As the Ohio State Buckeyes prepare to open the season, here are some final pregame thoughts live from Bloomington, Indiana.
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00:10 Well, hi everybody and welcome to the Buckeye Report live from Bloomington,
00:18 Indiana.
00:18 It is week one as the Ohio State Buckeyes get ready to open up the 2023 season.
00:23 We are live on site.
00:24 Buckeyes now has you covered all season long and
00:27 we are at Indiana for week one here.
00:30 The Bucs are certainly excited to get this thing going.
00:33 If you've joined us throughout the week, we appreciate that.
00:35 If you haven't joined us yet this week, please do so.
00:38 We go live at 7 AM every weekday morning.
00:41 I'm Brendan Gulick with Anthony Meglin and
00:42 we talk a lot of things about the Ohio State Buckeyes.
00:45 What we've learned along the way and
00:47 certainly what we are hoping and expecting as the season rolls along.
00:50 Anthony, what are those pregame thoughts and
00:54 jitters you have here this morning as you get ready for week one?
00:57 >> So good, it looks like a beautiful day over in Bloomington.
01:00 It's just really excited to see it all in action.
01:03 And finally, quit talking about it, right?
01:05 We're done talking about it.
01:07 It's no more of, hey, what I think is gonna happen, what may happen.
01:11 We're finally getting the opportunity to see what will happen.
01:13 And it's an exciting time.
01:15 I can't wait to kick off today at 3.30.
01:17 And for me, when the Buckeyes are on offense,
01:20 I'm really excited to watch the quarterback.
01:21 I know that's a cliched thing to say, but
01:26 that's really what we're here for.
01:28 How is Kyle McCord gonna look?
01:29 Is he gonna look comfortable in the pocket?
01:31 Is he gonna make big plays when he needs to?
01:34 Is he gonna make the common play when he needs to?
01:36 I know that's been a huge thing as Coach Ryan Day has been really hitting on every
01:41 day throughout training camp.
01:42 And then when Devin Brown gets his chance, how's he gonna look?
01:45 In his first real action as a Buckeye,
01:47 what's it gonna look like when he's seeing live bullets?
01:50 That's what I'm really looking forward to on the Buckeyes' offensive side.
01:53 Flipping it on the defensive side,
01:55 how are they gonna contain Jalen Lucas?
01:57 He's the hot button for Indiana.
01:59 They're gonna use him in a number of different ways out of the backfield and
02:02 the slot on the outside.
02:04 How are the Buckeyes gonna adjust to it?
02:05 How's the secondary gonna play?
02:07 And how are we gonna stop the big play?
02:08 That's really the biggest, those two biggest things that I'm looking forward to
02:12 seeing shake out this afternoon.
02:14 >> As you can tell, the weather couldn't be any more perfect, right?
02:18 It is sunny.
02:19 I would say it's warm, but it's not smoking hot.
02:21 Temperature's in the mid 80s.
02:23 There's a good little breeze here.
02:24 It's a little harder to feel as you get down lower.
02:26 But I mean, I can see all of the Big Ten flags all around the top of this bowl in
02:31 the stadium, and they're ripping pretty good in the breeze.
02:34 So I don't know if punts will get up quite high enough,
02:38 where that's gonna be a huge factor, but it might be a little bit breezy.
02:41 So we'll keep our eye on that along the way.
02:44 I'm certainly interested in the things that you brought up, but
02:46 I suppose to just bring up something slightly different.
02:49 I really wanna watch this offensive line.
02:51 This is probably the first time in a little while the offensive line has come
02:55 into a season, kind of unproven.
02:58 Generally, what you're gonna get from your two guards as they return,
03:01 Carson Hinsman has never played for Ohio State.
03:04 He's your starting center.
03:05 That's obviously a huge role to be stepping into, and
03:08 the coaching staff must have plenty of confidence in him or
03:10 they wouldn't put him there.
03:12 But how is he gonna do in his first action as a Buckeye?
03:15 And how well can they keep Kyle McCord and or
03:18 Devin Brown on their feet during the game?
03:20 Those are certainly important parts to let the rest of the skill players go do
03:25 what they need to do.
