Latest / Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning / 5 Things We Learned From Ohio State's 52-6 Win Over Akron
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Welcome to buck Eyes tomorrow morning for Sunday, September. First
- 0:02Speaker 1: time your host Tom or the Western Michigan game in
- 0:06Speaker 1: six days the game against Michigan in ninety days. The
- 0:09Speaker 1: Ohio State Buckeyes are one and oh They open the
- 0:13Speaker 1: season with a fifty two to six win over the
- 0:15Speaker 1: Akron Zips. It wasn't necessarily the smoothest easiest win in
- 0:20Speaker 1: the history of Ohio State football. Once things got rolled
- 0:23Speaker 1: in the second half, though, it looked a lot more
- 0:27Speaker 1: like the team that I think Ohio State fans were expecting.
- 0:29Speaker 1: John by kevinnuon of Puckeheddle dot com. Kevin I looked
- 0:33Speaker 1: at this game and I thought on a scale of
- 0:36Speaker 1: one to ten in terms of how Week one is
- 0:38Speaker 1: the Week one game for Ohio State. The first half
- 0:42Speaker 1: was about a nine and a half. The game on
- 0:43Speaker 1: the whole was maybe about a seven.
- 0:47Speaker 2: Yeah, if you had Akron taking a three to nothing
- 0:51Speaker 2: lead in the game on your bingo card, congratulations, please
- 0:55Speaker 2: cash in see the old lady in the front for that.
- 0:58Speaker 3: It was you know, it was. First half of.
- 1:01Speaker 2: The game was kind of ugly. I mean, it was
- 1:03Speaker 2: a lot of just you know, feeling feeling things out
- 1:07Speaker 2: or whatever. But once I think once Ohio State found
- 1:10Speaker 2: its footing a little bit, things started to look a
- 1:13Speaker 2: lot better. I mean, we're gonna walk out of this game, though,
- 1:16Speaker 2: not talking about the slow start, I don't think. I
- 1:19Speaker 2: don't think we're gonna talk about the fact that Akron
- 1:21Speaker 2: scored six points. We're gonna talk about Jeremiah Smith, We're
- 1:25Speaker 2: gonna talk about Will Howard, We're gonna talk about Ohio
- 1:28Speaker 2: State's defense getting home. I think there's a lot of
- 1:31Speaker 2: positives that we will talk about, but it's going to
- 1:35Speaker 2: maybe take forty eight hours to work.
- 1:38Speaker 3: Through our feelings a little bit.
- 1:40Speaker 2: And then once we work through all of that, I
- 1:42Speaker 2: think we'll focus on that, and I think two people
- 1:45Speaker 2: will be able to look at the rest of the
- 1:47Speaker 2: Big Ten.
- 1:48Speaker 3: And there were some stinker games.
- 1:50Speaker 2: And we're not talking against you know, this wasn't like
- 1:53Speaker 2: Notre Dame, Texas A and M or anything like that
- 1:55Speaker 2: out there. There were some stinkers. Ohio State was able
- 1:58Speaker 2: to the stinker out of the fire.
- 2:02Speaker 1: Yeah, and this was a team Akron that is not
- 2:05Speaker 1: a great team. They're projected sort of towards the bottom
- 2:08Speaker 1: of the MAC. So this is one that Ohio State,
- 2:11Speaker 1: you figure would be able to sort of name their score.
- 2:14Speaker 1: They came out a little clunky in the first half.
- 2:16Speaker 1: Once they've worked through it, the second half looked pretty
- 2:18Speaker 1: much exactly like you would think the second half of
- 2:20Speaker 1: an Ohio State acron game would look. I guess let's
- 2:24Speaker 1: start with the first first name you said there, Jeremiah Smith.
- 2:27Speaker 1: It's sort of the first name that everyone is saying
- 2:29Speaker 1: these days. We have been talking about Jeremiah Smith. He
- 2:33Speaker 1: was the number one player in the class of twenty
- 2:34Speaker 1: twenty four. Incredible signing day drama. You saw Ryan Day
- 2:38Speaker 1: do the thing where he like sort of mock like
- 2:41Speaker 1: pretended to collapse at the podium when he found out
- 2:43Speaker 1: that Jeremiah Smith had was in fact committing to Ohio
- 2:47Speaker 1: State and going to come to Ohio State after all.
