Once again this week I interview a fellow SB Nation blogger over to our side of the internet to talk about an upcoming matchup. This time it’s Matt Tamanini from Land Grant Holy Land who covers, you guessed it, the Ohio State Buckeyes. He is the co-managing editor over there and was kind enough to answer my questions. So hope over to their site and be respectful in asking them to go gentle on us.
First, I saw an article on your site asking fans what they thought the margin of victory would be and it ranged from Ohio State by 43+ to Purdue by 1+. My question is this, are you giving Purdue too much credit by not moving that all the way to 60+?
Believe it or not, I don’t think that this version of the Buckeyes can score 60 points against a Big Ten, or even Power 4, team. While it’s not a question of talent, the offense is purposely slow. Because the goal is for the team to play (and win) 16 games, the offense often goes at a snail’s pace in an effort to minimize the wear and tear on players’ bodies.
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In fact, Ohio State is dead last in the FBS in terms of how many seconds it takes to run a play at 31.7 – similarly, last season, they were also No. 136 out of 136. Admittedly, they have been playing with a smidgen more tempo over the past two games (presumably to get some practice with it and put it on film), but not enough to get them out of this statistical basement.
So, while I think OSU could score 60 against a lot of teams, I just don’t think it’s in the game plan at this point.
The Ohio State offense has done a great job this season. I know it’s hard to find something, but is there a weakness?
Believe it or not, it’s not that hard. This offense has been excellent in the passing game all season, but increasingly so as Julian Sayin gets more comfortable with the collegiate game and the coaching staff gets more comfortable with trusting him with the full playbook.
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However, the running game has struggled to find its footing from the jump. Part of that is that the offensive line (especially on the right side) has suffered from occasionally shotty play, and part of that is because the running backs have not been able to match the production of the wide receivers, or last year’s RBs, TreVeyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins.
The running game hasn’t been awful, ranking in the middle of the Big Ten in most categories, including yards per game at 153.25. But the explosiveness just hasn’t been there yet. That is changing a little bit as the team has begun to give more run to true freshmen backs Bo Jackson (no relation) and Isaiah West.
These two rookies appear to have much more patience and vision with the ball, and have shown a bit more breakaway ability than senior West Virginia transfer C.J. Donaldson and sophomore James Peoples. So, while it is not nearly where the passing game is, the ground attack has been improving, but it is still the most glaring weakness on an otherwise nearly perfect team.
Same question for the defense.
Honestly… no. I would love to nitpick something and tell you that this is an area of concern for the Ohio State defense, but even that is pretty impossible at this point. A few weeks ago, I might have really tried to stretch something and talk about defensive line depth, but over the past two or three games, that has also begun to solidify. Defensive end Kenyatta Jackson Jr. is playing his best football of the season, after falling out of the starting rotation, former five-star sophomore defensive tackle Eddrick Houstin seems to have gotten his game back on track, and players Tywone Malone (who replaced Houston as a starter) and Will Smith Jr. have been great on the interior, along with starter Kaden McDonald.
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So, while people might think this is just the biased opinion of an Ohio State fan looking at everything through scarlet and gray colored glasses, we at LGHL have a reputation of being far more critical than the rest of our Buckeye beat brethren, so this is very out of character for us, but there just really isn’t a noticeable weakness for thiis defense this far.
Of course, as the regular season finale and postseason approach, that could obviously change, but as of now… I’ve got nothing.
Seeing the flaws in the Boilermakers on defense, what do you expect Ohio State to attack/exploit when they are on offense?
Throughout the first half of the season, Ryan Day spoke regularly about taking the first six games to figure out what his team did best. From there, the plan was to take the grades, film, and analytics to determine if any adjustments were necessary for the stretch run.
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Since then, we have seen Julian Sayin take on far more responsibility. In the last two games, against Wisconsin and Penn State, Sayin has been a combined 56-of-65 (86%) for 709 yards, 8 touchdowns, and 0 interceptions. In those games, wide receiver Carnell Tate has accounted for 235 yards and three scores, while Jeremiah Smith has gone for 220 yards and two TDs.
In the first six games, it felt like Day and first-time play caller Brian Hartline wanted to run to set up the pass, but it feels like it has flipped now to an offense intent on passing to set up the run. Considering that Purdue is 16th in the conference in passing yards allowed per game with 234.4 and second to last in average yards allowed per attempt (8.8), I imagine we will continue to see the ball chucked around the field with alarming frequency,
Purdue has had a surprising amount of success against highly ranked Ohio State teams, do you see any realistic shot at this season? (yes you can be honest with me.)
As someone who was in Ross–Ade Stadium in 2022 and came down pretty hard on the OSU coaching staff following the 2018 loss, I will never say that there is no chance for any team to beat Ohio State, but Ryan Day has been nearly supernatural in games his team is supposed to win. In his career, the Buckeyes are 53-1 against unranked opponents, so I wouldn’t bet against OSU this season.
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Any idea why this game is starting at 1:00 and not Noon?
I don’t actually, but I did notice a number of odd Big Ten kickoff times this week. Maryland and Rutgers kick off at 2 p.m. ET, Washington and Wisconsin at 4:30, and Nebraska and UCLA at 9, none of which are traditional college football start times. So, I am going to assume that either the Big Ten schedulemakers got a little slap-happy or it has something to do with Daylight Saving Time,
What’s your prediction for Saturday?
With all due respect to the Boilermakers, I think that Ohio State will deliver another efficient, powerful, almost train-like performance. The Buckeyes have been attempting to expand what they do on both sides of the ball, especially on offense, so I would guess there will be more wrinkles put on film from Sayin and company, and the defense comes into every game hunting a shutout. So, I will go with a Buckeye victory, 42-0.
