Ohio State vs. Ball State rewatch: Lessons Learned for Texas matchup

0:00It's the Letterman Roe show presented by Modello. College Football season is Modello season, and we're excited to have the official beer sponsor of the college playoff here with us all season. Thanks to Modello for being a partner with the show. That's Mick Walker on the other side of your screen. I am simply, Spencer Holbrook-Mick. Happy Tuesday, man. Typically we do this video on Mondays, but Labor Day weekend, we pushed it to Tuesday for the folks. Let them crack the last Modello of the summer, get into our fall Modello season. So yeah, we took a Monday to decompress, rewatch, grind the tape. What'd you think? How are you doing, man? I'm doing great. Yeah, I got to cut on a little bit of it. It's harder at the field level because we're taking photos. You don't get to always see every little bit of it. So it was good to just see the first drive and the first time I've seen offensive drive in like totality because it's, again, it's harder on field level to see some of that stuff that's going on. Some of them can do so. I enjoy getting the rewatch on of it. There are there are some choppy parts and I imagine we'll address those, but overall,

1:00I mean, when you have a 56 to 3 win, there's a lot more highlights, a lot more interesting stuff than there are actual choppy and bad plays. Yeah, so we're going to get into a couple different things. We're not going to focus too much on ball stakes. I think we're going to try to take what we learned from the ball state game, spin it forward to Texas. So I don't think it would do anybody a service here. It would do actually everybody a, a, truthfully a disservice to just focus on what happens ball state in the context of ball state. It's got to be contextualized with what's coming. And as Kim Coleman, the Texas wide receiver said, we're coming. So Texas is ready. I think Ohio State's ready to. We're going to hear from Ryan down Tuesday morning. The offensive line, Mick, I'll just come out and say it. I do have some concerns. I saw the fringe. I want to talk about sunshine pumpers. I'm not here to do that, whatever I hate that phrase. I am a little curious or interested in the fact that Notre Dame struggled to run the ball

2:00in the first half of its game and then turned it on in the second half. And a couple other programs that you watch Oregon struggled to get any push against Boise State in the first half of its game. And in the second half, could run the football better and moved the ball better just in general. I saw a few different contenders. And I will even take it to Monday night. Florida State ran the ball really well. After not running it really well against New Mexico State. And they ran it well on an SMU front that I think is pretty good. So I saw some contenders and also just programs who have their footing. Struggle early, Aaron Florida State's case the first week of the year. And the second week of the year coming and play well. But Struggle early make their adjustments second half run the ball better. Does that give you any sort of optimism right now about the Ohio State run game that did figure it out in the second half and kind of ran all over Boise State once it figured some things out of half time? I don't think so for being honest. I think there's still a fair amount of, like, fair amount of curiosity on how this is going to perform.

3:02Because while we can't say they can jail better, everything looked better in the second half. Again, ball state, Texas are playing completely different sports at one time so they're full. Ball State does not have a player like Colin Simmons. They don't have a player like Alex Januera or some of the other people that Texas has. Hero. Hero can know as well. So when you factor that in, like, I do understand the idea that Ohio State got better as the game went on. They're often to look better, look more explosive in the run game. But I still think it's fair to be concerned about it. But there's also the layer of, like, I know Texas. The secondary is one of the larger questions on this team. Like, will Must-Champ has not been afraid to question the level of this defense in just the way that they're committed to playing it and the different things. I think he's been very critical of everything so far. That's kind of just a little must-chance at ML. So does the whole run game up at all matter? When you turn on the film and you look at Ohio State and their shelf and it can go up and down the field and five plays in two minutes and score a touchdown. I don't know. Obviously won't be that easy against Texas.

4:02But I do think I trust maybe Ian Moore and Philip Daniels more as pass protectors than I do as run blockers right now. So that with that with the past game, kind of, alleviate some offensive life concerns. But you're going to have to go out around the bottle when this game against Texas. That's been the case for the past two years. It's not going to change this season. So I think I'm going to start instituting something here, Mick, if you will allow me because you know how I like my rules. I think there's three levels that we need to start considering when you start to say like it's something concerning. The first one is curiosity. I'm curious how Cristiano Legro is going to do against Texas. I'm interested in how Ian Moore is going to run block now that he has a full week of film under his belt as a starter. I'm concerned about Philip Daniels performance because he's a second-year starter. So we've got curiosity, interest, and concern. Does that make sense of like, yeah, I mean, that's something that I could see as a question. So I'm a little curious about it. Interest is like, okay, like we saw something like I'm interested to see how this happens here.