- 2:50Speaker 1: And it feels like the last whatever it's been three
- 2:54Speaker 1: hundred days or whatever since since he did that, has
- 2:57Speaker 1: just been us seeing over and over and over why
- 3:01Speaker 1: that was Ryan Day's reaction and now a White State
- 3:03Speaker 1: fans have finally seen it too.
- 3:05Speaker 2: But let's also not forget and it will be forgotten
- 3:08Speaker 2: that the Jeremiah Smith saga started a little slow. There
- 3:13Speaker 2: was a drop pass. There was a penalty, But then
- 3:17Speaker 2: things started to heat up, and Jeremiah Smith had a
- 3:21Speaker 2: couple of touchdowns and probably could have had more, to
- 3:23Speaker 2: be quite honest, if Ohio State would have kept going
- 3:26Speaker 2: to him, there wasn't necessarily the need. He had the
- 3:30Speaker 2: two touchdowns, he came really close to a third, one
- 3:33Speaker 2: a deep pass to him where he got brought down,
- 3:36Speaker 2: the one or so that they were able to punch
- 3:38Speaker 2: in on the ground.
- 3:38Speaker 3: But all of that's.
- 3:40Speaker 2: There, and now Ryan Day will no longer be able
- 3:43Speaker 2: to say, well, let's just you know, let's slow a roll.
- 3:45Speaker 2: We haven't he hasn't played a game. Well, now he's
- 3:48Speaker 2: played a game, and he should win the Forever Heisman,
- 3:51Speaker 2: apparently because he is just that good.
- 3:53Speaker 3: But no, he is. He is an alien. He really
- 3:56Speaker 3: is an alien. They do not build them like that.
- 3:59Speaker 2: And the sky thought too, is they have other guys
- 4:02Speaker 2: that are very alien esque in Carnel Tait, in Mylon
- 4:07Speaker 2: Graham and some of these other sas and we're not
- 4:09Speaker 2: even talking about the guy that we all kind of
- 4:10Speaker 2: projected maybe to be their best receiver this year at
- 4:13Speaker 2: Mecca a Buca.
- 4:14Speaker 1: And all the receivers had good days Jeremy Smith six
- 4:18Speaker 1: catches ninety two yards, a couple of touchdowns. Parnel Tate
- 4:21Speaker 1: four catches fifty eight yards, a thirty four yard touchdown
- 4:24Speaker 1: right towards.
- 4:25Speaker 3: The end of the game.
- 4:25Speaker 1: A Mecca Abuca four catches fifty one yards, all of
- 4:29Speaker 1: them averaging between twelve point eight and fifteen point three
- 4:31Speaker 1: yards per catch. Just really solid days, all three of them.
- 4:36Speaker 1: Not incredible pinball machine kind of numbers, but very efficient,
- 4:42Speaker 1: very effective, And that was sort of a byproduct of
- 4:44Speaker 1: Will Howard.
- 4:44Speaker 3: Will Howard was.
- 4:45Speaker 1: Seventeen for twenty eight two hun and twenty eight yards,
- 4:48Speaker 1: three touchdowns, sixty one percent completions. He looked a little
- 4:51Speaker 1: rocky at times at the beginning in the start, and
- 4:55Speaker 1: it's his first start, and it's his first time playing
- 4:57Speaker 1: in front of Ohio State, you know, in front of
- 4:59Speaker 1: Ohio State fans. Game that really matters, you understand, Okay,
- 5:03Speaker 1: you might feel a little first game jitters or whatever.
- 5:06Speaker 1: Once he worked through that, he really had a pretty
- 5:09Speaker 1: efficient It's kind of boring, but a pretty efficient, mostly
- 5:13Speaker 1: mistake field kind of day.
