SCARLET ORANGE BROWN

Buckeyes to Bengals to Browns: The Heart of Ohio Football

• Ken Carpenter • Season 1 • Episode 1

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The passion for football runs deep in the Buckeye State, where the gridiron isn't just a game but a way of life connecting communities across Ohio. From the storied tradition of Ohio State to the professional franchises in Cincinnati and Cleveland, football culture here represents something uniquely powerful and unifying.

Welcome to the Scarlet, Orange, and Brown Podcast, where hosts Chris Huseman and Ken Carpenter bring decades of experience as both coaches and fans to deliver authentic, no-nonsense coverage of Ohio's football landscape. Our premiere episode establishes our deep personal connections to these teams – Chris growing up idolizing Bengals greats like Kenny Anderson and Anthony Munoz, while Ken remained loyal to the Browns despite being surrounded by Steelers fans in Eastern Ohio. Both hosts share powerful memories that shaped their Buckeyes fandom, including Ken's experience hearing Woody Hayes speak at his high school banquet.

We dive into pressing questions facing each team: Can Ohio State repeat as national champions with freshman phenoms Julian Sayin and Jeremiah Smith leading the charge? Has Ryan Day evolved into a more complete coach who can finally overcome the Michigan hurdle? Will Joe Burrow get the protection and weapons needed to bring Cincinnati its first Super Bowl victory? And can Cleveland's quarterback situation ever find stability? Through our "Three Teams, Three Questions" segment, we offer unfiltered perspectives on what to expect this season across Ohio football.

Beyond game analysis, we're creating a community for true football enthusiasts who appreciate authentic discussion free from corporate talking points. Subscribe now to join us weekly as we deliver insights, interviews with special guests, and the kind of passionate football talk that only true Ohioans can provide. Leave a review and help us build something special together – because here, it's all football, all Ohio, all the time.

Tune in every week for a new episode!

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Scarlet, orange and Brown podcast, the show that brings you the best of Ohio football every single week. From the Ohio State Buckeyes to the Cincinnati Bengals to the Cleveland Browns, we've got every inch of the Buckeye State covered Insight, passion and plenty of bold opinions.

Speaker 3:

Because here it's all football, all Ohio, all the time here's your hosts coming to you live from the Dublin bubble Chris Huseman and Ken Carpenter. Hello and welcome to the very first episode of Scarlet, orange and Brown Podcast, your home for all things Buckeyes, bengals and Browns. I'm Ken Carpenter.

Speaker 2:

I'm Chris Huseman and we are just basically two guys that live and breathe Ohio football, and not only are we former coaches, but we're fans, and now we're your two favorite local podcast hosts.

Speaker 3:

Well, every week we're going to break down the biggest games, storylines, hot takes on college and professional football here in Ohio. No fluff, no corporate spin, no reporters. And Chris, I'm sure people are wanting to know why this show well.

Speaker 2:

So why this podcast? And why, now? And honestly, um, you got to believe that Ohio is really the hub or the center of the football world. I mean, you're talking um the Paul Brown you. You're talking Ohio State history going back forever and that center of the football world and Ohio State national champs and two pro football teams in Ohio. What's not to love, kenny?

Speaker 3:

Yes, and you know, being a Browns fan like I am, I'm always optimistic, but I got to be realistic too. But you know you talk about your Bengals, joe Burrow, I think this has got to be his window and hopefully that defense will hold up for him.

Speaker 2:

Well, and again, I think you know everybody talks about how cheap the Bengals are and the Brown family down in Cincinnati, but it's just surrounding him with puzzle pieces that will, a, protect him, and B are weapons such as tight ends. And not only that, we all know that the Bengals' defense needs a little uptake, so we'll see what Al Golden has this year.

Speaker 3:

Yes, and I, being a Browns fan, I know that it's been tough for quite some time and I have no idea who the quarterback's going to be long term, and I don't even think they really know that. But you know, I still got a root for them and you know let me ask you this, your personal connection to it where did it all start for you as far as the Bengals and the Buckeyes?

Speaker 2:

Well, growing up in Cincinnati and just being a lifelong Reds Bengals fan, it was ingrained, I guess, in you and just that. You know, growing up with Kenny Anderson and growing up with, you know, anthony Munoz, and then it kind of morphed into Boomer Esiason and you know just some minor successes that they had here and there. You know it was kind of the Bengals versus the world mentality and that's what I like about Ohio State. You know Ohio State it was the Ohio against the world mentality. There for a while we won a couple of national championships. Now everybody's chasing us. So it's just fun to be a part of something like that. How about you and the Browns?

