answered. And that’s probably the most pressing. It’s the most pressing question in terms of like who’s starting, right? As opposed to like running back, you’ve got to you’ve got questions about hierarchy and who’s maybe the number two and the number three, but like in terms of, Hey, here’s 22 starting roles. Which one do we not know who’s starting yet? There might just be one and it’s right guard and Ohio state’s got to get that figured out. And I think Ryan day is very open to like expediting this process. I think when we did our leave, no doubt, positive. And I talked about how maybe by Michigan week, Josh Bade is a starter. I’m ready to have a conversation about him starting against Penn state. Stephen Means (03:26.471) And some of it is the way Ryan Day talked about some things, right? Andrew, he did say they’re evaluating everything right now. But he could have said, he could have said, Tegra’s our guy. We like what we’re getting out of Josh Padilla. He’s worked, like what he said about Josh Padilla a couple of weeks ago. He’s worked hard in practice. We wanted to give him a look in the game. We think we have depth on the offense. Stefan Krajisnik (03:47.541) what he said about Tegra in the off season when we kept bringing up Ethan Owen Yow and two weeks in or whatever it was going into Ohio game. were like, hey, we’ve been seeing some Ethan Owen Yow. It’s like, nope, Tegra is our starter. He didn’t say that this week. Stephen Means (03:59.037) Like he didn’t even say anything close to that on Tuesday. And so I guess my first question here is I want us to mark it down. Here’s the snap counts by game so far. And you got to remember that Josh Padilla. did not play a right guard in his first two games. He has only played two games as a right guard. And those have been the last two games. Here have been the rotations so far in these seven games. Tegra Shibola against Texas played 44 snaps. Ethan Inyawa played 15. Tegra Shibola against Grambling played 26 snaps. Ethan Inyawa played 26. So they split it half and half. Teka Shibola against Ohio played 49 snaps, Ethan and Yawa played 14. So they went right back to what they did against Texas, because they played, the starters played three and a half quarters again. So you went back to what you had been doing. Against Washington, Teka Shibola played all 64 snaps. Ethan and Yawa did not play a single snap in that game. Meanwhile, in those first four games, Josh Berdia played 20 snaps against Graham Wiggott center and then 19 snaps against Minnesota at. Center with the backups in against, Minnesota, Tegra, Shebolda played 40 snaps Ethan and y’all will play 10 and Then this is where it gets a little interesting Illinois game is the first Stefan Krajisnik (05:15.511) I thought it was, I thought against Minnesota was the first time we saw Josh play a series at right guard. Stephen Means (05:23.912) Yeah, yeah, you’re right. He played a series against right guard But like PFF still has it listed as a center because he’s still like strictly doing so somebody that was the first time we saw it But we saw three against Minnesota and I think the reason we saw Josh Padilla was a combination of maybe he had been practicing Well, but also the first two guys didn’t look great Andrew Gillis (05:24.942) Yeah, that was true. Stephen Means (05:41.796) Illinois was the first time where it wasn’t just like, Hey, that was an interesting thing. Like this is a thing now that we’re seeing. Tegra Shibola played 51 snaps against Illinois. Josh Padilla played 14, Ethan Inyawa, healthy scratch. And then last Saturday, Tegra Shibola plays 44 snaps against Wisconsin. Josh Padilla, 26 snaps, a career high. Ethan and Yawa played one snap at the end of the game when all the backups were in. So Ethan and Yawa is out of this equation. He is no longer the second string guard. It is Josh Padilla, at least that right guard. guess we’ll see what other things would have happened. But it seems like Josh Padilla is the third guard in the hierarchy of Luke Montgomery, Tegra Shabola, and now it’s Luke Montgomery. No, it’s not Luke Montgomery, Josh Padilla. I want to start with you, Gillis. Ohio State’s averaging 60.3 plays per game right now. So let’s just say 60 plays. Who starts and what is the snap distribution at right guard? Andrew Gillis (06:34.968) Andrew Gillis (06:43.884) Yeah, I’ve been, I’ve been going through this in my head a lot. cause I was thinking about this really since like the first quarter of Wisconsin, like at what point do you just pull the bandaid off? And I’m going to be honest with you. Like it would not shock me if it’s 60 zero Josh Padilla starts at right guard. It’s over. You rip the bandaid off. Stephen Means (07:09.895) Mm-hmm. Andrew Gillis (07:12.95) You live with it because allow me to, allow me to lay out the case for 60 to nothing. You’ve already seen what Tegra Shibola is. You had him in your lineup last year. You know, he was playing next to Hinsman for the end of the year. He was rotating it obviously, but he was, he played next to McLaughlin. He played next to Josh Fryer. He already saw that. Was there any debate about him really not being a starter like in the spring and in the fall? Cause I don’t really remember any of that. And then you get into the year and now they’ve played seven games and there has been a little bit of a rotation, but we’re seven games into this and you’re already talking about, okay, what are we, what are we, what are we doing here? Like, like what is, what is his role? And Josh Padilla has come in and I think did fairly well, like he’s much more consistent. I’ll say that. I think you look at Tegra Shibola and there are plays where you’re like, okay, that’s not bad. You know, he’s not like going out there and getting his ass kicked every play. But like there are plays where you look at with Shibola and you’re like, man, that just, that just can’t happen. have the false start. have the third and one play that he got beat on. He got beat bad on a pass rush. Like there were, there were just plays where it was just, it was just ugly. And If you can’t make the switch to a guy who’s a third year player who has played now a handful of games against, I mean, he played on the road against Illinois, played against Minnesota, played against Wisconsin. If you can’t pull that trigger now, like what would the benefit of playing Tegra Shibola for 15 snaps be when you already know what he is? And you’re taking him out of the starting lineup because of what he is. You know I’m saying? Like, does that make sense? Like you’re, you’re benching a guy because you think you can do better at right guard and you think that there’s a better option there. So, well, we just don’t want to give that guy so much in his first start. Okay. Well then why would you make it his first start against Penn State? Like, why, like, why would you feel this way about that? So long story short, I Andrew Gillis (09:38.676) I think it’s, I think it’s going to be Padilla. I think they’re going to go with