What We're Watching For Against Ball State

0:00... Hello everybody welcome to the Fucki Weekly podcast. I'm Tony Kirtle. Here as always with Tom Ford. Tom? How's it going? Tony, you know how you have these things you're looking forward to all year long and then it's like right about to happen and then like every once in a while it's just like up just a total rug pull like you you are really looking forward to something it's like oh nope that's not gonna happen. I had one of those earlier today because I was looking forward all year to us having game

1:05predictions and then one of us being right and one of us being wrong and we get to trash talk each other on the post game show and then we put our game predictions in for the Ball State game you can find them at FuckiAnciders.com I'm not gonna say what the score is we'll save that for the end of the show but you and I independently arrived on literally the exact same score so we have already tied for week one I am so annoyed by all of this. It is annoying I mean we always say like there's only so many scores out there right but hey why not use two of them instead of just one of them but we will get into that and we'll get into a little bit of Ball State and mainly this is gonna be mainly the Ohio State preview of them playing Ball State because really that's the main factor here that's who's going to control the outcome of this game and really this is gonna be our first look at what the Ohio State Buck guys look like and we'll talk about I'm sure more maybe Saturday morning in

2:07terms of you know like what we're expecting to see what we were looking for to seeing but my first question for you and the big question one of the big questions is what is a successful outcome for this offense what does that look like and you know because I wouldn't expect it to be a four-quarter affair so like you're basically judging this on all of the possessions of the first half and maybe the first one of the third quarter if all goes well yeah I think success in this one I don't think there's a number that I put on success it's not like well if they score 45 points it's a successful game I I think this is a much more general kind of thing where if there's good communication on the offensive line if you don't have someone coming clean and hitting Julian saying if you don't have a real bust in the blocking scheme where Ball State runs a twist or a stunt and someone comes through clean and hits the running back in the backfield if you don't have Julian saying misread that defense and

3:10through in a double coverage by accident there was an open guy on the other side of formation if it's just a relatively clean game and as they're walking up the tunnel no one is limping like Jeremiah Smith was after the was at the Minnesota UCLA game last year whatever it was yeah you want to get through with a clean game you want to get through with a clean injury report after the game honestly everything else is gonna take care of itself if those two things happen so to me that's what success looks like for this game you're saying that I'm thinking maybe we should put together a list of boxes that you know you you want to see checked and then we discussed it after the after the game to this get checked this get checked did Bo Jackson look more explosive in terms of the second level yes that got checked did Julian San look as in control or a more in control yeah that got checked was he protected did he did he run one he wanted to and run when he needed to yes those things got checked so those are

4:14some of the things that you will be looking for in terms of the starters the backups yes they should also look good against the ball state defense that is returning two starters from last year and they give up 30 points per game so is that a good thing is that a bad thing is probably a good thing but the two starters are their corners and one of the corners has moved from was a starting safety last year so I think you want to see them take advantage of the secondary for sure and and get some stuff down field and see what this passing game this play action game looks like of course in order to get the play action game working you need to be able to run the ball I fully expect that to happen in this one where it's just a defense full of transfers and you who are we to know what ball state has because ball states coaches don't know exactly what they have yet and they'll find out more but I think overall yeah just look crisp look like operating efficiently operating where maybe things are

5:22moving at different paces and keeping ball states defense under toes and it just looks like okay this looks like it could compete against Texas is how I'm gonna be kind of judging the offense because if it's like they struggle a little bit against ball state right if if guys aren't able to get separation in one-on-one situations that would be a concern if guys are open and there's miscommunication or the timing's not right or something like that that would be a little bit of a concern because the windows are gonna get a lot tighter week two than they are week one in terms of throwing in terms of holes along the offensive line for the running backs to run through all that kind of stuff Jerm a Julian Sands gonna have a lot less time in the pocket probably week two than he is week one so you know this is this is the game where you know when when I used to play the college football game when I was you know like you 20 years ago pre pre it going away I'd always put like Norfolk state in there as the game one just cuz like even on all American mode it was just kind of

6:25like what do you want to do and how do you want to do it great you should do that and that's how it goes and you know it's 56 nothing at half time without you even really trying that's kind of what this game is ball state is like a really bad team this is I said this in our game picks on the on buccane ciders.com people are gonna be looking at the Ohio State ball state game and the Texas Texas State game and trying to draw parallels like well they're both group of five teams so you know Ohio State beat them by X number of points in Texas only beat Texas state by some smaller number of points so that means Ohio State's better no no no no no no ball state would be like a three touchdown underdog to Texas state ball state would also be close to a three touchdown underdog against Western Michigan which is the team that Michigan is playing so we will want to remind you not to draw any real firm conclusions there either after week one but this is this is a game where Ohio State should be able to do more or less whatever it wants to even if ball state wants to stack the box

