Ohio State vs. Ohio Picks and Preview

Summary

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The Bill and Doug Show: Ohio State vs. Ohio Picks and Preview

Podcast: The Bill and Doug Show: Ohio State Football Talk
Hosts: Doug Lesmerises & Bill Landis
Release Date: September 11, 2025
Episode Theme: An in-depth preview and picks for Ohio State vs. Ohio University, including insight into betting trends, opponent analysis, Ohio State development goals, and classic anecdotes from Buckeyes and MAC matchups.

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Episode Overview

Doug and Bill use their extensive experience covering Ohio State to deliver an engaging and knowledgeable preview of the Buckeyes' upcoming matchup against Ohio University. The conversation ranges from meaningful stats and recent form, to psychology, coaching tendencies, and a heavy dose of fan-focused fun. The duo also discusses the context and stakes for both teams, betting line movement, and which Buckeyes to watch, all while injecting banter, history, and a bit of mascot mayhem.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Game Context and Viewing Information

• Matchup: Ohio State Buckeyes (defending national champions) vs. Ohio University Bobcats
• When/Where: Saturday, 7PM, at Ohio Stadium ("The Shoe")
• Broadcast: Peacock streaming (01:21)
  • Bill: “You can get [Peacock] for like a trial or get it for a month and then cancel. We know it’s kind of a pain with streaming, but you can find it. Or don’t and come in fresh for the post-game show.”

2. Betting Lines & MAC Matchup History

• Line Movement:
  • Opened at OSU -35.5, dropped to around -31.5 to -30.5, indicating skepticism Ohio State will blow out Ohio by five touchdowns (03:03).
• Ryan Day vs. MAC Teams:
  • Ohio State's average margin vs. MAC under Day: 64-8
  • OSU routinely destroys even the best MAC teams (05:24).
  • Doug: “His teams hammer MAC teams, even good MAC teams… they put it on ‘em pretty good.”

3. Quality of Ohio University as Opponent

• Ohio University:
  • Projected as one of the top MAC teams (potential favorite with Toledo, per betting odds) (06:31).
  • Played closely with Rutgers (Big Ten bottom tier) and defeated West Virginia (Big 12 bottom tier) (07:56).
  • Bill: “If you think of it as basically right in between Grambling and Texas, is that a fair shorthand?”
  • Doug: “I think so... your three non-conference opponents kind of staggered in quality almost makes sense to me.” (09:11)

4. Buckeye Priorities & Focus for This Game

• What fans care about:
  • Most focus on Ohio State development, not opponent storylines (09:25).
  • Doug: “Mostly they want to know about their own guys, which I get.”
• Key Buckeye goals:
  • Continue developing the run game, especially for RBs (James Peoples, C.J. Donaldson, Bo Jackson).
  • Integration and evaluation of DE Logan George (Idaho State transfer expected to debut) (18:03).
  • Continue OL consistency (no sacks given up so far).
  • Evaluate punting battle (Joey McGuire vs Nick McLarty) in potential blowout second half.

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5. Series & Historical Musings

• Past meetings:
  • 1899-1902: Early series, hiatus until 1999.
  • Quirky game in 2008, tight 26-14 win for OSU (12:25).
  • Brief digression about Ohio University's (OU) brief flirtation with Big Ten expansion ambitions, and the backstory behind the oversized Convocation Center (13:10).
• Mascot Mayhem:
  • The story of the Bobcat (OU mascot) tackling Brutus Buckeye in 2010 (13:35).
  • Mascot safety tangent (minor league baseball mascot got jaw broken by bat!) (15:04).
  • Bill: “Don’t overestimate how much protection a mascot head has. Right. If Lee Corso is ever walking down the street wearing a mascot head, don’t walk up and hit him with a sledgehammer…” (15:50).

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6. Ohio University Offense & What Ohio State Will Face

• QB Parker Navarro (16:26):

  • Dual-threat, elite rushing QB (among FBS leaders in designed runs and scramble yards).
  • Will replicate what OSU could see vs. Washington’s Dillon Williams Jr. (next opponent).
  • Forces defense to prep for mobile QBs.
  • Doug: “This is the third straight game Ohio State will play a team with a mobile quarterback… It will give them really good preparation.”
  • Likely to run both designed plays and scrambles, especially under pressure (24:24).
  • Navarro Stat: 4th in QB rushing yards nationally entering this week.
  • Doug: “I do think it is not a coincidence…more scramble yards than he did last year. When you got these Power 4 defenses coming after you, you have to scramble more.” (24:24)
  • Throws deep ‘moon balls’ under pressure (28:46).

• Other Ohio weapons:

  • WR Chase Hendricks: 8th in FBS for receiving yards (236 yards, goes deep and intermediate).
  • RB C.A. Bangura: Respectable Power 4 stats; keeps defenses honest on RPO and zone-read.