- 5:15Speaker 2: I think a lot of people are still spoiled by C. J.
- 5:18Speaker 2: Stroud and the type of downfield offense that they ran
- 5:22Speaker 2: with Stroud, Will Howard was not throwing I mean, if
- 5:26Speaker 2: you look at the route tree, he wasn't throwing a
- 5:28Speaker 2: I mean, he certainly wasn't throwing a lot of nines.
- 5:31Speaker 2: I mean everything else, you know, was a level underneath
- 5:34Speaker 2: and everything. And that's fine because you need to build
- 5:38Speaker 2: that chemistry with your receivers. When you're going against another team,
- 5:41Speaker 2: I think we will see a game where they do
- 5:44Speaker 2: maybe do a little bit more downfield. That was not
- 5:46Speaker 2: what today was about. And that's fine because when you're
- 5:51Speaker 2: looking at a team that still put up whatever was
- 5:53Speaker 2: fifty two points, even though fourteen of them were on defense,
- 5:56Speaker 2: I still think that we got the opportunity to see
- 6:00Speaker 2: what the DNA of Will Howard is.
- 6:03Speaker 3: And you know, you look at.
- 6:05Speaker 2: The numbers and everything else, and sixty one percent and
- 6:08Speaker 2: three touchdowns very workmen like day. I think if this
- 6:12Speaker 2: were Kyle McCord, people would just be howling. It wasn't
- 6:15Speaker 2: really all that great or whatever. But when you kind
- 6:18Speaker 2: of add some of the other intangibles, and I think
- 6:20Speaker 2: I think Kyle McCord was thrown into an impossible situation
- 6:23Speaker 2: in a lot of ways, and and you know, I
- 6:25Speaker 2: think that as long as people are happy with Will Howard,
- 6:27Speaker 2: that's going to be an indication that things are still
- 6:29Speaker 2: going well with Ohio State and it's pursuit for the Natty.
- 6:33Speaker 1: One thing you would probably not have seen with Kyle
- 6:35Speaker 1: McCord as a quarterback was the nineteen yard run that
- 6:37Speaker 1: Will Howard had. I think he picked up a might
- 6:39Speaker 1: have picked up a third down on that one, but
- 6:41Speaker 1: it was a long run set up a touchdown. The
- 6:44Speaker 1: second Jeremiah Smith touchdown pass. I believe he just that's
- 6:48Speaker 1: something that he brings to the offense. We had talked
- 6:50Speaker 1: on the pregame show about the fact that we were
- 6:52Speaker 1: not expecting a lot of running was this might be
- 6:55Speaker 1: sort of the JT. Barrett model where if you don't need,
- 6:58Speaker 1: you know, if you're playing a team where you don't
- 6:59Speaker 1: need need to risk or having him run, you don't
- 7:02Speaker 1: run him very much. And they didn't run him very much.
- 7:05Speaker 1: That probably impacted the run game a little bit where
- 7:08Speaker 1: they were not You didn't have the threat of that
- 7:10Speaker 1: quarterback run for most of the game, so that probably
- 7:14Speaker 1: constrained the running game to a certain degree. But why
- 7:17Speaker 1: would you run him and risk getting him hurt against
- 7:19Speaker 1: Akron where you're gonna play sort of sluggish for a
- 7:23Speaker 1: half and still win fifty two to six. You wouldn't
- 7:26Speaker 1: do that.
- 7:26Speaker 3: And even without him, the running game was very effective.
- 7:29Speaker 1: Travian Henderson eight carries sixty five yards along of his
- 7:32Speaker 1: twenty one but averaged eight point one. That just tells me, boy,
- 7:36Speaker 1: he's hit in those six and seven yarders really consistently.
- 7:40Speaker 1: It was just a good reminder of when Travian Henderson
- 7:43Speaker 1: is healthy, that's what Travian Henderson looks like. And boy,
- 7:46Speaker 1: that's a pretty good running back.
- 7:47Speaker 3: It is.