Speaker 3:

Well it goes back. I grew up in Eastern Ohio, in Bel Air, and everybody at the time in the 70s were huge.

Speaker 2:

Steelers fans. The Valley, you came from the Valley, yeah.

Speaker 3:

And everybody was a Steeler fan and they were winning Super Bowls and I just kind of followed probably what my dad followed and he was a big Browns Cleveland fan in general. So I was on the opposite end of that. But there were some great seasons, even though they didn't quite make it to the Super Bowl and they came close several times. That just being a part of Cleveland and watching how much the fans just want it so bad.

Speaker 2:

Agreed, it just seems to be out of reach. Yeah, but as far as Buckeyes go.

Speaker 3:

you know you got to. Everybody in Ohio loves the Buckeyes and you know, I just think, that as a kid Woody Hayes came and spoke at our high school banquet and I attended that as a kid and you know every, every chance you got as a kid to watch the Buckeyes, that that was the thing, and and it's not like today where they're on, all the time it was.

Speaker 2:

you know you had to pick and choose back in those days and I I really enjoyed it and you know, ended up graduating from ohio state, so nothing more to say there than other than you know a huge buckeye fan yeah, well, being an alumnus too, I took a couple of classes at Iowa State, you know but it's just that whole aura that I think Columbus has always been, that town, that underdog town, and you know who knows that? Not a lot of people know that we're the 14th most populous city, biggest city in the United States, and the market's huge and you know anybody who's anybody probably has some Ohio ties. So, with that being said, and our football aspect of it too, I'm excited for this podcast.

Speaker 3:

Well, you know, let me ask you this one Did you, what was your biggest win as a Bengal fan?

Speaker 2:

fan, um, I would say um, when we beat the chargers in the freezer bowl or not, I don't. It wasn't necessarily the freezer bowl, but it was when we beat the chargers to go to the super bowl. And I thought at that point in time, you know, here we are in Detroit, we're up here at Forge Field in Detroit and we're playing the San Francisco 49ers, I thought, okay, this is it, this is. We finally got that monkey off of our back and we finally, you know, have made the big time. And little did. I know it would take us forever to get back there, but we did eventually. And um, hey, they were two great games, uh, ball bounces, you know. A certain way, in both those games we're two-time nfl champs, um, but I think that's part of the reason.

Speaker 3:

You know, people like cincinnati, people like the buckeyes, people like the browns, is where that blue collar, you know hard-working background, people that just want to see their teams do good on the weekend yeah, and you know I, there's so many games that I enjoyed with the browns, but I, you know, just like anything the red-right 88, the fumble against the Broncos as he was running in the end zone those are games that just was just amazing to watch and just unbelievable heartbreak. But that's the life of a cleveland fan for the most part.

Speaker 2:

So yeah, absolutely you know.

Speaker 3:

But yeah, you can name just about any game. I think the ohio state, uh, beating miami, that's probably the one game that'll stand out forever with me, because you know that nobody had buckeyes winning that one and the way they pulled that off and I think the flag was appropriate at the time.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I do too. I had one of my former athletes, donnie Nicky, played on that team. I'm just watching him compete in that game and they were all in motion that they had, and you know that quarterback from Miami at the time he was the real deal. Quarterback for Miami at the time he was the real deal. I mean, he was supposedly you know the man out there and for us to go out there and, you know, beat him is just, it's just something in and of itself.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, no doubt I wanted to throw out a couple things here, since it's our first podcast. As far as a little segment called Three Teams, three Questions, do you think the Buckeyes can repeat this year?

Speaker 2:

I can. It's asking an awful lot, I can. It's asking an awful lot. You know, to me there's some teams out there that I think would give us matchup nightmares. Florida State looks really good. You know the SEC is going to get better. You know Texas is going to get better.

Speaker 2:

In my opinion, they threw arch manning to the wolves.

Speaker 2:

Um, you know, uh, your first game, really, this year, you're going to play at ohio state with, you know whatever, 110 000 people screaming in your ear, and they admittedly said, you know that, uh, the noise was a factor there.

