Ohio State Football: How the offense will look against Utah

The Ohio State football team will be going into the Rose Bowl a little short-staffed. Both star receivers, Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson will be sitting out against the Utah Utes. It has not been 100% confirmed that Olave will be sitting out, however, Wilson will not be playing. Olave said that he will be sitting out, but he has dressed for practice the entire week.

When asked about his status this week, head coach Ryan Day was quoted as saying, “I don’t think so, but we certainly would be excited if he did,” Day said. “I just have so much respect for what Chris did coming back this year. He certainly had an opportunity to be, possibly, an end of the first day/early second-day pick coming out last year.

He decided to come back and really did a great job leading — and then didn’t want to leave the team. Wanted to stick with it through the bowl and practice and be around our players and our guys, and that meant a lot to him, certainly being from Southern California”.

If Olave ends up missing the Rose Bowl, the Buckeyes passing game will likely struggle. Even if they were playing with their entire roster, Utah would not have been an easy team to beat through the air. Utah ranks 17th in the entire nation in passing yards allowed per game with 193.8.

While C.J. Stroud is one of the best quarterbacks in all of college football and will likely still be able to find a way to have a successful game through the air against Utah, there will be a lot of extra weight being put on freshman running back TreVeyon Henderson’s shoulders on Saturday.

This may be a very tall task for Henderson as well. Although Utah’s rushing defense is worse than their passing defense, the Utes rush defense is near the top of the nation as well. They rank 24th in the country in terms of rushing yards allowed per game. The Buckeyes offense will be put to the test and it will by no means be an easy win for Ohio State unless they come out looking like a brand new team after their loss to Michigan.

It is likely that the Buckeyes will lean more on their rushing game along with short passes to their called-up receivers. Lastly, do not be surprised to see Stroud try to make more plays with his feet than he has in any other game this season.