The moment that the Ohio State football team has spent the past eight months waiting and preparing for has finally arrived.
Ryan Day will coach his first game as Ohio State’s official head coach. Justin Fields will start his first game as Ohio State’s quarterback. J.K. Dobbins will have his first chance to make up for a 2018 season that he considered to be a “failure.” Ohio State’s defense will have its first chance to make a statement after a year of hearing about its poor play from last year. True freshmen like Garrett Wilson and Zach Harrison will also play their first games in scarlet and gray.
After eight months of speculation, it’s time for all of them to show whether they can live up to the hype, as expectations in Columbus remain as high as ever despite the departure of Urban Meyer and numerous key players from last season, including record-setting quarterback Dwayne Haskins.
On Saturday at noon, Ohio State will host Florida Atlantic at Ohio Stadium in its first game of the 2019 season – the 130th season of Ohio State football – and after practicing against each other for the last month, the Buckeyes are ready to get back in the Shoe and play an actual opponent.
“At the end of the day, we're just fired up to play a game,” Ohio State head coach Ryan Day said this week.
FAU Breakdown
Florida Atlantic’s trip to Columbus this weekend marks the first-ever meeting between the Buckeyes and the Owls, who have only been playing football since 2001. FAU is coming off a 5-7 season last year, but went 11-3 and won the Conference USA championship two years ago.
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| FLORIDA ATLANTIC OWLS |
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5-7 (3-5 C-USA) IN 2018 ROSTER / SCHEDULE |
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NOON – SATURDAY, AUG. 31 OHIO STADIUM COLUMBUS, OHIO |
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FOX FOX SPORTS GO |
Lane Kiffin is entering his third season as FAU’s head coach, and Ohio State’s coaches and players made it clear this week that they have a lot of respect for Kiffin, who was previously the offensive coordinator at Alabama and has also been the head coach at USC, Tennessee and the NFL’s Oakland Raiders. “Innovative” and “aggressive” were among the words repeated by multiple Buckeyes representatives this week to describe what Kiffin does offensively, which means Ohio State’s defense has to be prepared for the Owls to have some tricks up their sleeves.
“I think he’s a really smart football coach,” said Ohio State co-defensive coordinator and secondary coach Jeff Hafley. “I think the scheme’s really good. I think he understands defense and he attacks defense, and he knows how to attack schemes. So I have a lot of respect for him as a football coach.”
FAU hasn’t named a starting quarterback for Saturday’s game, but Chris Robison is expected to be the first quarterback on the field for the Owls. A transfer from Oklahoma, Robison started 11 of 12 games in his first season in Boca Raton last year and completed 192 of 304 passing attempts (63.2 percent) for 2,533 yards with 12 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. He also ran for 211 yards and three touchdowns and was named Conference USA’s co-freshman of the year.
“I think the quarterback’s a talented player,” Hafley said. “He can make the throws, he’s quick on his feet. And now he’s got a little bit more experience than he did last year.”
Chris Robison is expected to be FAU's starting quarterback for Saturday's game, though he has not officially been named the starter. Mark D. Smith – USA TODAY Sports
The Owls’ receiving corps is led by one of the nation’s best tight ends, Harrison Bryant, who caught 45 passes for 662 yards – seventh in the Football Bowl Subdivision among all tight ends – and four touchdowns and was named a second-team All-American by Pro Football Focus last season.
An elite tight end could mean an immediate test for Brendon White at the new bullet position in Ohio State’s defense, as covering tight ends is expecting to be one of his primary responsibilities. Hafley said the Buckeyes will need to have a wide variety of players who are prepared to match up with Bryant in coverage, though.
“I think he’s a really good receiving threat from the tight end position,” Hafley said. “You just have to be aware of him. What he does well. Where he is on the field. You got to play with great eyes. If you’re covering him, there’s a lot of different things he can do. So whether it’s the Sam, whether it’s the bullet, whether it’s the safety, whether it’s the nickel, whether it’s a corner, whoever’s on him, they got to play with really good eyes, really good leverage and really good technique.”
