← The Bill and Doug Show: Ohio State Football Talk
The Bill and Doug Show: Ohio State Football Talk
The most dangerous players on Ohio State's Big Ten schedule
00:27:59
Who are the standout individual players Ohio State will face during Big Ten play? As the Buckeyes get set to enter conference play, Bill Landis gives his list of the 10 most dangerous players OSU will face during this run, including a couple from this weekend's opponent, Washington.
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- [00:02]
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Some things in life are just made for each other. Peanut butter and jelly, macaroni and cheese Modelo and College Football College football season is Modelo season and the season has officially kicked off. The Modelo recruiter is back in action looking to reward full time fans who give their all for their team and their school week in and week out. If you're listening to this, you've been recruited. So lace em up and get out there and don't forget to make time for a well deserved ice cold reward because college football wouldn't be the same without you. So grab yourself a Modelo and enjoy the official beer sponsor of the College Football Playoff Modelo Foreign.
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Welcome back to the Bill and Doug Show. Bill Landis here solo on a Tuesday morning with you. We will have later today Ryan Day press conference previewing Ohio State's trip out to Washington this weekend. Later on Tuesday, also here on the YouTube channel, Doug and I will update our College Football Playoff projections after another week of games. But this morning wanted to pull back a bit. No RE watch style podcast for you this week because Ohio State didn't play a game and I wasn't able to thoroughly watch. A lot of what happened on Saturday was doing doing a bit of traveling, was able to catch some of the night games. But since there's no RE watch for Ohio State this week, wanted to look at the Big Ten schedule for Ohio State as the Buckeyes get into Big Ten play and look at what's going on with some of those teams and try to figure out who in the Big Ten individually players might end up being sort of like the most dangerous guys that Ohio State is going to face this season. This is not a definitive list of the best players in the Big Ten by any stretch because Ohio State does not play. All the best teams in the Big Ten does not play. Oregon does not play Indiana. Some of the things have shifted here, right? We just saw Illinois take a huge loss. We thought maybe that game in Champaign in a couple of weeks with Ohio State and Illinois. Illinois could be interesting. Maybe it still will be but but certainly takes on a bit of a different tenor now. Saw Michigan pick up a nice win at Nebraska. Minnesota is coming to the Horseshoe in a couple weeks, but Minnesota just lost on the road to a Cal team that just got shut out by San Diego State. So we're learning more and more about what exactly this Big Ten slate for Ohio State may look like as we get into the season here. There are still a couple of teams that have not played Big Ten games Yet Ohio State, Washington, Penn State, Minnesota and UCLA are the only teams in the conference that have yet to play a Big Ten game. That all gets rectified this weekend. Ohio State plays at Washington, Penn State will host Oregon. Minnesota plays Rutgers, which is actually kind of like a sneaky rivalry because there's so much familiarity between the two coaching staffs. And Rutgers starting quarterback used to play in Minnesota and UCLA plays at Northwestern, which is a great opportunity for one of those teams to get a Big Ten win. We'll see which one gets it because the rest of the year may not go so well for the loser of that game or even the winner of that game. So by the end of this weekend, everyone will have entered into Big Ten play. So again, want to run through not, not every team that Ohio State plays. I'm not going to give you like a guy from each team. I just, I just compiled a list of 10 from the teams that Ohio State will play. So not every team that Ohio State plays in Big Ten play will be represented on this list. But some guys I think that have had interesting starts to the season, some guys who down the road, maybe something a little different than they are right now when Ohio State will eventually see them. So we'll dive into that in a second. First, I want to tell you that the Bill and Doug show is brought to you by Roback with fall. Finally, here, refresh your activewear wardrobe with Roback. From hoodies, to polos, quarter zips and fleeces, Roback has you covered. Plus their game day collection has Ohio State gear to help you rep the Buckeyes throughout the season. Use the code BAD20B A20 to get 20% off your first order at Roback. Again, that's code BAD20 to get 20% off your 1st order at Roback. I will get into this list starting with number 10 and we'll work my way up to number one. At number 10, I still have Minnesota safety Koi Perich, who admittedly is not off to the best start this season, is actually coming off a pretty bad game against Cal. I don't know that you'd point to any one player who