Ryan Day, Matt Patricia and what Ohio State’s coaches said heading into spring practice: Buckeye Talk podcast

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Spring practice has arrived, bringing with it the official start of Ohio State football’s national title defenses.

Ryan Day and the rest of the coaching staff spoke publicly to preview the start of practice, detailing why certain hires were made, visions for the future and what the ‘Spring Showcase’ on April 12 will look like.

On this episode of Buckeye Talk, Stephen Means, Stefan Krajisnik, and Andrew Gillis break down everything that was said as we head into the new season.

Thanks for listening to Buckeye Talk.

Read the automated transcript of today’s podcast below. Because it’s a computer-generated transcript, it may contain errors and misspellings.

Stephen Means (00:02.516)

Welcome back to Buckeye Talk. I’m Stephen Means, that’s Taffon Christlick, and that’s Andrew Gillis. And spring practice has finally arrived. And what’s crazy is it feels like spring outside. You know, it’s warm, it’s beautiful, the sun is shining, the birds are chirping. And I’m only saying that because there have been years in the past where Ohio State has started spring practice and it’s still snowing around, or it’s cold, and we’re in big coats and hoodies and whatnot.

Well, for starters, they push it back to after spring break. So that helps. They’re also only doing four weeks of spring practice instead of five weeks of spring practice, which is also great. I think it’s a thing. I don’t know if it’s great or not. It’s less work, but it’s also less content for us to get. So I guess there’s a good and bad to it. Stephon, but overall it’s beautiful outside. Are you, are you happy? Are you excited? Your first spring football as an Ohio state beat writer.

Stefan Krajisnik (00:50.934)

Yeah.

Any anytime it gets a little warmer March madness starts coming up like what when it’s warm and like the games and Dayton tip off and then the first weekend arrives and it’s just like you’re kind of sitting there being like this is this is why I wake up in December is because eventually I’ll get here and And we’ve made it the problem is it looks like next week is gonna be back in the 50s So it might be cold, but it’s hard to bring practice starts again

Stephen Means (01:02.036)

Eugh.

Andrew (01:15.626)

Yeah.

Stephen Means (01:16.298)

Listen, see, that’s the problem. That’s next week’s problem. Yeah.

Andrew (01:21.858)

That’s future. That’s future Buckeye Talk problem. Yeah, I don’t like I don’t know if you guys ever had this like when I was in college, like and I would cover spring practice. I remember like I didn’t have a car. It was like 20 minutes from my like dorm to the stadium. And you just walk through campus. It’s 28 degrees on February 27th. Time to cover spring practice. And it’s snowing. And for some reason, the team is outside because I don’t know, the elements make you tougher, I guess.

Stefan Krajisnik (01:21.953)

You

Andrew (01:51.372)

And you’re just like sitting there like covering spring practice. it’s like, at least this feels like, OK, we’re getting somewhere. OK, you can actually be outside and not, you know, need to bundle up. It’s OK. You’re OK. think I think we’re hanging in there.

Stephen Means (02:07.264)

It’s a feeling of hope. For better and brighter days.

Andrew (02:11.18)

Hope springs eternal, as they say.

Stefan Krajisnik (02:14.024)

Nothing brings more hope than false spring.

Stephen Means (02:14.451)

Stephen Means (02:19.284)

You know what, Stefan? We’re trying to be positive here, man. We’re not being positive. We’re trying to be excited because spring practice has finally arrived. As you’re listening to this, all three of us are in the Woody bright and early this morning watching spring practice. We’re getting chance to watch the first hour of it. So we’ll bring you that information on the pod tomorrow. But if you want to get it immediately, get to text 614-350-3315 watching spring practice.

talking with Ryan Day about spring practice. And obviously we’ll be talking with a lot of different assistant coaches and players throughout the next couple of weeks here, leading up to the spring showcase on April 12th. Some other just newsy things that are happening right now. Ohio State’s Pro Day is next week, actually, as you’re listening to this one. Yeah, it’s Wednesday, March 26th. So all your favorite people from the 2024 National Championship game, we’ll be back in the Woody.

doing their last, I guess, general public part of their job interview, right? Because after this, they go on 30 visits and stuff that’s more behind the scenes. But this is the last thing they’re gonna do publicly. We’re gonna be there watching what they’re doing. So obviously we’ll be talking with those people. The coach.

Andrew (03:30.498)

And there’s going to be 32 NFL teams there. can guarantee it. There’s going to be a million.

Stephen Means (03:35.464)

Yeah, I mean there’s always there’s always all 32 teams always come to Ohio State. It’s Ohio State and even if you

Andrew (03:40.718)

Well, this year feels like it’s gonna be loaded though. This year feels like you might have some heavy hitters there.

Stephen Means (03:44.192)

I mean, in 2022, the Carolina Panthers brought their whole entire regime like their owners.

Andrew (03:49.612)

And I think we’re going to have a lot of that this year.

Stephen Means (03:53.216)

Yeah, I don’t. Sure, from a body standpoint, there’s going to be a lot of people in there. But again, this is a that there are always NFL players. Mike Tomlin is here all the time when they have pro days. I don’t it’s I don’t think it’s going to be that crazy. And if I’m wrong, then I’ll be with Andrew going, you know, man, there was a lot of people in there. I could barely move. was a fire hazard. just Ohio State, Georgia, Alabama. Even if you’re not picking. And Ohio State player, you’re probably just.

coming to the pro day just to see what’s cooking over here because I have a, this one’s, I got a good, listen, Ohio State’s made it a habit to let players who are not draft eligible participate in the pro day. And only one of Will Howard’s weapons last year was leaving for the NFL draft. So I’m pretty sure there’s going be some teams who want to get a look at a certain 19 year old from South Florida, just so they can get that ball rolling. Coach’s Clinic, April 10th, April 11th and April 12th. So essentially the same as usual, it leads into the spring game.

Stefan Krajisnik (04:25.662)

Hope and Jeremiah Smith happens to walk in.

Stephen Means (04:51.018)

We’ll be there. That’s a fun ball talking time. Stefan, it’s not necessarily you’re going in there to get a story. You’re not going in there looking for quotes. It’s just you get to see him talk ball. And why does it matter? Because it gives you a better understanding of what they’re trying to do schematically so you can ask better questions in fall camp. When Matt, Matt, Patricia says, well, are standing outside edge rushers, T. C. J. Hicks is going to be blitzing in the a gap and then in the middle of, I don’t know, the Purdue game.

He’s not blitzing in the a gap. He’s in the wide nine. You can go, Hey, you said that the goal with his position was to be blitzing in the a gap. So why do I see him in a wide nine? And then he can give you a good answer, or maybe he’ll tell you, shut up. You don’t know better than me. Who knows? But that’s the coaches clinic. That’s all the stuff that’s happening in the spring though. Very quick turnaround, only four weeks instead of five weeks talking with assistant coaches throughout it. But we did talk to the assistant coach about a week and a half ago, Andrew and Stefan and I, excuse me, Andrew and

I were there, Stefan was not, he was on a mini vacation. Shame on him forever taking a mini vacation, says the person who also took a mini vacation like three weeks before you took a mini vacation. So Stefan, I’m gonna let you lead the way here because this is all you have to work off on. You’ve gone back and you’ve listened through all these. Let’s start with Ryan Day and his like 30 minute long press conference. Main thing that,

caught your attention from what Ryan Day had to say about this new staff, this new roster in preparation for the 2025 season.

Stefan Krajisnik (06:26.782)

I’ll start a little bit big picture because I just sent this to our texters after going through the interviews. did admittedly on my mini vacation, listen to Ryan Day live and I was texting Stephen Andrew. I can’t stay away, but I did put my phone away for the rest of the interview. So I had to go back and listen to some of those this past week, but I’ll start big picture. And I sent this to our texture, texture six one four three five three three one five. We kind of hinted at it when we talked about the hires in real time.

Stephen Means (06:37.312)

You’re a sicko. You’re a sicko.

Stefan Krajisnik (06:56.778)

But Ryan Day saying this really reaffirmed it. Every hire, every promotion, every move was very like calculated. Very meticulous and everything he did very detailed. Like the way he talked about Matt Patricia, like he talked about him being experienced and being able to kind of be the head coach of the defense. Yeah, that’s great. Then he talked about the way that

He wanted to keep all his coordinators or sorry, all the other assistants on defense. He loved the staff that he have there. So he wanted a coach like Patricia who can run multiple schemes. He’s not going to be come in there and say, this is what we’re running. All you coaches have to adjust. That’s a huge thing. He wanted someone who has kind of that NFL experience. At least I got that vibe just because Ohio state is, is very much starting to run itself. I can NFL program from the way it plans for 16 games to the way it’s handling.

off season training and using spring practice almost kind of like OTAs for stretches like Matt Patricia fits that he has a connection with Tim Walton. Matt Patricia fits that because it I thought Ryan Day made it very clear that Tim Walton’s role on this defense being co-defense coordinator. I don’t think it’s just a title. I do think Tim Walton genuinely is going to have a massive role in what this defense does. I don’t think he’s going to be the play caller, right? Matt Patricia is going to be the one who makes the final decisions, but Tim Walton

From Monday or sorry from Sunday through Friday is going to have a massive role in preparing this defense and probably going to continue into Saturdays as well. You look at Brian Heartline. That’s it felt like an obvious time to promote him, but then he goes out and hires Tyler Bowen because he wants someone to help in the run game who has coordinator experience. That’s massive to add that to the mix. Tyler Bowen can also recruit. He’s played offensive line. He fits there. Like all of these moves from layer after layer and then you look at the analysts that they brought in.

on the offensive line guys with experience coaching offensive line to kind of go with Tyler Bowman. Like every move was so calculated and there’s so many layers to all these decisions of where you say, will it work out? Will Matt Patricia be a great defense coordinator? Ohio State will the defense be number one in the country? I don’t know. Maybe not. Maybe Matt, but maybe it doesn’t work out. But when you look at all the details of why these moves were made, I thought they were all pretty solid down. Like you look at them, you say, yeah.

