Jeremiah Smith shines in debut, Buckeyes shrug off slow start to pummel Akron | Ohio State football

that wasn't quite the start Ohio city was looking to get off to but 52-6 is 52 to6 Tim May the 41y year vet Andy Backstrom Spencer H Brook we'll talk about it uh Tim first thoughts Ohio State 52 akan 6 yeah by the way not not by far the start they wanted but the ending was pretty good yeah especially when Gabe Powers has that punctuation mark with that uh tip pass pick six that was pretty sweet and you feel good for a guy from Marysville you know right up right up the road here who's really hammering in there to try to be a regular player on this group but uh yeah you know it's it's in your mind you have Ohio State playing akan you know akan is not picked I think finish in the lower third of the of the yeah 11th in the Mac you know what they were coming off of from last year and whatever but that's not the same team that kind of showed up today and uh uh not that I'm over crediting them and under under evaluating Ohio State uh but once Ohio State and will Howard and will Howard and Jeremiah Smith got their act going and that was the ACT yeah today that mattered oh yeah uh definitely H state was superior team but I just didn't think it was going to take that long to crank up that big old diesel yeah look Ryan Day said that the offensive line especially that interior group was a little uptight at the beginning we saw Austin SEL get his first career start filling in for Donovan Jackson we don't think that's anything long term we saw Donovan Jackson actually warming up same thing with Cody Simon who also missed the game today so both those don't seem to be anything too serious but again Austin srail gets his start first career start a left guard and then Tegra shaba made his first career start at Right Guard they also rolled in Carson Hinman a little bit in the beginning of the game at that Right Guard spot so again there's a lot of newness in that interior of that offensive line Seth mlan making his first career start at Ohio State even though he had made 25 of those starts at Alabama but again newness and there was uptightness I think that Ryan day kind of shouted out a little bit at the beginning of his press conference and and eventually they started to play looser and I think that's when the offense and the Run game especially started to pop yeah Ryan Day said that once they started having fun they started playing well and I think I agree with that there I can probably when I go back tomorrow and watch the the film and when I when I'm like Ryan day and I sit down I watch the film before I give you guys any good answers and I uh you know make sure to go back over it put it on the Letterman Lounge Message Board all those thoughts go there right now get that at letter.com I mean I'll probably see that point where they started having fun it's probably the long pass to Jeremiah that that set up a really easy uh touchdown run but like we can't go any further without talking about Jeremiah Smith because for the offensive line woes we'll get to those and we'll certainly talk about them on the Monday after when we get in here on Monday after we watched it again um Jeremiah what a debut I mean six catches 92 yards his first Target a complete just drop right in the hands probably could have scored a touchdown on that probably would have scored just a drop he also had a fall start then a couple drives later he had a you know I KN he had illegal motion then he also had a uh you know he covered up the outside receiver got an illegal formation on him like it was not always pretty but the fun part was that they said they didn't say a word to him Ryan they said they didn't say anything to him will Howard said not a word was said they know how good he is they don't let freshman play through those mistakes they know this freshman's different he turns in six catches 92 yards and two times entering the End Zone it was pretty special debut yeah and just like the lead singer or whatever in a group you know he may miss a few notes in those first couple of songs you know but you're not going to like you're he's still he's still going to be your lead singer there was no doubt just on base everything you you heard and saw coming into this game that they were going to let Jeremiah Smith keep being that guy yeah and I'm talking about you know the guy out front the out front guy and uh the front man and I thought he did a great job he he accentuated what I've been saying about him all along one of the things that that sticks out to me about him and like I said Chris Carter even tweeted I dropped my first pass in Ohio stadium too the bottom line is he reminds you so much of Chris Carter in the sense of like I've said before the way he puts himself between the defender and the thrown football is uncanny and uh I don't think you can even teach that maybe you can work on it but it showed up in a couple of his big catches and you heard me ask him what his favorite catch was he says it was that deep ball down here to the two yard line that set up one of those touchdowns in the second half cuz I may have mentioned this before but uh they ran 11 plays in the third quarter the offense did for 135 yards yeah that means they really got it going and uh and that included two touchdowns and of course a defensive touchdown uh but uh but the bottom line is Jeremiah Smith is the real deal I think everybody knows that now he's going to face stiffer defensive competition than he faced today however good start though yeah and then will Howard you know like I thought he looked good at one point he was nine of 19 he finishes 18 of 29 so the final you know two quarters he was nine of 11 touchdown pass he looked a lot more comfortable obviously had the the bad backward pass thing that that was weird but I think that was more nerves than anything um what how do you assess it Andy like you just saw him play his first game in Ohio State yeah I think some of those incompletions are a little bit misleading there were a few drops not just Jeremiah CL Tate also had a drop early again but finish strong with the touchdown that Tim asked about post game 