lost that game for Minnesota, but Coy Parriage had a couple of moments where had they gone differently, perhaps Minnesota would have won that game. But he is still a threat in all three phases, which makes him unique. He is an excellent safety. They are playing him on offense. I'm interested to see how that role continues to grow for him because they're. Minnesota is not a team that is dynamic at receiver. It's pretty good at running back, but could use some help outside playmaker wise. And maybe Koi Paris is a guy that can do that and he's good in the return game, last game notwithstanding. So when there's a guy who is that dynamic on Ohio State schedule, you just kind of put it in the back of your mind, right? I don't, I don't expect Ohio State to struggle in that game against Minnesota, especially now that we know it's going to be a rare Big Ten home night game for the Buckeyes, the first of those that they'll have had since I think November of 2023. So that was announced on Monday of this week that the game will be on NBC. Night game in the shoe 7:30 kickoff against Minnesota in two weeks. But Minnesota's got some other interesting guys. Their quarterback Drake Lindsay is young, but I think, I think will be good. Is he ready to go on the road to beat Ohio State right now? I would say probably not, but you always kind of look at the other roster and think to yourself like how many guys could play for Ohio State? And Koi Ferriage is certainly a guy who's talented enough to play for Ohio State because we know that. We know that because Ohio State tried to flip him from Minnesota late in that recruiting process. Number nine is Gabe Akkis, defensive end from Illinois and he's a good player, right? He's a really good edge guy. He's got three and a half sacks if you care about such things. He's got one of the higher pass rush grades on Pro Football Focus in the Big Ten. I, I have him listed here mostly as a way to talk about the Illinois game, which has lost some shine with Illinois just getting absolutely destroyed by Indiana this past weekend. Illinois plays this weekend and got bad news this week with defensive back Xavier Scott, who was an All American candidate and a guy that got preseason Big Ten defensive player of the year votes. He's going to be out for a while, possibly the entire season. And Illinois was short handed in the secondary against Indiana and Indiana shredded that secondary apart. USC's offense has played exceptionally well to start this season and despite going on the road to play at Illinois, I think could find itself in some advantageous situations. And if Illinois is going into that game against Ohio State coming off of back to back losses to Indiana and usc, then that is not the game that we all kind of envisioned coming into this season. Still maybe a stiff test for the Buckeyes because Illinois has some nice pieces and is a well coached team and Champagne's a place where maybe things have been a little weird in the past, at least weather wise, so we'll have to monitor that too. But that is not looking at the moment like the top end of the Big Ten showdown that we thought it might be coming into the season. But Gabe Akis as a defensive end for Illinois is certainly an individual that Ohio State will have to have its eye on when it goes and plays that game in Champagne in three weeks from this Saturday. Number eight is the first Penn State player I have here, K Tron Allen, one of Penn State's running backs. Penn State has a running back tandem, K Tron Allen and Nick Singleton coming into the year. I think anybody you would have asked would have told you that Singleton is the better player. He has not played that way. K Tron Allen has played much better than Nick Singleton to start this season. There's some funky stuff going on with Penn State's offense, which is why I'll just tell you right now, like, I don't have Drew Aller, Penn State's quarterback, on this list, nor do I have another Penn State offensive player on this list. There's one more Penn State player, but he's not on offense. He's on defense. There's not a lot. It's fine. It's not nearly as good as anyone thought it was going to be. They do kind of seem stuck in first gear a little bit. And Oregon comes to Happy Valley this weekend playing very well and that's going to be an interesting matchup of a team that has a ton of confidence in Oregon and a team that's, I think, searching to find the best version of itself with the weight of expectations on it and Penn State. So I'm super curious to see how that plays out. But if you're looking for guys on Penn State's offense that have played well and like the receivers are better, they went in the transfer portal, got some good receivers. Like, I don't want to be dismissive of that, but K Tron Allen has probably been Penn State's best offensive player and he's a bit of a load at running back. Averages 8 yards per carry, has three touchdowns on 34 carries. He breaks tackles, he runs through tackles like he's a physical running back that Ohio State's going to have to contend with when Penn State comes to Ohio Stadium in November. Number seven. And this is really, it's the reason I wanted to do