Ohio State vs. Texas picks and preview: Keys that will decide Buckeyes vs. Longhorns

Looking for excitement? Chumba Casino is here. Play anytime, play anywhere. Play on the train, play at the store, play at home, play when you're bored. Play today for your chance to win and get daily bonuses when you log in. So what are you waiting for? Don't delay. Chumba Casino is free to play. Experience social gameplay like never before. Go to Chumba Casino right now to play hundreds of games, including online slots, bingo, slingo, and more. Live the Chumba life at chumbacasino.com. No purchase necessary. EGW Group, void for prohibited by law. 21 plus. Terms and conditions apply. Welcome back to The Bill and Doug Show. We are in Austin, Texas, for a final preview of Ohio State. At Texas, we'll be here covering this game on Saturday night. We'll be doing a post game show live on YouTube. It'll get on to the podcast feeds. We'll go for half an hour as soon as after the game as we can. And then we'll be going over to billanddougshow.com to do an even longer post game show. Like at some point, maybe that longer post game show will be Monday, but it'd be great if it was Saturday night. If not, it'd be great if it was Sunday. He's Bill Landis and Doug Lesmerises. They led us into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame. Yeah. Very cool here. It is in DKR stadium. We're in a hall at the moment that has like all of Texas's national title trophies before all their various sports here. You can't see it. I don't think that like all the crystal footballs are over there. This place is cool. This is something Ohio State desperately needs. It's a bit of a shock that Ohio State doesn't have something like this. Ohio State has their trophy lobby at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center, but it's not inviting to the public. It's not as big as this. It's not connected to the stadium in a way that makes it as accessible to people. It's like the same idea, but this is like eight times bigger every sport and here for the folks. Really well done. Yeah, we don't know. I mean, is it open all the time? I'm not sure. It's open on a Friday before the game. There's Ohio State fans in here. There are Texas fans in here checking all this stuff out. And yeah, the key difference, I guess, like Ohio State's trophy lobby right is connected to the Woody. It's connected to the practice facility, which obviously is a little more secret than the stadium itself. This is the practice facility is separate from this. It's on the other side of the building. But yeah, very cool. There's a big old Bevo statue in the foyer here. So yeah, Ross Bjork, let's get the money together to get something like this in Columbus. We'll ask. We'll ask Ross about it. We have suggestions. So we're, we're a little bit doing football whisper. It's like, this is kind of like a football library. We make fun of the big tens for being an office of libraries. This is a football library. It's a football library. You have to show proper respect. We're going to talk about the game. We did a full 90-minute breakdown at billanddougshow.com on Wednesday where we did give our picks. We also gave our picks on the podcast of Northern Aggression earlier in the week that we certainly would invite you to go join us over there at the podcast of Northern Aggression. We break down five games a week. You make picks, I make picks, Matt Fortuna makes picks. And if you want to join us over at the Bill and Doug Show, we would invite you to get 25% off. You can go to billanddougshow.com/more, M-O-R-E. We know there's lots of really dedicated, educated Ohio State fans here who are also over there with us already. There are some of you who are here who are not with us over there already. Maybe because you thought about it, you haven't ever decided to go over the top and do it. Maybe you didn't know that we were doing that. So like we do a lot here. We want to do a lot here. We enjoy doing a lot here, but we do even more over there. And so we just want to make, we want to make the people aware, Bill, that there is even more of us at billanddougshow.com/more and like we'll give you a little discount off the top. Yep. 25% off. We do bonus podcasts over there every Wednesday, every Sunday after games, but also that this extra post game show we're doing now too will also be there along with everything we write. We have chats, we have subscriber interaction. It's a good time. I would recommend it. Check it out. See if it's for you. Bill put up a giant film look back point by point on some stuff. On Friday, I wrote a story on Thursday. Let Jeremiah Smith beat Texas. You can find it over there. Let's do sort of what we think are keys to the game for Ohio State, Texas, 730 on ABC, Chris Fowler, Kirk Herb Street, Holly Rowe, Laura Rutledge on the call. I'll let you go first. We'll go back and forth. What we think is going to help determine this game. What's the thing? What's a Bill Landis key to the game? Yeah, this is an obvious thing, probably for a lot of people, but the way that Ohio State's offensive line is able to see and communicate and then adjust to what Texas is doing up front, right? Like Will Muschamp, Texas' defensive coordinator, I thought showed a decent amount against Texas State. He no doubt has more that he's going to throw Ohio State's way. But even in that Texas State game, you saw