Preview: Ohio State Set to Break In Another New Quarterback in Non-Conference Finale Against Akron

That was when Ryan Day revealed that Ohio State was planning not to play C.J. Stroud unless he is needed in an “emergency capacity” this week, opening the door for either Kyle McCord or Jack Miller to start at quarterback for the Buckeyes against the Zips.

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If Ohio State’s quarterback situation was stable and the Buckeyes had rolled through their first three opponents of the year, coming up with reasons why you should care about Ohio State’s final non-conference game of the season against Akron would have been more difficult. Even after an uneven start to the year, and even after Thursday’s news that Stroud is unlikely to play, Ohio State is still favored to beat the Zips – who have won just one game over a Football Bowl Subdivision opponent since 2019 – by nearly seven touchdowns.

Now, however, Saturday’s game will be an opportunity for Ohio State fans to see at least one new quarterback throw passes in a Buckeye game for the first time. If Ohio State can take care of business as easily as expected, it could be a chance to see many other young Buckeyes get their first extended playing time, too. And with only conference games on the rest of the regular-season schedule, there’s still a lot the Buckeyes need to work through on both sides of the ball before they get into Big Ten play over the next two months.

The Headlines

New quarterback takes center stage

After battling through a shoulder injury to play every offensive snap in Ohio State’s first three games of the season, Stroud will watch Saturday’s game from the sidelines. While the injury wasn’t serious enough to prevent Stroud from playing last week against Tulsa, Ohio State determined that it was in Stroud’s best interest to rest his shoulder this week to allow him to get healthier.

“We talked about it, and we decided that it would be smart to shut him down for a couple of days,” Day said Thursday. “There was still kind of this feeling that he had that he really couldn’t shake and so maybe rest is something that would go a long way for him and allow some of these other guys to practice and move forward here.”

That means at least one Ohio State quarterback, and probably two, will play for the first time this season on Saturday. Either McCord or Miller is set to make his first career start; the smart money is on McCord, even though he’s never even played in an Ohio State game and Miller has been in the program a year longer, as McCord seemingly pulled ahead of Miller in the quarterback competition during the preseason.

Kyle McCord is likely to make his first career start against Akron on Saturday. (Photo: Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch via Imagn Content Services, LLC)

Day wouldn’t say on Thursday whether he expected McCord or Miller to start on Saturday, but said that decision would be made on Friday and that one quarterback would likely play the majority of snaps against Akron, though he wants to get both of them in the game for at least a series.

“Probably would pick one and then go from there, and then if the opportunity presents itself, let the other guy get a drive,” Day said. “But I think the best thing to do is we gotta go win the game and figure out which quarterback we think allows us the opportunity to do that, and then go from there.”

Ohio State can afford to play a backup quarterback against Akron, and Buckeye fans should probably be cautious about jumping to any conclusions even if McCord or Miller plays great against the Zips, whose defense has allowed the sixth-highest opposing passer rating so far this season. Nonetheless, Saturday will be a big opportunity for at least one Ohio State quarterback – though not Quinn Ewers, as Day said he is not currently an option to play against Akron – to gain valuable game experience and show what he can do.

Defense still chasing improvement

Ohio State’s run defense was better against Tulsa, holding the Golden Hurricane to just 73 yards on the ground after allowing more than 200 rushing yards to both Minnesota and Oregon. The problem: Ohio State’s pass defense gave up 428 yards through the air, more than twice as many as Tulsa averaged in its first two games.

While the quarterback situation has stolen the headlines this week, Ohio State’s defense remains a major concern. The Buckeyes have struggled to get off the field in all of their first three games and have allowed more than 500 yards in each of the last two; they currently rank 118th nationally in total defense. Ohio State’s defense only allowed two touchdowns against Tulsa, which was an improvement from the first two games, yet still looked plenty vulnerable against a far less talented offense.

Akron ranks just 94th nationally in total offense, so there will be plenty of lingering questions about Ohio State’s defense regardless of how well it plays on Saturday. The Buckeyes can’t waste any opportunity to improve right now, though, and a well-rounded defensive performance against the Zips could give what’s still a very inexperienced unit a boost of confidence going into Big Ten play.

And they know they haven’t been good enough yet.