Josh Padilla for 60 snaps, a hundred percent of the snap share, whatever you want to call it. Like I think Josh Padilla is just going to get every snap because we’ve reached a point where we know what Tegra Shabola is. We’ve seen it. They clearly have a problem with it. I think the people listening to this podcast clearly have a problem with it. And then we talk about Tegra and we’re like, okay, well maybe he can spell Josh Padilla. Okay. For what? So I think Josh Padilla is just going to be this team starting right guard. I think they’re going to have the same five linemen all game. And I think they’re just going to roll with that five on Penn State. Stephen Means (10:17.37) If they were not in a bi-week, if let’s just say Penn State was Saturday, and which is just a normal game week, but this is still a thing at this point, would you be saying 60 to nothing? Andrew Gillis (10:30.106) that’s a good question. maybe not. Maybe, maybe, like, maybe you could give yourself a little bit more of, Hey, Tegra plays early and then you start to figure it out. But like you have two weeks to get this kid ready. And then you play Purdue after that, like no disrespect to what’s on the schedule that’s left with Purdue, with UCLA, with Rutgers. Stephen Means (10:45.265) Mm-hmm. Andrew Gillis (10:58.336) You have five games left and they’re kind of book ended, right? You have a Penn state team, which is the most talented front you’re going to play before Michigan. And I just think you would want to give Josh Padilla those reps because if you think Josh Padilla is going to be your right guard when you go to Ann Arbor, Michigan, and if you think Josh Padilla is going to be your right guard, presuming you, when you go to Indianapolis to play in the big 10 championship game, and when you play in the college football playoff, Why would you not want to get that process started immediately? So yeah, I think maybe you could make the case for that and maybe I would, but I think this is, you know, why would you hold anything back full speed ahead? Stephen Means (11:41.19) Just for the clarifications and stuff, I’m brought up nine snaps at right guard, 10 snaps at center against Minnesota in that game. Andrew, I think I would be, I think if they were playing this week, I’d say Tegra is going to play anywhere from 15 to 20 and Josh is going to play anywhere from 45 to 40 snaps in this game just because it’s just a quick turnaround and Pinsake does have some guys on the defensive line, but You have two weeks and you have plenty of film and plenty of time to get. I like the way Ryan day talked about it. Guys are going to get what they need this week. If you need rest and rehab, you’re to get rest and rehab. If you need reps, you’re to get reps. And I think Josh for Dia is on the other side of you’re going to get reps and a lot of them over the next week. Where are you at Stephon? They play 60 plays next Saturday. Who starts and what’s the distribution for you? Stefan Krajisnik (12:39.255) think Pettier is going to start and I think it’s going to be about 40-20. I’m curious if they’re open to the idea of rotating right guard because the PFF grades aren’t great for what Shibola did in the playoff last year, but it felt like he was playing better in the playoff when it was, you know, I’m looking at this like against Notre Dame, played 37 snaps against Tennessee 39. He was just over 40 against Oregon and Texas. It felt like that’s maybe when he was at his best. I wonder if they’re open to the idea of right guard being a rotation. So maybe they still want to keep Tegra in the mix there and having it be, you 40, 20, 30, 30 early on. And if he looks good and Padilla looks good, they continue in that role. You know, whereas, you know, if they’re splitting it and Tegra just doesn’t look good and Padilla looks good, maybe by by Michigan, we see, you know, 60 to zero in terms of snap counts. So I think it’s going to be. Stephen Means (13:17.682) Mm-hmm. Stefan Krajisnik (13:35.799) 40-20, maybe even closer to 30-30 against Penn State. And maybe that remains the case against Purdue, UCLA and Rutgers. And then by Michigan, I think we’ll know, okay, what’s the best solution at right guard? The guy’s rotating or Padilla just doing it on his own? Or if Padilla struggles, then you just stick with Tegra doing it on his own. So I’m open to a rotation to begin with just to see what you’ve got. Stephen Means (13:59.92) I think, yeah, and I am too. And the problem is they’ve been doing the rotation. It’s just the two guys they were rotating with early, neither one of them were giving you much when it was Tegger and Ethan. So maybe you’re getting a little bit more now. Because the thing is, it’s not a ceiling conversation. This is a floor. conversation that’s where you have to start and who has the higher floor. And I think coming into the season, Tegra had the highest floor. Regardless of who you, we can make the cases for any of these three guys of who had the higher ceiling, but Tegra had the higher floor. Okay, week two, Tegra had the higher floor. So far through seven games, Tegra’s had the higher floor. Is that still true with what we’ve seen? Because the way the question was preference to Ryan Day from Austin Ward over at Let It Monroe and 10 TV. It was like, know PFF grades aren’t any everything. And in fact, it’s very little. And a couple of years ago, Tony Gerben asked Rhonda how much like how on par or is PFF and their grading system to yours. And it wasn’t far off, but it’s not completely right. It’s not all the information, which is what we say here. Take everything with a grain of salt against Texas 49.6. That’s like not that’s like failing in their world. 64.7 against Grambling, that’s fine. 58.3 against Ohio, that’s flirting with failure. 51.9, that’s kind of flirting with failure. 68.9 was pretty good, pretty good. 68.9 is fine, that’s like average. 64.9, that’s fine. And then 42.1, that’s failing again. And again, it’s about the ceiling. He got asked, Ryan Day, about the run game. And it was like, preference as, how do you get this fixed? Here is Ryan Day’s full answer. I don’t think it’s about fixing it as much as there was some breakdowns in terms of technique in the game. I won’t really get into pointing fingers, but we gotta be more consistent in terms of identifying who we’re going to than using the technique to block them. There were some really good runs in the game, then there was a stretch there in the third quarter where it was like four runs that went for nothing. Stephen Means (16:04.068) On a couple of them, we didn’t identify it right, but for the most part, was technique. We abandoned our technique. That’s really what it came down to. I don’t think that there was an issue in terms of the running backs not reading the hole. always want to see the running backs make four yards for the team and then make some guys miss and run physical through contact. Some of that did happen in the game when you watch the film, to be fair. We want to see it on