Previewing Ohio State football’s 2024 season-opener against Akron: Buckeye Talk podcast (2024)

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- On this Friday Buckeye Talk, Stephen Means, Stefan Krajisnik and Andrew Gillis break down Ohio State’s season-opener against Akron and make their picks. Here’s what gets discussed:

• What do you want to see from Ohio State’s offense and defense in a game where the talent is so lopsided?
• The trio returns to make their game picks.
• Plus a look at some non-OSU games that might matter to the Buckeyes.

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 (00:07.467)

Welcome back to Book I Talk. I’m Stephen Means and that’s the final question. And we have football things. We have football things to discuss. We talk with Ryan today. We talk with Will Howard and we talk with Jim Knowles as Ohio State prepares to face Akron on Saturday in its twenty twenty four season opener. Get the test. One four three five. All three. We’re five. We wrote some stuff for the site. But as it was happening live, I was texting out everything that they were saying. Not everything, because not everything they say. I know most of it. Eighty five to ninety five percent of it.

I was texting, I don’t want to ever bombard people with Stefan. Let’s start with day and let’s start start with Jim Knowles between those two. I think we got a starting 22. I think that’s pretty clear at this point. Will Howard’s a starting quarterback. Well, we got a starting 21 and then a will find that on Saturday. I think the starting wide receivers are Jeremiah Smith, Carnell Tate and the Mecca Bucca though. Brian Day did say Brandon Ennis, Bryson Rogers. A lot of those guys are going to play.

Offensive line, Josh Simmons, Donovan Jackson, Seth McLaughlin, Tegra Shibola at the starting right guard was the one spot we didn’t know yet. And then obviously you have Josh Fryer then on the defensive side of the ball. The only real question was that linebacker. does seem like Sunny Stiles is going to start between those two coaches, the head coach of the team and the head coach of the defense. What was the most interesting thing you heard from Ryan Day on Tuesday afternoon or Jim Knowles on Tuesday afternoon?

Stefan Krajisnik (01:29.438)

Yeah, I think I’ll start with Ryan and what he said. I’m still walking into the season thinking that there’s a bit of a position battle still going on at right guard. And it seems like Tegra remains the favorite. And I’d probably say like, it’s not a position battle where you have a one A and one B, but there’s definitely a one and a close number two. And I think Carson Hensman is still in the mix. And I wouldn’t be surprised if

When the starters are out on the field still against Akron, it could be the third series. Who knows when it will be. I think Carson Hinsman is going to get the play with the ones. And I think you’re going to see a lot of rotation kind of throughout the offense line. But I think specifically at that spot, if they’re playing Oregon tomorrow and they need someone to play 99 % of the snaps, it’s going to be Tegra. But you don’t play Oregon until October. You don’t play Iowa until October.

It’s what we’ve been saying a lot, you know, leading up to this week of Ohio state has time to kind of figure it out on the fly as the season goes on. And I think that’s where we are still with the right guard battle. So that was interesting. I think we got a little, when, when he announced Will Howard as a starting quarterback a couple of weeks ago, he said Devin Brown is the backup as of right now and kind of left that door open. I think a lot of what we’ve been saying about Julian saying, and we’ve all bought into the hype a little bit.

It seems like, at least from how we phrase it today, Devin Broughton is the backup quarterback for this team going into week one. So it seems like that’s been shored up a little bit. I think the conversation we can go into this, because I think this is probably the most interesting thing to come from it is the conversation about Sonny Stiles. And a lot of us went into the season thinking, I mean, you wrote about CJ Hicks talking about he wants to this team in sacks and we know what he can do.

But you could tell from week one or week one, should say the first week of practice that this staff thought really highly of Sonny Stiles and his transition to this linebacker role and kind of what he can do on this defense in a different role. I think going into this first game, Sonny’s a guy that this staff clearly thinks very highly of. think Jim Noll’s complimented kind of just his intelligence of the game and how smart, I think he could say that.

Stefan Krajisnik (03:49.066)

He could even play some Mike linebacker and kind of move around a bit if needed to because of how smart he is and kind of his understanding of this defense in the game itself. So, curious to get your thoughts. Cause that’s when I walk away from this and I’m just like, Sonny might be a guy who got a good amount of preseason hype, but still might not be getting enough if they really think that he could be a guy that kind of not necessarily separates himself from CJ, but if it’s a huge snap in the fourth quarter,

I wouldn’t be too surprised if it’s like, Sonny’s getting a few of these snaps in a row on the biggest drive.

Stephen Means (04:24.341)

let me break all that down because I think all that falls under the same umbrella of I think what was the biggest takeaway for me and that’s Ohio State might have to play its longest season ever but also September is easy right it’s very easy it’s three non -conference group of five teams in a bi -week and then you go to Michigan State which I mean I’m not sure what’s going on with Michigan State right now they are starting from scratch all over again with a new head coach

So when you have that level of a schedule and again, October 5th and on, it does pick up. gets a little bit more difficult week by week, but the first five weeks of the season, Ohio state has a chance to really build that all over the place. And Ryan Day was saying that they, maybe he said they have to be a little bit better with that than maybe they’ve been in the past. I think offensively, they’ve never had a problem playing young guys. I’ve got young guys are good enough to play Garrett Wilson played as a true freshman. Jackson Smith, the Jigba played a little bit as a true freshman and maybe would have played more.

