Lettermen Live: Ohio State Football Podcast

Buckeyes barreling toward epic Oregon rematch in Rose Bowl quarterfinal

Buckeyes barreling toward epic Oregon rematch in Rose Bowl quarterfinal | Ohio State football #OhioStateFootball #OhioState #CFBNews Subscribe for more Ohio State Football coverage: https://www.youtube.com/c/Lettermenrow?sub_confirmation=1 Ohio State Buckeyes videos from Columbus, Ohio from the staff of Lettermen Row.

Duration:: 12m
Broadcast on:: 30 Dec 2024
Audio Format:: other

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That's indeed.com/bluewire, terms and conditions apply. Indeed to hire, you need Indeed. Indeed to hire, you need Indeed. It's a really confident bunch heading into this game. I wouldn't call them cocky by any stretch, but I would call them confident based on the way the game against Tennessee went to number three team in the country. And let's face it, if Jeremiah Smith had gotten that pass in the end zone instead of getting interfered with the ball popping off and Tennessee getting the interception might have been 28. Understand what I'm saying, that was about as dominant as you're going to see a team play against light competition on that level with so much at stake. So yeah, this team finally played the game, thereby expecting them to play against those kind of players, and of course they're walking in here feeling like they've already played Oregon once. It was a 32-31 game, not a shellacking by either side. So of course, they believe they belong on the field, they believe they can win on this field. And as Dylan Gabriel pointed out this morning, a good thing is it's also on grass. He goes, man, because he plays on our official turf at Oregon, but the setting is going to be unlike any, most of these guys have ever played in from the standpoint of, yeah, if you haven't played in the Rose Bowl a few years ago, like a Mega Egg Buka, you name a bunch of guys in our house date, but Oregon is played here in the Rose Bowl against UCLA in the regular season. But these are huge stakes, as you well know, and I think both teams seem pinked for it. Yeah, that's just UCLA's home venue. This is the actual road. Correct. Yeah. So it's a little... Don't ever mix them up. Yeah. A little different. Chip Kelly can tell you that. Yeah. There won't be any drapes over a bunch of the seats in this one. Yeah. No kidding. One person I did talk to you that I think is worth noting is Josh Fryer. Yeah, I did too. About this offensive line and just coming together and kind of shutting some people up after the performance against Tennessee because so many people thought that Ohio State, which I thought was weird, they thought Ohio State just couldn't even block Tennessee. And I knew that they could at least do some things against them. Yeah. The way that they performed was pretty impressive. This offensive line group seems and feels like it's ready for this challenge because as good as Tennessee was up front, I think Oregon is going to present even more. Yeah. Well, I don't know if I agree totally with that. But Jordan Birch, like I was talking with Josh Fryer about, remember Josh Fryer gave us that great quote when I asked him about Jordan Birch before the first meeting, the defensive end. Massive dude, six, eight, whatever he weighs, legend has anywhere from two, nine to three, ninety. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. But an athlete. But remember he had that term about he was scary. Yeah. You know, he's scary. And we were laughing about that when I was talking to Josh a little bit today because he didn't, you know, Jordan Burks didn't play in that game. And the bottom line is, you know, the Pierce kid from Tennessee was supposed to be this awesome defense where offense wrecking pass rusher. He might have had a tackle. Yeah. You're still what I'm saying. So the, the, I can't, the point I'm talking about here, why does these get good players too? Correct. Yeah. This may be the, still may be the best roster in the country, even though the offensive line aspect of it has been tested like no other time that I've been covering Ohio State, which is like, you pointed out 41, 41 seasons and I was talking with Justin Fry about it too. I mean, you know, I said the low point and he was saying, well, that's not my low point. You know, you have to rebound, but losing Seth McLaughlin, Remington award winner. Yes. Just when you thought you had covered all the bases and stuff, they had to reset and stuff. The Michigan game, everybody wants to forget about, but the Tennessee game, if you don't springboard the map with the way you perform up front, I guess what a lot of people thought was across the board, the best defensive line in the South Eastern Conference. You know, yeah, Ohio State's got conferences going into this game. Yeah. They need to have confidence because they were very close to beating Oregon the first time. And I think that's another message that was in here is like, you know, like Will Howard said last night when the team arrived, they, they think that they beat themselves. Yeah. We'll have that third down. They did. They gave Oregon two possessions in the first half with the kickoff thing that, you know, kudos to Oregon for running that. The kickoff thing. Yeah. But also like that was, you know, kind of a flooky play that Oregon had set up. And then... Well, they got it from Waterboy, the script of Waterboy. Yeah, they did. And then, you know, the fumble inside the 20 there, the game, their first touchdown, Quimch on Jugkins, then the ball going through Will Howard's hand. Like this team has watched that so many times. It knows that it really came down to Ohio State beating itself out there in Eugene. And I think that's what gives this team even more confidence is like when you look back at that and the way that they're talking now kind of bears that out, like when you look back at that, it's very easy to see that like Ohio State had, and I think Oregon had some opportunities to that were squandered. You know, first and goal inside the five-year-old, I don't get anything there. Ohio State really squandered some opportunities here. And so the confidence that they have is not just from the way that they put against Tennessee, but the way that they know that they can play if they execute better against this very opponent. Look in the mirror, right? Yeah. Look in the mirror. A few teams have that luxury of being able to look in the mirror and see who their worst enemy was on that particular outing. And like I said, you know, earlier in this thing, it wasn't a shellacking. It was 32-31, Ohio State had the ball and was driving and had a chance to win until just the