Luke Fickell said ” Ohio State is bigger than one player, one team, one coach”. That clearly was demonstrated on a 100 plus degree day at Ohio Stadium. Joe Bauserman and Braxton Miller combined to complete 20 of 28 passes for a total of 293 yards, with 4 TD’s. Bauserman had 3 passing and one rushing TD.
All aspects of the team showed great talent, and for as much as can be determined from playing Akron, Ohio State will transistion just fine into a new era under head coach Luke Fickell. They have plenty of depth at running back, and Carlos Hyde and Rod Smith both showed they are very capable of stepping up and become a dangerous running attack.
Jake Stoneburner was the real player of the game for Ohio State, catching 3 touchdowns, which is one more than he had all of last year. The receivers looked good and Evan Spencer caught a one hander that brought 105,000 people to their feet.
Luke Fickell showed he wasn’t afraid to keep attacking Akron, blitzing them the entire game. The defense looked great and Special Teams were much improved over last year. Ohio State had a better debut than the National Champion, Auburn Tigers. Auburn had to rely on an onside kick to barely beat Utah State. Auburn of course had to replace Cam Newton. So, I can at least take comfort that Ohio State still has plenty of depth, having a total of 8 players suspended, and we should only get better once those players return five games from now. Go Bucks!
