Even Urban Meyer didn't know the exact length to which Ohio State's offense reached against his former employer. Meyer, the man with three national championship rings and a flurry of victories already in Columbus, peered down at the statistical breakdown and raised his eyebrows.
"The breakdown is this: 350 (yards) rushing, right? And 417 ..." Meyer said, trailing off. "Well, that's over 250-250 but it's a nice balance."
Ohio State's head coach believes the perfect game for his offense is 250 yards rushing and 250 passing. On Saturday in a 77-10 scourging of Bowling Green, the Buckeyes set a program record with 776 total yards and made those watching feel like they didn't lose 12 draft picks to the NFL.
"A nice healthy balance of first down play-action passing, which, if you remember in '14, that's about what we were," Meyer said. "So we need to continue that."
That 2014 team won the first-ever College Football Playoff National Championship. With essentially the same roster back last season, the Buckeyes never broke the 50-point barrier and didn't fully return to the death machine everyone grew accustomed to seeing from the group that stomped Wisconsin, disposed of top-ranked Alabama and pushed aside Oregon to win it all.
The Buckeyes took care of business against Michigan and Notre Dame to end the season. Even then, though, the team relied on the powerful legs of Ezekiel Elliott and shiftiness of J.T. Barrett in the run game to average more than 45 points in those two games after Meyer moved offensive coordinator Ed Warriner to the press box.
"I think last year we had plays that were directed to only one person," said Barrett, who set a school record with seven touchdowns responsible for and tied his own mark with six scoring tosses against the Falcons. "So that was, I guess new plays were created to get certain players the ball. This year it was basically like whatever the play is, the defense dictates where the ball is supposed to go."
“Once again, I’ll just say that coach Meyer had a vision, we talked about it, the coaches did a great job all offseason.”– Ed Warinner
Ohio State inserted two-time Big Ten Player of the Year Braxton Miller to its receiving corps and often forced his hand with direct snaps and jet sweeps. Sometimes, it worked beautifully (see the 42-24 victory over Virginia Tech) while at others the Buckeyes couldn't get out of their own way (see the 20-13 win against Northern Illinois at home and stunning 17-14 loss to Michigan State).
"I feel good like most Buckeyes do right now, because a lot of these kids touching the ball, I could see people going through their programs saying: Who was that again?" Meyer said.
Ohio State said at least 30 players saw live action for the first time in their career Saturday. Ten true freshmen, including starting left guard Michael Jordan, played. Bowling Green certainly isn't the same team that won the MAC last year, but new faces on Ohio State's side kept taking over as the game wore on.
"Just coming in, a lot of people didn’t know the people we had on our team, the bunch of playmakers we had on our team. We did a great job today," Curtis Samuel said. "J.T. threw the ball well, the receivers caught it, the O-line blocked, the tight ends blocked and we did a great job."
Samuel scored three touchdowns, including a 79-yard reception after Barrett motioned him out of the backfield then hit him on a slant against 1-on-1 coverage. As soon as Samuel caught the ball, he was gone, showing his versatility and explosiveness that was forgotten in 2015 mostly due to Miller's presence.
Nine different players caught a pass, while six recorded carries. Joe Burrow took the first snap of his career in the third quarter and later threw a touchdown pass to Demario McCall, a true freshman. Ohio State's starting running back Mike Weber ran for 136 yards on just 19 carries. Noah Brown returned from a broken leg and caught a touchdown pass to go with 46 receiving yards. Senior Dontre Wilson recorded 101 all-purpose yards and caught two touchdown passes, looking crisp and more than capable after a nagging foot injury essentially cost him his 2015 season.
The talent kept coming and eventually it broke Bowling Green's spirit. Even after Barrett threw an ill-advised pass to Brandon Harris that he returned 63 yards for the game's first touchdown, Buckeyes ran to and from the sideline to the huddle constantly.
Earlier in the week Meyer likened the depth he saw from his young roster to that of a hockey team, which utilizes line changes to push fresh bodies in and out of the lineup.
"You go as hard as you possibly can and then come out and get a break," Meyer said Wednesday. "Their playing time is going to either raise or lower on how hard they go. Because that's how they're measured here."
That is how it looked Saturday against the Falcons. Larry Johnson rotated double-digit players on the defensive line. Kerry Coombs and Greg Schiano rotated cornerbacks and Zach Smith played 10 wide receivers before halftime.
The clear depth on Ohio State's roster wasn't just relegated to the offense, but that side of the ball did pretty much whatever it wanted. Not a bad way to start a season — especially when 43 players on the roster hold freshman eligibility and 15 players were either drafted or signed with professional football franchises in April.
"It’s kind of exciting isn’t it?" Warinner said. "Once again, I’ll just say that coach Meyer had a vision, we talked about it, the coaches did a great job all offseason. But it’s all about the players. We have great players here, talented players and they responded, were receptive and worked hard. That’s what they want to do. They want to play fast and be explosive and I think we showed that."
"If you go back, and sometimes I hate when I see that score, where that's not what our intent was," Meyer added. "We do like to score a lot of points, but we wanted, I think in the middle of the third quarter, took the offensive line out and everybody out."
It didn't matter. Bowling Green is not a Big Ten team but did win 10 games last season. When Meyer finally took the chains off all of that young and highly-rated talent that he and his staff recruited to Columbus, it resulted in a record-setting day that will put the nation on notice. Even if the head coach isn't sold yet on his team's sustainability, particularly with a massive road game looming at Oklahoma in two weeks.
"It's one game. Let's chat in about four weeks now see how we're doing," Meyer said. "Let's not put the cart before the horse and start anointing anyone."
It's only early September, but the Buckeyes set quite the precedent with how it performed on the heels of a season that ended with the best NFL Draft class ever.
"I tell the players that all the time; Ohio State is different, man," Meyer said. "You start making plays and all of a sudden people know who you are at the national level. Fight to make plays, because there's a guy behind you who is going to try to take your spot."