every play. What we can’t have is guys running free in the backfield. And that’s what we had on a couple of times in the game. And that wasn’t just one guy, but the guys will get it. We’ll get the feedback on their grades and figure out where they need to be better. To me, it was more of a technique issue. Maybe it was a lack of focus in that moment, but either way it’s unacceptable that this day says it all the time, Andrew, personnel scheme coaching. Ryan Day just told us this is about personnel. Guys losing focus, guys not using technique correctly. There’s a photo going around social media and I don’t know where it started, but it’s plenty of times if you go rewatch that game where, I feel like we’re ragging on Tegra a little bit, but Tegra’s not. in technique. He’s got his shoulder pads out in front of him and he’s extending and as a result, guys in the backfield. It’s not just him. You can probably pull up play Stefan where Philip Daniels had issues. Luke Montgomery had issues. Carson Hinsman, Austin Cerebell probably had some issues, but there’s been one common theme, especially through the last three or four games here. And now you’ve introduced a new variable who hasn’t been perfect. But his hasn’t been perfect is he just played 26 snaps in a big 10 game for the first time in his career. He’s trying to get comfortable. He’s gaining experience versus the other guy played 774 snaps last year as a starting right guard for a team that won a national title. By the end of the year, he and Josh Fryer were the only two Stephen Means (18:12.82) original members of Ohio State starting offensive line. And yet he was rotating then. And so you’re right that maybe they could rotate it maybe and they probably will. I think 60 to nothing isn’t out of the question, though I do wonder if they do it like they got a month to figure it out. So it’s not it’s not out of the question that they go 60 to nothing, but it’s not out of the question that they go 40 to 20 either. But this is If it fought, what hat does it fall into that Ryan Day talks about? This is about personnel. Maybe you don’t have the best guy playing right guard anymore and it’s impacting your run game. Andrew Gillis (18:46.134) Yeah. And I think the quote that really kind of stuck out to me was when he said, what we can’t have is guys running free in the backfield. And I think he’s basically saying, this is personnel. And now this does get interesting because if you put Padilla in there and he stinks out loud, then it’s like, okay, do you just not have a good option or is this slowly, is this becoming a coaching thing? where it’s, and that’s down the line. That’s a future conversation. But like, I think this is the easiest fix for it right now. And like, you know, I agree with the notion of like, hey, gotta be careful. We can’t throw some of these guys into big situations, blah, blah. But like, to me, that’s a load of hogwash. Stephen Means (19:14.716) Sure. Andrew Gillis (19:35.606) because this team just threw a bunch of new guys into a bunch of new different situations. They’re the best team in the country. They’re the number one team in the country. like go look at the defense and they replaced eight different guys. Like it would have been very easy for them to be like, Hey, we need to rely on game experience. Got to play Bo Atkinson over Caden Curry. You know, Hey, we can’t, you know, we can’t have this guy play. We need, we need to have this guy in the lineup over that guy because this guy’s played a little bit. you know, it just Lincoln Keenholz, he’s our guy, not Julian Sand, maybe Julian later, but you know, Lincoln’s played a game before and Lincoln’s played a bowl game before. Like, come on, like you could drive that from minimal like levels to kind of extreme levels. Like I just did. And I just, I think you’re at the point where day’s fed up with it. And I think very clearly the way that they talked about it, he does not, like you said, Steven, he does not think. that like their scheme needs to be ripped up and thrown apart and changed. He does not think that Tyler Bowen is coaching the wrong way because like, frankly, like Austin Cerevelle has been awesome. Luke Montgomery has been awesome. Carson Hinsman has been awesome. Daniels has been, I would say shaky and Tegra is probably the one that we’re obviously having a big conversation about, but it’s like, it’s also a run game thing. It’s like, you map this whole plan out. And you can’t say like the coaching is bad when you have maybe an all-American left tackle. We were talking about Hinsman and like the Remington conversation. Luke Montgomery has been really good. Like if some of these guys are stepping up, it’s probably just a personnel thing. And I think that’s what Ryan Day was getting at. I think he did the diplomatic, not gonna dance on the grave, but I think it’s pretty clear where this is Stefan Krajisnik (21:29.503) And there’s there’s two things that I was kind of looking up while you guys were talking there. So the four, he said there was four runs in the third quarter, four consecutive runs that were just not good. I’m looking at it now. I think this is the four run stretch. Second and nine, Isaiah West run to the right. No yards later that drive second and three Bo Jackson up the middle loss of four yards and then Wisconsin gets the ball back. Then Ohio State gets the ball back. Bo Jackson runs at a right loss of a yard and then seeing Julian saying keeper up the middle for two yards. I don’t know if that run is falling into that category too, but that’s four consecutive rush. At least what’s categorized as a run, where it’s either out the middle or to the right. And it’s either, you know, maximum gain of two, but two of the four were for loss, like tackles for loss. that just, that’s unacceptable. I want to say one more thing too. Stephen Means (22:13.575) Yeah. Stephen Means (22:21.084) Right. Stefan Krajisnik (22:27.999) Josh Badea is obviously the guy we’re talking about right now and it’s now it’s November and he’s the guy we’re talking about. I don’t want to say another name just in case we don’t have access to practice. It’s not like we know how good Gabe Van Sickles looked. I do want to present the idea though of last year Austin Cervel was a guy kind of you know he started at left guard when Donovan Jackson was out early in the year and then he was the guy who kind of played both like he was the third guard last year. Stephen Means (22:43.91) Mmm. Stefan Krajisnik (22:56.791) when everyone was healthy. And then obviously he had ended up being a starter when Donovan Jackson had moved the left tackle. But Luke Montgomery, his only snaps in the regular season were games, Ohio State won by a ton. He came in garbage time, Akron, Western Michigan, Marshall, Michigan State, Nebraska, Purdue, Northwestern. It wasn’t until the playoff that we saw Luke Montgomery have a role. He played 31 snaps against Tennessee, 29 against Oregon. 