April 11, 2025 • 8 mins
Mark Kunz from BCSN in Toledo joined Todd Walker on the Friday edition of "Lima's Morning News" to preview tomorrow's "Spring Showcase" and review spring football for the Buckeyes.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Tomorrow the Buckeye spring football game is well, they're calling
it the spring showcase. I guess they'll make it look
like a real game, kind of, I confess, I don't
know what they plan on doing. Mark Coons probably knows
from BCS Mark, Good morning.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Good morning, Todd. How's it going real good? Hey?
Speaker 1 (00:19):
What are they going to have a real spring game
or is it just going to kind of be a
kind of a scrimmage or drills? What exactly are they
doing tomorrow?
Speaker 2 (00:28):
It is the traditional spring game. Ryan Day threw out
the term spring showcase way back at the beginning of
the spring practice, basically to give himself a whiggle room.
He has back at you know, you know, a month ago,
he was quite concerned about, you know the fact that
his team's coming off a sixteen game season, and very
concerned about practice time, and really was concerned about whether
(00:51):
or not they'd be able to go full on spring
game of a traditional scarlet and gray game. And as
he talked about earlier this week, he's come to realize, well,
you know, the guys who played all those minutes in
all those sixteen games, a whole heck out of them
aren't around anymore. They're off to the NFL, and he
jokingly said he's asked he was going to ask the
NCAA for more practice time because the guys that are
(01:12):
getting practice for guys who didn't play a whole lot,
and so it's going to be a traditional spring game.
They'll go Scarlet against gray, number one off against number
one defense. You know, as we've kind of gotten used
to the last couple of years, the first couple of
series where you have some of those veteran guys in
will be what they call thud tempo, which means basically
too handcap and then after that they'll be live it
(01:35):
with tackling and quarterbacks will be allowed to be tackled either.
But other than that'll be it'll be a traditional spring game.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
And by that we mean that about a third of
the way through it, they'll completely change what they told
you before the spring game started and changed the parameters completely.
That's usually what happens at a spring game. Nonetheless, we'll
have it here on WYMA tomorrow for what it's worth.
It gets going at noon, and most of it, of course,
will then be talking about the team and not so
(02:02):
much doing play by play. Mark With that in mind,
the biggest holes to fill on this squad. There are
plenty of them, and most people think about the quarterback first.
So let's start there. Will Howard is gone. Who's going
to be the man?
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Well, Julian's saying returns. He was the third string quarterback
last year behind Will Howard and Devin Brown. And the
assumption has been that it's Julian saying, the red shirt freshman,
the transfer Alabama was at Alabama for like a week
and a half, it would be his job to lose. Well,
maybe maybe not Lincoln Keenholts, who's been around the program
for three years now. Red shirt sophomore Keenholts has come
(02:41):
on strong. In fact, last Saturday they had a student
appreciation open practice and the reports were that Keenholts kind
of outperformed, saying last Saturday, and again, Ryan da never
takes never names his quarterback. Four. He ass to even
last year Will Howard, he waited until mid August, and
when there hasn't really been a question about who the
(03:03):
cern quarterback will be, it still will be until August
fourth he names one. And what Ryan Day said was, well,
what you guys saw Saturday, that's what we've been seeing
all season, all spring long. There's been some good practice
from Keenholtz, there's been some bad practice from Keyholts, good
from sand Bath from Saying. So it's gonna come down
to those two guys. Of course, Staviian Saint Clair, the
(03:23):
Bell Fountain product, he's in as an early and roly.
They admitted he's further behind both Saying and Keenholts, which
is what you would expect that after all, Saint Clair
should still be at Belltown right now, but graduated early
from Bell Found and enrolled early at Ohio State, so
he's hasn't been the assistant as long as Saying or
Keyenholts for that matter. But it's it's between those three,
(03:46):
and that's probably gonna be one of the things that
actually gonna be worth watching, worth paying attention to tomorrow
is the quarterback battle. And obviously there's some caveats in
there because you're not necessarily going to have your your
best offense of players with your best quarterback, and they're
going to mix and match a little bit. But to
see how both Saying and keen Holts handle the pressure
and handle play in front of seventy thousand or however
(04:10):
many show up tomorrow. That's one thing to keep an
eye on.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
All Right, Mark, what's another area of concern from this
spring and what have we seen during spring to lay
those fears.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Well, if you want to stay on the offense side
of the ball, you're going to bring in two new tackles.
