Bobby Carpenter, Former Ohio State Linebacker

It is the Zach Gelb show on the Infinity Sports Network. What a wild weekend, by the way, in college football. You had the craziness late at night between Oregon and Ohio State with the controversial ending.

You had a very fascinating ending as well with Penn State and USC out west. Let's welcome in a former Ohio State linebacker, now is the host of Morning Juice, a 97-1 the fan in Columbus, and that's our pal Bobby Carpenter, kind enough to jump on board with us on what is a very busy Monday after a crazy weekend of football. Bobby, always great to have you on.

Thanks for the time. How you been? I have been great, Zach. Thanks for having me on, and you know, I guess the one reprieve Ohio got was that the Guardians be able to get that on Saturday, so hopefully they can keep that rolling into the ALCS here with the Yankees, despite a about a three-to-one payroll deficit, I think, with them and the other three teams that are left. Yeah, it was crazy because I kind of thought the Tigers were going to win that game five, and I love Tarek Skubal, and he looked dominant, and then that one inning and that one swing, really, by Lane Thomas just changed the entire game where, boom, you get a grand slam and you tied it up the batter before. That was really something that we got to see on a bizarre start time of 1.08 p.m. Eastern time because of the weather in a deciding game of an ALDS. Yeah, it worked out well because Ohio State was on in the evening, so I think everybody got to kind of straddle everything they wanted, and Rod Manfred is like just he's almost there. He can taste like the matchups that he wants, whether you get the Subway series or the classic Dodgers, Yankees.

The Guardians are the only team that he does not want to see be a part of this, and I completely understand that. They're a scrappy bunch of guys, and that's, you know, in baseball you can pitch seven great innings. It takes one curveball.

You hang something a little bit. Next thing you know, it's in the front row. All right, let's get to the Buckeyes. Down the stretch in that game, they had the penalty where they thought they were in field goal position, then it pushes them out. They let seven valuable seconds tick off the clock, and then towards the end, they're just not able to get one more play because the time did run out.

Just how about the lack of awareness that we saw in the final 90 seconds from the Ohio State Buckeyes? Yeah, the main thing I think the issue was the clock restarting after that OPI, then not stopping on an offensive penalty, and I don't think that maybe there was is a nearly as much urgency after that as there should have been, and that's really outside of that. You're trying to get one more yard. You know, Oregon's throwing another guy out there to burn six seconds off the clock, which I kind of have a moral objection against because they changed the rule about 10, 11 years ago, about 12-player participation, going from a 15-yard down to a five-yard penalty. So really, Will Howard, I mean, he scrambles, tries to get down.

He's trying to pick up more yards to make that a more manageable field goal. They have the timeout. They don't get it off in time, but like you said, that's seven to 10 seconds that were burned after the OPI and the totality of the game.

That's really the only issue that I had about as far as game management. I thought Ryan Day did a pretty good job. Otherwise, they threw the ball pretty well. They ran it well in the first half. Oregon's a really darn good team, and Zach, I've talked to a number of guys who went out to that game who had coached other places, have played other places, and just the volume there, they said they would put it on par with any place that they'd been at LSU at night, Neyland Stadium at night, Auburn, Penn State.

I mean, it was loud, and for having 55,000, 60,000 people, I mean, it's a tough, tough little hornet's nest to walk into. How do you view Ryan Day as a head football coach? Because he's only had nine losses in his career, but we know they've lost the last three seasons to Michigan. They haven't won a Big Ten championship in the last three seasons, and these big games, they just don't usually end the way that the Ohio State fan envisions them with them on the right side of things. Yeah, losing the last three Michigan games, you throw the Georgia game in there in the Peach Bowl, I mean, it was tough. I think Ryan against, I saw a stat against top ten teams, he's like eight and eight.

You know, he's two and seven, I believe, against top five, but when you're playing those top five, there's a reason why you're in there to begin with, and if you lose the close ones, like if you can't win the big one, it's a mismanagement. Like, I didn't see gross mismanagement, really, in a lot of those different games. I'm around Ryan a lot. I see Ohio State. I've seen a lot of good coaches, Zach.

