BONUS: Ryan Day Weighs In On Linebackers, Defensive Tackles

0:00We got one more bonus show for you coming out of the Ryan Day press conference on Tuesday. This one's going to focus on defense, special teams, and maybe some other stuff, some little loose stuff here and there that kind of slipped to the cracks on the other shows that we've already done, but that was still very interesting. We're going to start on special teams. This is a question about Chris Henry Jr. and his ability to block upon. He's one of those guys who is just an athletic freak, just size, speed, the whole package. He's the kind of guy where with some of the new rules about punth alignment, and we'll probably try and get into some of that at some point because it's really kind of complicated, but the moral of the story is it might actually be easier to block punts in some ways this year than it has been in the past. Will a guy like Chris Henry have the ability to do that on special teams this year? It certainly has the ability to. We showed the film probably about a week or two ago of Chris Olave and told the story.

1:01I think it's important for these guys to understand the stories, the traditions of Ohio State. Chris Olave came in, he's from San Diego, was having a difficult time, but Midway through his freshman year was really struggling. Terry McClaurne and Paris came and put their arm around him, like big brothers do, kind of helped them work through that. He blocks a punt and we showed the punt block in the rivalry game. He catches two touchdown passes there, goes on, has a great championship game, and then becomes a first round draft pick. That started on special teams. To your point, these guys know the stories, they know how important it is, and that's something that everybody has to believe in in the program. That starts with their position coaches, and I know Cortez is in a part of every special team's meeting and he's driving. Make sure those guys are on the field. This is kind of interesting. They love to talk about Iron Bucket as these are guys who were really the workout warriors, really people who set the example, set the standard in the weight room. That was something that you heard Jeremiah Smith won a couple times, but it was interesting

2:01to hear some of the other guys who won that over the years. Sometimes it was star players. Sometimes it wasn't, but guys who ended up being leaders on the team in one layer and other. They haven't announced Iron Bucket yet this summer. They did it in the winter workouts. They hadn't announced it over the summer. Ryan, they was asked, are they planning to announce that? Well, I've thought a lot about this, and it's the same thing with the champions on Sunday. There's so much about our program that sort of is public, that's just sort of what comes with Ohio State. There's certain things that I think we'd like to keep in-house for a lot of different reasons. We're going to try to keep that in-house. It's probably not going to be easy. It'll probably be the same thing on Sundays. We'll probably recognize the player of the game on offense, defense, and special teams, or probably we're going to keep the champions just in-house. It's going to do the same thing with the Iron Buck guys. There are plenty of questions on the defensive side of the ball. Feels like everyone's excited about the offense and the defense. There's some more questions there than there are really true answers.

3:06One of the areas where there's certainly some questions is, how the linebacker rotation is going to shake out this year. You've got very talented Peyton Pierce, Christian Allegro, feels like those guys are going to be starters. What about Riley Petty-Jah? What about TJ Offert? Who else is in that next? Yeah. Well, Peyton and Christian are right there. They'll probably roll out for the first nap, but you're going to see Riley and TJ in there really quickly. You can see Stov and there as well. I think James feels good with Peyton and Christian out there, with Riley and TJ playing a lot of football as well, based on who's in the game, if it's base or if it's nickel personnel. That's a good group. It's a solid group, a little bit different skill sets in there. We need those guys to do a great job of communicating. That's the thing that all great, whether it's Cody Simon, Sonny Stiles, those guys communicated. They tied in the front with the back end. I know that something James is really hammering with those guys. Taking a look at the interior of the defensive line and how is Ryan Day feeling about that

4:09area? That's another area where I think there's some questions right now about exactly how talented they are. Is there anyone that can fill Peyton McDonald's shoes? Well, I think we're deeper than we've been in a long time. I think when you look at Edrick James, John, Jason Moore, Will Smith, we're going to be able to roll some guys this year, which is great. I also think they're continually working to get better every day. I think they want to get out there. This gets on the field and puts some of this stuff on film. They put a lot of hard work in. They haven't missed anything this preseason. I think all those guys have gotten better. They've had an opportunity to catch their breath over the weekend, like defensive line and due. Offensive line and due. Today will be a really physical Tuesday. Should be really hot, which is great. Really hard. Then continue to go from there. No more thing when you're alive and you've got to build up that callister in preseason.

5:10I think they've done that. They've been out there every day. They put the work in. They're growing that out to get better because they know the games are going to be one of the trenches, especially these matchup games. Well, hope you guys enjoyed that. You're going to be cranking out some of these bonus shows for you pretty much all week long because we've got plenty of coverage, plenty of interviews. We're going to get to talk to Ryan Day again on Wednesday evening. Had a great interview with Carson Hinsman on Tuesday. We're going to talk to some more players on Wednesday. We'll try and get you as many bonus episodes as we can this week because I know everyone is sort of counting down the days, counting down the hours until that first game and looking for anything they can to fill that time between now and kick off. We will do our very best to fill as much of it as we possibly can for you with some of these bonus shows. But if you want to fill it even more time, let me suggest BuckeyeInsiders.com. That's where we have a very, very fun and active community. I like talking football with not just Ohio State football fans, but smart Ohio State football fans, fun Ohio State football fans.

6:11That is the place to do it. I know that it is very easy to look around the internet right now and say, you see me a lot on Twitter a lot less than you used to. Another social media platforms. That's because I'm spending a lot more time on BuckeyeInsiders.com because we really do have a fun group of people to talk about stuff with. We've got some fun events coming up there as well. We're going to have a live event down in Austin, Texas before the Texas game next week. We'd love to see you there, but you got to be a member of BuckeyeInsiders.com to get access to that. We've got some tailgates coming up later in the season. We've got some fun contests coming. We would love to see you there for all of that at BuckeyeInsiders.com. Go ahead, click on subscribe, try it. Try it out for a month. I think you guys will love it. We would love to have you join us there. That will do it for now. Thank you guys all for joining us. We will be back with more content a little later on.