Ohio State Insider Breaks Down the Biggest Keys vs. Texas

0:00Welcome back to the Inside Texas YouTube channel presented by inside Texas.com. We've got a very special guest here, Spencer Holbrook from Letterman, Row on threes Ohio State coverage. The best in the business for Ohio State and everything to do with the buck guys, of course, with our big game coming on Saturday. You got to be ready and you got to know what's going on with the buck guys out of this game. Before we get into it, make sure you go over to inside Texas.com, checking out our awesome new special offer, one dollar for one week to join inside Texas on the on three network. Right now, it's just the best deal you're going to get now that we're in season for the Texas long ones. Spencer, thanks for coming on the show, man. How you doing? Just got down in Austin, right? Yeah, I'm doing great. So travel troubles getting here, but I'm super sad. It's my first time in Austin, obviously my first time going to DKR and I can't wait. This is going to be so much fun. Yeah, it's quite the scene. And this is going to be probably the scene of the season for college football. I mean, number one, verse number four, some people would have Texas as high as two, three, Ohio State, pretty much in that spot there. As we're looking towards this game, Spencer, Sarcus should kind of joke to us yesterday that, you know, anything that

1:02against ball states, not really that important for the game plan. That's just kind of the same thing for the long ones going into Texas state. Like these two teams have been preparing for this match up from way longer than just this past week. Is there anything that you can say about the Ohio State game plan? Maybe the way they want to operate in a game like this, given the way they've set up this off season, given the way the last two games have gone? Any thoughts on that? I think the first thing is Ohio State to go away to try to establish the run. But they know what Collins Simmons is. They know what the Texas edges can do if you, if you allow them to dictate the terms. I think with the way that the Texas linebacker room is set up, and I like the Texas linebacker room. I think it's a thinner group. The Texas defensive tackles, I think, could be considered a question mark. And I guess you could fill me in on that a little bit more. But I think that's probably a bigger question than the edges. So like, do you have state interior offensive line is the strength? Whereas the edges are the question. So what do I think as far as what's going to happen in the first quarter of the house, it's going to try to, as I like to say, hashtag establish it,

2:04like get after the run because you're straight as the interior. Texas, this question is the interior, go interior on interior, get a push going, maybe control the clock a little bit more early in this game and see if you can get this crowd a little simmer down before you try to start to take over things. And I think that's an area where if Ohio State can run the ball, that will be very, very critical for this game. And I think that is like, if you're looking for like, Hey, what's the game plan going to be because you know, these coaches don't let us see anything? I think it's pretty glaringly obvious from the Ohio State side of like a, the run is going to be here. We have to do it. And if we can't do it, then we'll deal with everything else. But we have to try to get to the run first. Yeah, and that seemed like a spot last year where Ohio State maybe wasn't the most successful against Texas. And again, we're kind of didn't matter as long as you control the ball. Texas had a lot of kind of shooting themselves in their own foot. The Ohio State crowd is a big part of it. But I'm glad you brought up that Ohio State O line because there's been a lot of talk kind of nationally, just about the strength of the tackle spots.

3:05You know, the interior seems really solid with a lot of returning starters, a lot of veterans, but even more left tackle filled Daniels at right tackle was the combo to start against Ohio State. Or it gets ball state. If I'm correct, Daniels didn't finish the, the real part real meat and potatoes the game is the right tackles that right? There was a little bit of a shuffle there. So they moved Austin, Sarah build, who's the right guard out to right tackle. He played left tackle last year. It was really good there. They moved him to right tackle for a time. They moved a third year player named Gabe Van Sickle in at right guard just to give them another combination there. Phil Daniels did struggle. So they, I don't know if it was necessarily they pulled him or if this was planned and nobody will really give you a concrete answer. Of course, it's college football. And so it's like, you know, did they mean to do that or was it performance based Daniels struggled like we can't sugar code. He did. I would still expect him to play right tackle on Saturday. But I think that leash is going to be a little short because if they can't, if they can't hold Texas down at least for two and a half, three seconds against

4:05Colin Simmons, you know, and Will miss champions a smart guy. They're going to try to throw everything. I think it filled Daniels early in this game. Even though Ian Moore has less experience, Daniels is clearly the weak link of this offensive line right now heading into this game at least. It's like throw the kitchen sink at him. If he sinks, we're going to have success. If he swims, then you can try to attack Ian Moore. And so yeah, it's an open question because if you do have to move Sarah Bell to tackle, then your interior becomes a little less experienced and a little less hope, I would say, and a little bit less of a group that you think can really, really lean on Texas. And so Daniels might be the entire X factor, both good and bad for a wise state, because if he's good, you're fine. And you're going to be able to run the ball in the interior. You're going to be able to push things around a little bit potentially. If he's bad, you have to shuffle the right side of the offensive line. You lose experience on the interior and then you have a question everywhere else. So it's it's something that I'll have to be concerned about. The funny thing about this entire matchup is like, neither of these teams like,

