Scarlet Sunrise: Buckeyes believe 'nobody here cares at all' about outside noise after opener

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Buckeyes believe ‘nobody here cares at all’ about outside noise after opener

Practically everyone in the Ohio State football community saw the Pat McAfee Show clip from former Buckeyes quarterback, and current ESPN analyst, Kirk Herbstreit Tuesday.

Herbstreit didn’t hold back when talking about the worst part of the Ohio State fan base.

“There’s a standard, and then there’s a psychotic standard,” Herbstreit said. “And I would say that the 15% that represent Ohio State on social media fall into that category of ‘psychotic.’ They’re out of their minds, and what they do is they make high school players not want to play for that program because of how they’re just such jackasses. They drive me crazy with everything that they do.”

Ohio State starting right tackle Josh Fryar said Wednesday that he, too, heard Herbstreit’s message. Fryar graded out as a “champion” in the 23-3, season-opening win at Indiana, but he was the only Ohio State offensive lineman to do so. He’s not celebrating that distinction, though. Fryar is focused on the starting five up front collectively growing from what he called a “mediocre” performance in the trenches Week 1.

That said, Fryar doesn’t see much validity in the criticism on social media about the No. 5 Buckeyes’ O-Line.

“I love Ohio State fans. I love Buckeye fans,” Fryar said. “But I think the scrutiny that we’re under right now, it doesn’t affect us because we’re trying to win.

“I mean, yeah, the offensive line didn’t play very well. Look around the country, offensive line didn’t play very well. You can go on Twitter and search up ‘offensive line play.’ I don’t think they said one good thing about an offensive lineman until you win the game. And then they’re like, ‘Oh, we won the game.’ Everybody’s gonna forget about it in a month, two months.”

It hasn’t just been the offensive line that’s received heaps of disparagement after Ohio State’s 20-point conference road win last weekend.

The entire Buckeyes offense has dealt with considerable frustrations and overreactions on social media. Tight end Cade Stover — who led the Buckeyes with 98 receiving yards on five grabs at Indiana — was adamant Wednesday that the outside noise is irrelevant to their operation in the Woody Hayes Athletic Center.

“I can promise you that nobody here cares at all about what they say,” Stover said. “We appreciate all their support and everything else. But when it comes down to the Xs and Os, about them talking about stuff, I mean, they don’t see the thousands of reps we’re putting in and Kyle [McCord] and Devin [Brown] and those guys are putting in. That’s a tough spot to step into. And, to be honest with you, I think they did well. I trust wholeheartedly both of those guys with the game on their hands. I think for a start, that was awesome. I remember people calling for C.J. [Stroud]’s head when he first started.”

Stover later added: “When you first deal with it, it’s hard not to look at some of the stuff, I guess. But I mean once you go through it and realize that some homeboy in his basement — texting about him really doesn’t matter what you’re going to do on Saturday. I can assure when we go in that game on Saturday that we are not thinking about Johnny in his basement typing, ‘Hey you guys suck.'”

Fewer possessions, fewer snaps: New clock rule presenting challenges for Buckeyes

The NCAA changed three clock rules ahead of the 2023 season for Division I and Division II. None are more relevant, and controversial, than the game clock now running after first downs — as is done in the NFL — except for those in the final two minutes of each half.

Through Week 0 and Week 1, the rule change has made a noticeable difference in plays per game. In 2022, there were 131 plays per game and 24.0 drives per game, whereas, through this past Saturday, 2023 games had averaged 117 plays per game and 21.7 drives per game — that’s according to SumerSports data scientist Tej Seth.

There are fewer snaps to go around — a real problem for a talented program like Ohio State — and every possession carries more weight on Saturdays.

“I think that’s probably one of my biggest concerns about the number of possessions coming down, the number of plays across the country coming down is we have we have a lot of guys who deserve to play,” Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day said Tuesday. “And so the number of touches, the number of plays for some of these guys, that does concern me.”

For the full story, go here.

Inside Buckeyes third-down struggles, how they can be fixed

It’s no secret that Ohio State struggled mightily on third down against Indiana. The Buckeyes were 2-of-12 on third down, posting the lowest Week 1 conversion rate (16.7%) of any team in the Big Ten.

What’s worse is that Ohio State was just 1-of-7 on 3rd-and-short (four or fewer yards to gain).

That, along with the Buckeyes kicking a pair of field goals in the red zone, is a big reason why Ohio State left Bloomington with only 23 points.

More on Ohio State’s third down issues and how they can be fixed here.

Counting down

Buckeyes vs. Youngstown State: 3 days
Buckeyes vs. Michigan: 79 days

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