60 against Texas and 64 against Notre Dame. There was points last year where we were asking ourselves, hey, what like, where’s Lou Montgomery? Like we heard good things about him in the off season and he just was not having much a role in the regular season. And then he popped and we’ve heard decent things about Gabe, Gabe Vansickel in the off season and haven’t seen a ton of him now. So Josh, but he is kind of the one inserting himself and you’re right. Gillis, like if he doesn’t work out either, maybe it is a coach you think. I don’t want to rule out Gabe Van Sickle completely in this conversation. If Padilla and Shibola and Ethan Owen Yow are struggling, Ohio State’s shown us that a guy can just kind of emerge late in the year and be another option. So I think Padilla’s pretty good. Seth McLaughlin raved about him as kind of this team’s next great center after Carson Hinsman. So I think Josh Padilla is going to turn out to be a decent option at right guard to at least rotate with Tegra. Keep your mind open. Last year showed us that the answer might not emerge until literally the first game of the playoffs. Stephen Means (24:31.368) Yeah, I think Patia is the front of my one because he’s it seems like they’re gradually working himself him in already while then sickles seems more like what Luke Montgomery’s was where You had 30 days to prepare for a football game. And so you really got to explore some things though I know Luke was not always happy that it took until the playoff for him to get onto the field But that’s I mean, that’s part of this right, but it’s it’s It’s a reminder that just because whatever we see next Saturday doesn’t mean it has to 100 % be a finished product. I think that’s a fair point there. I think that’s it from an offensive line perspective in terms of the run game. Okay, so let’s take a break and then we’ll focus on the other part of the run game. And that’s who’s running the football here on Buckeye Talk. And we’re back here on Buckeye Talk. Stephen Means, Stefan Kreisnick, and Andrew Gillis during Ohio State’s second bye week, seven and Heading into the second bye week, they’ll return next Saturday to face Penn State. So there is not a running back hierarchy right now. And I feel like every time we start to see one maybe form, instead of one forming a new name just gets added to the equation. So here’s the running back. break down in terms of carries so far this season and what they’ve done with those carries. I’ll start there. We can discuss that and just evaluate these guys and what they’ve done so far. And then we can break down some other stuff, Ryan, they talked about, cause I’m the one that asked the question about it. Bo Jackson, six games did not play against Texas. And understandably, you’re not throwing a two freshmen into that environment if you’ll have to. 68 carries, 433 yards at 6.4 yards per carry. for two touchdowns. He also has 11 catches for 114 yards and a score. CJ Donaldson, who has played in all seven games, 60 carries for 249 yards and six touchdowns, plus eight catches for 56 yards and a touchdown this season. James Peoples, who has played in all seven games, has 40 carries for 202 yards. That’s 5.1 yards per carry, has not scored yet and also has six catches for 32 yards. Stephen Means (26:49.768) And now all of a sudden Isaiah West has gotten into the mix here. He has 21 carries for 104 yards and a score, no touchdown so far this season. And then in terms of snap counts, Bo Jackson has played 143 snaps in six games. Isaiah West has played 29 steps in four games. So he’s gotten the ball on 21 of the 29 snaps he’s been on the field. So they’ve been kind of force reading it to him, but also he’s in the game at the end. James peoples and seven games has played 121 snaps and CJ Donaldson in seven games has played 164 snaps. That is the way they have used these running backs through seven games. Evaluate them Stefan and what that can that means anything. However you want to go about evaluating that the floor is yours. Stefan Krajisnik (27:41.559) I think Bo Jackson has been stellar. So that’s my evaluation of him. I think he’s the best running back and I don’t think there’s much of a conversation there. And then the race for number two, the race for number two seems like it’s between Isaiah West and James Peeples and CJ Donaldson kind of just has his role as a situational guy, whether it’s pass blocking on third and longer or, you know, being the running back, you know, carrying the ball on third one, whatever it may be with, you know, Roberts leading the way for him, apparently. I, know, it’s, it’s, it’s tough because I get where Ryan day is coming from, where you’re still kind of evaluating. And I know Steven in our video on YouTube, you presented the idea of maybe that’s a week. Maybe it’s a game by game evaluation where you see, this guy’s feeling it today and he’s going to be the one co-starring with Bo Jackson and this guy’s not feeling it today. So I get where the coaches are coming from. You can’t give up on James Peoples’ seven games into his first real season as a prominent part of this offense. And you also don’t want to jump the gun and say, hey, Isaiah West is the guy after one decent game against Wisconsin in which he ran for... Stefan Krajisnik (29:00.415) He ran for 55 yards, right? 6.1 yards per carry. Like, nine carries, 55 yards, pretty good day. 6.1 yards per carry, pretty good day. Okay, we can’t just pretend like he’s arrived now, right? Like, I think that’s fair too. If I were to project, I just see more kind of flashiness and pop in his game than James Peeples. makes me, that like, if I were to predict who ends up being the second best running back down the stretch here, I would predict Isaiah West. But I understand as a coaching staff, you can’t. Stephen Means (29:02.749) Mm-hmm. Stefan Krajisnik (29:29.195) You can’t jump the gun one way or another and say, this is how it’s going to be. boom. Isaiah West has arrived. These are number two running back. Boom. James people’s stinks. He’s, he’s no longer like a conversation of running back. So I, I get it. You got to continue evaluating. I’m just, I think Bo and Isaiah are the best two guys and CJ is there kind of situational back, which like, let’s have another conversation there down the road where I mean, If CJ is a situational guy, he’s got to be better on third and one for you. Like if he’s going to be your sure yards guy, he’s got to be better at that. He hasn’t been outstanding at it. So I get it. They’re open to it. They’re going to try some more things out. You can’t give up on James Peeples yet. Can’t jump the gun on Isaiah West, but it’s just it’s been uninspiring at times by CJ and and and James Peeples and James getting zero carries against Wisconsin makes me wonder. Stephen Means (30:05.34) Mm-hmm. Stefan Krajisnik (30:28.061) if they don’t want to jump to conclusions, but they’re maybe starting to read the last chapter of the book. Stephen Means (30:38.118) Do you agree with that assessment, Andrew? Stefan Krajisnik (30:40.023) I don’t even know what I