Ohio State Shows Plenty of Promise Despite Imperfections in Season Opener

Real Pod Wednesdays

We said last week that anything less than perfection against Akron could be seen as a disappointment for Ohio State’s season opener, and that’s pretty much how it played out.

With all the hype Ohio State entered the season with, much of the focus in the days following the Buckeyes’ first game of the year has been on what could have gone better – namely, an underwhelming start for the offense and specifically the offensive line, particularly in run blocking. But Ohio State still won its season opener by 46 points, which means there were far more positives than negatives.

There was no bigger positive than the play of Will Howard, who exhibited none of the accuracy issues that were present in the earlier stages of the offseason as he impressed as a passer while also proving to be a clear upgrade for the Buckeyes in terms of athleticism and pocket presence at the quarterback position. Other promising developments from the Buckeyes’ 52-6 victory included the immediate impact of Jeremiah Smith, the depth that stepped up in the defensive front six and the explosive punt returns of Brandon Inniss.

We spend more than half of this week’s show discussing our takeaways from the season opener before looking ahead to the Buckeyes’ second game this weekend against Western Michigan, who they’ll host in Ohio Stadium at night on Saturday. In the final segment of the show, we share our biggest takeaways from what we saw from the rest of college football in Week 1 as Oregon and Michigan struggled to beat lesser opponents, USC made a statement in its season opener and Florida State and Clemson stumbled out of the gates.

The rundown for Real Pod Wednesdays post-Week 1:

• 0:00 Intro
• 0:57 Ohio State’s Season Opener Wasn’t Perfect, But the Buckeyes Still Won By 46
• 7:37 The Offensive Line Needs to Improve, But There’s Plenty of Time For It to Grow
• 9:33 Will Howard Looks Like A Quarterback Upgrade in Impressive Debut
• 14:28 Jeremiah Smith is Special
• 18:07 A Great Start for Ohio State’s Defense, Especially Its Defensive End Depth
• 22:36 Has Arvell Reese Already Surpassed C.J. Hicks at Linebacker?
• 28:51 Sonny Styles, Gabe Powers Also Impress at Linebacker
• 30:52 Brandon Inniss Looks Ready to End Ohio State’s Punt Return Touchdown Drought
• 35:21 OSU Still Wants Nick McLarty to Emerge, But Joe McGuire Had A Good Showing at Punter
• 37:12 Western Michigan Can’t Be Overlooked After Playing Wisconsin Tough, But OSU Should Still Win Big
• 42:41 Score Predictions for Ohio State vs. Western Michigan
• 45:27 Oregon is Still Ohio State’s Top Competition in Big Ten, But Must Play Better vs. Boise State
• 48:09 Michigan’s Opener Shows Major Concerns on Offense
• 51:20 Penn State, USC Highlight A Very Good All-Around Week 1 for the Big Ten
• 54:11 Miami Looks Like Early ACC Favorite As Florida State, Clemson Stumble Out of Gates