- 7:48Speaker 2: And you know, to your point, they're going to stay
- 7:51Speaker 2: relatively vanilla when you're playing against Akron, when you're playing
- 7:56Speaker 2: next against Western Michigan, when you're playing the following week
- 7:59Speaker 2: against Open Week, and then you got Marshall, you don't
- 8:02Speaker 2: need to show a lot. I mean, you've got to
- 8:04Speaker 2: win the damn game. I mean, let's be honest, but
- 8:06Speaker 2: you don't need to get really exotic. You don't need
- 8:09Speaker 2: to put guys into bad situations. Akron put its quarterback
- 8:15Speaker 2: into bad situations. And you know, we haven't heard anything
- 8:18Speaker 2: at this point was if there are any lasting injuries
- 8:20Speaker 2: that are going to happen there.
- 8:21Speaker 3: But Ohio State did what it needed to do.
- 8:24Speaker 2: Let's not forget this was this was the Chip Kelly,
- 8:27Speaker 2: you know, his first game calling offense for Ohio State.
- 8:29Speaker 2: So and we've always said that Chip Kelly has a
- 8:32Speaker 2: little bit more of a run thing going on there,
- 8:34Speaker 2: and I think we saw it because there were a
- 8:37Speaker 2: lot of times that maybe in previous years of where
- 8:39Speaker 2: Ohio State you know, gets into some of these tighter situations,
- 8:43Speaker 2: they're passing and you know they were able to run
- 8:45Speaker 2: and in the first half maybe they didn't pick them up.
- 8:47Speaker 2: In the second half they certainly did.
- 8:49Speaker 1: And part of that also was the offensive line. No
- 8:52Speaker 1: Donovan Jackson on Saturday, So you had Austin Seerveld making
- 8:54Speaker 1: his first career start at left guard and Taker Schabola
- 8:57Speaker 1: making his first career start at right guard. You had
- 9:00Speaker 1: Seth McLaughlin making his first career Ohio State start at center.
- 9:03Speaker 3: And then the line was it was inconsistent.
- 9:06Speaker 1: Let's say, wasn't fantastic, didn't get incredible push. I don't
- 9:12Speaker 1: know that I look at that as an enormous concern
- 9:15Speaker 1: right now, because if you swap out a guy who's
- 9:18Speaker 1: a redshirt freshman in like Austin Seerveld, who is going
- 9:22Speaker 1: to your sophomore Rechard sophomore sophomore sorry Redchard software, like
- 9:26Speaker 1: Austin Servo really playing for playing for the first time
- 9:29Speaker 1: meaningful snaps in his career. You swap him out for
- 9:32Speaker 1: Donovan Jackson, who's been a starter for four years. Basically now,
- 9:37Speaker 1: that feels like that's going to be an upgrade. And
- 9:39Speaker 1: they were fine, they weren't. It just it looked a
- 9:42Speaker 1: lot like the first game of the season.
- 9:46Speaker 2: If you go back to my tail of the tape
- 9:47Speaker 2: at Buckeye Huddle, I said that the only the only
- 9:51Speaker 2: strength or the least weak part of Akron was its
- 9:55Speaker 2: front seven on defense. And I think we kind of
- 9:58Speaker 2: saw it, and we saw Will Howard chosen capability when
- 10:01Speaker 2: when the when pressure kind of got to him, and
- 10:03Speaker 2: that was kind of good to see. You do want
- 10:05Speaker 2: to have maybe a little adversity there as long as
- 10:07Speaker 2: you're able to kind of laugh it off. So when
- 10:10Speaker 2: when Donovan Jackson gets back and Ryan Day did say,
- 10:13Speaker 2: you know, we're hoping to have a full week of
- 10:15Speaker 2: practice with him, and but then he did leave a
- 10:17Speaker 2: side side door open. If we don't, then you know
- 10:19Speaker 2: he won't go. But I mean it sounded like at
- 10:22Speaker 2: least they were giving the option that maybe we would
- 10:25Speaker 2: see him in the.
- 10:27Speaker 3: Western Kentucky game.