“We had a lot of guys that didn’t have that much experience last year, so we’re still all learning, getting those crinkles out,” Ronnie Hickman said this week. “There’s a standard that’s been set by the greats that have come before us, especially the guys on defense, so there’s definitely a standard and we want to set that standard, if not exceed or surpass that standard.”

RELATED After Just Hoping to Play a Role on Defense, Ronnie Hickman Has Emerged As Ohio State’s Leading Tackler

Best chance for backups to play?

As Day has mentioned on numerous occasions over the past few weeks, Ohio State has many players in significant roles this season who didn’t get to play much last year when the regular season was shortened to just five games. Even with a full 12-game regular season this year, though, the Buckeyes are already in some jeopardy of being in a similar position next year.

Last week was supposed to be the first opportunity of the season for Ohio State to get its backups extended playing time in the second half, but the Buckeyes ended up in a one-score game with Tulsa in the fourth quarter. And it looks like there could be plenty of four-quarter battles ahead for Ohio State over the next two months of conference play.

That makes this week the closest thing to a guaranteed opportunity Ohio State will have to pull its starters early and get a bunch of backups on the field, so the Buckeyes need to take care of business early so that they can give some of their young, even less experienced players the chance to get some snaps under the lights in the Shoe.

We already know we’ll be seeing at least one new quarterback throw his first pass as a Buckeye against Akron, but it could also be our first chance to see players like Marvin Harrison Jr. and Emeka Egbuka get substantial reps at wide receiver, for the full second-team offensive line to play and for even more young defenders – though the Buckeyes have already rotated in plenty of players on that side of the ball anyway – to show what they can do.

Keep An Eye on These Guys

Akron QB DJ Irons

Irons began the season as Akron’s backup quarterback behind Kato Nelson, who suffered an injury in the Zips’ second game of the season against Temple, but has played in all three of Akron’s games and has emerged as a dynamic dual-threat playmaker, completing more than 75 percent of his passes (44-of-58) for 534 yards and five touchdowns with one interception while also rushing for 165 yards and two touchdowns.

Granted, the majority of those yards came in Akron’s last game against Bryant, a Football Championship Subdivision school, as Irons threw for 296 yards and three touchdowns and ran for 136 yards and another score in the Zips’ 35-14 win over the Bulldogs to earn MAC East Offensive Player of the Week honors. For an Ohio State defense that’s taken its lumps so far this season, however, Irons represents a threat in both the passing and the running game – at 6-foot-6 and 215 pounds – that the Buckeyes need to be prepared for if they’re going to make stops more consistently against the Zips.

“He’s a big athlete who obviously threw and ran the ball really well last week,” Day said. “So we’re gonna have to account for that, and it’ll be a challenge for our guys to get him on the ground.”

Touchdown Zips!
38 yard pass from @djirons14 to @Mike_mathison !

Highlight courtesy of ESPN...
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— Akron Football (@ZipsFB) September 18, 2021

Akron LB Bubba Arslanian

With 37 total tackles through Akron’s first three contests, Arslanian currently ranks second among all Football Bowl Subdivision players in tackles per game. The Aurora, Ohio, native has 249 total tackles in his Akron career and has reached double-digit tackles in 16 of Akron’s 21 games dating back to 2019, so you should expect to see Arslanian around the ball frequently on Saturday night.

At just 5-foot-10 and 215 pounds, Arslanian could be overmatched by Ohio State’s size around the line of scrimmage, but his production speaks for itself, which means the Buckeyes’ offense will always need to be aware of where No. 27 is on the Akron defense.

Ohio State WR Chris Olave

Regardless of who starts at quarterback against Akron, it’s safe to assume Olave will be one of his preferred targets, just as he has been for Stroud and Justin Fields and Dwayne Haskins before them. And it’s also safe to say Olave will be as motivated as ever to make some big plays on Saturday night after going catchless against Tulsa for the first time in an 18-game span.

Everyone watching Saturday’s game will be keeping a close eye on how Ohio State’s passing offense looks with a new quarterback at the helm, as we’ve already written about above, and Olave will play a crucial role in helping either McCord or Miller get settled in, making him a top player to watch against Akron even as the Buckeyes’ most established star.

“There’s going to be games like that, but I can’t mess up my routine after those types of games,” Olave said this week. “We just gotta keep going, keep communicating, keep preparing. We just gotta prepare better and show it out there on Saturday.”