34 yard catch and run for a touchdown but also I think will Howard you know there was this the first scoring drive for Ohio State was everything you'd want to see from will Howard he had an eight- yard keeper shows kind of the mobility that he has to run the football a quarterback sneak on a third and one the physicality of being 6'4 he had a throw on the run to convert you know and get a first down there for Ohio State and then he has the touchdown throw to Jeremiah Smith right toward the pylon great throw great catch that's everything as advertised was Will Howard the speed the size and the throwing ability and I think that you know yeah was he perfect today no he wasn't but I think he was pretty good today and he showed you everything that he brings to the table and at one point he was completely 30% of his passes he ends up 61% you know 18 of 29 like I said only 228 yards but I think that's the output that you're probably going to get from him a lot of times like between that two and 300 Mark he's not CJ strad he's not Dwayne H Haskins but he's will Howard and I think you saw that like you said Andy like the full will Howard experience I think you got today and well I I don't know if the full cuz I mean we didn't see him get out get outside or run Gallop cuz that really is what sets him heart and uh yeah because you know in your first start in Ohio stadium even though you've started all those games at Kansas State you it's on your mind to make a good first impression whether you admit it or not and stuff when he settles down and really plays his game there were several opportunities where he could have taken off with green green grass or excuse me green artificial turf in front of him and had some big runs I think yall agree with that and that's when he's really on his game but I thought like you're talking about I thought the more the game went on the more you saw him playing like will Howard you know from Kansas State yeah I agree sorry I know it's hard to take that's okay what kind of conversation going on around us that's all right that's all right people got jobs to do on the onto the defense uh lean Ransom scooping score after uh Kaden Curry hits a guy you've got uh pick six from Gabe powers on the tip pass you've got just a good defensive performance Andy like five sacks 10 tackles for loss like havoc and I think that's the big word is they want to create Havoc this year they're creating havoc in game one three turnovers 10 tackles for loss five sacks what a start for this defense I don't care if it's akan the ball gets rolling on those kind of things yeah they had 11 takeaways all last year they had three takeaways today they had four defensive touchdowns last year which is a good amount they had two defens TS today which is awesome for I'm sure they're crating that and look as you mentioned like edri Houston's the one that TI that pass it leads up to the gay Powers pick six and and by the way edri Houston also got his hands on another pass like right before that as well and then look yes it's lean Ransom that has a scoop and score touchdown but who was it that created that it was first hero canoe slowing down the quarterback Tod Bullock and then it was Kaden Curry coming in from behind and just whacking not only the ball out but also the quarterback there and you know that second team defensive lineman that's setting up that play for lean Ransom which shows the depth that we've been talking about for what eight months Kat I don't mean to interrupt you but kinata Jackson also had a play where he got to the quarterback and tackled him but didn't get him all the way to the ground starts celebrating a sack and then doesn't get credited with the sack because he was celebrating as his teammates took it that took the quarterback down but like in my book that's a kinata Jackson win but like this second team defensive line showed us why Ohio State considers them like co-starters almost with Jack and JT Jack and JT looks fantastic JT one and a half sacks Jack Sawyer might get charged with a felony for what he did to Ben Finley the poor poor starting quarterback at akan um because he hit him I think five times like really hard I told Jack I said you should had like three sacks yeah and he's like I know I couldn't and I can't repeat what he said but I you know basically he said I couldn't get one um but I think my f my favorite defensive play clear to the Le lean Ransom scoop and score was huge but it was fun we talked about ear the Denzel Burke uh yeah just saying no that's my football you know and I asked him you know factiously you know would you have gotten that call in Michigan Stadium because we all remember the real kind of a re maybe the most important play in that game that just kind of gave Michigan you know what it needed was when he got it was ruled that uh what was the receiver's name Roman Wilson Ro yeah Roman Wilson I swear to this day uh that was an interception by Denzel Burke but it wasn't ruled that way and it is what it is but uh uh is like I asked you could tell there were you could tell as this game went on there were upper classmen who have played a lot together playing out there together and then you throw in uh Caleb DS who are basically all these guys are really helping the debut of two new starting linebackers in Sunny Styles and CJ Hicks CJ Hicks I watched him a lot I thought he played had a good sack very well he had that first really good sack right up the middle guy tried to cut block him he's ran right around him and gets the sack I mean there were a lot of ploted here it's just really when you cover a team like we do and you've covered them for four and a half weeks of preseason camp four and and off seon and stuff you just expected them to come out you know everybody to come out with a just a little more speed a little more you know as the French would say genice qua uh but they finally did get it going is what the way I would sum this up and they look dominant uh especially defensively offensive line there is still work to do there well Austin SEL probably not going to be in the lineup much longer I think Donovan Jackson be you never know if you're going