Jeremiah Smith recorded his first two collegiate touchdowns, Ohio State's defense created havoc and Will Howard tossed three touchdown passes in a 52-6 rout of Akron.
Ohio State kicked off the 2024 season in style with a 52-6 pasting of Akron yesterday in The Shoe behind a disruptive day from the defense and a stellar introductory performance from true freshman receiver Jeremiah Smith.
With Week One in the books, Day and company will celebrate the win, enjoy the many stellar individual performances and get back the drawing board to address the team's seven penalties, shore up the offensive line and more, ahead of next Saturday's prime time clash with Western Michigan in Ohio Stadium. Before we focus our attention on that contest however, here are Five Things from yesterday's pummeling of Akron.
I know it's one game but it seems pretty obvious he and Howard have a legit rhythm. Considering Smith arrived at basically the same time as Howard, no other incumbent receivers had more time to develop chemistry with Ohio State's new signal caller and it shows. We'll see if Smith continues to lead the team in targets but I won't be surprised given what we saw yesterday.
The Buckeyes compiled 10 tackles for loss, good for the most since a November 2022 matchup with Indiana. Safety Lathan Ransom led the way with a pair of TFLs while defensive linemen Tyleik Williams and JT Tuimoloau logged 1.5 each. Nine defenders contributed at least 0.5 TFL on the afternoon. Five of those TFLs were sacks, paced by Tuimoloau's 1.5.
The good news is Ryan Day thinks Donovan Jackson could be back as early as next week although even he would admit he's looking to step his consistency up from last season. It's also very important to keep in mind Ohio State's offensive line room had some sickness floating around early in camp on top of needing to identify and break in a new starting center and right guard.
I'm not freaked out here but there's no doubt Justin Frye's position group is the weakest link on the squad at this point. But of course we must remember it's only September 1 - there's still time to develop and gel.
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