The Hodgepodge: Ohio State and Indiana Haven’t Named Starting Quarterbacks, Penn State and Michigan Loom As Big Ten Threats and Sam Hartman Makes Notre Dame Dangerous

By Garrick Hodge on August 28, 2023 at 10:10 am
Ryan Day
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We’re trying something new here at Eleven Warriors as the 2023 season begins.

As an avid college football enthusiast for years, I’ve always thought it would be cool to read a piece that highlighted the teams I found interesting (mostly Big Ten schools) that also included notes on other Power Five teams and occasionally gave some love to Group of Five schools that deserved it. 

A few weeks ago, I thought, “Well, you cover college football dummy, write it yourself.” So, I am. Every Monday during the college football season, we’re bringing you the Hodgepodge (pun intended) column, which essentially will live up to its name by touching on a little bit of everything in the college football world. 

As this is a website that primarily covers Ohio State, we’re always going to start with weekly thoughts on the Buckeyes regarding their performance in the previous week and looking ahead to what's next. Beyond that, we’ll delve into Big Ten and national storylines in a couple of fun ways. 

I plan to format the column along these lines: 

  • A section on Ohio State’s week.
  • A section on an Ohio State player or unit who will be in the spotlight this week.
  • A section on a big storyline that emerges from the Big Ten.
  • A section on a big storyline that occurs elsewhere in college football.
  • A section delving into what was fun and wacky during the previous week in CFB.
  • Previewing the game of the week (not including Ohio State) for the upcoming weekend.
  • Maybe a couple of bonus sections if merited.

As this is new to all of us, I’m open to suggestions of things or topics you’d like to see incorporated (Feel free to share your suggestions in the comments below or email me at garrick.hodge@elevenwarriors.com) as the weeks progress. With that, it’s time to start talking about Week 1 of the college football season and recap Week 0.

Neither Ohio State nor Indiana has named a starting QB

On Aug. 21, Ryan Day instantly made Ohio State’s season-opening matchup with Indiana much more intriguing by revealing the Buckeyes weren’t ready to name a starting quarterback yet and that the competition could continue into the regular season. 

Unless Day does a heel turn and reveals a starter when he next meets the press on Tuesday, Kyle McCord and Devin Brown are each expected to play against the Hoosiers. Even if a starter is named, both may still play anyway if the starter struggles or the game gets out of hand early. 

The Buckeyes aren’t alone in their quarterback-shrouded mystery. Indiana has also yet to publicly name a quarterback between Tennessee transfer Tayven Jackson and redshirt freshman Brendan Sorsby, and Tom Allen has no plans to do so before the Hoosiers take the field even though he says he privately already knows who it will be. 

But for this week, anyway, how much does it even matter? On paper, the talent gap between these two teams is massive at nearly every position, especially with Indiana predicted to finish last in the Big Ten East. That doesn’t mean there couldn't be some complications. 

McCord or Brown will be making his first start of the year with two talented yet unproven offensive tackles protecting him on the edge against a coach in Allen who never met a blitz he didn’t like. While Memorial Stadium isn’t the most hostile environment you’ll find in the Big Ten, it’s still going to be full of rowdy fans curious to see their team open against a top-three team nationally bolstered by the optimism that comes from your team starting off 0-0. 

Day has told the story of how he and the staff spent weeks working on just the first play they were going to call for C.J. Stroud’s first start against Minnesota in 2021 to make sure the former Buckeye standout felt comfortable and settled into the game – it was a seven-yard completion to Garrett Wilson on a hitch route, in case you were wondering. You can expect a good chunk of the Buckeyes’ practice time this week to be allotted to their script of the first 10 to 15 offensive plays, whether those are taken by one signal-caller or split between two.

Perhaps Saturday gives a clear answer on who the Buckeyes’ starting quarterback will be for the remainder of the year in yet another season where the expectations are championship or bust. But if not, the schedule for the next two weeks allows Day and company more time to get an extended look at both players considering the opponents are Youngstown State and Western Kentucky. By Week 4’s road matchup against Notre Dame, you’d hope the situation has resolved itself one way or another. 

Ohio State spotlight of the week: Marvin Harrison Jr.

I'm taking the obvious one Week 1. Mostly because the last time he played Indiana, Marvin Harrison Jr. did this:

At Big Ten Media Days in July, I asked Tom Allen about the challenges of game-planning for Harrison Jr. His answer didn't disappoint. 