5:03And then concern is just like, hey man, like that was rough. We're concerned. I think that those, I'm at an interest with Ian Moore because I'm going to give him the grace of a first time starting in a full-time capacity. I know he started at Purdue and performed well there, which is why it's not a concern. Like he's done it against a team that actually has like division one players and looked good. So I'm just interested there. The concerning one is Philip Daniels. Everyone's been very critical of him and I understand why. Like these guys are getting paid now. You can say kind of say what you want about him. But he's a second-year starter. Like it shouldn't look like that. And yeah, it looked better in a second half, like it shouldn't have to. And I thought there were times where Carson Hinsman's trouble and I thought there were times where Luke like I'm a strong one. I thought there were times where Austin's terrible struggle. And I think they're putting too much on Syriville's plate to learn three positions. And so if they just let him be a guard or let him, if he's going to play tackle, let him play tackle.

6:04Like you have to set him in somewhere because he looked like he was a little overwhelmed with everything that he had been trying to do all month. But the one that's concerning his day is. Yeah, it's the only guy on the offensive line. I think you could add long-term concerns about it this point. Yeah, especially because like I thought Hinsman and Montgomery like knocked off a good bit of rust and performed pretty well in the second half. I know there was still some blown stuff, but I mean, you're going to have to just work through some kinks here. I don't, you know, this offensive line is no longer walking on water. I'll just say that. The other thing that I wanted to get to Mick is the Brandon and his discourse started up again. After this game, he had three catches for 36 yards. All of them resulted in first downs. I went and dug up some stats on Innis. So of the players in the last 2023 to now, who have had more targets on third down than Brandon and his,

7:07he's the only one without a drop on third down. 2023 Marvin Harrison Jr. 2024 Mecca Buka 2025 Jeremiah Smith and 2023 Mecca Buka. The only exception is Jeremiah Smith in 2024 is the only player since 2023 with more targets on third down than Brandon and his without a drop. Brandon and his does not drop to football on third down. He's been thrown 17, thrown to 17 times, 15 of them were categorized as catchable by our friends at sports information solutions, the SIS data hub that we have access to. 15 of his 17 targets have been catchable. He has 13 grabs for 93 yards in a touchdown on third down. One of those was in the Michigan game to kind of put that thing away because it made it an insurmountable lead because Michigan couldn't move the ball. I understand that everyone wants three first round wide receivers on the field for Ohio State at all times. I get it. That is the standard. Jackson Smith and Jigba Garrett Wilson and Chris Olave as a trio is the standard. Guys, that is not going to happen in college football anymore.

8:10It's not going to happen. If you put Philip Bell out there, he's probably going to drop a couple passes on third down. If he doesn't, I'd be surprised because quite literally in I just read you the data. Everyone drops the ball on third down at that some point, except for this guy. He does not do anything flashy or crazy, but he has two first frown picks on the outside at wide receiver around him who take so much attention that when you need six on third and four, he is open. He is there and he gets you a first down. He is the block. Oh, because he does not care if he gets the football. He is a South Florida kid who has every reason to be selfish. Could have went and got a million dollars to be a possession receiver somewhere else. And you do not miss this kind of guy until he is gone. Because when your slot receiver drops a third and four, when they're double covering your first round receiver on the outside, you're going to be pissed at the slot receiver for dropping the third and four and you guys have to punt. He's not a first round pick.

9:11We don't have to talk about him like he is. But what he is asked to do, he is doing. And look, Brandon did not like me as a recruit. I have nothing to carry water for Brandon and his sport. Nothing. He doesn't really talk to the media very much. He's a captain, but he's not like outward about that. He doesn't come up to us and say hi like some of the other players do. He just goes about his business. I don't have any reason to carry water for him. But I am starting to get a little tired of the idea that he has to be a first round picker. He shouldn't be on the field. You have two first round picks on the outside. And if you want to see Philip Bell, that's fine. I understand that he ran a really nice route. He caught a pass. I think he's going to have a future here. And maybe he starts to take some targets from Brandon and his. But the one who doesn't drop him on third down is Brandon and his. And the one who Julian second trusts on third down. Maybe more than anybody, not named Jeremiah Smith, who's getting bracketed and double team triple team all the time is Brandon and his. So if you want to guy who moves the chains and keeps this off and moving and