• Offensive Line Concerns:

  • Some holes, especially at tackle (seen in Rutgers game), though protected in last week’s win over West Virginia.

• Ohio Defense:

  • G5 front that held West Virginia to <3 ypc, 5 sacks vs. Power conference foes
  • Lost three DL starters to Power Four transfers, but still decent.

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7. Defensive Strategy – Containing Navarro

• OSU likely to avoid aggressive blitzing:
  • “He almost wants to run… not even sure Ohio State wants to pressure him. I think they probably want to hem him in and not run. But like, pin your ears back...you might just rush your three, spy him and make him throw on third and seven…” (25:36)
• Spy Assignment:
  • Arvell Reese likely to spy Navarro, as he did vs Arch Manning and Texas (27:24).
  • Doug: “It’s not a thing that will…make the game interestingly close… but can get frustrating, [with] less opportunity for Ohio State’s offense to work stuff out.”

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8. Special OSU/OU Connections & Homecoming Vibes

• Will Kazmarik:
  • OSU tight end, transfer from OU, knows many on the roster including Navarro (19:45).
  • Notes significance for Ohio prep players: 43 Ohio natives on OU roster—this game is a career highlight for them (21:50).
  • Doug: “It’s also like, holy moly, I’m playing in the shoe… four times bigger than the largest home crowd they ever played in front of.”

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Doug [05:24] — “Ohio State under Ryan Day has played two MAC champions and put 70 on both of them.”
• Bill [06:31] — “They might, might take the hammer to these guys. So I think we need to understand the psychology…”
• Doug [16:26] — “Parker Navarro can really move. He’s among the best rushing QBs in the country… among FBS QBs, sixth in design run last year, tenth in scramble yards.”
• Bill [15:50] — “Don’t overestimate how much protection a mascot head has. Right. If Lee Corso is ever walking down the street wearing a mascot head, don’t walk up and hit him with a sledgehammer…”
• Doug [27:24] — “Sunny Styles was talking a little bit about that. There’s been some frustration because the ball was coming out quick, not a lot of pass rush… sometimes quarterbacks like want you to get to them in an uncontrolled fashion so they can just slip right by.”
• Doug [32:59] — “When Ohio State played Toledo in 2022… that was a quarterback who could scoot, and they didn’t handle it great.”

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Picks Segment (31:00–34:08)

• Spread: OSU -30.5 or -31.5; Over/Under 51.5
• Doug’s Pick: 48–10, Ohio State
• Bill’s Pick: 48–13, Ohio State
  • Doug: “OU will move it down there a couple times… maybe both times late, Navarro will play most of the game, if he’s out there against backups, I think he can play…” (31:55)
  • Over is the preferred play for both, not betting advice.

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Key Takeaways for Ohio State Fans

• Most Important Thing to Watch:
  • How OSU’s defense handles a capable, rushing-focused QB (Navarro) as prep for Washington’s Dillon Williams Jr.
• Offensive Focus:
  • Run game rhythm, showcase depth (including new DE, and potentially deeper RB room)
  • Developmental reps for young/backup Buckeyes appear likely in a game expected not to be close.

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Timestamps for Reference

• [01:21] – Broadcast info & post-game show details
• [03:03] – Betting line movement & analysis
• [05:24] – Ryan Day’s MAC track record
• [07:11] – Quality/rankings of Ohio as an opponent
• [12:25] – Historical OSU-OU meetings & Big Ten anecdotes
• [13:35] – Mascot fight story, mascot safety tangent
• [16:26] – What OSU wants to get from this game; DE Logan George too
• [18:45] – OL, punting, and defensive front discussion
• [19:45] – Will Kazmarik connection, OU home crowd context
• [21:50] – 43 Ohio natives on OU; what “the Shoe” means to Bobcats
• [24:24] – Deep dive on Parker Navarro’s run-pass dual threat
• [27:24] – Defensive strategy: containment, spy, avoid blitz
• [28:46] – OU receiving/running weapons; pass distribution
• [31:00] – Picks and score predictions
• [32:59] – Parallels to previous mobile QBs vs OSU
• [34:08] – Outro and reminders about bonus shows

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Summary

This episode delivers an entertaining, fan-first analysis of the upcoming Buckeyes-Bobcats showdown, balancing insight, humor, historical nuggets, and down-to-earth realism:

• Expect Ohio State to roll, but the real test is their defense’s ability to contain a dynamic QB—a dress rehearsal for Washington.
• Secondary stories: MAC upsets, crowd size realities, MPC (Mascot Protection Code), and the economics/odds of P4 vs G5 non-con play.
• Score picks: Both see a comfortable OSU win, with some late OU points.

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Perfect for fans who want to know what really matters: how Ohio State is building for bigger games, and why this MAC matchup is more than just a stat-padding blowout.

