Press Conference (Keenan Bailey) August

And it's been great for the tight ends.

I'll leave it at that, not to get too much in the scheme, but we've definitely benefited, and me personally, learning every day.

When you look at the, I guess, relative inexperience for

your group, has that changed the approach compared to other years, the urgency, intensity, the toughness you're talking about?

Yeah, I think, you know, Austin, that's a great question.

I hope not, right? I think the energy was still there with a guy like Cade.

Now, again, it might have been, like I said earlier, Austin, it might have been the 3,000-level course with Cade because he's ran that play for four years before I got him.

Right now it still might be the what do I got to do.

And, yeah, I mean, I hope the guys feel that the energy's picked up because the urgency has.

I mean, number eight's not in the room anymore.

Great.

We're going to play somebody in a couple months, right? And there's got to be a tight end out there.

Hopefully it's two, hopefully it's three tight ends out there.

So hopefully they feel the urgency's picked up.

The way the room is structured, I mean, G's been in this program for a long time.

But it felt like year after year, there was a veteran guy next to a veteran guy next to a veteran guy.

That's the dynamic of it right now.

Does that mean you have to provide more leadership for the guys? You know what I mean? Does that have to come more from you to set the tone? Or is that just G's job, even if he's not going to hold it?

Yeah, I don't know.

I'm not going to put it all on G, right? But again, the leaders drive the culture.

Now, whether it be G or whether it be Pat, who's been here for a long time and played a lot of football, or whether it be Will came in and say, no, this is what it should look like.

I mean, I want those guys to take it around with it.

You know, on Saturdays, I'm in the box.

I'm not cutting off the sea gap.

It's got to come from them.

Now, again, my job as a coach is to make them hear things they don't want to hear, push them to do things they don't want to do.

So I'm certainly going to do that at times, and I'll keep doing it.

But they've done a great job of driving the culture.

Keenan, you were in the room when Kevin

was in the offensive meeting room for so many years.

Does having Chip kind of get you guys back to where you guys were with Kevin? I know that the room, as an offensive staff, you guys were kind of young last year.

Now to have Chip with that experience, is that kind of like what you guys have with Kevin?

Some similarities.

I think the comparison is that we're talking about Kevin Wilson and Chip Kelly are two of the brightest minds in offensive football in the last several decades.

I think there's some similarities there.

I think it's allowing Coach Day maybe to delegate to Coach Kelly and let him be the best version of himself.

Coach Kelly's been an awesome leader of driving us and listening and providing input.

It's been great.

I don't know if it's exactly like it was with Coach Wilson, but It feels great however it is right

now.

Was there initially a bigger role expected for Jelani in the Cotton Bowl and did that not get to come to fruition as much as the way that game played out?

You know, I don't remember exactly what, you know, the expectation was he was going to help contribute.

And certainly we wanted him to contribute from the jump and keep him in there contributing.

The game kind of started off... you know, not ideal.

And we had Cade in there and, you know, that was his last game as a Buckeye.

So we felt comfortable riding out with him.

But I think Jelani and everyone else is kind of focused going

forward.

Did you guys see things from him during the bowl prep that was a step forward at all?

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, he definitely takes that forward for sure.

If you are painting an ideal situation for the fall, what does the depth look like in terms of how many guys you'll trust?

I think I got six seats in there, so six of the toughest dudes on the team.

I'm not trying to just give you the coach speak, but however it shakes out.

Hopefully we can play 13 personnel, 14 personnel, and I got guys out there that are going to go wreak some havoc.

But I don't know.

They're going to make that sorted out.

Right now I'm worried about Thursday's practice being the toughest dudes on the field.

Are you seeing enough of that to feel comfortable saying that that can happen by

fall? Yeah, we're taking strides.

We'll see by the end of spring and then hopefully fall camp.

It's a long ways away from wherever we play week one.

Yeah,

it's been great.

It's been great.

Pump return and kick return and getting to coach other positions too.

