Buckeye Football Notebook: ‘Win it your very first year, you got no chance after that’

Scrambling Fields Forever

Trailing 21-7 against Wisconsin in the Big Ten Championship Game last Saturday night, the Buckeyes were faced with a third-and-7 early in the third quarter.

Quarterback Justin Fields dropped back, then scrambled left for a bit before heaving it downfield to sophomore receiver Chris Olave for a 50-yard gain.

The play was exactly what the Ohio State offense needed. A three-and-out to start the third quarter would have allowed Wisconsin to continue the momentum that they closed the first half with.

Instead, Fields and Olave connected on one of the biggest plays of the game.

How did it happen?

“Justin is a big scramble guy. He was scrambling a lot today and we tried to work at that second route for him,” Olave said after the game.

“That was of the one of the times that it actually worked. I actually ran a dig on that play and I saw him scramble and he looked at me, so I tried to tell the quarterback I was trying to run an out and we ended up going deep. I just pointed and he threw it. I’m glad we made that play.”

And After the Third Game They Rested

Few teams ever have to run a conference gauntlet like the Buckeyes did over the last month.

Penn State, Michigan, and Wisconsin all in a row, one right after another with no break in between.

Compare that stretch to what LSU had over their final three games with Ole Miss, Arkansas, and Georgia.

Or Clemson with Wake Forest, a bye, South Carolina, and then Virginia.

At least Oklahoma had TCU, Oklahoma State, and Baylor, but that’s not anywhere near what Ohio State had to deal with.

So it is understandable that the Buckeyes appeared a little sluggish throughout the Big Ten Championship Game, despite closing out on a 27-0 run in the second half.

With the rankings in the rear-view and Clemson ahead, the Buckeyes are also going to use these next couple of weeks to rest up and recover.

“Yeah, I think that’ll be huge,” center Josh Myers said. “That three-game stretch we just played was no joke. That was a battle three weeks in a row. I think our offensive line and everybody really needs this break to kind of get our bodies back to right and get ready to go make a run for this thing.”

First-Timer’s Club

Ohio State head coach Ryan Day has made the College Football Playoffs in his first year as the Buckeyes’ head coach.

Last year, Oklahoma’s Lincoln Riley accomplished the same feat.

Former Ohio State head coach Urban Meyer had conversations with former Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops on when the best time to retire was, and the way Stoops did it — by handing the reins over to a more-than-capable assistant like Riley — appealed to Meyer.

So what does it say about Day and Riley that they both made the playoffs in their first year at the helm?

“It says we took over pretty good programs,” Riley said yesterday smiling.

“It’s hard to do. It tells you that you’ve got really, really good staff around you. It tells you that you got players that bought in at a very, very early point. I think those things are always the key.”

There was also some advice from Stoops, though mostly in jest. Mostly.

“Hopefully Ryan will listen, like I did, to Coach Stoops. Coach Stoops told me to make sure you win it your very first year, you got no chance after that,” Riley laughed. “No, it’s a great accomplishment certainly for him and his staff and his team.”

Unexpected Leaders

Throughout every season for every team, new leaders emerge. Some of them are expected, some are unexpected.

During Thursday’s coaches press conference with every playoff head coach but Ryan Day — who had travel issues while out recruiting — the coaches were asked who one of those unexpected leaders on their respective teams was.

For Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney, it didn’t take him long to answer.

“I’ve got a freshman, D tackle, that’s starting for us, true freshman, named Tyler Davis,” he said. “I don’t think you really expect a true freshman to come in, do what he’s done. I’ve had very few true freshmen start at D tackle, Dexter Lawrence, Christian Wilkins.”

Davis was a 4-star recruit out of Apopka, Florida.

The Buckeyes were also involved in Davis’ recruitment, hosting him on an unofficial visit back in June of 2018.

This season for the Tigers he is eighth on the team with 37 tackles, second with 8.0 tackles for loss, and second with 5.5 sacks.

In two weeks against an Ohio State offensive line that produces 272 yards rushing per game, Davis is going to face his stiffest leadership test yet.

At this point, however, he is no longer the true freshman Swinney is touting him as.