like they were doing things where they would, you know, shift from an even front to an odd front, like right before the snap. And Texas State was like kind of lucky a couple of times that it's running back, which is sort of like up to the challenge of blocking somebody. So like this is not just the offensive line, it's for Ohio State's running backs, it's for Julian Sayin too. There's going to be a lot of movement pre and post snap, I think from Texas' defensive front, because Texas watched the tape. They saw what happened last year against Indiana and against Miami. And they know that Ohio State's, one of the key points for the offensive line this year was handling all that stuff better. And we'll see, this will be the ultimate test, to think of whether or not they've addressed that. So that to me is a rather airing key, I think, going into this game. You, I think, talked the other day about Raheem Biles and the idea of him lining up at edge sometimes and then coming inside, like them moving him around a little bit. He is a speedy playmaker who does line up on the line of scrimmage sometimes as a linebacker. When you talk about their defensive front moving, are you including Biles in that? Or is Biles even like a wildcard factor beyond that? No, I'm including him. I think everything that Will Muschamp will do or almost everything that Will Muschamp will do with his front will be to get both Raheem Biles, the linebacker, and Colin Simmons of the defensive end in advantageous situations, which is like one-on-ones, right? They're going to try to, as much as they can, limit Ohio State's ability to throw multiple bodies at either of those guys. And trust, I think probably rightfully so, that those two athletes will win their one-on-one matchups more often than not. So like you can't, Ohio State's not going to keep eight guys in protection on every play, right? So part of this too, I think is like getting the ball out quick, having some stuff schematically that like can slow them down, whether that's like RPOs or play action or stuff like that. But yeah, I would very much include Biles in any conversation about like pass, rush, front, that kind of stuff. They, he's good off the ball. He's good in space, but I think he's at his best when he's on the line of scrimmage, making stuff happen. Okay. I'll go to the opposite side of that for the first French Vanilla Key to the game. The ability of the Ohio State defensive line to not let Arch Manning wait. I think the Ohio State secondary has a chance to have pretty good initial coverage on Cam Coleman and Ryan Wingo. I think you can believe in Devin Sanchez and Jermaine Matthews and Jay Timmons and the looks that Matt Patricia is going to give Arch Manning. Obviously we saw a year ago that he was off his game. Arch was early in that game in the first half because of the looks Matt Patricia was giving him. But I thought even against Texas State last week, there would be times when like maybe it wasn't there initially, but then Arch, if you had a chance to wait, slide in the pocket a little bit, be patient, wait for guys to then get become uncovered in the middle of the field. Yes, it's a scrambling conversation for him. And you were noting how he ran on Michigan in the bowl game last year, more than 100 yards. Yeah, seven scrambles for more than 100 yards in that game. So it's partly that, but it's also just his ability, I think, to wait and work and be comfortable and look comfortable and wait for something to happen. And if he can just stand there and hold the ball, Trevor Goosby, their left tackle is excellent. He was maybe, he was coming back from preseason injury, maybe wasn't 100% all the way himself last week. I think you expect probably a little better version of him. I think they liked their right tackle. Maybe their interior offensive line is maybe where the questions are a little bit more. But if he, I think if it feels like he's standing back there and holding the ball forever, and this is even one of those with Matt Patricia, like if you drop eight and rush three and say, hey, like, just, I think if he holds the ball, I think eventually more often than not, something good will happen for Texas. Yeah. That either Ryan Wingo or Emmett Mosley or Cam Coleman or somebody will work open, a back will come open or Arch will just take off, right? I don't, yeah. If you don't let him wait, then because Kenyatta Jackson's in his face, then I think that's much better for Ohio State. Yeah, I think you, like, it's sort of the opposite of Julian Sayin because I think Julian Sayin, like, does kind of, like, want the ball out of his hand quick, right? I think Arch will take all the time, because Arch wants to go downfield. Arch wants to go over your head. They have a lot of team speed, especially at the receiver position. So yeah, I'm with you. I don't think you want Arch to feel comfortable hunting those downfield shots, nor do you want to create sort of the kind of situations where everyone's got their back turned and you only rush three or four, they don't get home and all of a sudden Arch has 20 yards of open grass to run to, right? So I don't, yeah, I mean, that's, you're talking about maybe ratcheting up the pressure a little bit, I think, to speed Arch up, I think, you know, and most quarterbacks aren't at their best when they're sped up. And I think Arch in particular probably struggles