to be in the line yeah it's it's true so you know if they get Donovan Jackson back Tas shabo gets a little more comfortable Seth mofin kind of shakes off those first start Jitters um didn't have any snapping issues that's obviously something that Ohio State fans were concerned about we knew that Ohio State wasn't concerned about it because they had seen it all off season um no issues there go back and watch the last play Alabama against Michigan it was not a bad snap it was a snap down here but that was not on Seth mclin but anyway that's neither here nor there um because I know a lot of people were expecting bad snaps because of that and so we're here and they're out there I just want to get that out there yeah uh I thought that it was a clean game from Seth M goon obviously there were again like the interior was not good today but I think that there's a lot that they can build off of um and then the defensive interior quite the opposite um I don't know if there's much more you can build off of they were really really good we haven't even mentioned t Williams well I also I was going to give us a chance one guy to mention on the defense um because there's so many guys and did man yeah so you got Ty Williams Andy who you got Arville ree oh je okay oh sorry I mean I felt like there was one drive you still say Caleb Dale that's true yeah he had a half sack yeah there was one drive in particular I felt like Aral ree really just showed out and he kind of flies all around the field this is a great opportunity for him to play he was at that will spot in there with sunny Styles who played Mike today cuz you know Cody Simon wasn't out here today and so so Sunny Styles was the one that had the helmet coms and was making all those calls and I think that speaks of the growth of Sunny Styles and the kind of adaption that he's had not only going from safety to linebacker but also practicing at will and then also not only making his first start at linebacker but being trusted with Distributing the play but back to RL ree you know he was in there along with sunny Styles at times and he just flies around and I think when you hear about how well he's played in the off season especially in training camp you know he was the defensive player of the game one of the scrimmages they had you can see why in a game like this where he finally gets meaningful snaps on the defensive side of the ball yeah I will go with Caleb DS I just you know I think he's more felt than he is seen at times um he you know he did have the half sack and he was really celebratory with that with jt2 and M while they each get credit with a half sack and you definitely you definitely saw him in that in that but like you can feel him out there when when teams are are hesitant to throw over the top because they know that he's a field General when teams know that he's coming down you know into the box and crashing to to help and run support like you just feel him out there and he doesn't have to make the play for that to happen I knew coming into this year he wasn't going to have 107 sack tackles like he did at Alabama this defensive front that Ohio state has is better than the one that Alabama had Caleb doesn't have to do that stuff but when you feel him out there when you feel number two out there you know he's there and I think that makes a huge difference with this defense I'm going read a little piece about lean Ransom the way he played today but I really think yall agree cuz we haven't watched the video yet right yeah uh I did get right we hav't watched the film yet right I did get Ryan day with that a little bit today yeah but my point uh exactly he's he gets to watch video now on the sideline on the tablet exactly but uh I just think boy I've been impressed by the way these two guys compliment each other and I'm talking about lean Ransom and Caleb DS because forget about whether you think they're the two best safties in the country the way they play off of each other yeah is pretty obvious I mean there's some good coaching going on there I think uh but also uh there's just some good play and some good instinctual playing going now going on there by both of these guys and it's learned instinctual playing in fact that's even a correct way of explaining it and uh so I was quite impressed with lean Ransom today because he delivered a couple of three plays which I thought really kind of put the nail in it I get the last word here CU I'm going to get us out of here uh Brandon Enis it's a win not an if he's going to return a punt for a touchdown he looks just different than most people we've seen back there in the past even in Mecca abuka I think Brandon is is just different than everybody else we've seen back there guys J reminds me of Jaylen yeah oh yeah he does he was going to catch the ball and was always going to run with it you know you almost had to force him to fair catch go ahead I'm sorry we're going to be back in here on Monday because obviously we've got a lot to talk about this guy has a lot to talk about you know that he's got a lot to talk about and I have a lot to talk about so we're going to meet back up here on Monday ready break we'll meet back up here on Monday and talk about it the Monday after allio State 52 akan 6 the akan Zips the akan 6 okay that'll work uh but again we're going to get out here we're going to go back up all the way up there to the Press Box get some writing done for you guys over at Letterman road.com paying members uh if you're not a member yet go to Letterman road.com there's no better time to join them right now I promise you will not regret it Tim May's content it's there andy Bam's content it's there and mine it's there Matt Parker Alex Lightman Mick Walker on the recruiting side Ohio State could be potentially picking up a commitment on Saturday night kind of crazy but West Coast kid stay tuned we'll see what happens he's on Pacific tag for now I'm just Spencer he's just Tim he's just Andy and we're just letter Monroe and we're going to cover the Buckey like we do 365 days a year we'll see you guys at Letterman road.com we'll see you back here on Monday for the Monday after Ohio State 52 akan 6