← The Bill and Doug Show: Ohio State Football Talk
The Bill and Doug Show: Ohio State Football Talk
Ohio State vs. Washington beat writer breakdown: Buckeyes or Huskies have the better skill trio?
00:33:23
It's five big questions on Ohio State vs. Washington from two star beat writers, as Bill Landis of The Bill and Doug Show and Christian Caple from On Montlake get together to offer insights on the Buckeyes and Huskies.
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- [00:00]
A
Foreign.
- [00:05]
B
Welcome back to a special combined edition of the Bill and Doug show. And on Motlake it's Doug Le Maurice. I'm just gonna be the point guard here. And we have our two wonderful Washington and Ohio State experts. We have Christian Capel and Bill Landis. Landis, I talk to you all the time. Christian, great to chat with you. How you doing, man?
- [00:25]
A
Doing great. Thanks. Thanks for having me. This is as soon as I saw you guys launch on on substack, I thought September 27th, I bet a few days before that we're going to be going to be connecting a bit.
- [00:37]
B
Not to brag, but we are dealing with two of the top 16 sports sub stacks in America by subscriber base. One of us is 16th, one of us is 14th. We don't have to get into the specifics of who's 14th and who's 16th. Christians 14th, Christians ahead of us. Christians 14th. But, but we have this huge game coming up. We're going to hit five topics very quickly. Bill will talk about the Ohio State side of things. Christian will talk about the Washington side of things. And what we're trying to do is sort of almost talk to the opposite fan bases a little bit and help guide people, guide people through this a little bit. And so hopefully you'll, you will come away a smarter, educated fan about this big game on Saturday. Question number one. Christian, we'll start with you. Who is a Washington player who's maybe under the radar that Ohio State fans should be aware of going into this matchup at 3:30 Eastern, 12:30 local time in Husky Stadium on Saturday?
- [01:38]
A
Yeah, for under the radar, we basically have to go to the defensive side of the ball because the trio of Demond Williams Jr. Jonah Coleman and Denzel Boston. Yeah. Touches the ball. So, so, so much for their offense. I'm going to say Alex McLaughlin, who's a transfer from Northern Arizona, he was an FCS All American, super productive, like box safety. Right. Got his hands on the ball a lot. He can cover but is really good close to the line of scrimmage. Playing in the backfield. You saw that a lot from him in training camp. And he had two interceptions in the Apple Cup. Return one of them for 47 yards and a touchdown to kind of break the game open long. He's six two. I think he's up to like 200 pounds. He played it last year, he said at 187. So put on some weight to play in the Big Ten and came in and won a starting job. So he was kind of their player of the game defensively. I think in their opener against Colorado State too, eight tackles or so, he had a big TFL on a reverse. He had a pass breakup. Very active safety playing down closer to line of scrimmage a lot of times in, in Ryan Walters defense there.
- [02:49]
B
All right, Landis, who's an Ohio State guy Washington fan should know about.
- [02:53]
C
Well, I want your opinion on this, Doug. You, you, you be the arbiter here, so I have two in mind. But I want you to tell me whether or not clearly for Ohio State fans, this guy isn't under the radar. But, but Arvel Reese be character fairly characterized as under the radar nationally to an opposing fan base.
- [03:09]
B
I, I think that's fair to say that even the smartest Washington fan, he didn't play a ton last year, might not exact. I might not exactly know what Arvell Reese is all about. I think that's fair.
