Are we not talking enough about Arthur Smith's impact? | Who'll blink first: Petitti or Sankey?

Bucknuts Morning 5: An Ohio State athletics podcast

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4.8 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 22 May 2026

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Are we not talking enough about the impact first-year offensive coordinator Arthur Smith is going to have at Ohio State this year? That is the main topic of conversation on today's show with Jonah Booker and Dave Biddle. Also on the docket:

* Who will blink first in the "CFP standoff" between Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti and SEC commish Greg Sankey? Petitti wants a 24-team field. And if he doesn't get it, he will elect to keep the CFP at 12 teams. A 16-team CFP is off the table as far as the Big Ten is concerned. It's either 24 or 12.

* What do we expect from Payton Pierce this season as he takes over as the Buckeyes' starting middle linebacker? How do we feel about the LB room overall?

* We get JBook's prediction of who will finish second and third on Ohio State's team in receptions and receiving yards this season.

All of that and more is coming your way on the Friday 5ish.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The
0:07.0	The Good morning Bucknoders. Welcome to the Bucknuts Morning 5 here on Friday, May 22nd, 2026. I am Dave Biddle, very happy, joined by Jonah Booker.
0:34.7	BTA Friday is my friend. All right, I feel like we're not, not necessarily
0:39.1	just you and me, but people are not talking enough about Arthur Smith. I get to feel like
0:42.6	Buckeye fans are happy, but like I feel like there's almost not enough conversation about
0:46.0	the new offensive coordinator. What impact do you expect him to make and do you think he's going
0:50.1	to be like a big improvement over Brian Hartline? I do. I think he's going to be a really
0:56.1	big improvement. Here's a guy who was an offensive coordinator in the NFL. That right there
1:03.2	automatically gives him a bump over Heartline and then he parlay that into an NFL head
1:10.3	coaching position.
1:12.1	The thing that I, the impact that I think he's going to have the most is on the,
1:16.2	on the run game, Dave.
1:17.3	That's kind of his specialty.
1:19.5	I think with his ability to develop the run game,
1:23.0	it's going to allow the offense to be more balance.
1:26.5	He has done a remarkable job developing 1,000-yard running backs.
1:31.7	I didn't know this, and I was just kind of doing some research the other day on Arthur
1:36.9	Smith.
1:37.7	As a head coach and an offensive coordinator, he's the only modern coach with seven different 1,000-yard rushers from the
1:47.2	scrimmage. I didn't know that. And I thought to myself, I was like, that's pretty,
1:51.6	that's pretty impactful. And if he can bring that type of production to Ohio State with
1:57.0	Bo Jackson, Isaiah West, and a lot of the younger guys, it's really going to make this Ohio State offense much more balanced than what we've seen over the last year or two. Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. I feel like it's kind of flying under the radar. Even when you see like national people talk about Ohio State, they'll mention it, but you don't hear people coming out and being like, wow, this is going to be a big upgrade for the Buckeyes. And I agree with you. I think it's going to be a big upgrade for the Buckeyes. Speaking of this offense, I had our friend Doug Learmaris on the show Wednesday, asked him this question. Who's going to be, I think it's going to be Brandon Ennis is going to be second on the team in receptions and receiving yards. Doug wasn't ready to assume that he thinks it might happen.
	...

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