Stefan Krajisnik (09:15.718)

I see what Ryan Day was thinking when he hired Matt Patricia. It all makes sense. We kind of hinted at some of those things. We said, okay, this makes sense here. This makes sense here. But when you hear Ryan, they say it, it kind of reaffirms to you like, okay, I get where he was coming from. Because when you go through the coaching search process and the rumors that surface and the reports that surface, everything’s kind of coming from, from nowhere. You’re like, well, where, did Matt Patricia’s name come from? Like nobody saw that coming. And then you sit there and you think about it, say, okay, these are the five steps. These are the 10 steps. These are the.

the checklist that Ryan Day had when looking for a defensive coordinator, Matt Patricia fits a lot of that and it makes sense. So I like how open Ryan Day was about the stuff he talked about. I don’t think he really shied away. I don’t think he gave coach speak. I thought he gave honest answers when talking about some of these hires. So big picture, you see the mentality, the approach, whatever you want to call it that Ryan Day has in making some of these hires and it makes sense, at least on paper now.

Stephen Means (10:16.818)

Andrew, he brought up the name Nick Saban.

Stefan Krajisnik (10:22.388)

I have that in my notes. I wish I could show you Stephen. One of my notes is mentions of Saban’s Alabama and Belichick’s Patriots.

Andrew (10:22.966)

He did bring up the name next to him.

Stephen Means (10:32.657)

He did it. I mean, Stefan, granted, we’ve been doing it on multiple one days for weeks now, but not. I said this to Larry Johnson. I guess we can get into this when we start talking about assistant coaches where I told Larry some things are just better when you say them and not me. He laughed. This is a prime example of that. We can say, hey, are there some Saban principles? This is not about is Ryan Day going to be as good of a head coach as Nick Saban was. That’s not a

real conversation that we’re to have. That’s a clickbait conversation. The conversation is, are there principles of Nick Saban being applied here? And when Ryan Day goes, I also studied how Nick Saban went on his run. He brought in different offensive coordinators. You think about that run. It was Lane Kiffin. It was Sarkisian. was Mike Loxley. It was Bill O’Brien. A lot of different coaches.

Andrew (11:03.043)

Yes.

Yeah.

Stephen Means (11:30.506)

but they kept a lot of the defense intact. And we want to make sure that our identity of what we want to do on defense stays intact as we have movement on our staff. Now he kind of was all over the place, but the thing I’m getting at here is Nick Saban was a defensive coach. So his hands were always all over the defense, whether you’re talking year one at LSU or his final season at Alabama, always on the defense. The offense, not so much.

Kinda, Nick Saban never said it, but Bill O’Brien, Mike Loxley, Lane Kiffin, Steve Sarkisian, those are all guys who are head coaches right now. And you know what they were when they were working for Nick Saban? They were the head coach of the offense, AKA the side of the ball that the head coach didn’t specialize in. So again, Andrew, when you’re looking for principles of how the GOAT did it,

I do think that Ryan Day is applying that. His hands are always going to be all over the offense. Is he taking his hands off the wheel a little bit? Sure, because Brian Hartline and him have been together for seven years now. So they know each other. He had Chip Kelly last year who he trusted more than anybody else in football world. If, if Chip Kelly is his football big brother, Brian Hartline is his football little brother. And that’s essentially what he just, he’s a big brother.

Thanks for a year, thanks for the ring. Hey little bro, you ready to do this? Yup, and I got the guys that do it with me. And then as Stefan, you’re mentioning some of the support staff members are putting alongside Tyler Bowen. So yes, the staff is young, but a lot of the support staff members are super old guys. I like the way Ryan Day is thinking right now, Andrew. Now obviously if it works or not, we’ll see, but I do at least like the process of.

how he’s going about building his staff. A little bit of young, a little bit of old, while on the defensive side, you are giving guys a little bit more autonomy.

Andrew (13:36.182)

Yeah. And this, think is one of the things that Sabin did so well was that he supplemented with areas that he knew he was deficient at, or he supplemented with areas that he knew his coaching staff was deficient at. Like I remember Sabin added Butch Jones to his coaching staff for a few years. And the reason he did that was because he wanted to really kind of master the spread and he kind of wanted to learn, you know, okay, we need somebody on our staff who is

Whether it was a quality control assistant or just an assistant or whatever it was, he wanted somebody that can help out that process and help game plan. I think that is a little bit of what you’re seeing Ryan Day do because, you have a first-time play caller in Brian Hartland, right? He’s gonna call plays when he calls the first offensive play when Ohio State plays Texas in August. That’ll be the first play call he’s ever called in college. Well.

Brian Heartline’s background is in receivers. And Brian Heartline has had a history coaching receivers, playing receiver, recruiting receiver. So what do you do? You go bring in a guy on the offensive side of the ball in Tyler Bowen who has called plays, but played the offensive line and was a run game coordinator and was a recruiting coordinator for Penn State. And I think when you look at defense, you know, that is an area I think that, you know,

it’s kind of the same thing where you really don’t need Matt Patricia to recruit, right? You know, you Larry Johnson, you got James Lournitis, you got Tim Walton, you got Matt Guerrero already on staff. And those guys are pretty solid to really great recruiters, depending on, you know, which guy you’re talking about. And I think he just went, you know, let’s get somebody in here who can scheme up ball. I think that is kind of the thing that I think you like about what Ryan Day is doing is that he’s filling in the crap.

and he’s finding staff members to say, okay, we need this specific thing. It’s almost like you hear an NFL team draft a player and say, well, don’t tell me what he can’t do. me what he can do and we’ll figure it out. know, there’s a reason Cordero Patterson was in the NFL for so long was because, hey, this guy might not be a full-time receiver, a full-time running back, but this guy can be a specialist for you. He can return kicks, blah, blah. Okay.

Andrew (16:03.02)

So don’t tell me what Brian Hartline can do or can’t do. Don’t tell me what Tyler Bowen can’t do. Don’t tell me what Matt Patricia can’t do. Tell me what they can do and we’re gonna find people that fit that role and we’re not gonna put a square peg in a round hole. I think he’s doing a pretty solid job of that, like you said.

Stephen Means (16:21.514)

Do you think Matt Patricia’s role in terms of recruiting is more or less are the same than what it’s been with Jim Knowles the last three years?

Andrew (16:36.256)

I would say the same from everything that I’ve kind of gathered. think it’ll be the same. think it helps whenever you have people in that room who coached in the NFL. I mean, Matt Patricia is going to be able to walk into living rooms across this country and name drop Bill Belichick and name drop, you know, Tom Brady and name drop kind of playing in all these big games and coaching and all these big games. That matters to kids. So I don’t know how much

He’s going to be involved, I think that matters. I think with Jim Knowles, it’s, hey, we got this accomplished guy at the college level and he’s coached these elite defenses for years and blah, blah, blah. And I think Patricia is going to have a little bit of that same cachet. But you also don’t really want to mess up what you got going in terms of the recruiting right now, because Tim Walton has obviously done a great job. Matt Guerrero has done a good job so far. James Laurinaitis.

did a bang up job in his first year as a linebackers coach. Larry Johnson’s brought in solid players over the last couple of years. It’s like, OK, how much do you really need him to do? Right. You know, do you really want like I ask you, dear Buckeye Talk listeners, and I asked Stephen and Stefan, this is almost a rhetorical question. Do you want Matt Patricia saying, no, not James Lauren Itis, I got this one, let me go recruit this linebacker. I think you can you can help him and you can supplement, which is kind of where I think Jim Knowles

played a factor in that, but I don’t think you’re really getting anything more than what you got out of Gnolls.

Stephen Means (18:11.4)

know what knows his role was. I think that’s what essentially I’m getting at. And I do agree with you. It’s like, man, I like the setup. The defensive court coordinator job is to scheme up. He’s essentially the chef in the kitchen. And he’s got four assistants who go out there and get all the best possible ingredients, right? Tim Walden to go on the whole foods and getting the most organic and best fruit you can get. Larry Johnson’s getting the most prime cut meat that you can possibly get right and on down the list there.

But I’m not sure if Noel’s presence is missed on the recruiting trail right now, not that he’s not here. And so essentially, I don’t think it’s about telling Tim Walton, James Ornata, it’s Matt Guerrero and Larry Johnson, hey, move out the way, I got this. It’s more of, I do think it would serve some goodness if there was a presence.

Andrew (19:08.312)

Sure, and I think, I guess maybe like the metaphor would be like, all right, Larry Johnson’s gonna go get the meat and James Laurinaitis is gonna go get the potatoes and Tim Walton’s gonna go get the veggies and Macquarie is gonna go get the drinks. And it’s like, all right, then you’re all gonna come together and Matt Patrice is gonna cook the meal, right? He’s gonna put all of these things together and he’s gonna help cook the meal.

Stephen Means (19:29.918)

Yeah, but also, you know, sometimes go to the grocery store and load up on your spices and your seasoning.

Andrew (19:35.468)

That’s what I was gonna say. That’s exactly what I was gonna say. was like, sometimes what you do is you text the other guys and you say, like if you’re going to a dinner party with all your friends, they’re like, hey, I’ll stop and get this. I’ll stop and get that. You say, what do you need me to do? Do you need me to pick anything up? Do you need me to bring anything? Do you need me to add anything? And sometimes they’ll say, no, you’re the one hosting. You’re the one cooking the meal. Don’t worry about it. And sometimes they’ll be like, you know what, I could really use it if you went and picked up some asparagus.

Stephen Means (19:42.612)

EEEH!

Stephen Means (19:47.326)

Yeah! Yeah!

Andrew (20:03.244)

Like that could really help. I think that’s probably a good example where it’s like they got their own thing going and they got their own kind of like their own process to this. But sometimes you need help and I think he can chime in whenever you need help.

Stephen Means (20:14.9)

Yeah, that’s all I’m getting at. know, is contribute a little bit. That’s all I’m saying.

Andrew (20:20.492)

Yeah. And here’s why Albert Hill is asparagus. And that’s our next 10 minutes.

Stephen Means (20:29.14)

That’s a whole pod. What’s going on with some people? There seems to be some Ohio guys who are no longer just like sold on the idea of playing at Ohio State. And it’s more than just mouth servants. They’re actually putting tangible evidence towards that. And maybe Trey McDonough opened the door for that to be a reality a little bit more often. Especially, it’s weird that it’s happening at a position where I’m not sure that’s the position I would have banked on that happening. But okay, it is what it is. Okay, Stefan, that was thing one.