Have the year been a little bit normal? Yeah. Mackebuka was a kick returner as a true freshman, right? You saw Marvin Harrison Jr. get an opportunity as a true freshman. Trayvon Henderson is the starting running back as a true freshman. The offensive side has never really been much of an issue on defense, which again, to a point, it sounds like Jeremiah Smith is going to be the second true freshman to be a starter for the season opening for Ohio State. Remember, Genzo Berk did as the quarterback back in 2021, but that kind of caught people off guard. This isn’t going to catch people off guard.

I think the offensive line point first and then I’ll get into the linebacker point. I am wondering how much that sickness kind of messed up things in terms of who’s game ready. And I don’t mean talent wise. I mean like physically, right? It doesn’t sound, there’s a good reason to believe that maybe Donovan Jackson isn’t 100 % heading into the season, but also he’s a three year starter. And so he doesn’t need to play a four quarter game against Zach.

So there are opportunities to get Austin Cerebell on the field, there are opportunities to get Carson Hinsman and Tego Shabola out there and kind of roll guys on the offensive line. If it feels like that sickness got in the way of not only getting a true evaluation to your point about who’s your best starter for right guard, but also just allowing guys to get in the game shape and maybe you don’t. And Ryan Day even mentioned it when I asked him about the running back, the heats is going to test them. It’s supposed to be like 90 plus degrees, which is even hotter down on a football field that’s turf like that. And so I think

Stephen Means (06:51.519)

I agree they might roll the offensive line a little bit more than we’re you’re used to seeing anybody roll their offensive line because you got to keep guys fresh. But then also I think that position group hasn’t had a chance to really get its feet under itself fully because of what it was dealing with early on in camp to your linebacker point. I don’t think it’s black and white like that. I don’t think it’s Sonny Salas is a starter. So CJ Hicks doesn’t play and that’s why I think I kept the question that way of hey in the past.

So Cody Simon wasn’t a starter, but every week you’d come in here, Jim Knowles, and you said, got to find a ways to get you Cody Simon. I like I spy on ways to get Cody Simon on the field. Now there’s a significant gap in between where his snaps were and where Tommy Eichenberg and still chamber snaps were, but not in terms of production. And so that’s what that’s where it sparked the, Hey, maybe you might even see Cody Simon, excuse me, not going to Simon, but CJ Hicks and Sonny Styles out there together or see Sonny Styles is your mic because my son has shown you.

He’s picked this up quick, but also showing you a bit of versatility. I think they might roll there too. And I might throw our bell reason to this conversation. I might throw gay powers into this conversation. I think because of what these first two games are before the bye week, I think they might roll everywhere, but quarterback to start getting his Ryan David mentioned that there’s not going to be a situation like it was last year with a third series. There’s you’re bringing in your backup quarterback. I just think everywhere else.

You can roll guys because it’s either established vets. And so you’re trying to build depth behind them, which he got asked about the safety depth and mentioned the fact that there may be still a significant divide between where Lathan ransom and co and Caleb downs are as starters. And then maybe we’re Jaylen McClain and Molly Cartford and Jayden Bonsu and Leroy Roker and on down the list are as backups in that situation. But I just think we’re going to see a lot of guys play over the next two weeks because they can do that.

and it not be consequential to whether or not they want to lose the game. But also it might help them in terms of when you get to October, November, December, if you’ve built that level of depth.

Stefan Krajisnik (08:55.21)

Yeah, no doubt. And I think another thing with specifically with the offensive line that Ryan has kind of mentioned a few times here in camp, but I mentioned it again today, yesterday, as you’re listening, that the bug that went through the offensive line, as tough as it made things at certain points, you also probably got some guys reps that you didn’t originally think were going to get reps with the ones or the two, right? You know, we talked about Ian Moore and him losing his black stripe the last couple of weeks. So.

There is a bright side, I guess, a silver lining to that bug is that maybe you feel a little bit better about that depth and, you know, maybe there’s some guys that aren’t necessarily game ready week one, but it’s like, all right, like they got more reps than we thought. So now we feel a bit more comfortable giving them a couple reps and some of these games. And now you get to December, you’re saying, Hey, I know, you know, guy like Ian Moore, probably didn’t expect them to play much outside of special teams or something like that this year. Well, well against Akron, we got them.

you know, 10 offensive snaps like boom, that’s film that you have for next year to feel a bit more comfortable about what you got at offensive line. Cause we talked so much about offensive line recruiting. They don’t have a freshman that’s going to necessarily come in and take over next season. Like you got to be able to evaluate, okay, which of these younger guys has had a chance in the 2024 regular season to get some snaps and all right, we’re comfortable with them there. Okay. Maybe we need, you know, this position should be something we target in the transfer portal instead of just going with, you know, a young guy returning for another year. So,

There are silver linings to the bug that went through the offensive line, although I’m sure those guys that were dealing with it probably didn’t feel too great trying to find a silver lining with it. I think with the offensive line as a whole, you walk out of camp a bit more comfortable with your depth. that’s kind of, I mean, isn’t that what this off season has been about? And I know we’re going to talk about a bit later this week on a pod of just what this off season sets up for Ohio State this season, but.