this now and I, I thought this coming in because there's a There's a, a trio of talented offensive players that Washington has that Ohio State will face this weekend that are potentially the three best players at their position that Ohio State will see in the regular season. So we'll start with Denzel Boston, wide receiver for Washington. Big guy, 6 4, 210 pounds. He was an honorable mention all Big Ten last year and he sort of picked right back up from where he was last season after leading Washington and receiving as a sophomore. He was like kind of waiting in the wings behind all those guys that helped get Washington to the national championship a couple years ago. And then he sort of stepped up and, and picked up where those guys left off. Not quite as dynamic just yet as say like a Roma Dunes a, but a really talented receiver. He's also a guy that gets a ton of work if you look at target share, that kind of stuff. The only two players in I think in power four that have a larger target share on their team than Denzel Boston are Jordan Tyson at Arizona State and Jeremiah Smith at Ohio State. So this is a guy that gets the ball a lot and basically has to be great for Washington's passing offense to be good. But, but thus far he has been very good. If you look at sort of raw receiving numbers, they don't pop out to you. Relative to some of the other guys in the Big Ten, he has 16 receptions for 249 yards and three touchdowns. But this guy is a big play receiver. This guy is the focal point of Washington's passing game. We're going to talk more about, about this game in depth in a variety of ways throughout the week. So I won't delve too much into that. But just know Denzel Boston, big receiver for Washington is a real weapon. He is like in the conversation. I, I think Jeremiah Smith obviously is the best receiver in college football. I could be convinced pretty easily that Carnell Tate is the second best receiver in college football. At the very least, I think that Smith and Tate are the two best receivers in the Big Ten. But then you go to that next group and figure out, okay, who would you put third behind those guys? And Boston is, is definitely in that conversation. There are some receivers having nice seasons. You know, Ruck Rutgers, believe it or not, have some guys doing some nice stuff like very productive passing offense. As I mentioned, Penn State's receivers look better. USC is throwing the ball well. Indiana throws the ball well. Oregon has really good receivers, but Ohio State doesn't play any of those three teams. So I think Boston will probably end up being the best receiver that Ohio State faces, at least in the regular in the regular season. Once we get to the postseason play, all bets are off. We don't know who they're going to play, but as far as the season schedule stacks up, I think it's Boston and I'm not sure it's particularly close.
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Some things in life are just made for each other. Peanut butter and jelly, Macaroni and cheese Modelo and College Football College football season is Modelo season and the season has officially kicked off. The Modelo recruiter is back in action, looking to reward full time fans who give their all for their team and their school week in and week out. If you're listening to this, you've been recruited. So lace em up and get out there and don't forget to make time for a well deserved ice cold reward because college football wouldn't be the same without you. So grab yourself a Modelo and enjoy the official beer. Sponsor of the College Football Playoff Modelo.
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Number six Another Penn State guy and Penn State has a good defense. You could probably go a number of different directions if you wanted to pick a guy on Penn State's defense. So you sort of have to worry about but the one that has caught my attention is Chaz Coleman. He's a freshman defensive end. He's from Warren, Ohio. And guys from Ohio who don't really get recruited by Ohio State and are playing well with a chance to play against Ohio State kind of always piqued my interest. Now Penn State has had many great pass rushers over the years and they almost always never do anything against Ohio State. So I, I want to be cognizant of that when I put a Penn State edge rusher on your radar for guys to watch on Ohio State's schedule this year and and obviously deny Dennis Sutton, the the more veteran defensive end for Penn State would be on that list as well. But, but Coleman has been off to a really interesting start here. He only has 10 pressures, but he's not like I think he's played 25 or so snaps like he, or at least pass rush steps. He's in a bit of a rotation, but he's a main part of that rotation and again, highest pass rushing grade in the Big Ten. His pass rush win rate, if you care about such things, is third in the Big Ten. This is for a true freshman. So there's nobody in the conference at the moment who's going nuts with like a absurd number of sacks that the leading sack guy in the Big Ten has. There's two guys that have four. There's a couple that have three and a half. Coleman I think actually only