It's the first day of 2022 and the final day of Ohio State’s 2021 football season.
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| #11 UTAH UTES |
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10-3 (9-1 PAC-12) ROSTER / SCHEDULE |
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5:10 P.M. – SATURDAY, JAN. 1 ROSE BOWL PASADENA, CALIFORNIA |
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ESPN WATCH ESPN |
After a monthlong layoff following its loss to Michigan, Ohio State’s 2021 football team will take the field one final time on Saturday afternoon, when it will play Utah in the 108th edition of the Rose Bowl Game in Pasadena.
Ohio State will be looking to cap off its season with an 11th win and its fourth straight win in the Rose Bowl, but it will have to do so without numerous key players on both sides of the ball, including wide receivers Garrett Wilson and Chris Olave, offensive tackle Nicholas Petit-Frere and defensive tackle Haskell Garrett.
With just hours to go until the Buckeyes and Utes face off in Southern California, we share some final thoughts, questions and predictions entering the season finale.
Final Thoughts
Ohio State needs to start fast and stop the run
If Ohio State can get out to an early lead and make life difficult for Utah’s rushing offense, the Buckeyes will have a great chance to win this game. Utah isn't built to win games by passing the ball; while the Utes have won their last six straight games, they’ve thrown for fewer than 180 yards in all but one of those games.
Stopping the run will be much easier said than done, though, considering that Utah ranks second nationally in rushing yards per attempt (5.62) and has averaged 261.5 rushing yards per game in its six straight wins. The Utes will try to establish the run early and often and control the pace of the game, and if Ohio State allows Utah to do that, this game could look like a repeat of November in Ann Arbor.
– Dan Hope
This game offers a glimpse of Ohio State’s future
Most of the players starting on offense against Utah will be on the team in 2022. C.J. Stroud, TreVeyon Henderson, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Paris Johnson Jr., whoever else lines up at wideout, the list goes on. With Wilson, Petit-Frere and Olave off to the NFL, it will be interesting to see how different the offense looks.
– Garrick Hodge
This just doesn't feel the same
I've been pretty candid about this all week, much to the displeasure of many fine people in the comments, but this Rose Bowl just feels a little bit hollow. And it's not even in the "any bowl that isn't a playoff game is meaningless!"
The Rose Bowl has always been a celebration of winning the Big Ten and (usually) beating Michigan. This year, Ohio State did neither and pretty much just ended up here by default.
It's still a really cool game, it still has so much tradition, it's still one of the greatest venues and most iconic games in sports, but it just doesn't feel quite right.
– Kevin Harrish
Ending the year on two losses would be a bad look for the Buckeyes
Ohio State has not finished a season with back-to-back losses in eight years, and the Buckeyes have only done so three times in the 21st-century. Should Ohio State lose to Utah, the 2021 season will join the Buckeyes’ 2000, 2011 and 2013 campaigns in that distinction, and plenty of criticism is sure to follow the team into the offseason.
Even a win won’t erase the memory of November’s Michigan loss, but it would certainly be a better finish for Ohio State as it opens the 2022 season with another top-flight test against Notre Dame – a team that is certainly capable of handing the Buckeyes another loss to start next fall.
– Griffin Strom
Questions
Will unproven wide receivers step up?
Julian Fleming and Emeka Egbuka were both top-10 overall prospects in their recruiting classes and Marvin Harrison Jr. also looks like a potential future star, but the fact remains that they’ve combined for just 25 catches, 338 receiving yards and one touchdown so far in their Ohio State careers. Olave and Wilson, meanwhile, are two of the best receivers in school history.
Ohio State clearly missed Olave in last year’s Big Ten Championship Game, when the Buckeyes scored a season-low 22 points against Northwestern, and clearly missed Wilson in this season’s game against Nebraska, in which Ohio State scored a season-low 26 points. If the Buckeyes are going to have a better offensive performance against Utah, they need at least one or two of Fleming, Harrison and Egbuka to step up.
– Dan Hope
Did people forget about Ohio State's offense?
This is less a question about the game and more a question about the general perception and conversation leading up to the game: did everyone forget that Ohio State has the best offense in college football?
Pretty much all I've seen discussed leading up to this game is what Utah's offense is going to do to Ohio State's defense, but I've seen almost nobody discussing what the top offense in college football is going to do to Utah's defense.
I get that there's going to be some dropoff after two of the best receivers in program history and a potential first-round pick at tackle opted out, but this offense is still led by a Heisman contender, one of the top running backs in the country and the team's leading receiver.
The Buckeyes are going to put up points.
– Kevin Harrish
How will Ohio State stop the run?
Haskell Garrett is out, and Antwuan Jackson wasn’t practicing early in the week, so he may not play either. The same goes for linebacker Cody Simon. Ohio State will need strong performances out of guys like Taron Vincent, Tyleik Williams and maybe even tight end-turned-linebacker Cade Stover to send a message to a very physical Utah offense that loves multiple tight end sets.
– Garrick Hodge
How will the Buckeye run game look?
Perhaps the one matchup that’s been analyzed more than any other is how the Utah run game will fair against a Buckeye front that was gashed left, right and center by Michigan’s ground attack on Nov. 27. A storyline that isn’t getting quite as much discussion is how Ohio State’s own running game will match up with Utah after TreVeyon Henderson and company were held to a collective 64 yards on 30 attempts against the Wolverines.
The Buckeyes still have plenty of aerial firepower even without Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson, but it would sure take some pressure off of C.J. Stroud and Jaxon Smith-Njigba if the run game returns to form.
– Griffin Strom
Predictions
Smith-Njigba rewrites the record book
Having already caught 80 passes for 1,259 yards this season, Smith-Njigba needs only 11 catches to break Ohio State’s single-season record for receptions and 177 receiving yards to break Ohio State’s single-season record for receiving yards. Considering that Smith-Njigba has averaged 11.3 receptions and 152.8 yards per game in Ohio State’s last four games, neither of those marks is out of the question – especially since he’ll have a bigger role in the offense than ever with both Olave and Wilson out.
An 11-catch day is probably more likely than a 177-yard game, but I’m predicting that Smith-Njigba will break at least one of those records in Ohio State’s final game of the season.
– Dan Hope
Stroud will have a nice performance, but the Utah running game will prove too much
Stroud should be able to rip this secondary apart, down two weapons and all, but Ohio State picked the wrong team to be razor-thin with depth at linebacker and defensive end against. Especially since this is Utah’s first Rose Bowl trip and will likely play like it’s the Super Bowl. Maybe the Buckeyes step up, but I don’t think the matchup on paper is very favorable.
– Garrick Hodge
The Ohio State run defense will have a better showing
I could be totally off on this. Ohio State might be without two starting defensive tackles on Saturday with Haskell Garrett opting out and Antwuan Jackson not appearing at practice this week, and Utah boasts a nationally elite ground game. But I refuse to believe that the success Ohio State had stopping the run for the vast majority of the season was simply an aberration, and with the emphasis placed on that element for the past five weeks, I think the Buckeyes will have a better go at containing the run, even if it’s a close ballgame in the end.
– Griffin Strom
TreVeyon Henderson will have himself a day
TreVeyon Henderson has been kept relatively quiet (at least in terms of a 1,000-yard rusher) since rewriting Ohio State's history book in his debut start. Henderson has just one 100-yard rushing performance in the back half of the season and is coming off of his worst rushing performance of the season in terms of yards per carry.
I think that changes in a big way today. With Garrett Wilson and Chris Olave opted out, I foresee Henderson becoming much more of a security blanket for Stroud today. And when he gets his touches, good things typically do happen.
– Kevin Harrish