with that still, even as a guy who's like how he thought of as a prospect. So that, yeah, I would be there with you. I don't want Arch thinking that he can go bombs away on this defense. Yeah. Slow Arch is bad for Ohio State. Yeah. You want, you want sped up Arch. I think that's right. Yeah. All right. What's your next thing? It's more of like a personnel thing. I think like I just I don't recall in a sort of dovetails with that. Like I don't recall Ryan Day talking as much about an opponent's speed as he has about Texas's this week. So then I think like Ohio State's defense needs to like sort of like match speed with speed, right? Which is I think to say they probably need to be comfortable putting inexperienced linebackers like TJ Alfred and Riley Pettijohn on the field early in this game. There's been like this conversation, right? Of what we saw against Ball State, all those guys that played, what's the actual number of guys at Ohio State is comfortable playing in a game like this? And I don't think the answer can be just like the guys who were old, because as much as I like Peyton Pearson, I think he's going to be a good player. And I think he will certainly play a role in this game. I just don't think you can live in a world where you're asking him to chase Arch and chase Hollywood smothers or chase one of these speedy receivers over the middle of the field for 50 snaps. So I think you got to play Riley Pettigon. You got to play TJ Alford. I think you have to be comfortable at times playing Jay Timmons, maybe even against 12 personnel sometimes, if you don't think that 12 is going to be like lineup and smash it kind of 12. So you can't look slow defensively in this game if you're Ohio State. I think they have the guys to counter that. It's just a matter of trusting, putting young players on the field. And I would in this game. And this is one of these, like how often does anybody have a conversation about Ohio State looking slow compared to somebody? Not often. Yeah. This is, I can't say it. Don't make me say it. It's it's in Texas speed. Okay. I did. I saw the track team running hills out here. My God. Talk about Texas speed. It was like they were in the bike lane up the hill and just like going hard. And then, and then they would walk back down the hill like, and it's like, no, we got a good idea by why, why Texas is good at track. There's a lot of track trophies. Yeah. They were going hard at the heat. So respect to the Longhorns. Yeah, this is, and I think your point is right. It's not that Ohio State has the opportunity to counter that. So they have to, right? It's not like, well, Texas is faster. What are you going to do? It's like, Texas is fast. So counter their speed with your speed. Yeah. I think, and I would include Christian Allegro in that it's like, is this really like circling back around to, I wouldn't play Peyton Pierce that much because he's not that fast, which I don't necessarily mean it. There will be days for him. It might not be this Saturday. I don't mean it to be that exactly, but I think, I think you need a lot of Pettigon Alfred Allegro in this game. And to your earlier point, I think it's Allegro and Pettigon like kind of with Arch, if Arch wants to use his legs. Yeah. Allegro said, so we do, this is how we do The Bill and Doug Show, multiple players coming out at the same time. You were going to Austin, you were going to Austin, Sarivaldo. I was staying with Christian Allegro. You mouthed something to me across the other side of the scrum. I said, I'm terrible at lip reading. Let me come over. And you said, ask Allegro about spying Arch. Yeah. So I did. He did. And I said, who are the best candidates for that? And he said, me and Riley Pettigon. And he did it last year at Wisconsin. And he thinks it's important. And then I took credit for it. I did not tell Christian Allegro what was your idea. So I'm telling it now. That's right. It's like, it's a team effort here. Yeah. Looking for excitement? Chumba Casino is here. Play anytime, play anywhere. Play on the train, play at the store, play at home, play when you're bored. Play today for your chance to win and get daily bonuses when you log in. So what are you waiting for? Don't delay. Chumba Casino is free to play. Experience social game play like never before. Go to Chumba Casino right now to play hundreds of games, including online slots, bingo, slingo, and more. Live the Chumba life at chumbacasino.com. No purchase necessary. VGW Group Void. We're prohibited by law. 21 plus. Terms and conditions apply. OK, let me get down to the very basics. And it's something that I did right at billanddougshow.com. Ohio State has to maximize Jeremiah Smith. And I think this is the Julian Art and Jeremiah Show, right? The three of them in concert being connected, being in rhythm. And I think that requires Julian Sayin to throw the ball to Jeremiah Smith even when he's not completely open. I think you have to throw him open. Steve Sarkisian talked this week about how difficult Jeremiah Smith is on 50-50 balls. Well, that's great. That means you have to throw a couple 50-50 balls and be willing to do that. There was... I went back and I watched every throw from the Ohio State side of things in the last two Texas games. And like, for instance, there was a throw in the first quarter, I think maybe the first series from Will Howard in the semifinal to Jeremiah