Another FAU player on Hafley’s radar is 5-foot-8, 160-pound slot receiver Willie Wright, who caught 46 passes for 452 yards and two touchdowns last season, as well as 15 carries for 71 yards and 10 punt returns for 66 yards.
“The slot’s a talented player, he’s quick,” Hafley said. “Not the biggest guy in the world, but he can run. He’s really dangerous with the ball in his hands. And he has big-play capability.”
FAU ranked 14th in the FBS in total offense and 13th in rushing offense last season, but the Owls’ star running back from last season, Devin Singletary, is now playing for the NFL’s Buffalo Bills. The Owls have three returning starters from last season on their offensive line, which also allowed only 14 sacks last year, but will be relying on an unproven stable of running backs that includes once-highly touted Alabama recruit B.J. Emmons, though James Charles is expected to start in the Owls’ backfield.
The Owls’ weakness last season was their defense, which allowed 31.8 points and 424.4 yards per game. The Owls has a new defensive coordinator this season, though, which makes game planning for their defense more difficult. In order to prepare for what they could see Saturday, Ohio State’s offensive coaches have had to watch film from Charlotte – where Glenn Spencer was the defensive coordinator last season – as well as FAU to try to piece together what the Owls’ defense will look like in terms of both scheme and personnel.
“They bring a bunch of different looks to the table,” Day said. “Different coverages, different fronts. So not really having the opportunity to see those guys on film, we'll have to be able to react during the game, make adjustments."
Spencer’s defense at Charlotte ranked 22nd nationally with only 337.3 yards allowed per game last season, so there’s optimism that he can lead a defensive turnaround at FAU. The Owls return six defensive starters from last season including linebacker Rashad Smith, who led FAU with 86 tackles and four interceptions last season.
Realistically, though, it’s likely that FAU will be overmatched by the Buckeyes. The visitors are 27.5-point underdogs for Saturday’s game, and Kiffin has acknowledged that the game – which Ohio State is paying Florida Atlantic $1.4 million to play in – probably isn’t one his team should be playing in from a competitive standpoint.
“I don't think it is the best idea, especially following with UCF, (to be playing) another team that has been a top-10 team the last two years,” Kiffin said this week. “You have to make money, you can't not play these games, but you can play somebody that pays the same, because the conference pays the same for the most part. It is not that big of a difference. So, you play teams from major conferences. You just play, not necessarily, the team that year-in-and-year out is the best team in the conference. It is what it is. I'm excited for our kids to be able to go play at a place like that.”
Buckeye Breakdown
Ohio State probably shouldn’t have much reason to worry about getting a win on Saturday, but the Buckeyes have a lot to prove and plenty to learn about themselves entering the first game of the season.
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| OFFENSE | ||||
| 42.4 | 8th | POINTS FOR | 31.1 | 44th |
| 171.3 | 63rd | RUSHING OFFENSE | 241.8 | 13th |
| 364.3 | 2nd | PASSING OFFENSE | 237.0 | 63rd |
| 535.6 | 2nd | TOTAL OFFENSE | 478.8 | 14th |
| .466 | 17th | 3rd DOWNS | .331 | 118th |
| .771 | 115th | RED ZONE | .833 | 70th |
| DEFENSE | ||||
| 25.5 | 51st | POINTS ALLOWED | 31.8 | 92nd |
| 158.2 | 56th | RUSH DEFENSE | 189.0 | 89th |
| 245.2 | 86th | PASS DEFENSE | 238.4 | 79th |
| 122.2 | 42nd | PASS EFFICIENCY DEFENSE | 140.4 | 92nd |
| 403.4 | 72nd | TOTAL DEFENSE | 427.4 | 88th |
| .327 | 15th | 3rd DOWNS | .417 | 91st |
| .905 | 113th | RED ZONE | .830 | 67th |
| SPECIAL TEAMS | ||||
| 8.0 | 73rd | PUNT RETURN | 4.6 | 117th |
| 17.8 | 112nd | KICKOFF RETURN | 25.8 | 6th |
| 41.8 | 6th | NET PUNTING | 35.5 | 108th |
| MISCELLANEOUS | ||||
| +0.4 | 32nd | TURNOVER MARGIN | -0.6 | 112th |
| 8.3 | 124th | PENALTIES | 6.6 | 85th |
| 12 | EDGE | 6 | ||
Day says there are three things the Buckeyes must do well, first and foremost, to start their season off on the right foot.