- [03:21]
C
Okay, so I'll go with. Arval Reese is a junior linebacker. Six four, about 250. And as Doug, you mentioned, he was not a starter last year. He was their third linebacker. He played a decent amount. He played like 300 snaps. But he was not among, as people discussed, like the, the stars that Ohio State did have coming back this year. The Jeremiah Smiths, the Caleb Downs, Sonny Styles, those kinds of guys. Overall, Reese was not part of that conversation. And through three games, I think you could make the argument that he maybe has been their best defender. It's either him or Caleb Downs. Caleb Downs is going to be hard to. To unseat when he's one of the best defensive players in college football. But the way that Matt Patricia is using Arvel Reese is unlike what we've seen, at least in my time covering Ohio State in terms of a linebacker who's used both on the ball and off the ball and is as disruptive or equally disruptive in both roles. And I think he's probably Ohio State's most important defensive player coming into this game because of the threat that demand Williams Jr. Poses with his legs. Arval Reese is the guy that Ohio State will use to spy. He's their best pass rusher. I think they'll put him on the line of scrimmage. So he's done a little bit of everything. He's. He's got a pass breakup or two as well. He's pretty versatile. For a guy who's as big as and long as he is, he runs incredibly well. So he did, I think, burst on the scene a little bit against Texas. The way he played in that game and people started to notice him then. But Ohio State hasn't really played a game of note since then. So this feels like an opportunity for people to get reconnected with Arvel Reese.
- [04:49]
B
You think Washington fans know who Arvel Reese is? Christian or is that a good under the radar guy?
- [04:54]
A
Yeah, I do feel like Caleb Downs probably gets a lot of the attention on the defensive side of the ball. Davison Igbonosin too. Arvell Reese probably is not at the top of the list. I think, I think most of the the attention and the concern is on Ohio State's offense, but certainly should should probably be concerned on both sides of the ball.
- [05:14]
B
Chris Christian, you mentioned Alex McLaughlin coming from Northern Arizona. How has Washington been in working the portal and maybe finding guys like that? Is he an exception to the rule or have they hit on a couple guys maybe who have jumped up in level?
- [05:26]
A
Yeah, Year one was a spring portal scramble. Like literally just find who you can fill out the roster. You know, in Oak Vimahi a familiar name that they got in the portal and there were a couple FCS guys they brought up on defense and on the offensive line and you know, it went how it went. The O line was a struggle last year. This year coaching staff's in place. They can actually hit the winter portal on the same timeline as everybody else. They really targeted guys who had played brought in Buddha Aluca from Washington State to play linebacker, although he's he's now out certainly for this game and probably for many more after what looked like a pretty bad leg injury in the Apple Cup. Up also in the in the secondary, you know, brought over to Cario Davis from Arizona. A couple other Arizona guys who jet fish had prior connections with Tai Taiwe Youngalay on the defensive line, Jacob Manu at linebacker who we'll see if he's able to make his season debut coming off an injury this week. They were able to target guys who had played and who had like production at the FBS level even. You know there's a backup safety. They have CJ Christian who hasn't played yet who is a 70 plus tackle guy at Florida International last year and a linebacker X Ray Alexander who's probably going to step up and play a lot with Alukta out who was really productive at Idaho and then at UCF as a starter last year. So McLaughlin actually is kind of the exception as far as going down to FCS and bringing a guy up. He's from Arizona, played high school ball in Arizona Anyway, had an existing relationship with Jed Fish and his staff. I think they invited him to walk on when they were at Arizona and he had a scholarship offer from Northern Arizona. So he took that, had a great couple seasons and again, I don't think it was a. Gosh, we missed on a few guys to. Let's settle for this FCS guy I think they identified. Hey, this guy's a really good player. He's got the measurements that you need. Not only is he a big time tackle, interception, force fumble guy playing safety at the FCS level, but he's 6 foot 2. He's got some length too. So he was, he was one. I, I kind of had circled going into spring practices and, and training camp is. Let's see what this guy's about because he, he played at a pretty high level at the Big Sky.
- [07:39]
B
Yeah, I think we're learning that you get the right jump up guy from FCS who's been on the field, you can, he can really make an impact for really good teams. All right, number two, Christian. You mentioned it. Health update for Washington. What are the injuries that matter? It's already, it's early and you don't want anyone to get hurt. But already obviously Washington's been affected.