Smith on about the five-yard line and like between two guys. And he, it was, he went up for it at the five and it like a hype, tried to high point it kind of went between his hands. And it was a good shot by Will Howard. And I said, I think the junior version of Jeremiah Smith catches that. Right. But there weren't a million times that Ohio State did that. I felt like in the two games against Texas, where you, where you give Jeremiah Smith that shot. And the thing that you pointed out, everyone pointed it out in the moment a year ago, the first drive for Ohio State, the fourth and one when Ohio State went for it and, and we're stopped on downs on the first drive. Max Clair drops the fourth down pass from Julian Sayin. But the call is actually a deep shot to Jeremiah Smith. Joel Klatt showed it on the broadcast. Jeremiah Smith's open heads inside leverage. Just put it out there. It doesn't have to be a perfect throw. Put it out there and give your guy a chance. They called it. It worked. As soon as Julian Sayin got to the sideline, Ryan Day is like, what are you doing? So it's like, well, what was he doing? He was being a first time starter who wasn't going to throw that unless he was a hundred percent sure. His first career, fourth down. Yes. So you can't wait to be a hundred percent sure. So with the two things, you can't wait to be a hundred percent sure in this game about Jeremiah Smith. If you're sixty percent sure, give him a shot or just make yourself believe that anything involving Jeremiah Smith, you are a hundred percent sure. Like hypnotize yourself. And I thought one of the most important quotes this week was Julian Sayin. When he was asked about Jeremiah Smith being limited in the first two games, saying like, I don't think Texas really limited him. There were times when I didn't throw him the ball. So for Julian Sayin to acknowledge that, I think they know that. I thought Arthur Smith and Ryan Day did a good job last week. They said he's number one on the game plan. He got nine targets in the first half. I think Ohio State has played as much of a role in limiting Jeremiah Smith in the first two Texas games as Texas has. If you go back and watch that, he has not blanketed every single play. And there are times, there's a third down throw. I think it was last year, where it's like Jeremiah Smith is at third and 10. Jeremiah Smith is running an in cutting route in the middle of the field at the sticks. And Julian Sayin takes Brandon Innis running an in cutting route five yards shorter than Jeremiah Smith, cutting the opposite way and completes it for five yards on third and 10. It's like, why did like you've got to take Jeremiah there if it's in completed like how you can't pass up Jeremiah for another guy who might be 8% more open. You know what I mean? And so, but I think Julian Sayin is locked in on that. And I don't think that Ohio State will allow that to happen in this game. But also it's one of my keys because they can't. I don't think they won't like it won't happen. But I'm just making sure it won't happen. Because we know Ryan Day and Julian Sayin are watching this video. So I'm talking to them. They are watching this video, of course, on their flight here to Austin. I agree with that. I think there's a bit of a balance there because you just, you don't want to, you don't want to be in Jeremiah or nothing kind of mode. If you're Julian Sayin, which is like, you're actually not looking at the field. You're just looking at your number one receiver and hoping that he comes open and hoping he's in a position where you feel comfortable enough to let the ball lose. But like while you're doing that, Devin McEwen is like wide open on the backside of a player, right? So I agree. You can't, I'm not super worried about that happening, but I do think that's the potential sort of like pitfall that can come when you have a guy who's sort of a singular Jeremiah. You can look to him too much. I actually thought there were times like watching Texas play Texas State where Arch got a little locked on on Cam Coleman. He stared down Cam Coleman a couple of times. Or put the ball in a bad spot. So he was staring down Cam Coleman on the pick in the end zone. He was, yep. He stared down Cam Coleman early on another near pick. On a near pick. Yeah, so you have to watch out for that, I think, but I would maybe trust Julian not to do that. And Will Howard got picked in the semifinal on exactly that, on forcing it to Jeremiah. That is the shining example of not that, not that. But then after that, the next drive, they came back, Jeremiah Smith's open in the middle of the field for a 15-yard throw. I think it's the first throw, the next drive after the pick. He's open and Will Howard didn't throw it. Because after the pick, then he was a little gunshot. Then they lined up Jeremiah Smith. I'm not sure. And this is two years ago. We're doing film breakdown of two years ago. And we're having the feelings guy do the film breakdown on it. But Jeremiah lined up as an offset tight end. And they had him swing out for a little screen pass. They had three blockers out for him. But it was an RPO and Will handed it off. But it was like, it was, so it was like that next drive after pick next drive. Jeremiah is open. He hasn't throw it to him. The next play, they it's, this is something we've worked for Jeremiah and then we'll just read it