What’s New With Ohio State Football: Comparisons Between Terrelle Pryor-Quinn Ewers, 30 At Beat Indiana, Buffalo Missing Game

COLUMBUS, Ohio – What’s going on with Ohio State football? Five things in mind as the Buckeyes prepare to host Indiana at noon on Saturday. Here is the latest OSU Football Hot List.

1. Land another recruit n ° 1 of the QB

In a crowded high school gymnasium 12 and a half years ago, Terrelle Pryor has not announced any decision. On Twitter Thursday night, Quinn Ewers announced a major decision.

If things go as planned for the Buckeyes, there will be 13 recruiting classes between their No.1 quarterbacks in the country. The last was Pryor, the No.1 QB and No.2 overall in the 2008 class, according to 247sports.com. He hesitated on national signing day at the time as he remained an unengaged player in February, his leaning towards the Buckeyes being discouraged by a late push from Joe Paterno and Penn State. He called a press conference, then decided he would continue to consider Ohio state, Penn state, Michigan, and Oregon, with everyone thinking he would end up becoming a Buckeye. , and in March it was.

The Buckeyes’ next No.1 quarterback, if Ohio State retains him for the next 13 months, will be Ewers, who is the best quarterback in the 2022 class and the No.2 player. enlisted in Texas then disengaged in late October, then on Thursday he tweeted that the Buckeyes were his new choice.

Two No. 1 quarterbacks out of state at 14 year intervals for a program that’s in such a different place with quarterbacks.

(Two small sides. First, Pryor had an overall rating of .9997 by 247sports. Ewers is at .9994. This makes them the two highest-rated OSU players at any position in the modern recruiting era. Receiver Ted Ginn Jr., of the class of 2004, is third at .9992.

Second, Braxton Miller was the second QB rookie in the country when he joined the 2011 Ohio State class, if you’re wondering what happened with OSU QBs between 2009 and 2021.)

Back then, Pryor felt like a staple for a program trying to do something different. Troy Smith won the Heisman Trophy in 2006 leading the Buckeyes to the National Championship game, which you can ask a quarterback to do. But Smith was a low-key rookie who surprisingly blossomed into a Michigan domineering and program changer. Going after Pryor was on the next level.

When Jim Tressel and several assistants showed up to a Pryor High School game on Friday night in the fall of 2007, en route to the Buckeyes against Penn State on Saturday, it felt like landing on the moon. This was a major push from western Pennsylvania for the Buckeyes, who were forging a special relationship with a player they would incorporate into this Tressel attack.

In the classes before Pryor, Ohio State had not landed a quarterback rookie in 2007; the 2006 QB was a three-star from Georgia named Antonio Henton; and the 2005 QB was Rob Schoenhoft, a four-star rookie from Ohio.

Pryor was the guy. Now Ewers is the next guy.

Justin Fields was the quarterback’s second rookie in 2018, choosing Georgia before moving to Ohio state to start in 2019 and 2020. The 2021 QB battle is set to be between 2020 rookies CJ Stroud and Jack Miller , No. 3 and No. 27 quarters in this class; and Kyle McCord, the No.5 quarterback in 2021.

Recruiting a five-star Texas quarterback is no easy task. But with what Dwayne Haskins, and particularly Fields, has shown can be done in this Ohio State passing game instituted by Ryan Day, it feels more like quarterbacks are coming to the Buckeyes, rather than the Buckeyes must chase the quarterbacks.

With Pryor, the Buckeyes had talent everywhere else and landing the top quarterback rookie seemed like the last play. With Ewers, it’s more like landing an elite quarterback, because one of them will want to be a Buckeye, is an assumed first play, and everything else stems from that.

We’re a long way from Ewers from being in his high school gym and having the chance to sign the last piece of paper in December 2021 that will make this official. So we can’t get ahead of ourselves. But for now, it looks like a major thing has changed for Ohio State quarterback recruiting between 2008 and 2022.

Before, it was difficult. Now it’s almost easy.

2. Twenty-five straight wins over the Hoosiers

This is a reminder that the 2010 NCAA sanctions against the state of Ohio continue to spoil the OSU record books. You’ll see Ohio State PR referencing 24 straight wins over Indiana ahead of Saturday’s game. It’s actually 25.

Indiana’s last non-defeat against Ohio State was a tie in 1990. The last IU victories came in consecutive seasons in 1987 and 1988. The teams face each other every season now as one. enemies of the Eastern Division, but this was obviously not the case. still the case, so they didn’t meet in 1999, 2000, 2007 and 2008.