I've seen bad. Ohio State, I think, as a fan base, has probably overreacted. They have high expectations, which is rightfully deserved. They expect to win all of those games. The reality, though, in college football now with where you're at, like that game isn't overly punitive. Now, it does slim down your margin for error, but I don't think anybody thought Ohio State was going to go 16-0 this year. I don't know if anybody is going to go 16-0 in college football. It's just a really tough landscape to be able to do that in, and I always say, if you're going to get rid of them, tell me a better coach that you can say definitively is out there. You know, Kirby Smart, he's done a good job. He's won national championships. They're struggling a little bit right now. We were ready to hoist Kalen DeBoer up as, you know, the combination of Bear Bryant and Nick Saban, and then, all of a sudden, the last two games, you know, it's looked really rough.

So, I think Ryan does a really good job. You've got to find a way to win those. This season, they have a veteran team. They've got to come away with it. You know, that game, you lose by a point on the road to a team that's, you know, ranked third in the country in a game that you probably feel like you should have won. And so, you've got to take a look at that, figure out, is it a turnover here? It's the special team's, you know, issue there.

Maybe you got to get one more stop. The defense wasn't really all that great. Offensively, you did enough to win.

I think if you score 31 points, you're in a good spot, but you've got to find those margins around the edges so that it's not a close game at the end. Here's the fascinating part about this, Bobby Carpenter, because it's one thing for fans to put pressure on a coach. I think that's totally warranted with the way that it's gone the last three years. I was surprised before the start of the season to hear what I heard from Urban Meyer and then Jim Tressel. Don't get me wrong. This is a very talented team, but for them to say this is like the greatest roster they've ever seen at Ohio State, there's been better rosters.

And that's not taking anything away from this roster. But I thought that was two former Ohio State coaches that right were the standard putting a little extra pressure and trying to kick Ryan Day a little bit in the tushy to say, hey, let's go. Let's get this thing rocking and rolling again. You know, it's it. Here's the thing, because it's kind of a compliment, but it also lays those expectations out there saying that you've assembled one of the best rosters, if not the best roster in college football or Ohio State history, whatever, what have you.

That's a great job putting this together. But now ultimately come the expectations with that. And I don't know if Tressel was trying to do that. I don't know if Urban maybe had that quite in mind with when they set it back in June.

But that's something that's hung around now. And you heard guys say in championship or bust and things like that, the new AD Ross Bjork has kind of tried to temper that down because, you know, I don't think he wants to be like, you expect me to fire Ryan Day if we finish, you know, we lose a game to Texas or someone at the end of the season in the national championship. Like the guy's done a really good job, but there is expectations to come with that. And he's been close. You know, he lost in a semifinal to Clemson in a rough matchup, lost to a Bama team in 20.

That was great. They've been on the doorstep. They've come up short to Michigan the last three years, and these are good Michigan teams. Like the last team won the national championship. But in doing that, that also kind of puts that onus then directly back on you when your rival wins. Like, okay, it's time to step up and get it done.

So there is a lot of pressure. And maybe those two guys, I don't know if it was overt of what they were doing back in the summer. I don't think they would be saying it now.

And just things hang around forever with social media and the fact that sports is so prominent that it never goes away. I'm sure you got to these conversations, you know, in what we do before Bobby Carpenter, but you talked about it. If they want to get rid of him, who are some names that have kind of been floated on out there that you could see being a fit at Ohio State? If they said at the end of the year, okay, we're just going to move in a different direction. Well, I'll tell you names that people have floated to me.

And I hear in my social media mentions anytime this stuff comes up. I mean, people always say, well, hire Mike Vrabel. He's just consulting with the Browns now. Mike Vrabel I don't believe wants to coach college.

I haven't overtly asked him that. I know Mike, I don't feel like that's something he wants to do at this point. People throughout Luke Fickle, who's at Wisconsin, who did a great job at Cincinnati.