- 10:28Speaker 2: Now, on the flip side, you don't play him there,
- 10:31Speaker 2: and then you have the open week, he has two
- 10:33Speaker 2: more weeks and then you you can warm them up
- 10:35Speaker 2: against Marshall and then you go up to East Lansing
- 10:37Speaker 2: and you know, I'm not going to base what my
- 10:39Speaker 2: opinion on on Michigan State on the game this week.
- 10:42Speaker 2: But conversely, probably not going to be the most you know,
- 10:48Speaker 2: high pressure game on Ohio State schedule.
- 10:50Speaker 3: Probably not.
- 10:51Speaker 1: And yeah, I think you look at that and you go,
- 10:53Speaker 1: you got Western Michigan next week, you got a week
- 10:56Speaker 1: off after that. I don't know that there's any reason
- 10:59Speaker 1: to push it right now. What's the worst thing you
- 11:03Speaker 1: can do, reaggravate it? So what if you cannot reaggravate
- 11:06Speaker 1: it feels like that would be better.
- 11:08Speaker 3: So you know, we'll see and you build that.
- 11:11Speaker 1: Sure, Yeah, this is one where you don't have to
- 11:13Speaker 1: rush back. So if he's ready, great, if.
- 11:15Speaker 3: He's not, that's not a problem at all.
- 11:18Speaker 1: They also were without Cody Simon and in the linebacker room,
- 11:22Speaker 1: also kind of a precautionary thing. It sounds like the
- 11:25Speaker 1: defensive front.
- 11:26Speaker 3: Was real good.
- 11:27Speaker 1: The linebackers had some positive moments, some negative moments. The
- 11:32Speaker 1: secondary had some good moments, some not so great moments.
- 11:35Speaker 1: But really on the whole, there were some mistackles, but
- 11:39Speaker 1: the defense you saw the framework for what could be
- 11:44Speaker 1: a really really good Ohio State defense.
- 11:47Speaker 2: Toe moorehead through everything he could at Ohio State with
- 11:51Speaker 2: a limited roster. I mean, let's just call it what
- 11:54Speaker 2: it is. I mean, it's just not it's kind of
- 11:57Speaker 2: still bottom of the mac in terms of what, you know,
- 12:00Speaker 2: what he has to work with there. But he threw
- 12:02Speaker 2: a lot of things at Ohio State, and you know,
- 12:05Speaker 2: or right, maybe he got Ohio State a couple times
- 12:07Speaker 2: that he didn't get Ohio State twice on the same thing.
- 12:09Speaker 2: And the defensive line played really well. T Tjo Moloaw
- 12:12Speaker 2: came like right out of the gate and had a
- 12:14Speaker 2: big play. Jack Sawyer, you know, put that poor Ben
- 12:18Speaker 2: Finley onto his back and onto the bench at that point.
- 12:22Speaker 2: I mean I think that you saw that you saw
- 12:24Speaker 2: a great rotation where they were able to bring in
- 12:27Speaker 2: Kayden Curry, when they were able to bring in Kenyatta Jackson,
- 12:30Speaker 2: I think there's a lot of strength on the interior
- 12:32Speaker 2: line as well.
- 12:34Speaker 3: And then you know, I.
- 12:36Speaker 2: Wanted to just make sure I mentioned Edrick Houston, who
- 12:39Speaker 2: you know, saw a lot of action towards the end
- 12:41Speaker 2: of the game. He I mean, he's going to be
- 12:43Speaker 2: the next great one in my opinion on this on
- 12:44Speaker 2: this roster. I mean, he had a couple of passes
- 12:47Speaker 2: that he batted down. One of them led to the
- 12:49Speaker 2: gay Powers interception and touchdowns. So I think that Larry's
- 12:55Speaker 2: crew is playing very well. Granted it's Akron, and that's
- 12:59Speaker 2: you know what we should just title a lot of
- 13:01Speaker 2: our stories at this point it's Akron. But lesser teams
- 13:05Speaker 2: aren't going to be able to do what Ohio State did.
- 13:08Speaker 1: Just a team for Makron.
