Hey, hey, where you been, but I talk is about to begin, hey, hey, hey, come on in.

Welcome back to your Wednesday book. I talk to deliveries with a very special guest. It's been a while, too long.

Adam Rittenberg, one of the best college football writers in the country from ESPN.

You guys remember him from way back in the day with a big 10 blog, invented the Internet. I would say Adam invented at least college football coverage on the Internet.

And now you cover the whole college football scene, coaching updates and transfer portal and Adam Rittenberg is on top of everything. And we're so glad to have you on Buck, I talk Adam.

It's great to be here, man. You're one of my faves and miss those big 10 blog days. I don't miss the workflow, but I miss the embedded miss if that's a word in one league and and just knowing everything that you guys know about about all the teams in the conference.

Now, I'll throw the be back and had an interesting season. We have a lot to discuss regarding the buck eyes and the big 10 and college football's off season is too long, but as my colleague Bill Connolly reminded me the earlier day and a piece for ESPN dot com.

It does allow us ample time to sort of break everything down, what just happened and what will happen this coming season.

Yeah, no, it's it's with the portal stuff, the portal stuff is wild, but it does allow you to sort of analyze and what it moves me. It is, it's just interesting that recruiting was always the draft and now the portal is free agency and we know the NFL is 365, but like sort of in that way, the constant player shuffling and the roster building and the strategy involved in it really does change the off season in a lot of ways.

In some ways, it makes it more difficult to sort of look ahead already, because it's like, well, I don't know, like, oh, Jermaine Burton's going to be on Bama. Well, that changes things that changes my view of George and my view of Bama.

But all that certainly factors in, but as you said, the thing that I really like having you on stuff like this for is that you do have these big 10 roots, but you have the national perspective now.

So I think you're able to help us put Ohio State in a big 10 context that very few people can do. So I want to start with Jim Knowles, if you don't mind.

And the idea, I mean, I can remember, we all remember, like when Brett Belema left Wisconsin to go to Arkansas and it felt like, you know, one of the things that he said in that moment and that was kind of a thing in the big 10 is like, man, big 10 doesn't pay a system.

It's enough. Like, what do we do with it? We got to. And so now you have a situation where Ohio State has a hole on a side of the ball. And it's like, oh, what's Ryan Daygan to do it answered.

It's like, I don't know, throw more money at the number one defensive coordinator candidate in the country than anybody else.

I'm sure 10 different schools wanted this guy. And I'm not sure Ohio State had anything better to offer other than a fatter wallet.

You know, and the other guys like Brett Venables, great. Well, he's going to be a head coach. Marcus Freeman, great. Well, he's going to be a head coach. Like if you're getting a defensive coordinator, who is a current DC to come BADC, Jim Knowles was at the top of that list.

What do you think about Jim Knowles and what do you think about the idea that Ohio State was the school pan 1.9 million a year for three years to go get this guy.

Yeah, I think this is a huge win for Ohio State in a much much needed move by Ryan Day after a season where it became very clear what they needed.

And that was an upgrade as far as the defensive coaching staff went and I would add to not only did other schools, you know, want Jim Knowles or would have pursued Jim Knowles, but Oklahoma State, I was told, put together a multi year seven figure offer for him.

So, Oklahoma State's in a position where they can really upgrade their own investment in football. I spoke with Mike Gundy about that a few weeks ago, they really want to be kind of that top dog in the new big 12. So they were, they weren't just a pushover here in terms of trying to get him out of there.

It made it tough for him to leave and but Ohio State with the prospect of competing for a national championship and the money and working with these players and on the staff.

...