“We have to tackle. We have to take care of the football. And we have to block,” Day said. “So those are the three things that we're really focused on going into this game. Playing a clean game is very, very important.”
Regardless of whether the Buckeyes were playing another prominent Power 5 team in their season opener, or an easy-to-overlook non-conference opponent like they actually are, a big part of Ohio State’s preparation for its first game would be making sure they are ready to do the fundamental things well that they will need to do well to consistently win all season.
“For us, it’s about us right now,” Hafley said. “And I’m not saying that knocking them at all. Whoever we were going to play in this first game, we have to worry about ourselves. We gotta tackle. We gotta run and tackle. And we have to do our job. And if we do that and we do it as hard and as fast and as long as we can, then hopefully we’ll have a good day.”
More than anything else, the Buckeyes are excited to have the opportunity to play a real game and compete against someone other than their own teammates for the first time since the Rose Bowl win over Washington on New Year’s Day.
“You play against the same offense and defense for a long period of time,” Day said. “It gets a little stale just in terms of same looks over and over again. Now you get to start seeing some different schemes against different players, find out what your matchups look like against other people and figure out where we need to get better.”
While Ohio State’s coaches have tried to put their players in game-like situations this preseason to prepare them for what they will face on Saturdays this fall, there’s nothing that can fully replicate playing an actual game that can bring unexpected challenges from an unfamiliar opponent.
“You can simulate practice to be as close to the game as possible, but practice is not the game,” said Ohio State defensive tackle Robert Landers. “The atmosphere, the tempo of the game, the environment as a whole, sometimes can catch you off guard if you haven’t been there. So I feel like we’ve played a lot of football and we’ve simulated a lot of football within practice, but it’s one of those things where Coach always preaches, when you get to the game and it gets going and adversity hits, you’re always going to revert back to your training.”
No one will have a bigger spotlight around them in Saturday’s game than Fields, who will be playing his first game as a Buckeye and starting his first game at any college after transferring to Ohio State from Georgia in January. Florida Atlantic shouldn’t provide the stiffest test for Fields’ first start, but it will be the first time he passes and runs the ball in a full-contact situation for the Buckeyes, as Ohio State has refrained from tackling Fields during practices in order to preserve his health.
“I feel when you’ve practiced so many times, you get a feel for what they're going to do,” Day said. “Typically, guys don't change too much when they're in a game. But this will be the first time he's live. We haven't taken him to the ground. So that’ll be new.”
Justin Fields will start his first game as Ohio State's quarterback on Saturday.
Many other players in addition to Fields will also be playing big roles in Ohio State’s offense for the first time on Saturday. Up front, the Buckeyes have four new starters in Jonah Jackson (also a transfer, from Rutgers) at left guard, Josh Myers at center, Wyatt Davis at right guard and Branden Bowen at right tackle. They’re also looking for new playmakers to step up in the wide receiver rotation – Chris Olave and Wilson are perhaps the leading candidates – and for Demario McCall or another running back to firmly establish himself as J.K. Dobbins’ backup.
Defensively, the Buckeyes will debut a new scheme and look to bounce back from a season in which they allowed more points per game (25.5) and yards per game (403.4) than any previous defense in Ohio State history. Nine starters return from last year, and they’ll be determined to make a statement right out of the gates that their defense is ready to take a huge step forward this season.
