Buckeyes fix offense
Changes to Ohio State’s offense have proved to be effective this season
The great demise of Ohio State’s offense was only slightly exaggerated. It was the Fiesta Bowl in January that stood out, a
31-0 loss to Clemson that humbled the entire program from Urban Meyer on down, but the issues predated that single defeat, as painful as it was.
In the final two games of the
2016 regular season, Ohio State managed just a combined 640 yards on a measly 4.3 yards per play in narrow rivalry wins against Michigan State and Michigan. A month earlier, the Buckeyes offense fumbled away a loss at Penn State. Think back to 2015, when the Spartans defense put the clamps down in a 17-14 win.
It was clear that changes needed to be made — and so the Buckeyes made changes. Replacing the former co-offensive coordinators, Tim Beck and Ed Warinner, with former Indiana head coach Kevin Wilson was like trading in a Prius for a Porsche: Wilson’s reputation preceded him, with his prior stints at Northwestern and Oklahoma widening the eyes of Ohio State fans desperate for the offense’s return to form.
But by and large, the dominant topic of the Buckeyes’ first half has been the non-conference loss to Oklahoma. Since the Sooners’ loss to Iowa State, that conversation has shifted to how that headto-head loss might be viewed by the College Football Playoff selection committee. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
Hidden behind the handwringing over that single loss has been the growth of Wilson’s system. Though not against a murderer’s row of competition — Army, UNLV, Rutgers and Maryland — the scheme has taken hold to obvious effect, making this not just the top offense in the Big Ten Conference but also one of the elite units across the Football Bowl Subdivision.
“We’re rolling right now,” senior tight end Marcus Baugh said. “We know what we are doing and how we have to play, and now we just have to continue to go out there and execute.”
Through six games, Ohio State ranks first in the Big Ten in rushing yards, passing yards, yards per play and yards per game — a clean sweep. Nationally, the Buckeyes rank fourth in yards per game and fifth in yards per play. The offense has gained at least 580 yards in five of those six games, marking the best stretch for Mey- er-led Ohio State since the 2014 season.
But as the Buckeyes prepare for Saturday night’s road trip to Nebraska, no improvement is more evident than in the passing game. Bemoaned for his lack of progression through much of the last two seasons, senior J.T. Barrett has responded by playing the best football of his career, or at least the best since his breakout redshirt freshman campaign.
His leadership skills were never in doubt; that more than anything is why Barrett occupies a place alongside former Florida great Tim Tebow in Meyer’s hierarchy of quarterbacks. Now teaming those intangibles with pro- duction, Barrett is back where most expected he’d spend the majority of his career: as a strong and legitimate Heisman Trophy candidate.
Since flopping against the Sooners, tossing an interception and averaging a woeful 5.2 yards per attempt, Barrett has thrown for 13 touchdowns without an interception to pilot the Buckeyes through a four-game winning streak. With Barrett in form, Ohio State has become the most explosive offense in the conference — the Buckeyes lead the Big Ten with nine plays of 40 or more yards and seven plays of 50 or more yards.
His biggest advancement has come in a firmer grasp of what he, and by extension the passing game, is asked to do in Wilson’s system, Barrett said after last Saturday’s win against Maryland.
“I think that’s one of the biggest things and that was the thing we worked on in the offseason, whether it be spring ball or in the summer,” he said.
In truth, that loss to Oklahoma doesn’t change anything for the Buckeyes. The preseason goals remain intact: Ohio State’s path to the Playoff goes through Big Ten play, not a regular-season game in September.
And the play of this offense — not to mention the quality of this defense — paints the Buckeyes as the favorite in the conference, even as division rival Penn State stands as one of two Big Ten teams still unbeaten, joining Wisconsin.
Ohio State will host the Nittany Lions on Oct. 28, with a bye following a likely destruction of Nebraska this week, and then enter a November defined by three games: at Iowa on Nov. 4, at home for Michigan State on Nov. 11 and then at Michigan to cap the regular season Nov. 28.
The second-half slate is stronger than the first, obviously. But that might play into the Buck- eyes’ hands. As the defense asserts itself as one of the league’s best, the offense has quietly — surprisingly so, given the attention paid to this program — put together a stretch that breeds enormous confidence in the team’s potential to sweep through the remainder of the regular season.
“Now that we are further into the season, the small things are starting to click,” sophomore wide receiver Austin Mack said, “and it’s the things that we have been working on from the beginning making their way to the game field.”
GAMES YOU SHOULDN’T MISS
It’s impossible to watch every game. (I know. I’ve tried.) Until the invention of picture-in-picture-in-picture television technology, I’m here to help. In each time window, here are this Saturday’s games you can’t afford to miss (times Eastern):
Noon: No. 7 TCU at Kansas State (Fox Sports 1). This has the feeling of a worrisome game for TCU, because Kansas State never is an easy out and the Wildcats already are steaming after last week’s loss to Texas.
3:30 p.m.: No. 12 Oklahoma vs. Texas (in Dallas, ESPN). The Red River Rivalry lost a little juice after OU’s loss, but the Longhorns’ solid play under Tom Herman — especially on defense — will make this game far more competitive than originally believed.
Prime time: No. 23 Utah at No. 13 Southern California (8 p.m., ABC). Utah looks to bounce back from its first loss, a three-point setback to Stanford, against a USC team that has alternated flashes of genius with periods of mediocrity.
After dark: Oregon at No. 25 Stanford (11 p.m., Fox Sports 1). Here’s a nice and familiar matchup of two divisional rivals to take you into early Sunday morning.