How does a 25-game winning streak for the Buckeyes compare to other Big Ten teams? It is the longest. Here’s the length of the Buckeyes ’12 other consecutive Big Ten winning streaks, with the Buckeyes’ latest loss. None is even half as long as the Hoosier streak.

11 Minnesota (2000)

9 Illinois (2007)

8 Wisconsin (2010)

8 Michigan (2011)

8 Northwest (2004)

seven Rutgers (never)

6 Maryland (never)

6 Nebraska (2011)

4 Michigan State (2015)

4 Penn State (2016)

0 Purdue (Boilermakers won the last game in 2018)

0 Iowa (Hawkeyes won the last game in 2017)

3. Retaining a racing game piece

Among the Big Ten running backs averaging at least eight runs per game, Trey Sermon 4.78 the yardage average ranks ninth, and that of Master Teague 4.49 the yardage average is 12th. Keep in mind that this is against the rushing defenses of Nebraska, Penn State and Rutgers, neither of which are particularly strong.

A year ago JK Dobbins was averaging 6.65 meters per portage. In 2017, Dobbins on average 7.23 meters. In 2016, Curtis Samuel on average 7.95 and Mike Weber on average 6.02. In 2015 and 2014, Ezekiel Elliot averaged 6.30 and 6.88.

Even in the year 2018, Weber on average 5.55 and Dobbins 4.58.

So it’s not great at the moment. But one piece is missing in the OSU racing game. The Buckeyes said they wanted to limit the number of litters for Fields, but I figured they couldn’t help themselves. In Week 1, they couldn’t as Fields carried 15 times for 54 yards. But the last two weeks combined, he’s got 12 carries for three yards, and four are sacks.

His race has disappeared. But he’ll be there whenever the Buckeyes really need him. Maybe it’s Saturday against Indiana. Maybe it’s in the Big Ten Championship Game. Maybe it’s in the college football playoffs. But it’s there and waiting, and that has to factor in the OSU game rating. Because there is no doubt as to who is the best runner on the list.

It’s Fields.

“I think he’s pretty good,” Ryan Day said this week. “I think he’s strong, he’s powerful, his movement in the pocket has been good. In the Rutgers game you saw the rusher come in a couple of times and he messed up the guy, but he didn’t panic. He kept his eyes on the ground. This part has really improved.

“In his running skills, he’s tall, he’s strong, he’s fast and he can run. I think he’s a very good runner.

Will defensive tackle Tommy Togiai really lead the Buckeyes in sacks? He’s got three on the season, all in the Penn State game. The five defensive ends of the regular rotation have a total of three – 1.5 by Zach Harrison, 1 by Javonte Jean-Baptiste and 0.5 by Jonathon Cooper.

So Harrison leads the way for the mean 0.5 bags per game. For recent sack chiefs among the defensive ends, Chase Young has averaged 1.4 bags per game last season; Young on average 0.68 in 2018; Nick Bosa on average 0.61 in 2017; Tyquan Lewis on average 0.62 in 2016 and 2015; and Joey Bosa on average 0.9 in 2014.

5. Missing Buffalo

Everyone was disappointed with the loss of the Ohio State-Oregon non-conference game. The Buckeyes were due to travel to Eugene for the first time since 1967 in what would have been a Top 10 game. This game was lost early, once the Big Ten went to a conference-only plan.

But two other games were also lost. One was the first game against Bowling Green, currently 0-3. The other was a week three game against Buffalo, who is currently 3-0 and ranks 10th nationally in scoring, averaging 44.3 points per game, and 25th nationally in yards, with a average of 462.

The Buffalo running game was devastating, as Jaret Patterson ran for 301 yards and four touchdowns in a 42-17 win over Bowling Green on Tuesday. Patterson is averaging 7.2 yards per carry, while compatriot Kevin Marks Jr. is averaging 77 yards per game and 6.2 yards per carry.

There’s been this lingering question of when a MAC team could beat the Buckeyes, and I’m not saying Buffalo would have been that team. But Lance Leipold is a coach who won six Division III national titles at Wisconsin-Whitewater and has been building something in Buffalo for six years. He’s the darkest of the black horses if a major job like Michigan or Penn State is available, but he’s a program creator with a plan. Keep an eye on him.

Given the opportunity, the Bulls this season could have been one of those MAC teams that at least showed up to Ohio Stadium with a goal and gave the Buckeyes a fight for a quarter or two. Here, by the way, is the podcast I did with Leipold this spring.

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