A huge thing that Ryan Day has consistently talked about is the guys they got from the portal. Yes, some of them fill holes, but also they’re filling holes at spot where you still got a decent option. And now it’s like, can start thinking about depth, right? Like you can start thinking about guys being fresh for game 16, for game 17, or at least relatively fresh. Like everything they’ve done this off season, it’s not only built a great starting 22, but it’s given them a little more depth that maybe they haven’t had in years past. And I think going into week one,

Stefan Krajisnik (11:20.926)

some of those battles, there’s probably guys battling to be the number two still, right? There might be a starter, but there’s guys battling to be the number two. And that’s where I think these first few games are gonna be really important. And there’s gonna be a lot to learn in September that’s gonna be useful when November, December roll around.

Stephen Means (11:37.015)

So what else? What else stood out between those two guys where we talked with Ryan Day for I think about 25 minutes and I think we got Jim Knowles for about 20 minutes as well.

Stefan Krajisnik (11:44.512)

Yeah, I think another guy that we’ve talked a lot about this offseason is Cody Simon. Me, you, Andrew, we all predicted him to lead the team in tackles. He ends up getting the block. I thought it was just interesting listening to Jim Knowles, the way he talked about Cody and talked about coming in three years ago. You could tell right away that Cody kind of, listen, Cody Simon is probably not the most talented guy on this team or on this defense. think Caleb Downs is kind of the guy you circle right away.

But there’s an aspect to having a guy like that at linebacker that is so pivotal for defense. it’s why that position is so often labeled the quarterback of the defense. And now even with the helmet communication technology, it all just becomes so much more important to have a guy like that that understands. And a lot of it is cliche, it’s coach speak, but there’s a reason coaches always talk about this is having guys that understand the culture, know where you go.

you know, have a high IQ when it comes to the game. That’s what Cody Simon brings. And it’s evident that when we talk about this defense as a whole and how comfortable they are with Jim Knowles’ system, I think Jim and Ryan Day are really comfortable that they point to the guy that’s leading that unit, at least from a leadership aspect, and say, Cody Simon probably knows what Jim Knowles is thinking before Jim Knowles gets that play call in. That just gives you so much more comfort about what this defense can be and kind of the communication between

the staff and the players, especially when you got a few new pieces kind of getting in there and getting comfortable. So that’s one thing that I thought Jim’s answer to the question was interesting because that’s a huge piece for a defense to have, right? Like if you don’t have a guy at linebacker like that that you trust that’s a veteran and Ohio State’s had a good history. That’s not that Ohio State hasn’t necessarily had that. But that’s also a big reason why Ohio State has had a lot of good defenses in the past few years.

Stephen Means (13:38.039)

So a couple of other things, just note keeping things. Chip Kelly will be up in the box this year. Jim Holtz has been up in the box. believe Chip Kelly is gonna be the only offensive full -time assistant up in the box. gonna be some GAs and QCs and analysts up there with him as well, which is just a much different look. I think it’s interesting, both of Ohio State’s play callers are up in the press box again this year. Just because I think the last time that was the case was I think 2017. I might not have that totally right, but I do know.

Ryan Day was up in the box in 2017. And then he, think he came down in 2018 when he took over as the interim head coach for the couple of games there in 2018. And then he just kind of stayed down there. And obviously he’s been there play caller ever since. So defense, the defensive play callers have been kind of up and down during the Ryan Day era. think Jeff Hopfield was up in the box. think Carrie Combs was down on the field and then he went up into the box when Matt Barnes took over as a play caller and Matt Barnes came down from the box and was now on the field.

So had both of your play callers on the field and then Jim Knowles has been on the field the last three years. He’ll continue to do so as well. Special teams, which I think we test on this in the spring, but now it’s finalized. There’s going be a lot of people who have their hands in and on special teams are kind of splitting that duty up between a lot of different guys. But Rob Keys, who they brought in, he’s going to be the guy who’s the, the Singletary voice in terms of he’s in charge of that. Ryan Day is going to have his hands in that.

Brian Heartland will have his hands in that. Guerrero have his hands in that. James Lornitis, the opposite. then every assistant coach will be a part of that as well. Also, Ryan Day did get asked, did he watch the Connor Stallions documentary?

Stefan Krajisnik (15:18.954)

Not only did he watch, but will he watch?

Stephen Means (15:21.013)

Will he watch? And his answer was a very swift no. So he will not be watching. We have not watched it yet, Stefan and I. We’re gonna, on Sunday, at some point during this week, we’ll talk about it.

Stefan Krajisnik (15:30.7)

I briefly started it while we were waiting to get on the pod and I’m 30 minutes in and I’ve got some thoughts so I’m excited to talk about them.

Stephen Means (15:34.38)

Okay.

Okay, so wait the Monday pod we will touch on the Connor Stallions documentary very, very quickly. Because right now we got to worry about Ohio State can read to play a football game on Saturday.