just said. I have no idea what’s going on with the running backs. Andrew Gillis (30:44.791) Yeah. Stephen Means (30:45.068) But is that okay if that’s that’s true If Andrew, I’m assuming you’re about to say something similar to that. I don’t know what’s going on. If is us not knowing what’s going on with the running backs a bad thing? Cause it’s not a good thing, but is it a bad thing or is it just a thing? Andrew Gillis (31:06.766) I think it’s not a good thing. I think it’s not good. It’s not fine. It’s bad. I think so. Like I’m trying. It’s like a C minus. It’s like a C minus right now. It’s not like, oh, F. Yeah. Yes. That’s a way to put it. Stephen Means (31:19.408) It doesn’t have- if you- listen, listen. Stefan Krajisnik (31:22.875) It’s a bad combination. We just had this whole conversation about how the offensive line, especially the right side, has not been great at run blocking. And you’re pairing it with running backs who haven’t necessarily been outstanding. And I know it hasn’t been the best situation in front of them. But it’s like, you’re pairing this, and it leaves you scratching your head. go back what I said, I don’t want to give up on James Peoples yet. Because it’s not fair to judge him when what’s in front of him hasn’t been great either. Stephen Means (31:50.372) Yes, it’s a like what can you Stefan Krajisnik (31:52.484) I struggle to like totally bash Tegra Shibul in the run game because I’m like, I don’t know, man. Why can’t CJ Donaldson break a tackle? Stephen Means (31:59.59) But like, sure, but also, hey, CJ, how come you can’t break a tackle when you just got the ball two seconds ago? The reason why I think I have moved back as the person who asked the question of, is this the right time to start forming and establishing a firm hierarchy with the running backs? Here’s Ryan Day’s answer again. I think most of the guys are so young, but I still don’t think we’re there yet. think that each game they play, they’re learning more and more. They’re watching themselves on film, they’re growing, so they’ve got to continue to get better. There’s a lot to be learned about all of them. And when you watch them playing games and get more and more feedback, and that’s it. It’s their job to take the feedback from the coaches and try to get better. I’ve said it before, we’re going to need them all. I think they all bring different things to the table, but I don’t think we’re in a position right now where we’re going to make a hierarchy. I think they’re, they all need to learn how to play in different areas and get better and keep growing from there. I don’t think we’re there right now as much as I’d like to say we are, but we’ll take this week by week. Well, no, we’ll take this by a week to continue to allow them to get better and keep evaluating it on a week to week basis. And then you don’t know, maybe some guys start getting hot. That happens sometimes they get into a rhythm of the game. There really weren’t as many carries this past week because we were a little bit more in the RPO world. Some of the runs that were called ended up being throws. This is me talking now because Julian sand likes to pull it and rip it. And I love it. So that plays into that. But you also saw early in the season, think both James and CJ had over 10 carries in the first game. Each game is a little bit different and we’ll keep evaluating it. is certainly a bright, but he also said it’s certainly a bright spot to see Isaiah with some of the runs that he made. I thought he made guys miss and ran hard to that point of how many games we’ve seen a running back have 10 or more carries. Here’s CJ Donaldson. had 19 against Texas. The only other games he’s had. Stephen Means (33:56.89) more than 10 carries were against Illinois. He had 13. He also had nine against Ohio and Washington. He also had two carries on Saturday. So we’re talking about James. People was not getting any. It’s not like CJ Donaldson got a bunch. Bo Jackson, Bo Jackson’s actually starting to get 10 carries. He had set 17 carries against Washington, 13 carries against Minnesota. And he gets that 10, the last two games, James people’s had 10 carries against Texas. had eight against Grambling and had seven against Ohio. The only game since then he’s had more than five was against Minnesota with seven and then Isaiah West, eight carries against Grambling, nine carries against Wisconsin. So they’re all living in the same world. The reason why I am no longer like, after hearing the answer to both parts of what we’re talking about, Andrew, is because it is an element of like what came first, the chicken or the egg. Is the run game not back as a running back aren’t reading the holes right? And then they’re not getting to the second level and being physical and making guys miss or is the run game bad because the offensive line is not executing guys are in the backfield and they have to fight their way back to the line of scrimmage. And then by then we’re like, Hey, how come you didn’t get to the second level? Cause I have to fight my way to the line of scrimmage. That was the second level for me, dude. I can’t do all the work in the way Ryan Dave talked about those two things. In unison because the question orders if I’m remembering this correctly went hey Josh is gonna start over at Tegra, right? Hey, you got a running back hierarchy, right? Hey, how do you fix your un-game? The way he answered all three of those questions Sounds like they think the problem is the offensive line and not the running backs So sure is there a point in this year where they probably can’t play for running backs maybe but like it’s probably not it’s three It’s people’s Bo Jackson and now Isaiah West has entered the mix and then you’re going to play CJ Donaldson and every situational. See your purse anytime it’s a situation he’s in the game anytime outside of that. It’s one of the other three. I don’t think it’s that off base and if we get to the Michigan game and the conclusion is. Stephen Means (36:08.2) Bo Jackson and Isaiah West are the top two, so be it. If we get there and all of a sudden it’s James Peoples and Isaiah West or it’s Bo Jackson and James Peoples, regardless of what it is, I think they’re going to get to what we want them to get to. I just understand why they aren’t ready to get to it right now because that’s not the more pressing thing. The more pressing thing is getting them to the second level and that requires the offensive line to execute better and that starts with figuring out right guard. Andrew Gillis (36:38.316) Yeah, well, I think I think it’s a little column, a little column B. It’s like, okay, the right guard position is not great, but like you could probably figure some things out maybe a little bit more at running back if you had a little bit more of a clear delineation. And I think that’s what Ryan Day wants. Like I said this afterwards in one of our videos, like Ohio State has played slow this year. We’ve talked about how they’ve kept the pace down. They haven’t really