The Ohio State Buckeyes have conquered one of the four true tests on their 2025 schedule. And they did so while pulling punches against the Texas Longhorns with an offensive gameplan that was intentionally gritty and slow-paced.
But in order to stay sharp and knock off the Illinois Fighting Illini, Penn State Nittany Lions, and TTUN and punch their ticket to the College Football Playoff, OSU has to throw more punches over the next three weeks -- against the Grambling State Tigers on Saturday and the Ohio Bobcats the following week before their bye -- to have a different gameplan against Big Ten competition.
Cleveland.com's Stephen Means explained how the coaching staff had to use a similar gameplan in Week 1 against Texas that Ryan Day used in the 2023 Cotton Bowl, a loss against the Mizzou Tigers where the team had to deploy Lincoln Kienholz because of outside circumstances, and how that must change to keep their conference opponents on their toes.
"Saturday’s win over Texas might’ve been the most conservative game of Day’s tenure. The only one that even comes close is a 14-3 loss to Missouri in the 2023 Cotton Bowl, but that one was born out of circumstance rather than it being the game plan from the get-go. That team lost its actual starting quarterback (Kyle McCord) to the transfer portal, its backup quarterback to injury (Devin Brown), and was forced to play a third-string Lincoln Kienholz, who’d been on campus for less than six months," Means wrote.
"This time, Ohio State planned to do so with the starting quarterback, while also having the game validate that plan. That’s because winning was all that mattered.
"It’s still all that matters, but you can’t win at the highest level playing like that. At some point, you have to throw a punch, and it makes these next three weeks so important in finding out which punches this offense throws best."
Julian Sayin is the haymaker the offense is looking for. While his reserved style of play produced a win on the biggest stage against the No. 1 team in the country, continuing to be a one-trick pony and rely on a good, but not great, Ohio State running back room won't be sustainable.
If Sayin is going to be the "next great Buckeyes quarterback" like some believe he can be, he'll need to show why he was a 5-star recruit and Nick Saban's next-in-line at the position before he retired.
Grambling State, Ohio, and the bye week, which some may see as one in the same, are great chances to see that showcased.