We know that's for a fact. The interior part of
the offensive line should be a strength considering you've got
Luke Montgomery returning, had Carson Hinsman returning, Austin Sarahveld just
had a great offseason returning, and you had Tiger Shabola returning.
(04:43):
So you got those four guys in three positions there
and Austin saravel Diaks have been seeing some time at
tackle as well. So the interior offensive line should be good.
Brought in some new guys to play tackle. We'll see
how that plays out. We know there's gonna be good
depth at with the receiver position. Of course, you amia
Smith turns there running back. You got to replace both
(05:04):
your running backs from the last season, and so there's
that's something to keep an eye on as well. You
got the great name Bo Jackson, true freshman. He's in
the mix, probably not going to be in there that
starting because you got James people coming back. You're brought
in Donaldson in so running back to an area position
to take keep an eye on. And then the big
(05:25):
questions really are our defense, not only because of when
you look at what you lost in terms of coaching
with Jim Knowles now over to Penn State. You bring
in Matt Matt Patricia to slim down Matt Patricia, former
Detroit Lions head coach. How that gonna work out? You
lose so much talent of the defensive line after bringing
(05:46):
four new guys there, you're breaking into new linebackers. Obviously
Caleb Downs is back at safety, so that's a huge
cybe of release there. And you know, how much can
you actually tell from the defense during a spring game.
That's always one of the question marks because as we said,
they're going to play sud which means they're not really
going to hit, which means defense players are going to
pull up a little bit, and you know that creates
(06:08):
some interesting uh time as well. But that would be
something to really keep an eye on. Will be year,
particularly the defensive line. A lot of new faces there.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Mark Coons from BCSN and Toledo joining US to talk
Buckeye football the Spring showcase tomorrow. We'll have it for
you here in w Ima. Mark final thoughts. I think
it's been to me very apparent that we are seeing
a much more content Ryan Day. I mean, the last
(06:36):
couple of years, you could see the weight on him
of this job and the expectations and the losses to Michigan.
The national championship seems to have cleansed his soul. Huh.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Oh. Absolutely. He admitted that earlier in the spring that yeah,
more relaxed, you bet, I am what we have what
he One of the things he talked about was what
he and his staff have put into theory the last
several years. Now they've got proof that it works. Now
they understand this is how we can win a national championship.
(07:10):
And actually, there's still going to be a significant number
of the fan base who's going to bring up they've
lost four in a row to Michigan. They haven't beaten
Michigan since two thousand and nineteen. That is going to
be a topic throughout this summer. It's going to be
a topic certainly in the fall. It will be a
topic in November when they meet again. But at the
same time. They proved last year. As weird as it
(07:33):
is in college football, now, you don't have to win
at the game in order to win a national championship,
as they proved it last year. It takes some of
that pressure off and that doesn't sit right with some people.
And Russell shured, Brian Day still very much wants to
beat Michigan. It's still very much the goals remain to
beat Michigan, to win the Big Ten, to win a
(07:54):
national championship. It's just you don't have to necessary. They're
not mutually exclusive anymore, but in that way, So, yeah,
it is a more content Ryan Day, a more relaxed
Ryan Day. And we'll see what that means comes fall,
because honestly, I'm very interesting to see. I thought Chip
Kelly was a tremendous security blanket last season for Ryan
Day to have his mentor as the offensive coordinator, as
(08:16):
the primary play caller, and now Chip Kelly's back in
the NFL, Brian Hartline has stepped up. Heartline is going
to be the primary play caller. Is that going to
bring changes to the offenses? That is Ryan Day going
to slip back into being more hands on with the
offense because he doesn't have his mentor with him. That'll
be one of the things to keep an eye on
the NOAs this fall as well.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
That's Mark Coons with BCSN and Toledo as always keeping
track of the Buckeye as he'll be at the Horseshoe
tomorrow and again our coverage of the Spring Game or
the Spring Showcase or the Spring Spectacular, whatever they're calling it.