done a ton with Julian. They’ve kept things. low key, blah, blah, blah, blah. Like we’ve talked about that ad nauseum for the last month, last month, month and a half really. And okay, that’s fine. That was the plan. I don’t think the plan was to go into November and go, we’re not sure. I, I, I, I really don’t like I really, I really think that they probably looked at that running game and went. Stephen Means (37:24.07) Maybe it was though. That’s the- Andrew Gillis (37:33.614) Okay, Turbo Rogers is not gonna be a factor. Sam Dixon’s probably not gonna be a factor. West was hurt and he was kind of late arrival. That’s not a factor. We’re probably gonna have James, because they really liked and still do James Peoples in that room. And they thought it was probably gonna be Peoples and Donaldson in that mix is a one, two. And then Bo Jackson kind of takes last year’s James Peoples role maybe a little bit further where you have a little bit more and maybe you get a little bit more out of that position. Stephen Means (37:45.865) yeah, if you’re saying... Yeah. Andrew Gillis (38:01.432) But they want, to me it’s pretty clear they wanted a one-two punch again with a third option as a viable option in that mix. And they just haven’t gotten it yet. Like right now they rank 51st in the country with 4.58 yards per carry. Like last year they weren’t for as good as we talk about how good that running game was. They were under five at 4.99. So it’s obviously like a half a yard better. are almost half a year better. They were 29th in the country. It wasn’t like they were a top three running offense in the country. So. Stephen Means (38:34.172) They, yeah, they also had a quarterback who was a part of the run equation in the way that, you know, cause like, be real with you, what’s, what’s pulling that, what’s, what’s actually pulling that down is Julian sand is not Will Howard in terms of a runner. So he’s averaging 0.9 yards per carry. And then, cause you said the number was 4.55. Andrew Gillis (38:37.484) They did. They did have a quarterback. Andrew Gillis (38:52.43) 4.58 Stephen Means (38:53.95) four point four, okay. There’s only one running back who’s under that number right now. And it’s CJ Donaldson, ironically enough. The guy who’s like the short guard’s guy. I don’t know, man. I don’t, I think we thought as the media and the fans thought Donaldson, Peeples are like Quinchon, Trevion, Light. And then Bo Jackson is like a 10 % more involved James Peeples. Except Carlos Loughlin for nine months has been telling us he thinks James Peeples is the best running back. For now, I I tweeted that back in like February, like buy stock and in Bo Jackson, he was telling us that Bo Jackson was the best one. Him not playing against Texas is because they limited how many true freshmen were on the field. They Devin Sanchez and Jarquis Carter and then Nate Roberts played one snap and fullback. I think the plan was to always have three. The problem is one of the three hasn’t always looked great. And I think that’s more about the offensive line than him, though he’s not helped himself at times. That’s James Peeples. The other of the three is turned into he’s not like the short yardage. Like we’re going to give this guy the ball. If anyone’s going to get 20 times, it’s him. He’s turned into more of the situational guy. Bo is what people thought Bo was going to be. And that’s awesome. Isaiah West is the one who’s throwing a wrench and all this. Cause what did I say, Stephon two weeks ago? Why the heck is Isaiah West getting snaps right now? He’s not even supposed to be playing this year. Shut up, Steven. You know nothing. So I think the plan was to have three and they found four. Andrew Gillis (40:44.418) Well, my well, I guess my question then to you would be like, my God, they found four. It’s hidden money. You find $20 in your winter coat when you put it on for the first time. It’s like, I don’t think that’s that. I I’ll put it like this. Do you think they have four? Because? my God, we’ve got four incredible, amazing running backs that are just unbelievably good. Or is it for because none of these running backs have been consistent enough to give them Stephen Means (40:49.531) Yeah! Stephen Means (40:53.308) Yeah. Andrew Gillis (41:13.376) a true number one slash number two workload. Cause I think it’s, I think it’s that one. I think it’s the, have not gotten what we want out of the running back position. Stephen Means (41:16.546) right, but that... Stephen Means (41:23.196) But that goes back to why I asked, like, is this like a bad thing? I don’t think it’s a bad thing. I think this, again, it goes back to the right guard. That’s because you think anytime they play more than one person at a position, it’s a bad thing. I think, but no, in all seriousness, I think it is. Andrew Gillis (41:28.462) kind of thing. Andrew Gillis (41:33.612) No, no, no, no, not true, not true. Stephen Means (41:41.448) How can I put this? It goes back. It’s not about ceiling. Ceilings are tiebreakers. Ceilings don’t get you on the field. They get you on the field over somebody else when the floors are set. The floor, like you can’t be out there making mistakes. You can’t be out there. As he said, you gotta get the, if the player’s blocked for four, you gotta at least get the four. That’s floor. Ceiling is you took something that was designed for four yards and you got eight yards or you got 12 yards or you housed it. And so I think what we have right now is four running backs who all have similar floors through seven games. Because again, 6.4 yards per carry, 4.2 yards per carry, 5.1 yards per carry, five yards per carry. All of them to me, I think they think they all have the floor, which is why they’re testing them all out and just like Carlos is playing all these guys to figure it out. Once you figure out. Who’s got the most? Stephen Means (42:49.99) I guess like not even consistent floor, just like, you know, it’s just got the most, like the foundation of that floor is just the strongest. Then you can start working towards ceiling. I don’t think any of us on this podcast have any doubt in our mind that Bo Jackson has the highest ceiling of the group. Right? Is that, that’s a fair thing to say. Okay. Bo Jackson is also the only one of the four where Ryan day has ever. Andrew Gillis (43:10.658) Yeah. Stephen Means (43:15.972) in detail explained what he means when he says to take care of the football. Stephen Means (43:23.836) Ball security is about floor. Him being able to house something for 45 yards is about his ceiling. And I think right now, Carlos Lachlan through seven games has four running backs where he believes in their floor. And you’re telling me they got four more games before Michigan to figure out the ceiling of those guys? I’m going to choose to believe that for now because I don’t have a reason to not to. This is not a, it’s not a, if they have four guys all average in three yards per carry, I think I’d be more concerned. But when you got four guys