5:05like what they saw from their offensive line in the first game. And so you just, you just wonder which of these groups is going to be able to get things corrected in just three days of practice between games. Yeah, and it's kind of a national identity now. Like how many teams are excited about how their offensive line is played through one or two weeks of a film. But yeah, I think that's one that the average Texas fan has identified. And really lots of what you're saying in the first question about you got to establish the run because of Saiyan's getting these third mongs where Daniels might have to be on an island or Texas is kind of playing that 46 front. They showed against Texas state like that sort of Simmons won on one with Daniels. Probably the biggest mismatch that would be in Texas is favorite this game. But as we look out wide, that's where though how state mismatch is coming to play. And we know about Jeremiah Smith. I think everyone on our beat Spencer is kind of joke to like, yeah, this is not going to be another Jeremiah Smith's only having two catches for 14 yards kind of game. This is going to be the one where he's really going to have to take over and probably find us behind the Texas defense. But one guy I'm really interested about because from maybe an outside of perspective, a lot of Texas fans assume Chris Henry Jr. was was the guy to be playing out wide.

6:08Dev McEwan's really broken out in the fall and had a really good week one. What does he do? Well, what kind of threat does he pose? I hesitate to say everything because you don't want to just put that on a UTSA transfer who's you've only seen one game from, but we saw it in the spring. We saw it in training camp for an entire month. And then we saw it in week one and like, you know, if it barks like one and walks like one, it's probably a dog. Like this might be who he is. Ryan Day compared him to Chris O'Lava the other day and said, if you ask anyone in our building, they'll tell you he's as good as we've had around here. What they've had around there is nothing but first round picks. And if you know, like he also is not going to just throw those lofty comparisons around for fun to boost a UTSA transfers ego. Like they actually think they have something. And it's so interesting to me, very, very buried storyline here. So I have state fans wanted Deandre Moore worse than any receiver in the transfer. Portal, they settled on Devin McEwen, but the Ohio State staff wanted McEwen the entire time.

7:09They saw something there and they have him. He is one of my and I said in a show that we did for Letterman Road that comes out Friday. He is my number one expactor in this game. If he is good, must jam pass the change everything he does against Jeremiah Smith. Just like he started to have to do last year when Carnot tape Burnham deep. They started to the mixing around with Pete Quikowski. I think much champ is going to have to do the same thing if McEwen is good early. He can change everything. I wonder what Texas is going to do against him because they watch the tape. They know like how explosive he is. He they know that yes, it was ball state, but there are some things that you can see in receivers. You know, you can see it was camcola against Texas state. Like there are things that you see with receivers. It's like, OK, like opponent doesn't matter here. This guy has it. And I think they saw that a little bit with McEwen. I think Texas is going to know that they saw that as well. So he is my number one X factor. If he is good early, Texas is probably going to have to adjust a little bit. And then that's when you can free Jeremiah Smith up. It's the same thing with the Ron.

8:09If you have to put a guy in respect, though Jackson was what he's going to do, you have to then you have to make you an Jeremiah Smith. And then if you take those two guys away, he has a reliable third down weapon in Brandon in it. So that the weapons there, it's not the name brand, you know, Texas, two years ago, you know, in Becca Buka, Jeremiah Smith, Carnot tape. It's not even the name brand for last year. Carnot tape Jeremiah Smith. It's just guys who seem to get the job done. And one who might be one of those types that we just don't know for sure yet. But Ohio State seems to be pretty confident that he is one of those types. So I'm curious to see what McEwen does in this game. Big financial decisions don't have to fill overwhelm me. There's someone who can guide you every step of the way. David McClellan is a fiduciary financial advisor with forum financial. And he's working closely with his clients as a true financial life coach, guiding every aspect of your financial journey with expertise and care. If his name sounds familiar, that's because David was a swimmer at Texas and a member of several national championship teams. Today, he channels that same championship mindset

9:11into helping people win with their finances. David specializes in financial planning. And he's contributed numerous articles to Kipelinger on the topic of retirement tax bombs. And right now, David is offering viewers a free intro consultation to assess your financial situation. Do not miss this chance to get personalized guidance from a trusted expert. To schedule your free consult, email David at democlellanatformfinancial.com or you can call him directly at 312-933-8823. The contact info is in the description. Well, the player that's burnt Texas the last two losses when they played in the cotton bowl in the last year's figure of season has been that second wide receiver. And maybe you could call Buka the number one back in 2024. But Buka was the best wide receiver in that game. And then 2025-Tate had the big catch in and was kind of the catalyst for that explosive play for Ohio State. Let's switch over to the defensive side of the ball because you lose seven starters and hard knots out. Highlight, how three of them were top 11 picks. It's a younger Ohio State defense.

