3 Things That Will Decide Ohio State vs. USC

WEBVTT
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Welcome to Buckeyes Tomorrow Morning. For Saturday, October 31st, I'm
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your host, Tom Moore. The USC game is today. The
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game against Michigan in 28 days. We're sponsored today by
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our friends at Jeff Ruby's of Columbus, the award-winning upscale
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steakhouse in downtown Columbus, named one of the top 50
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steakhouses in America by Food Network. Just go to jeffruby.com
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slash Columbus to check out the menu and make a
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reservation today. All right, I'm joined by Jack Mileti of BuckeyeInsiders.com
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at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum, one of the most historic
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venues in all of American sports. And, Jock, this is,
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I think, I've seen games at the Rose Bowl without
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it actually being a UCLA game. So this is the
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last Big Ten venue I have to go to. I
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can't wait to see a game in here. This is
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a place that you've seen games for decades and decades.
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I'm so excited to finally get a chance to go
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inside and see something.
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It is historic. Another 100-year-old stadium we get to check out.
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The architecture is awesome outside. You can see the statues
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behind us. I mean, they don't build them like that anymore.
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That's old school right there. They're headless. We haven't figured
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out why they're headless, but they got some bods on
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them for sure. Yeah, an awesome area here. I wish
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we could get in, but we can't get in. Well,
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we'll have to wait until tomorrow, until today, later on today.
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Yeah, Saturday. Saturday we'll be inside. Don't worry. We have credentials.
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Don't worry. It is locked up tight on Friday. All right,
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so we've got to talk about three things that are
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going to maybe determine what is an absolutely fascinating matchup
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between Ohio State and USC. If Ohio State had Julian Sane,
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I think you'd look at this and go, yeah, Ohio
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State wins by 10 to 14 points. With Luke Fahey starting, boy,
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that's a question. To me, how does Luke Fahey play?
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That is like the single biggest determinant of how this
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game potentially goes.
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Without a doubt, without a doubt. And I think that
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how he plays is going to be determined a lot
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by how well they can protect him. As I think
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that the most logical thing for USC to do and
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for Gary Patterson, USC's defensive coordinator, do is to try
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to get after Luke Fahey early and get him rattled.
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Even if that means he needs to take a few
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risks on the backside. If they can successfully rattle him,
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get a few sacks early, get the crowd, which should be,
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you know, have a lot of Buckeye fans, but get
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the USC crowd into it, all that lines up for
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they're coming after Luke early. And if he can weather
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the storm and get past that initial onslaught, I think
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it should be pretty smooth sailing for him.
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So then the question is, okay, what does the Ohio
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State offensive line look like? Because Austin Searveld was back
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this week. He is completely off the availability report. So
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that's great news for Ohio State. The assumption is he's
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probably starting at right tackle, at least playing right tackle.
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How much can he play? He's been out for several weeks.
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What does his conditioning at this point look like? How
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is he up to game speed at this point? So
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I don't know that you're going to see Austin Sierveld
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for the whole game, but you're going to see him
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for a chunk of the game, certainly at right tackle.
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But man, how does the offensive line hold up against
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what is a pretty good USC defensive front? That's kind
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of my second big question.
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Certainly is. And when I look at Austin Sierveld, everything
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he means to this offensive line, it looks like a
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totally different unit when he's in there. He means so much,
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but he has been out. He has been, you know,
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dealing with what he's been dealing with. And that doesn't,
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you know, they said he's been trying to do what
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he can to stay in good shape. I don't know
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how much you can do when you're not feeling well,
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but I anticipate him fighting through it as best anybody can,
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as he is a guy that wants to be their
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real team guy, captain, and I look to see him
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at least play a good three quarters of the game.
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Hopefully they don't need him the whole game. That would
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be great. But if they need to go to Phil Daniels,
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it's a guy with plenty of experience who didn't play
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terribly the last time he was out. I thought he
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played so-so. So they can certainly weather the storm a
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little bit with Phil in there. But this defensive front
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for USC, they're young, they're talented all across the board
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with Jakeem Stewart. And Luke Wafel, two guys Ohio State
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obviously was in on big in the classes of 25
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and 26. And they got some other talented guys up
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front as well. So it's going to be a real
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challenge for this offensive line, not just them. Obviously the
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running backs in the blocking game and without Jacoby Jackson.
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You know, when we look at Bo Jackson and Isaiah West,
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they've had some bugaboos when it comes to protecting the
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quarterback on blitzes. So that is a really fascinating part
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of this game to me as well.