and three of them are average in five yards or more and the one who’s not is the guy you also use in short yardage situations more often than not, I’m okay with leaning towards if you figure out your offensive line personnel, it might fix your running game. And if I’m wrong, I’ll be wrong. But I didn’t think they ran the ball terribly on Saturday. I think they executed the run game terribly. And that’s an offensive line conversation. Stefan Krajisnik (44:26.837) Yeah, it was a little surprising to hear the way Ryan Day spoke about the wrong game because I thought it looked pretty decent against Wisconsin, but it’s clear that he felt like maybe those running backs made the running backs were finally making some plays even though the offensive line wasn’t terrific. like him talking about the running game struggling felt like it wasn’t a lot about the running backs this time. Stephen Means (44:49.0) And I guess we’ll see, right? if, they, cause what all it takes is they fixed the offensive line. Let’s just say the offensive line who I think executed it like a two out of 10 against Wisconsin. Let’s just say they make the switch. Patia goes in there, Tiger Shibola comes out and it’s whether it’s 60 to nothing or it’s 40 to 20 or it’s 30 to 30, whatever it is. They spend two weeks figuring out how they want to run the ball. what their run game looks like, and then they execute it to a T against Penn State. All right, if guys are not getting to the second level and making something shake, I’ll be right back on this podcast on the post game going, you know what? These running backs aren’t good enough. But it sounds like Dave’s saying our running backs are good enough and we have a stable of them. They’re not getting a chance to show it because they’re spending all their time fighting to get back to ground zero. Stephen Means (45:53.906) So let’s see what happens. And may the best guy win. Well, I guess the second best guy, we know who the best guy is. May the second best guy join the best guy against Michigan. Stefan Krajisnik (46:03.499) Yeah, you hit it right there. Figure it out before Michigan. I think this is a scary thing to say, but all of us on the beat have kind of said this the last few weeks. This Michigan team, can run against them more than like previous Michigan teams. I worry that Ohio State is going to try to do that before its run game is entirely figured out. So if Ohio State can figure out its run game, I’ll feel a little bit better about the game at the end of November. Stephen Means (46:08.368) Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Stephen Means (46:25.713) Yes. Stephen Means (46:32.134) If you feel like you can be explosive in the run game, fine, but I would also like to see the balance you had on Saturday with how you approached that Michigan game. Stefan Krajisnik (46:40.567) If the run game’s not clicking by the end of that Rutgers game, listen, Wisconsin game plan. Stephen Means (46:49.64) And even then I might still say Wisconsin game plan throw the ball Anything else Stefan Krajisnik (46:52.951) Yeah, yeah, no, yes, yes. Did you you see? Was it was it a I think it was Herbstring Galway had Ryan Day on and they were like, how nice is it to just be able to throw it to number four and 17 whenever you want and they was like, well, it’s not it’s not just that you got to do this, you got to do that, blah, blah, blah. I’m sitting there being like, just throw it to four and 17. Stephen Means (47:12.572) That’s The run game you gotta run the ball. Yeah It worked out pretty well Saturday, huh? anything else cuz I obviously a lot of the conversation was The different variations of the run game and we just spent 45 minutes on that Was there anything else in the 12 we spent more minutes talking about what Ryan Day said than Ryan Day actually said these things Stefan Krajisnik (47:18.622) Ha Stefan Krajisnik (47:37.387) Doesn’t feel like there was a whole lot of us. Andrew Gillis (47:40.364) Yeah, we didn’t, nobody asked about special teams today. Maybe that’s a next. Stefan Krajisnik (47:45.937) yeah, as we’re recording this, offensive defensive player of the game are out, Julian Sand and Caleb Downs. And that is the only, we’ve only gotten offensive and defensive player of the game. So I cannot imagine Ryan Day was too happy with the special teams at Wisconsin. Andrew Gillis (48:02.638) Yeah, that’s not ideal. Because there, I don’t think there’s, we didn’t get any injury updates. I think this was very much a, like, let’s talk about. Stephen Means (48:05.138) Fix it, man, just fix it. Stefan Krajisnik (48:12.801) They sound hopeful. Hopeful Bryce and Roger will be back. Andrew Gillis (48:16.17) Right, right. Hopeful Bryson Rogers. He did sneak that one in there. Stephen Means (48:19.858) Did we like that? Did we like what the amount we saw Quincy Porter and Miley Graham? Stefan Krajisnik (48:26.059) Yes. More. Andrew Gillis (48:28.056) Yeah, I think so. Stephen Means (48:30.31) You said more? Stefan Krajisnik (48:32.137) if you can. Stephen Means (48:34.152) You Stefan Krajisnik (48:38.007) you Stephen Means (48:41.288) If you can fit it into your schedule, I’d like to see Quincy Porter for 13 steps again, uh carnell take 49 snaps jj played 57 snaps quincy porter had 13 snaps and myelin graham played Stefan Krajisnik (48:45.119) Yes. Stephen Means (48:55.752) 18 snaps. Stefan Krajisnik (48:59.071) I just, one of these plays with Mylon is gonna pop for a Mylon Graham touchdown. And I just, I wish we could fast forward to like when it is. Cause I thought maybe it was gonna be against Wisconsin. Maybe they get a little tip of the cap to Chip Kelly and they do it against Penn State. Stephen Means (49:17.874) Definitely gonna put they’re gonna put all three of the backups in the game against Penn State against just to flex it. I feel like Mylon Graham has become the media darling of the beat. Stefan Krajisnik (49:32.023) He’s mini Garrett. Stephen Means (49:34.426) He is mini Garrett, but we’ve reached the. Stefan Krajisnik (49:35.281) Everyone feels bad for Garrett, but no one can really say it because Garrett’s quarterback is also from here, but everyone feels bad for Garrett. Andrew Gillis (49:35.694) I like the. Andrew Gillis (49:44.546) Did you see what Woody Johnson said, by the way, about former Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields? My goodness. He was like. Stefan Krajisnik (49:50.615) Which that’s, you signed the guy, like you signed him. They could have drafted Jackson Dart, but the other team in New York did. like don’t sit there. Yeah, don’t sit there and be like, Aaron Glenn doesn’t have a quarterback. Okay, well you gave him Justin Fields and Tarah Taylor. Andrew Gillis (49:54.158) Ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye-ye- Andrew Gillis (49:58.722) Yeah. Stephen Means (49:58.79) It’s your money paying for him. Stephen Means (50:07.752) Yeah. Andrew Gillis (50:07.84) He said, quote, if we could just complete the pass, it would look good. And then later it’s