Welcome to the Audible presented by Trader Joe's.

I'm Stuart Mandel, joined by Bruce Feldman.

Ralph Russo has advanced to the Sweet 16, so he is not with us today, but we have a great guest,

our colleague at The Athletic, Cameron Teague Robinson,

the esteemed Ohio State beatwriter. We're going to get into some Buckeye spring practice

observations and then do the mailbag. Cam, welcome to the show. I appreciate you guys on me.

All right, Cam, thanks for joining us. You're covering a program that is always a powerhouse.

And now they have to replace probably four first round picks off of a dominant defense last year.

Big first year for Matt Patricia as a defense coordinator.

How is it shaping up in terms of like, who do you expect to step up and be those guys? And how good do you think this defense will be relative to what we just saw from them? Yeah. I think it would be hard to match Lashers team. It's kind of crazy because you looked at two years ago and won a championship. You thought, oh, man, that defense was really good. How are they going to replace those guys? and didn't they just replace them with maybe an even better defense? I don't think we'll see that this year. You can't lose two first-round linebackers and then just magically pop up two first-round round linebackers again. So that'll be tough. That's one of the spots where you look at, like Riley Petitjohn was kind of one of their priority.back recruits a couple years ago. He's going to be a guy who steps in. He's been hurt through the spring, so he hasn't got a lot of time. He brought in was concentrated for Christian Allegro, who helps there. Peyton Pierce would be there. But I think some of the guys really look at like Kenyatta Jackson is back on the edge. so he has to have a big year for them if they're going to be good. Dwayne Matthews at Corner,

they, think some of the guys you really look at like kenyatta jackson is back on the edge like he has to have a big year for them if they're going to be good jane matthews at corner uh they really love down

sanchez fox our freshman last year um hope he can step in um and then to me i look at probably

their strongest position which is kind of crazy to think after you lose calip downs it's probably

safety um they really like jama mclean he was kind of like to think after you lose Caleb Downs, it's probably safety. They really like Jaylen McLean.

He was kind of like their safety blanket last year.

And then there are two guys they brought up to the portal with Terry Moore and Earl Little.

I think Terry Moore back in 2020, and four is probably considered one of the best

safest in the country before Tours ACL.

And then they're hoping they can keep him healthy.

And then Earl Little can both those guys can provide some flexibility

with that playing a nickel or up top. So there's a lot to fill, especially I think the hardest spot for them right now.

The Phil will be King McGillelph. I don't think you fill a guy or place a guy like that just out of the blue.

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