has one. But his pressure numbers are impressive. His, his pressure rate is impressive and the way that he gets after it on the edge is impressive. And he's like sort of the next guy in line. There's another young guy that plays for them too a fair amount. But, but basing off what James Franklin said this week ahead of Oregon, Coleman is the guy who is actually going to remain part of their defensive end rotation as as Penn State moves into Big Ten play and starts playing some better opponents because they didn't really play anybody in the non conference schedule. So Chaz Coleman I think is, is one to keep in mind when Penn State comes here. All right. Number five is the first Michigan guy on our list. It's running back Justice Haynes, transfer from Alabama. He is currently number three in the country and number one in the Big Ten with 537 rushing yards. He is averaging 8.14 yards per carry on 66 carries. PFF has this breakaway percentage, it's percentage of your rushing yards that come on runs of 15 yards or more which I know that is a bit of a mouthful but it's just like do you hit home runs? He's number four and breakaway yards percentage among backs with at least 60 carries. And interestingly enough, side note, number three chip train them at Toledo. Having a pretty good season for the Rockets right now in the back. But here's the thing about Haynes, like he's a good running back. I'm not trying to take take anything away from him. He has four runs of 50 yards or more which are, it's tied for the most in the country. He had a 56 yard touchdown against New Mexico and another 59 yard run in that game. He had a 75 yard touchdown against Oklahoma and he had a 75 yard touchdown against Nebraska. Those four carries account for 265 yards also which is also 49 of his total rushing yards. He only has one other carry of 20 plus yards and you don't take away the long runs but if you did he's averaging like 4.3 yards per carry. He reminds me a lot of Donovan Edwards but like as a guy who I don't think ever really reached his potential at Michigan clearly but was always like kind of dangerous when you thought about like is this going to be the play where he inexplicably rips off an 80 yard touchdown run which he did a couple of times against Ohio State. So I, I think down to down Haynes is probably a better back than Edwards but it's a similar idea. Right. It's not, he's not overly threatening every time he touches the ball but when A guy has four 50 yard runs and two 75 yard touchdowns and another 56 yard touchdown you can't help but wonder every time he gets it like is this going to be the big one kind of thing. So. And he is the focal point of that offense. Ian Jordan, Marshall, like that. It is a run first offense for Michigan at least at the moment. And judging by the receiver play I think it's going to have to remain that way. So you know any, any solid Michigan running back will probably be on this list. But Justice Haynes has shown an explosive ability that is pretty threatening I guess I would say at the moment and, and could certainly even get better as the season wears on. So I have him, have him number five. Number four is another Washington player. It's Jonah Coleman. They're running back 51 carries, 347 yards, nine touchdowns rushing which leads the country 10 total touchdowns because he has one receiving touchdown which also leads the country. He is. I haven't, I have another Washington player higher on this list but I think you can make the argument that Jonah Coleman is the engine of Washington's offense. He really is just an excellent running back and he flew under the radar last year because Washington wasn't very good. Washington didn't win a game away from home last year and, and had games where it really struggled on offense. But Coleman was usually pretty good. He was third in the Big Ten in yards after contact last year behind Caleb Johnson at Iowa and Kyle Manangai at Rutgers. He is third again in that same category this year. He is just super hard to bring down. 5 foot 9, 229 pound bowling ball. He's like an elevated version of Mayan Williams, just really, really tough in space. Like he's not gonna wiggle around you. He's just going to try to run through you like he's he in this game against Ohio State is really going to test the soundness I guess of Ohio State's tackling ability which this point has been very good. But probably not seen anything quite like this in terms of a running back style yet in the three games that Ohio State has played. So not to say that Ohio State can handle it. There have been plenty of Big Ten teams fueled by very good running backs who go play Ohio State and then those running backs do nothing. So that is definitely on the table against Ohio State, which I think has an argument for best defense in the country. It's like Ohio State, Texas, I think Oklahoma, I think you have to throw Texas Tech in there after what happened this weekend. But, but Ohio State is squarely in that conversation. So it's not that I don't think Ohio State's up for the, up for the task of trying to shut down Jonah Coleman, but it is a task. He's a very good player, so I have him number four on my list.
