Ohio State-Minnesota sets viewership records on Fox
Thursday night’s Ohio State-Minnesota matchup was the most-watched Week 1 college football game ever on Fox. It also ranked as the third most streamed regular-season game in Fox sports history.
The game was also the most-watched telecast of the day on any network and was the 10th most-watched regular-season college football game ever. Most important for Fox, the game was up 41% over from 2019 Big Ten football season average.
Minnesota battled Ohio State for much of the contest. The Buckeyes trailed at halftime, 14-10, for the first time in a regular-season game under coach Ryan Day.
The Buckeyes battled back (more on that later) to win 45-31, giving Day his 16th victory in the Big Ten conference. This is his third year as coach of the Buckeyes and he has yet to lose a single game in conference play.
The play of C.J. Stroud
It was Ohio State’s 12th straight victory against Minnesota, and the Buckeyes now lead the series 46-7.
Coach Ryan Day was proud of his quarterback, and complimentary of his opponent, following the game.
“You don’t just walk out at Ohio State at quarterback and expect to throw 3-4 touchdown passes and call it a day in this conference,” Day said. “Minnesota is a very good team and PJ does an excellent job. That’s a very well coached, hard-playing team. Going on the road is not easy in this conference to get wins. It doesn’t just happen.”
Stroud finished 13-for-22 with 294 yards, four touchdowns and one interception.
Big plays seal Minnesota’s fate against Ohio State
To their credit, Minnesota stuck around. When Stroud opened the second half with a 38-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Chris Olave to take the lead, the momentum change was palpable. Tanner Morgan, Minnesota’s veteran quarterback, never panicked, and he had a lot of help from his star running back Mohamed Ibrahim who rushed for 163 yards on 30 carries before leaving the game with an injury.
But midway through the third quarter, Ohio State’s talent advantage began to shine through.
“When you look at the defensive score that we got, that was huge,” Day said. “The guys up front and Chris [Olave] and Garrett [Wilson] made some big plays. Obviously the play with TreVeyon [Henderson] on third down was big.”
The defensive score to which Day is referring is a strip sack by defensive end Zach Harrison which his fellow lineman Haskell Garrett scooped up for the score. Stroud threw touchdown passes of 38, 56, 70 and 61 yards in the second half. Ohio State finished with 495 total yards.
(On3’s Ashton Pollard contributed to this report.)