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Transcript

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[Bill Landis]

Welcome back to the Bill and Doug Show. Our picks and preview For Ohio State vs Ohio University 7pm in the shoe on Saturday night. Bill Landis on Peacock get it straight. You can get it for like a trial or get it for a month and then cancel it like it's. We know it's still kind of a pain with the streaming stuff, but you can find it. You can find it or don't find it and then come in fresh for the post game show that we will do live on YouTube as soon as it ends on Saturday night. And can you imagine people showing up for the post game show Bill and going, I wonder if Ohio State won, that would be a heck of a vibe. For the post game show.

[Douglas Maurice]

We could do a dramatic re like reading of the play by play for people if they don't check in on Peacock.

[Bill Landis]

Oh, I like that. Third and five from the 31 yard line. Parker Navarro sacked by Kenyatta Jackson. 87 plays of that. Yeah, that'd be good. That's what the people want. All right, we're going to give you our picks for this game. Talk about it a little bit. We will back on Friday here on YouTube with our picks for a bunch of other national games. That's how we do it here. We did a big premium show on Substack on Wednesday where we did more than two hours of questions from our Substack subscribers and then answers from us. We talked about Ryan Day versus Michigan. We talked about Brian Hartline, Ryan Day play calling. We talked about advice in the journalism world these days. So certainly if you're not a Substack subscriber, Bill, we would invite you to try to maybe go check it out. Then you can get that two hour show over over there.

[Douglas Maurice]

Yeah. And you can listen to it in like five segments over the next couple days. Yeah.

[Bill Landis]

Or 10 or like 26 minute segments, whatever it is. Okay, so let's do this. This line has moved, as you have noted. It opened with Ohio state favored around 35 and a half. As we record this, it's down to Ohio State on fan duel at least favored by 31 and a half. Some places it might be as low as 30 and a half. Anything that you make of this line movement, Bill?

[Douglas Maurice]

I don't know. Well, I think part of it is just early season adjusting. Right. People are still trying to figure these teams out and their power ratings and stuff like that. So I'm not surprised that there's some movement. I would imagine that maybe some folks have seen what Ohio has done. Playing two Power 5 teams, playing Rutgers close into the fourth quarter, then beating West Virginia and thinking maybe that something like 35 might be a little too much for Ohio State to cover. Maybe thinking Ohio State going into a week off before it gets in the Big Ten play and maybe won't, maybe won't keep the pedal down the entire time. Like there are a couple things I think could lead you to thinking this would be slightly closer than 35 points. But I think you do need when you think about Ohio State playing a Mac team, maybe should look into Ryan Day's history against Mac teams and decide whether or not you think it's going to be be within five touchdowns, or not. Because he his teams hammer Mac teams, even good Mac teams like he, they, they, they, they put it on him pretty good.

[Bill Landis]

Ryan Day does not have to be from Ohio to be the Ohio State head coach and to understand Ohio State football. And I know that the Mac is not exclusive to Ohio, is not exclusive to the contiguous Midwestern states, although it's mostly what they are. Jim Trestle sometimes had some trouble with Mac teams and Jim Trestle is as Ohio as it gets. I think this might be an example. Bill. I got, I started there. The way I was discussing that was a little bit of the dramatic line reading. Ryan Day does not so Ryan Day doesn't give two hoots about the Mac is my point. He's from New Hampshire. They're a team on the schedule. He fully understands Ohio State football right now. He doesn't fully understand the Mac. Jim Trestle, like, understood the Mac. So Ryan Day can just drop the Mac and go on with his life. Right. So maybe that is. There's something to this here.

[Douglas Maurice]

Sure. So I'll give you. So this, this will be the sixth game that Ohio State has played against the Mac under Ryan Day. I will read you the scores. 2019, Ohio State beat a Miami team that won the Mac 76 to 5. 2021. They beat Akron 59, 7. 2022, they beat a Toledo team that won the Max 77. 2024, they beat Akron 52, 6. And also in 2024, beat Western Michigan 56 to nothing for an average score of 64. Eight against the Mac.

[Bill Landis]

I'm gonna say I was slightly confused when you said that. You said 2019. I was like, well, that's pretty close. 20 to 19. That's not an Ohio State blowout at all.

[Douglas Maurice]

I think Ohio State was losing that game. Five nothing, maybe. And then what was it?

[Bill Landis]

There was a game.

[Douglas Maurice]

What was the.

[Bill Landis]

I think there was a game, right? Didn't. Didn't. Wasn't there a game where Ohio State gave up the first touchdown against a team like this and maybe, like, didn't they take a picture or something? I thought that was like a thing. Like, the coach was very excited about being ahead of Ohio State ever so briefly anyway.

[Douglas Maurice]

Maybe.