hard when you have a quarterback with the rating that we’ve got. If you look at any head coach with a quarterback like that, you’re going to see similar results across the league. So he’s kind of trashing Justin Fields right now. And look, Justin Fields has not been very good, but that’s not besides the point. I, what I was going to say about Mylon Graham was I, I think on the Ohio state beat, like whenever there’s a like The quarterback, the backup quarterback is always the most popular and the best player on any football team. Like when the quarterback is struggling. Well, no, I mean, it’s happened in the past. Like I can’t imagine. Stephen Means (50:39.034) except this year except no no no it has it happened like everybody wanted to see Kyle McCaw when CJ started out badly Andrew Gillis (50:48.288) Yeah, but then after one CJ got rolling, everybody was like, yeah, once nothing feels got rolling in Ohio State. Stephen Means (50:51.144) This is is the right what I’m saying is this is the first time in a while in fact I think Julian sand and Justin Fields are the only quarterback since Ryan Day’s been the head coach who have never had a point in their time as a starter where people are like I want to see the backup Andrew Gillis (51:08.31) Yeah, well, and I think we’ve gotten to such a point where like the quarterback is awesome and the offense is awesome. That like Mylon Graham has just kind of become the backup quarterback. Like the idea of Mylon Graham is like, well, let’s see that because I think people want more out of the slot receiver position, whether that’s a that’s a whole other conversation. But I think people would like to see the slot receiver involved more in some way, whether that’s a personnel change, whether that’s scheme change, whether that’s coaching change, whether that’s an execution change. I don’t know. Stephen Means (51:10.024) Nobody wants to see the back. Andrew Gillis (51:37.058) But I think Mylon Graham has just kind of taken that place of just like, what if we put him in the game? He might be good. Stephen Means (51:42.952) And it’s, and it’s a little, I get it. We want to see something that we’re used to seeing, but so Julian saying it started 195 times again. Also, Mylon Graham doesn’t play in the slot. So there’s that he’s averaging 27.9 throws per game. So let’s just say he throws a 28 times per game. You first, Stefan, break down the touches. 28 throws, break down your targets. Stefan Krajisnik (52:10.807) 12 for JJ. This is against Wednesday, said? Stephen Means (52:13.5) All right, you’re on. I’m just saying on an average and an average day, if he if Julian Sands gonna throw it an average of 28 times a game, break down the targets. Stefan Krajisnik (52:23.927) 12 for JJ. Eight for Carnell, that’s 20. Yeah. Four for Max Clair, that’s 24. Three for Brandon Innis, 27 and one for Wilkes-Mair. Stephen Means (52:29.896) You’re down to eight already, man! Stephen Means (52:38.748) More? More? Stephen Means (52:44.732) Alright, and yeah, you completely forgot they have running backs. You have make catches here. You see how hard that is? Gillis, you try it now. Stefan Krajisnik (52:49.035) Yeah, that’s, yeah, that is, I probably, I probably, I probably could have gone safer with JJ and said maybe like 10 and then given like two to Bo Jackson. Stephen Means (52:58.844) That’s fine. Okay, but it doesn’t, right? You still did three, three for Brandon is as a slot receiver. Is that going to change? Cause you, you subbed him out for myelin gram, no, you do it. Andrew try to break it down. 28. Andrew Gillis (53:10.99) What’s the number? What’s the number again? 28. 10 JJ. 8 Carnell. Stefan Krajisnik (53:12.919) 28. Stephen Means (53:17.928) Okay. 10 left. Stefan Krajisnik (53:24.695) 17 to the tight ends, that’s the way you work. Andrew Gillis (53:30.35) 4 to the 4 to max Claire. Stephen Means (53:33.544) Mm-hmm. Andrew Gillis (53:36.846) 4 to the slot Brandon Innis or Mylon Graham and 2 to the running back, 2 to Bo Jackson. So 10, 8, 4, 4, 2. Stephen Means (53:43.026) car. Stephen Means (53:47.396) again So will casemary gets no So Wilcas Marek gets no targets in your offense. Okay, nothing wrong with that. But again. Andrew Gillis (53:56.748) No thank you. Block. Put your head down, block. Stefan Krajisnik (53:59.201) Wow, no thank you, that was harsh. Could have just said, maybe if I could fit it in my schedule. Stephen Means (54:02.278) That was gonna mean, he said no thank you. Stephen Means (54:08.328) Yeah, man, you said no, thank you. Well, Kaz Merican, he said no, thank you in a world where he said no, thank you in a world where he Kaz Merican’s played significantly more snaps than Brandon Dennis and also has more touchdowns than this year. again, Mylon Graham does not play slot receiver, though. And I said this to Stefan. I’m wondering if Bryson Rogers absence has opened the door for him to have been getting more reps in practice. But also it just might have just meant more reps for Max Clair doing slot receiver stuff or Philip Bell. Andrew Gillis (54:11.858) Oh, I’ll get back to you if I have time, yeah. I’m just so busy. Stephen Means (54:38.268) who’s been with the twos and warmups as slot receiver. So I get it. He’s mini Garrett and Garrett spent a year in a slot, but that was his second year. And nobody loves Garrett Wilson as much as I do on this beat. I understand. Stefan Krajisnik (54:49.173) But by the way, Stephen, remind me, I think we looked this up at Wisconsin. Bryson Rogers, it’s not a registered situation, right? We determined that he already used his registered, right? Yeah, so him being sidelined, there would be no point in registering him essentially. You can’t. Stephen Means (55:01.158) Yeah, he already used his red shirt on. He’s just heard. Stephen Means (55:06.984) No, he’s just he’s just injured. That’s all it is But I get it man people like the new shiny thing that’s not playing football I got it But there’s more to being a slot receivers and just catching the ball, especially when you’re outside receivers are Greek gods 6 1 4 3 5 0 3 3 1 5 It’s a two-week free trial 399 after that. I don’t wrap up this pod live show 11 a.m. This afternoon. Well, that’s obviously before noon still but you get it. We’re gonna be comparing Ohio State’s 2024 roster and towards 2025 roster. JJ went on a interview after the game on Saturday and said that he thinks this team is better than last year’s team. And so we’re gonna break that down and see if he’s actually right to have that assessment of the Ohio State National Championship team versus the team trying to repeat the national champions. We’re gonna close out the week on Thursday with a, well that’ll be a Friday pod with a. a recruiting pod from Andrew and I. They’re busy on the recruiting trail and obviously O’House is gonna be on the road for a lot of this week during the buy week. But get the text, 614-350-3315. Two week free trial, 399 after that. For Stefan Kreisnick and Andrew Gillis, I’m Stephen Means. Talk to you guys later.