So... Go ahead.

Stefan Krajisnik (15:52.012)

Another thing I thought that was interesting before you go on to we were talking about Jim Kelly being up in the box Ryan day does have Helmet communication like access to will Howard as well And he said I think he joked about it. They had noticed it at a one of the recent scrimmages something like that And Ryan was like, boy, like he’s got a I got access to him too now but chip will do the majority of that but if it’s you know, if you’re the fan that’s worried like

Stephen Means (16:03.819)

Yeah, that was my next question.

Stephen Means (16:15.627)

Mm

Stefan Krajisnik (16:21.324)

you know, Ryan Day is going to get no input of what’s going on in the office or something like that. Like he clearly will. And I’m sure that he can override, you know, anything that goes on and say, Hey, we’ll do this, you know, up until that, I think it’s the 15 second mark of the plate play clock where it, where it, ends in terms of the access. So, that’s another kind of X, not a exonosing, but a logistical thing. as well as the, the iPads on the sideline, I Ryan said that.

You’ll probably see some more in -game adjustments than you normally would with the iPads. It is interesting having that conversation about the iPads and then watching a bit of the Connor Stallions doc being like, Connor Stallions had iPads. I’m sure his life would be a lot easier. maybe that’s, that’s thankfully something we don’t have to worry about anymore with the helmet communication being in play now.

Stephen Means (17:09.335)

I wonder how much that’s actually going to be that big of a deal. And so far, obviously we’ve seen a couple of football games, but you’re to see everybody do it this week. If we, if someone asks Will Howard about like, Hey, you have him in helmet communication now, how much has that changed thing? Because again, it’s going to shut off at 15 seconds anyway. So the signals and all that stuff is still going to be in the game. And Will Howard even mentioned this at his second year at Kansas state, they huddled all the time. So he’s not new to some of the stuff that they’re going to be doing at Ohio state as well. Okay.

Stefan Krajisnik (17:25.792)

Yeah.

Stephen Means (17:39.883)

Before we take our first break, couple of things. James people was solidified himself as running back three going into the season. No answer on who’s going to take the first snap at running back, which again, I mark down that both of them are going to take the first snap at running back because they’re to do two running backs set. And that both of them being Trayvon Henderson and Quincy on Duggan’s, it’s not possible. It’s not impossible. Last thing, and we’ll use this to transition into quarterback when we come back from the break. Devin Brown, as you mentioned, clearly backup quarterback to start this season.

Stefan Krajisnik (17:56.524)

still possible.

Stephen Means (18:10.443)

Which means when this gets out of hand and Will Howard’s day is done, Diamond Brown’s probably going to be the first quarterback we see. You got Akron, got Western Michigan, you got an off week, and then you got Marshall.

Let’s play a game, just me and you, of Mark It Down Wednesday, as people are listening to this pod. It does, I don’t want to say that battle is shut, that QB2 battle. I think that’s an ongoing thing. It’s just going to be more behind the scenes now because we’re all going to be focusing on Hayes Wilhauer getting up to lead this team to a national title. Assuming Devin Brown probably takes the first non -starter snap at quarterback the next two weeks.

But when you’ve got two weeks of game film, and I think both of them are going to play the next two weeks, then you get a bi -week. Who takes the first nap when Will Howard’s day is done at quarterback? Devin Brown or Julian Sand?

Stefan Krajisnik (19:07.53)

I think it’ll still be Devon Brown. And it goes against a lot of what you and I had said, but.

Stephen Means (19:09.428)

Mmm.

Stefan Krajisnik (19:16.992)

The more I think about it, the more I think that even if Ohio State has a big lead at half, I still think we see Will Howard come out in the third quarter. I like, this is not going to like, now if Will Howard had been here two years or something like that, maybe, but I think like, you’re going to see a bit more of Will Howard than maybe I originally expected just because you have to take into account that this is still a new situation for him and getting as many games for game reps as possible is important. So.

Stephen Means (19:25.537)

for sure.

Stefan Krajisnik (19:46.112)

I think you’re going to see, I just, I just like when we see Julian saying these first two weeks, I think maybe we’ll get two, three total series of him. Cause you have to take into account that Devin Brown’s going to get a decent amount. Howard’s getting a, an even bigger chunk of that. So I don’t know now thinking about it, Julian’s going to get enough reps in those first two games to make me think that he can overtake Devin Brown. It would have to be a result of Devin Brown.

coming in and struggling, which I just, don’t know if that’s going to happen against he seems it could write like he could throw a pick or something. And you’re like, Whoa, like that was a really bad read. Like that, that was not good. And meanwhile, Julian comes in and he’s flawless, but I just, I don’t know. I, I, I go back and forth. I’ve gone back and forth on it lot this August, as we’ve talked about it, because Julian’s talent is so enticing that you’re just like, you know, shiny new toy, which we keep talking about. you, want to see him.

you know, out there and you think that he could be, you know, the second best option come December. I just don’t know if we’re to see enough of him in games for him to overtake Devon. He would have to be really good in practice, I think, which is possible. We just don’t have access to that obviously. But he would have to really take strides beyond Devon for that to happen. I don’t know. I go back and forth on it a ton.