10:13And that's kind of one of the storylines we've been pointing out is that no matter what Ohio State is going to reload these players. And they're going to have an Ohio State defense. Caleb Downs was a giant factor in last year's game. And he was a giant factor in every game he played in college football. Who is maybe a player that's going a little underrated on the radar? I think a lot of people know about Kinyada Jackson. And he's kind of taking that that senior year leap. But is there anyone who Texas fans need to be a little bit more careful for this game? Yeah, I'm really going to be watching that Jackson versus Kusby matchup. I think NFL scouts are going to be salivating over that matchup. That could define which one of those guys was a top 50 pick. But aside from that, I mean, the guy who played with Camel Downs last year, Jaylen McLean, who just a free safety, kind of a ball-hawk back there, I think is one of the most underrated defenders from last year's season. The line alone in last year's Ohio State defense. Like he just made plays and went about it really quietly because like Caleb Downs would force something inside and who was there to make a tackle in the open field. It was Jaylen McLean. And the credit goes to Downs from making the play, but who made the tackle?

11:15You know, like, and now McLean is a captain. He's taken that role a little bit of like the cleanup guy, but also a guy who can funnel things back. I think he's really underrated too more if I if I can. Christian Allegro, who Ohio State and Texas really both wanted from the trade portal. Allegro, six foot four or five, 240 pounds, and the speed off the edge, but also in the open field, is alarmingly, it's alarming. He is very, very quick for that size. And I think that's a guy who if he plays well on Saturday could start to see an ascension into some, into some uncomfortable conversations for some folks. You know, we know what Rashid Miles is on the Texas side and he's a really, really good player. Ohio State feels like it got a extremely high level player at linebacker from Wisconsin. And, you know, I think both Ohio State and Texas came correct there in the NIL era. And he just stayed in the big 10 because he could very easily be playing for Texas right now. And I would be talking about him as like a player Ohio State needed to be afraid of.

12:18So I think he is an important piece. And then the last one is Devon Sanchez. From North Shore, you're going to have every family member and existence here in this game on Saturday. He talked to us the first day of training camp and listed the receivers he was going to go against every week starting with Cam Coleman with apologies to the ball state receivers. He didn't mention them. He just started with Cam Coleman and said like, I know what I have in week two. He's been working at this. He went against Jeremiah Smith. I had somebody tell me that they went against each other almost every day of training camp because he knew that he was going to have to defend Cam Coleman. So if you want to get a look at the 1B best receiver in college football, go against the 1A every day and then you'll know if you can handle Cam Coleman. He thinks he's up for the challenge actually being up for the challenge and when the lights are the brightest is one thing. That guy is somebody that I think people are going to have to know one way or another because you're going to know him as like the ultimate goat in the right way if he's bad against Cam Coleman

13:19because he's been talking a little bit about it. But if he's good against Cam Coleman, he's going to start to be talking about as one of the best corners in the country. And so it's almost like a, there's no in between with Devin Sanchez coming out of Saturday night. He's either going to be again one of the best corners in the country or a guy who talked a bunch of crap, which really didn't talk a lot, but you know how these players are and didn't end up materializing. So I'm fascinated with that guy. Spencer, there's so many matchups that we're talking about this where I'm going. Like someone it maybe ends up being both, but someone's going to end up whether it be the quarterback that comes out on top, which quarterback can take down Smith or Coleman. The Edge versus Tackle duo is like someone's going to get a huge stock up from this game. Whether it be like Sanchez logging down Coleman, maybe it's a goose bee with the ability to keep Jackson in tow. Before we go, kind of a three-part question in one, but where do you see Texas having the biggest advantage of Ohio State and then vice versa Ohio State over Texas in this game? And then finally just a score prediction. What do you think's going to happen in this one? So we'll start with Texas's advantage over Ohio State.