"I've done this a long time. I've been against some of the best wide receivers in America, and he may be the best one I've ever gone against," Allen said. "Because there's just the combination of ridiculous ball skills, I don't think he ever drops a pass, he always just finds a way to come down with it, and he's really fast and runs great routes. It's just on and on and on. He's pretty special, and he obviously learned from a pretty special one himself learning from his father. I have a lot of respect for that guy and he's going to have to be someone that we'll have to deal with. We're going to have to have a great plan to not let him be that guy that beats you."

Last season, Harrison Jr. caught 77 passes for 1,263 yards and 14 touchdowns. He's arguably the greatest wide receiver prospect at the collegiate level since Calvin Johnson. If OSU has to enter Week 1 with some quarterback uncertainty, Route Man Marv is as good a best friend for that signal-caller to have as any. 

Regardless of who starts under center, Harrison Jr. should be in line for a big day against the Hoosiers.

Michigan, Penn State are biggest Big Ten threats this season

Five Big Ten teams are ranked in the preseason AP Top 25 poll: Michigan (No. 2), Ohio State (3), Penn State (7), Wisconsin (19) and Iowa (25).

There’s not a whole lot of surprise at the top and the conference will likely once again come down to the power three of OSU, Michigan and PSU. But this year, it feels like the Nittany Lions are in a better position to challenge the others than they have been in previous seasons. 

Their offensive line is one of the best in the Big Ten, anchored by future NFL first-round pick and left tackle Olu Fashanu. Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen are a deadly one-two combo at running back that is often overshadowed considering the tailbacks the Buckeyes and Wolverines boast. Kalen King is one of the best cornerbacks in college football, perhaps one of the few capable of matching up with Marvin Harrison Jr. They also have a couple of different weapons to rush the passer in their linebacker and defensive line corps. 

But PSU has also beaten OSU once in the past 11 attempts. Drew Allar is an incredibly promising talent at quarterback but remains untested for now. The Nittany Lions’ top two pass catchers from a year ago have also moved on. This is a big year for James Franklin and it will be interesting to see if he can beat at least one of the big two and put his team in contention for a playoff bid. 

As for Michigan, hamburger suspensions or not, the Wolverines boast a loaded roster that’s arguably Jim Harbaugh’s best team since he took over in Ann Arbor and have a running back combo that’s the envy of most of the nation with Blake Corum and Donovan Edwards. This is the first time since God knows when Michigan is actually the favorite to win the conference ahead of OSU, though considering how the past two years have played out, that may be just fine with the Buckeyes. 

Divisions in the Big Ten will become a thing of the past next season, but that's a problem for next year. For 2023, it’s tricky to pinpoint what team in the West Division is poised to make the best run. 

Wisconsin made a massive upgrade to its coaching staff by hiring Luke Fickell and deploys one of the best running backs in the nation in Braelon Allen and returns most of its starters offensively and defensively. Iowa has a defense on par with the best units in the country but had to put scoring stipulations on its offensive coordinator to ensure the athletic department is avoiding nepotism, has an injury to its transfer quarterback Cade McNamara and has multiple players suspended for sports gambling. Minnesota has a talented roster, but a brutal schedule. Illinois has a stout defensive line and Nebraska made a terrific hire in Matt Rhule, but both are long shots for a Big Ten West title. 

Someone has to appear in the Big Ten Championship Game in Indianapolis opposing OSU, Michigan or Penn State. But it might be a few weeks before we see a clear frontrunner emerge. 

Notre Dame looks dynamic offensively with Hartman

It won’t be till Week 4, but Ohio State may have a tough test on its hands in September if Notre Dame’s 42-3 thrashing of Navy in Ireland was any indication.

We’ll start with an obvious caveat: The Fighting Irish had a clear talent advantage over the Midshipmen at every position. Wide receivers won nearly every rep at the line of scrimmage and the offensive line mauled a clearly undersized Navy defensive line.  

But, wasn’t Notre Dame also supposed to have a clear talent advantage when it lost to Marshall last season? 

It’s only one game, and it was against an inferior opponent, but adding one of the ACC’s all-time passing leaders has already paid dividends for Notre Dame. 

