Arkansas State Quotebook: Ryan Day Says Penalties Were “Unacceptable,” Marvin Harrison Jr. Says Receiving Corps “Can Be Special” When Healthy

Ohio State’s off to a 2-0 start after a second straight double-digit margin of victory against a nonconference foe on Saturday.

The Buckeyes blew past Butch Jones and Arkansas State by a final score of 45-12, which saw Ohio State keep the Red Wolves out of the end zone all game while scoring seven touchdowns on its 12 total possessions on the other side of the ball.

Three of those touchdowns came courtesy of sophomore wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr., who finished with 184 yards and joined Joey Galloway as the only Buckeye wideouts to score three receiving TDs in a game on multiple occasions.

After the game, Ryan Day lauded Harrison’s performance, which included gains of 45, 42, 42 and 30 yards before all was said and done.

“He's very mature for his age. So is Emeka (Egbuka). But Marvin's route-running is, again, very mature for his age,” Day said after the game. “To see somebody that's played as much as he has with just the high level of route-running is pretty remarkable. … So the potential is there. You can see the couple plays he made, he did it in a bunch of different ways, he got a couple of slants that got us going.

“Marvin was a big part of getting us going, certainly had the big-play capability. And when you're playing against a team that wants to really load the box and press you at the line of scrimmage, you got to win on the outside. And he did that for us today.”

Harrison was humble after the showcase performance, and said the Buckeye wide receivers room knew it would have to step up knowing that Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Julian Fleming were unavailable for Ohio State with injury.

Once those two return to the fold, Harrison thinks the Buckeye pass attack will be even more dangerous for opponents to deal with.

“We’re gonna be – I think we can be special for sure,” Harrison said. “Just take it one game at a time though, keep getting better, having good practices throughout the week. That’s gonna be important.”

Buckeye quarterback C.J. Stroud delivered a vintage performance after a relatively quiet season opener, finishing with 351 yards and four touchdowns on just 16 completions. But the Buckeyes didn’t just make plays in the passing game.

Ohio State also averaged 6.5 yards per carry on the ground, with TreVeyon Henderson rushing for 87 yards and two touchdowns on just 10 attempts. Dallan Hayden didn’t do much damage in his Buckeye debut, rushing for just 14 yards on four carries at the end of the game, but Ohio State finished with 168 rushing yards total on 26 carries. Given that it only ran 54 plays on offense, that number can’t be scoffed at.

“I think as a whole our run game is very more clean. It's a lot of runs that we like to do, they’re more schemed up,” Stroud said. “So we're really working with people, a lot more conversation and then of course it starts up front. I think our O-line did a great job today. Then Miyan and Tre have been great since they stepped on campus, so I don’t think they’re doing anything new. It’s just as a whole we’re working better together, getting communication down.”

If there’s one thing the Buckeyes weren’t happy with, it was the nine penalties they committed that cost them 85 yards. In fact, a 15-yarder on Teradja Mitchell actually negated an Emeka Egbuka punt return touchdown and gave the Red Wolves the ball back – eventually setting up their first points of the game with a field goal.

Suffice to say, Day was none-too-pleased about that aspect of contest.

“When you look at the stat sheet today, it's pretty clear that we gave them two possessions. I know one was at the end of the game, but still, we gave them two possessions on penalties,” Day said. “The other ones a turnover. And we got to clean those things up. They had 76 plays, and we had 54. We had 54 plays, we had 538 yards and on 76 plays they had 276 yards. When you look at that stat sheet, you say, ‘Wow.’ But with the penalties, we had nine penalties and it's unacceptable.

“We've got to get that fixed and we got to coach better, and we got to put it on the field better. So it's going to be a huge emphasis point again this week, and it's something you have to get done.”

Jim Knowles and company came through with another impressive effort on defense, holding the Red Wolves without a touchdown all day as they finished with just 12 points. But Arkansas State had opportunities nonetheless, given its four field-goal conversions, and Cody Simon said that isn’t good enough for Ohio State.

“We're not where we need to be yet, but we're trying to get better every week,” Simon said. “It's great that we can say 22 points on the season, but we want to shut people out. We want to be the best defense in the country. And that's the goal.”