differently. And it's like, like, I don't know what to read is there. The read is get the ball, right? So like there and like, you can see Ohio state is doing things in these games to create opportunities for Jeremiah Smith and the quarterbacks didn't take them enough. Yeah. So that's it. That's a big one. That is a huge one. My last one, a couple or should I go? I would, this, I don't mean this to sound sort of like counter to what you just said, but like they will need other guys to step up offensively. Right? I, I think there's an opportunity here to actually like get Bo Jackson involved as a receiver. And I think like, if you look at Arthur Smith's background, I don't think he's ever been shy about doing that. Right? Like he's, he's going to get the ball to his best guy. And I don't think he's going to put players in positions they're not comfortable with, but Bo's got good receiving skills. I think they actually kind of relegated him to just like, sort of like too much of a check down guy last year, which is fine. Those are free, easy yards most of the time, but he can run routes. Like he, the ball that went off his hands last week against ball state that, you know, maybe wasn't the best read by joy. It was, it was a really tight window, but like they ran a little like angle route within Texas route with him. I think you could see more of that in this game, especially because I think these linebackers are going to be really keyed in on attacking Ohio State's offensive line. Like they, I think they probably sense of vulnerability there just based off of the last, the last two marquee games, Ohio State has played, the last two games, Ohio State has played away from Ohio Stadium. The fact even if they struggled like just a little bit last week against ball state with some stuff, I think they're going to try to go after that. So whether that's, I think like that, this can include screen game, but I think if Jeremiah is going to get a ton of attention and I think he will, I think Devin McEwen made himself a guy you have to account for last week with the way that he played. He's clearly number two. You can't cover everybody. And if you're linebackers are so intent on trying to make Ohio State's offensive line look silly, I think you could see, I don't know what Bo's career high for receiving yards is. I think maybe he had it last year against Michigan. I could see a game where Bo has like something like 40, 50 receiving yards just because there's that kind of space available to him. I thought Texas last week against Texas State probably had at least maybe two throws to the running backs where they got like 15 free yards because the running back just floated out in space and there was nobody there because the defense is worried about covering guys down the field. And for instance, again, in going back and watching all the Ohio State throws from the past to Texas games, the 75-yard Tribune Henderson screen at the end of the first half in the semifinal, two-year late film studies, my new specialty, Jeremiah Smith on that play is lined up by himself on the left side. Everybody else is lined up on the right side. As you watch that play develop, Texas rushes for so then once the screens thrown there, those four guys are out of the play. And then Jeremiah is on the left side. There's a defensive end who drops a corner and a safety who are with Jeremiah on the left side of the field. It's like Jeremiah Smith blocked three guys on that play. So they rush for, they had three on one with Jeremiah. There were four guys left to tackle Trevion Henderson who had like four blockers. And it's like Jeremiah Smith made a contribution on that play. It was not a mistake that he was on the opposite side of the field when they threw the screen. Yeah. That's my design. And you look at the Cornell Tate deep shot last year. Same deal. As the ball is in the air, you can screenshot the TV copy. Jeremiah Smith is on the other side of the field standing with two Texas guys. As Cornell Tate is one-on-one leaping for a touchdown at the goal line. So that's... He's blocked three guys on one touchdown. He blocked two guys on another touchdown. It's the equivalent of that. So I think Ohio State has done a good job of that in the two games. I think they haven't done a good job of the thing that I said, which is, make sure you're also getting it to him enough. But I think you have to use gravity in every single way. But that's the Devin McEwen conversation. I also think it could be a Chris Henry Jr. conversation. I think it could be Chris Henry Jr. I think it could be easy tight end yards too. I know, like on the list of players I would bank on, I would put the tight ends at the bottom, but we even saw some of that last week, right? They just like, they run Jeremiah deep or they run Devin McEwen deep and there's just nobody there to account for a tight end. He was like sitting at eight yards with nobody around him, and when he opened the ball he turns around and runs another five yards and all of a sudden you got a 15-yard play or something like that, right? So I know that math wasn't exactly right. But yeah, I just think, I think those things will be there, because Jeremiah has that gravity, honestly, whoever you send deep might, but yeah, I think Chris Henry Jr. is interesting in this game. I think he'll play, I think they might even like try to get the ball in his hands