strangest stuff ever happened in the last 35-40 seconds of that game. Still, I'm back at Booker, thought he'd caught a pass and set him up for the game winning field goal. If you get 10, 8, 10, 12 more yards, you know, Jaden Fielding ends up being the hero, you know. Now, of course, people have questions about Jaden Fielding. Well, I talked to him too. I said, "We'll get to him." Yeah, but okay. But my point is, this is another moment for this team to prove it, says, "Well, I think that you understand. These are bonus moments." Yeah. And yeah, we can talk about the strain, the irony of getting a second chance at a home game, final home game for the seniors, the guys who are outgoing and living up to their expectations and getting a second chance at Oregon, the team that beat him about one point earlier in the year and now is considered the best team in college football for this particular season. Like, I keep pointing out, I believe the two best teams left in this tournament are playing on Wednesday afternoon in the Rose Bowl. I think so too. The last thing that I wanted to get to Tim, because we won't be too long here, we got a lot to get to over at Letterman Road.com, it's like, I talked to Jaden Fielding about the last few weeks. And I said, "Jaden, I just flat out asked him, I said, 'Jaden, how have the last few weeks been for you?'" He took a big sigh and then he said, "Challenging." He's heard a lot of the criticism, but he also is a confident guy. He's an ultra confident guy. I think one of the most underrated things about Jaden is he's probably one of the 10 most confident people on this roster, despite being the kicker. He's a kicker. Yeah. And he said, "Watch the NFL all the time. Guys make a clutch kick one week and then they're the zero the next week, because they hit the upright and they lose the game for the team." He knows that he was bad against Michigan. He just admitted it. He knows that Tennessee kick was from 56 yards in really cold weather. I didn't think I honestly should have kicked it. I didn't think that was a big deal, but go ahead. No, I didn't either, but it's still another feather in the cap of the Jaden Fielding and Ace Ayers, which is fine. But also, you know, I also asked him, like, "Hey, you know that you can do this because you hit a fourth quarter field goal to take the lead against Oregon." You had a fourth quarter field goal to extend the lead against Penn State, like, where does your confidence come from right now, knowing that everybody's doubting you? And he said, "Like you're a kicker. You have to have confidence." And I think it's fascinating to me because this game is going to have field goals. He has to be good. You know, I also brought up that Noah Ruggles hit the game winner against Utah in the Rose Bowl. The last time we were here. Right. And then the next year was the absolute zero again in the Oregon. Well, we did in 48-yarder before he missed a 50-yarder. So it's just an interesting thing. I'm going to write a story about it for Edward. I'll come about Jaden's mindset heading into this because as much as Ohio State fans don't like him right now, you need it. You really do. The Michigan game, it came down to that. The Oregon game, it was going to come down to that. The Georgia game, it came down to that. They didn't need him against Tennessee as it turns out. You understand what I'm saying. See, I like an a field goal kicker to a guy playing in a golf scramble, but he only gets to hit the ball once every 15, 30, 50 shots. Yeah. And then he's got to be on. And then when he misses it, oh man, it cost us, but really, the other guys in the scramble also cost you. And so yeah, I've never questioned the guy's confidence is going to be OK. I mean, like I said, I've been studying kickers and quarterbacks forever. Everybody goes through, you can't call them streaks. Because every, every kick is a microcosm, uncorrect self. It's also a referendum and it's all exactly, but it's also a, exactly. That's what everybody else puts on, is a referendum. But it is never the same circumstance, it is never the same setting. That's the point that a kicker has to deal with and then live with it, live or die with it. So I never have a question. We've had conversations in the press box during games, I go, you know, we've seen this guy kick big time. And you know, it can kick big time. Just got it. When the moment's right, the steps got to be good. The holes got to be good. And then he's got to be good. Last but not least, a lot of attention today on Denzel Burke to still go. Got to catch my home. Yeah, there you go. Denzel Burke's turn to talk today, as well as everybody's, but obviously a lot of people talking about Denzel Burke. Yeah, I did. I'm writing about him for Letterman Roe, not another guy who is not really worried about what happened in the last game in Georgia. He's ready. Here's the thing, he knows everybody remembers and he remembers what happened. And he had the second quarter from hell, basically for a corner. And he knows it. And everybody knows it. And I was talking to him wanting about it too. I mean, you know, that old ad is true, man. Just like kickers. You can't dwell on that last kick or you're doomed. Yeah. For Denzel, like I said, I'm writing about him just as we're done here. You move on. We know the quality corner he is. I'll talk to David's Nick Benosin, but I think David Nick Benosin has had his challenges this year from the mittens standpoint and the hole in the standpoint. You know, they know what they did right and wrong, what they do right and wrong. But in the heat of the moment, you know, you never know what's coming. I mean, Oregon hadn't thrown them all deep all year until the, all of a sudden they did it in that second corner against Denzel Burke. So you're saying what I'm saying? So you live and learn. It's going to be fascinating to him. We're going to watch the Buckeyes practice later on Monday afternoon. For now, we're just going to go to lettermanrow.com and get to work on that writing. Come to lettermanrow.com right now. Come hang out with us. Come get ready for the Rose Bowl. Tim, May the 41, you're bad. He's out here. I'm just Spencer Holford. Thanks for watching. Thanks for listening. Like the video below. Subscribe to the YouTube channel. We'll see you guys over at lettermanrow.com and we'll see you back here at some point before the Rose Bowl. We'll talk about the Buckeyes a little bit more. How do you say Tim? It sounds really good to me. I like to talk. I don't know if people have noticed that or not. Yeah, a little bit. That's alright, go to lettermanrow.com. Rose Bowl in a couple of days. We'll be there. It's going to be a lot of fun.