It’s not often the defending national champions enter their season opener as the C or D plot line.
That happened Saturday with No. 3 Ohio State hosting No. 1 Texas. Not only were the Longhorns the top-ranked team in the preseason polls, but they were also led by ARCH MANNING. You know, the preseason Heisman favorite (more on that in a bit) and the dude you keep seeing in every other commercial on Saturday afternoon.
ESPN’s College GameDay was also on site to say goodbye to Lee Corso, the TV legend who provided so many fans their gateway into college football each Saturday for over three decades.
Ohio State? You didn’t really hear a lot from those in the national media. Guilty over here, I wrote three stories on Texas this week. For that I blame my editors — though I did pick the Buckeyes to win!
Nobody is going to ignore Ohio State now. It made a statement in a 14-7 win over Texas.
Not only did a Buckeyes defense that returned just three starters stake a claim as an elite unit. But Ohio State starting QB Julian Sayin, making his first career start, outplayed his famous five-star peer.
Manning’s inconsistent play will be the storyline coming out of this game. The hype around him supersedes rational thought and the general oxygen available in the college football ecosystem. Most critiques of him will be unfair, especially when you consider the opponent, because the play of Ohio State’s defense should be a big ol’ flashing warning light to the rest of college football.
Defense was supposed to be the question mark for the Buckeyes.
That unit lost seven draft picks off the No. 1 defense in the country last year. You know, the same group that stuffed Texas on the goal line in the biggest moment of last year’s Cotton Bowl. You shouldn’t just be able to replace those pieces seamlessly, especially when the group’s coordinator, Jim Knowles, left to become a record-setting $3.1-million-a-year coordinator at Penn State.
On top of all those questions, Ryan Day hired former Detroit Lions head coach Matt Patricia as defensive coordinator. Patricia hasn’t called defensive plays as a coordinator since 2017, and he hasn’t been in college since 2003.
Didn’t matter. We should have known better. The Buckeyes recruit at too high a level for the unit to be anything but excellent.
That’s exactly what they were against Texas. Ohio State held Texas to seven points, five yards play and 1-for-5 on fourth down, including a devastating goal-line stand midway through the third quarter.
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Four new defensive linemen. A new coordinator. So what? The Buckeyes remain one of the best defenses in the country. That new-look d-line largely controlled the trenches, and Ohio State’s secondary played a big part in making Texas’ passing attack look pedestrian.
I’ll take your Manning stock as cheap as you want to sell it coming out of this week. Texas broke in four new o-line starters, three new receivers and Manning made his first career road start in the Horseshoe. Few quarterbacks will look good in those circumstances, especially early in the year. And Ohio State’s defense is going to make a look of good quarterbacks look mortal this year.
Aa for a Buckeye offense, the early returns on Sayin are strong. Texas will finish the year with a top 10 defense — and again, I’ll take any odds you want to give me on that — and Sayin guided Ohio State ably.
His stats (13-for-20, 126 yards, 1 TD) don’t jump off the page. But some of his most impressive throws were drops, and he avoided crippling turnovers that could have swung a game Ohio State largely controlled. He’s also the first ever quarterback to win his starting debut against the No. 1 team in the country.
Sayin is a former five-star recruit the Buckeyes have raved about behind the scenes since he arrived on campus as a retirement gift from Nick Saban. He’s going to be successful this year. Yeah, I know, going out on a limb for a QB who gets to throw to Jeremiah Smith, the criminally underrated Carnell Tate, Brandon Inniss and Max Klare. But the point stands: Ohio State is going to be great on offense once again.
So, fall into the trap of dunking on Manning or calling out Steve Sarkisian’s play calling post-game.
The lesson to take away is Ohio State hasn’t gone anywhere. The national championship path still runs through Columbus.
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