The Ohio State football team had no issues with Penn State on Saturday. After a poor finish to the first half, they were able to pull away from the Nittany Lions, winning the game 38-14. It was a game that the offense wanted to play well in after Jim Knowles left the Buckeyes last season.
Knowles simply had no answers for what Julian Sayin was doing in the passing game. Sayin threw for 316 yards and four touchdowns, while only having three incompletions in the game. He was sensational and proved that he should be the front-runner for the Heisman Trophy.
Ryan Day had a chance to truly embarrass Knowles at the end of the game. Instead of going for a touchdown on the final drive of the game, Day decided to have Sayin hand the ball off for the final few minutes. This score could have been much worse if Day wanted it to be.
Ohio State head coach Ryan Day shows some humility in big win over Penn State.
With how Knowles left the Ohio State Buckeyes, no one would have faulted Day for trying to put up as many points as possible against Penn State. It would have been easy for Day to let Sayin keep slinging the ball around on that final drive instead of just running out the clock.
Instead, Day let the clock tick away so his team could move on to next week. The humiliation for Penn State had already reached a high level, with the Nittany Lions now losing five straight games. Day showed an immense amount of class by not further humiliating Knowles.
Day has bigger goals than just beating down Knowles' defense. He is concerned about beating Michigan, winning a Big Ten Championship, and winning a national championship. He's more concerned with those issues than making Ohio State fans happy with crushing Knowles.
Still, this had to be a sweet win for him to get at home.