early to get him feeling good coming off of last week, but they do. It feels like they have maybe, I don't think it was maybe, I think they have more guys who are capable of making Texas pay for the attention they give Jeremiah Smith than they did, than they had last year, especially that being the first game and so many guys being new, like there are, I know Chris Henry Jr. is new and Devon McEwen has only played one game, but it just feels like they have more guys who are capable of making them pay if that's what happens. And I'm not 100% sure about the Texas Secondary, so I can even envision having Henry and JJ on the field at the same time and you have Jeremiah in the slot on the right with McEwen and you act like you're gonna throw Jeremiah a bubble or something like that and meanwhile, you're trying to get Chris Henry Jr. out of the X spot, one on one with a corner for a deep shot, right? Which I think would almost, if you put Jeremiah and Devon McEwen on the same side opposite Chris Henry Jr. or opposite anybody, whoever is on the opposite side, I think is almost certainly going to get single coverage. Yep. Then you go throw it to the giraffe. Yeah, my last one will be agreeing with Steve Sarkeesian, which is about red zone. The idea that Texas and each of the last two games got to the one yard line in each game on drives that they did not score on. You know, infamously, the scoop and Sawyer drive got was at the one before they started going backwards. And then last year, they eventually got to the one on fourth down with Arch before they were stopped, right? They had another one in the red zone last year that was stopping the throw in the end zone to Parker Livingstone on like fourth and nine. So I thought the play last week, their first red zone touchdown, the corner fell down for Texas state, but their plan was like, let's get cam Coleman outside and throw the ball in the end zone to him. That seems like a good red zone plan. They ran a jet sweep to Ryan Wingo in the red zone. That seemed like a good red zone plan. Two gray blocks by their tight ends on that play. Two gray blocks. And I asked Christian Allegro about those tight ends and like, you know, they do have a couple of guys that is, I think they can be physical with that and get on the edge. For instance, I mean, they tried to do that. That was the, the Caleb downs play on second down on the scoop and, and scoop and Sawyer touchdown is they tried to toss to the, to the boundary and Caleb down just shot through. It wouldn't be blocked. They're trying to do stuff like that. But I do think with the backs they have this year, they have guys who can do that. Hollywood smothers, especially. But I think like they have to have a better plan in the red zone. And like, it can't be worse. Like Texas has been as bad in the red zone in these two games as anybody could be. And if they were a little bit better, they might have won either of them. I think. Yeah. I think especially, I mean, they got something, a quarterback sneak on the one last year with the arch, it just drastically changes games. It's like emotionally sapping too, I think to get that close and not come away with points. Like Ohio State has had its red zone struggles over the years in big games, but in this game, they're good. They're three for three scoring touchdowns in the red zone in this game the last two years. It's one of those things where like, it could be as simple as that, right? Like if that trend continues, Ohio State is going to win. If Texas is able to flip it, Texas is going to win. It's probably not quite that simple, but that's a huge spot in this game. It was Texas State, right? So you only put so much stock in it, I think, but I thought Texas' plans in the red zone last week felt very well thought out in a way that they haven't been the last couple of years against Ohio State. Looking for excitement? Chumba Casino is here. Play anytime, play anywhere. Play on the train, play at the store, play at home, play when you're bored. Play today for your chance to win and get daily bonuses when you log in. So what are you waiting for? Don't delay. Chumba Casino is free to play. Experience social game play like never before. Go to Chumba Casino right now to play hundreds of games, including online Let's. see if you can catch them all. And the Ohio State defense, you think about the 24 playoff defense, especially when it got down in crunch time, one of the, of all the things that define that Ohio State national championship team goal line defense was probably in the top five. Definitely. You're talking about JT Tumalo Owl and Jack Sawyer and but even in 24, Ty Leake Williams and like, you had that like specialized role for Kayden McDonald, Kayden McDonald, and R. Valarie Reese are part of your goal line package. And then last year you think about what that defense in week one was able to do with Matt Patricia and Sunny Styles and R. Valarie Reese and Caleb Downs and Kayden McDonald. And I'm just assuming that the Ohio State defense in week two 2026 will not be at the level on any part of the field, but especially in the red zone of the 24 playoff defense or the 25 week one defense a year ago, just because those were two exemplary defenses. I just, I can't assume that this collection of Ohio State guys is going to stand up in the same way on the goal line. I'm not sure who the Kayden McDonald is. I'm