This Week in Ohio State Football: Washington

This week in Ohio State football, the opponent actually matters.

Of course that was the case in week one, but the opener always has so many unknowns it was just as much about the Buckeyes as Texas.

Takeaways from rewatching Ohio State-Texas

To me it felt like the Longhorns were just kinda there, at least until the game started and we started to see how everyone matched up (once we knew who was actually going to be playing for Ohio State).

The next two games the opponent was sort of irrelevant given where Grambling State and Ohio are in the landscape of college football.

Now it’s Washington week.

This is not a team I expect to be in the playoff conversation when the season is over, but the Huskies certainly have a puncher’s chance Saturday afternoon.

Let’s review the biggest storylines of the week:

Ohio State has fared very well in hostile territory lately, though the Buckeyes did lose at Oregon last season and at Michigan the previous year (you might have heard).

Those teams were ranked in the top five while Washington is not ranked at all, to the consternation of some.

This is a little more like 2021 when Ohio State opened at Minnesota, a mid-tier Big Ten team with some juice but overall probably not the horses to keep up with the Buckeyes if they find their stride.

Ryan Day said this week is like starting over from square one because you can’t assume you know anything your team is going to do, though that might be overstating it. He seems to be both confident and measured this season when assessing things like this.

Ohio State redshirt freshman Julian Sayin has displayed plenty of California cool in his first three starts, but he hasn’t had a crowd of 75,000-plus breathing down his neck yet. He also got loose with the ball a couple or three times against Grambling State and Ohio, so it will be interesting to see how much leash the coaches give him.

Expect Washington’s Demond Williams Jr. to get as much as he needs. He’s the straw that stirs the drink for coach Jedd Fisch’s team, a true dual threat who presents a challenge with his arms and his legs.

Ohio State defensive coordinator Matt Patricia compared Williams to Kyler Murray, the 2018 Heisman Trophy winner, and I can see why. He is a diminutive, lightning-quick runner like Murray. He might not have the pure arm strength of the former Oklahoma standout, but Williams has a live arm, nonetheless.

Meanwhile, Sayin probably won’t have to win the game for Ohio State, but he can’t lose it.

How Ryan Day settled on a starting QB at Ohio State

How much Ohio State needs from Sayin could depend on…

Bo Jackson has thrust himself into the discussion for more playing time with a pair of 100-yard games.

The competition wasn’t impressive, but Jackson’s running was. He hit the hole a tick faster than C.J. Donaldson or James Peoples, and he was rewarded with more yards.

Day noted Peoples isn’t very experienced either, and game experience is much different than practice for running backs because of the level of contact.

Most interesting thing I heard at Ohio State: Washington Week edition

Ohio State could face a unique challenge on both sides of the ball.

Flanking Williams in the backfield is Jonah Coleman, a 5-9, 228-pound running back who has run for 347 yards and averages 6.8 per carry.

Top receiver Denzel Boston has 16 catches for 249 yards and three touchdowns, and he presents a unique challenge at 6-4, 209.

On defense, Washington’s new coordinator is Ryan Walters. You may remember him as the head coach at Purdue the last two seasons. That was a disaster, but most coaching tenures at Purdue are. Before that, he was a rising star as a defensive coordinator at Illinois.

Ohio State faced him the last two seasons and saw his unique defense, which uses a lot of man coverage with a very deep free safety and a five-man front (much like Ohio State has utilized at times this season).

This Week in Ohio State Football: Chalk talk

Day said the Huskies have run more four-man fronts this season than Walters did at his previous stops, so it remains to be seen what he has in store for the Buckeyes.

The expectation is Washington, which has two 6-foot-4 corners (Tacario Davis and Ephesians Prysock), will play a lot of man coverage, though I’m not sure that is advisable.

Davis missed the Apple Cup last week with an injury, and the Seattle Times reports his replacement, Leroy Bryant, got torched by Washington State. Davis hasn’t been ruled out this week, but he could be replaced by freshman Dylan Robinson, who goes 6-3 (Bryant is normally the starting nickel for the Huskies.)

Either way, the Ohio State offensive line is a wild card here because it will face a unique look and have to contend with what should be a very loud crowd. The running game still had some kinks to work out the last time we saw the Buckeyes, so how much can it be relied upon Saturday? That is unknown at this point.

Over the years, teams frequently have had unique things for Ohio State on game day compared to what they showed on tape over the years. That can be a problem for a young quarterback — and preparing a game plan for a young quarterback — but an offensive line with experience can help.

If they impose their will with the running game, that would of course help a lot. If not, look for this to be one of those games that is kind of wonky. Sustaining drives might be a challenge, but if Washington is going to play man to man, there will be opportunities for Jeremiah Smith and Carnell Tate to make big plays down the field.

This is also where the run-scheme diversity Ohio State has shown in the first three weeks should be beneficial. The Buckeyes have gotten more production from their zone run game so far this season, but it seems like they want to major in gap plays (power and counter with pulling guards and angle blocks). That could be just the thing Ohio State needs in Seattle because the odd front Walters like to use is built to stop inside zone first and foremost.

Ohio State is 9-3 all-time against Washington.

The Buckeyes have won four in a row against the Huskies, last losing to them 25-16 in Seattle in 1994.

In a fact that may interest only me, this will be the first time since 1986 that Ohio State does not have a starting quarterback from St. Henry for a game at Washington.

Bobby Hoying started the ’94 game and completed 19 of 38 passes for 288 yards and a touchdown with an interception.

In 2007, Todd Boeckman completed 15 of 26 passes for 225 yards and two touchdowns as Ohio State won 33-14.

Last time Ohio State played the Huskies was the last time Ryan Day was not the head coach of the Buckeyes, something he was asked about this week.

“Seven years later, and this is where we call home,” Day said. “That really would have been a dream come true, quite honestly. And I think to think back on that next month and that first press conference, and I think a lot of people ask, what if you don't do this? What if you don't do that And I just remember thinking, well, if you look at it like that, it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you look at it like an opportunity, then it's a different point of view, and this has been one of the greatest opportunities of my life. And I enjoy every moment of being here, and understood then what the responsibility is and understand what it is now, hasn't changed, but every year, you grow a little bit more wiser and a little bit more calloused and a little more seasoned.

“But all that being said, this is a whole new team, and that's probably the best part of all of that, is every year is a new story. And this is a really great challenge for our team and a really good opportunity for us to take a step of winning a conference road game against a team like this, who's got such a great history on the road.”