Hey, hey, where you been? But got talk is about to begin. Hey, hey, hey, come on in.

Welcome to Buckeye Talk. We are talking about the Heisman Trophy this morning. It's Nathan Baird, along with Stephen Mead's from cluva.com, Doug Lamerese on sabbatical for a day or two, but he'll be back next week talking about the peach bowl with us in the Ohio State Georgia matchup, but a different Ohio State Georgia matchup in New York, Ohio State's CJ Stroud, Georgia Stetson Bennett are among the four Heisman Trophy finalists along with USC's Caleb Williams and TCU's Max Duggan. And I was supposed to be in New York. I think Doug teased early this week.

He's going to be in New York, but we changed plans, travel things. I had to get moved around. So I am not in New York. I'm sitting here in Columbus talking to Stephen, who's across town. And we're talking about CJ Stroud, and there's going to be a larger context here in the second segment where we get into more of like CJ's legacy at Ohio State and how the Heisman plays into that, how the playoff is going to play into that. And just where he sits at this very kind of interesting, complicated, incomplete portion of his career. But talking about the Heisman Trophy,

Heisman up front, Stephen, you know, I was in New York last year. And I thought we got a good window in the CJ Stroud's personality a year ago. He was coming off of the Michigan loss. It was the second loss of the year. It took them out of the playoff. He, you know, he knows that he's now played his last game with Alive and Wilson. He knows that they're playing in this sort of like consolation bowl. I think you felt the kind of weariness of that whole situation on his face in his voice.

I'm going to be curious when we start seeing video coming back from the interviews that are going on maybe Friday afternoon out in New York. The vibe that we're getting from CJ Stroud, because we haven't talked to him since the end of the Michigan game. He was off doing files and stuff last week. We didn't do any Ohio State interviews this past week. We're going to hopefully maybe talk to him next week. But obviously when we saw him right immediately after the game, very kind of contrite and almost like a farewell message from CJ Stroud.

After that game, and then now you fast forwarded another week and they're back at it. They can go still win an actual championship. And what is his mood going to be this year? Now that this whole thing is still in front of him. The high time trophy voting is done. And we know he finished on top four. We don't think he's going to win. We're going to talk about that in a minute. But just how different his attitude is vibe might be now with still like this.

This opportunity in front of him to close his career in a different way.

Yeah, it's pretty depressive two weeks ago after that game. It felt like everybody in that program was a little shocked by how that played out with him Ryan Day.

I think we talked to JT after that game as well. That was very depressing. And then on this past Sunday, when we got to talk today after it was clear that they would make the playoff.

I mean, it was almost like he said it a second life. It was like a jolt within the program and it kind of changed everybody's mood. I'm wondering if CJ Stroud will echo some of those sentiments with the way he deals with the media on Friday afternoon and even Saturday leading into the actual ceremony and itself.

But I also wonder if last year it was more like I'm just kind of sick of this. I'm over this. I just don't want to be talking to you guys right now.

I wonder if this year it might not necessarily be the same approach, but it is a little bit more. I'd rather be preparing for Georgia because I'm trying to win a national championship.

Even if I do maybe enjoy this a little bit more than I did last year because there's something to at least look forward to after this.

I feel for him a little bit because the whole process last year was sort of about loss. It was like you just lost a mission. You lost what you wanted your season to be.

You have already lost the highest trophy. You are not going to win the highest trophy. Bryce Young, your friend is about to win the highest trophy.

Can we ask you some questions about how good of friends you are with Bryce Young? Who's about to win the highest trophy? It was a lot of that.

I think that that coupled with just a long season, it's been a long year for the guy. These guys get a lot of accolades from us, from other people.

Maybe how much sympathy do you want to give them? The physical stuff he went through earlier that year, the mental situation that that caused him, then to come back and to think you've salvaged your year, your season, and then to lose it in the Michigan game.

I just think you're right. I think he was a little bit over it that week. He wasn't like belligerent. I'm not trying to put that out there. He wasn't being aggressive.

You can look at body language in the way that guys talk and see that it's weighing on them in a different way than it was say Aiden Hutchinson.

He also knew he wasn't going to win the highest trophy, but he's there celebrating what Michigan had just done and what Michigan still could go do.

And now CJ Stroud gets at least half of that. He gets to now go be an advocate for an Ohio State team that gets to take its shot at the king in the first round of this in Georgia.

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