[Bill Landis]

Yeah, they might, might take the hammer to these guys. So I think we need to understand the psychology. Then we'll understand sort of what Ohio State's trying to do in this game, but we also need to understand Ohio as a point of reference. You talked about that they. Ohio State did this to two Mac champs. Right now, the. The odds to win the Mac on FanDuel. Toledo is the favorite at plus 195 and Ohio's second at plus 200 and then close third at plus 410. So in the betting markets at least, it's viewed as a toss up between Toledo and Ohio to win the Mac. So that's how good this team is. And that's a valuable piece of information for Ohio State fans to know, Right? This is a team that again, might win its conference.

[Douglas Maurice]

Yeah, I think so. And I'm gonna. Hopefully I will have something on Friday on the substack page about like, Ohio State's history against the Mac and how often it just plays very good Mac teams. And I'm hopeful in that to have Some context from someone who's like more of an expert on it than we are about like just how good of a Mac team this Ohio team. Okay, could be, but, but again, like Ohio State under Ryan day has played two max champions and put 70 on both of them. So like, I'm not, I'm not saying that as like a watch out necessarily, but it is rare for Ohio State to play the best teams in the Mac. It has only played the Mac champion three times in the Max. The Max existed since 1946, I think. Ohio State's played 31 games against the Mac and it has played the Mac champion three times.

[Bill Landis]

And as a reminder, as you said off the top, Ohio University played right, with kind of a bottom level Big Ten team in Rutgers and then beat a bottom level Big 12 team in West Virginia. We'll get to that. Excuse me, more in a second. The Brian from O Index ratings that we like to cite, which again is just drive to drive success, which is some indication and it's balanced against the level of your opposition and that kind of thing. So Ohio State went from playing one of the best teams in the country. Right. Texas was number one in the preseason. Even with that loss to Ohio State in week one. Texas is number five in the formo rankings. And then to play an FCS team like Grambling State, who again, like, doesn't even factor into rankings like this. It's such a wide gap between Texas and Grambling State. I, I do think right, like Ohio might be like right in the middle because when you look at the 136FBS teams, do you want to guess where Ohio is in the formal rankings?

[Douglas Maurice]

72, 70.

[Bill Landis]

So like they're like, they're right there. Well done by you. They're right in the middle. Toledo's a little bit higher. They're like 61. So this is, this is, I think for Ohio State fans going into this game. If you think of it as basically right in between Grambling and Texas, is that a fair shorthand?

[Douglas Maurice]

I think so. And that almost feels like a little. It's. Maybe you don't want to play a Grambling as we've discussed, but I think to kind of have your non. Conf. Your three non conference opponents kind of staggered in quality that way almost makes sense to me.

[Bill Landis]

And one of the things that you like best about this and, and actually, no, I don't want to do that. I want to talk about Ohio State first because there are some people. Do you think there are some people still, Bill, who just really don't care about the opponent. Like they don't want to know the names of these. Otherwise no offense to these guys was like I care about my guys. They're the team in the other uniform. Tell me what my guys are trying to do and we'll get on to the next thing. I do think in the past sometimes you could be too opponent heavy. Like these guys come through the lives of fans for a very brief moment and it's like hey, here's six stories about the opponent. I think sometimes people are like I don't care.

[Douglas Maurice]

Yeah, I I certainly don't care enough for six stories about the opponent. I think generally don't care all that much unless there's a particularly like dangerous slash interesting player on the other team that is worth learning something about. But no, mostly they want to know about their own guys, which I get.

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[Bill Landis]

Do you know Ohio State played Ohio University in 1899? I just said how like nobody cares about Ohio University. Let's. Let's go through what happened in 1899. Dramatic reading by Douglas Maurice of the Ohio State OU game from 1899. They're 60 against Ohio University 1899-1900-1901-1902 and from the Ohio State game notes, A pause of 97 years ensued before the teams met in 1999. A 40 to 16 Ohio State win and then the Last game was in 2008. Oh, wait, and then there's one of those. They played in 2010, but it's supposedly vacated. So the 2008 game is on. Is on your list of like, kind of goofy. Is it on your list of kind of goofy Mac games? 2514 Ohio State Beatou in 2008. How's that, that game?

[Douglas Maurice]

Yes, it is. I have. Yes, it is on my list. That was not a particularly good Ohio team. That team, Ohio team finished 4 and 8. Did you know? I didn't know this. I was talking with Lettermanero Spencer Holbrook, himself a proud graduate of Ohio University. There was a time. There was a time in the 60s where Ohio was thinking it was going to be brought into the Big Ten. That's why. That's why like, they had. Their basketball arena is so big. Like, the convocation center holds like 13, 000 people, which is like a ridiculously large basketball arena for a max. For a max school. But I think they built it as part of like, Big Ten, please come take us. And then what? It was related to me again, if this was wrong, blame Spencer. Yeah. Ohio State and others in the Big Ten, like, blocked Ohio from joining the league. Really? Yeah.

