Denzel Burke, Jordan Hancock and Donovan Jackson are all coming back to play for the Browns in 2024.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 Well, hi everybody and welcome to Buckeye Breakdown.
00:03 Anthony Meglin and Brendan Gulick with you on this offseason early January Wednesday evening
00:08 and a day where certainly probably got a little bit more news today than we would have expected.
00:15 Not that the news was a huge surprise, but a good news day for Ohio State.
00:20 If you're just coming around and you haven't learned yet what's going on with the Bucs,
00:25 Denzel Burke is coming back for another year, Jordan Hancock returning,
00:29 and Donovan Jackson on the offensive line is also coming back to the Buckeyes next year.
00:34 In addition to that, Parker Fleming, the special teams coach, has been let go
00:39 and the team is bringing back Matt Guerreri to coach safeties after Perry Eliotto was not retained last week.
00:46 So just straight off the top, news dump Wednesday.
00:50 Anthony, what are your thoughts on a day that certainly had some big headlines?
00:54 Yeah, very thoughtful of them to do it on Wednesday afternoon, you know.
00:57 I mean, thanks, thanks guys, but it came in two waves, right?
00:59 The first one being Denzel Burke coming back and the second one being Jordan Hancock
01:04 being the headliner there with Donovan Jackson as well.
01:06 But I think it's such a big deal for this Ohio State team because, you know, the bar has been set, right?
01:12 It happened on Monday night and they're chasing that.
01:15 And the fact that, you know, this defense, and we heard it immediately after the Cotton Bowl with Jack Soar,
01:21 he's like, he had hinted at it in that postgame press conference.
01:25 He's like, we have unfinished business. And this group of now seniors came in and they've been very vocal,
01:30 Brendan, about setting a legacy and leaving this program with, you know, doing what they set out to do.
01:37 We talk about it every year, Big Ten Championship, beating the team up north
01:40 and going into the National Championship and trying to do so.
01:42 So this group has been very vocal about it.
01:45 And you love that, hey, it's not just words.
01:47 They're backing it up and the boys are starting to come back and rally back
01:51 because it's got the potential, if this keeps up, to be a pretty exciting offseason down in Columbus.
01:57 You know, I don't know that Michigan winning a National Championship changed anybody's mind.
02:03 Maybe we'll learn that somewhere along the way.
02:06 I get the impression that these decisions were probably made aside from that.
02:11 But I do think it kind of bolsters the case of everybody saying, look,
02:15 you know, we take some pride here in not losing that game and we're not going to lose four years in a row.
02:21 And we're here to get it done flat out.
02:25 Right. And in some regards, man, like that's what they said last year.
02:30 And it's got to be different this year.
02:32 How is it going to be different? What's going to be different?
02:34 Well, they've got to figure those things out.
02:37 There are more changes coming on the offensive side of the ball.
02:40 Ryan Day has reportedly said, look, I'm going to go get an offensive coordinator
02:45 and he's going to evaluate the whole offensive staff the same way a couple of years ago.
02:50 Jim Knowles came in and basically had a chance to say, keeping you, not keeping you, keeping you, not keeping you.
02:56 Right. With the exception of Brian Hartline, you know, in addition to Ryan Day, obviously, is not going anywhere.
03:04 So there are going to be more changes.
03:05 But I think just purely for a second, focusing on these guys.
03:12 I don't know if you can pinpoint a better defense in the country.
03:16 And I know like in the Ohio State circles, you often get some hyperbole, right?
03:21 You get some pie in the sky thinking.
03:24 Like, I think statistically and from an experience perspective, from a draft perspective, draft caliber,
03:34 I can't imagine a better defense returning next year than what Ohio State's going to have because of how well they played the last two years
03:43 and how many of these guys are still here building on it.
03:46 But to your point, there is going to be a little bit of turnover because you don't have Mike Hall and you don't have Tommy Eichenberg next year.
03:54 And just those two guys alone are going to make a huge difference.
03:57 Yeah. And you're going to have to replace Steele Chambers as well on the linebacker level, too.
04:01 So it's like, hey, you're going to have to change those guys.
04:03 But other than that, and honestly, like you could find that there are some guys that are in the ranks that are coming up that could
04:11 that could potentially play a little bit better than what we saw from the from the linebacker corps.
04:15 Obviously, they were great, but you never know how that's going to shake out.
04:18 But you hit the nail right on the head.
04:20 Like this was a top five defense last year and you're returning like everybody from it, which is so exciting.
04:25 And they can continue to get better.
04:27 But it's going to be you know, it was hard to move the football on them last year.
04:31 I don't really know who's going to be able to attack this group through the air.
04:35 They I mean, they're going to have not only a group of defensive backs that are the most athletic in the country,
04:41 but the most veteran group in the country who've seen it all, who've been there,
04:44 who are all potential first or second day draft picks in now 2025.
04:49 So it's like, hey, they're just reloading and they're bringing all these guys back and trying to like it almost feels like they're
04:55 assembling the infinity rings from that from I don't forget the movie.
05:00 It slipped my mind right now, but they're assembling them all and they are they're ready to go because this defense
05:05 was great last year and is going to continue to just get even better and better.