Ohio State, just like every other team in College Football, came into its season opener with questions. While they certainly put on a good show for over 101,000 fans inside Ohio Stadium, Ohio State fans are largely still asking the same questions today as they were yesterday.
We knew things would be different from the last time we saw this team in December. They're wearing new uniforms, playing on a new turf with painted stripes, and 51 new players donning those grey stripes. The end of last season left a lot of questions on offense, and the overall roster turnover on defense left a lot of questions on that side of the ball. After one game, those questions remain largely unanswered.
I wouldn't say that Ohio State's offensive line had a bad day, but I certainly wouldn't say it was up to standard. The run game struggled in the first half to the tune of just 3.8 yards per carry sack adjusted in the first half. There were also issues in pass protection, particularly from the right tackle spot.
Phillip Daniels was not good in Big Ten play last season, and that continued in the season opener. He even got subbed for a drive in the first half, with Austin Siereveld sliding over and Gabe VanSickle playing right guard. It looked like Julian Sayin was anticipating pressure from the right side at times. I would expect Texas to really look to exploit that spot next week.
The Buckeyes rotated heavily on both sides of the ball, even in the first half. They played six wide receivers, four running backs, four tight ends, ten defensive linemen, four linebackers, and six corners. The rotations can be good for a game like this one where Ohio State could decide before the game how many points they wanted to win, but it doesn't really tell us much of anything about where the coaching staff actually stands with some of these players.
Ohio State's running backs need to be figured out
The running back rotation was probably the most confusing. After spending most of fall camp talking up Isaiah West, he appears to be much lower on the depth chart than expected. The hype coming from the program had us believing he would be a 1B to Bo Jackson's 1A, but it was actually Ja'Kobi Jackson that was splitting carries with Bo.
Isaiah West was getting reps late with the backups and actually had one fewer carry than Legend Bey. They may be wanting to keep him fresh for a long season, but I would've thought he'd get more reps with the ones still in. Instead, he's behind Jakobi Jackson, who was 15th in rushing yards for a bad Florida team last season.
The good certainly outweighed the bad on Saturday afternoon. Jeremiah Smith put up big numbers and didn't even play the second half. Julian Sayin was surgical throwing the football. The defensive line controlled the game, and the secondary was flying around.
None of those things were surprising to anyone. The only thing I think that truly surprised me in a good way was Julian Sayin scrambling for a touchdown with no hesitation on fourth and goal. His legs don't need to be a weapon for the Buckeyes to be successful, but they need him to be able to pick up some yards in big spots.
Behind Julian Sayin is where things get intersting. There was plenty of talk in camp about the competition between three-star freshman Luke Fahey and five-star sophomore Tavien St. Clair for the backup job. St. Clair was brought in with expectations that he would be the starting quarterback at Ohio State by his junior season, while Fahey was seen as a depth piece that won't get a real shot to start. Most brushed off the talk of competition as a way to push St. Clair to step up his performance in practice, while also rewarding Fahey, who clearly has been working his tail off to get on the field. Fahey was the second quarterback to see the field on Saturday. Those motivational tactics could still be in place, and I would still expect St. Clair to be the backup if Julian Sayin couldn't play for whatever reason, but the backup quarterback situation is now officailly something to keep an eye on. Hopefully for Buckeye fans this can be a conversation that is tabled until the Kent State game.
Only time will tell if anything we saw against Ball State was real. I sort of expected this game to be vanilla for the Buckeyes with a trip to Texas on the horizon. The Arthur Smith offense didn't show anything extravagant, and their defense played mostly straight up.
Next week we will find out what changed they really made, and how they feel about their depth of talent in an early-season matchup game with huge playoff implications. The one thing Buckeye fans can feel great about is they didn't need a phantom second to pull off a miracle win, as a certain lower-tier program did this past Saturday.
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