When a game contains the amount of ups and downs that Ohio State underwent against Maryland, there’s going to be plenty of stocks that fluctuate too.
Ohio State’s brightest offensive star posted a statement performance on an injured ankle and an expected star on defense finally recorded some sack production, but the output of the offense’s front five continues to be an issue.
Upsets and an all-time coaching faux pas ensured made for an eventful weekend across college football as well, and we’re breaking it all down in this week’s stock report.
Stock Up
Marvin Harrison Jr.
Despite playing on an injured ankle that limited his cutting ability, Harrison caught eight passes for 163 yards and a touchdown against Maryland. He served as the main spark plug for Ohio State’s offense, hauling in a 58-yard bomb in the second quarter that helped the Buckeyes score a game-tying field goal, converting a 2nd-and-33 with a 37-yard catch and icing the game away in the fourth quarter with his 17-yard touchdown that put OSU up three scores.
Josh Proctor
While Harrison was the spark plug for Ohio State’s offense, Proctor served the same role for its defense. The graduate safety could be seen constantly hyping up the Ohio Stadium crowd against the Terrapins, and those fans were perhaps never louder than when he intercepted a pass from Taulia Tagovailoa and returned it 24 yards for a touchdown. He added seven tackles and 1.5 tackles for loss to round out his production for the day.
JT Tuimoloau
Speaking of production, Tuimoloau finally has some concrete numbers to point to as a pass rusher. He picked up 1.5 sacks against Maryland with four total tackles, building off his late-game heroics against Notre Dame in Week 4, when he stuffed Notre Dame quarterback Sam Hartman for a loss and broke up a screen pass to get the ball back to Ohio State’s offense for its game-winning drive.
The freedom of 91
see yall next year ! #free91
— Tyleik Williams (@tyleikk) January 1, 2023
Tyleik Williams played a career-high 70 snaps Saturday, most among Ohio State defensive linemen and most among its defensive tackles by 30. It continues what’s been a breakout campaign for the Buckeyes’ top three-technique tackle, with his 24 tackles on the season leading all defensive linemen and his four tackles for loss leading the entire team.
Oklahoma
The Sooners captured the biggest win so far of Brent Venables’ two-year tenure as head coach, defeating No. 3 Texas in a thrilling 34-30 Red River Rivalry win at the Cotton Bowl. Oklahoma, who remains unbeaten on the season at 6-0, vaulted from No. 12 to No. 5 in the AP Poll as a result.
Georgia
While Georgia struggled against a few unranked teams earlier this campaign, beating Auburn by just a score and South Carolina by 10 points, the Bulldogs throttled their first ranked opponent of the season. No. 20 Kentucky fell victim to a 51-13 beatdown from Kirby Smart’s two-time defending national championship collective.
Stock Down
Offensive line
Saturday felt like a step back for Ohio State’s front five. In addition to struggles running the football, which will be addressed further shortly, Kyle McCord was sacked three times, and that doesn’t include an 18-yard loss on a desperation pitch to Chip Trayanum after McCord came under pressure. Joel Klatt, who called the game alongside Gus Johnson on FOX Saturday, said on his weekly show that the offensive line “has to play better” and that he felt they had their “worst game of the season.”
Running game
A symptom of the above-mentioned offensive line struggles, Ohio State’s rushing numbers were anemic against the Terrapins. The Buckeyes gained a mere 62 yards on 33 carries, an average of 1.9 yards per attempt. An injury to explosive feature back TreVeyon Henderson – who should be back to full health against Purdue this week – contributed to the issue, but the Buckeyes have issues to fix if they want balance on offense.
Fast starts
The second half has often been Ohio State’s time to find its footing this season. The Buckeyes didn’t score an offensive touchdown until the third quarter against the Terrapins and needed to score 27 unanswered points after falling behind 17-10 in said period to set the final score at 37-17. That came after a game against Notre Dame in which the Buckeyes scored only three points before halftime and needed a last-second touchdown run by Chip Trayanum to pull out a 17-14 win.
Side judges
Even Klatt and broadcast partner Gus Johnson were commenting on Ryan Day’s interaction with one of the sideline officials on Saturday, who flagged him for a sideline warning and then sideline interference before stripping Ohio State of a touchdown on a questionable illegal motion penalty. The Buckeyes still scored a touchdown on their next play after both of those penalties, but Day clearly wasn’t thrilled with how the game was called.
The play that was flagged for illegal motion against Ohio State pic.twitter.com/WsjMN5Odlw
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) October 7, 2023
Notre Dame
In the midst of their third of four consecutive ranked games in as many weeks, the Fighting Irish were handed their second loss of the season at No. 25 Louisville. Hartman tossed three interceptions – his first three of the season – and was sacked five times in a 33-20 loss that was perhaps not as close as the score indicated.
Mario Cristobal
Our own Garrick Hodge articulated this incident better than I ever could, but Miami head coach Mario Cristobal blew a certain victory in one of the dumbest ways imaginable against Georgia Tech. Rather than taking one single knee to run out the clock, he ran the football, it was fumbled and Georgia Tech went 75 yards in 26 seconds to win the game.