10:11keeps it efficient in low possession games against good teams, number zero is going to be there. He's going to play. He's not a first round pick. He doesn't have to be stopped trading like one. That's it. I just it's it's it's been percolating for a while. And when we stop thinking of him as a first round pick, that's when we can start to contextualize what he means to the team. He moves the chains. That's it. Sorry. I didn't mean to rant there, but like I just think that it's something that we've got to start to consider. I understand the point. I just there's one of the most frustrating things I think for college football fans, especially in a place where I have to say where you do get five star caliber accrued to guys who are top 50 caliber recruits is that you have certain level of expectations for them. And I think in general, if guys don't live up to those expectations, you're frustrated, but there's a tendency to at least if there's production, I was for which Ohio State has had move on and be fine with it. The problem is and it's not any fault of Brandon and his own. He's done everything he needs to do to be a captain. So he gets talked about he is a respected as teammates. So he gets talked about. So what we have is this guy that is an and eyes of a fan base and under performing

11:15five star, but also like does enough to get talked about. So there's kind of an oversaturation of bringing in his coverage compared to his performance on the field. And I think that is the larger reason why people get mad. I understand why you people get mad. It's not it's not anything against Brandon. And I mean, we are here talking about Brandon and send a week where he had what three catches for like 30 yards. Like I think we're three first out. I do understand what it but like if we just allowed Brandon to be the starting slot with Steve around Ohio State and just moved on and talked about how Devon McEwan had a touchdown and nearly 100 yards in his first game in Ohio State. In this statement, I think people would be just content with it. But I do understand that Brandon is discourses like a thing that continues to happen. And I think again, I think it's just because there's a lot of Brandon is that gets fed to people like that graphic last week. Brandon is respectfully probably did not need to be in that graphic when you have all those NFL white receivers, but he kind of gets force fed to the fans because he is an influential figure on this team. But his results on the field do not equal what he is on the like when I come to just what he's pretend done on the feet like his results in the field do not equal the amount of coverage that he gets because of what he does off

12:18the field. And there's just a disconnect between those and that causes the fire and the storm of it all. It's like the hot cold calls tornado storm on the table stuff. It's hot cold on Brandon is and that's causes the fire in between the people on the fan base. Yeah. No, it's going to I just I think it's worth a conversation of like, what does this guy mean to the team because like he kept him on schedule early against ball state. He did. And I think that a receiver who keeps you on schedule is somebody that you do not realize that you have until you until they are gone. Um, and look like Jeremiah Smith average is like 27,000 yards of catch. Like he keeps them on schedule just fine. Devon McEwen is going to do the same thing. And to be honest, every receiver they put out there's probably going to keep him on schedule, but this guy just doesn't drop things. And like when I dug into that third down data, it was like, okay, like everyone who's had more targets than him has a drop. He doesn't. So like there's got to be something there that people start to appreciate. Um, and so I think he and Devon McEwen as a tandem that, yes, I'm not. I'm lumping them in and it's this is a McEwen stat far more than is a brand

13:20but they had 130 combined receiving yards and a touchdown. Like that is what you need from your number two and your number three receiver opposite Jeremiah Smith because that means that Julian Stans probably going to have between 250 and 300 yards passing. If he's targeting Jeremiah Smith enough and he's distributing the ball to those other two and a tight end here and there. Like he's going to get to that 300 yard mark. It's going to be a lot of Jeremiah. It's going to be a combination of the other two and it's going to be a tight end this week. It's going to have to be the other stuff, not Jeremiah because I think we'll must share the Texas are going to have a plan for Jeremiah. Is he still going to get his probably but he hasn't the last two times against Texas. So we've got to start talking about guys who are going to move the sticks, guys who are going to get open on the other side of the field. That's Brandon and it's in Devon McEwen. So I just thought it was kind of worth a conversation here as we're on the offense. Um, before we flip over to here, the defense and figure out like, okay, like what does what is the performance in the Texas game or in the ball? Say game mean for Texas as we flip over to the defense, Mick, um, which is where my, uh, Modelo moment comes in, um, from our friends over at Modelo. Um, I'll, I'll throw it to you first.