03:26 I anticipate that Indiana is gonna probably try to get after McCord and
03:32 Brown, see if they can make him a little uncomfortable.
03:35 I remember a few years ago when Indiana played at Ohio Stadium,
03:40 they really pressured Justin Fields and he kind of struggled.
03:43 They didn't do it so much to CJ Stroud,
03:46 maybe a slightly different skill set from Fields and Stroud.
03:49 But given the reality that McCord and Brown are dealing with in this kind
03:54 of situation, I think Indiana is gonna say we got nothing to lose.
03:58 Let's ratchet it up and see what we can do to put some heat on these guys.
04:02 So can the offensive line handle crazy looking blitzes?
04:07 And can McCord and Brown manage the offense well enough to go out and
04:13 maybe jump on IU early and put this thing away?
04:16 >> I would also add to that, how is the Indiana front,
04:20 with all those transfers that we talked about, and Andre Carter especially,
04:24 how are they gonna attack the Ohio State offensive line to make a great point?
04:27 You got new guys that they're on the two edges and in the center.
04:30 How is Ohio State's offensive line gonna respond to some high quality
04:34 opponents that are all transfers in their first time in Indiana, but
04:38 it's still gonna be a force to reckon with on the defensive line.
04:41 >> The expectation is that the Buckeyes are healthy.
04:45 We haven't heard anything to the contrary.
04:47 The team will release its pregame availability report at 1.40 PM today.
04:52 So at that point, we'll know for sure, but we haven't heard anything through camp or
04:56 from coaches along the way that seem like surprises.
05:00 So I'm hopeful that we don't have any great surprises coming up here
05:04 in a little bit when the team releases that report.
05:07 Certainly, the guys that you're expecting to play at the primary skill positions,
05:11 I mean, we've seen them coming off the practice field, they look great.
05:14 So it sure feels like full steam ahead for Ohio State here this afternoon.
05:19 And I guess the only other thing I wanna bring up, Anthony, before we wrap is that
05:23 I wanna see if Ohio State can find a way to overcome whatever early curveballs get
05:28 thrown their way.
05:29 For folks that have been watching college football throughout the last couple days
05:32 as the season opens up, I think it's been a consistent theme
05:37 that we've seen some slower starts.
05:38 And sometimes there's just a little clunkiness to how the offense can look
05:42 early in the year, especially if you've got some new players in critical spots.
05:47 How are they gonna handle it?
05:48 And if some adversity comes their way, if there's an early turnover or
05:51 a big mistake early in the game, how does that play out?
05:55 So those are a couple things I'm really looking forward to watching this team,
05:59 see how resilient they are.
06:00 >> Love it, those are great points.
06:02 Adversity is definitely gonna strike, and even the game this morning,
06:05 a couple slow starts.
06:06 In Michigan, I know they were off to a slow start,
06:08 some other ones around the country too.
06:09 So it's a great point.
06:10 How are they gonna respond to any type of adversity that they're gonna face
06:14 this afternoon, because it will come, and it'll be great to see.
06:17 >> Follow us along the way all day long,
06:19 BuckeyesNow_FN on social media, or on Twitter, or on Facebook,
06:24 or on Instagram, of course.
06:25 We'll be right here on our YouTube channel post game.
06:28 First, we'll stream the press conference that Ryan Day will kick off.
06:31 And I anticipate if it's like in years past,
06:34 we'll probably hear from a quarterback and from a coordinator.
06:38 That hasn't been confirmed to us, but I anticipate that's the case.
06:41 And then we'll have some additional opportunities outside of the press
06:44 conference we stream to talk to a few other players.
06:47 And we'll upload some video to the channel after the fact with that.
06:50 But in the meantime, Anthony, you and I will come right back here post game, and
06:53 we'll do a little deeper dive on how this thing turns out.
06:58 But it's fun to be talking about ball that's actually in front of us.
07:00 Can't wait to do it.
07:01 So BuckeyesNow.com for all the latest.
07:03 We'll be here all season long, and
07:04 certainly hope that you'll join us throughout the course of the year.
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