We'll begin at eleven five tomorrow, Mark. As always, we
appreciate you joining us to talk Buckeye football.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Glad to do it Todd anytime.
Tomorrow the Buckeye spring football game is well, they're calling
it the spring showcase. I guess they'll make it look
like a real game, kind of, I confess, I don't
know what they plan on doing. Mark Coons probably knows
from BCS Mark, Good morning.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Good morning, Todd. How's it going real good? Hey?
Speaker 1 (00:19):
What are they going to have a real spring game
or is it just going to kind of be a
kind of a scrimmage or drills? What exactly are they
doing tomorrow?
Speaker 2 (00:28):
It is the traditional spring game. Ryan Day threw out
the term spring showcase way back at the beginning of
the spring practice, basically to give himself a whiggle room.
He has back at you know, you know, a month ago,
he was quite concerned about, you know the fact that
his team's coming off a sixteen game season, and very
concerned about practice time, and really was concerned about whether
(00:51):
or not they'd be able to go full on spring
game of a traditional scarlet and gray game. And as
he talked about earlier this week, he's come to realize, well,
you know, the guys who played all those minutes in
all those sixteen games, a whole heck out of them
aren't around anymore. They're off to the NFL, and he
jokingly said he's asked he was going to ask the
NCAA for more practice time because the guys that are
(01:12):
getting practice for guys who didn't play a whole lot,
and so it's going to be a traditional spring game.
They'll go Scarlet against gray, number one off against number
one defense. You know, as we've kind of gotten used
to the last couple of years, the first couple of
series where you have some of those veteran guys in
will be what they call thud tempo, which means basically
too handcap and then after that they'll be live it
(01:35):
with tackling and quarterbacks will be allowed to be tackled either.
But other than that'll be it'll be a traditional spring game.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
And by that we mean that about a third of
the way through it, they'll completely change what they told
you before the spring game started and changed the parameters completely.
That's usually what happens at a spring game. Nonetheless, we'll
have it here on WYMA tomorrow for what it's worth.
It gets going at noon, and most of it, of course,
will then be talking about the team and not so
(02:02):
much doing play by play. Mark With that in mind,
the biggest holes to fill on this squad. There are
plenty of them, and most people think about the quarterback first.
So let's start there. Will Howard is gone. Who's going
to be the man?
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Well, Julian's saying returns. He was the third string quarterback
last year behind Will Howard and Devin Brown. And the
assumption has been that it's Julian saying, the red shirt freshman,
the transfer Alabama was at Alabama for like a week
and a half, it would be his job to lose. Well,
maybe maybe not Lincoln Keenholts, who's been around the program
for three years now. Red shirt sophomore Keenholts has come
(02:41):
on strong. In fact, last Saturday they had a student
appreciation open practice and the reports were that Keenholts kind
of outperformed, saying last Saturday, and again, Ryan da never
takes never names his quarterback. Four. He ass to even
last year Will Howard, he waited until mid August, and
when there hasn't really been a question about who the
(03:03):
cern quarterback will be, it still will be until August
fourth he names one. And what Ryan Day said was, well,
what you guys saw Saturday, that's what we've been seeing
all season, all spring long. There's been some good practice
from Keenholtz, there's been some bad practice from Keyholts, good
from sand Bath from Saying. So it's gonna come down
to those two guys. Of course, Staviian Saint Clair, the
(03:23):
Bell Fountain product, he's in as an early and roly.
They admitted he's further behind both Saying and Keenholts, which
is what you would expect that after all, Saint Clair
should still be at Belltown right now, but graduated early
from Bell Found and enrolled early at Ohio State, so
he's hasn't been the assistant as long as Saying or
Keyenholts for that matter. But it's it's between those three,
(03:46):
and that's probably gonna be one of the things that
actually gonna be worth watching, worth paying attention to tomorrow
is the quarterback battle. And obviously there's some caveats in
there because you're not necessarily going to have your your
best offense of players with your best quarterback, and they're
going to mix and match a little bit. But to
see how both Saying and keen Holts handle the pressure
and handle play in front of seventy thousand or however
(04:10):
many show up tomorrow. That's one thing to keep an
eye on.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
All Right, Mark, what's another area of concern from this
spring and what have we seen during spring to lay
those fears.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Well, if you want to stay on the offense side
of the ball, you're going to bring in two new tackles.
