Urban Meyer said he didn't mean for it happen but all of a sudden he looked up at the Ohio Stadium scoreboard and saw his team ahead by more than 60 points.
"Sometimes I hate when I see that score, where that's not what our intent was," Meyer said shortly after Ohio State thumped Bowling Green 77-10 to kick off its 2016 season.
A talented roster equipped with more than 40 freshmen but boasting players Meyer called "cagey veterans" like J.T. Barrett and Pat Elflein overwhelmed the Falcons in all phases Saturday. Even though Barrett threw an interception that Brandon Harris returned 63 yards for a touchdown within the first three minutes of the game, the Buckeyes clearly sported more depth and skill than anything Bowling Green could counter with.
"We have a lot of talent. People don’t really understand how much talent we have," Ohio State running back Mike Weber said. "We’re going to put the ball in the playmakers’ hands and make plays. That’s what we’re here for."
Weber scurried and bullied his way to 136 yards on 19 carries in his first career start, a redshirt freshman that showed why everyone talked about his potential a year ago while he sat behind Ezekiel Elliott. The 136 yards were a fraction of the school-record 776 the Buckeyes posted against Bowling Green, to go with 41 first downs and seven total touchdowns for Barrett — another school record.
"That's the hope, we definitely want to spread the wealth out knowing that there is only one football," Barrett said. "But trying to get it in the playmakers hands and we are deep at receiver. A lot of guys can rotate in and make plays for us."
Barrett threw touchdown passes to four different receivers — one each to Noah Brown, and K.J. Hill and two apiece to Dontre Wilson and Curtis Samuel. The latter slashed and dashed his way to 271 total yards, including a speedy 79-yard touchdown catch when he just ran away from Bowling Green's secondary after capitalizing on a mismatch. The Falcons never really had a chance at containing him.
"He's the first true hybrid I've had in a while where he's big enough," Meyer said. "Dontre is close, too, he's up to 197, 198 pounds. Both those guys give us a little bit of a 1-2 punch back there. Dontre had three receptions. Two of them for touchdowns. And also had five carries. So averaged over seven yards per carry. That's pretty good."
Added Barrett: "Y'all kept asking me who is going to be the guy to come out and have that spark in our offense? Those three guys really do it for us. Dontre, (Weber) and Curtis Samuel too. That's the great thing about it. They can do a lot of things and that was the thing — sometimes the ball wasn't even intended for them but they were able to find a way to get open."
"LenDale White and Reggie Bush [huge smile]. We can get there and we probably can even be better," Weber said of he and Samuel. "I think we can be a really good 1-2 punch."
Ohio State said 30 players saw action for their first time in a Buckeye uniform, another ode to just how deep and talented the 2015 group was that saw 12 players hear their names called at the 2016 NFL Draft. And even though some of those players stood on the sideline in street clothes watching Ohio State throttle Bowling Green with a weekend off before the start of their professional careers, the guys they left behind combined for a more balanced and lethal attack than anything we saw last season.
"I think our mindset offensively was playing fast and I think that's something that we got away from was playing fast and keeping our tempo and knowing that you get a lot of plays and it's more opportunities to get those explosive plays because you're just running more plays," Barrett said.
"The one thing about it is when you have great players coming through your program, the bar is set high," offensive coordinator Ed Warinner said. "If you want to be the left tackle at Ohio State, you’ve gotta play up to Taylor Decker and Jack Mewhort’s standards and others before them. Anything less than that, we’re not as good. At tailback, we’ve had great tailbacks. How many tailbacks have won the Heisman here? You’ve got great tailbacks here, Zeke was in that, Carlos Hyde, so you have great tailbacks. When you get a starting role at Ohio State, expectations are high. Hopefully we can put someone who’s talented enough at those positions to reach those expectations. The guys here work hard and they understand that level of play that we’re striving for."
Even Demario McCall, a true freshman built for speed and with a penchant for embarrassing defenders in the open field, found pay dirt twice in his first appearance as a Buckeye. He caught a pass out of the backfield from backup quarterback Joe Burrow and also rushed in from 16 yards out. K.J. Hill's first career catch went for a touchdown. Marcus Baugh caught four passes. Johnnie Dixon caught three. Malik Hooker intercepted two passes, one in acrobatic fashion after he tipped the ball to himself as he went to the turf.
"I feel like my coaches put me in a lot of positions to be able to make plays and I just use my athletic ability to run around and ballhawk the ball," Hooker said.
Ten true freshmen played, but it was those who patiently waited their turn behind past stars who showed out.
"You just don't know until you know. All the way from kicking game — you look at our kickoff team, there's all new guys on there," Meyer said. "And just trying to think of all the skill guys that touched the ball on offense.
"There's guys that just have not been integral parts of our offense, from Mike Weber to Parris Campbell to Dontre, who should be, hasn't played much since his freshman year. He performed well and Curtis Samuel obviously. And Marcus Baugh, I thought had a good day today. There's a lot of good players getting reps today."
Ohio State nearly left the slaughter unscathed but knee injuries to veteran defensive players tackle Tracy Sprinkle and linebacker Dante Booker tested that depth even more. Meyer announced a likely season-ending patella tendon injury for Sprinkle while Booker's is just a sprain.
"Everybody’s heart, stomachs drop. It was such a terrible thing to see," Sam Hubbard said of Sprinkle's injury. "He was the heart and soul of the D-line and now we’ve just got to pick things up and play for him."
"I feel like we’ll be OK, but that’s a soldier that went down today and everybody felt that on the team and now we’ve gotta do our best to replace that," Jalyn Holmes said.
The Buckeyes didn't feel the effect of losing two starters against a weaker opponent like Bowling Green, a program in transition with a brand new coaching staff and offensive pieces despite winning the MAC last year. But Ohio State rotated freely and easily wore down the Falcons anyway. That is something Ohio State hopes to do more of going forward.
"This is pretty elite as far as how many guys are going to play. Hopefully you can do that and you keep players fresher, longer," Greg Schiano said. "You'd like to be able to do that, but you'd never do it to the sacrifice of execution."
"It was just a lot of guys were waiting for their chance to get on the field and you see what happened. We got a lot of talent," Damon Webb added. "They'd been waiting their chance and finally get to show what they can do."
Plenty of players did that on Saturday. But potentially arduous road games wait in the wings for Meyer's young team, starting with Oklahoma in two weeks. The Sooners lost to Houston at the same time Ohio State put the finishing touches on its thumping of Bowling Green but that matchup is what some will point to before truly judging the 2016 Buckeyes.
Count Meyer in that camp, even though Tulsa visits Ohio Stadium next weekend.
"Well, it's one game. Let's chat in about four weeks now see how we're doing. It's one game we have very good personnel. They played well. Let's go back. Let's not put the cart before the horse and start anointing anyone. They played pretty good. Other than that, we'll watch film. I'll get to you on Monday and tell you really how they played."
The stat sheets said the most inexperienced roster in America certainly looked the part.
