Ohio State football: Week 1 was more like a scrimmage than a real game

The Ohio State football team won their season opener over the Indiana Hoosiers by a score of 23-3, in what was in all practicality a preseason game. Most college football coaches who have coached in the NFL will tell you that one of the disadvantages they face at the collegiate level is that there is no preseason to prepare you for the 12-game season.

No scrimmages against another school are permitted by the NCAA which would allow coaches to see their teams against another opponent on film outside of their own intersquad scrimmages.

This disadvantage has created some pretty interesting upsets in week one over the years, such as Appalachian State defeating the fifth-ranked Michigan Wolverines to begin the season in 2007. We even saw some pretty big upsets this year, such as Colorado under the leadership of Deon Sanders, walk into Dallas, Texas, and upset TCU, who is one game removed from playing in a National Championship.

Within our own conference, we saw Fresno State travel across the country and defeat Purdue to spoil the debut of Ryan Walters. Staying in the Big 10, Toledo almost upset Illinois, and then last night, ninth-ranked Clemson opened their season being handed an “L” by Duke.

So even though the Ohio State football team’s 23-3 win didn’t feel dominant, trust me when I say, it could have been much worse.

For the most part, the areas of concern for this team are the areas that looked the least prepared. This shouldn’t shock anyone. We all knew breaking in a starting quarterback was going to be easier said than done, especially when you are replacing both offensive tackles and your starting center on the offensive line. Then the coaches forewarned us that this was going to be a little clunky when they flip-flopped the tackles two weeks into fall camp.

The good news is, if we all can see these glaring weaknesses, so can the coaches who are getting paid hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions.

Woody Hayes famously said, “The greatest improvement a team makes during a season is between weeks one and two.” This is because the coaches now have film to teach from. That’s why this past weekend’s game against Indiana should be looked at as more of a preseason scrimmage than a season-opening panic button-pushing win.

This is why if you ask most college coaches, they would say that they would much rather play an easier opponent in week one than a conference foe. That way they can work the kinks out and if mistakes are made, and no doubt they will in game one, then it doesn’t seem to affect the outcome of the game as much.

I’m sure Day would have much rather have played this week’s opponent, Youngstown State, before going on the road to tussle with Tom Allen and his scrappy Hoosiers, who have on more than one occasion done to to the Ohio State football team what they did this Saturday, in making the game feel and look disjointed.

Everyone in Buckeye Nation needs to take a moment to take a deep breath. This is how this was going to look no matter how much you wanted it to look different. This team has some new guys in some very key positions that you just can’t hide or mask.

These new guys need more game reps, more game film to break down, and more practice in order to perfect their craft. College football isn’t easy. We are at the starting point of this season and the process to get this offense looking better before the season really starts, which will be back on the road in Indiana in South Bend in week four.