Rob Cornelius "The 315" 8-29-24

is Rob Cornelius getting ready for his trip out here uh to the Dome this weekend Rob thanks so much for hopping on for a few today happy to do it Brian happy happy to join you guys we're not sure what we're going to see when we walk out there on Saturday frankly neither are we so that makes that makes two of us I think but that's part of the fun obviously you guys you guys are swapping out coaches doing some you know on paper Big Time recruiting and we were kind of doing this Kansas City a in personation in the allseason where a lot of our best players we snapped up and head to the Big 10 and we were 10 wins twice in a row we literally in a lot of cases aren't sure at all what's going to happen this year you know I wanted to ask you that and it's kind of a bigger picture situation it's not just Ohio obviously it hits Ohio because you've had such great success the last couple years but you know we look at conference realignment and the transfer portal they they've kind of converged in opposite ways right on on the Mac like the Mac has been very little affected in One Way by conference realignment but then the portal comes and everyone's coming looking for the Mac for their best players how's the conference handled and that's kind of the hard part we obviously the most compact you know D1 conference it's literally a bus league and that's not an insult for for most weeks it's it's an easy inexpensive place to play we get great kids uh from the Upper Midwest and and Pennsylvania and they're like but everybody sees us on TV because every game is on TV and all of our guys are are available on the drop of hat and it's a real you know it's a real uh compliment to all of our coaches and the great recruiting they've done in this program and how we live you know lift guys into relevance and condition them into relevance and then you get to see them for a year or two or three and they end up doing something else big I mean our quarterback's going to start at Indiana our running backs going to get big minutes in Minnesota um you know we have uh our best tight end inter up at Ohio State and you look at this depending on how you read it whether it's number starts minutes played stat production we're in the bottom three we're in the other case top three in the country in terms of being good at here and it's just something for Tim Alvin our coach you know it's it's a great comence everything his guys have done but you got to now reload and it's hard to do on an even shorter schedule and when you can't give every kid the Dodge Challenger they want you know it's crazy cuz that you know maction has been a thing for so long right with these Tuesday and Wednesday games on on ESPN it's great and it's like the only game on and everybody watches it I guess that's the downside with the portal right everyone watches it like all these other coaching staffs they're sitting around you know doing whatever on a Tuesday night they probably have the game on and see hey that guy's pretty good and then they remember that when the portal comes around yeah and you know and obviously they they can pick and choose who do the hard work you bring in the 25 you bring in every year and the ones that stick thick and the ones that are really good A lot of times don't but the thing is too it's great to see these kids give these opportunities and get even beyond the co years or some of these guys seem like they were playing seven eight years go and get that Masters and that other Masters and get their schooling and get every possible drop a miror they can have a college experience be Aon Syracuse wherever but it's made this really really hard when you lose guys in that first four years when you assume you were going to have for four or five years regardless you know the grad year transfer doesn't offend anybody but that kid who's 19 or 20 or sophomore that's the one that really hurts and that said while it has been hard a few teams have been doing it better than Ohio here I mean you look at what Tim Elbert has done in his first three years back toback 10- win Seasons Frank solish was there for a long time right 20 some odd years before that and just had you know solid consistent success what what has made this program so uh consistent here over such a long period of time well when Frank was here he basically had the same assistance for years it was the most static staff in the league it was a head coach W considered permanent and who was for 15 almost 16 years and these assistants have all of them stuck around for a very very long time Tim Alvin was the OC for most of that 15 16 year period when Frank was in charge our DC for most of that period was a guy named Jim burrow whose son is a a decent quarterback we're told in the NFL and uh he still comes to coach a show every week he's still an Athens lifer he and the wife until this year I think the wife was working at a day job which is grade school principal so it's like a very Community Based very small place I'm trying to think what to compare it to even in like East Coast terms I can't think of a place uh it's a small town and it's a it's a rural place to come play I know Kansas State it's hard good comparison for Athens but it's beautiful and it's not in the city and some kids love it and some kids don't but the ones who love it love it and stay and I think it's LED right for the most part to a consistent