Special teams comes down to technique and effort and that's the ultimate test of the brotherhood, and no one signed up to be a Buckeye, to be on punt return.

They want to be first round this, first round that.

So it's been awesome getting involved

in that.

Oh, yeah, we're working quite a few guys back there.

We've got some options, so that'll be fun.

You guys were thinking about putting Jelani in and maybe having a bigger role.

What does he give you guys that would make a huge difference?

I mean, he had more time, right, just because we have that whole month of kind of December for development.

And, you know, the bull prep's a lot like spring ball in that he has those three or four weeks, you know, to get the reps he wasn't getting during the year because Cade was taking them, right? So, with a G,

how close was that one? Did you have to start with only snaps? Did you

have a second trend that he was

going to go

for?

I think good.

I think it just shows that, you know, next man in, we trust you fully.

Cade couldn't go.

No one batted an eye.

It was G, then it was Pat, period.

We called their offense.

There's no modified offense or anything like that.

So to put our trust in him, he went out and made a lot of plays.

And both those kids played really well.

I think that helps the confidence for him and us.

really

good when you look at when you look at g now do you and this would be a facetious question maybe but do you see a tight end now you understand what i'm saying from a couple years ago years ago he was a you know he moved over from wide receiver and all this kind of stuff what just jumped out at you about what he brings to the tight end spot i guess

yeah i know what you're asking tim i yeah i promise you i never like he's in the tight end room i didn't say oh but he's a receiver playing tight end he's a tight end

yeah

he's a tight end so he's gonna be graded like it, treated like it, so I never really...

But like Kevin talked about when they first made the move, you want to get this guy some confidence playing tight end, meaning, I'm not going to say against lesser opponents, but having some success out there, like in the run game, the blocking aspect of things and stuff.

He seems to progress big time from that.

I mean, do you feel that way, too?

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

He's done way better.

And again, that practices, he's on the left side.

He's against JT.

If he's on the right side, he's going to check.

So I mean, there's no this is Ohio State.

You're playing against the best every day.

So yeah, he's definitely progressed.

Do you think that collaborative effort you guys are having on special teams? Do you think that's benefiting you guys in terms of just how you're coaching?

Yeah, I think so.

Dan, as you know, as far as ownership goes, right? Like, I mean, I'm not saying I wasn't invested last year, but shoot, I'm punt return and kick return.

I mean, that's Coach Hartline and I's product out there.

And if there's not tight ends all over those units, then they're not going to play tight end at Ohio State.

And I bet you Hartline feels the same way about the receivers.

So as far as the buy-in from the staff, heck yeah.

Heck yeah, for me at least, speaking for myself.

When Coach Day brought that up, what did you think about that change? And number two, what has he told you he wants? that he wasn't getting from special teams a year ago? No, he never,

he never told me anything about last year.

It was all about, okay, how can we be, this is again, Ohio state, like whatever the janitorial staff supposed to be the best in the country.

The tight end coach better be the best in the country.

Same thing with quarterback, same thing with punt return coach.

I'm the punt return coach.

I should be the best one in the country.

So I got to work with coach Hartline and, Coach Keyes and everyone else, learning the scheme and techniques, and now we've got to put it on the field.

But do you find yourself studying punt returns? Oh, yeah.

Like NFL teams and things like that.

I mean, how are you doing your prep work, I guess? Oh, yeah,

yeah, yeah.

Coach Hart, Coach Keyes, Dinks, Gunner, I mean, we locked ourselves in a room for a week there, and I don't think I did any offense.

Do you already have pretty good knowledge of the return game, or did you have to, like, start from scratch?

No, yeah, there was no starting from scratch, Dan.

I mean, it's all ball, and that's the coolest thing about special teams is, If you're on special teams, it's going to make you better tight end.

It's going to make you a better DB.

You're a running back.

And it's like the technique and everything like that.

I think I had a pretty fair foundation.

And then maybe some tweaks.

And, you know, we have to decide what our identity is going this season.

We talked a lot about Pat