Andrew (20:30.87)

Yo, that’s a big butt, yeah.

Andrew (20:39.181)

Yeah.

Stephen Means (20:59.466)

Thing number two in your notes is.

Stefan Krajisnik (21:05.984)

I think it’s very evident that Ryan Day is persistent on being as much of a head coach as he can for the rest of his career. Because he was asked a bit about how young the staff is, how new the offensive staff is, guys like Hartline, first time play caller, Billy Fessler, first time, not first time quarterback coach, but at this level, this is the biggest job he’s ever had.

You would think that Ryan Day would chime in and be like, yeah, I am going to be with the offense a lot. And it’s really not the vibe I got. I think he wants it to be just like it was last year. Now, will it be when we get to October and, you know, something like the Oregon game happens? We’ll see. But he wants it to look like how it looked last year, not just for 2025, but for beyond. He wants Brian Hartline or whoever the offensive coordinator is to run the offense, run the offense. Let me

Be the guy in the middle that, okay, we just lost at Oregon, gave up a ton of points. I’m to go work with the defense. Okay. We just scored 10 points in the loss against Michigan. I’m going to focus a lot with the offense. He wants to be that middleman. We’ll see if he has to start leading one way, but it’s clear that this is what he wants to do. And I think we had, you know, discussions in January and February when Chip Kelly left where we were like, what if Ryan Day decides to take the play calling back? What if he’s not ready?

And it’s very evident that that is no longer a thought on his mind. Chip Kelly clearly, I don’t want to say Chip Kelly taught him to trust more, but there probably is something to that, right? Like there, there’s something along those lines where having Chip Kelly be that guy was probably the perfect person to do it because yes, he’s a great play caller, but also he can show Ryan Day like, listen, dude, like we got it. You, you, you go be the head coach. We got it. And he can be a voice in the room. He could have a presence in the room, but he can do that with a defensive side.

It’s just evident where Ryan Day wants to be as a head coach. And I think that’s probably the best approach to have for him to be quite honest. And we’ll see as the season progresses, but I think they’re like Brian Harline is going to be this team’s offensive coordinator. He is going to be the man in charge and until something breaks, there is no changing that. And I, and I like that. And I think that’s, that’s probably something that Brian Harline.

Stefan Krajisnik (23:25.536)

I don’t want to say he needed to hear, it’s probably a good thing to hear because the last time he was OC, he wasn’t calling plays. And you know, I’m sure he probably listens or hears or reads something that some of us are saying where it’s like, okay, yeah, he’s all OC, but how much is Ryan Degan to chime in for Ryan D to come out and be like, it is his offense. I am the head coach. I am stepping back and doing this role that worked for me in 2024. It’s probably a good thing to hear.

Stephen Means (23:49.632)

Do you believe him?

Stefan Krajisnik (23:51.521)

I believe him on March 14th or March 7th when he said it and I’ll believe him on August 30th if nothing goes wrong.

Stephen Means (24:00.648)

I believe him wholeheartedly. I man, it’s like, we don’t have kids. None of us on this pod have kids. So this example is going to be hit or miss.

It’s like that time period after you’ve had your kid and now you’re going back to work and you’ve got to hand them off to the babysitter for the first time. And you always see in movies how the parents always struggle with that and they end up taking the kid out of the daycare or the babysit, whatever. They always end up going home with the kid. And then you just give them to your mom. Let grandma have them for the day. It gives you a little bit more peace, right? Grandma had the offense last year.

But also it wasn’t perfect, right? After the Michigan game, they had to sit down and have some real conversations. But it’s still grandma, so it felt safe. You know, you didn’t do a bunch of interviewing and have to go find it. No, no, grandma’s gotta watch him. Well, now your oldest kids watching him. You guys love how I’ve taken Chip Kelly and Brian Hartline and first they were big bro, little bro, and now their grandma and oldest child. It’s just. I’m pod man.

Andrew (25:11.138)

There’s levels to this.

Stephen Means (25:12.202)

There’s levels to this. I just, think the overall thing of what I’m saying is last year, Chip Kelly being who he is to Ryan Day, both in football sense and in a personal sense, allowed Brian Day to genuinely take off as a head coach and handle this the right way. The defense needed your attention after the Oregon loss. And so that’s what got Brian Day’s attention. The offense needed your attention after the Michigan loss. And that’s what got Ryan Day’s attention.

and Ohio State was better for it in both of those situations. If the defense needs Ryan Day’s attention after the Texas game, win or lose, that’s where Ryan Day is going to be. If the offense needs Ryan Day’s attention after the Texas game, that is where he is going to be. If recruiting is what needs his attention, he’ll be there. Strength and conditioning, transfer portal, special teams, NIL, whatever, that’s the whole point of being the CEO.

Whatever needs your attention the most is what’s going to get your attention because on a Wednesday night after a practice, he’s not sitting in an offensive staff meeting with a clicker in his hand because Chip Kelly had the clicker last year and now Brian Hartland has a clicker this year. It doesn’t mean he’s not going to be in the meetings ever, right? But if he needs to be pulled out, he can be pulled out. You can’t be pulled out when you’re the guy with the clicker because you’re running the show.

And so you leave the room, everything’s gotta stop until you get back. Things don’t have to stop until the boss gets back anymore because the boss is doing something else that’s just as important as sitting in the office with me. So I do believe him, Andrew. Do you believe him, Andrew?

Andrew (26:55.21)

I so. I think you kind of have to. think and I think the reason why is because you saw a big step in that department last year, you know, where he handed over play calling and you saw you saw the first signs of growth maybe in that regard. And I don’t you know, I don’t even know if growth is a fair way to characterize it. But I think, you know, you saw the willingness to, you know,

give up responsibility if you will and then kind of bounce around. And I mean, do you remember when Tony Alford left? He was coaching running backs like for like two weeks. Like we were at spring. We were at spring practice and like we’re just standing there and Ryan Day’s like running running back drills like that to me was really interesting and I think really indicative of you know, maybe what could what could happen. And I think that might be a small moment and that might be just something that we saw in a flash in the pan. But to me, that feels very much like a

Stephen Means (27:30.975)

Bingo.

Andrew (27:52.674)

this is a sign. Not so much. is, know, maybe I’m extrapolating too much, but like, I think you look at it and say, OK, well, if he’s coaching running backs here, how come he’s not or what tells me that he’s not with James Laurinitis one day? What tells me that he’s not on the recruiting trail one day? He’s bouncing around and he’s very clearly kind of had this mentality of I need to be able to do this. His first step was hiring Bill O’Brien, which and then he hires Chip Kelly and

Stephen Means (28:07.401)

Okay.

Andrew (28:21.582)

It’s like, okay, well, there’s the first step and then he’s coaching running backs. And then now he’s talking about bouncing around defense. I think you have to believe him because we’ve seen the beginning steps of this, right? It’s like if somebody tells you like, oh, I gotta lose weight. And they’re like, okay, cool. And then all of a sudden they just like start going to the gym and you see them eating a salad. It doesn’t mean like they’re there, but it’s like, oh, they’re taking the steps to get there. I’ve seen the first two layers of this and this is how this is gonna work.

Stefan Krajisnik (28:49.664)

I think as long as day is willing to, and I think he is willing to know that there’s growing pains and stuff that’s going to come along the way. I think it’s going to be successful, right? Like we say, you know, if the offense struggles, you he has to get in there and, and, know, help like maybe if there’s a game where the offense isn’t great, like kind of just let heartline handle it. Like you don’t need to go in right away. Like let, let him learn from, from that process too. Like I think there there’s stuff that comes with it. And the, and the analogy.

Andrew (29:17.016)

That’s a good point, Stefan.

Stefan Krajisnik (29:19.39)

In the analogy of the babysitting one, so I have one sibling, a younger sibling. You know, when like, I don’t know like how to describe it. There’s like, if you have like a headache, there’s like those like towels you can buy. They’re filled with like, I think they’re filled with like corn or something like that. You kind of like, you can like heat them up and put them on your head. It’s supposed to like help or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. So.

Andrew (29:41.932)

For migraines, yeah.

Stefan Krajisnik (29:44.809)

I was babysitting my brother one time. He’s six years younger than me. It was probably one of the first times I was taking care of him and I had one of those. I had a bit of a headache. So I was like, all right, I’m going to warm this thing up and then put it on my head. I toss it in the microwave and about 15 seconds in I’m like, that doesn’t smell right. Everything’s fine. Nothing burned down. But it was one of those conversations where my parents were just like, you can’t do that if you’re taking care of your brother. You can’t do that in general, but especially when you’re taking care of your brother, you cannot burn the house down. listen,

Stephen Means (29:57.002)

turn in the popcorn.

Stephen Means (30:10.29)

Yeah!

Stefan Krajisnik (30:14.984)

Sometimes you play with fire and you learn from it and that’s okay.

Andrew (30:18.094)

You guys, you guys have seen, remember the Titans, right? You know, like, you know, coach Boone, Denzel Washington, where he’s just like, at the beginning, like when they go to camp and Gettysburg, he’s just like, he’s all over him. He’s just like screaming and yelling at him and he’s just blah, blah, blah. And he’s cussing him and this and that and the other, he won’t let him go. And then all of a sudden, like you get to the ender part of practice, like the ending part of a training camp. And there’s like a fight on the team between like Gary Bertier and like somebody else. And.

Stephen Means (30:22.674)

No, I’ve never seen that movie before.

Andrew (30:45.984)

some of the other coaches, right, as they’re about to jump in, they go, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, let them handle this. Let them handle this. Let them figure this out. Like I think it’s kind of like push them out of the nest a little bit and let them figure it out. So I think that that’s a really, that’s actually a really good question to ask Day. Like when do you step in and how do you know, hey, this team, you know, we could use my help in this area this week, but also I want these guys to learn and grow as a staff. How do you find that balance between letting them handle things on their own?

Stephen Means (31:16.128)

When those mistakes lead to a move.