14:22Do you have anything on the defense that you think is like way worth getting into about what it means for Texas? Cause I, I have a couple things. Yeah, I, I think the emergence of TJ offered getting the defensive player the week and what he looked like Texas, Riley, Peter, John being the team's leader in tackles. So that frees up guys like Peyton Pearson or like personal A girl, frees up those two guys, whatever vice versa, whatever it may be to move around and cause more having. So if you look at how high state and you go, I'm concerned that the day you not have a second defensive end, which we can talk about car a wilder and maybe whether he can be that guy long term. But if they're like, I don't understand or I don't believe that I'm ready, can be a number two defensive in our state or you should do have questions about that. I think the ability of TJ offered in personal A growth and what those guys showed in week one. Then the first week of Ohio State proves that Ohio State and Mavitures have the firepower to mitigate potentially a hole or a avoid of like not having enough talent at that second defensive end spot. I understand it'd be much nicer to have chase young and Nick Boss on

15:24what each time just called a day like Ohio State could have that a couple years of David Jacobs and car wilder and everything could be combated on this defense or says that book and defense events. It's not that way right now. But when you have it's such a talented linebacker room like James organized has you can move for some of the go down there and still have Riley Pettish on playing linebacker and everything can end up being fine. Ohio State when comes to pass Russian coverage and everything on the field. Yeah, the the offer thing is so interesting. He was everywhere in this defense on Saturday and yeah, the game is going to be sped up more on Saturday at Texas. But like this is a guy who earns his first career start goes on has an intersection is all over in the run game. Like very clearly met the moment and like that's a step in the right direction, man. It's your first start and there's still 100,000 people there and the other team practices to is our conferencing may like to say. So like to see him just go out there and kind of ball out against anybody. I thought was a really nice nice step. Now it's like a leap forward because Hollywood's mother's really brown. Like they're going to come down the hill downhill at you.

16:26Texas is going to try to run the football. I don't know how successful that's going to be at running the football. You know, they had 160 yards in this defense last year. So and that was a worse running game that Texas has right now. So, you know, all for it is going to have to be huge in this thing. I think, you know, they're depending on what Texas does. He might start. It's either going to be him or Jay Timons. So, you know, that which is where my modella moment comes in. That's a that's called a professional transition. Jay Timons two pass breakups, couple tackles. He. I think for a first performance, a debut, a high state debut performance. Equated himself very nicely. I thought it was a good debut like a good building block. He is another guy who's going to have to be just as good if not better against Texas because the receivers are undeniably better. Texas is going to do everything it can. Circle loves using motion and around orbit motion. He loves using tight ends to isolate different receivers.

17:31And they're going to put Cam Coleman on Jay Timons at some point. They're going to put Ryan Wingo or Emmett Mosley on Jay Timons at some point and say, what do you got freshman? Look around the bright. The lights are very, very bright. I thought there was no other performance that Jay Timons could have had that could give me this much confidence in him going to Texas. And I think Ohio State probably feels the same way. Two pass breakups is a huge deal as a freshman. Like if he just had two tackles and got those guys on the ground and know yards after the catch, he's like, okay, like you see the talent that's good. But like getting his act like actually getting the Paul on the football, knocking it out, not even allowing a completion. Like that confidence has to be soaring for him right now. And it's a guy who we from everything we've heard doesn't lack any anyway. So my modella moment goes to Jay Timons. I thought he was fantastic in the context of this is his first career start. Or this is his first career game action. And so I'm a really excited to see what how they use him against Texas.

18:35Because there's some things that I know that are that are in that bag that we haven't seen yet from him. And the so high state defense. Yeah, he's going to blitz at some point outside of the end. One. Okay. There you go. He's he's quite man. Yeah. He's come on a blitz. Now that that relieves a lot on the plate of Jalen McLean or a little junior, but I think I honestly trust those guys to mitigate it. That might be it's not a modella moment. It's Modella Modella moment into the negative, I guess is on Jeremiah Smith's first touch down the more I rewatch and I realize that ball state defense and a corner blitz from the Jeremiah Smith and just hope that the the safety or the slot whatever player like rolled over and I just don't understand why you would do that if you're ball stating in Jeremiah Smith. But a lot of so. So a friend of the show Bill Landis and I were seeing the issue from the press box. And we were trying to figure out if that was a corner blitz or if it was cover two. And the corner had nobody to cover. So he went. Because that safety looks like he's coming over the top like right away. He just flat line, flat it flattened out and then Jeremiah ran by him. So I can't tell if it was like a cover to trigger blitz if there's nobody in your zone.

