Hey, hey, where you been, but got talk is about to begin, hey, hey, hey, come on in, welcome back to a Sunday evening

Buckeye talk, you guys are getting this kind of fight late Sunday night. It's about 615 on Sunday. Doug Lamerie Steven means Nathan Baird Nathan and Steven were just on a conference call with Ryan Day and Utah head coach Kyle Wittingham, Buckeyes and Yutes. Is it the Yutes? It's not just like a shorthand. They're not like secretly the the polar bears, right? And they call them Yutes. They're actually the Yutes. Yeah, it's not a Gonzaga thing. Everyone just calls them the Zags, even though it's not their nickname. They actually are the Utah Yutes. Okay. I apologize. I'm

Not that familiar with Utah football. So we got a good reminder from the textures. And again, it's bull season. You get two free weeks during this bold lead up, maybe buy yourself something for the holidays, four bucks a month after the two week free trial, six, one, four, three, five, oh, three, three, one, five. Good reminder from the textures. We did a quick survey after the announcement of the Rose Bowl on Sunday afternoon after the announcement of the playoff. Everybody knew Ohio State was going to the Rose Bowl not being in the playoff. But like the level of interest in this and Nathan. There's a part of me that is like

well, if they're not playing for a national title, I wonder how much people care. Like that, that's been something that has been ingrained in me to some degree for 17 years now is that where are you sort of on that scale with the Ohio State Buckais. This is the first time that you've covered a season. This is your third year on the beats. First time they're not in the playoff. Yeah. That would be my assumption to or maybe not that people don't care. I don't think people care that much about the outcome of this game.

Though I think there's some angles to that that we already talked about on the video we already did and I think we can talk about more. But I don't think people are invested in this game. I think people are invested in whether or not Ohio State looks better in this next game than they did the last time they saw them. And what that means for fixing what they think are maybe starting to become some like for lack of a better term systemic problems, especially on the defensive side that have to get corrected going into 2022. I think that's what people are interested in.

They need to see some kind of progress as you head off into this off season. So that's what I want to talk about. I asked the textures that Steven, you came on the beat late in 2018 the year last year, Verben Meyer, the year that they went to the Rose Bowl last. As you get a vibe, do you think there's an expectation of like playoff or bust with Ohio State fans or not really because again, I think it goes without saying. I think this is still well, actually, maybe.

It's not true. I'll let you answer because I was going to make an assumption that actually might not be true. Where are you on this, Steven? Yeah, it's interesting. That season was even because they were still kind of in the hunt. Back then, you didn't really know until the announcement was made, whether they were making the break off or not. We knew coming into the day, they're not making the playoff. It's just kind of confirmed that they're going to Rose Bowl so we can move on with our lives. I don't. There's like a 95% playoff or bust situation, but I do feel like Nathan is right in that you're if it's not going to be the playoff.

Well, give me a reason for optimism and day says all the time to other personnel scheme or coaching. The scheme and the coaching can't be fixed for this season. That's is what it is. And that can be fixed in the off season, but the personnel side of it can maybe that can peak your interest because this is an opportunity, whether it's both practice or just a ballgame in general, for younger guys to step up and show you that they're ready to maybe take that next step and the development going into the off season and going into the next season. So that's if there's anything you want to do.

It's more about the players and it is the coaching staff or the scheme because none of that can change right now anyway. I mean, people care about spring football. There's no playoff at the end of spring football, right? That this is a version of spring football bowl practices a little bit like spring football in some ways. I was going to say that if you're not in the playoff for a big 10 team, the Rose Bowl is the next best thing. But I maybe that's not true because I do think there's like, well, you know, it's like, is it really about the

venue or is it about the opponent, right? At all, man, they got a really interesting SEC opponent. They're like, oh, man, they're playing. What if they're playing Oklahoma? Like Oklahoma was a crapshow this year, but it's like, I got to play in Caleb Williams. Oklahoma has a lot of good players. What they're playing Clemson.

Like, I think it's hey Clemson. Let's have Ohio State and Clemson go play in a bowl. That's not for anything other than we don't like each other.

Do you think it's right, Nathan? And I don't, again, sometimes we get on this podcast and I immediately get worried when I hear myself in my headphones, my pink headphones. And I say,

are we making it sound like we hate this thing that we're covering like that, you know, like, the Rose Bowl is the Rose Bowl. And that exists to some degree, even in the playoff era.

So I don't want it to make it sound like we're saying like the Rose Bowl because we have some texture response on that.

But Nathan, do you think it matters more like if it was a big time cool opponent, they could play in a parking lot in Toledo when it's not as much about what mountains are in the background of the of the building that you're playing it.

I mean, when I was considering going into this weekend and you looked at the possibility that Alabama could lose to George and Alabama gets knocked down into this group of six conversation.

You're like, man, what if a house state in Alabama, we're getting on the field with each other. And but you knew that there was really no avenue to that unless Iowa upset Michigan.

So, I mean, that seemed a lot more fun. Like there's not a lot of fun in the Ohio State Utah matchup. There's like this urban Meyer Dalience.

Now it does what we were just talking about like the how much you, how much Ohio State proves it maybe fixes some of the problems it had.

Like I think Utah challenges them in some of the same ways Michigan did in some interesting ways.

But that's kind of inside baseball. I don't know that it like gets it doesn't really raise the blood of the fan base that much. Maybe you're maybe your poll results will tell us differently.

But I think they're so I would push back like because you asked when we asked Ryan Day today about the Rose Bowl.

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