Week 1 Previews: Akron vs. Ohio State and Idaho vs. Oregon | B1G Today

Preview: Akron vs. Ohio State well no one there is satisfied with how the last few seasons have ended in Columbus it is fair to point out that Ryan day's tenure with Ohio state has had overwhelmingly more UPS than Downs his Buckeyes have lost just eight times in his first five full seasons his win percentage of 875 is the highest by any FBS coach this Century who's coached at least 50 games with Kirby Smart Urban Meyer and Nick sabbin the next three on the list it's an amazing list right and so we asked Ryan day about this in Camp if you remember do you take any pride in this and he said no absolutely not we were talking about this last week as well on the show and I think when you look at this week guys or this season I should say for them it's clearly beat Michigan or bust it's make the playoff or bust to a certain extent I don't know if it's win the national championship or bust but you talk to them it's win a National Title yeah right yeah I I think it's it's in that realm of Poss possibility that that if you don't win it you look at it as an unsuccessful year that's a tough place to be Yogi let's talk about the opener first against akan all due respect doesn't feel like it's going to be a particularly close game so what do you focus on in week one to you is is it offensive line in quarterback is there more to it than that what's your what are the things you'll you'll have in your line of sight there yeah I think everybody says the same thing which is nameless faceless opponent I had a chance to connect with Joe Morhead earlier this morning and he knows the task that that is up in front of his team with that said I think for Ohio State it really is about efficiency execution and opportunity why do I say opportunity we've talked to Ryan Day enough times now where say do they feel that pressure do they feel that Michigan or Natty or bust and he said you know what we look at it as what a cool opportunity what an opportunity to represent this school represent this team and everybody who came back I mean for years you guys have covered this team where the best players were three and out now it's three and run it back one more time and and I think that's going to be really fun to watch this thing so yes of course will Howard my eyes will be there what is Chip Kelly going to do do I anticipate all the bags of Chip Kell's offense coming out zero zero chance we're not going to see all the tricks that he has we're not going to see all the tools that they have but I anticipate to watch a real confident will Howard I look forward to watching one of the best Run games in the country I think this offensive line is pretty talented I know that's the one area you can say what are they going to be like this year I think they're still really gifted up front and they are a special team so how do they execute and I think the last thing I'll look for is their celebrations I think the best teams celebrate with one another like where is the vicarious Joy coming from and if you feel the pressure sometimes I call it exhale wins where you win the game or you score the touchdown it's thank God we got that I want to see this team ride together celebrate together jump on on the sideline together those are the things that showcase the championship culture mentality I think this team has that and that's what I'll be looking forward to when they compete yeah I think when we look at Ohio State we can talk about the line of scrimmage over the the offensive line where they need to improve but this is a game that they should be able to go out and dominate then you go to will Howard this is a situation where he should go out and be able to have the success he's had success in his past there's no question about that but being the starting quarterback in Columbus is a different animal all in in itself and he'll have to learn that process as he goes through it but playing this particular game will gain that momentum that confidence that he's going to need and also when Yogi talks about just watching the excitement of this team and how they move around also want to see him with a workmanlike attitude as they go out and compete this weekend uh I mean the thing that I find so interesting that you kind of are both touching on is how many players chose to come back right you have seven first or second Team all big 10 picks who could have gone to the NFL who came back for their senior year that speaks to a The Unfinished Business and kind of echoing the sentiment of Ryan day that no one not satisfied with just winning a lot of football games we need to win the right football games but I think it also speaks to what Yogi's talking about and and what you're alluding to to which is the camaraderie in this team and and guys with that common purpose they were picked first by 21 of the 27 voters in The Unofficial Big 10 preseason poll the Preview: Idaho vs. Oregon other six first place votes went to Oregon the Ducks got arguably the best transfer QB in the nation in Dylan Gabriel he's been a UCF in Oklahoma has thrown for nearly 15,000 career yards that's the seventh most in FBS history his 125 career TD passes are the most nationally among active players by 31 he has a chance to break the NCAA record for career starts a record of course set by his predecessor Bo Nicks Yogi cannot wait for these two to go head to-head on October 12th but we got a lot of football between now and then starting with the vandals you've been covering Oregon for a long time give us a little insight into what you are most interested in is they kind of begin that climb to potentially being a college football playoff and maybe even a national championship team well we get the gift to call on that one in the Big 10 Network this weekend so be flying up there Thursday we'll have another in-depth look under the hood at this program but I'll tell you this you guys are going to get annoyed every time I say this all year because every Monday I'm going to come on and I'm gonna say Oregon football connection growth toughness and sacrifice those are their DNA traits and I think they are dramatically reflected in every area of this program connection let talk about Dylan Gabriel what he's done Mir is what a lot of transfer quarterbacks do how you going to pour into your guys what did he do that was so unique instead of getting a Maserati he decided to get a van so he could put the receivers and tight ends in and drive them around all summer making sure that their timing their anticipation and the Playbook was completely connected to one another I look at this team defensively and I just think that like Ohio State and Penn State they're different than everybody else at least that my eyes saw defensively I know I didn't get a chance to go to Iowa like you guys did but but they're unique they've got 10 second year as in sophomore defensive lineman some are red shirt freshman some are true sophomores but bottom line they are loaded on the defensive front and you're going to have to be with what we know is the cfp and the expanded season 15 16 17 possible games for this team and I look around I don't see many chanks in their armor they're not world class at every position they're not a first rounder at every position but gosh I look at the 22 starters I everybody's going to find their way to a training camp some second third day picks some maybe free agents but this roster is worth the hype and Ohio State and Oregon at least for my lands man they are two different monsters right now in college football and in this league when you start to to think about this Oregon team over the last couple of years it's been a team that's been physical they've been put together to be a physical football team and you only need to look to to coach lanning's background at Alabama and Georgia to understand what type of Team he wants to put out on the football field so that's going to be significant for me I want to watch the line of scrimmage I'm not one of those that is buying into the West Coast teams of Mor finesse I think they're physical out there and they're have an opportunity really for the Midwest or our big 10 footprint for people to get a true understanding just how talented this team is and they're just not uh talented right they also can get physical and we'll get in the phone booth and beat you up if you're not careful the big thing that stands out to me is I think like for a lot of big 10 fans and I would count myself in this group the last time you really studied Oregon and watched them closely in preparation for game was when they played Ohio State for the National Championship in the first year of the college football playoff and that was a line of scrimmage mismatch Ohio State won that game at the line of scrimmage so then last year when we know that Oregon's coming into the Big 10 one of the things I did every week was DVR all of these teams every week right and you didn't I I wasn't able to watch every G I don't know what you did I tried to watch as much as I could and get a sense for them and I was blown away by how good they were on defense and how different they were under Dan Lanning than they had been when we saw them in 2014 this is a TSH leoy has a really good defense they they held seven opponents and 10 points are fewer last year he knows he knows a little bit about defense he also knows a whole heck of a lot about putting a roster together because he was one of the main recruiters at Alabama yeah they've done pretty well too now I'm fascinated to watch this team I'm fascinated to see how they match up with the rest of the Big 10 and and offensively I mean you you lose B Nick and you replacing with Dylan Gabriel holy cow pretty