Stephen Means (21:10.679)

I’m going to go off the board and say it’s Lincoln Keyholes. No, but seriously, it might be though. I I don’t, think there’s three guys kind of vying for that spot on a week to week basis. I think they might try to keep things pretty equal between Julian and Lincoln, at least to start the season for right now. And maybe even Devin at that point. I won’t be shocked if we see all three of them in all three games. I won’t be shocked if we don’t either, because there’s only so many we have to go around.

Stefan Krajisnik (21:13.686)

Hahaha

Stefan Krajisnik (21:36.502)

You’re talking about the three guys below Will?

Stephen Means (21:39.637)

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I don’t think we’re going to see Aaron Nolan this year. It’s five quarterbacks in the room and he, this is clearly a developmental year.

Stefan Krajisnik (21:45.28)

Yeah, I think we could see four quarterbacks play against Akron or Western Michigan.

Stephen Means (21:50.527)

I just don’t think that’s off the table because for starters, Akers is not a Mac school. That’s not a good Mac school. So this game might get out of hand very, very quickly. So there’s going to be opportunities to play multiple quarterbacks. I’m again, if it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen, but I’m not going to be shocked if we get to the end of that game and we see reps from all four of those top four guys. And then we can spin at some point, maybe on the Monday pods, just kind of evaluating how we felt about each one of those guys and what they showed. And obviously you do it relatively.

Stefan Krajisnik (21:59.073)

Yeah.

Stephen Means (22:20.309)

relative to the competition they’re playing. But I do think it’s just as interesting of a conversation of what’s going on behind Will Howard as it is, okay, how did Will Howard look at his debut as an Ohio State football quarterback? And what does it tell us about, okay, is he going to progress in the right direction to the point that we get to the Oregon game and he’s ready to kind of go in that game, which takes us to a first break. And we’re to come back. We also talked with Will Howard on Tuesday. Let’s take our first break and we’ll come back and we’ll talk about what we talked about with Will Howard here on.

Get the text six on four, three, five, all three, three, one, five. We were texting off Ryan Day. We were texting off Jim Knowles. We were texting off Will Howard. And this is your Wednesday pod. As you’re listening to this, we’re preparing to be right back into the Woody where we’re talking with a crazy amount of players. We’re talking to Ryan Day again with the lightning round. I’m not sure what else we need to ask Ryan Day between now and Saturday. We’ll come up with stuff. Cause this is the most interesting thing in college football. At least one of the most interesting thing in the college football, six one four, three, five, bow three, three, one five. Stefan, I asked Will about something. I think.

We’ll get a lot of questions about, Hey, first game was a Buckeye first game at Ohio state. You ready for it? You ready for the crowd and all that stuff? And I did think some of what was intriguing, right? The fact that the first, his real first introduction to the Ohio state fan base was the spring game where he’s talking about. I can’t say we didn’t even have a spring game. And here what’s a glorified scrimmage. got 82 ‚000 people to it. And now I’m going to play in front of a hundred thousand people. Now he’s a fifth year senior. So he’s played in front of big crowds before I think.

I was talking with somebody after the press conferences that he was, they mentioned to me that Saturday is going to be the second largest crowd. Will Howard’s ever played in front of, because obviously he played against Texas at Texas during his career at Kansas state. So he’s been in these environments before, so it’s not completely new to him, but that was the crux of a lot of the questions today. But I thought there were two questions that will Howard got that were intriguing in terms of the conversation we’re going to be having about him.

over the next couple of weeks. You’re one, I asked him the other one, Bill Landis over at the podcast and rivals asked this question. I want to start with that one first, the idea of what Ryan Day and Chip Kelly calling him the run game coordinator. And just another peg in the Will Howard is going to be a vital part of the run game in 2024.

Stefan Krajisnik (24:37.164)

Yeah, no doubt. think you see, and I think some of it is kind of the RPO stuff, just the run -ups and stuff, the various things that you see in Chip Kelly’s offense is, I mean, this will appeal a bit to our younger audience. Turn on College Football 25 and go play. I run a few RPO plays. And you realize that even in a video game, you’ve got to have a pretty decent quarterback to run some RPO, right?

Stephen Means (25:02.603)

Yeah. Yeah.

Stefan Krajisnik (25:06.186)

quarterback makes a lot of decisions and Ryan Day straight up said like, there will be times where it’s just, Hey, you know, Walker, or sorry, Walker Howard is another quarterback in the SEC. Will Howard, you can take a breath and give a hand off to one of these running backs. But a lot of the runs are still going to be kind of. Not, not taxing necessarily physically, not even that taxing mentally, but like, well, Howard’s going to have to be awake when he’s doing this because it’s not a simple handoff. It’s.

hand off, you got to make a split second decision based on what that D end is doing of if you’re going to keep it, if you’re going to throw it, if you’re going to hand it off to one of your running backs, there’s a lot of decisions that he has to make in split seconds that it’s not chip going, all right, hand off here, chip going, all right, either hand it off or throw it. You make the decision when the ball is in your hands. And that’s something that appeals to me about the Will Howard being the guy that’s come into Ohio State is you want an experienced guy doing that.