[Bill Landis]

That'd be interesting because, I mean, that is one of the things that obviously we know what Cincinnati football is right now, but so many places where it's Michigan and Michigan State and it's Purdue and Indiana and it's Illinois and Northwestern and there's just two teams like on that level in the same state in the state of Ohio, for as big as it is and how much it cares about football doesn't have that. And it's because Ohio State barred the door.

[Douglas Maurice]

Look at them.

[Bill Landis]

They barred the door.

[Douglas Maurice]

That's why the mess got punched. Brutus in 2010.

[Bill Landis]

Yeah, everyone's doing those. Did you see the Jared Smalley story about.

[Douglas Maurice]

And I don't want to spoil it, but it's worth watching for the end. Yeah.

[Bill Landis]

So Jared, NBC 4 in Columbus. You can go find it on the interwebs and there's a transcript of it, but you can also watch the thing. And it's one of those things that I guess it happened in 2010 at that. So it's been 15 years and like, looking back, you can sort of chuckle about it. But also the Bobcat just wanted to beat the crap out of somebody. And on some level, just wanting to beat the crap out of somebody is not that hilarious, is it?

[Douglas Maurice]

No, it's not that funny. What. What was your. What were you doing when that, when that happened, Were you like, running down a lot of Bobcat and bruta stories in 2010?

[Bill Landis]

No, no, I didn't actually. I think I was like, I'll let someone else handle this. This mascot stuff. So. But the thing about it, nobody was hurt. I did one time when I was a young baseball writer, I went and did a series at a. At a minor league base for a minor league baseball team. And one of the stories that I did there, it wasn't. Didn't happen while I was there, but it was recent enough that it was a big part of what was happening with that minor league baseball team. There was a bit where they would have the mascot, like, race a kid around the base paths. They would go opposite ways and so. And then each. Each time there would be something that would get in the mascot's way to allow the kid to win. And the crowd would go crazy. Right. So they had a fill in bat boy at one of the games who was like, okay, you have to sort of stop the mascot somehow. But he had never done it before. So to stop the mascot, he came out with a bat and took a full swing at the mascot's head and caved in the guy's jaw. Because the bat boy thought, hey, you have a mascot head on. You'll be miraculously saved from this full bat swing. And the mascot head is like as thin as a piece of cloth. And so I interviewed the mascot and he was like, I was trying to crawl off the field while blood was gushing out of my face without traumatizing the kids in the stands that like, dear God, the mascot is dead. So there are actual horrific mascot mishaps that happen. Brutus versus the Bobcat. Wasn't that everybody was okay?

[Douglas Maurice]

Yeah, it worked out okay.

[Bill Landis]

But don't overestimate how much protection a mascot head has. Right. So just one of those things. I don't. If you, if Lee Corso is ever walking down the street wearing a mascot head, don't walk up and hit him in the, in the face with a sledgehammer because you're like, it's a mascot head. It's not.

[Douglas Maurice]

Yeah, that's good advice.

[Bill Landis]

Let's talk. Let's talk about Ohio State. What do you think? What is, what does Ohio State want to get out of this? What is the number one thing that anybody would be watching for? What are they working on? And I do think you. You had some interesting thoughts on our sub stack on Thursday morning and we'll talk about Parker Navarro, the Ohio University Quarterback, they're going to get a look about at a quarterback who can scoot, which could be helpful down the line.

[Douglas Maurice]

Yeah, I think so. I thought the same thing about Grambling and then it turned out that Grambling didn't really run its quarterbacks, which is understandable. Like, you know, you want to make sure you have your quarterbacks for your, your season in the swac. It so didn't run their guys there. I, I would, I don't think Ohio is going to take the same, take the same strategy against Ohio State. So yeah, Parker Navarro can really move. He's, he's among the best rushing quarterbacks in the country. A lot of his rushing production comes via scrambles. And if you project, you know, or look ahead two weeks when Ohio State plays Washington, Demon Williams Jr. Their quarterback is, is right up there with them in terms of scramble yards. They're a little bit different physically, just like stature wise, but I think play similarly and Obviously Demon Williams Jr. Has different weapons around him. We could talk about that when Ohio State plays Washington, but it was weird. Not, not weird, but it's interesting to me that, that this is the third straight game that Ohio State will play a team with mobile quarterbacks. Right. I think you can say that Arch Manning probably didn't run enough in that game against Texas. Grambling protected its quarterbacks this week and now I think Ohio State will actually get a pretty good look at a quarterback who's going to move around a lot, which will give them really good preparation for when they go play in Seattle in two weeks. So that's, that's probably, I don't know, that's probably the most interesting thing when you look at, think of the matchup from this game. There are other things too. Like I think Ohio State is still trying to like, you know, iron out some stuff with the run game and, and get, get C.J. donaldson and James Peoples and maybe Bo Jackson in this into some rhythm. Get the offensive line into a rhythm. Might see Logan George this week. I think that could be interesting. He did not play in either of the first two games. Also wasn't on the availability report, but that's another conversation.

