NORMAN, Okla. — Urban Meyer had a feeling he didn't have to deal with for essentially two seasons when his team boarded its private plane to jet south toward the University of Oklahoma. He truly was not sure how it would respond in the face of the bright lights and 80,000 screaming fans during the first road game of its season.
"This one was alarming to me," Meyer said minutes after the Buckeyes put to bed a 45-24 roasting of No. 14 Oklahoma in its own backyard. "I swallowed hard a little bit when I thought about who was getting that plane to come out here. Bunch of guys who had never really played on the road."
Ohio State said it brought 30 freshmen with it to Gaylord Family — Oklahoma Memorial Stadium on Saturday. Half of them redshirted the 2015 season, while the other 15 signed their National Letters of Intent in February or enrolled a month earlier. The offseason theme of youth and inexperience drove a narrative in what is now Meyer's fifth season in Columbus, with the matchup against Bob Stoops' Sooners dubbed as an early temperature gauge for what the team's ceiling could be in 2016.
But when the clock read all zeroes in the wee hours of Sunday morning back home — due to a 90-minute storm delaying kickoff — a young Buckeye team some expected to step back after losing 12 draft picks put the nation on notice. It's here to stay.
"This was the coming of age game," Meyer said. "You took a deep breath and I was watching our guys get on the buses and the plane like 'My God, this is a young team.'
"It's no longer that. I think before today they're not longer inexperienced. You went on the road and played at Oklahoma and that has to be one of the top-5 places. I saw their record. It is one of the top five hardest places to play. It's a very talented team but from the opening kickoff, our guys swung as hard as they could."
That record Meyer referred to is the now 97-9 home record for Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops, still an outstanding mark considering he now stands in his 19th season at the helm in Norman. But Meyer's road record while at Ohio State is now 19-0, due in large part to four touchdown passes from J.T. Barrett to redshirt sophomore wide receiver Noah Brown. One came on a highlight reel grab when he caught the ball on Michiah Quick’s back while still getting his feet down. Ohio State's opportunistic defense intercepted Baker Mayfield twice, and Jerome Baker even took one back 68 yards for a touchdown that pushed Ohio State's lead to 14-0 early.
“We'd known all along that it wasn't a rebuilding year. We knew our talent, we knew what we had and tonight was our chance to showcase that and prove that. We reload, we don't rebuild.”– Pat Elflein
The Buckeyes ran for 291 yards on 48 carries against a defense that entered allowing only 83.5 yards per game in a loss to Houston and win against Louisiana-Monroe. Curtis Samuel finished with 98 yards on 17 carries, while Mike Weber tallied 123 on 18 tries in his first road start.
Not bad for all that youth and inexperience, especially behind three new starters on the offensive line.
"They have a great defense and they were known for stopping the run," said Barrett, who ran 17 times for 82 yards. "It was something that we wanted to challenge being that they were a great defense against the run and we're a running football team. That's what we do."
Oklahoma's opening drive ended with a missed field goal, a shift in momentum Ohio State capitalized on with Curtis Samuel's 36-yard touchdown scamper on 4th-and-1 two drives later. And even though Joe Mixon took a kickoff 97 yards to the end zone to cut the lead in half following Baker's pick-six, the Barrett-Brown connection overwhelmed Oklahoma's defense. Brown's ridiculous grab came with just six seconds left on the first half clock and made the score 35-17 at intermission.
"Anytime J.T. puts the ball in air he’s putting trust in me and I try to come down with the ball for him and have my quarterback’s back," Brown said. "It felt good to be able to make that play and put some points on the board for our team."
Even though the Buckeyes beat a top-15 team on the road, room for improvement remains. They committed 11 penalties and their defense at times struggled to contain receivers after Gareon Conley went down with an injury (Meyer said Conley should be "fine"). Despite his four scoring tosses, Barrett threw for just 152 yards, but stayed efficient and completed 14-of-20 throws.
Ohio State did not commit a turnover, providing enough of an edge even though it only outgained Oklahoma by 39 yards. Like a python slowly crushes its prey and nabs its opportunity to retrieve its dinner, Ohio State made the most of what it got on Saturday.
It played like a team that didn't have 16 starters to replace.
"We'd known all along that it wasn't a rebuilding year," center Pat Elflein said. "We knew our talent, we knew what we had and tonight was our chance to showcase that and prove that. We reload, we don't rebuild."
"We knew we had to come out here and be ready to play because they were a good offense and good team overall," Malik Hooker added. "We knew we had to play our best during this game. We also knew it was an away game, a tough away game so we felt like we had to be 100 percent focused on this game."
That much was clear. The Buckeyes sacked Mayfield three times, including early in the fourth quarter on a fourth down to completely end any prayer of an Oklahoma comeback. There were mistakes, sure, but the young roster shed its youthful label once the storm clouds cleared and lights shined brightest.
"We got our asses kicked," Mayfield said after. "They came in and they played well. They had a great game plan and J.T. Barrett played well. They played better than us."
Ohio State heads into an off week at 3-0 and ranked No. 3 in the country. We'll see how the polls change on Sunday but Saturday belonged to Ohio State. It belonged to Meyer and his group of talent that he and his staff work tirelessly to recruit and bring to Columbus just for nights like this.
"The maturity of the old guys is outstanding right now. J.T. Barrett, Pat Elflein, Billy Price up front. Then Raekwon McMillan and Gareon Conley," Meyer said. "Just really good leaders on this team right now."
And what is perhaps scary is it is clear the culture Meyer instilled in that leadership knows Ohio State can — and needs — to be even better before the calendar bleeds into October and November. Big Ten season starts in two weeks with a home game against Rutgers. Back-to-back games at Michigan State and home against Michigan loom to close the schedule.
Work awaits.
"There's still room to improve but we played pretty good for this to be our first real big game," linebacker Chris Worley said. "It's a good starting point but we're nowhere near where we need to be."
Added Elflein: "I was pumped about the win but I said to the coaches, my teammates, it's crazy how much better we can get and how much better we can play. So we have a good mindset going into the bye week and really focus on getting better."
At least Meyer knows he won't have a tight throat when he and his team board a plan for road trips to Penn State and Wisconsin next month, two more roadblocks in the way of their ascent back atop the Big Ten.
"Very impressed with our performance," he said. "They're no longer the youngest team."