We know that's for a fact. The interior part of
the offensive line should be a strength considering you've got
Luke Montgomery returning, had Carson Hinsman returning, Austin Sarahveld just
had a great offseason returning, and you had Tiger Shabola returning.
(04:43):
So you got those four guys in three positions there
and Austin saravel Diaks have been seeing some time at
tackle as well. So the interior offensive line should be good.
Brought in some new guys to play tackle. We'll see
how that plays out. We know there's gonna be good
depth at with the receiver position. Of course, you amia
Smith turns there running back. You got to replace both
(05:04):
your running backs from the last season, and so there's
that's something to keep an eye on as well. You
got the great name Bo Jackson, true freshman. He's in
the mix, probably not going to be in there that
starting because you got James people coming back. You're brought
in Donaldson in so running back to an area position
to take keep an eye on. And then the big
(05:25):
questions really are our defense, not only because of when
you look at what you lost in terms of coaching
with Jim Knowles now over to Penn State. You bring
in Matt Matt Patricia to slim down Matt Patricia, former
Detroit Lions head coach. How that gonna work out? You
lose so much talent of the defensive line after bringing
(05:46):
four new guys there, you're breaking into new linebackers. Obviously
Caleb Downs is back at safety, so that's a huge
cybe of release there. And you know, how much can
you actually tell from the defense during a spring game.
That's always one of the question marks because as we said,
they're going to play sud which means they're not really
going to hit, which means defense players are going to
pull up a little bit, and you know that creates
(06:08):
some interesting uh time as well. But that would be
something to really keep an eye on. Will be year,
particularly the defensive line. A lot of new faces there.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Mark Coons from BCSN and Toledo joining US to talk
Buckeye football the Spring showcase tomorrow. We'll have it for
you here in w Ima. Mark final thoughts. I think
it's been to me very apparent that we are seeing
a much more content Ryan Day. I mean, the last
(06:36):
couple of years, you could see the weight on him
of this job and the expectations and the losses to Michigan.
The national championship seems to have cleansed his soul. Huh.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Oh. Absolutely. He admitted that earlier in the spring that yeah,
more relaxed, you bet, I am what we have what
he One of the things he talked about was what
he and his staff have put into theory the last
several years. Now they've got proof that it works. Now
they understand this is how we can win a national championship.
(07:10):
And actually, there's still going to be a significant number
of the fan base who's going to bring up they've
lost four in a row to Michigan. They haven't beaten
Michigan since two thousand and nineteen. That is going to
be a topic throughout this summer. It's going to be
a topic certainly in the fall. It will be a
topic in November when they meet again. But at the
same time. They proved last year. As weird as it
(07:33):
is in college football, now, you don't have to win
at the game in order to win a national championship,
as they proved it last year. It takes some of
that pressure off and that doesn't sit right with some people.
And Russell shured, Brian Day still very much wants to
beat Michigan. It's still very much the goals remain to
beat Michigan, to win the Big Ten, to win a
(07:54):
national championship. It's just you don't have to necessary. They're
not mutually exclusive anymore, but in that way, So, yeah,
it is a more content Ryan Day, a more relaxed
Ryan Day. And we'll see what that means comes fall,
because honestly, I'm very interesting to see. I thought Chip
Kelly was a tremendous security blanket last season for Ryan
Day to have his mentor as the offensive coordinator, as
(08:16):
the primary play caller, and now Chip Kelly's back in
the NFL, Brian Hartline has stepped up. Heartline is going
to be the primary play caller. Is that going to
bring changes to the offenses? That is Ryan Day going
to slip back into being more hands on with the
offense because he doesn't have his mentor with him. That'll
be one of the things to keep an eye on
the NOAs this fall as well.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
That's Mark Coons with BCSN and Toledo as always keeping
track of the Buckeye as he'll be at the Horseshoe
tomorrow and again our coverage of the Spring Game or
the Spring Showcase or the Spring Spectacular, whatever they're calling it.
We'll begin at eleven five tomorrow, Mark. As always, we
appreciate you joining us to talk Buckeye football.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Glad to do it Todd anytime.
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