- [07:58]
A
Yeah, all the attention, or at least a lot of the attention is going to be Anticario Davis this week made a really impressive acrobatic interception against UC Davis. Landed hard, was slow to get up, came out, was in uniform and stayed on the sideline. Didn't come back in the game but like they won 70 to 10. They didn't need him. So you didn't really know. Like, is this precautionary? How hurt is he? He traveled with them to Wazoo and he worked out before the game. I think they'd already ruled him out because he was out on the availability report. Looked like he moved okay but didn't seem like he was all that close to playing. And Jed Fish said Monday he doesn't know yet what his availability is going to be for Ohio State and has said a couple different times both in his presser and on the radio that like, hey, we'll give him until, you know, 12, whatever PM on Saturday. Like I'm not ruling him out until the day of the game. He'll get as much time as he needs, which implies that like this was not a gamesmanship, just rest him because you don't think you need him type of thing. I mean it sounds like he, whatever he's dealing with, which I, I couldn't Quite tell. Maybe a midsection upper body, something from what they were examining on the sideline. So that's a concern for. For Washington's hopes of winning this game, but also from like a more casual national perspective. Right. I think folks were really looking forward to seeing Jeremiah Smith and Carnell Tate go against this cornerback duo of. Of Takario Davis and Ephesians Bryce Sox. So that's a big one. Buddha Alukta is a big one. They're starting Mike linebacker. If he'd been healthy all year, no doubt he was going to lead them in snaps played at the linebacker spot. And Ryan Walters defense, there's times where you know he's the only true inside linebacker out there. So that's a big loss. A guy who's a leader for them and very active in the middle of their defense. And then they're playing without their number two receiver as well, Rasheed Williams, who injured his collarbone and had to have surgery on the first play. 27 yard catch against UC Davis. And. And he's out for at least six weeks. And, and maybe more so against Washington State. They started Denzel Boston and two true freshmen at receiver. Two true freshmen. They feel really good about Raiden Vinesbright and Desmond Roebuck, but there's not a lot of experience there. And if you look at the target share against Washington State, not a lot of passes thrown to guys who were not named Denzel Boston or. Or Jonah Coleman out of the backfield. So that's something to watch too.
- [10:15]
B
Okay. Bill, how healthy is Ohio State at this point?
- [10:17]
C
I think in pretty good shape. Nothing that rises to the level of like, what not having Takario Davis would potentially mean for Washington. Ohio State played its last game against Ohio two weeks ago without Bennett Christian, a tight end who's like the third tight end. But that matters for a team that plays multiple tight ends a lot. Ohio State will play, you know, 12 personnel, 13 personnel. We've seen some 14 personnel where they get four of those guys out there. So that's a deep room. But. But they took a hit to that depth, at least in the Ohio game. Ryan Day did make it sound like Benedict Christian should be available for the Washington game with an extra week to prepare. And then another injury Ohio State suffered in that game was the nickel. Lorenzo Styles Jr. Got hurt trying to make a tackle look like maybe he injured his shoulder. We don't know what's going on there in terms of like, the extent of that injury. Ryan Day was actually not asked about him on Tuesday, but I, I don't know that it's anything long term, it could impact this game. If it does and he's not able to go, Ohio State would likely bump outside corner Jermaine Matthews Jr. Into the nickel spot and then play true freshman Devin Sanchez at one of the outside corner spots. He's a five star kid in a 2025 recruiting class. I think he was the number. He's number one or number two corner, depending on which service you choose to, to go by. A really talented young kid. But you know, if he has to start on the road against this team with a receiver like Denzel Boston, that'd be a heck of a task for him because I don't think, at least we've not seen yet from Matt Patricia and we really haven't seen a ton of it from, from previous Ohio State defensive coordinators following star receivers. Right. If, if they had to start a true freshman like Sanchez, maybe Davis and Iguinoso would have followed Denzel Boston, but I doubt it. I think Ohio State would stay true to kind of how it deploys its corners. And obviously when, if, if Sanchez is out there and gets mashed up against Boston, that's going to be a spot to watch.