[Bill Landis]

Defensive end from.

[Douglas Maurice]

Defensive end from Idaho State. Yeah, Idaho State. So Ryan Day made it sound like he's gonna play this week. He practiced last week and didn't play. He's practicing again this week and I think he will play. And you know, I don't know what Logan George is going to be for this team, but his production at Idaho State is kind of hard to Ignore. So maybe he can be a guy that adds a little bit of a spark to Ohio State's defensive line if we see him out there on Saturday.

[Bill Landis]

Punter still Joey McGuire, but seems like Nick McLarty still does some good stuff in practice. So do we keep an eye on that?

[Douglas Maurice]

I don't think you'll see McLarty unless it. Well, it probably will get out of hand. So you'll probably see him maybe in the second half if Ohio State ends up punting. But it also could be a game where maybe Ohio State doesn't punt that often. Yeah.

[Bill Landis]

And it feels like. Do you think Ohio. I think Orion Day seems pretty happy with the offensive line so far. Right. I think Ohio State has not given up a sack. Ohio seems like they'll have a couple guys maybe have a chance to get after you at least a little bit. So that's, that's worth watching to see if Philip Daniels and Austin Cerebell and the rest of these guys continue to hold up like they have.

[Douglas Maurice]

Yeah, I think it's a decent defensive front for it for a G5 team. They did lose. I was looking so there there are three defensive linemen who were on this team last year who were now at Power 4 programs. So they, they lost guys via the portal. But I think their front seven played pretty well in the first two games. They the rushing defense against West Virginia was very good. They held West Virginia under three yards of carry and I think they have five sacks this year in two games which is not bad especially consider they were going up against two, two power conference teams. So it's not going to be the best defensive front that Ohio State sees this year. But it's certainly a step up from what they saw last week.

[Bill Landis]

So and, and as people certainly are have noted, Will Kazmaric, the Ohio State tight end is the second year at the Buckeyes, but he's a transfer from Ohio University. Certainly discussion about that he knows some of these guys he was at Parker Navarro was there with him. So he knows Parker Navarro worth noting. So Ohio is coming off a win over West Virginia last week. That must. I think that's a 2 for 1 that West Virginia played at OU and I think that which is always just like a tough it's like why is a Power 4 team playing in a Mac school and the max school took advantage of it.

[Douglas Maurice]

They got Iowa State to come in a couple years ago too.

[Bill Landis]

I think like sometimes those lower, Those lower level P4s you do it too rather than like just paying paying Paying, hey, we're paying a million dollars for you to come to our place. Those lower level P4 schools don't necessarily want to spend that money. So they'll do a two for one. We'll come to your place once if you come to our place twice. And it saves. Saves everybody money and it provides an opportunity for. And then Ohio. Oh, you did it. Like, congratulations to ou that they did it to West Virginia last week. 26,740 fans at home last week for ou largest crowd ever.

[Douglas Maurice]

Oh, cool.

[Bill Landis]

And now they're coming to the shoe. So, like, just asking, will I ask Will Kazmarick about that? And he said he played at Penn State when he was at ou and it was just like, holy moly. And he did just say, you know, and because you have guys who have been in the shoes of both teams, literally, I'm sure he still owns Ohio University cleats, right? He's been in both shoes. He said he played at Penn State. And he said, I'm. I'm. The environment can affect you. And he said, like, I'm sure there are some guys who will be affected by it, which is just a reminder. It's like sometimes guys don't. People don't say things like that. It's like, this is a great opportunity for, for guys that are ou. And it's also like, holy moly, I'm playing in the shoes. So are you going to get the version of OU that you saw against West Virginia, that you saw on the road at Rutgers when they probably should have won that game? Maybe not, because they're going to be in the spotlight in a way they've never been before when it's four times bigger than what, the largest home crowd they ever played in front of.

[Douglas Maurice]

Yeah. There. I actually looked this up too, because Ryan Day mentioned about, like, you know, when they play teams from Ohio, how much it can mean for guys to play in the shoe. If you were an Ohio high school football player, there are 43 players on Ohio's roster who went to Ohio high schools. Half the roster. Yeah. Yeah.

[Bill Landis]

I hope those guys have a great experience on Saturday. Parker Navarro, as we mentioned, is kind of the interesting guy here. He can throw it, he can run it. Last year he was. Am I looking at. He was fifth in design run yards last year. So he does. He can scramble. But last year when he rushed for more than a thousand yards, a lot of it was by design and among, I think, actually was sixth. But four of the people ahead of him were three Service Academy Quarterbacks and the Jacksonville State quarterback when Rich Rodriguez was the coach and he kind of runs a service academy offense sometimes with how much he wants his quarterback to run. So among kind of like normal offenses, Parker Navarro basically had the second most designed runs in FBS last year out of 134. He ran for a thousand. He had like 730 design runs and 370 on scramble yard. So he also can scramble. But it's just noting like they, they definitely Bill, we'll call stuff. There's, there's RPO stuff, there's zone read stuff where he keeps it. They had like a little play. What do you call the play? Where was zone read? The back went through the hole without the ball and then Parker Navarro went through the same hole a second after the back with the ball. Didn't work. But I, I liked it again like.

