Ground pound…TreVeyon Henderson skips through the Bronco defense to score the first of his two rushing touchdowns…six on the day…for the Buckeyes. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
The offense moved up and down the field at will, the defense broke the will of Western Michigan, and the Buckeyes avoided the struggles other Big Ten teams faced on Saturday.
Columbus, OH – The first quarter was enough.
Those 21 points were enough to know this Ohio State team is immune to MAC scares, enough to know this team can start fast by passing and still power-stuff the football into the end zone, enough to know that the No. 2 team in the nation is hungry, energized and ready to play somebody real.
Veteran columnist Jeff Gilbert writes Ohio State football and OHSAA sports for Press Pros Magazine.com.
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For as well as Western Michigan played last week against Wisconsin, the Broncos had no chance in Ohio State’s 56-0 primetime, Big Ten Network victory. The boys from Kalamazoo couldn’t score, couldn’t fight through blocks, couldn’t expose an Ohio State weakness.
But the Buckeyes will have to be patient until it gets real on September 28 when they travel to Michigan State for their Big Ten opener. They get next week off, then figure to play the rude host to Marshall on September 21. The Herd might thunder into Columbus, but they will limp out.
That is if the Buckeyes continue to do what they did to get ready for the Broncos. Head coach Ryan Day said Tuesday that the Broncos’ 28-14 loss to Wisconsin, in which they led 14-13 early in the fourth quarter, got his team’s attention.
The duo of TreVeyon Henderson and Quinshon Judkins (above, 108 yards, 9 carries, and two touchdowns) ran wild over the helpless Western Michigan defense.
Day praised the energy in practice this week. He praised the passion. He saw Saturday coming.
“I felt like we were about to come into a game where we were going to dominate like this,” he said. “It came down to the players playing really hard. We wanted to make sure that we put on a good show for everybody who came today. It’s good to get off to a fast start and feel their energy early in the game.”
If there was a group on this team that wanted to prove itself, it was the offensive line. From left to right – Josh Simmons, Austin Siereveld (filling in for Donovan Jackson), Seth McLaughlin, Tegra Tshabola, Josh Fryar – they protected quarterback Will Howard and opened wide lanes for running backs Quinshon Judkins and TreVeyon Henderson.
“They got into a rhythm as a group,” Day said. “Again, they had a good week of practice, but they settled down in this game. If there was a mistake, it was made at full speed.”
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The Buckeyes rushed for 273 yards, averaged 7.0 yards per carry and scored six rushing touchdowns.
“We put an emphasis on the importance of starting fast,” McLaughlin said. “I challenged some of those guys to feel their way into the game and just go out there playing hard.”
Triple threat…freshman wide receiver Jeremiah Smith looks for a Bronco tackler on this 70-yard catch-and-score in the first quarter.
The dudes on offense you expected big nights from had them, starting with the running back duo that is happy to share carries and support each other.
Quinshon Judkins, the Ole Miss transfer, felt at home in front of 102,665 with 108 yards on nine carries and two touchdowns. TreVeyon Henderson, the OSU veteran who eschewed the NFL Draft, gained 66 yards on 10 carries and scored two touchdowns.
“Sometimes it’s funny – I don’t even know which one of them is out there on the field until I look to my right,” Howard said. “They’re so interchangeable it’s unbelievable. And the coolest thing about those two is that there’s zero ego.”
Jeremiah Smith, the freshman with a ceiling higher than the Sistine Chapel, caught five passes for 119 yards and a thrill-ride touchdown. Emeka Egbuka caught five passes for 98 yards. And Howard, the transfer portal quarterback who played Saturday with the poise of an Ohio State veteran, completed 18 of 26 passes for 292 yards and one touchdown.
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“Chip (Kelly) called a good game, a mix of run and pass,” Day said. “There was some good ball out of hand stuff, there were a couple shots down the field.”
Judkins, like Howard and Smith, is new to OSU and playing with this much talent for the first time.
Western Michigan’s only chance to score…on this missed field goal in the first quarter by kicker Luka Zurak.
“The way that each and every one of those guys prepare from the start, since I’ve been here, just to see the talent that we have coming in, and just the way that they worked hard, it doesn’t surprise me on Saturdays when the go out and perform,” Judkins said.
The Buckeyes were so dominant that they outgained the Broncos 553-88 through three quarters and 683-99 for the game. The defense didn’t force a turnover this week, but it recorded its first shutout to the day in five seasons, sacked the quarterback three times, had two other tackles for loss, forced 10 three-and-outs and allowed only six first downs.
“All I could hear the defensive guys talk about at halftime was shutout,” Day said. “There’s a mindset there. Our guys are competitive, and you could see that even to the end. That’s a good sign.”
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The fast start the Buckeyes craved this night began with linebacker Cody Simon’s sack on third-and-four on the game’s first series. Just what you would expect from the guy with the Block O on his jersey in his first action this season.
Then Chip Kelly got to work in the press box calling whatever play he wanted. He told Howard to throw the football on the first four plays. Howard was on target to move OSU from its 45 to the WMU 9.
Wide receiver Carnell Tate clutches the football after this catch in the Broncos’ secondary.
“I like to get early completions and easy completions,” said Howard who started the game 10 for 10. “You feel like you’re in a zone when you get a couple of easy completions early.”
Kelly’s next idea: Run it with power. Henderson got six yards, then three for the first touchdown.
Next possession: Show off the freshman wide receiver. Not by sending him deep. But by letting him make the play. Smith ran a short square-in route and caught Howard’s pass standing still. Then he sprinted through and past the defense like it was standing still for a 70-yard touchdown, his third in his first five college quarters, and a 14-0 lead.
“When I saw Jeremiah catch that ball and the safety fell down, I was like, ‘He’s gone. That’s a touchdown,’” Howard said.
Howard moved the Buckeyes again to set up Judkins’ 23-yard touchdown run, sprung by big block on the edge by Fryar. 21-0.
By halftime the score was 35-0.
Incoming…OSU’s Emeka Egbuka looks back for this missile from Will Howard in the first half of Ohio State’s 56-0 win over Western Michigan.
In the second quarter, Judkins made his second 23-yard touchdown run, this time to the left with tackle Simmons, guard Siereveld and center McLaughlin knocking down defenders. And Howard scored on a six-yard run for the first touchdown by a starting quarterback since Justin Fields in 2020.
The starters added one more touchdown in the third quarter on Henderson’s 16-yard run. Then the coaches turned the game over to the depth they are grooming. Devin Brown was 5-for-5 passing and led a touchdown drive. Freshman Julian Sayin was 2-for-2 with a 55-yard touchdown pass to tight end Bennett Christian on a fourth-down play. And James Peoples hit holes with authority to gain 53 yards on 10 carries and score a 12-yard touchdown.
On a day full of scares and humblings around the Big Ten, the Buckeyes were all the cliches: on point, checked all the boxes, looked the part of a title contender.
Others not so much.
Defending champion Michigan will fall from its No. 10 ranking after a 31-12 loss at home to Texas. No. 8 Penn State had to come from behind to beat Bowling Green 34-27. Iowa led 13-0 only to lose 20-19 to Iowa State. Wisconsin struggled to defeat FCS foe South Dakota 27-13.
But the Buckeyes, trying to live up to Day’s expectation of being the hardest working team in America, put fear in future opponents with their performance. The key will be to stay grounded, hungry and immune to the pitfalls that come with too much praise.
“We played well tonight,” Howard said. “But the thing is there’s still some plays that we left out there. There’s some meat we left on the bone.”
But not much. Not any meat that Western Michigan could sink its teeth into.
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