- [12:06]
B
Yeah, or we'll wind up with some true freshmen on true freshman matchups there on the outside if that's the case. All right, number three we're talking about. There's some great offensive trios in this game. Bill Julian saying a quarterback for Ohio State and then Jeremiah Smith and Carnell Tate on the outside. How good is that?
- [12:22]
A
That trio?
- [12:24]
C
Really good. I don't think I'm telling anybody any secrets that everyone knows how good Jeremiah Smith is. I, I think he's the best player in college football. I don't, I don't know think that I'm alone in that opinion. And, and I think he's mostly played that way this year. He had a couple drops against Texas that were uncharacteristic. He also started last season with a drop or two, I think, and then kind of figured it out and was great from there. So no concerns really on that front. He's been as advertised, if, if not better, considering the attention he's getting now as the guy who's considered the best of his position in the country, the guy that has really popped for me is Cardell Tate. He, he was good last year as Ohio State's third receiver, but in his first year as a main part of the offense, I think a fair assessment would be that he did not pop quite as much as Jeremiah Smith did as a true freshman as Ameka Buka and Marvin Harrison Jr. Did as sophomores as Jackson Smith and Jigba did as a sophomore as Garrett Wilson did as a freshman as Chris Olave did freshman year in the sophomore year. Like he was, he was good but a step, step below probably what those guys did in their first years in the offense. But he looks I, I think significantly better now and it was already coming from a pretty good place. Like I, I think it's a really fun conversation like who's, who's the next best receiver in the Big Ten behind Jeremiah Smith? Denzel Boston's definitely in that conversation coming into the year. I don't, I don't know that I would have considered Carnell Tate, but now I think he, he could be with the way that he's playing and the connection between those two and Julian Saying has been strong, especially on deep balls. They, they've actually yet to not connecting the deep ball. Julian Sains throw nine passes of 20 yards or more down the field. He's completed all nine of them. Carnell Tate and Jeremiah Smith track the ball really well. They're both pretty big bodied receivers. They can play through contact, they're good after the catch. They're actually really good blockers too. It's probably an underrated part of both of their games and they're a tremendous resource for a red shirt freshman. Basically true freshman quarterback who's going to make his first or his fourth career start and his first career road start on Saturday at Washington. So you know, if, if there was any fear of that trio having to work through some stuff to get on the same page earlier in the year, I don't think they've shown any of that. It seems like they've hit the ground running.
- [14:37]
D
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- [15:44]
B
Christian the trio for Washington, De Mon Williams Jr. At quarterback, Jonah Coleman at running back and Denzel Boston at at receiver. If we're thinking of it that way, take a receiver, take a running back and a quarterback. Like is this in contention for as good of a trio as you would find in the country?