[Douglas Maurice]

Oh, he like he was like his lead walker.

[Bill Landis]

It almost wasn't his lead blocker. It was almost like let the running back go through and everyone's like oh wait, the running back doesn't have the ball and then they give up and then here comes the quarterback through the same gap with the ball again. It only got two yards.

[Douglas Maurice]

Yeah, that'll be interesting because I think, I think Arch might have only had one or two designed runs and Grambling I think had two. So that is something through two games that Ohio State has not seen a lot of. And, and one of the things like relative to Matt Patricia that was kind of on my mind as he transitioned to college football. Like you don't you see some design quarterback run in the NFL but not a ton. It's not, you know. Oh, I see it has really good athletes. I think they'll be able to handle it. But I think it'll be like good exposure to that for Matt Patricia too before they go, before they move on into the season and play some other more high powered offenses who will run the quarterback as well.

[Bill Landis]

And I agree that I think Texas made a mistake not running Arch more in week one. So again, just last year Parker Navarro was sixth in design runs and 10th in scramble yards among FBS quarterbacks. This year he has 190 rushing yards. That's fourth in the FBS for quarterbacks. He has 122 yards on scrambles and 68 on design. So I do think a is they will run him by design. You'll see a decent amount of those QB draws where he's dropping back to pass and then no, he's not. He's going. I also think you will see a decent amount of he's dropping back to pass. His first reads not there and he's gone. That he doesn't have to wait because he knows how good he is on the run. And I do think it is not a coincidence the fact that he's played two power four teams and has more scramble yards, for instance, than he did last year. Right. When you got these Power 4 defenses coming after you, you have to scramble more. So I think he's going to do a ton of both on Saturday. They're going to call runs for him and he's going to scoot almost anytime you get pressure on him. To the point that I'm not even sure Ohio State wants to pressure him. I think they probably want to hem him in and not run. But like pin your ears back to get to third and seven and have Arvell Reese and Sunny Styles lurking in gaps and then bring them and like or bring a corner blitz. I don't know man. You might just. You might just rush your three spy him and make him throw on third and seven because I think he almost wants to run.

[Douglas Maurice]

I think he does. He threw three picks against West Virginia. He wants the run.

[Bill Landis]

He did.

[Douglas Maurice]

Yeah. So I think you're right.

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[Douglas Maurice]

Sunny Styles was talking a little bit about that like there's been some frustration with Ohio State's defense I think in these first two games because the, especially last week, like, the ball was coming out quick, there just weren't a lot of opportunities for pass rush. And, you know, if you get Ohio in the third and long, you might, you might feel a desire to want to have your guys pin their ears back. But I do think that sort of feeds into what Parker Navarro does best. So I'm sure they'll spy him probably with Arvell Reese. Arvell Reese was the guy who was spying Arch Manning a couple times against Texas. So I'm not anticipating, like, a huge sack game for Ohio State here either. I think Ohio's only given up two sacks in the two games it's played because of how good Navarro is. And, and I think, like, some, you know, sometimes quarterbacks like, like, want you to get to them almost in an uncontrolled fashion so they can just like, slip right by you. And then, you know, I, I, it's not, Again, it's not a thing that will, I don't even know, like, like, make the game interestingly close or anything like that, but it's just the kind of thing where it's like, man, I can't believe they extended another drive. And it's just like less opportunity for Ohio State's offense to work some stuff out. So that's where it gets, it gets frustrating. So, yeah, I don't think, I don't think there's gonna be a lot of, of blitzing and, or significant pass rush here, but if you're Ohio State, you hope you just like, you know, you tackle Parker Navarro when he's a yard or two past the line of scrimmage and then you get off the field.

[Bill Landis]

He also hit a couple deep shots. He kind of throws like a, they almost invite the pressure, and he throws like a moon ball and just puts it up there and like, lets guys run under it down the field. They hit that a couple times against Rutgers. He was 21 of 31 for 239 and three touchdowns. West Virginia 22 of 31 for 247, one touchdown, three picks. Chase Hendricks is their best receiver. He's actually eighth in the nation in receiving yards. He has 236 receiving yards in the first two games. He can hit you down the field. He's also hit him over the middle and the yards after. The cat's guy, he's, he's a pretty explosive player. And then C.A. bengura is their running back now. 16 carries for 86 at Rutgers. 20 carries for 66 against West Virginia. He feels like just enough. Navaro is their best runner, but he's just enough of a threat to complement the quarterback run that you have to at least respect him handing to the running back on those read plays. So you can't completely crash in on the QB all the time. So they got a couple pieces offensively.