- [20:16]
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Some things in life are just made for each other. Peanut butter and jelly, macaroni and cheese. Modelo and college football. College football season is Modelo season and the season has officially kicked off. The Modelo recruiter is back in action, looking to reward full time fans who give their all for their team and their school week in and week out. If you're listening to this, you've been recruited. So lace em up and get out there and don't forget to make time for a well deserved ice cold reward because college football wouldn't be the same without you. So grab yourself a Modelo and enjoy the official beer. Sponsor of the College Football Playoff, Modelo.
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Number three. And this is a lot of projection. It's Bryce Underwood, the quarterback at Michigan, the true freshman. And I, this is admittedly high and I wouldn't, I wouldn't push back much on anyone who says this is too high for a guy who's four games into his career as a starter, he's three and one as a starter he's toward the bottom of passer rating in the conference. He's number 15. He's completing fewer than 60 of his passes. He only has two passing touchdowns this year. But they're letting him run it more now because he has to. Like that's the thing. It was like, oh, you let Bryce Underwood, you loosen the reins a little bit, right, and let him cook. It's like, well, his receiver stinks so you kind of have to let him do it. Like I said, this is a run first offense and Bryce Underwood I think is a pretty gifted passer, but he doesn't have much to throw to. And if you look at some of the, the statistics on drops, he is hurt as much as any quarterback in college football by the amount of drops that his receivers have. So we'll have to see how Michigan builds around him moving forward. But at the moment I don't think that Michigan's receivers are all that good. What they've been able to do this year is almost entirely a byproduct I think, of Bryce Underwood's ability as a passer. I think he has shown some special flashes already as a true freshman. And I am just curious of what this will look like come November when Ohio State goes up to Ann Arbor. That's a lot of time between now and then for Bryce Underwood to keep getting better. I think anyone, you know, with an honest assessment of what you see from him or what you have seen from him in his four, four games is that there's absolutely something there. Whether or not I don't think it's a question of whether he reaches his potential, it's just sort of how far or how long it takes him to get there and, and where he is relative to his ceiling. You know, in this first matchup with Ohio at the end of the season, I don't think it'll be a finished product by them, but I think it'll probably be a better quarterback by that point than he is right now. And he already looks pretty good. Like, he's, he's played on the road twice already in two fairly tough places to play at Oklahoma and Nebraska and look shaky against Oklahoma and look less so against Nebraska. Also, Oklahoma's defense is much better than Nebraska's. So again, it's not like watch out type of thing. And also it's pretty obvious to say, like, I think the number one quarterback for here in the country who's starting as a true freshman could be dangerous. But I have a number three on this list because we just don't know what it's going to look like in, in two months from now. Right. That, that's, he's, he's got seven more games before he has to play Ohio State to continue developing and Michigan to continue to build the offense around his skill set. And it's just a different level of play from that position than Michigan has had. And I would say that even about J.J. mcCarthy, like, I think Underwood's got much more to him for the potentially the McCarthy did. So we'll see what that looks like. But I have a number three right now. But he is not the top quarterback on my list. That is the mod Williams Jr. Who's the quarterback at Washington. I have him number two. Our Wednesday show on substack bill and Doug osu.substack.com is going to be about the quarterback play in the Big Ten because, and this includes Julian saying obviously it's pretty good. Like there are a lot of teams in the Big Ten that I think are feeling good to great to excellent about what they have going on at quarterback right now. Now as we get into league play, some of that will change. But I think it's been a pretty good month of quarterback play for, for the conference and that includes the guy that Ohio State's going to be facing on Saturday. Both Matt Patricia and Ryan Day, which I think we told you last week, said that Williams, who's 5 11, 190, reminds them of Kyler Murray. Murray with his suddenness and his running ability and like how quick, how quickly he like gets that first step and kind of gets away from you. But he can throw the ball too, completing 73 of his passes, 11.4 yards per attempt, which is second of the Big Ten. Six touchdowns, no interceptions. He's also the leading rusher among Big Ten quarterbacks, which includes designed runs and scrambles. He's really good, you know, and, and their head coach Jed Fish is talking, coming off the Apple cup where he played well against Washington State, that, you know, he's a special quarterback. I, I think he is. I, I think by the time his career