- [16:04]
A
I gotta say it is. I mean, at least from what we've seen through three games. The only like break pumping I would have done on that was, well, like, let's see what Damon Williams Jr. Looks like starting at quarterback. You know, we've got some sample size. He started against Oregon and Louisville last year and we know what the sun bowl highlights looked like. But now that it's his team and he's entering the season as the starter, you know, what does it look like? And I mean he's been as dynamic as you could hope for and maybe even more so. He's running, I'd say even a little bit more than I anticipated. Not necessarily a ton of designed runs. They did have a obviously very effective quarterback sweep call for him that went for a touchdown against Washington State. But you know, I, maybe even I'm guilty of this that like Romo dunes a Jalen McMillan and Jalen Polk was such a generational trio for Washington. I know Ohio State has a generational trio every season. So just you might, might have to like take a step back to appreciate like how rare it is for Washington to have three guys of that caliber all in the same team that maybe, maybe I and others like underrated Denzel Boston that, okay, like Romo Dunes is the modern day standard and he's a top 10 pick and you know, whoever comes after that has got a high bar to reach. Denzel Boston had a pretty good season last year. You could see like, okay, this is wide receiver one for sure. He's six, four, he can go up and win battles. He's a red zone weapon. He looks markedly better as a, as a fourth year junior. Okay, he looks like the potential first rounder. I mean he's a go to guy. You could tell anytime that they've got him in single coverage and they identify there's no safety help, the ball is going to him, especially in the red zone. He's been really effective at jump balls. And then, you know, it's occurring to me now like Damon Williams Jr. Is a quarterback who has Scored rushing touchdowns. Jonah Coleman is a running back who has now scored a receiving touchdown. Denzel Boston is a receiver who has scored a punt return touchdown this year. So they, they rely on these guys to do a lot. They're all really Versat. Jonah Coleman was a thousand yard rusher behind a patchwork offensive line last year in the Big Ten. That was pretty impressive. You could tell he was good. He's much better. He, you know, one of the storylines around here Husky fans are probably sick of hearing about by now, but he really reworked his body in the offseason. He cut like 14 body fat or something like that. He looks stronger, he looks faster. I know he wanted to get more explosive and worked on speed training and those sort of things. He looks like a, a significantly better running back than the guy as a junior who I think Husky fans were, were very pleased with. So throw in a dual threat quarterback who I maintain is unlike any Washington has ever had. Jake Locker was a great athlete, a top 10 NFL draft pick. Right. And who knows if Demond Williams Jr. Will be that. But as far as being a really efficient passer, I think he's completing at 75% or so through three games this year and that's what he was last year. And in the opportunities he got and also being probably straight line wise, the very fastest quarterback they've ever had who's also shifty and kind of runs like a running back. He truly is the kind of athlete that I don't, I don't think they've ever quite had that whole package at the position before.
- [19:12]
B
Both Matt Patricio, Ohio State's defensive coordinator, and Ryan Day used Kyler Murray as a comparison for Demond Williams Jr. Did that raise any eyebrows among Washington fans? There's like no, we Demon Williams is, is awesome. Everybody knows that he's great. Everyone compares him to Kyler Murray.
- [19:28]
A
Yeah, I mean that's a name that's been kicking around. Okay, you got to understand like from the day he got to campus because this was Jed Fish's guy at Arizona. Yeah, he'd committed to Ole Miss back in the day. He's an Arizona kid. He, he played in the greater Phoenix area. And Jed Fish and Jimmy Doherty, they're now offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, did everything they could to get him away from Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss. And they did, they flipped him. And when they took the job at Washington, I, Fish famously says, like Damon Williams Jr. Was the first to say, from, at least from that recruiting class, one of the first to say like, okay, I'm coming. Since they've got to Washington. He has talked about Damond Williams Jr. As the future face of the program since before he started a game for them. He's talked about him like, you guys, really, everyone's going to see next year how special this kid is. It's his going to be his team. He was, he was itching to start him, I think. And once he got his opportunity, like the second half of the UCLA game last year, Will Rogers threw a couple picks and demand went in and turned a really close game into a comfortable victory. And he did it with those. Those running skills that no one else on the roster had and escaping pressure and making these Houdini plays. It was like, okay, that's it. It's Damon Williams Jr. Time. So Jed Fish has been at the very top of the list of people kind of shouting from the rooftops how, how good he can be. And so, yeah, Kyler Murray gets thrown out. I asked, probably 100 people asked him on Williams Jr. At Big Ten media day. Hey, what quarterbacks did you. Did you watch growing up? Who did you emulate? He threw out Russell Wilson, which you can. You can definitely see some of that. He also said that, like, he, he watched a lot of Jared Goff, Detroit Lions, film this, this off season, I think, trying to kind of get a sense for how to manage an offense and play within a system and those type of things. And so I asked him, hey, what do you like more throwing a touchdown pass or, or breaking off a big run on a. On a scramble. And he said, throwing a touchdown for sure. Like, he, he is a quarterback. He's not just an athlete who can throw the ball a little bit.