not sure who the R. Valarie Reese is, who the Sunny Styles is, who the JT Tui Molo is, who the Caleb Downs is. And so that's not a shot at anybody. That's a realistic evaluation of how good the last two Ohio State defenses that faced this Texas team were at those points in the season and particularly at those points on the field. So if we think Texas has a better plan offensively in the red zone, and you can't expect the Ohio State defense to be at the same level in the red zone, it feels like Texas will have more success. Yeah. That's part of the reason why I think the game is going to be higher scoring. Yes. I think it's, it's primarily a red zone conversation, but it's also just like a, like a fourth and short cover, because wasn't there a fourth and short stop like closer to midfield for Ohio State's defense in this game last year, there was like, or like the Notre Dame at Notre Dame in 23, they had like a big fourth downstop in that game, like in the middle of the field, they were just really, really didn't part of it. When the money was down on fourth and short, the last couple of years, Ohio State's defense more often than not got to stop, whether that was near the goal line or not. Didn't have any last year or last week. Excuse me. You know, am I, am I, I don't think either of us is saying like they're going to be a terrible fourth down defense. I think it's just probably safe to assume that they're not going to quite meet the bar of the last couple of defenses. They're maybe they're maybe not yet ready to do it in the second game of this season. Maybe by the end of the year, they will be able to. And I think Texas just feels like it's in a better spot. We'll see. This has been an ongoing issue for Sark just because they were good at it last week against Texas state does not mean they're going to be good at it against Ohio state. But I think going into the game, I anyway, feel a little bit more confident in the Texas side of that than I do the Ohio state side of that. If you're an Ohio state fan and you're sitting on your couch with your friends and your spouse and your kids and your cousins and your neighbors and Ohio state gets an early fourth down stop in the red zone, share a look and say to each other, Bill and Doug don't know what they're talking about, but that will be defining like if that, cause that, I think, especially if that's early. And one of these things, again, we talked about it on the Wednesday show we did for our subscribers. Ohio state took the lead in each of the last two games. And like, duh, most teams are, but this Texas Sark team is so much better when they score first. So especially if it's something like that, where Texas is trying to keep the pedal down early and it's like, Hey, it's fourth and three at the 11. We're not kicking a field goal. We're here to win this thing. And Ohio state gets to stop. That's defining. Cause I think that's going to get in Sark's head that we get in Arch Manning's head. If Ohio state can get a big stop early, I just think it's going to be hard because I think Texas has a little something for it this year. Yeah. But I think that's, you're talking about like the emotional swings there, right? If that, if Texas doesn't score on its first road zone trip, the game almost gets like flipped on its head in a way that I think would be pretty tough for them to come back from. 100% agree. One of the things that we wanted to ask Ryan Day about this week, and we got the question in on Wednesday night, was about the silent count. They used it against Miami. They used it against Texas in the semifinal in the Cotton Bowl, right? It did not work against Miami. When I asked Ryan Day about it, he said Arthur Smith has some ideas about it. And he said they've been working on it all summer. And I thought that was a good answer because it was better than the answer was like, they were good. Same as last year. Same thing. Yeah, right. Same pass. Just next question. I don't know what it means, but part of it is just be a little faster anyway. So if you're going on the silent count, you're not waiting until there's three seconds left on the play clock to snap it. But maybe there's other secret football strategy in there. But do you think it really could matter? Ohio State's ability to handle the crowd. But sometimes it's like they've been quick to get to a silent count. And it's like, are you sure you need to do this? Yeah. That's why I think they're going to be under center more because I think the thing that gets you jammed up when you're in a silent count is well, one, doing it so late in the play clock as Ohio State was last year against Miami. But two, if you're doing it via signal from my guard to center, which is like the center is looking back at the quarterback, the quarterback gives the guard a signal, the guard taps the center, and then the ball snapped. Everybody's watching that. As soon as that guard taps that center, the defense is ready to tee off. If you go under center, and maybe the quarterback is not doing a cadence because you can't hear him, so what's the point? He can at least give the center a tap to tell him, it's time to snap the ball. But then everybody's just going on the ball. And I think it's a little more even. So I actually am expecting Ohio State to be under center quite a bit in this game. I did the math, it was like 14% of the time against Ball