is over, he'll be one of the more highly thought of guys in college football. Pro wise. I don't know because he's, he's, like I said, He's 5 11, but as a college quarterback I think he is pretty dynamic and he's going to run, he's going to move around. It's going to be a real test for Ohio State's defense, one that I think they have answers for because Arvell Reese is a heck of an answer to a scrambling quarterback. Again, we'll talk about that more but I think because Bryce Underwood is so young and Drew Aller, one is not playing well right now in my opinion and two has not played well ever against Ohio State and Ohio State does not play Oregon or USC or Indiana in the regular season. I think Demon Williams Jr. Will be the best starting quarterback Ohio State plays in the regular season in Big Ten play, but maybe on the year because of the way the Arch Manning is playing right now. So that's how highly I think of him. And it's not to put Ohio State on upset alert necessarily, although it is a single digit spread in this game on, on Saturday. But this guy's good. He's good. He's got a good receiver, he's got a good running back. Are all the other pieces there for Washington to win this game on Saturday? I don't know. We'll give you our game picks on Thursday, but I think this quarterback is, is pretty Darn special that Washington has and at the very least he's fun to watch. So a guy who I think will be pretty dangerous against Ohio State, number one back to Michigan. It is a Michigan defender. It is Jayshon Barham who I have number one on my list. Barham transferred from Maryland. He was an off ball linebacker. The plan coming into this season was to play him like a mix of off ball and on ball. Think Micah. That's my Michael Parsons. Abdul Carter at Penn State. What Ohio State's doing with Arvell Reese this year I think is not a bad comparison, except that now it seems like they are. Michigan is just going to play Jason Barham on the edge. He had a really productive game against Central Michigan where he had two sacks and then against Nebraska he played 41 snaps and they were all on the defensive line in that game. He had six pressures in a sack. Now I don't think Nebraska's offensive line is any good and, and he did it against the Mac team. So I would like to see him be that productive against better offensive lines. But he's got some promise as an edge guy and they have Derek Moore as well who's a very good defensive end. And I'm just on alert for this Michigan team which kind of went from two dynamic edges to a couple of dynamic defensive tackles and now is maybe shifting back to having two like top tier edge rushers and Barum and more. And that being the focal point for the defense in its game against Ohio State once that game shows up in November. So that, that's why I have him number one, because there's real, there's upside there. Clearly based off how he's played the last two games and the fact that Michigan has seemingly settled on a role for him that he can now grow into and they can build some packages around him as an edge rusher in order to unlock some more production. So I like what I've seen from Ohio State's offensive line thus far, especially the, the two new tackles and I think they're going to continue to get better. But when you think of regular season challenges and what those guys will face, Texas was definitely a stiff challenge with what Texas presents from a pass rushing perspective and just from a defense generally. Penn State will obviously be a test and we, and we know Michigan's going to have a good defense and more often than not does, but we weren't sure necessarily of like the individual star power, especially on Michigan's defensive line after some more of that talent cycled out of the program. In the draft the last couple of years, but it looks like with more returning and being good and now Barham emerging, that Michigan could be pretty good at the edge positions and and perhaps that ends up being the strength of at least the defense when when the Buckeyes get set to play Michigan at the end of the regular season. So that's my list. I'll run through it quickly. Again, number 10 was Coy Parish, a safety from Minnesota. Number nine, Gabe Akis, defensive end from Illinois. Number eight, Katron Allen, running back from Penn State number seven, Denzel Boston, wide receiver from Washington. Number six, Chaz Coleman, edge rusher from Penn State number five, Justice Haynes, running back from Michigan number four, Jonah Coleman, running back from number three, Bryce Underwood, quarterback from Michigan number two, Demand Williams Jr. Quarterback from Washington and number one, Jayson Barham, edge rusher from Michigan. I'll wrap up this episode here again, Ryan Day later today we'll be posting updates on the substack to our subscribers from that and we'll do a podcast reacting to it if anything pops. If not, later this evening. You'll see our updated playoff rankings coming later this week. Big Game breakdown on Thursday with Ohio State Washington we We are hoping to be joined by a Washington writer to shine a little more light on what we think is an interesting matchup for the Buckeyes this Saturday. So stick with us here on the YouTube channel on podcast feeds, if that's where you're listening. And please do consider subscribing to the Substack page if you don't mind. Thanks for watching. We'll catch you next time.