Michigan State Quotebook: Cam Brown is “A Little Frustrated" in Himself, C.J. Stroud “Dedicated the Season” to Dwayne Haskins And “The Sky’s The Limit” for OSU

No Big Ten opponent has come within four touchdowns of beating the Buckeyes halfway through the regular season.

Ohio State demonstrated its superiority over another conference foe on Saturday, and its first road trip hardly proved any more difficult than its past two league contests. The Buckeyes walked through Michigan State in a 49-20 final result, which saw C.J. Stroud become the first Ohio State player to throw six touchdowns for the third time in a single game.

After Stroud’s 361-yard showing, in which he tossed more scores than incompletions in East Landing, Ryan Day had plenty of praise for his star quarterback.

“What can you say about somebody who's throwing the ball like that in 20-mile-an-hour wind, at least it seemed like it was. … And for him to throw it that accurately, that was really well done. On the road and it just was clicking. You can see the timing, he was able to step in the pocket, a big part of that is the protection. Our offensive line did a good job of giving him a good pocket. And when you do that, he can do some damage.

“And I thought he embraced the game plan, worked it, had a good thought process the whole game, had a good look in his eye. … That's one heck of a day on the road. Especially a program as proud as Michigan State and coming in here for our first road game. Big day for C.J.”

Marvin Harrison Jr. hauled in three of those, becoming the first Buckeye to have three games with three or more receiving touchdowns, and he’s far from the only big-time threat in Ohio State’s deep stable of playmakers.

“It’s scary to me, so I can only imagine what (the OSU offense) is to the rest of the country. But we just like to go out there and have fun. We put a lot of work in during the week to be able to succeed come Saturday. So that's really all it is. Seeing your hard work pay off, getting to have fun on Saturdays.”

Marvin Harrison Jr. defies logic.pic.twitter.com/3kTWxEcAyj
— Eleven Warriors (@11W) October 8, 2022

Following the game, Stroud reflected on why he came to Ohio State in the first place, citing the success of predecessors like J.T. Barrett, Dwayne Haskins and Justin Fields at the quarterback position. In fact, Stroud said Haskins, who died at age 24 this past spring, remains on his mind as he goes through his third year with the Buckeyes.

"Dwayne, RIP to him. I write him on my wristband every week just to give – I dedicated the season to him. … I met him twice. One time up here, then one time as a high schooler at the Elite 11 camp but I just write LLDH7, long live Dwayne Haskins seven. Honestly, I haven't forgotten about him. I don't know if anybody else has, but he's here.

"He walks in the spirit with me, maybe not in the flesh. But I know that I was rooting him on when he was still playing, and I know that he roots me on now, even back then, whenever. Last year when I played here too. So I send my condolences to his family, I know it's probably still a raw and tough time for them. So my condolences go to them."

In the run game, TreVeyon Henderson returned from last week’s injury absence to rush for 118 yards and a touchdown on 19 carries with Miyan Williams unavailable. But Henderson gave Buckeye fans another scare in the third quarter, when he limped off the field and straight to the medical tent after taking a hard hit to the lower body early in the third quarter.

True freshman Dallan Hayden handled most of the running back duties from then on, although TC Caffey, Xavier Johnson and Mitch Rossi all received carries as well. But Day didn’t sound too worried about Henderson’s injury after the game.

“If it was a different game, he probably would have come back in. Just out of an abundance of caution, we just decided to hold him out. We didn't feel like we needed to use him at that point. But I thought he ran well, you know, 19 carries 118 yards, I thought he ran hard.”

On defense, Ohio State limited Michigan State to just 202 total yards and all of seven (!) on the ground. The Buckeyes created a turnover for the fourth straight game, and gave up just 13 points before a fourth-quarter touchdown with 5:40 to go with the win already well in hand.

If there was a weak point for the Buckeyes, though, it was the play of their cornerbacks, which gave up a few big plays downfield and were flagged on multiple occasions. In particular, Cameron Brown, who returned from a two-game injury absence Saturday, had a forgettable day. Brown was flagged for pass interference on two occasions and had another penalty for a horse collar tackle. Brown also gave up a few long completions, even if they proved largely inconsequential.

Day said Brown was upset with his play, but the Buckeye head coach doesn’t think Ohio State’s cornerback play can’t be fixed moving forward.

“I keep looking at it and we're there, we just don't seem to be making the plays. So we got to figure that part of it out. If it's something where guys are just creating separation and can't cover anybody, that's one issue. This issue seems to be that we're there, we're just not quite making the play. So we got to address it. I know we can do that, I know we can. We have the right guys over there, and they're pressing a little bit, but that's OK. They're doing some really good things.

"So he's very competitive and he wants to be great and be the best corner in the country. And so he's a little frustrated, he's got to calm down and play with emotion, don't let emotion play with you and get yourself back on track. But overall, I think our defense is playing very, very well.”

All in all, the results were overwhelmingly positive for Ohio State, and Buckeye safety Ronnie Hickman says the defense can get even better after the upcoming bye week.

“The sky's the limit. We're not even fully healthy, so I think we just got to use this bye week to get fully healthy defensively and offensively. But defensively, specifically, we know what we can do. We've shown some of the flashes of what we can do, but there's so a lot of work that has to be put in.”