There is nothing like a warm Saturday afternoon in late August at Ohio Stadium. The second ranked team in the country opened the 2024 season in front of 102,000 strong loyal and excited fans against in-state Akron. The Zips took a slight 3-0 lead with a brief chance at a photo op of the scoreboard. However, Ohio State’s offense would start to find their rhythm as the game progressed. New quarterback Will Howard connected on a 16 yard touchdown pass to true freshman Jeremiah Smith with 2:53 to play in the 1st quarter giving the Buckeyes a 7-3 lead. Despite a drop on the opening drive by the freshmen that lead to a three and out, the five star recruit would have quite the game adding six catches for 92 yards and two touchdowns. Afterwards, Jeremiah talked about the relief of moving on from his first drop and settling in to be able to focus and play, “I just feel like I build that trust during practice with the coaches, they trust me a lot knowing I made a mistake that I’ll bounce back from it. It’s the trust they have in me to continue to play football and make plays. I’m just glad it happened now so I got that relief so I can move on now.”
Smith moved on with several impressive diving catches. Two of them were on third down conversions. The freshman receiver has a bright future ahead for the scarlet and gray.
Quarterback Will Howard made his first start Saturday in Ohio Stadium, throwing for 228 yards and three touchdowns. After a slow start in the first half Howard knew the offense had to step it up, “One of our goals in this game was to play clean and I feel like we didn’t really do that in the first half, but at the end of the day we just had to get together and settle down, just play our game and don’t think about it too much. You just have to settle in and play football, I think we did a good job in the second half of doing that. I definitely think we need to do a better job of starting a little faster and starting a little better and not having those mistakes in the first half like we did today.”
If the second half was a indicator of how the season is going to go then Will Howard and the Buckeyes will get settled in for sure.
Defensively Ohio State kept a consistent rhythm all afternoon forcing three turnovers against the Zips. Ohio State would shut down the Akron offense and allow them to cruise to a 52-6 win at home.
Before the game, Archie Griffin was honored as a part of his statue unveiling at the Rose Bowl and the 50th anniversary of the Heisman trophy. Griffin was the honorary starter for the coin toss. Coach Ryan Day talked about not only Archie’s impact on Ohio State but the impact he had on college football, “There’s only one two time Heisman trophy winner, that’s Archie Griffin, I did get a chance to see the impact he made off the field, people in the community have seen what he’s done with his charities. I have so much respect for him off and on the field. He’s been a great role model for our team so congrats to him for his recognition this weekend.”
It's hard to believe there’s still only one two time Heisman winner but Archie carries that badge of honor with class and respect throughout all of college football.
Next up the Buckeyes will host Western Michigan at 7:30pm on Saturday night.