In the first half, Wake Forest transfer Sam Hartman completed 14 of 17 passes for 200 yards with two touchdowns, capped off by engineering a nine-play, 80-yard two-minute drill to close the half. He finished 19-of-23 for 266 yards with four touchdowns while looking composed in the pocket throughout the day in rainy conditions. Paired with a stout running attack led by Audric Estime, who had 95 yards and a touchdown on the ground against Navy, the Fighting Irish likely won’t be as anemic offensively as they were a year ago. 

“This moment wasn’t too big,” Irish coach Marcus Freeman said of Hartman after the game. “It's about him just going out and executing.”

Ohio State will likely still be favored when it heads to South Bend on Sept. 23. But the Silver Bullets better be ready.   

What was fun about Week 0

  • Caleb Williams. I mean, come on, man.
  • Call me a sucker, but there’s something kind of cool about the Fighting Irish opening the season in Ireland. 
  • We gave plenty of love to Hartman and the Notre Dame offense above, but shutting out a triple-option offense for nearly an entire game when nearly nobody runs that scheme anymore is a feat worthy of praise. Linebackers Jack Kiser and Marist Liufau were everywhere with 15 combined tackles, a quarterback hit and a forced fumble between them.
  • This hit.
  • This beauty of a formation somehow led to a passing play. (No, of course it didn’t work, but who cares).
  • Early leaders for best name in college football: UTEP kicker Buzz Flabiano and Ohio offensive lineman Parker Titsworth.
  • Trailing 17-14 with 1:21 remaining on Jacksonville State’s 25-yard line on the road, UTEP went for it on 4th-and-1 instead of opting for a game-tying 42-yard field goal. It didn’t work, as Jacksonville State sealed the win with an interception. But I love the call to be aggressive and go for the win on the road, though I can’t say I was fond of the play call. 
  • Former Ohio State wide receiver Sam Wiglusz still has it. Wiglusz caught 10 passes for 103 yards in Ohio’s 20-13 loss to San Diego State despite having two different quarterbacks throwing passes his way.
  • UMass defeated New Mexico State 34-24 on the road for its first road victory since… 2018. Talk about getting a monkey off your back.
  • Impressive debut for USC freshman wideout and former Ohio State target Zachariah Branch. Rated the No. 1 wide receiver in the 2023 class, he caught four passes for 58 yards with a touchdown and returned a kickoff 96 yards for a touchdown while racking up 232 all-purpose yards.
  • If I told you FIU quarterback Grayson James was 5-of-14 for four (!) yards and an interception, while Louisiana Tech signal-caller Hank Bachmeier threw for 332 yards, what would you have guessed the final score was? If you guessed that Louisiana Tech needed a game-winning drive with less than 2 minutes remaining to win 22-17, you’re damn right.
  • Vanderbilt’s stadium situation had to be the most Week 0 thing about Saturday. While it’s good the Commodores are upgrading their facilities, the ramifications in the meantime are pretty hilarious. Not only do visiting teams have to use a tent outside the stadium for their locker rooms this year, but their jumbotron was suspended using two cranes. Hilarious. 
  • Hang on, New Mexico State’s quarterback literally gets his helmet spun around, blocking his vision, and he still tried to throw a pass?

Week 0 had a lot of wacky moments, too

  • If you wanted to watch No. 6 USC play Saturday, you had to go through the hassles of all hassles of trying to find some streaming service that carries the Pac-12 Network, or calling multiple bars to see if they carried it (most around me did not). Suddenly, it makes a lot of sense why that league crumbled. Netflix can make all the fluff sports documentaries it wants but there’s no way to sugarcoat Larry Scott's role in the fall of the Pac-12 when that story is retold in the coming years.
  • The new NCAA clock rules that no longer stop the clock after first downs may prevent teams from getting an extra possession or two, but make no mistake, these games are still going to take three to four hours. Only instead of action, the vacant time will be filled with more of those sweet, sweet commercials!  
  • Can’t say I’ve seen a wideout play defense on his own teammate (unintentionally) that results in the team failing to score a touchdown on fourth down on the opening drive of the season. Pour one out for Navy, it was all downhill from there. 
  • Up until three minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, you, me and everyone else reading this column had as many passing yards as Navy did against Notre Dame, on two fewer attempts. Yes, it's a triple-option offense, but still.
  • You may get mad at officials every Saturday throughout the year, but this guy deserves some hazard pay after a football to the face (though San Diego State may have avoided an intentional grounding call because of it) 
  • Vanderbilt vs. Hawaii likely isn’t what anyone would call must-see TV on paper, but it was an entertaining, high-scoring game that had a zero-yard punt.
  • Alex Grinch’s defense continues to be so suspect at USC that he’s probably due for a raise soon based on his career arc.
  • You have to feel awful for Ohio quarterback Kurtis Rourke. The reigning MAC Offensive Player of the Year was returning to the field for the first time since tearing his ACL last season and came out looking poised against San Diego State in his first few drives. Then, he suffered another injury and missed the entire second half while he had to watch his team fall to the Aztecs by one possession. 

