We're back everybody!!
These are initial thoughts, gut reactions. We needed a minute to ground ourselves after the biggest hype offseason in memory. But once we did...we showed we have a ridiculous amount of ability to do whatever we want.
So here goes:
Care: The Will Howard Effect
Will Howard won't go down in history on the Ohio State Mount Rushmore. He won't be a top 5 passer in school history (maybe. If he is, it will be nice to celebrate that national championship). But him being our QB is going to be a massive breath of fresh air after last season's frustrations.
Outside of the iffy start, which was clearly a team-wide thing and not just Howard (thanks JJ Smith for being a freshman with freshman jitters), Howard appears to be exactly what Ryan Day wanted and this team needed. He is confident, composed, able to make plays with his legs and move in the pocket (THANK GOD), and he ran the offense extremely well.
He was accurate at every level of the field and made some throws we haven't seen in two years (the sideline pass to JJ while rolling out to his right was an awesome sight to see).
It may have just been Akron and he'll face tougher defenses soon enough, but first impressions are very, very positive and makes me excited for the rest of the season. Oh, and he only got better as the game went on.
Don't Care: Early game what-the-fucks.
This was a sloppy game to watch in the first half. I didn't enjoy a lot of it because my critic-eyes were wide open and I could mostly only focus on what went wrong. But a lot of it was clearly jitters by young guys, an offensive line missing arguably the best lineman, and the team needed to get some live game reps under their belt before they got into a groove.
I don't think those issues are going to be lasting. JJ Smith isn't dropping a behind-the-LOS pass that he'd take to the house ever again. He proved his ability over the course of an absolutely unguardable game after that drop. Our offensive line, missing Donovan Jackson, improved over the course of the game. Our defense gave up some yards but very few points and no touchdowns.
Maybe we're lucky we get to start the season with a few cupcakes...but that's just how the schedule ended up. This team hit its stride after the first quarter and a half and that's what I'd want to see after a sloppy start. I'm not worried.
Care: Jim Knowles' defense is going to be better than last season
Yup. They are going to be great. They gave up some yards early on but the rush defense was exceptional, and HELL TURNOVERS. I don't care if it was Akron...we didn't have games with ballhawking defense and aggressive tackling that resulted in fumbles much last year.
Our defense is aggressive, complete, and you aren't going to be able to do much against them no matter who you are. I loved what I saw today and if we played a team that didn't have an absolute cannon for a kicker it could have been a shutout.
Don't Care: Offensive Line criticism
It's here, it's loud, it's perpetual. Early in the game there were lapses and not a lot of room for our RBs. And yet we ended up with Trey rushing for 8.1ypc, and even if you took his longest run (21 yards) out he averaged 6.28. When Trey was in, we ran the ball at will.
We had a few lapses in pass blocking, but when you have the luxury of a huge QB with the ability to move...you understand that happens a couple times per game and you'll still have zero sacks given up. If McCord could have moved at all last season our sacks given up would have been much lower and our offense would have been much better.
Oh, and we were also missing Donovan Jackson. I don't know how much he's practiced and how much time the backups have had filling in for him, but he's an All-American-level Guard and that's tough to replace. Once he's back we'll see improvement from the whole unit.
I'm not anywhere close to panicking at this point, or throwing Frye out.
Care: Our star players are star players.
I'll start with the obvious: JJ Smith may be our WR1 already and the fact we have him for three seasons is stupid and unfair. We haven't seen a true freshman this polished at his position since Clarett...and he may actually be better at what he does than Clarett was, but we'll have to wait for such a claim. Outside of a silly drop and false start penalty, he was open regardless of how close the defender was on him and had sideline grabs, jumping TDs, one-handed catches, and generally just did whatever he wanted if the ball came his way. The hype was legit.
Next: Trey. He's our RB1 and it isn't really close. Judkins has talent and has proven it over a great two-year career. But the offense hums in a different way when Trey is in. His burst, agility, and speed might be the best combo in the country and he is the complete package. We all knew his talent, but when you put him next to the best SEC running back and he completely overshadows him...it says a lot. Oh, and his PASS BLOCKING is something to behold. He's the total package.
Finally: The whole defense. I wish I could single out a guy here because of some stellar performance. But for every interception ripped from the hands of the receiver there was a fumble recovery for a TD, and for every sack or pressure there were three others from other guys (5 sacks and 10 TFL is awesome, fyi). The whole defense played well and we saw impact plays from every level of the defense, even while missing a starting LB. There were some issues with angles and missed tackles at times but, again, first game and that won't be an issue moving forward if I had to guess. We all heard about the aggression our defense wanted to play with and I believe they may have took it a bit too far early on. Akron had 177 total yards of offense and 1.3 yards per rush...our guys smothered them all game.
Don't Care: For any narrative that comes from this game
This was a tune up, a dress rehearsal. There was plenty to learn from and plenty to celebrate. We're finally back into college football season and I couldn't be happier. There will be a bunch of negativity on these boards over the next week because people just won't let themselves be happy. That sucks for them because their lives are so miserable.
Narratives will be spun, coaches will be terminated in the minds of some fans, and the team will improve and go out next week and dominate again.
Enjoy this season. Enjoy this team. They play fun, aggressive, varied, and passionate. They are going to be a joy to watch all season. Embrace that as fans because we only have 11-15 games left in the season. We're lucky to be Buckeyes and Buckeye fans. I hope you can all appreciate it as much as I do.