- [21:37]
B
Targets, by the way, so far through three games for these teams. Jeremiah Smith for Ohio State 26. Denzel Boston for Washington, 23. Carnell Tate for Ohio State 14. Nobody else on either team more than eight. And Bill, you can attest if anybody was maybe a, like a little slow coming around on Denzel Boston, who was an early Denzel Boston adopter, it was you.
- [21:57]
C
You. You were talking about them two springs ago. You were fired up about Denzel Boston coming off of the national championship appearance season. You were like, watch out, here comes Denzel Boston in. Yeah, knew it.
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B
Every once in a while I get something right.
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C
Very seldom.
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B
All right, number four, Christian. Like, it's probably a silly thing to ask. 22 straight home wins for Washington. I think six of those against ranked teams. Like, how good are the Huskies at home? How much of a home field advantage is Husky Stadium. What's Ohio State walking into here?
- [22:35]
A
Yeah, they've, they've been a different team there now, like last year's results, it's, it's tough because I think the combined record of their road opponents last year was like 52 and 17. And they played, they played three playoff teams on the road. So it's, it's, you know, the most manageable portion of their schedule was definitely in Seattle last year. With that said, they did beat a Michigan team at Husky Stadium last year that I don't think they would have probably beat in Ann Arbor. Okay. It's a, it, it is quite the setting. You know, it's, it's hard when you cover a team, right. To compare like the stadium that you watch seven games a year in to a bunch of others and especially a bunch of others you haven't been to. So maybe there's some, like, familiarity, bias that comes into play. But watching what that stadium was for the 2023 Oregon game and like having been at some of the watershed moments over the years, right. Miami in 2000 and there was a Michigan game in 2001 that was crazy loud. Stanford in 2016. It is, I think, pretty consistently louder than people are expecting. Like, louder than first timers were necessarily ready for and not, not necessarily even like players or coaches. But, you know, I talked like national media members who come out for the first time and leave going like, I, I was excited to see the atmosphere. I expected it to be good. That was way louder than I was anticipating. So it's something about the construction and the way that the jaws, as they're called, kind of keep the sound in and everything. I think this will be the first game that students are at Washington's a quarter school. And so school starts late in the fall. There's several football games that happen before school. This will be the first game, I think, with students on campus and the full marching band and all those sort of things. So it should be rocking for sure.
- [24:28]
C
Make any difference? The 12:30 local time.
- [24:32]
A
They love it. I mean, absolutely. And this is, it's such an interesting regional difference. I. They absolutely hate night games out here. They're brutal. I mean, the first two, the first two games kicked off at 8pm Pacific Time and nobody likes that. You know, he does of us with young kids. I, I think don't mind the time that the late kickoffs afford us with our families on Saturdays. But then, yeah, you're getting home at 3 o' clock in the morning and that's no fun. 12:30 is like if, if Husky fans could have every game at 12:30, they would sign up for that in a, in a heartbeat.
- [25:05]
C
Interesting.
- [25:06]
A
Wow.
- [25:06]
B
That is not what Ohio State fans think at all. That is quite a cultural difference. We should dive into that. Bill. Ohio State played number one Oregon down to the wire and in a, in a loss at, at Oregon last year. But everybody around Ohio State came out of that game saying like, wow, Austin is rocking. That's a tough place to play. They beat Texas in a playoff semifinal in the state of Texas. What do you think Ohio State's ability is to handle itself and play to maximum capacity in a tough road environment?