Stefan Krajisnik (31:16.254)

It’s probably, it’s probably something that he doesn’t have. I was going say it’s probably something he doesn’t have an answer to today, you know, and it’s probably something that’s easier where Chip Kelly, the offense didn’t look great against Michigan. Okay. Chime in because it’s now it’s now or never versus the office that looked great against Nebraska. Okay. You can turn around and, and that, or the office is look, I don’t remember the schedule for my, so it’s all blending at this point, but yeah.

Stephen Means (31:21.706)

Yeah. It’s worth it.

Stephen Means (31:37.396)

No, haven’t. It’s when they lose. And that’s my question today. And I don’t want to ask it now because there’s other things I want to ask, but it’s on the list of things I want to ask him about. I think Day has done a wonderful job in his career at reacting to problems.

right, being reactive. Last year.

32 to 31, you lose to Oregon. You come out the very, then the defense starts to get it together. Here’s what they gave up the rest of the season. And I’m saying this understanding the level of talent, but 17 points in Nebraska, 13 points to Penn State where the only touchdown was because of a pick six. So technically defense only gave up six points. If my math is correct, I suck at math. Zero to Purdue, seven to Northwestern, which began the, a team scores on the opening drive, then they don’t score again saga that Ohio State was into.

15 against Indiana, which again, opening drive score, and then they struggled for most of the game. 13 to Michigan, which the last touchdown, think, the last couple of points came late in that game. 17 to Tennessee, but that game was already out of hand by the time Tennessee got on the board. 21 to Oregon, but again, that game was out of hand by the time Oregon really started scoring. 14 to Texas, 23 to Notre Dame, where Notre Dame took like 10 minutes off the clock for the first drive to score. And then they started.

getting something cooking late here. But the point I’m making is things bottomed out against Oregon and then they fixed them and then they weren’t a problem anymore. Same thing with the offense after the Michigan game, 42-41, 28 where they could have scored 40 had they not been getting in their own way and getting penalties, 34 against Notre Dame where they again could have scored 40 if they wanted to. So it’s when they lose. I think the next step in terms of that conversation for Ryan Day is

Stephen Means (33:33.694)

Why does it need to take a loss for you to step in? Because I’m with you guys. There are some things where this spring, yeah, let them figure it out. You got a young staff, let them figure it out. But let’s take the Oregon game. We started talking about holes in the defense against Michigan State. They just only gave up seven points because it’s Michigan State and they’re that much more talented than them. They only gave up seven points to Iowa because it’s Iowa offense.

But they were moving the ball a little bit. But what was happening was teams were moving the ball, but then they’d make a mistake and Ohio State would get the turnover. So we’d go, well, they’re not, it was nitpicking. I remember us after that Michigan State game, are we just nitpicking this team? Who cares? You’re blowing teams out. No, that’s been the theme though of Ohio State. Going back to 2017 where the issue pops up, regardless of the level of the opponent.

the level of the opponent just decides whether or not you have to pay for it, which is why Ryan Day has said this a couple times. The issues are the issues. So I think the next step for Ryan Day is how about you nip the issue in the bud before it gets to the point where you lose and then you gotta fix it.

Andrew (34:42.626)

Be proactive, not reactive is what you’re saying.

Stephen Means (34:44.68)

Bingo. Very, he is an elite reactive coach. They are great at making adjustments. Jim Knowles was great at making adjustments. Let’s not have the adjustments are always going to have to be made, but let’s to your point, Andrew, what you just said, be proactive and nip it in the bud. You see it against Michigan state nip into the bud against Iowa. What does that mean in 2025 against Texas? It’s why I keep saying the Texas game is only, but so valuable because it’s just, it is what it is.

If both of those, loses that game, if that’s the only game they lose all year, they might be the number two seed in the college football playoff. So that’s why it’s only so valuable. Does it take away some of your, I guess, leeway for the rest? Sure. But again, 12th team playoff, Ohio State just lost two games and won a national championship. So whatever. But if Ohio pokes a hole in something,

Fix it for Washington.

Andrew (35:41.87)

They might do that, Stephen Means.

Stephen Means (35:46.516)

Fix it for Washington. If Minnesota pokes a hole, fix it for Illinois. Because then when you get to Penn State and you get to Michigan, they’re not the ones making you pay for it. That’s all I’m saying. Okay, that was long, but I thought that was good. Unless you got anything else, Stefan, that was meaty from the Ryan Day segment.

Stefan Krajisnik (36:08.256)

The last thing was I thought the talk about expectations was interesting interesting because it’s a young team and I think Ryan Day It’s going to be interesting how they approach this because he said straight up the expectation doesn’t change It’s Ohio State the expectations to win a national championship They’re gonna be the number one number two team in the country regardless of how much his roster is changing But you have a quarterback who’s never started you have a running back who’s never started you have a lot of guys who haven’t started games or haven’t been in these roles How do you

teach them to handle, you have to win every game. That’s a tough assignment. It’s something that the class that just left had to learn when they were freshmen, and sophomores, and got bigger roles. Like Jack Sawyer, when he stepped into a bigger role, had to learn how to handle this stuff. It’s just gonna be something that we monitor, I think, throughout this off season, throughout the season, of how they talk about expectations with a team that...

I guess on paper doesn’t have the expectations of last year’s team, but the moment the game starts, the game start, the expectation, the expectation is to beat Texas. Even if Texas is the number one team in the country and Julian States never started a game before, the expectation is going to be to outplay Archman and to beat Archman. How do you prepare for that? How do you talk about that? How do you go about that with a roster that hasn’t been in the spot at least for a large majority of

Stephen Means (37:31.552)

The floor is still a tenon too.

Stephen Means (37:36.048)

That’s the worst you’re allowed to go here. And even that comes with its issues.

Stefan Krajisnik (37:43.232)

10 and 2 was allowed because you won a national championship.

Stephen Means (37:46.208)

Correct. That’s abundantly clear. Going 10 and two, or your two losses were to your rival and the other national championship or bus team on your schedule was allowed because you avenged one of those losses and then you were holding a trophy. That’s still your team.

Stefan Krajisnik (38:04.168)

It wasn’t allowed until January 20th around 11 p.m. Eastern time.

Stephen Means (38:08.148)

Literally, literally up until that point, it was. It was weird. It was a little weird two and a half months, man. What a weird. But yeah, I’m with you because I do and I do wonder if this championship run did some good from that standpoint, because a lot of those guys, even the incoming freshmen who early enrolled, which was, think all but three of them and the transfers all got to see what it looks like. At least now, were they the frontline guys? No, but they got to see exactly what it looks like to compete at that level.

and go win a national title. So does that maybe give you a head start in a way that if this were the 14 playoff world and that would have just been the end of their season, maybe this is a different conversation right now, right? We’re talking about, well, a lot of these guys would have played in the non CFP version of an orange bull, right? And it looked a lot similar to the.

Cotton Bowl last year, Andrew, where it’s a lot of guys who are getting opportunities or the 2021 Rose Bowl, where a lot of guys are getting opportunities and you’re showing off the future and you’re trying to use that as momentum into the off season. Well, now you get to use a trophy as momentum into the off season. Okay, let’s take a break. We talked to 10 assistants last week. Stefan went back and reviewed a lot of that stuff and all three of us are going to talk about some of the most intriguing things we heard as Ohio State heads in the spring football.

Today as you’re listening to this on Booker Talk.

Stephen Means (40:04.052)

Welcome back to Buckeye Talk. I’m Stephen Means, that’s Stefan Krystick, and that’s Andrew Gillis. We’re talking about Ohio State’s round of assistance. I don’t even know if that’s the way to put it, but the point of the matter is, spring football started today. We’re in the Woody, watching practice and talking with Ryan Day and assistance. Get the text, 614-35-03315. Two week free trial, 399. After that, if you want that news immediately and don’t want to always have to wait until a Tuesday pod to hear what we heard and see what we saw and feel what we felt. But for right now,

We’re talking about the assistant, Stefan, you weren’t there. So here’s why I think we’re important. Maybe you agree and maybe you don’t. Obviously, Matt Patricia is important because this is the first time we’ve ever spoken to him as Ohio State’s defense court. Maybe this is probably the first time any of us three had ever talked to him ever in our lives, because it’s not like we were covering the Patriots in the 2000s because we were in elementary school. Right. And then when he was at Syracuse, I don’t know.

We might not have even been born at that point, though I think we’re all 90s kids, so we were. He’s important, Brian Hartline’s important, and after that I think we can just have discussions about things. But here’s why I wanna start before we get into Patricia. You weren’t there, so you didn’t feel the radiating off of Brian Hartline when he got asked about his involvement with the receivers and how much that may be. Okay.

Stefan Krajisnik (41:27.068)

I felt the heat. I felt the heat.

Stephen Means (41:29.514)

Cause I asked it the first time I asked it was generally cause I’m curious, right? You’re this is a new role for you. And it’s been a while since Ohio State’s offensive coordinator wasn’t the quarterbacks coach or the head coach. Seriously, you have to go pre Ryan days arrival here. Last time the guy who was calling plays here was not also in direct correlation with the quarterbacks. So I was wondering then listen, like how is this going to impact something? Cause that’s, it’s obviously going to be the thing people say on the recruiting trail, right?

Brian Hartline might not even be around you all the time in the room because he’s to worry about putting the game plan together. People come up with the weirdest things to like recruit against other programs. And that’s not just Ohio State. That’s all around, right? They’ve been doing the Larry Johnson thing for a decade and yet here he is still coaching.

Stefan Krajisnik (42:11.89)

Even if you told me, Hey, your receiver and Brian Harline is 25 % available in the receivers room. I’d be like, okay.

Stephen Means (42:18.816)

25 % available might get me a first round draft pick buddy, so I’m in.

Stefan Krajisnik (42:21.824)

Yeah, which that was that was I love that quote from Brian Hartline where he was like, if you’re a startup at Ohio State, the statistics suggest you’re gonna be starting you’re gonna be an NFL caliber receiver. Oh, that was a great quote.

Stephen Means (42:34.194)

It is factual. Now, a Mecca interesting situation right now, though I think we all think he’s going to be a first round draft pick. Every single wide receiver since Brian Hartline became the official wide receiver coach, every receiver that he has recruited, developed and sent to the NFL.