Game Week Talk

“They’re gonna come in here with a lot of energy, like a lot of teams do, but at the end of the day, it always comes back to us. What is our standard?”– Ryan Day

There wasn’t much talk about the upcoming opponent during Ohio State’s media availabilities this week, and Day didn’t seem very concerned about the Zips during his week of media appearances, saying that Akron is “a team that has good scheme on both sides” but also saying “they haven’t quite found their rhythm yet.” Regardless of opponent, though, he knows it’s important for his team to play better football this week after a shaky three-week stretch to start the season.

“We’ve had a very good week of practice. And that’s been good. Much better than the last couple of weeks.”– Ryan Day

One point that Day has been harping upon recently, especially this week: If Ohio State is going to start playing up to its potential in games, the Buckeyes have to practice better. Day said Thursday that the Buckeyes had a better week of practice this week; we’ll see if that manifests itself on the field on Saturday night.

“They’re gonna deliver some blows. Are we gonna be able to stand in there and take the punches and come back swinging? I can’t wait for those moments, and I think our team will embrace that as well.”– Akron coach Tom Arth

Arth knows his team is in for a “great challenge” at Ohio State, but he also described it as a “great opportunity.” While he knows his team will have to play at its absolute best to have any chance to win, he doesn’t want his team to back down from that challenge; he wants to see the Zips “execute at a high level” and force the Buckeyes to out-execute them.

Get Smart

• Ohio State holds a 7-1 all-time record against Akron. The Zips’ only win against the Buckeyes came in 1894, when Akron – then known as Buchtel College and coached by John Heisman – defeated Ohio State 12-6 in a game at the Ohio State Fair. The Buckeyes’ most recent matchup with Akron was in 2011, when Ohio State won 42-0 in its season opener.
• Ohio State is undefeated (49-0-1) in its last 50 games against in-state opponents. The Buckeyes’ last loss to an Ohio school was 100 years ago, in 1921, when the Buckeyes fell 7-6 in a game against Oberlin.
• Akron’s roster includes one former Ohio State player: Kevin Dever, a former walk-on for the Buckeyes, transferred to Akron after this offseason and is now a backup safety for the Zips. The Zips’ roster also includes a Michigan transfer (defensive back Jaylen Kelly-Powell) and two Michigan State transfers (linebacker Jeslord Boateng and running back Anthony Williams Jr.).
• Akron is 2-8 in its last 10 games against Power 5 opponents, with wins over Pittsburgh in 2014 (21-10) and Northwestern in 2018 (39-34).
• Ohio State’s status report of unavailable players and game-time decisions will be released at approximately 4:30 p.m. Saturday. Ryan Day said Thursday that defensive end Zach Harrison would be available to play after missing the Tulsa game, but did not specify whether left guard Thayer Munford would be back after suffering an ankle injury against the Golden Hurricane, only saying this week that his injury was considered “not long-term.”

RELATED Across The Field: Q&A with Akron Beat Writer George Thomas As Zips Prepare to Play Ohio State

How It Plays Out

Line: Ohio State -48.5, O/U 66.5

Even though Ohio State hasn’t won a game by more than 21 points this season, and even though the Buckeyes will be starting a completely unproven quarterback, they’re still favored to beat Akron by almost seven full touchdowns. 

Even compared to Tulsa, the talent gap between Ohio State and Akron is massive, and the Zips have been outscored 105-34 in their two games against FBS opponents (Auburn and Temple) so far this season. The Buckeyes really shouldn’t have any trouble taking care of business on Saturday night in the Shoe; if this game is in any way competitive, that would be concerning for Ohio State.

Covering the spread will be a tough task for Ohio State, especially since the Buckeyes will ideally take most of their starters out of the game early if the first half goes according to plan. Even against Akron, it might be a stretch to expect the Buckeyes’ defense not to give up a couple scores, while it’s also hard to know what to expect from the passing offense with McCord or Miller at quarterback.

That said, the Buckeyes’ running offense should be able to overpower Akron’s defense while the talent differential should help Ohio State’s defense overcome most of its flaws in this matchup. Because of that, the consensus among the Eleven Warriors staff is that the home team will win in dominant fashion on Saturday night.

Eleven Warriors Staff Prediction
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