He just got there. They're improving, probably not as fast even for their fans up there. But I can't promise you that Luke Fickle is going to be better than Ryan Day, nor can I promise you that he would take that job right now when he just got to Wisconsin. And Luke being a guy of ultra-high integrity, saying he probably made some promises to them that despite an era where coaches always just hop to a better situation, he wouldn't leave. That he would want to make sure that he saw that process through at least to some sort of completion.

So those are the two people. It's always former Buckeyes that people are leaning in now on and Ryan not being an Ohio guy. But coming here with Urban as an assistant and getting the job that they pushed that back to kind of John Cooper, the 90s, who wasn't an Ohio guy. Just because so many of the coaches, Zach, Woody Hayes and Earl Bruce, Jim Tressel, Urban Meyer, the guys that have won national championships, have been from Ohio or coached at Ohio State before. But Ryan has done a really good job embracing everything about the rivalry here with Michigan and embracing the culture of Ohio State. And so it'll never be enough, Zach, until you win a national championship and that gives you some cover. And so he knows he's got to get it done. He understands what it is. But that's part of being the head coach at Ohio State. It seems like you're not worried.

That's kind of the sense even after the one-point loss. Listen, I've been around good coaches. I've been around bad coaches. Ryan is one of the best coaches I've ever been around. Is he perfect?

No. But I've seen guys who are perceived to be good, who I can tell you I don't think are very good. And whether it's players or maybe a little luck or things that have worked out, that they've gotten so much better. They've gotten Super Bowls or different things like that.

So I know how he operates. I believe in the process of how they operate and the relationship, how they work with their players. So I thought they were going to win that game until there was zero seconds left on the clock. And I still think that they have the opportunity to play for a national championship this year. And there's no one that I see on that roster that they would play on their schedule, including in the playoff where I'd say, man, I don't think that they can win this game. They may have to play well to do it, but when you're talking about playing the other best teams in the country, if you don't have to play well, then maybe you're just like the 2001 Miami Hurricanes or one of these generational teams that could go out and roll your helmet out and win against another top five team 30 to nothing.

But I don't think we're in that era anymore. So on a scale of one to 10, Bobby, one being no pressure, seats freezing cold, 10 being as warm and as hot as possible. Where do you think he is on the hot seat right now? Just wondering. So hot seats. Interesting. Like as far as being fired, I would say it's below three hot seat as far as like, we're going to cook you alive.

Probably about a seven or eight right now. Like people say they want to get someone else. I don't think there's any there's unless there's some sort of monumental meltdown.

I don't think there's any worry about that. But yeah, there's everybody talking. I mean, do people say crap to his kids at school, which I have vehemently opposed up for all coaches with all fan bases.

Their kids don't have anything to do with it. Saying crap to someone's wife in a grocery store. Like that's the stuff. It is, but it comes with, Hey, you know, you're the head coach at big state.

You everybody cares. You'll love the passion when it's for you, because I mean, you could murder someone and they drag them to the river, but when you're not getting it done, they also want to sit there and fry you all the time and make sure it feels as rough as possible. So I would say, yeah, right now in Columbus until they have a bi-week, the worst possible bi-week you could have for losing that game. But yeah, it's hot. It's seven and a half, eight.

I mean, it doesn't feel good. They're going to have to win and they're going to have to beat Penn State, beat Nebraska, beat Penn State. And then all of a sudden, like the AC starts to come back on and things start to regulate a little bit. And people believe that this team can then win a national championship once again. I know you don't think he's going to get fired, but if they did go to that route at the end of the year, if they call Urban Meyer and say, hey, we want you to coach again, do you think Urban would say no?

I'll tell you this. I love Urban Meyer. I've enjoyed him. He's been good to me. When I was around, my brother was a GA for him. I think if you probably asked Urban in a private moment, I don't know if he could coach.

And I think he's addressed this. I don't think he could coach in this era of football. Like you and that's, you see Nick Saban getting out a lot of guys and you have to be, it is so much work Zach is to coach guys hard.