19:42Or if it was just a corner blitz because it was terrible. I don't think Will must jump in Texas are going to do that. If they do, they will pay the price heavily. We still have principles though. You're not principles that I am on Jeremiah Smith and nobody comes in. I don't have to go. I could drop out. Yeah, what was in a corner blitz on everybody not named Jeremiah Smith. Yeah. Yeah. So I just like, I was really intrigued by how this defense was going to look. And I thought one of the other most important things as it pertains to the Texas game before we get out of here, Mick is they brought Cariwouter into the game on third down and put him on the same side as Zion Grady. And it's like, Hey, you two go get the passer. Can you out of Jackson and James Smith will do a lot of the dirty work there? You two as young guys probably two of the twitchier guys in that defensive line room. Go get the passer and they did. And on third down almost every third down.

20:44Ohio State clearly watched the Florida State tape because they know or a little strengths, his weaknesses and ascendencies. And on third down, he went to the sideline. And they brought in sometimes Lee were a broker. Why? Because early junior is good in the box. He's good in run sport. He's, I thought he was, he's a little late, a couple of different times. But I think overall he had a really nice day. Pretty quiet day, which is what you almost, what you want from that position. But they know that that's the coverage is not his strength. I don't know if I would say it's like a glaring weakness, but it's certainly not his strength. So what it'll have is they do get him off the field now. At some point, Texas is going to try to exploit that and, you know, do something for a second down to make sure that early juniors out there when they're throwing the ball into the secondary. But I think Ohio State's going to have plans for that too. So some of the third down stuff that they did, very fascinating, you know, or a little junior comes off as a guy who they think is going to be, who has all

21:46American potential still comes off the field. Carri Wilder, true freshman, get out there and rush to the passer with James Smith and Kenyatta Jackson and Zion Grady. And sometimes Carri was on the inside and Zion was on the outside and then sometimes they flipped and both times it was effective. So the third down stuff is the most intriguing to me. And I'm starting to wonder if perhaps they get into some of that third down stuff on early downs to tendency break and see if they can get Texas, you know, often speed a little bit. Yeah, I think there's a great game to have the ability to change your defensive line like that, whether it's playing Carri Wilder on the inside or Zangradian insider, just having Andrew Houston and John Walker, all these guys that throw out of them. Because if we're being honest, like, maybe it's just to be an additive, but Texas is also like in the middle of trying to get Cole Hudson back, like to play like offensive line. Ineligible, ineligible. He's not going to play, but like you do not try and get somebody back from the NFL. You do not try and get somebody back at this point in the season unless you really feel like you need to be a plus there. I, again, I don't know if the who they have is necessarily bad, but clearly they

22:47do view somewhere as like having the opportunity to upgrade. So that's when Andrew Houston has to live up to his prospect profile. That's when James has to live up to the transfer billing he came in with. And even Zangradia, your car, you have to go in there and win on the inside against guards, which is what car water did pretty consistently on Saturday. So that's just like four or five different things that we saw from the ball state game that matter for the Texas game. We're going to have more breakdowns of Ohio State Texas and some coverage from Austin because I'll be done Austin this weekend. That's Mick Walker right there. I'm Spencer Holbrook right now. Go to Letterman Road.com. Still got a good sale going on. If you missed the $30 for the year, I'm sorry. We tried our best guys. We sent that thing out so many times we tried to tell you it was going to end eventually and they did it all Monday night. So if you didn't get in on that, we still got to deal over at Letterman Road.com. Go ahead, Mick. I just want to add one more second on this podcast. Oh, okay. All right. I'm going to go back to Letterman 20, L-E-T-T-E-R, M-E-N 20, 20% off. You can get a hoodie just like this.

23:48The road back hoodie is amazing. I'll be wearing one of the Woody Asylvlex Intertruck to RAND Day on Tuesday. And I'll see that guy over there on the other side of your screen, Mick Walker. For Mick, I'm Spencer. Thanks for being here. Thanks for watching. Ohio State Texas in DKR on Saturday night. We can't wait to get down there and cover that bad boy. We're going to have full coverage of it leading into it here at Letterman Road, on the Letterman Road YouTube channel and over at Letterman Road.com.