State. I coming into the year thought they might be under center more like 30% of the time for the season. So I, and it could be higher than that, just based off Arthur Smith's background, Julian Sayin's comfortability with it, which I think he's very comfortable doing it. So I think it's not the only weapon to have like against the crowd noise and the lack of a cadence and doing silent count. I think it is a weapon that they will use in this game. Okay. I did think Sark also midweek did say like, one thing I can tell you is whatever we saw Ohio State do last week against Ball State, that's not what they're doing against us. So if they only did 14% under center center, they might have 74% under center safe for the Longhorns. Yeah. Only through one play action pass from under center was Jeremiah's touchdown. There'll be more of that in this game. And then defensively for Ohio State, like they practically did nothing. So on that, like Sarkis talking about it from that perspective as the offensive coordinator, he knows that Ohio State is not going to show up here tomorrow night and play man half the time like they did against Wall Street. Okay. Let's get to our picks. This is the third time we're doing it. I'm changing my pick because if you have three different shows, you make three different picks. That's right. That's a good podcast. That's right. And also I've been picking Ohio state all week. And now here we are in the Texas museum. I'll just pick the last notch. I've been picking Texas all week. We make one pick. We share it everywhere that we go. We did it on Northern Aggression. Go find us the podcast of Northern Aggression on YouTube, on your favorite podcast feed is two of us and Matt Fortuna. We're doing national college football from a big 10 and Northern perspective. So we actually made these picks on that show on Wednesday. We made them again at billandougshow.com for our subscribers, for our big game breakdown where you can join us over there if you want 25% off. billandougshow.com/more. Come join us over there. See what you think if you want a little more Bill and Doug in their life. So you, there are people here who have heard this before Bill, but there are people who are probably hearing this for the first time. And I am picking Texas 35, 31. Is it, it's Texas' moment. Is that good for them or bad for them? I'm expecting them to seize it a little bit. I'm expecting a little bit of the extra desperation. We need this. If we're going to be Texas, we have to win a game like this. To me, it's a little bit. I don't think it's this. I don't think it's completely dissimilar from the Ohio State, Tennessee playoff game. And that was like, so that moment, your backs against the wall, your backs against the ball against the wall. Who are you? This is defining now, Texas can still go win the national championship if they lose to the Ohio State. So you can't match those stakes and Texas is not coming off a loss to their hated rival the week before, right? Or a couple of weeks before. So we understand it. But that's a moment where you're at home against a big time opponent. Weather's going to be a factor, right? The weather's on your side for then it was Ohio State cold. Now it's Texas heat. It's, it's at night. So your fans are going to be jacked up. Who are you? Ohio State in that Tennessee game showed you who they were. And the result was national championship. And at that time, there were questions about who Ohio state was. Were people sure that a Ryan day program could win a game like that? They weren't a hundred percent sure. So it is one of those. So this, I think it's in that way for the head coach for trying they've their own five against Ohio state and Georgia in games like this. It's their time. It's their time to win a game like this. And I think they can. I'll take the Longhorns 35, 31. I'm taking Ohio state 32, 31, more possessions, much higher scoring than the last couple of games have been. It was relayed to me by Spencer Holbrooke of letter Monroe, that no one's ever scored more than 30 points in this game, like between Ohio state and Texas. Every time they played, no one's ever scored more than 30. And I am here predicting both teams to score more than 30. So I am probably destined to be wrong. I just think it's an offensive showcase. I sort of agree with you. I think, I think Texas like mostly meets the moment, but Ohio State has the ball last. And the last moment sort of like belongs to Julian Sayin and Jeremiah. So that'd be a thing. And I see it the same way. I think, I think Texas has the ball and it's and it's Arch and Sark. Figuring out a way Archmarch. I called it. You get Archmarched in DKR. All right. Thanks to the Texas Sports Hall of Fame for hosting us here. We certainly would recommend if you are an Ohio State fan who is watching this, come on by DKR. If you can. We don't know the hours or anything, but like if you can wander in here, you certainly have the opportunity to do it. And we appreciate you guys being here watching us. Find us billanddougshow.com. Find us post game on this YouTube feed live. Find us writing about the game as soon as it ends over at billanddougshow.com. We appreciate every member of this podcast audience, this YouTube audience and every subscriber over on the website. For now, he's Bill Landis, I'm Doug Lesmerises. And from Austin, Texas, that was The Bill and Doug Show.