“They're hungry. I think they’ve got something to prove,” Day said. “They're running around. They're playing with technique. They're playing with a lot of energy. So I'm fired up to go see what it's going to look like.”
Hafley, like Day, believes the most important step for the defense on Saturday is to consistently make tackles, as missed tackles are often an issue in the first game of a season.
“I said it to Ryan when I first got here: the thing that kinda concerns me is in college football, there is no preseason,” Hafley said. “We don’t have that luxury. And that’s why we’ve had to tackle a lot at practice. And now we have to go and run and tackle on Saturday. And I think our guys’ mindset is right for that, and I think our coaches have done a good job.”
If the Buckeyes able to take control of the game early, they’ll have to decide how long to keep their key players on the field, balancing the need for players like Fields to get live reps with the risk that an important player could suffer an injury after the game is already decided.
Day said the Buckeyes are entering the game with the mentality that they could need to go win the game in the fourth quarter, so they “can't be walking on eggshells going into a game and worried about people getting hurt.” If Ohio State can take a comfortable lead into the second half, though, the third and fourth quarters could be a good opportunity for the Buckeyes to get some of their younger players and other backups some playing experience that they might not be able to get against stronger opponents this season.
While Ohio State fans would certainly like to see the Buckeyes dominate the Owls from start to finish, chances are good that there will be some hiccups along the way given that it is the first game of the season. Day and his fellow coaches are expecting their players to make some mistakes on Saturday, but what they really want to see is how their players push forward when something doesn’t go their way.
“This is a journey,” Day said. “This is not a finished product by any stretch of the imagination. And kind of want to get to Saturday and figure out where the issues are, get those fixed and figure out where we feel like we're in good shape and keep enhancing those.”
One thing that is already known entering Saturday’s game, though, is that the Buckeyes have one of the most talented rosters in college football, and that certainly isn’t lost on their first opponent of the year.
“This will be the best team that I’ve probably ever played in my life,” Bryant said this week, according to Jake Elman of the Palm Beach Post.
That’s high praise from Bryant, considering that the Owls played an Oklahoma team last season that went to the College Football Playoff.
Could this year’s Buckeyes make a playoff run of their own? Saturday will be their first chance to try to demonstrate they have what it takes to be one of the best teams in college football this year.
Game Forecast
Florida Atlantic has lost 23 straight games against Power 5 opponents since beating Minnesota in 2007. Ohio State hasn’t lost to a non-Power 5 opponent since the 1990 Liberty Bowl against Air Force, and it hasn’t lost a season opener since 1999.
It would be a massive surprise if any of those streaks ended on Saturday.
FAU’s offense is capable of hitting a couple big plays against Ohio State’s defense, and it’s likely that Fields will make a few mistakes in his first start. A couple FAU touchdowns or a couple Ohio State turnovers shouldn’t be reason for the Buckeyes or their fans to panic in game one.
Given the talent discrepancy between the two rosters, though, Ohio State’s offense and defense should both have a significant upper hand on the opponent, and the Buckeyes should ultimately be able to pull away and cruise to victory.
The most important outcome to some from this game will be whether the Buckeyes can win by four touchdowns or more. Predicting whether a team will cover the spread is always a tricky proposition in games like these, because if Ohio State pulls its starters early, FAU could easily make the score closer by putting up some points against the Buckeyes’ backups.
With the weapons the Buckeyes have on offense, though, they should be able to put up a big number against FAU’s defense on Saturday. And with an experienced group of returning starters and a new coaching staff on defense, Ohio State will certainly be looking to keep FAU out of the end zone and the score as low as possible.
As long as the Buckeyes don’t shoot themselves in the foot with turnovers and penalties and take advantage of talent mismatches by executing plays, Ohio State should start out its season with a win by a sizable margin.
ELEVEN WARRIORS SCORE PREDICTION: Ohio State 52, Florida Atlantic 17
