More than it being a rhino call, it was just playing off of what we had seen the defense show you in that game that wasn't on display on that play.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We could spend the whole show on that play.

It made me so angry, Sam, for a number of reasons.

But you brought up the main one.

It's just that, well, a couple of them.

Now you've got to make that play because there are going to be so few and far between.

So, Will, I don't think – that's not being sort of a micro – No, that's being

a head coach.

It really is.

It's being a head coach.

And I would argue even the fact that he is a defensive background, defensive-minded coach – that should help you even more because you should be able to think, Hey, what gives defenses problems, right? What is hard to stop? What if we were on defense, what would we hope that you would run? I would hope they run a boot as a defender.

I would, it gives us a chance for a huge negative play.

And so you're right.

But Will, what would you like to see them do that they haven't necessarily employed a lot of or at all to this point that you think could help them moving forward?

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Yeah, we could spend the whole show on that play.

It made me so angry, Sam, for a number of reasons.

But you brought up the main one is just that like, well, a couple of them.

The biggest one for me is that what message does that send to your offensive line? Like, period.

You're on the one yard line, maybe even closer than the one yard line.

And a boot is something you can utilize if something's been working for you, if you've had success and you are tricking then the defense, right? But you've got to realize this might be our only chance to score.

Now you got to make that play because they're going to be so few and far between.

They brought it back enough in the second half to really help complement what they were doing with the running backs.

Yeah, no doubt.

And, you know, that's one, you know, coaches might look back and wish they had run it more.

But also...

I've got to just call it how I see it, Sam, and even with that stuff, it feels like Bryce is a little too sped up.

He doesn't necessarily see it.

For instance, on the option play that we scored the touchdown on, that was a beautiful, beautiful job by Tommy where I think a lot of quarterbacks would have pitched it, but he stretched out the defense.

was when it when it wasn't the staple of what they were trying to do and just a piece of what they were trying to do

And they got a free defender on half the place.

You know, Sam, that's exactly right.

And to, you know, to make matters worse, We go Rhino as an extra offensive lineman for those listening, and then we still try to run east and west, and that doesn't work.

And so, yeah, the thing that's baffling to me is if you're going to go Rhino, you know you're going to use that type of personnel and run-heavy personnel.

You have to anticipate that the defense is going to adjust and is going to react to you being in a very run-heavy personnel to the extent that, one of the normal eligibles can't go out and catch a pass.

And so where's our answers to that? Where are our tunnel screens? Where are the condensed splits to be able to get crossers very quickly and have answers right away? And then just even when we do go north and south, we're not running the football effectively, period, even with, an extra offensive lineman.

And so that's where you have to look at it and say, okay, you know, even, you know, sort of turning up the leverage on the run game is not working.

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There was a scramble early on where he just pulled it down and got just enough for the first down.

I think that – I think the more that Bryce realizes how hard that is on a defense – the better that we will be.

The offensive line looked better to me.

They were more physical.

We were winning.

We had gaps in the run game.

Again, setting the penalties aside, what were you most encouraged by in that game? What were you most discouraged by?

Whether it was linebackers or D-line, they really seemed to do a good job of bottling them up.

Yeah, there's no doubt, and you're right.

The things that got us were eye discipline related.

They were early on.

That first one, Sam, reminded me of somebody I don't like, but that reminded me of Ted Ginn in Columbus in 2006, which is that, hey, if you've got a small, skinny guy lined up at tight end, chances are he's not there to block you.

And they're probably going to try to sneak something behind you, even if it is fourth and one or third and one short yardage.

But anyway, I thought we recovered from that very well to the point where, I mean, our defense was truly dominating, in my opinion, at least with consistency for the first time this season, right? They were, for the most part, fitting well.

or the jet guy it is on me to get the quarterback and I just really felt like we saw that to a great degree so if you could talk about that and then Jonah Lea's interception on a screen pass you talk about you talk about recognition that was another example of a smart defense playing smart

and it,

and it didn't.

But if you can do that to most teams, they're not going to be able to keep up.

Right.

If you're just, you have one guy, you know, not the fastest guy who you're a good player, but he's not, he's not a threat, you know, for big explosives.

So I thought it started with the secondary Sam and then, You know, the D-line did their thing again, really getting after it.

In the run game, I saw, you know, we were good the first week on the D-line, but even more so this week, a little bit more sound in our gaps.

So talk to me about how you build on this.

Sounds like a team whose attention is not going to be hard to get in practice this week.

Yeah, that's a good point, Sam.

I mean, when you play like we did there, and I'm glad Jordan took that tact because that's what you want a leader to say.

Frankly, there is, you know, yes, you're very relieved you won, but there is very little to celebrate.

And so I'm glad, you know, amidst the chaos and people celebrating around him that, you know, he was able to, diagnose it clearly, and hopefully the team follows suit because that is one thing coaches love is having a team in practice that week that is hungry, that knows they need to improve, that's desperate to improve, and that are all pulling in the same direction.

And so it can, Sam, turn into a galvanizing thing for us.

Obviously we talked about teams getting better from week one to week two, and then we've said this before, like the talent that we have You can't be surprised if there's a huge leap because the ceiling is quite high.

you

How do you begin to address the kind of improvement that he has to make rapidly with a much bigger time opponent coming in the door?

Yeah, I mean, it's a great question, Sam.

And this is part of where we are with the new era and players getting paid and stuff.

Does that affect the depth chart? Because You know, frankly, and I root for Bryce.

I want him to do well.

But this is where you would generally see, or at least they'd be talking about in the coaching meetings, about a quarterback change because, Sam, I didn't play quarterback, but I played against a lot of quarterbacks.

And you can tell when they're flustered, when they're not seeing it, when their mind is working against themselves, even though they need their mind to be on task and running the whole offense.

When you talk about players who it's not translating for, what is the key to that in your view?

Now, what does that translate to on the field?

It translates, first and foremost, to just a ton of confidence.

Like, not just doing it in the weight room, but once you feel it on the field, you feel an opponent not be able to move you and, in fact, go the other way where you're moving them.

we've talked about block destruction on this program before, you know, not just taking on a block, but really destroying it.

And I think that type of functional strength helps a lot in the trenches, but it's going to help all the players all around.

And Sam, I wouldn't believe it either if we didn't have the experience of that happening.

You know, it sounds crazy even to say, but when you go from a staff that doesn't really prioritize that type of strength, you know, I had my bench press go from 10 reps which is terrible, to 26 reps in one off, you know, just from January to August.

Well, let's