- [25:45]
C
Yeah, I think they'll be okay. It's a good point to raise. Like they did go to Austin last year and while a lot of the guys who are starters now weren't starters then they were still on that trip and saw what that was like. And that was an eye opening trip, I think for Ohio State to the point where they took a lot of what Oregon does for its game atmosphere and tried to emulate it with Ohio State's kind of revamped game atmosphere. So I don't think they're going to be caught off guard by what they're going to, going to experience at Husky Stadium on Saturday. Plus there's a couple guys on Ohio State's coaching staff who played in Husky Stadium, right. So I think, I think that was, it was a long time ago, but I still think that'll help get these players kind of focused on what they need to, to focus on. Ryan Day's 23 and 3. In true road games, the three losses are two up at Michigan and the one at Oregon. Last year they've played at Penn State. They've played in raucous environments. Like I don't, I don't know that Ohio State's a team that's going to be shocked necessarily by allowed environment. But you have to wonder a little bit like new quarterback, new play caller, a couple new starters on the offensive line, right? Like there are guys going who are going to be experiencing things for the first and if that makes Ohio State start a little slow and lets the crowd really get into it and this high powered Washington offense is able to put a couple of drives together early on, you might see it start to affect Ohio State a little bit. But I think for the most part under Ryan Day, Ohio State's done a really good job of handling pretty challenging road environments.
- [27:14]
B
I do think it's, it's probably primarily a conversation around Julian sand as a First year starting quarterback without ever having started in a road game before. All right, our final question. Bill, we'll start with you. New coordinators all over the place in this game. Ohio State lost Chip Kelly as the offensive coordinator after last year. They lost Jim Knowles as a defensive coordinator after last year to Penn State. How do you think the Buckeyes have handled replacing those two coordinators so far? And overall, how do you think the coaching staff has done through three games?
- [27:46]
C
Yeah, I think the defensive change has gone really well with Matt Patricia. He had. It would be difficult to have a more challenging opener than what Ohio State had playing Texas. It was at home, I guess, like, you could have been more challenging if it was in Austin, but it was. It was at home, say to the crowd on their side, but they really had a great game plan for Steve Sarkeesian's offense for Arch Manning. Confused the heck out of them and just had him on the back foot the entire time. And. And that was an incredibly impressive debut. Debut for Matt Patricia returning to college football for the first time in 20 years when there were a lot of questions about that hire. So schematically, they're doing some different things on that side of the ball, both with their fronts, the way they disguise coverages. They're a young defense with their pretty smart defense. It's a really fast defense. So all those things have allowed, I think, Matt Patricia to kind of start. Start off about as well as you could ask for on the other side. You know, some of the underlying numbers for Ohio State's offense. Actually, actually, are you raised an eyebrow at them a little bit, right? Like. But you look at the individual players and think to yourself, like, they're. They're going to figure it out. And I think Brian Hartline, the new offensive coordinator and new play caller, is still feeling his way through some things. You know, called a bit of a conservative game against Texas, started to open it up a little more against Grambling State and Ohio. This, this now on the road against the Big Ten team will be a much different challenge than what he's faced the last two weeks. But you sense a lot of confidence from him. You sense a lot of confidence from Ryan Day in him, so I think he'll be okay. But, you know, a loud stadium, the communication's got to be on point. You got to be quick with your play calls. You can't be taking procedural penalties and stuff like that as you're trying to get calls in. So we'll see how that goes. But I. I think so far, so Good on offense and I would say borderline excellent so far on defense.
- [29:32]
B
And Christian, same thing for Washington. Steve Belichick, the defensive coordinator, gone from last year. Brennan Carroll, the offensive coordinator, gone. Ryan Walters, the former Purdue head coach and as a defensive coordinator coordinator. How do you think the Huskies have managed both sides of the ball from a coaching standpoint so far?