7:25Ohio State should still be able to run the ball some doesn't mean they're gonna be running the ball for seven yards of carry of ball states putting eight guys in the box but they should be able to pick up three four yards and then they should be able to just completely have their way in the passing game if that's what ball state chooses to do or if they drop guys back then you should be able to run the ball for seven eight yards of carry and you know you might not be able to throw for anything but you should have whatever ball state is giving you you should be able to take it and have no trouble with it yeah and me picking the score that I did is as much about the Texas game coming up as the ball state game being played because if this is ball state and then Kent State you can buy third three or four more touchdowns on Ohio State score and be like there's possibility defensively what I'm looking for in this Ohio State team is basically I just want to see where everybody's lining up and in what orders do James Smith and Andrew Houston play together do they about is it a 50-50 who's the you know like who who's the first defensive end in or the second I guess and then who's

8:28the next one in who's the third line backer in who's the fourth where they playing those are some of the just the it's not minutia because it's all stuff that we need to know and want to know and haven't been able to see anything for a while so I guess getting that baseline of where the coaches are comfortable putting these guys and when so that we'll have a better idea of who we'll see on the in week two when all this really matters so we'll get that idea of okay well if TJ Alfred's out there in the first quarter on first second or third down then chances are he's gonna be out there against Texas staying with Riley Penny Jones like oh Riley Penny Jones his first naps where it will and then his fourth fifth and sixth naps where it's Sam that's interesting okay keep that in mind he's he's a two-line but you know he's a two position player watching Christian Allegro out there and just seeing of the the new guys and also the young guys who are in bigger roles now and are gonna be asked to do more and like we talked about with the crispness of the offense I'm also gonna be watching

9:29the tackling and this isn't the biggest test but kind of like if you're not moving the ball against ball state you're in trouble if you're not tackling well against ball state you're in trouble as well yeah you're you're looking for just sort of the fundamental stuff and are they are they tackling are they getting good blocks are guys going on are guys getting off of blocks what about the interior of the Ohio State defensive line how are they doing in terms of block destruction that's something that Ross Folton talks about a bunch on these shows as well as on the insiders board at blocki insiders.com the importance of block destruction from the interior of the defensive line because if you can blow things up you can push those interior offensive lineman back into the backfield that throws off the timing of plays that throws off the running lanes for plays they should be able to blow things up to a certain degree against ball state if they're not if it's just kind of a stalemate at the offensive line when ball state has the ball I think that's probably something to be a little bit concerned about and I'm with you that I'm interested to see

10:30who's playing when and where I'm not sure exactly how much I don't think schematically they're gonna do all that much I think you know I think it's gonna be probably pretty vanilla and it's just gonna be you're better than the guys across the line from you so just win just win every rep and don't have to put you know I think they're gonna be cognizant of not putting too much on film on either side of the ball before the Texas game but they should be able to just sort of control things and and not have you know not have this be a thing where they have to you know dig deep into their toolkit to come up with ways to get ball state off the field they should just be able to get ball state off the field yeah real quick on the special teams portion of this time imagine if you will the eruption ovation joyousness if the first drive of the game for Ohio State could stop at like 37-yard line of of a ball state in Rindays like you know what kind of hawkins out there and he boots like a 54

11:3255-yarder would fans rather see that with the opening drive or touchdown because the there will be grumbling when they don't pick up the first down on fourth down but then you see kind of hawkins trotting out there and you know the low rumble like oh yeah you know and then it just starts to to build and build and then as he's lining up for the kick it goes quiet again but then then as the kick goes up and you're watching it and everybody starts you know well North and South stands will be able to see it Eastern West will just be watching to see what the reactions are of everybody else kind of like in the press box as well but say a 54-yard feel goal on the first drive of the game would that be so bad only if he makes it if he makes it that's fine if he doesn't make it if they let if they settle for a 54-yard feel goal on fourth and one on fourth and one and yeah I'm not I'm not expecting them because I think they're gonna be trying to prove a point about the offensive line and the run game and all that kind of stuff as well but yeah if you if you miss it boy that you're you're setting yourself up for you know how are they getting

12:35booed three minutes into the season opener well well but it's I think there's gonna be a lot of you're just trying to get your work in you know this is this is kind of like a baseball spring training game where you know yeah you've got your you've got your ace going out to the mound and you know what is he gonna do like he might just throw his curveball 24 times in the first three innings just because he's trying to work on his curveball or he's trying he's just going to throw nothing but fastballs because the result you're not that worried about the result because you know in that case with the result doesn't matter at all in this case the result has basically been predetermined you're not that worried about it it may be okay in this drive you're really just gonna work on inside zone or you're gonna work on yeah you're gonna you're gonna work on our POs and you're you know the the pass is never going to be live it's just going to be you know you're just gonna hand it off every time the you know the the throw the tag is not live whatever it is there just can be working on