Stephen Means (25:39.521)

Yeah.

Stefan Krajisnik (26:04.416)

You want a guy that’s not flustered by the crowds and the situations and whatever it may be because he’s done this. He can do this. And now it makes a lot more sense why they kept telling us this off season. They wanted to get a quarterback who’s not necessarily a run first quarterback, but a mobile quarterback because they want someone who can do that. There is no such thing as a run option with McCord back there because you know what it is? He’s going to hand it off. And if he keeps it, it’s because he’s throwing it. It’s not because he’s run it himself. So now there’s

Stephen Means (26:20.481)

man.

Stefan Krajisnik (26:33.322)

three things that you’re thinking about if you’re a defensive end because there’s a party that wants to just come in and get the running back. This party that’s going to want to come in and get the quarterback, this party that wants to stay back and try to swat a pass if he’s going to be throwing it. There’s a lot for Will Howard to decide in a split second. And you need a veteran guy to do that, especially in this offense. And they’re very comfortable clearly with him doing that. And that’s where you get that title of run game coordinator because

What they do in the running game is not so much going to be decided by Chip Kelly as it is by Will Howard sometimes. And you need a guy who you trust doing that. And if there’s nothing else about Will Howard that appeals to you, the experience is there and doing those plays against 11 defenders on a real field is something that he has. A lot of other quarterbacks don’t have a lot of even the quarterbacks from the portal didn’t have. So I think it’s something that you point out right away. say,

If nothing else, you’re comfortable with Will Howard doing that. And that’s a key part to this office.

Stephen Means (27:35.555)

And I’m just interested to see how that plays out on Saturday because even Ryan Day was hinting at the fact that there are very few plays in this offense where a quarterback just hands the ball off and he’s just kind of done right. And even will Howard was saying, I don’t, like that. I don’t like when it’s just like, I handed off and I’m done. Right. I can check out. No, you have to always be thinking you always have to be on as a quarterback. So what does that look like? I think we’ve seen it look like

what it looks like maximized under Justin Fields. I think we’ve seen what it looks like maximized under CJ Stroud. I think there were times when you saw it maximized under Kyle McCord. It’s just to your point, he wasn’t the same run threat. So teams didn’t have to key in on that. Teams might have to key on that with Will Howard. So what does that look like with him under center? The other thing I kind of asked this, and we’ve been talking about this, right? Stefan, like.

Stefan Krajisnik (28:26.188)

Let me say one thing too, before you get into that, because I know where you’re headed, but it’s just like, this, this may be even as a bit of a segue into that of you have to think about what is going to make life as miserable and as taxing as possible for defense. And you look at this Ohio state offense and you’re saying, okay, quarterback, he could run and pass running backs who can both catch the ball and run the ball. Why receivers who can catch the ball deep threats, can catch the ball in the middle of field.

Stephen Means (28:28.961)

Good.

Stefan Krajisnik (28:55.008)

can catch a screen and beat you with their feet. Can even do a jet sweep. Like every one of these players, not necessarily, not necessarily talking about offensive line, but everyone on this offense can do multiple things to hurt you. And that is hell to have to prepare for because you can’t like you kind of can, you have to trust that your defensive end is going to make that right decision in that moment. And on the other side, you have a quarterback who’s got four years.

Stephen Means (29:08.161)

Mm

Stefan Krajisnik (29:22.708)

of experience in the power five who’s also making the decision and is probably more experienced than that defensive end.

Stephen Means (29:31.007)

And to the point, it does actually kind of segue into what I was gonna say. We’ve been talking about this, right? This idea that Will Howard never has what he has right now. And that in itself is an adjustment, right? When you’ve kind of programmed to think one way, to act one way, to play this way, to approach things this way, and all of a sudden, your world opens up and it’s a whole new different experience, right?

And I was talking with him about this after he got done the podium while I pulled him to the side. We had a conversation about this, just the idea of Chip Kelly and Ryan Day have had to reprogram what a good throw is, what a good decision is with Will Howard in preparing him for why he’s here. He’s here to be developed to an NFL quarterback. And so there are times that Kansas State, where if you go watch his film, he threw some interceptions at Kansas State, but some of those interceptions weren’t his fault. Sometimes it’s

He hit a receiver in the hands, they didn’t catch the ball, it popped up and now it’s interception. That’s not on the quarterback. But what it does do is when you’re playing with that level of talent, and I even caked it with this when I asked Will about it, this is with all due respect to every other football player you’ve ever played with in your life. And then he did it as well.

Stefan Krajisnik (30:41.612)

We don’t disrespect Deuce Vaughan on this podcast.