Speaker 2:

And then you throw in a pro defensive coordinator like matt pat. Just, not only were they given different looks, but they were given different looks as the ball was being hiked, and then they would all of a sudden change coverage during that too. So, you know, arch Manning, he really didn't have a chance in that game, kenny, there were costly penalties and they had a couple bad throws by him, which is to be expected. But I think, in order to answer your question, in order for Ohio State to repeat, I think they have to not get beat by Penn State, not get beat by Michigan again, and you know, a couple of those things have to happen, but I think they need to have Julian Sane progressively get better each week, make some throws, utilize Jeremiah Smith more, and I think the defense is going to be our biggest attribute. To be honest with you this season.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, no doubt about that. I think Ohio State played it pretty vanilla. I mean they ran the ball and, yeah, I get they want to establish the run, but I mean they gave him throws that were good, easy throws to make and they held him to seven points. I got a question. Arch Manning, I didn't know this, but all these quarterbacks these days go to all these Elite 11 quarterback camps and they do all of that stuff and they compete against each other. He didn't attend those. So that tells me that one is the think I'm, you know, good enough already, I don't need to do that and I've already got my scholarship. Or was he worried about being exposed? And you know, I, I, you know, question the competition he faced down in Louisiana, there at at Newman high school. I mean I saw some video that was like, oh boy, but that's school football. Sometimes you never know what you're going to get in an opponent.

Speaker 3:

But overall, I think that the names that you're going to hear that people need to be ready for is Arvel Reese, the linebacker. He's going to have a huge impact this year and you know to go with all the other great guys that they have lined up there, and I can see why a lot of the country hates the Buckeyes. When Texas came running into the stadium the other day, I thought that's got to be the greatest feeling in the world having 100,000 people booing you. But Ohio State went and did their job and everybody was complaining that it was all right. It's a 12 o'clock start. The fans won't be ready. Everything says that they were plenty loud, so that was huge on their part.

Speaker 2:

You know, one thing that really struck me was you know, the difference between the offensive coordinators from last year and this year. You know, I think Brian Hartline, like you said, and you mentioned being vanilla yeah, I think that was just total opposite of Chip Kelly previous year. So that'll be interesting to see how it plays out.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, does any Ohio State Buckeye have a chance to be a Heisman Trophy winner this year?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, of course. I mean you got to speak of Jeremiah Smith. I mean that's a given, you know. I think he, you know, his season will be predicated on how good Justin Sayen is. Yeah, his season will be predicated on how good Justin Sayen is. So, you know, I think Justin Sayen will get better every game, especially with people like Grambling State coming up, you know, and a couple other. You know, ohio U is not going to be a pushover. I'll tell you that right now. But yeah, I mean you're going to have a couple games and I think once he gets, uh, his feet underneath him, I think that, uh, we'll see jeremiah smith. You know where we expect him to be and I think that would you know, put him up there in that, in that race.

Speaker 3:

Yes, I think he's probably the only player that has a chance to be in that heisman race at the end. But uh, the other players, the tight end, the other wide receivers, they need to make an impact to get more of the coverage off of Jeremiah so he gets a chance to do his thing and rack up the numbers and the touchdowns. That's for sure. Let me ask you one more question here Now, the third question here with the Buckeyes If you were to take Ryan Day and send him down to Alabama with the struggles that Alabama had going into the season, I guess the first one would be would Alabama want him? And second, do you think he could turn things around and get them going? Because right now Alabama fans are losing their mind.

Speaker 2:

I have a couple schools of thoughts on that. I think Alabama would. I saw an article the other day that the alumni had already raised $70 million to buy out that contract. You know, with Ryan Day, you know, I think he has basically got over that stigma.

Speaker 2:

Getting back to Ryan Day, you know what? He's a good coach and he gets the job done and any statistics you'll see out there, he's in the top two, three of these stats. Now, is he a Nick Saban type guy? I'm going to say yes, the last six or seven games, I think Ryan Day has finally figured out that he needs to coach with not only his brain prowess, his X's and O's, but he needs to coach with his heart and that fire and that desire and that gauntlet Ohio State went through the past eight games. You know just that fire that we've seen out of Ryan Day and that, hey, I'm going to go downfield to Jeremiah Smith or I'm just going to cut it loose and I'm going to let these big five-star guys play that part of it. I can see, you know, but as far as early Ryan Day, no, but I think Ryan Day 2.0 right now, quite possibly.

Speaker 3:

Do they beat Michigan this year?

Speaker 2:

To me it's more of an in-your-head thing. I think we were all sitting here wondering and looking where's the offense? Why didn't Chip Kelly cutting it lose? You know, kind of honestly, watching the Texas game the other day and watching that Michigan game is kind of the same thing. I mean, it wasn't one of those. You know, to me it was just win. And I think that's all we were trying to do against Michigan was win by one, instead of going out there and saying win by 30. And I think once Ryan Day said, no, we're pretty much going to go out and win by 30 every game now. I think that's when we did it and you know it kind of concerns me a little bit. But I understand, with a new offensive coordinator, new defense coordinator, new a lot of things, I'm just happy we won this first game against Texas and I think it'll progressively get better.