Direct pipeline there’s no gap or anything. He recruited them He developed them only and he sent them to the NFL so far has gone in the first round Every single one

Now, will that streak continue? I don’t know. I guess we’ll see with a Mecca this year and then we’ll see with maybe Cornell and Brandon in this next year. so far, if Brian Hartline recruited you out of high school and you spent all three or four years of your college career at Ohio State, you have left here and gone off to the NFL. That’s a flex. That’s also just like him telling the truth. But back to the point I was making, because he brought it up twice. Well, I brought it up twice. And then the second time he looked at me and said,

Nothing is going to impact my involvement with the receivers. Steven, stop asking the question.

Stephen Means (44:01.908)

Who was that for? Was that for me? Cause I kept asking them being annoying about it. Was that for the players currently in the room or was that for recruits, Stefan, or am I just doing what I always do and making a mountain out of a molehill?

Stefan Krajisnik (44:21.152)

I think it was to answer the question.

Stephen Means (44:23.456)

So I’m making a mountain out of a molehill.

Stefan Krajisnik (44:27.046)

Not necessarily. I think him answering the question sends a message. He didn’t go out there and make an opening statement where he was like, I am going to be involved with the receivers. I want recruits to know that. But he was asked a question and he answered it. And I think if you’re a recruit, I think you should take note of that. And I think if you’re player in the room, you know, if you’re a Mylon Graham, if you’re, whoever, you should take note of that. So.

I don’t know if he was necessarily trying to get a message across, but the question was asked and he answered it and therefore a message was made.

Stephen Means (45:03.232)

The was received. The reason I’m asking that question though, Andrew, is in all seriousness, outside of it being funny, is what did you think we learned about Heartline during that session about how he’ll handle this role? Because he was talking a lot about, well, if you’re well organized, it shouldn’t have to, the reason why is because if I’m organized, then it shouldn’t have to impact anything. The way he was talking about preparation,

organization, obviously the standard he’s talking about with the wide receivers. And you mix that in with the proof and the pudding of everything else that Ryan Day has put on his plate since he became the official wide receivers coach in 2019. And when urban Meyer made him the interim wide receivers coach in 2018, what does that tell you about the way Brian heartline might handle this role?

Andrew (45:52.398)

Well, I think the first thing, I think he used the word organize like two or three times in that, like in his, you know, kind of diatribe. I think, it’s pretty clear that this just kind of ties in, I think, to what we were talking about in the first half where, know, Ryan day kind of has this mindset of, Hey, I want to have a coach who, you know, helps out where we’re deficient, or I think we could use help here or whatever. And I think.

That’s kind of the way that Brian Hartline might be looking at this. And I think, you know, when you talk about, you know, being organized, okay, being organized can mean I got to have my ducks in a row because, you know, Tyler Bowen is, you know, going to handle the offensive line. And when we, when we go to run game stuff, you know, he’s going to be able to lead the charge, but we’ve got to be organized in the manner that which we do that, right? You know, we’ve got to make sure that, okay, as Tyler is talking about

You know, here’s the scheme that we think could fit best or here are the run plays this week that we think we could use. can’t just be Helter Skelter. And, know, I think Brian is probably approaching it in a little bit of the way that Ryan is. I bet you there’s probably some, you know, guidance in that regard of maybe how this thing could operate, because, you know, if you’re a first time play caller, you know, you can’t let your house be messy, right? You know, you’ve got to have everything kind of in order. And I think, you know, that is

kind of the way that I think I took that Brian Hartline press conference because, you know, he was pretty firm. Like you said that he’s not moving away from the receivers. Nothing’s going to change. know, he’s going to be with those guys a lot. And now he’s just so happens to be a play caller. But when that happens, you need to you need to be organized. You need to have a plan and you need to be ready. So I came away feeling pretty impressed, actually, by Brian Hartline. I was actually not there. I had to listen back and watch it later.

but I, I actually, I came away thinking, okay, this guy, it sounds like he’s going to have some structure here, which I think is probably the normal one thing that you were looking for, especially this early on in his 10 years of getting this rink practice.

Stephen Means (48:03.55)

I think he’s just got built a bit of a doubt that he’s gonna be good at this. I think it’s the easy thing that’s just be like, okay, well, he’s been good at everything else. Why would he not be good at this? And so it’s, I’ll say he’ll be awesome at it. And if he’s not awesome at it, I’ll say he’s not awesome at it. But if he’s awesome at it, well, then it just makes the, when his broad heartline not going to be here crowd.

get that much louder because now it’s another thing that, someone should make this guy the head coach. But again, his background is a little bit different where he doesn’t have to just jump at something at all because it’s not like he’s trying to climb the proverbial ladder here. He did that as an NFL player. He’s made his money. So he can stay at Ohio State. He can do the Brett Venable that Clemson thing. He can do the Kirby Smart at Alabama thing where he’s just there forever in a day. And if and when he...

potentially does lead, it’s for the best possible job you could lead for.

Stefan Krajisnik (49:00.672)

That’s what I’ll say. I was going to say like from the notes I took on hardline, like he talked about, you know, guys like Miley Graham, Bryson Rogers, Brandon. And it’s like, you know, great quotes from that and stuff that, you know, I took note of because I want to remember it. like my main like only real takeaway was this is a guy that seems to feel he’s very ready for this. And he has a head coach who thinks that he’s very ready for this. And I like

Andrew (49:00.908)

Yeah,

Stephen Means (49:21.236)

Mm-hmm.

Stefan Krajisnik (49:27.358)

Some of the answers were kind of fiery. Some of them were kind of short, I like, I don’t think it was from a place of like, I got to watch what. Yeah. Yes. Yes. He wasn’t trying to be, he wasn’t trying to be like a jerk. think he’s just like, I’m ready for this job. Like I think I’m going to be good at this job. I’m going to do this job in a way that I am very organized and prepared and it’s not going to get in the way of what I do with the receivers. And that’s just how it’s going to be. And not like.

Stephen Means (49:34.888)

It wasn’t performative, it was just him being honest. Yeah.

Andrew (49:37.966)

It wasn’t even, it wasn’t defensive.

Stefan Krajisnik (49:56.469)

like said, it’s not performative. just think he’s very confident. I think he has every right to be confident. Also, like he played receiver. You don’t think he’s gonna be a little bit confident receivers are pretty confident.

Andrew (50:05.518)

I mean, if I had Jeremiah Smith, I’d be pretty freaking confident too in what kind of offense you could call it.

Stefan Krajisnik (50:08.82)

Yeah, you know what Brian Harlan thinks when he wakes up? Well, alright, if it’s 3rd and 10, and the game’s online, I know who I’m throwing to. And Julian Say knows what play call is about to come through the headset.

Andrew (50:17.442)

Yeah, and.

And it feels like, you know, like Steven was talking about it, like, you know, the Venables track, it feels like this new era of college football has maybe changed this a little bit from what it used to be. But it feels like this especially applies to Brian Hartline where like the path used to be GA position coach coordinator. And if you’re like a coordinator at a school like Ohio State, then it’s OK, well, then you got to go cut your teeth at the head coach of Ball State for three years.

And then you can go to Cincinnati and then it’s like you had to work your way up the path and then you had to go to a bigger school. Like, I don’t know if that’s the case anymore in college football. I don’t even know if that’s the case, like just in general. But I super don’t think that’s the case for Brian Hartline, especially. So it’s like, you know, judging by what he’s seen and the way that this sport has operated, I, you know, I think you feel really good about where he’s at. And I think he knows that right. Like it’s not bragging if you can back it up. And when you talk about like first round receivers, I mean,

Stephen Means (50:49.888)

He’s not doing it.

Andrew (51:18.024)

the proof is in the pudding.

Stephen Means (51:19.292)

It’s bragging, but it’s also just telling the truth. I produced first round of the wide receivers. It’s a brag. It’s a flex, but you just tell it. You’re flexing by telling the truth. But to your point, it’s the latter doesn’t really exist anymore. Ryan Day’s played a role in why the latter doesn’t exist anymore. Kirby Smart at Georgia, Lincoln Riley, when he got promoted to head coach at Oklahoma was like this as well, where it’s just, if you know, you know.

And typically your guts right, because Georgia was right. But Kirby’s more, I thought Oklahoma was right with Lincoln Riley. Now USC has been wrong with Lincoln Riley. Credit Lincoln Riley was also wrong about USC. So that’s a two way street there. Ohio State’s been right about Ryan Day. Clemson was right about Davos Sweeney and promoting him to head coach. And so it’s become a, when you know, you know, let’s not do this thing where you got to have a guy who’s got all this.

experience and been around the block a little bit, which the story ideas are just fired off. OK, let’s talk Patricia, though outlasting on Brey Hartley, because he said he doesn’t know yet whether he’ll coach he’ll call plays from the box or from the field. Ryan Day was obviously from the box when he first got here. He moved down to the field in 2018 when he was a play caller. He was from the field. Chip Kelly was in the box last year.

but also he coached the quarterbacks. so you had, you had Billy Fester, think who was on the field as a GA and also Ryan Day as a quarterback coach by trade. So it was fine that Chip Kelly wasn’t there on there because you also have the, I wonder how much the in-helmet communication impacts what decision Brian Hartline makes. He’s got Devin Jordan as the GAQC in his room and he’s got a lot of faith in him. So does that make him feel more comfortable being up in the box as well? But that’s, I,

With Brian Hartline, it’s more about just seeing how he comes to some conclusions about how he wants to go about his process more than whether or not I think he’ll be good at the process or not. Matt Patricia, Stefan Kreisnick.

Stefan Krajisnik (53:27.946)

I loved listening to the Mapetitia interview. That was...

Stephen Means (53:30.526)

So here’s my thing, let me ask you a question. I’m gonna cut you off because here’s the deal. You and I specifically.

Stephen Means (53:39.584)

We’re not haters of the hire.

We were skeptical of the hire.

For good reasons.

Stephen Means (53:52.756)

Do you feel like listening back to it, you were falling in love with the hype?