Stephen Means (30:44.651)

Yeah, we’re not disrespect. It’s just there’s levels to this. And even he did. was I was with all due respect to everybody I’ve ever played with. Because again, he knows people are going to take that and run with it. But he has not played with in a Mecca, Bucca, a Coronel, Teja, Jeremiah guys where what did Joe Burrow say? it. Jamal Chase is down there somewhere. That’s what happens in the NFL, right? A guy’s not open, but he’s open because he’s that receiver. That receiver is a superstar. So you throw that pass. Well, Howard’s never had that. So he’s never

made those decisions. In fact, he’s almost shied away from those decisions. And so when we talked with him, I think two or three weeks ago, and I asked him what is this thing he wanted to grow in the most, he said it was that, know, pushing the ball down the field, not in ability, but in willingness to do so, willingness to look at a 50 -50 ball and go, my guy’s better than your guy. That’s actually an 80 -20 ball. So let me throw it down the field. He’s had to be coached out of that. And he even mentioned, off to the side, we were talking about this, he said,

In the spring, he was a little hesitant to do that because it’s like, I don’t know, man, it’s covered and it’s a good decision to not throw it. Except when you have a guy like Jeremiah Smith, when you have an Amekka Buka, when you have the type of receivers that CJ Stroud and Justin Fields and Kyle McCord got to play with. It’s a good decision to now do that. And that goes into the playmaking element, right? And I know, yes, he does not have to be a superhero, no, but he is going to have to push the ball down the field and make plays when the moment calls for it. And if that

element of his game is where he’s had to grow the most and understanding KYP your personnel is a lot better than it’s ever been. That might be the thing that unlocks the best version of Ohio State’s offense when you get against Oregon, when you get against Penn State, Michigan playoff game, because you can get away with not doing that the first month of the season, right? You’re not playing anybody. And quite frankly, a Mecca bootcamp might take a five yard slant and make a 50 yard touchdown out of it. But when you need to start pushing it down the field.

and making some plays with your arm as a quarterback, when you get into these matchup games, I think that’s where his development and his time at Ohio State is gonna show just how far he may have made in that.

Stefan Krajisnik (32:50.656)

Yeah. And Kyle McCord was far from flawless, you know, last year at quarterback, but there were a lot of times where he knew that, throw it up and Marvin Harrison jr is going to catch it. Like there were some plays where, where you could see, despite everything with Kyle McCord, he knows that if he throws it Marvin Harrison’s way, there’s a good chance it’s going to be a completion. think, you know, I was watching, ESPN was doing some college football specialty. It was like on in the background at a bar and I kind of looked up and they were talking about Jeremiah Smith.

Stephen Means (33:00.651)

Right.

Stephen Means (33:10.689)

Mm

Stefan Krajisnik (33:19.798)

And I don’t know, they were talking about him being the best freshman in the country this year, but the highlight they were showing was either, I think it was from a practice where he just like went up and mossed someone to catch the ball. It’s like, I’m watching that and I’m thinking he was never open on that route, but he’s Jeremiah Smith, the number one freshman in the country who has a chance to be, you know, one of the best wide receivers in the country. If not this year, then definitely in the near future, you have to be able to read that. If you’re a quarterback, you have to trust your guys. And that’s why I think it’s so important that,

Stephen Means (33:28.844)

you

Stephen Means (33:33.601)

Hello? Yeah.

Stefan Krajisnik (33:50.048)

I guess it’s not you don’t really have transfers when they come in. They usually have the spring. That’s why it’s hard though when freshmen come in in the summer. Not a lot of freshmen come in in the summer. Get the starting job week one. Why? Because when you’re playing with guys like receivers that Ohio State has, you got to build trust and kind of chemistry with those guys. It’s really hard to do just in fall camp. Now, Will Howard’s talking about, he spent a lot of spring kind of really just learning these guys kind of getting his body right.

figuring out their tendency, like that. Took a lot of the summer to work out with those guys, but also build relationships off the field with those guys. And I think he’s had a really good chance here in fall camp to kind of be like, all right, I know if I see Jeremiah doing this, I can throw it to him. If I see Emeka doing this, I can throw it to him, even if he doesn’t necessarily look open. I think that’s why you probably saw him, as Ryan Day said, really pull away and be significantly graded out better than some of the other options at quarterback.

So I think that their Will Howard, the one he, the Will Howard he was talking about in January, I just don’t think is the same quarterback that we’re going to see in August. Not necessarily from a physical standpoint, even though he has, you know, tuned up his body a little bit, but I just think from a mental standpoint of being like, I’m not afraid to throw this ball because a Mecca, a Buca might be a first round pick in a few months. You know, it’s that kind of stuff that will just separate what he’s had compared to what he’s about to have.

And, and I’m excited to watch it. I think it’s going to be fun to watch. and it’s something that I think this coaching staff has confidence in because, you Will Howard has the abilities, the arm. It’s just a matter of making those decisions. And, and also, I think you’re going to see a lot of, you hear this talk about a lot, you know, color commentators will talk about this of an incomplete pass will be thrown in the end zone. You’re thinking like, man, like that’s a wasted pass.

but he threw that ball in a place where only the wide receiver was going to catch it. It was either going to be an incompletion or catch. It was never going to get picked off. And I think that’s some of what you need to see for Will is, okay, I’m going to throw it where only a Mecca can catch it. And if he doesn’t catch it, there’s not really much consequence outside of it being an incompletion, right? So like you can take those shots knowing that these are the dudes that I have. If I put the ball here where it needs to go, nothing bad can come from.