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And, you know, I think this is, I'm not counting
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this as one of our three things that are going
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to help decide the game, but boy, nothing helps a
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young quarterback and nothing sort of dulls a pass rush
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quite like an effective rushing attack. If they can get
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some push on the offensive line, and they've been able
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to do that reasonably well. It has not been an
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incredible rushing attack this year for Ohio State, but it
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hasn't been bad. It's kind of felt like it's been
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consistently pretty okay, at least. If you can get Bo Jackson...
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75 yards. If you can get Isaiah West, 50 or
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60 yards. It doesn't have to be an incredible day,
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but if they can just sort of run the ball
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somewhat consistently, man, that feels like that would go a
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long way towards helping out Luke Fahey. No doubt.
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I mean, that's, you know, definitely one of the biggest
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keys here. Can they get, you know, five yards when
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they need it? And I think that we saw a
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lot of that in the last game against Indiana when
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they needed five or just staying ahead of the chains.
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They were getting that. You know, we have talked previously
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ad nauseum about explosives and the lack thereof. Ryan Days
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talked about it, etc. And that's not great. You don't
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have a lot of explosives, but they have been pretty
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effective at staying ahead of the change. And when we
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look at Wisconsin against these guys, it sure looked like
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Wisconsin ran the ball down their throats. They only rushed
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for 150 yards, 3.3 yards of carry. So if Ohio
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State can rush the ball at their average of four
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yards of carry, which I think they should be able to,
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they'll be just fine.
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Yeah, it does feel like they don't have to do
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that much. They have to do something on the ground.
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They don't have to do that much on the ground
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to probably have some success. On the other side of
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the ball, something else that Wisconsin was able to do
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to USC last week was pressure Jaden Maiava. And boy, howdy,
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did Jaden Maiava not look like he really enjoyed that experience.
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So it feels to me like I know Matt Patricia
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tends to be a little bit more conservative, at least
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against running quarterbacks, which Maiava is really not.
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No.
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But this feels like a game where I think Matt
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Patricia looks at the film from last week, Mike Trestle,
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the Wisconsin defensive coordinator, dialed up against USC and goes, yep,
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just going to do that.
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17 pressures last week is what Wisconsin put on Maiava, which,
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you know, for context, that's, you know, the Miami game
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against Ohio State last year in the Cotton Bowl. Like,
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that's what that looked like. And that's a ton. I
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don't think we'll see that many, but they sacked him
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four times. I think Ohio State can get to that
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number because I do think that Matt Patricia, who is,
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you know, naturally more, you know, doesn't like to take
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a lot of risks and send a lot of heat.
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Jake Maub only has three scrambles on the year. So
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three times he has scrambled. He's negative in rushing yards.
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There's not a lot to worry about there. He can
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certainly beat you with his arm if he catches you slipping.
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But you have to get the pressure on him because
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most quarterbacks, obviously, they drop down. They're not as good
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under pressure. But Maiava, I think, is one of those
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guys where instead of losing that 15%, you lose about
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30% when you get some heat on him. So you've
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got to take the risk. You've got to get after him.
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So we will have our final look at the availability
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report coming on Friday night. We'll have a whole bunch
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of reporting on that for you at BuckeyeInsiders.com. We're planning
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to have a live show for you on Saturday morning.
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Saturday morning East Coast time as well as Pacific time.
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Before we leave our hotel, kind of give you a
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little bit of a pregame rundown of how things are
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looking out here, give you an update on the weather,
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give you an update on the availability report. You can
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go ahead and pencil that in for your morning on
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Saturday morning, probably around 10 a.m. give or take on
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Saturday morning East Coast time. And then we will be
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back here. We will actually be able to get through
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that fence and inside the stadium, be able to give
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you a behind-the-scenes look around the L.A. Memorial Coliseum. Fantastic venue.
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Incredible venue. The only place to ever in the world,
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history of the world, host the Olympic opening and closing
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ceremonies and track events at two separate Olympics. And it's
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about to do a third Olympics in two years. So very,
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very cool venue. Some incredible history in that place. We'll
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give you a look behind the scenes at field level
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tomorrow when we get inside there. And, of course, we
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will have plenty more coverage coming for you pregame. and
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postgame at youtube.com slash at BuckeyeInsiders and at BuckeyeInsiders.com. Take
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a second, join us. Go ahead and just, first of all,
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starts on Monday. Going to be a lot of excitement
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plus lots of exciting giveaways for our Member Appreciation Month
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that is all month long. We've got a tailgate for
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the Oregon game in a week. We've got a giveaway
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the Michigan game. We've got a ton of great stuff
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at BuckeyeInsiders.com. That'll do it for today. Thank you guys
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all for joining us. Have a great day. We'll talk
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to you tomorrow.