Stefan Krajisnik (54:00.87)

No, I would probably lean toward I didn’t like the hire when it was made.

Stephen Means (54:04.404)

No, no, now, after you listen back to what Patricia had to say.

Stefan Krajisnik (54:07.696)

do I think he won the press conference is what you’re asking me? I think he won the press conference. I think he won the press conference. I don’t know what has changed with Matt Patricia, but like maybe he was just kind of like under this Bill Belichick shadow where everyone thought he was kind of just like a troll under a bridge who was in no mood to ever talk to anyone. And Matt Patricia was maybe the most energetic coach interview we’ve had.

Stephen Means (54:11.994)

I am asking you that.

Stefan Krajisnik (54:36.928)

Outside of like Lachlan in the past like year, like he was into it, man. Like he, you guys were talking about Patricia’s role in recruiting. I mean, it seems like he wants to be involved in recruiting. He’s talking about how much he loves the recruiting process. He’s talked about, me pull up my notes here. Talked about loving the college atmosphere, the family feel, the, um, loving the recruiting process, loving Caleb Downs, like everything about his excitement about being at Ohio State.

Was promising and here’s why we had questions about the Patricia hire for two main reasons. One, how much of his success was due to being a defensive coordinator for bill Belichick, a defensive minded coach. And two was his personality because of the way players in Detroit and Philly talked about him. All that goes into it. I thought he was very straightforward with the way he talked about what happened with the lions.

Stephen Means (55:34.005)

Yep.

Stefan Krajisnik (55:35.081)

And I think he learned a ton from that. And we didn’t know that when the hire was made, we didn’t know what it, what it, how much has he changed since the lions debacle? Like how much has he changed? And it seems like he’s changed a ton or at least on, from the way he talks to us, seems like he’s changed a ton. We’ll see over the course of next year, what that looks like in practice, but he seems like a guy who has almost kind of found like a second. I don’t know if I want to call it a second life or second love for football.

Because the game can be rude to you and the game can be harsh and you go through what he went through with the Lions and it takes a toll on you. And who knows? Maybe it makes you someone that you’re not really that person. I don’t know, but it seems like he’s bounced back from a way that he is energized about coaching football. Honestly, like, did we see that a little bit with Chip Kelly last year? We’re like being a head coach in college football. Like I think it started taking a toll.

Stephen Means (56:29.077)

Yeah.

Stefan Krajisnik (56:34.206)

And the way Chip, like there was like, I mean, he told us like he was re-energized to coach because he got to like coach. And I think maybe there some of that with Matt Patricia. He’s getting to come into a place that’s successful, successful, it’s stable. He’s going to have the keys to the defense to some extent. Like he was very energized. And I liked that because I don’t think that’s how a lot of people perceive Matt Patricia to be. And frankly, I don’t know if he has been that most of his NFL career.

But he’s brought that to Ohio State. I’m really interested to see what it pans out. I don’t want to say like, I’m not going to go back and be like, this was a home run hire because he was in a good mood when he was talking to the media. But I will say that if a big question was personality, there seems to have been a shift there and a re-energized focus there of what he’s going to bring into that locker room. And I think he has a good understanding of what Ryan Day expects from him. So I’m more excited about what this hire could be than I was a month ago when it was made.

Stephen Means (57:12.82)

Hehe.

Stephen Means (57:33.13)

So I think his first year, yeah, 2018 was his first year with the Detroit Lions. I want to touch on that first, Andrew, because I think...

Just some insider baseball. So Stefan texts me that day. goes, what did you think of now, Patricia? We were talking about a lot of different things, but he asked me, what do you think, Patricia? Here’s my direct text back to him. To which he replied, he looks skinny. Yeah.

Stefan Krajisnik (57:59.809)

You got a shout out. Shout out to Matt Patricia. All of us want to look better. He did it. He looks great compared to some pictures from his past. Also the pencil in the ear still the quote where he said he called the pencil good old number two. That was just outstanding.

Stephen Means (58:07.368)

you

Yeah, he’s a football coach. My texture back to Stefan was he’s a ball no one can very much talk to talk and was very personable. I’ll say he won the press conference for whatever that’s worth. Still want to see it in action though, which I think is my fair assessment.

He is very personable. We walked in there. He’s going around shaking everybody’s hand. He’s excited to build relationships with guys. He’s talking about how much he loves ball, loves talking ball and all that stuff. But to the Lions thing, he said he wasn’t his best version of a coach while he was there.

Maybe a good follow-up would be why you want your best version of a coach. Here’s what I think happened. So he was at New England for a long time. And the reason I’m bringing this up is it also plays into the thing I want to get into with you, Andrew, is the schematics part of this. They did a lot of winning in New England. And I’m sure we’ve all seen the million documentaries and podcasts that are coming out of that Patriots regime. And some of them are good and some of them are whatever.

But the point of the matter, they did a lot of winning. And one thing you learn in sports is winning at a high level comes at a cost and it takes a toll on you. And a lot of times you don’t like each other very much at the end of it. Cause it’s a culture. It’s, it’s you’re holding people accountable constantly, which means somebody’s gotta be the, know what hole at all times. It works though. They won a bunch of super bowls. He went to six super bowls as

Stephen Means (59:45.48)

a New England patriot and won three of them. So clearly it worked. But when you go from that to a lion’s organization who had been at best average, often mediocre.

You can’t take that expectation. You can’t take that culture. You can’t take that approach to Detroit because you’re dealing with an organization who isn’t in championship Super Bowl or bus mode. You’re dealing with a team who is literally starting from the bottom. They had gone seven and nine, nine and seven, nine and seven, but they were treading water. So they’re just trying to climb. And you take that.

approach you had at New England and you try to do that in Detroit and it backfired. I think that’s what happened.

Stefan Krajisnik (01:00:34.176)

The specific example he used was he watched the Bulls documentary, The Last Ants, was thinking about how Michael Jordan, after they lost the finals, or not the finals, but after they got eliminated, came back with a vengeance and was like, we never want to lose again, all this and that. And he used that with the Patriots after losing a Super Bowl. We don’t ever want to taste that again. Well, that works with Tom Brady and Company, that bitterness of trying to never lose a Super Bowl again.

Stephen Means (01:00:54.56)

Yeah.

Stefan Krajisnik (01:01:04.606)

You can’t take that approach to a team that hasn’t been to the playoffs in however long it was for Detroit. Like it’s different. It’s different.

Stephen Means (01:01:10.464)

They’d gone to the playoffs three times since 2000 before he got there and they’d lost in the wild card round every single time. So again, historically average at best, mediocre most of the time organization. you’re trying to take the approach of an organization who had spent that same amount of time since 2000 becoming a standard of excellence.

Maybe there were some things he could have handled a little bit differently. I respected Andrew that he owns that Which is why I think step on we got higher we were saying listen there are some depending on who you talk to whether it’s Patriots guys or Lions guys You might get two very different opinions of Matt Patricia guys with the Patriots love him They were winning winning cures everything just like losing highlights Everything the real opinion of Matt. Patricia is probably somewhere in the middle

So from a personal standpoint, personality, step what I’m in on Matt Patricia, which is why Dan Campbell’s had so much success here. Cause he probably didn’t go about it with that approach. He built it. He built the culture. And now they spent the last two years going 12 and five losing in the conference round and going 15 and two and losing the divisional route where they lost in the visual around this year with Dan Campbell. And it felt like a disappointment of the season. How many times did you say that about the Detroit lions? Didn’t do the divisional route is a disappointment. So I am, I’m not ready to call it.

a home run higher. But I do think the thing that stood out to me, Andrew, and why I think this might work here is again, going back to the standards of excellence they had with the Patriots, which means they’re constantly picking at the end of the draft, which means they’re not getting the best possible player on the draft board every April. They’re getting good players. Obviously, you don’t win Super Bowls without good players, but they’re getting players where they’ve got to kind of scheme around it a little bit and figure some things out. Right. It’s not they’re not getting

Nick Boses every year, they’re getting good players that have to fit into the scheme, which is why there was constant evolution with the Patriots scheme. And that led off a light in my head because James Lauren and I had said it when they brought in Matt Patricia, Andrew, the first person they thought about was CJ Hicks because of some of the stuff they were doing in New England. And Matt Patricia is talking about how that was born out of necessity from constantly picking at the end of the draft. Well, he’s at Ohio State now.

Stephen Means (01:03:38.974)

He’s not picking at the end of the draft. He’s picking first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth in the draft. So apply the logic that he had in New England with those defenses, but now he has the best possible players he could do it with. Even if they’re young and inexperienced, I might buy stock in Matt Patrice’s defense at Ohio State.

Andrew (01:04:04.204)

Yeah, well, there’s a couple of things that you touched on. think, you know, the talent thing is one thing, because in terms of relative to competition, this is going to be the most talent he’s had like ever, because the Patriots were great. But the NFL is such a close league where, you know, hey, you know, yeah, look, I know this sounds hilarious because the Patriots were the best dynasty in NFL history. But it’s like, OK, well, the Patriots were also still

Stephen Means (01:04:16.305)

ever.

Andrew (01:04:33.646)

competing every single week. Like it was not as, it would not be a surprise if like, you know, the 13 and three AFC champions, Super Bowl champion Patriots that year, like lost to a six and 10 team randomly, like stuff like that happened. Like I remember Peyton Hillis went nuts one time and they lost to the Browns. It’s like, there are certain moments like that where it’s like, okay, even then you still had to scheme around with Ohio state. It’s like one of the first things Steven ever told me when I started,

was this team plays like four games that mean anything in the regular season. And, or four like games where you like, you know, okay, this is actually about ball. The rest of it is about Ohio state, which was, you know, I mean, like I was covering the NFL. That was a big adjustment where it’s like the first, you know, you go from covering a Bengals playoff run, and then I’m covering at Indiana and Youngstown state the first two weeks.