winning but like a consistent you know style right what how if you had to describe and boil down what would the style of Ohio football be how would you describe that well I mean it's it's always been pretty run heavy and some option Tim Alin has been more open with the offense I think we'll open up more this year Brian Smith who's in the Washington state Hawaii coach and takes full range as OC this year and I think you're going to see maybe some more hurry up maybe some more um you know old Texas Tech pass him look true some true run and shoot elements here and there but I think it's going to be more entertaining and more interesting Frank was very much uh he's not a guy took a lot of chances but then he again he locked in this was the worst program in America it's about 1997 had about 20 30 years in Wilderness between Jim Gro fixing it and Frank Solage you know really really improving it this thing has been locked in at what I would call S and half eight wins now for 20 years and this is for a team that was the worst team in the country before that so any success here is is beloved alone winning balls winning double figure games this is can be a difficult a difficult year initial I think the first month could be anything could be one and three could be three and one you don't know but then you get into League because that's where your your money is made here in the Mac your your odds all you know expanded this playoff your ability to escape and do more stuff in December and January the reality is The League season is the season yeah yeah I mean Ohio before the end of the month Syracuse they'll be coming up in in a couple days a road game at Kentucky a few weeks after that with South Alabama and Morgan State sandwich between and then we're talking uh Matt games the rest of the way B basically every team in the league is doing the same thing right with with one or two of these power four power five power whatever we call it it these day uh games early H how important are these games obviously fiscally they are important but as far as these teams you know showing their Wares how how important are these games in the league well I mean one you occasionally get out there and steal one or beat one of these teams and teams in the western half of our league have really made made their money in the last 15 or so years scheduling a weaker sister or a down your big 10 getting getting Purdue the right year getting Illinois we got them the right year uh getting someone like a Minnesota we've beaten Minnesota and that's kind of what this league is SED up on this league is rarely outside of K who frankly has needed the money as much as anything rarely goes out and plays like double hammers like Alabama and Auburn or you know Georgia and some else use Georgia and Florida um I think this league is going have to do more of that and next year's schedule Ohio kind of shows that we're going to go from the schedule which I would call manageable Syracuse Kentucky and the home schedule you mentioned next year this team lines up host West Virginia is at Ohio State so I think that's kind of where this is going because the big teams need games and these programs as long as we're continue to have big athletic departments and full scholarship allotments and women sports and Title 9 you're going to have to get get money and I think it's going to get harder for these teams to go without playing what I would call a hammer um you know going forward yeah my goodness Ken State back in the day those was our guy Shawn Lewis he was Dino baber's OC here he went there he at Alabama at Oklahoma those schedules are crazy that guy can coach that guy can coach I I I can say nothing but good things about his program youngest guy in the country youngest guy in the majors at that point when he went to camp and he was impressive and he fixed a program that is often terrible very quickly yeah good reason to that he got he got the rawest of deals last year in Colorado but uh he's in San Diego now so I'd say it's worked out pretty well for Sean Lewis to be head coach San Diego State and living out there it's worked out well for our guy Sean we got Rob Cornelius from Ohio here and you know you mentioned the money that comes with these games we we know all these rulings and lawsuits and nil and all this like like that stuff has got to it's got to hit athletic departments in the Mac hard here or at least potentially so going forward no it really does I don't know who you're you're big sponsor your big car dealer your big industry in Syracuse your big Alum that deals with this stuff but trust me most the schools the M can't compete obviously with the outside money and then the depth you get out of the bigger conference bigger conference programs but again you work around the edges you out recruit some guys you lift some guys into relevance and you can make it and it was good we appreciate Syracuse when you guys came down was a couple couple seasons ago slog of a game Syracuse a winner but we like obviously big school programs that'll come to our place and and do that we've had a few of those in the last several years like said W next year we at Iowa State recently and that kind of is one thing we want to see more big Conference teams they're able to do that yeah Syracuse you know over the years they do a lot of two for one deals with with the Mages they've been they did that with the Western they