Ladies and gentlemen, let's get into the stoinks.
Week 9 brought us another Buckeye win, the umpteenth skirmish in the infamous Michigan tunnel and several surprising results around the world of college football. We break down the highs and lows from the week that was in Eleven Warriors' latest edition of the stock report.
Stock Up
J.T. Tuimoloau
Haven’t enough superlatives been showered upon Tuimoloau’s show-stopping performance on Saturday? No? Well, here’s more.
With four turnovers forced against Penn State, including two picks and a touchdown, the sophomore pass rusher might have had the greatest individual defensive performance in program history. In fact, Eleven Warriors readers voted overwhelmingly to award Tuimoloau with that honor in Monday’s poll, with 88% of you calling Saturday the best game ever played by an Ohio State defender.
Perhaps no one player was more responsible for Ohio State’s come-from-behind win, as the two turnovers Tuimoloau created in the fourth quarter alone both led to touchdowns. While he struggled to accumulate stats early on this season, the five-star prospect has officially arrived for Ohio State, and his stock is soaring heading into Week 9.
YOUR @B1Gfootball DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK @JT_Tuimoloau #GoBucks pic.twitter.com/6jbhftipod
— Ohio State Football (@OhioStateFB) October 31, 2022
Marvin Harrison Jr.
For the second straight game, the Ohio State offense wasn’t quite clicking early on. Aside from Harrison, that is. The stellar sophomore wideout had another performance to remember on Saturday, hauling in a career-high 10 passes for a career-best 185 yards, just one more than he had against Arkansas State in Week 2.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba was out once again for Ohio State and Emeka Egbuka couldn’t get going until the final frame, having net negative yardage on his first four catches. That meant C.J. Stroud had to rely on Harrison, and the Philadelphia native didn’t disappoint.
Harrison might not have caught a touchdown pass for just the third time this season, but he made a number of huge plays downfield that set up scores and helped the Buckeyes climb out of a hole late.
Marvin Harrison Jr. played like the best receiver in America on Saturday. pic.twitter.com/nkCItEw0Tw
— Eleven Warriors (@11W) October 29, 2022
Defensive takeaways
Remember when Ohio State didn’t have any takeaways through the first two games of the season? Me neither. The Buckeyes have long since wiped away any notion that they’d struggle to create turnovers this season, and particularly in the past two games. Ohio State turned Iowa over six times, and on Saturday, Tuimoloau and the Buckeyes followed that performance up with another four takeaways.
Defensive backs, defensive linemen and linebackers alike are intercepting passes and pressure up front has created a number of fumbles as well. Ohio State has set up its offense to score on numerous occasions by giving it the ball back in plus territory the past two weeks, which has been especially helpful given slow starts for Ryan Day and Kevin Wilson’s unit against the Hawkeyes and Nittany Lions.
Cade Stover
After catching two touchdowns against Wisconsin to cement himself as a real pass-catching weapon for the Buckeyes, Cade Stover’s next three performances had been a bit quiet as far as making plays in the passing game. That changed against Penn State, as Stover hauled in a career-high six passes for 78 yards – the second-most of his career. Stover capped off his effort with perhaps his best play of the season, a 24-yard touchdown that saw him shed three would-be tacklers in the fourth quarter to give Ohio State a two-score lead with 8:17 to play.
This Cade Stover touchdown was beautiful in every way.pic.twitter.com/ib2Vu51E5V
— Eleven Warriors (@11W) October 29, 2022
TCU
The Horned Frogs didn’t move up in the AP poll after their 41-31 win over West Virginia on Saturday, but Oklahoma State’s loss further stamped TCU’s spot as the top dog in the Big 12. Not only the lone undefeated team in the conference, TCU has two fewer losses than any other school in the Big 12. In fact, the Horned Frogs rank six places higher than any of their conference foes in the AP Top 25.
With four wins over ranked opponents on its résumé already, the heavy lifting might already be done for TCU in the regular season, as it doesn’t have another ranked competitor on its schedule over the final four games before the postseason.
Notre Dame
Marcus Freeman and the Fighting Irish haven’t had a season to remember so far. Notre Dame dropped three of its first six games to start the season, including its Week 1 loss to Ohio State, which ensured the Irish were out of the College Football Playoff race by the midway mark of the regular season. But on Saturday, Notre Dame picked up some much-needed momentum with perhaps its best win of the season. Notre Dame knocked off No. 16 Syracuse, 41-24, to hand the Orange just their second loss of the year.
That commanding win earned the Irish 24 votes in the updated AP poll as Notre Dame heads into a huge home matchup with No. 5 Clemson next weekend.
Stock Down
Miyan Williams’ health
Following an injury absence against Michigan State and the subsequent bye week for the Buckeyes, Williams’ return to action against Iowa wasn’t exactly a triumphant one. The third-year rusher had just 19 yards on 10 attempts against the Hawkeyes two weekends ago. Against Penn State, Williams’ first carry went for a touchdown, but his second rush was his final of the game as the Cincinnati native left the contest with what appeared to be injuries to both his hand and knee.
Day gave no update on Williams’ health after the game, although the Buckeye running back tweeted that he is “all good.” That remains to be seen, but given Ohio State’s struggles on the ground the past two weeks, there’s little doubt that a healthy Williams would make a big difference for the Buckeyes down the stretch.
All good
— Chop (@Miyannnn3) October 29, 2022
Michigan tunnel
Another week, another scuffle in the Big House as a result of Michigan’s one-tunnel system that sees both teams attempting to leave the field in the same place at the same time. Recent dust-ups included both last year’s Ohio State game and the Wolverines’ matchup with Penn State on Oct. 15, but this weekend’s quarrel was the worst of all. Several Michigan State players were seen getting physical with a Michigan player in the tunnel after the Spartans’ blowout loss, which led to statements from both programs after the fact.
While the incident reflects poorly on Michigan State, accountability must be taken on the Michigan side given the repeated episodes.
Footage of the scuffling pic.twitter.com/cipLWi5RBS
— Matt Charboneau (@mattcharboneau) October 30, 2022
Oklahoma State
Make it two losses in three weeks for Mike Gundy and company, who suffered a major setback defeat over the weekend in a 48-0 beatdown at the hands of surging Kansas State. While a three-point loss to undefeated TCU on Oct. 15 was hardly an embarrassment, Saturday’s slip-up was an eye-opener as the Cowboys fell nine places in the AP poll. Without Jim Knowles leading the Oklahoma State defense, the Cowboys have given up an average of 39 points per game in their last four contests. Frankly, that’s not going to cut it if Oklahoma State hopes to remain among the elite teams in the Big 12 going forward.
Cincinnati
After barely surviving back-to-back contests with USF and SMU in their previous two games, Luke Fickell’s Bearcats failed to scrape by against UCF as Cincinnati lost its second game of the season, 25-21. The loss knocked Cincinnati out of the AP poll, and the Bearcats have now dropped two games in a season for the first time in three years. There’ll be no return trip to the CFP for Fickell and company, whose momentum off the back of last year’s success has waned in recent weeks.