You have to have a great relationship with them to have a very, and they have to have trust and to have a great relationship and trust that has developed over time. And when you're bringing in guys in the portal and stuff, you have to be so selective and make sure that you're balancing like talent and character. Cause if not, you get what goes on at Florida State right now. And some of these other schools where you lose a game or two and like people just push their chips in, or you see the Malachi Brown situation at Bama where he's yelling back at coaches not coming off the field. Again, it is harder now to coach players in college than even in the NFL. Cause the NFL, you can cut guys and you can go get other guys off the street and you can trade. Like your roster is your roster in college during the season. So love it or hate it. You have to usually try to play the best players and you better hope that those best players have great character about them. And it's really tough to do so.

If they would ask Ervin, I don't, I don't think that that would be a prudent move, and I also don't think at this point in his career that he would want to take that on knowing what it entails. Since you bring up Alabama, right? They were rock stars in the first half up against Georgia. Second half against Georgia, they won, but that got way too close with what the score was even lost the lead at one point.

Then they just got, they weren't hung over and celebrated. They just got dominated by Vanderbilt and they were lucky to win that game up against South Carolina. I know a big one this weekend up against Tennessee, where we'll learn a lot about Alabama, but what do you make of them so far? Cause they were looking like a national championship team in the first half up against Georgia. And since then, this has got an ugly quickly.

It has. And this is like college football where we're at. And they're playing a game against Tennessee who Tennessee losing to Arkansas kind of changed everything for them. They're in overtime against Florida, which everyone thought like Florida's done Billy Napier's out of here. This is a game where both of these teams, the loser has eliminated any margin for error. Now, if you have two losses, like you can survive in the big 10 and SCC, I think if you go 10 and two and you have a good schedule, some good wins, nine and three, now you're really, you're, you're, you're throwing the craps out there.

Now you better have a lot of help and you better have some signature wins to be able to get it done. And so as quickly as we're ready to get out the anointing oil to quote my old coach, bill Parcells, I, they will, they will string you up that quick as well. And I think the honeymoon, it was short. Well, Kaylin, the board man had the shortest one week honeymoon in the history of football because people were ready.

They're getting the statue made that we were on from saving. We got this offensive guy and we're good to go now. And they're playing Tennessee. And both of them are fighting for their life in this Bama team. They don't look as disciplined as they've been under Nick Saban.

And I haven't been around the team. I've been there watching practices and everything else, but there's just, there seems to be something missing. They may be more explosive on offense, but they don't have seem to have that same level of discipline.

I don't want to say focus, but direction maybe that you used to see last thing last year, Bobby Carpenter, I thought it was football malpractice. What Lincoln Riley did at the end of that game, but Penn State won. They're ranked the third best team in the country, which is wild to me because I think they're just a good team, not a great team, but that's how open this sport is. Give me a thought or two about USC Penn State and where you think the Nittany Lions are heading towards. You know, Penn State was one of those teams that I put a lot like Ole Miss where they've always been right around there and like 12 team they'll get in, but could they really win it? After watching this a little more, like I'm a believer, like they went out to USC. We talked about this, like a desperate team. They'd lost a couple of games.

They won't have any shot. They were going to have to be clean the rest of the way. Lincoln Riley usually talks to some people in Oklahoma about this too. Like these are the games that Lincoln Riley wins.

He'll lose the game that he's not supposed to, but against Penn State coming into home, that's where they'll play well and they'll win and give them credit. I mean, they jumped out. They had a lead. They had control of the game and James Franklin to his credit, just kept kind of crawling around, didn't panic, kept playing well, like literally waited for USC to kind of implode a little bit and just kept punching, just kept punching and they came away with a victory and, albeit it was a close one, and it wasn't easy.

It probably didn't feel good, but I think there is some realness to Penn State that I did not see there before. He is Bobby Carpenter. Bobby, appreciate the time as always. Thanks for doing this. My pleasure, Zach.

Anytime. There you go, Bobby Carpenter. Great segment right there on the Zach Gelb Show on the Infinity Sports Network. Check him out. Morning's host of Morning Juice, the 97-1, the fan in Columbus. We'll take a break. We'll do a little know-how to offense next.