14:21I'm going back and forth about this. I think it's probably... I think it's honestly like I think it's so overrated most of the time in color football, but Saturday is going to be a spectacle. And controlling that, having the home field advantage, and having it be at night, I just think feels different. Yeah, so Ohio State had every advantage last year, other than having the Julian's first star and it was Arches first time, but Arches had a little bit more experience than Julian did, but like I think I had every advantage last year, but it was still a new game and so you just don't feel the weight of a game when it's played at noon, which is one of my biggest beefs with the Big 10 and Fox, and that's a whole other conversation. But like you don't feel the weight of a game when it ends and it's still light out. You feel the weight of a game when you're walking in the stadium four hours before kick off and you're smelling every towgate smell under the sun. And you know, like it's just a different feel. And like I just think Texas has an, and I'm not trying to like say Texas has

15:24no advantages on the field, but like the atmosphere and the environment and familiarity and all of that comes with the home game at night, you have to take that into consideration to say Texas hasn't advantage there. The only Ohio State side I'll go on the field because they have every disadvantage when it comes to environment. I think Arthur Smith is something that people are discounting. I could look very stupid come Sunday morning when we're talking about, uh, Wilmos champ masterclass getting Texas over the hump and all that. Arthur Smith and Ryan Day together think that they're, they're on to something. Ryan Day's passing him concepts have worked for a decade in College Football and he's kept up with new trends to make sure that he doesn't fall behind. You know, we see all these offensive coordinators end up falling behind at some point. Ryan Day started young. He's still young enough. He keeps up with every trend. He was on early with the two tight end trends. He was on early with some of the motion stuff. I mean, getting his best player involved. He's, I think he's a, if you really study him,

16:26he's a disciple of the Shanahan McBase stuff. He's kind of at the forefront. It comes to College Football. We could say the same thing about Sork. You brought in Arthur Smith to enhance the run game with it. And if you marry those concepts, it's going to be really difficult to stop with the talent that Ohio State has. Ryan Day has typically had success against the more aggressive, aggressive attacking defensive coordinators. Pete Gwikowski was more of a bend, don't break defensive coordinator. Ohio State score 21 points in the cotton bowl on offense and 14 last year. Don Brown at Michigan and a couple others that we can name with if we want to do this for six hours. Yeah. It didn't have success against Ohio State because he got a little too greedy just once or twice. And Ryan Day can make you pay if you get greedy. That's my question with Must-Champ. It's like, you are super aggressive. You are super attacking. You are in, in your face defensive coordinator. Those are not the archetypes of defensive coordinators that have slowed Ryan Day down. Those defensive coordinators that have slowed Ryan Day down have been like, hey, Ryan,

17:26if you dip your hand in the cookie jar and you are the one who tries to get aggressive, we will make you pay. The Mike McDonald tree from Michigan has given him fits for years now because like Ryan wants to be aggressive. They don't let you be aggressive. You have to dink and dunk your way down the field. These aggressive defensive coordinators, I think back to the 2022 Notre Dame Ohio State game where Notre Dame kept Ohio State in front of it for three and a half quarters and blitzed the safety one time and CJ strut threw a touchdown over their head. So like, I said on Tuesday, which coordinator can keep his hand out of the cookie jar? I love Will Must-Champ as a defensive coordinator. I just wonder if he's going to have the patience to keep himself from doing that against Ryan Day and Arthur Smith who are going to make half-time adjustments the way the NFL does and some of the things like that. I think that is just the ultimate chess piece there as Arthur Smith against Will Must-Champ. I'm sorry I'm running long on the talker by Trey. I had picked Texas for eight months and I had picked Texas when we had our season long predictions, but the closer we get to the game,

18:30Tyler Horker from Inside Texas, I'm going to make him wear this one. He said, he can't trust Sark to beat Ryan Day until he actually does it and he flipped my mind. I'm in the same exact camp. I think Sark is going to have this team ready. I think Will Must-Champ is going to be a difference maker, but I can't in good conscience pick him to beat Ryan Day until he does it. Yeah. And maybe the third time's a charm, but I'm going to go Ohio State 31, Texas 27. I think one of the final things here is like Sark still has the Red Zone demons that he has to play. I think Texas kicks two field goals, but there's three touchdowns. I think Ohio State gets an extra touchdown and kicks one field goal when Starringland 27. Yeah, I could easily see that being the case there. And Tyler got a little bit of crap on the board about that prediction, but a Spencer, thanks so much for coming on. This was a great insight into how state bug guys just match up this weekend and it's one of the greatest games we're going to see all year. Make sure you guys are going over to Inside Texas, checking out that $1 for one week promo you can join Inside Texas right now to read all about this game and all the aftermath of what happens.

19:31Spencer, thanks so much for coming on. We'll catch you guys next time on the Inside Texas YouTube channel powered by Inside Texas.