Speaker 3:

Who do you think is in the final game for the championship for NCAA football?

Speaker 2:

As I said before, I like Florida State. You know this is a team that man you talk about a chip on their shoulder and you know you talk about athletes. And Kenny, we've both been head coaches before and some of the teams that we hated to play were teams that you know they weren't like coached up really good, but on that field was nothing but athletes, and athletes can hurt you and even though they're not coached up the way they are now, I think they're starting to get that system down there at Florida state. Well, they went only two games last year and look what they did this year already. And you know I like them.

Speaker 2:

I think the ACC in general, I mean, man, what a week they had. You know, I mean just a lot of these. You know Georgia Tech going out to Colorado, I mean what a tough place to play there. And you know, I think there's a lot going on there. But if Florida State can come through there, then I like them. I like Oregon, I like Ohio State. Obviously it's going to be interesting on the stretch.

Speaker 3:

Yes, well, I'm kind of thinking Penn State's got a real good shot this year if their quarterback can stay healthy in Drew Aller and you know it sounds homerish, but I really think the Buckeyes got a chance that, if you can give, say, 12 games under his belt and going into the playoffs, I think, with the defense they have and I think their offensive line is only going to get better and I think they really have a shot to repeat, which is something that I'm sure most people don't think is going to happen, but then again, I'm probably being a homer if you do that 100% and you have every right to, because you know, I mean, let's face it, the Big Ten is very good.

Speaker 2:

I mean, you know even Illinois. I mean Illinois is solid. You know you got Penn State. I mean Penn State has absolutely zero excuses this year, not. And you got ohio state's defensive coordinator and you have, um, you know, michigan, got our michigan, got our running backs coach, um, they got that hot shot um quarterback Underwood, who's probably making more than a lot of NFL guys up there. You know Oregon is Oregon. You know, have you ever tried to go out to Washington and play the Huskies? I mean that's no easy feat, you know. And USC is USC. There's another team. You know there's more teams right there that are just athletes. Ucla was disappointing to me the other night. You know I mean to get blown out like that when you have the recruiting base that they have access to, that's just disappointing. But I'll be honest with you. You know Big Ten is, you know, iowa, you throw Iowa in there. Indiana, I mean we're just, you know, locked and loaded again.

Speaker 3:

Well, I know that we are going to be putting out a show every week and we're going to try to cover both the Bengals and the Browns and, of course, the Buckeyes on the college end of things. What can the listeners expect? On the college end of things, what can the listeners expect and what are some things that you want to try with this podcast that we can that I think the fans will be interested in hearing.

Speaker 2:

I think, just given the overall blue collar opinion on what we think and we feel, and honestly I mean we're not going to pull any punches here. We're not going to come up with a major scoop that beat out some of the guys on ESPN and Alan Schefter and all those guys. We're not going to do that, but we're going to give our take and what we feel. We're going to have some good insight on how they're feeling in Cleveland and how they're feeling in Cincinnati and how they're feeling and what's the vibe going on around Columbus and um, I think it'll be fun to listen to um. Mila will try to not bark during the middle of our podcast, uh, but she's going to do her best. Um, but I know you get a couple of dogs there too as well, kenny and uh, we're going to have fun with it.

Speaker 3:

Yes, and you know, the other thing I think we want to try to do is we want to try to bring in uh like a guest, whether it be a listener or uh, somebody that's got some, some ties to either the cincinnati, cleveland, or or the buckeyes, and uh yeah, hopefully that through some of your contacts of mine, we'll be able to convince them to jump on the podcast with us yeah and um, you know, that's, that's the other thing too.

Speaker 2:

Be like, oh, I remember that guy, or I see that guy on tv all the time, or, um, you know, I, I just think it'll get, uh, it's, it's a, it is biased, but at the same time, it's, it's a. Refreshing, I guess, is the word I'm looking for. Uh, look at, uh, the insight of these teams that we're going to cover.

Speaker 3:

Well, this is just the beginning of Buckeyes, bengals and Browns. One show, one state. Hit that subscribe button, leave us a review and help us build this together. For Chris Huseman, I'm Ken Carpenter. Thanks for listening to the first episode of Scarlet, orange and Brown podcast you.