[Douglas Maurice]

Yeah, Bengoro's good. I was looking because I saw, I was looking at like PFF and the targets and Chase Hendricks has like 17 and the next closest guy has like 14 5. Hendrix has the fourth highest target share in the country. So it's like you got to cover him and then if you cover him, he might be okay. I think they have a tight end who's pretty good, but yeah, there's, there's some pieces there that are interesting. I don't know how good the offensive line is and like even, even Rutgers was just like remaking its defense entirely. Had some luck like pressuring Navarro and, and the offensive tackles in that game did not, did not play very well for, for Ohio. So it still feels to me like a game that Ohio State should be able to control up front. You just got to be careful with, with Navarro and not let him kind of, kind of slip out a little bit. By the way, did you know I was just looking at this. Navarro originally went to UCF and then he transferred to Ohio. He was recruited to UCF by Alex Golish.

[Bill Landis]

Oh, look at that. Okay. Alex Golish, Ohio zone. Okay. So I mean, I, I would expect Hendrix probably pops you on at least to play. I would expect Navarro's gonna get out and pop you on at least to play. You know, I bet, I Bet Ohio.

[Douglas Maurice]

State's DBs are like welcoming the opportunity though to do some stuff downfield because that didn't really happen last week. So. Yeah, yeah, it'll be interesting to watch.

[Bill Landis]

More of a pulse. Like they'll, they'll do enough offensively to have moments. So let's get to our pick again. It's a 31 or 30 and a half point line. The over under is 51 and a half. Last week you and I almost had a noser against Grambling State. We both picked 63 to nothing. It was 70 to nothing. What is your pick for this, Bill?

[Douglas Maurice]

My pick for this week is 48:10 Buckeyes. The same as you.

[Bill Landis]

48:13 is mine.

[Douglas Maurice]

Is that two field goals or two touchdowns and a missed opportunity for a two point conversion?

[Bill Landis]

I didn't. Or missed. I didn't dig into this. I think they've had two different kickers so far because when I was watching the highlight package from last week, the announcers were surprised at who kicked the first field goal for ou. So I don't know what's going on exactly because again, probably at this point we know too much about ou, but it seems like maybe they have a kicker thing going on. So it's a missed extra point.

[Douglas Maurice]

Oh, I like that. Okay, that's good. Yeah, I think, I think. Oh, you will move it down there a couple times and maybe, maybe both times are late, but. And I think like Navarro will play most of the game too. So if he's out there against like backups, I think he can play. Yeah.

[Bill Landis]

This is not a betting show. The thing I like the best here is the over. Because you talked about Ryan Day as drubbed Mac teams and I think, I think it's. I, I think it's more likely that OU scores three times than one time. Like what's more likely? 17 or 7?

[Douglas Maurice]

I would say 7.

[Bill Landis]

You would say 7? Because I just think maybe they could score two, two times in the actual course of the game and then one time in the fourth quarter against backups. So I'm just talking from an over Understand point. 51 and a half. I, I don't think it's going to be 35 to 10. I think Ohio State's going to score more than that and I don't think it's going to be 49 to nothing. So 51 and a half as the over under feels a little low to me.

[Douglas Maurice]

I'm looking. So when Ohio State played Toledo in 2022, when Toledo had Daquan Finn as its quarterback, similar, similar noble kind of guy. So it was 7 7, Ohio State scored, Toledo scored, it was 77 and then it was 28 14. And then Ohio scored in the third quarter for like the third touchdown when it was 4914 to make it 49.21. So. And Ohio State ended up winning 77 to 21. So yeah, I think you could see second half extra score for Ohio in this game.

[Bill Landis]

Yeah, that's a good example to Quan Finn. Played, played great in that game. Super impressed in Ohio State in that game. Right. That was a little bit of a signal because that was a quarterback who could scoot and they didn't handle it great. And then I think like they viewed it as, hey, this is a chance for us to prepare for some other quarterbacks who could scoot and then they didn't handle it great the rest of the year. So I that probably is the most important thing here. Can they handle Parker Navarro's rushing as an indication? Will they be able to hand them on Williams Jr's rushing in two weeks? That's the number one thing I think to watch in this game.

[Douglas Maurice]

All right, I agree.

[Bill Landis]

Those are our picks. We will try not to pick the exact same thing every week, but we also can't help ourselves. We will see you on Friday for the national Pick show. We will see you Saturday for the live post game show in the wee hours when this thing is done. And then Sunday for our Substack subscribers, Sunday Sound off that's on Substack. You can go subscribe there. Just google Bill and Doug Osu substack and you will find us and you can try it out for free and see what you think. For now. Thanks you guys for being here. He's Bill Landis, I'm Douglas Maurice and that was the Bill and Doug show.

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