Can Will Howard just be the "good enough" passer we need to manage the offense? Jeremiah Smith might be good, but let's keep our expectations in check while he adjusts to the college game. Seth McLaughlin, Alabama castoff who can't snap, is our upgrade at center? Are we an air raid offense now with Chip Kelly as OC?
These comments seem like crazy talk now, and maybe the more prescient among us knew it was crazy talk back then, but these were real narratives going into the 2024 season.
I meant to do this in March but didn't want to overlap with March Madness so... for some reason I put it off until the end of July. I thought it would be neat to rewatch the games of the 2024 championship season and refresh our memories of how things really played out. I remember the 2024 Buckeyes as the post-season juggernaut they became, tearing through CFB's best. But as I was watching through these condensed no-huddle videos in March, it was clear that they were not always like that. And that may be a good thing to have fresh in our minds as we're only ~30 days away from kicking off the 2025 season.
The general idea is that I'll post these condensed 40-minute videos (with a huge thanks to Brodie Knows Ball on YouTube for uploading) and compile narratives from articles and forum topics that help capture the media and fans' thoughts about the team going into each week and coming out of each game. The narrative this week will be brief since this intro is really long.
Share what you were thinking going into each week as well as your impressions as you watch the condensed games. Reignite the fury at bad officiating, call out amazing plays that got overshadowed, note the precipitous moments that foreshadowed players' future development!
tl;dr - Watch through the season with 40-minutes all-the-plays videos. Read through what people were thinking back then. Make comments with the benefit of hindsight.
Below, I'll make 4 top-level comments for each quarter. Use that as a guide to place your comments as you watch through the game and hopefully that will help keep things a little more organized. Preface your observations with the time on the game clock (and optionally, down and distance) so everyone knows what you're talking about. Hopefully it will be less toxic than the actual open threads since we know it'll all be okay!
Importantly, these posts are not meant to hang specific people over their takes. We're all fellow Buckeye fans here and we don't gain anything by dunking on others who have doubts or criticisms. As we go through, you'll probably have a laughable take or two yourself.
I'll post these roughly every other day to give everyone ample time to watch before we move onto the next week but the relatively rapid succession will make it easier to see how the team evolves week to week.
Going into Week 1
Besides the topics in the introduction, we were also excited to see how Caleb Downs could elevate our defense, had conflicting evaluations on Justin Frye, were uncertain about how Jim Knowles' scheme would hold up against high-level competition and if they could get stops when it really mattered. Treveyon, hampered by injuries, was considered by some as easy to bring down and unable to hit the holes. Would a healthy Tre be different? How would Quinshon Judkins affect the RB position? Are we ever going to start getting sacks? Does getting sacks even matter if we're still pressuring the QB? Lot of questions!
- Care/Don't Care: Three Things Before Akron + The Seasons
- The Trailer Vol. 1 - The Journey
- JT wants to change the narrative on OSU
- Last Call: Questions, Players to Watch and Predictions for Ohio State's Season Opener Against Akron
- THE Podcast Pregame Live Show
The 2023 Buckeyes left us with a performance against Missouri we prefer to forget. Even though it came with a lot of caveats, we didn't have much else to go on to predict 2024. But there were some notable upgrades and reasons for optimism. In opening week, fans wanted to see a veteran team playing like a veteran team. Many just wanted to stay healthy until the tests that would really reveal what the team was really like.
Allinosu (51-6) was remarkably to predicting the correct score to open up that thread and JBOSUFan1 was only one point off as well (52-7).
Without further ado...
Week 1 against Akron in 40 Minutes:
Coming out of Week 1
- Ohio State Wins Comfortable in Season Opener Against Akron, 52-6
- THE Podcast: Ohio State shakes off early rust
- 2024 Ohio State Football: Game 1 Recap vs Akron
- Ryan Day: Jeremiah Smith is Built Different
- Three Key Stats
So, that Jeremiah Smith kid is pretty good!
The Buckeyes still put together a dominant performance despite a clunky start. That first pass to JJ may very well have changed all that. But it's a game of inches and all. We thought there were some kinks to work out in execution and the run blocking left something to be desired (for the record, Donovan Jackson was out with injury). The defense looked alive and mean: 5 sacks, 3 turnovers, 10 negative plays, 4/16 on third down, 1.3 YPC allowed, 1 pick six, 1 scoop and score. Much respect for the Akron QB's toughness.
Next up: Western Michigan