- [29:48]
A
Yeah, I think offensively it's been pretty seamless. I mean, Jed Fish calls the plays, so the coordinator thing is a little bit of a title only. Although, you know, promoting Jimmy Daugherty, who was already their quarterback's coach and already like a long time Fish associate and I think a pretty respected offensive mind himself, promoting him to offensive coordinator made a ton of sense. I think if anything, there's probably like more synergy there, if you want to call it that. Having the guy with the OC title who's got, you know, behind the head coach, the, the most input into the offensive game plan being the guy who works directly with them on Williams Jr. And was part of recruiting him and has that relationship going back a long time. I think that made a lot of sense. And you know, certainly offensively there's, there's nothing that they've put on the field so far that would suggest there's, there's been any kind of drop off. If anything, there's, you know, they're probably better off that way. I think defensively, like I, I continue to think Ryan Walters was probably like the best hire they could have made as soon as he was let go from Purdue. As long as you're not talking about like sitting defensive coordinators with Jobs, he was probably like the best they could have done as far as a guy who's on the market. Also has his dad works out here. His parents are out here in, in Seattle and so made a lot of sense that way.
- [31:10]
B
A football coach. Is his dad a former NFL football coach like, like Steve was or Ryan's dad is not?
- [31:17]
A
Yeah, something like eight fewer super bowl wins, I want to say.
- [31:22]
B
Okay.
- [31:24]
A
You know, the jury's out a little bit on their defensive performance. It was a concern in the Apple Cup. Zev House, Washington State's quarterback got a lot done in the air in the first three quarters. The, they got the pick six and forced a fumble and the dam kind of broke and, and then all of a sudden it was game over after a pretty dicey three quarters for them. Some of that could be directly tied to Cardio Davis being out. They, they were very successful targeting Leroy Bryant, who moved over from nickel to outside corner to start in his place, Dylan Robinson, a true freshman. I expect to be in the mix there this week. If it's not Takario Davis, I won't be surprised if if Robinson, who was one of their, their big recruiting wins in 2025, is 6, 3, 200 pounds, they expect him to be a really high level corner for them. But you know, if he does start and maybe we're getting ahead of ourselves a little bit, it would be his first career start. So say all that to say like I think they've been pretty vanilla schematically on that side of the ball. You guys know Ryan Walters, he likes his five man fronts, he likes his man coverage. They've got the corner personnel when everyone's healthy to do that and play press man and you know, try to let their, their linebackers and their safeties make plays in the running game and all those sorts of things. They've not faced a super dynamic offense yet. They've not been like real clever or creative with their pressures yet. They've mostly been content to rush four and play a little bit softer than I think you'll probably see them play coverage wise in the Big Ten. And it's been plenty, right. They, they've won by 17, 60 and 35. So yeah, this is to say that this is a different challenge and a different BE week and that it'll be more telling than, than the first three weeks combined would be, would be quite the understatement.
- [33:09]
B
All right, that's a good breakdown of what I think has a chance to be an excellent game on Saturday. Ohio state at Washington 12:30 local time, 3:30 Eastern time. Bill Landis, if, if people watching this just want a little more Ohio State coverage with what we're doing, how can they find us?
- [33:24]
C
Yeah, the Bill and Doug show on YouTube can search us. They're also available on Apple, Spotify, wherever you find podcasts and on Substack Bill and Doug osu.substack.com and Christian, the folks.
- [33:37]
B
Who are saying man, this is some awesome Washington insight and they want even more from you. Where can they find you?
- [33:43]
A
I don't have a Bill or a Doug with me. It's just me@onmontlake.com I do also co host a podcast, say who say Pod, where I do have a, a Danny o', Neill, my good pal and my co host there. So you can check us out at say who say pot also.
- [33:58]
B
All right, good breakdown. Good game. This is, this is good for Big Ten football for Ohio State and Washington be played to be playing a game like this and then we're going to go right into Oregon, Penn State on Saturday night. So a big weekend for Big Ten football. We're glad that you guys are along for the ride with us. So for now, for Bill Landis, for Christian Capel, I'm Doug Lamoriz. Thanks for joining us. As we broke down the Ohio State versus Washington.
- [34:30]
E
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