And Steven was like, telling me like, Hey man, your thinking’s got to change. Your thing’s got to adjust because it’s different. think that’s kind of a similar thing here where you’re to have the most talent that you’ve ever had. And how do you play with that? And I think that that’s a, I mean, for long time fans of this program and for long time listeners of this podcast, I’m sure that’s what you guys talked about with Jim Knowles, where it’s like, Hey, you don’t necessarily have to come out with, you know,

I guess, you know, Bill Belichick, but like, don’t have to come out with a scheme like somebody that he would come up with, right? You don’t have to do that anymore. You, you, can kind of let your talent win a lot of the time. So that I think is really interesting and that’s going to be something that I’m fascinated to see. And then the other thing too, Lauren, itis and Guerrero mentioned this both, but versatility. I don’t think it was necessarily a shot at Jim Knowles, but I do think for everything we talked about, about, you know, wanting to be multiple.

wanting to have different things you could put in your defense and how different ways you can play your defense. That to me is, I think, something that they’re very excited about and they’re really looking forward to. Steven, forgive me if I’m wrong, I think we said this on the pod where it’s like, sometimes it’s, CJ Hicks comes onto the field and it’s technically a four down front, but Hicks can also drop in coverage or.

Andrew (01:06:52.802)

You can move Kaden Curry inside or whatever. There’s a lot of different ways that you can do this. I think how he handles the talent and what you do with the versatility in the scheme is going to be very, very interesting.

Stephen Means (01:07:10.002)

Yeah, I don’t, that isn’t what the shot of Jim knows. They’ve got their personnel is different this year. They don’t have four veteran super uber talented NFL defensive lineman. They’ve got super uber talented defensive lineman who might be NFL players one day, but they don’t have four years of experience playing high leverage snaps and college football. That’s the key. So you can do some things a little bit differently here. Stefan, where you wanna go next? Or is there anything else you wanna wrap up with Patricia?

Stefan Krajisnik (01:07:37.288)

Well, I saved this for last. I’m the Matt Patricia thing. So if anyone wants to say anything first, this deserves to be last.

Stephen Means (01:07:40.168)

Okay.

Stephen Means (01:07:46.569)

Okay, well then let’s pivot off of the only other person I wanna really talk about on this pod. Because there’s a lot with a lot of these guys and we can get more into those things when we’re doing a lot of these position groups after we’re talking with guys about some of this stuff. But I wanna just hit on the Larry Johnson thing. Because he kind of, I don’t know, this was the most media availability.

situation Larry Johnson’s had since I’ve been, I’ve never seen him this fiery in a media availability where he, he, it’s like he sat down and said, okay, let’s address everything and then shut up about it for the rest of the time I’m coaching. Whether it was, hey Larry, you’re still here. Yeah. When you gonna stop? When God tells me to stop.

Okay! Hey Larry, were you and Jay-

Stefan Krajisnik (01:08:38.888)

rocks by the way that like that’s football guy right there I’ll stop coaching football when God tells me to stop coaching football

Stephen Means (01:08:41.0)

Yeah, that’s a-

Yeah, that’s

Seeing that, your 70s is baller. I can’t even... And then you go, hey...

Stefan Krajisnik (01:08:51.708)

Even Saban was like, I don’t want to coach football anymore.

Stephen Means (01:08:54.974)

Yeah. Larry said, it’s not up to me. Ask him. CJ Hicks is a defensive end. So there’s that. I think we can have the conversation with CJ Hicks when we talk to the defensive lineman about that, because we’ve kind of beat a dead horse there. We’ve been saying it for a couple of months. Hey, that CJ Hicks was probably going to be defensive end. When we did our def chart preview pod, Stefan, we said he was going to be defensive end. So there it’s new. It’s real now, because again,

As I told Larry, sometimes it’s just better when you say it, not us. And he has said it, which I think was funny because James Laurinaitis and you was like tiptoeing around it, but didn’t want to fully go there. And Ryan Day didn’t say anything about it. And the one coach who we think doesn’t like to say anything about anything to the media is the guy who told us that CJ is going to be a defensive end. I just think that’s hilarious. Larry is living, man. He was joking afterward that he’s going to start a podcast. He’s going to call it.

And I think he should. He should let me host too.

Andrew (01:09:53.524)

I would listen. I would be like the second that podcast drops, I would be in. I’m listening at two times speed so I could be done before everybody else too. I’m as quickly as I could consume Larry Johnson content. I

Stephen Means (01:09:57.15)

It would be the only thing I’d listen to.

Stephen Means (01:10:04.234)

I’m, I’m taking notes. And then he got into the, were you and Jim Knowles ever beefing while he was here? And again, we’ve said it and it’s been a thing that him and Jim Knowles didn’t always see eye to eye when it came to defensive philosophies and whether or not that got in the way of things Jim Knowles wanted to do defensively. And now that we have heard Larry Johnson side of things,

I don’t think it was a beef, Stefan. I think it was Larry is, as he said, it’s all about personnel that had this is college football personnel has to dictate scheme. And. It came back to the Jack position because that’s what all this is about. They tried Jack at the Jack position and didn’t necessarily fit him. Jack hated it, so they put him back in defensive end and they never really use the Jack after that. But again, when you have four defensive linemen.

who have played this many snaps and are this talented, you have to lean into that. It doesn’t mean that Larry Johnson this year, if they come out in a 3-3-5 or a 3-4, Larry’s going to be over there upset that one of his defensive linemen aren’t on the field. But given how the season plays out, I’m inclined to agree with Larry that whatever the message was, he had a point.

We have to lean into where all our talent is and their talent has been on the defensive line here for a long time. That might not be true this year, which is why I asked him flat out, are you open to that? And he said, yes, as long as it’s in the player’s best interest, I’m open to anything.

Stefan Krajisnik (01:11:49.695)

Yeah. And that’s probably the right way to approach it. You know, I think last year when we started having questions about it, it was kind of when we felt like JT and Jack weren’t really living up to like you can after the Oregon game, we had questions about the way JT and Jack were playing. Like we can’t deny that. And I think that’s when we were starting to think about, okay, if this defense is struggling and those guys aren’t playing exactly to that level, what do you change around? And that’s when we started having questions of, know, is this a stubborn thing? Is it, know, what, what’s going on? And as the season progressed, I think we just learned that.

that those were the four best guys, no questions asked. That was the best defense for that team to be running. That was the best scheme to be running. And like you said, like that, that’s going to look different in 2025. So if in 2025 it, it becomes, you know, a thing again, I guess we can have the conversation, but it, my prediction right now would be that this defense will at least make an attempt to look different if they feel like they need to look different. But listen, if we get to the end of the year and it’s

Kenyatta, Kaden Curry, Kaden McDonald, Edward Houston, like those four guys lined up just like the four guys last year. If that’s the best thing, then we’ll see that too. So I like that we heard Patricia and Day and Larry Johnson and sure some of the other assistants as well. Just talk about this openness of whatever fits this roster is what we’re going to run. And that’s probably the best way to approach it, especially when your roster is changing as much as it is.

Stephen Means (01:13:21.088)

Because when you hear multiple Andrew, I think people is inclined as, you’re just going to see something different every single snap. it’s going to be a million different things when multiple. As Larry Johnson said, I think we’ve been multiple. We’ve been we keep saying it’s a four man front, but it can be an interchangeable format front, which is where the rushman package comes in, which is where the Jack can come into that situation, which I think is he said he wants to learn how to be a complete defensive. This is not just going to be he’s just going to get after the passer. He’s got to be able to.

Andrew (01:13:25.973)

Right.

Stephen Means (01:13:50.656)

you know, get, get off of tight ends, get off of the offensive tackles, stop the run, all those things. So he is transitioning completely to defensive end. But what that can look like where he does have this defined skill that might be able to get unlocked now, multiple essentially means, okay, first of all, what is good for our players? And then also how are we confusing a defense? It’s not about making sure that on this snap, we’ve got three down defensive linemen on this snap. We’ve got two, this snap we’ve got four, which I agree with. So I,

It was Larry Johnson doesn’t always give us a lot in the media and it felt like he just sat down today and said, let’s get it all on the table now and let’s move forward. Anything else, Andrew, you got off of these assistants you want to bring up before Stefan ends with something that he said had to be the last thing. It had to be the headliner of this apparently.

Andrew (01:14:39.171)

no, just thought it was really interesting that.

Well, I’ll start with the second part first. like star Wars, I asked Tyler Bowen, how much do you think your recruiting background played into your hire? And he kind of gave the, gee, you know, you hope a lot. I hope, you know, it goes great. You know, he gave that type of answer. I think his exact quote was like, you know, you hope so. And, know, but I think Ryan was looking for, you know, somebody who would mesh with this team and blah, blah. and then.

I asked Ryan like 45 minutes earlier, how much did Tyler Bowen’s recruiting background play a part in his hire? And he went, big, a lot. I think we have already seen it probably sooner than we thought since this has happened. Maxwell Riley, the four star interior offensive lineman from Avon Lake committed to Ohio State. I think that

The recruiting part of it with Tyler Bowen was really, I think, what people care about the most. And I think it was one of those things where it was a little bit CJ Hicks esque where Larry Johnson goes, you know, yeah, CJ Hicks is going to be in our room. Yeah, he’s a defensive lineman. And James Laurinaitis says, I don’t know. I’ve never heard of the name CJ Hicks before. What are you talking about? I don’t know. Is he he is he a linebacker? I guess we’ll have to find out. I don’t know the answer to that.

And then Larry Johnson just says it. think it’s pretty clear where Tyler goes, Oh, I don’t know. And, you know, you know, I hope, you know, there’s a lot of different things and Ryan goes, yeah, this is a big part of it. So to me, I thought that was interesting. I think it was pretty clear. I think it was pretty illuminating what Ryan was looking for when he made that hire. Now, maybe obviously I care about that more than you guys, obviously, just because it’s recruiting. But that to me was something where I was like, OK, this is a big deal. And then you have evidence of it.

Andrew (01:16:39.656)

Like we’re talking about Matt Patrice’s defense and we’re like, all right, well, I guess we’ll see in spring practice, but maybe we won’t know till August or Brian Hartline’s play calling. You know, we’ll get an idea maybe in, March and April, but we won’t know until August where it’s like this Tyler Bowen recruiting thing is now like that is like something that is actively happening. And we already saw it. So that to me, I just thought was really interesting.

Stephen Means (01:17:02.24)

So I’ll run down a couple of things and then Stefan you can have the floor.