did that with Central Michigan know akan back in the uh in the day Ohio it certainly happens a lot it it works out well I I think for all involved it's a it's a win-win for all involved with games like that we got Rob Cornelius from the Ohio radio broadcast with us all right let's get on the field a little bit for this game uh on Saturday who the heck's still on your team like there there's back toback to teams a lot is gone right Curtis roor is gone in Indiana who who are they leaning on this year as returners uh Parker Navaro he was the uh the second or third quarterback last year Harris was kind of out on a medical so wasn't really dressed that often Navar is a kid who started out as a phoenix kid recruited to UCF played little there bounced back to Juke came our way dislocated an elbow in garbage time against Iowa State a couple seasons ago but came and played um you know chunks of last year when Curtis work was unavailable and was the star of the game and he's an interesting dude um he is an optional quarterback not a big guy six foot maybe but he's a kind of a run to contact guy he wants to deliver the shot not not be shot and does a good job getting the run of the outside manages the game well stronger armed than you most would give him credit for literally My worry is again keeping him healthy because he's a guy who gives a lot of contact takes a lot of contact and O you know the questions interior part of the line um Center and both guards were return a bunch of minutes the outside guys don't and that's that's a concern I think you'll probably see a bunch of double tight bunch of 12 Personnel on Saturday as Ohio tries to figure out if their you know their tackles are up to it yeah it'll be very interesting and again like the Syracuse side of things we got no clue what this new defense is going to look like in many ways so it's a lot of question marks up in the air from sides like this you know I was talking to Kyle McCord a Syracuse's quarterback earlier this week who who played in your state last year I think is most know Ohio 82 miles away or whatever but so that's just right down the road for us so what what is like obviously Ohio state is the big big state school are Ohio fans often Ohio State fans too like are they aware mord is this a separate group like what the demarcation there everyone's very aware but I like in Ohio State to Nebraska they're the pro they're the pro team in the state so a lot of your fans by default are going to be fans of whoever their local Mac team or Cincinnati who's just kind of in that middle range just a little bit above they're going to have their local team they like or they probably went to school there and then everybody regarded to higher state is like this the State team like a Nebraska like a West Virginia where they are the deal in the state so everyone has their eye on it even if they say they don't we'll all be watching or all be paying attention at some point and again mord you guys will probably love him you know Ohio State maybe not appropriate there probably appropriate for 112 other teams in D1 I'm sure he's going to be just side yeah uh he was doing quite well at Ohio State up until literally the last pass he threw there you he hadn't lost a game yet so we'll give him a crack we we'll see what he's got done I'm give him a shot I mean and again we we we've sent guys there that transferred up or we just missed on recruiting vice versa like our tight in well cos Merck's up there and he's going to be you know middle of their lineup not not probably not the starter but that speaks to you um that's considered you know the Apex in our part of the country for obvious reasons all right Rob before we let you go here today uh let's come up with a scenario here so so give me a scenario it's a close game uh in the fourth quarter uh on Saturday what does Ohio need to do to make that happen on Saturday Ohio needs to protect uh protect the pass to protect Navaro get him some time and Ohio's receivers essentially the top six receivers the last year's uh statute pardon me top seven are gone figure out very very quickly who's going to be your guy whether it's one of these one of these transfers whether it's someone who we know from last year I think the guy's going to really step out for is colan Owen number six from Gilbert Arizona was an All-American at FCS in northern Arizona he's going to return punts he's Fearless he looks like one of those guys not a bunch of body but he gets open much like Sam wigless or Star receiver from last year who just made the Rams practice squad so I'm looking for the trip to Syracuse last time I came the Bobcats absolutely stole basketball game from you guys in 98 99 yeah came in had no tape we had three High major transfers uh your guy had no tape of us and ab lost his mind tried to start start a fight with our coaches in the postgame press conferences we kick their butts it's awesome okay well we're gonna have to find have to check in with Jim beheim on that one I I gotta go back in the tell tell him Mike alers sends his best okay oh my I was not expecting Jim beim to come up here today we're going to have to do a little research on that hot man he was so hot get better players when we had him that night okay there we go there we go a little nugget Rob I like it I like it all right man safe travels out this way thanks so much for hopping on see you guys Saturday thank