Game of the Week

No. 5 LSU at No. 8 Florida State, 7:30 p.m. Sunday, ABC

My pick: Florida State +2.5

This game has everything you want in a primetime Week 1 matchup. Two top-10 teams. Two quarterbacks who are Heisman contenders. A coach like Brian Kelly that will lose his damn mind on the sideline. Ultimately, I’m pretty high on the Seminoles this year, and LSU missing a top defensive player in Maason Smith won’t help the Tigers’ chances. 

The things I’m looking forward to seeing this college football season

  • Pretty much every week of watching Marvin Harrison Jr. 
  • If you haven’t already, go look at the weekend slate of games for Oct. 21. Has to be one of the most appetizing slate of matchups I can remember happening in a single weekend.
  • From conferences to the playoff structure, everything is going to be drastically different in the sport in 2024. While some of the changes are exciting, I’ll probably appreciate this final status quo season a little more than most. 
  • Oregon-Oregon State and Washington-Washington State. Who knows when we’ll see them play each other again?
  • Ironically, the Pac-12’s last year of existence is probably the most fascinated I’ve been with the conference in more than a decade. More than half the league boasts intriguing quarterbacks. Everyone is headed to a different conference one way or the other after this year, which means the on-field mannerisms between the schools will probably reach all-time high levels of toxicity. The Pac-12 championship will be so delightfully awkward. A 108-year-old conference may be laid to rest, but it’s going to go out in a blaze of glory.
  • Can Kyle Whittingham and Cam Rising help lead Utah to its third straight Pac-12 title in the final year of the conference?
  • What’s the national landscape going to look like when Ohio State, Georgia and Alabama all have legitimate questions at quarterback?
  • Whether you like him or not, the hiring of Deion Sanders by Colorado makes the Buffs infinitely more interesting than they’ve been in a long time. I’ll be fascinated to see both what the results are in his first season and the discourse surrounding him as the year plays out. 
  • The Oregon State revenge tour as the Beavers strive for back-to-back 10-win seasons despite a very uncertain future looming after this season.
  • Tennessee’s strong-armed quarterback Joe Milton as he tries to probably pull an Uncle Rico and throw a football over them mountains every week. 
  • How will Mississippi State perform under the new leadership of Zach Arnett following the tragic death of Mike Leach? 
  • Can Lousiville find a resurgence following the hiring of Jeff Brohm?
  • Texas A&M continues to own its weight worth in gold in talent, yet falls short of expectations. If that happens again, is that the end for Jimbo Fisher, mega contract be damned? 
  • Can Kansas build on the success Lance Leipold had a season ago in his third year at the helm?
  • North Carolina quarterback Drake Maye is a delight to watch and a legit NFL prospect who sometimes gets overshadowed by Caleb Williams. The Tar Heels are definitely a team worth keeping an eye on throughout the year.
  • The storylines that come with Luke Fickell facing Ohio State on Oct. 28.
  • Mel Tucker had a disastrous 2022 season, the first year after being handed a gargantuan contract. Can he and the Spartans rebound, or does that contract look even worse after this year?
  • Hugh Freeze is back in the SEC, coaching Auburn. Those storylines can write themselves, positive or negative.  
  • Texas and Oklahoma’s final seasons in the Big 12. If the Longhorns can’t win the league this year, good luck in the SEC.
  • How Northwestern performs after one of the most disastrous offseasons in recent memory and who it hires to lead the program going forward. 
  • Can Taulia Tagovailoa can lead Maryland to its most successful season since joining the Big Ten?
  • We'll be keeping a close eye on Iowa’s average points per game scored, for no reason whatsoever.
  • The Egg Bowl, the most beautifully dysfunctional game in the sport.
  • The Game, college football’s best rivalry.
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