- 13:10Speaker 3: What do you think, Yes, maybe maybe, I don't know,
- 13:13Speaker 3: not one, not two, not three.
- 13:17Speaker 1: Smiling through it all, I can't believe this is my
- 13:19Speaker 1: postgame show, all right, So let's talk real quickly about
- 13:22Speaker 1: one other guy who we really do need to mention.
- 13:24Speaker 1: There's spent a lot of talk about Caleb Downs this year,
- 13:27Speaker 1: and rightfully so. Caleb Downs is one of the best
- 13:29Speaker 1: defensive players in the country. There's a guy who plays
- 13:31Speaker 1: next to Caleb Downs. His name is Lathan Ransom. He
- 13:34Speaker 1: had a heck of a day on Saturday. Nine tackles,
- 13:37Speaker 1: had a scoop and score touchdown, five solos, two tackles
- 13:41Speaker 1: for loss. He is just one of those guys who
- 13:45Speaker 1: I think people are almost bored with him at this
- 13:47Speaker 1: point because he's been around for so long.
- 13:49Speaker 3: He played as a freshman, He.
- 13:50Speaker 1: Played in twenty twenty, right, wasn't he on the two thousand?
- 13:54Speaker 1: He was certainly in the twenty twenty one?
- 13:56Speaker 2: Yeah?
- 13:57Speaker 3: Sure, I mean it all runs again.
- 13:58Speaker 1: Yeah, but I think I remember him seeing him against
- 14:01Speaker 1: Alabama and that national championship given twenty twenty. He's just
- 14:05Speaker 1: been so reliable for so long that I think people
- 14:09Speaker 1: forget how good.
- 14:10Speaker 3: He is, right, And that's the thing.
- 14:12Speaker 2: I think, you there's a level of you know, you're
- 14:15Speaker 2: so comfortable that he's been on the team for all
- 14:18Speaker 2: these years that you forget how impactful is And they
- 14:21Speaker 2: lost him at the end of last year, and I
- 14:23Speaker 2: think that they suffered so Leathan Ransom doesn't necessarily get
- 14:29Speaker 2: the press clippings from everybody, especially the reactionary people that
- 14:34Speaker 2: you see, you know, Caleb Downs getting you know Caleb Downs,
- 14:37Speaker 2: you know, SEC Freshman of the Year and everything else,
- 14:39Speaker 2: and we will have Caleb Downs games coming up, I
- 14:43Speaker 2: promise you that. But Lathan Ransom, you know, played very
- 14:46Speaker 2: well and it's great to have him pack.
- 14:50Speaker 1: Yeah, great to see him back out there. He's had
- 14:53Speaker 1: a couple of injuries that cost him a significant chunk
- 14:56Speaker 1: of time. He had that broken leg and the Rose Bowl.
- 14:59Speaker 1: He had the foot injury last year in the Wisconsin game.
- 15:02Speaker 1: Good to see him back out there. Definitely someone who's
- 15:04Speaker 1: going to be making a difference for Ohio State moving forward.
- 15:06Speaker 1: So Buck guys will be moving forward. They'd win fifty
- 15:10Speaker 1: two to six over Akron in Week one, so one down,
- 15:14Speaker 1: eleven more to go in the regular season and then
- 15:16Speaker 1: after that, well maybe one in Indianapolis and maybe a
- 15:19Speaker 1: few more after that. We'll see how it all goes.
- 15:21Speaker 1: But the best place to follow along with all of
- 15:23Speaker 1: that is with us at Buckeye Huddle dot com. That'shere,
- 15:26Speaker 1: Kevin Tony and I cover the team, Mark covers recruiting,
- 15:28Speaker 1: got our whole team of ex's and Nose grews there
- 15:30Speaker 1: to make you a smarter football fan. That's all at
- 15:33Speaker 1: Buckeyehuddle dot com. We hope to see you there. That'll
- 15:35Speaker 1: do it for today. Thank you guys all for joining us,
- 15:37Speaker 1: have a great day.
- 15:38Speaker 3: We'll talk to you tomorrow