13:40stuff would be my guess so you know I would not I would not sweat the oh boy that wasn't a you know he didn't make the right read on this play or something like that because that stuff I think a lot a lot of that stuff that looks like well that you know he made the wrong read maybe no he didn't have a read it was just he was the cold play and they just because they want to work on running the ball or they want to work on whatever last thing on the kicking though I will say in terms of working on stuff say it's 49 to 3 in the fourth quarter generally at that point on fourth down if you're in the opponent territory coaches will just go for because it's classier than kicking a field goal I'm thinking you know you might see like a field goal or a long field goal just because you don't want his first kick to be at Texas so you want to get you know his first real field goal attempt from wherever you'd like to maybe get some work and if it if it's there for you if you never face a fourth down then fine now you're not going to kick on third down but if there is a point where it's like you know it may generally be frowned upon you know by by the fru fru's or whomever to kick

14:44a field goal when you're up by six touchdowns but like I said we're working on stuff here and also enjoy your 1.25 million dollars or whatever whatever for this game sorry there had to be a field goal kicked when you're already down by 46 points whatever so you cheesed at the outset our score predictions you teed it up very well there by saying they're gonna be up 49 to 3 and then kick a field goal so I and I'll just make sure everybody knows that I sent my score prediction into Tom with a score of 52 to 3 and this has been the one I've kind of been stuck on for a few days that you know just feels right I don't know where where ball states three comes from but you never really do and I feel like why I stay with score touchdowns the majority of the time but there will be an opportunity for a field goal and I'll just want to go ahead and take that time I have no idea how you came up with 52 3 completely independently but please tell the people this feels like a game where it's 35 nothing at

15:48half time or 42 nothing or 38 nothing or something like that and then you play out the second half and my expectation is you probably see the ones for a drive or two in the third quarter that's generally how Ryan Day sort of parcels out playing time in these types of games you keep the starters in for a drive or two in the third quarter and then you're gonna just start rolling guys and you'll see I think there's a pretty good chance you'll see the second team offensive line the third team offensive line you'll see probably three different quarterbacks I think you might see you might see like a six different running backs carry the ball in this game you might see eight to ten different wide receivers catch passes in this game or at least receivers on the whole catch passes in this game and I think this is one where your ball state you're coming into Ohio Stadium you know I know I know you have to put on a brave face and say listen if things go just right like it's okay we know it's okay it's fine you're taking the

16:48check you're taking the L that's what these games are that's what this is for and I think everyone also knows you know I don't think you're gonna have a complaint in the post game room from ball states coach after the game if Ohio State is throwing the ball in the fourth quarter with their third string quarterback and their third string wide receivers and that's what this game is for this game is to get a bunch of work Ohio State is getting work and getting opportunities and getting reps for a bunch of true freshmen and young players who haven't seen a whole lot of time yet and ball states getting a check and getting you know some TV time on the Big Ten Network and you know that's the that's the shaking hands meme on this game and so you know if Julie and Sain was in there throwing Jeremiah Smith in the middle of the fourth quarter while they're up 56 points that's one thing that's not that's not what this is gonna be I would I hope would be for Ohio State that they're gonna try and keep kind of running the offense you can really see what a saviour in St. Clare look like running the offense what does look fahey look like running the offense what you know the offensive line how are they blocking when there's still some

17:51question it's not just you're just gonna be running ISO 15 times in a row what does it look like when the opposing team doesn't know exactly what's coming how well the offensive line hold up that kind of stuff and we have not mentioned legend Bay we've talked about him on all of our other shows this week so you can find all of those bold predictions certainly talked about him Chris Henry Jr as well like all of these different guys if you want to find that and I'm sure if you look at your podcast feed and you look at Buck I weekly you're gonna see plenty of stuff there for you trying to keep you guys full in terms of what you're looking for and satisfied and so you can continue to find that on all of your podcast platforms and of course if you're watching on YouTube going in that thumbs up we would appreciate that subscribe to the channel hit the bell be notified because we will be you know the game is here on Saturday so we're gonna be dropping videos and dropping coverage and behind the scene stuff beforehand all sorts of things that you've come to know and love from what we'll do on on the YouTube side of things so you can continue to find those there and

18:52also find a server at Buck I insiders.com the absolute best way to support what do is to become a member there love see we've got an all day staff chat going on right now the entire staff talking amongst the members all kinds of stuff going on some some stuff that we you know I'd said you're gonna have to talk to me in person for me to answer some of this stuff but you can find all of that over there as well that will do it for me thank you all for tuning in and we will talk to you all later

20:01if you tell me that's a boy it's alright we can steal a car and leave tonight