Buy Stock and Bo Jackson, the running back. Buy it now. Because I think he’s going to play. I think he’s going to play quite a bit. I was asking Carlos Loughlin about James Peeples and it kind of evolved into a bigger conversation about, hey, do you want what you have with Trevion and Quinchon last year where you had a two man backfield? Or is there still room in this world to have a one lead?

and he essentially leaned towards the former Stefan of, no, it’s not smart to even do that at this point. Not if you want to win national championships, you just can’t put that on one person. It doesn’t mean that the split is going to be as equal as it was often with Trevion and Quinchon, where give or take a couple of carries a game simply because of game flow. They essentially got the ball the same amount and played the same amount. It’s not always going to be one A, one B like that. There can sometimes be a hierarchy.

Like I think there would be a hierarchy to start this year where James Peebles is number one. C.J. Donaldson is number two in Bo Jackson’s number three. But that doesn’t mean they can’t evolve into more of a one a one b one c situation at some point. But the point of the matter is J.K. Davos is twenty nineteen season where he had three hundred carries is not going to happen anymore here. That’s just not the way they want to go about the running back position. At least that’s not what Carlos Lachlan has envisioned. And he says from top to bottom.

that running back room he has now is better than last year’s. obviously had big dogs, what do you call it, Trey, running quinch on him, two high end guys, but there was such a gap in between those two and wherever everybody else was, because they were young. Maybe the gap is not that wide this year, though James Peeples is now the leader of the room.

Stephen Means (01:18:56.8)

I Keenan Bailey was pushing back on the youth of the offensive staff, which by bringing up a point of these guys have been together for a decade. He was bringing up the fact that him and Billy Fessler back during COVID were living together and going to football school. So they got familiar together. Keenan Bailey has been here since about 2018, 2019. Brian Heartline has been here since 2016, 2017. think Brian Ryan Day got here in 2017. A lot of these guys on the staff who are now in positions of power.

have been together for a long time. So yes, they are young in terms of age, but they are not young in terms of experience and camaraderie and chemistry together.

Matt Guerrero mentioned that Jermaine Matthews and Lorenzo Stiles have both been getting serious looks at nickel. So that’s some newsy stuff. And I think that’s kind of it. And then Tim Walton talking about his relationship with Matt Patricia and how Patricia obviously had been in the NFL for 20 years and he had been in the NFL for 12 years. And so he’s just kind of showing him the lay of the land. But that’s, I think that the crux of what we learned on Friday, Stefan, the floor is yours since this hat, you’ve built it up now. Okay. You, what you have done.

is you’ve put together a $20 million roster.

Stefan Krajisnik (01:20:08.222)

worry I worry that I’m gonna let you guys down now Matt Patricia name drop some guys when talking about Ohio State’s roster

Stephen Means (01:20:17.408)

You’re not gonna let me down, let’s do this.

Stefan Krajisnik (01:20:20.672)

And he mentioned Caleb downs. Obviously he mentioned David, David Nelson, Jermaine Matthews, his starting corners. Most likely. I mentioned Sonny styles, really good linebacker with experience could be the block. and, and well, listen, Matt Patricia, he’s coached some good linebackers in his days. Teddy Bruce ski, Dante high tower, like some pretty legit dudes at the Patriots and actually had a stretch where he was not just a defense coordinator, but he had a stretch where he was also the position coach for the linebackers.

Stephen Means (01:20:30.304)

Stop bearing the lead. Stop bearing the lead. Stop doing it.

Stefan Krajisnik (01:20:49.812)

The Patriots have had some good linebackers in their day. I believe, correct me if I’m wrong, someone interject if you think I’m wrong, Matt Patricia has a pretty good eye for linebacker talent. He knows what a good linebacker looks like. So when he mentioned Sonny Styles, I’m sitting there like, wow, like, okay, like Sonny’s legit. He’s got the Matt Patricia stamp of approval, seal of approval, whatever. And then he mentioned one more guy. So he mentioned Caleb Downs.

Davis Nguyenosan, Jermaine Matthews, Sonny Stiles, three and a half returning starters. Call Jermaine whatever you want to call it. And then he said, Arvel Reiss. That was it for the name drops. He said, Arvel Reiss, the guy that we’ve been clamoring for, Steven and I more than others, but maybe even me more than anyone, about his all Big Ten and all American potential of what he can be next season. This is a guy who coached Teddy Bruski and Dante Hightower among others. Some of the best, I looked up a quick article.

Some Patriots fan considers them two of the top five linebackers in Patriots history. Rich history. Matt Patricia coached those guys, has seen those guys. He knows what linebacker talent looks like. He said, R. Velries. My ears perked up very quickly. It was one of those things where it’s like, I’m listening to the press conference, know, March Madness or the conference tournament games are going on. I’m looking over, Michigan State, Oregon. What’s the score? nice. Michigan State’s winning. What did he just say? Who did he just mention? Go back 10 seconds.

Replay that clip. You’re just talking about how big some of the linebackers were in Ohio State’s room, how impressive some of them looked. Like, gets you pumped, man. Gets you going a little bit. Linebackers. Ball. Football. We need to Arville Reese one of those net guards. A real ball guy.

Stephen Means (01:22:37.586)

Neck guard, dark visor.

Andrew (01:22:38.092)

We want him, yeah, like you just need him to just walk out onto the field and Arvel Reese needs to look like Andy Katzenmoyer. Just the sky high shoulder pads, the massive face mask, the visor where you can’t see his eyes, the tape on the forearms and the wrists and the gloves. Just send him out there looking like just like the be a pro in college football 25.

Stefan Krajisnik (01:23:04.672)

Killer.

Andrew (01:23:08.546)

The Create-a-Player.

Stefan Krajisnik (01:23:11.84)

Your man Patricia also helped the Patriots on the offensive side of the ball for a bit. He played against some really good linebackers too. He knows linebackers.

Stephen Means (01:23:19.498)

My soul left my body when he said Arbel Reese’s name.

Stefan Krajisnik (01:23:22.538)

Hahaha.

Stephen Means (01:23:25.194)

so much validation in so little time. James Lerner, I just said that he had a phenomenal winter as well. And I can’t remember if he was talking about Sonny or if he was talking about Arvel when he was talking about leadership. I in fact, I think he was talking about saying with the leadership, but I can’t remember who he was saying that he roomed Cody Simon with purposefully, whether if it was Sonny or if it was our bell Reese. but one of those two guys was purposefully with

Cody for that very purpose of understanding Cody wasn’t going to be back here and they got to be they got a very much find new leaders next year just like Cody had to step up as a new leader. But also Cody Simon’s the Mike linebacker so it would make sense why you want to wire or I just can’t remember. But yes.

Stephen Means (01:24:16.508)

I’m in man, we’re all... here’s the deal.

Stephen Means (01:24:22.804)

We’re gonna drive some buses this summer. Stefan, you’re not allowed to pick up all these. Neither am I, neither am I. That’s what I’m saying. I know. I think we’re gonna.

Stefan Krajisnik (01:24:31.742)

You can’t pick Jermaine then.

Stephen Means (01:24:35.072)

That’s That’s fine. That’s fine.

Andrew (01:24:37.826)

We just all gonna say like you’re not allowed to pick one person.

Stefan Krajisnik (01:24:40.288)

Davidson’s all yours. You got it.

Stephen Means (01:24:42.366)

Yeah, that’s different. That’s a redemption tour. We’ve been driving those side cars for these two human Ohio natives for 12 months now, which is funny because Stefan still has not been here for 12 months and he’s already been driving the bus for 12 months. No, we can’t pick them. I think we just might name them. It might be the Jermaine Matthews, Arvel Reese honorary driving the bus episode so that they get mentioned, but we’re not allowed to pick.

because we’ve been picking them. And so I wanted to dive a little deeper this year.

Andrew (01:25:14.188)

Just make it like, make it like the name of the award. Like the driving the bus episode brought to you by Arvel Reese. It’s like Michael Scott’s fun run race for the cure.

Stephen Means (01:25:16.938)

Yeah.

Stephen Means (01:25:21.908)

Well, if we have it all. What if we get him on and he can drive a bus for somebody? Listen, man.

Andrew (01:25:29.742)

God, please let him get on here and drive the bus for himself. man, that would be incredible. Yeah, exactly. That is everybody go to one corner of the court and.

Stephen Means (01:25:34.464)

I will let him ISO and get out of the way.

Stefan Krajisnik (01:25:37.939)

the

Stephen Means (01:25:40.852)

Yeah. You remember James Harden with the Houston Rockets? That’s what that will be.

Stefan Krajisnik (01:25:45.6)

The Matt Patricia driving the bus for our Arvel Reese driving the bus award.

Stephen Means (01:25:52.276)

Yeah, I’m just we’re in clearly here and and some of this is listen, they’re good football players and they look like they’re gonna be good football. Also our very star guy. We’re Cleveland.com. So we got to drive the bus a little bit harder when we’re talking about Cleveland guys. Bryce West kind of the same way and Bo Jackson same way. These are all guys from Northeast Ohio. So of course we’re gonna go a little bit harder for those guys. You’re supposed to with the local paper there. We have to but okay, that stuff.

From a press conference where we talked to Ryan Day and every single assistant coach. Again, as you’re listening to this, we are in the Woody right now, depending on what time you’re listening to. If you’re listening to four o’clock in the afternoon, then we’re not in the Woody anymore. At least not in the way that we’re talking to people. But we are in the Woody watching the first hour of the first spring practice of the 2025 season. We’ll also talk with Ryan Day later this week. We’ll be back in the Woody watching another practice and we’ll also talk with

Billy Fessler and Carlos Loughlin and all the quarterbacks and all the running backs this week as well. So we’ll continue to deep dive in this over the next four weeks as we talk with players. I was, talked with coaches, I’ll be watched practices leading up to the April 12th, so spring showcase, which still doesn’t have a structure yet. So it will be interesting to see how they decide to go about things in that game. But in the meantime, get the text six one four three five three, three one five two week free trial three 99 after that for Stefan Kresnik.

Andrew Gillis, I’m Steve Amiens and that was Buckeye Talk.