Stephen Means (36:12.567)

I think that’s the thing I want to see the most. And Ryan Day obviously gave a different answer. Run the team and be clean, be sharp, take care of the football, make the routine plays routinely, which he says a lot, which essentially what he said is the most important thing in game one is running a clean operation, which I do agree with. But also the first three games, we’re not going to come out of those games like, how’s this going to the national championship or how’s this not going win the national championship, right? They’re just not playing the level of team where we’re going to get an answer like that for the first month of the year.

But what you’re looking for instead is traits. You’re looking for signs and you’re looking for holes to poke. And I want to for me getting through these first three games without holes to poke in the quarterback play. Not saying it’s perfect, not saying that it’s flawless or that there aren’t things in his game where you have questions about, but it’s like.

I think we have an expectation for what we’re going to see from Will Howard on Saturday, right? In terms of how they’re going to use him, how things in this court, this offense can work for any quarterback. And we don’t want to leave the game feeling like, okay, he did this thing that Oregon’s going to take advantage of, or he did this thing that Michigan is going to take advantage of. And whether they win or lose those games when they get to them is a whole different conversation, but you don’t want to see holes. And I think

Even if they’re playing opponent Stefan where the talent disparity is so great like this, you can always see that type of stuff even if it’s small size up.

Stefan Krajisnik (37:49.066)

Yeah, no doubt. mean, there’s going to be times where he’s going have to make a few throws where it’s like, all right, like that wasn’t a wide open receiver. Like you had to make a decent throw to get it to him. And I think you’ll see, you know, and we’re going to nitpick the offensive line if this happens, but there will be plays where there’s a little bit of pressure on him. And like, how does he escape that? Like how does he move in the pocket? We talked in this off season about kind of his pocket presence and the natural ability he has, you know, with that of knowing.

pocket presence, I guess is a word I’m looking for of where to, you where to move, how to move with the pocket when it’s shifting. know, Chip Kelly praised him for that a bit a few weeks ago. So yeah, I mean, everything’s there for Will to be successful. And he’s got a lot of those traits. And I think it’s just, it’s the point of the year where it’s not great for podcasting, but it’s like, can we just see it on the field already? You know, like Jeremiah Smith, like, can we just see it on the field already? Like,

Stephen Means (38:41.879)

Thank

Stefan Krajisnik (38:45.302)

There’s only so much we can tell you about how great a lot of these guys have been this off season, how much the coaches have praised them. I want our listeners to let’s see, see it for yourself, know, text us, text us and let us know what you think about, you know, Jeremiah Smith during his first game on Saturday because you know, we’ve seen it, we’ve heard about it. And now it’s finally the point of the year where we get to, you know, see it in real competition and in real time. And that’s the kind of stuff where it’s like, yeah, Akron’s not the toughest opponent, but like,

things happen over the course of a football game that you can’t simulate in a practice. And how does Will Howard handle that? How does Jeremiah Smith handle that? How does Quinn Sean Jenkins handle that now being in a new spot? So that’s, it’s going to be fun to finally see this team in action to say, hey, we haven’t been able to judge it based on this, you know, these past however many months, it’s fun to actually see it in action.

Stephen Means (39:39.607)

So we’ve got two pods left, right? We’ve got the big major pod tomorrow, big topic pod, and obviously the game preview pod on Friday and then Ohio State plays football on Saturday. Tomorrow’s pod topic is based off of a story Stefan wrote where he talked to a lot of people, coaches, he talked with media personnel, a lot of people. Just the ideas out there, right? It’s the thing that’s been a thing, this narrative that I’m not even sure I agree with, and I’ll save my thoughts on a lot of that stuff for the Thursday pod, but just.

We want to have a real mature actual conversation about what is at stake for Ohio state in 2024. And not just a hyperbolic, if they don’t get this done, someone’s going to lose their job because I think that’s fine. But it’s also hot take ish and click bait ish and doesn’t actually get to the meat of anything. And so that’s what we’re going to do is the Andrew will be back on that pod. I know we haven’t heard Andrew yet this week. Andrew has been out in Belfont and Belfont ain’t work Belfont.

Belfond, I don’t know why I’m struggling saying that word.

Stefan Krajisnik (40:38.86)

You had a pexter call you out about a Downingtown, Pennsylvania. Apparently it’s not Downington, it’s Downingtown, Pennsylvania, where Will Howard is from.

Stephen Means (40:46.231)

well, downing down. Yeah, thank you. Downing down, which is not that far away from Penn State, which will however revealed he grew up a Penn State fan, but now he’s on the bright side of this. It’s on the right side of the rivalry now. But that’ll be the Thursday pods is having a real mature just breaking down what’s actually at stake for Ryan Gay for Ross Bjork for the 2021 Ohio State recruiting class. It was now in year four.

Stefan Krajisnik (40:48.172)

Thank you to our texture.

Stephen Means (41:12.247)

for Will Howard and for everybody else involved in having a real conversation and breaking this down about what this could look like depending on if Ohio State does achieve or falls short of its goals in 2024. But in the meantime, get the text 614 -350 -3315 for Stefan Krochnik. I’m Stephen Means and that was Buck Guy Talk. Yeah, that’s.

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