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Welcome back to your Saturday book.

I talk to Ducley, Marie, Nathan Baird winding up the NFL combine last day of interviews with players this Saturday morning workouts continue for a couple more days.

Nathan, you spoke with Tyrie Smith and Haskell Garrett on Friday, and we'll talk about that the interview Saturday morning defensive backs and kickers.

So nobody from Ohio State, but I did talk to sauce gardener and Kobe Bryant and Brian Cook from the Cincinnati defensive backfield about Perry, Eliana, the new Ohio State safeties coach who was the sit the cornerbacks coach for Cincinnati the last two years, and it was just a reminder Nathan.

And we'll talk a little bit about Garrett and Smith what they said we'll talk a little bit about the workouts for Nicholas petite fair and say a month for it on Friday night how they went but starting with Eliana, which reminder Nathan that.

Yes, he's going from Cincinnati to Ohio State, and that's a step up he's getting paid more, the highest dates and obviously a bigger more successful traditionally program, but Perry, Eliana coach the best cornerbacks room in America last year.

And that's the guy that'll hide the state higher they had to be their safeties coach, but sauce gardener is going to be like a top 15 or top 10 pick Kobe Bryant's probably going to be a day to pick and Perry, Eliana was the guy in the room with them.

Yeah, I mean, a state doesn't have three DB's at the scouting combine this year probably isn't going to have them there next year that's I think it's, you know, that's a rarity that you get three guys in in one group to go through the combine together.

And he, you know, I know he's only been there for a couple of years, but you have to give him credit for helping, you know, elevate that room to the level of sat or I guess I guess we don't have to give him that credit, but they do it sounds like you talk to those guys and they do give him credit for why they're there, why they're in the position that they're in to not only have had the season that they just had, but to be on this precipice of going into the NFL now.

So Perry Eliana didn't recruit those guys, he wasn't better than, but he developed them, I mean, the hashtag developed here kind of thing that Ohio State loves to do Perry Eliana did that so sauce gardener again, who was a tremendous prospect is is no worse than the second best corner in this draft behind Derek Stingley Jr of LSU long did give up a touchdown and coverage just great in man coverage, he said.

That Perry Eliano they would just have high level discussions as you would expect in that cornerback room and Perry Eliano would make these guys get up on the board and explain defenses and draw stuff up and know everything that was going on with the defense and sauce gardener said you know NFL teams while I'm here are asking me to do that and I can do that successfully because Perry Eliano made me do that in college and he said I wouldn't be able to do that if it wasn't for him.

So there's a technical side to that that just developmental football side to that, but both Kobe Bryant and sauce gardener just said like this guy's a high energy dude this guy's a people person this guy relates to his players so again it's just it's a reminder Nathan it sounds so much like what people always said about carry coms that on the one hand he is a high energy up beat great personality kind of guy and on the other hand he's like a teacher who develops guys and it's it's hard Nathan you know you're not going to get to the

combine and ask anybody about their position coach and have them be like oh yeah my position coach he was kind of a jerk or he kind of sucked right that's how they're going to say but they went a little further than they had to write and talk about Perry Eliano for sauce gardener top 10 pick to say like I wouldn't be able to get on the whiteboard with NFL teams the way I can without Perry Eliano I still that means something to me Nathan.

Well I think as it relates to how state it's an important quality to have to that teaching quality because they're installing something new and it's not like you're installing something new right now with a with a blank slate you've got guys here been doing for two three years or more in in one system with with kind of one approached things and now Jim Knowles is coming in with a if a new way to do a defense and he's teaching it to guys like Perry Eliano to I guess they're all having to get on

obviously the same board together but now they've got to communicate that effectively in a relatively short amount of time to this entire defense to get everything going in the right direction I think that that teaching thing is a really important component I know that sometimes uh you know we get so wrapped up in the the talent acquisition side of things recruiting side of things which is obviously critical to but you've got it still then be able to get on the whiteboard.

To design a defense implement that defense and communicate it through the players and that's going to be I think a crucial aspect because recruiting is future as far as for the fall of 2022 it's got to be the teaching side the teaching and development side of things is what's going to decide how good this defense is.

Another brief thing for our Ohio State listeners here on Buckeye talk related to Cincinnati Kobe Bryant who won the Thorpe award who's from played at Glenville Cleveland guy younger brother of former Buckeye Christian Bryant I've said many times Christian Bryant's one of my favorite Buckeyes that I've covered here the Bryant family one of my favorite families that I've gotten to know here and so I asked Kobe about Christian and he said they talk for hours on the phone every day he said he's the best big brother.

There anybody could have and Christian is so invested in what Kobe is doing Christian was a late round pick I think six or seventh round pick coming out of Ohio State had terrible injury luck at Ohio State as we know his injury in 2013 is maybe what kept Ohio State out of the national championship game that year had a situation I can't remember the exact thing what it was he was hospitalized at one point during his career because he had an injury that was so serious and got drafted then lower than he should have based on those injuries and then really stick.

I think in the NFL that here comes Kobe and I just like tearing that man like I just I just like the idea of big brother Christian Bryant being completely invested in this younger brother and then Kobe Bryant said it's like oh who do you admire in the NFL is like Marshawn Latimore was like why because they grew up on the same neighborhood in Cleveland and and Denzel Ward why because Denzel Ward from northeast Ohio is in Ohio State guy and Kobe is friends with someone in Denzel's family right and it's that he's an honor rare.

He was a little bit of a lower rated guy Ohio State could have offered him they had the Glenville pipeline they didn't he went to Cincinnati with the fickle became a great player but I'm talking to Kobe who who isn't he described himself as an alpha male he's a natural leader which is all those things that Christian was that Marshawn Latimore and Denzel Ward are examples for him that Christian Bryant is so wrapped up in what he's doing honorary but guy for a guy who made the playoff and helped.

How turn around the Cincinnati program and did so under Luke fickle so I think there's a lot of reasons that Ohio State fans listen to this can go ahead and root for Kobe Bryant in what's going to happen next in the NFL with him.

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