Two senior playmakers on Ohio State’s offense are closing in on all-time school records for touchdown receptions.
Chris Olave caught his 30th touchdown pass as a Buckeye in Saturday night’s 54-7 win over Indiana to move into a tie with Devin Smith for the second-most touchdown receptions in Ohio State history. He’s now only five touchdown catches from setting a new school record, as David Boston currently holds the mark with 34 career touchdown receptions.
Jeremy Ruckert, meanwhile, caught the 11th and 12th touchdown passes of his Ohio State career in Bloomington to move ahead of John Lumpkin for the second-most touchdown catches by a tight end in Ohio State history. He’s now just one touchdown reception away from tying Jake Stoneburner’s school record of 13 career touchdown catches for a tight end.
While Olave has now caught eight touchdown receptions in seven games this season, including at least one in each of Ohio State’s last four games, Ruckert had his most productive game of the season to date with five catches for 47 yards and two touchdowns against Indiana. It was the fourth two-touchdown game of Ruckert’s Ohio State career – he’s had as many two-touchdown games as he’s had one-touchdown games as a Buckeye – but his five catches were a career-high, while his 47 receiving yards were the second-highest total of his Ohio State career.
Quick look at how No. 5 @OhioStateFB’s six first-half drives have ended:
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TD pic.twitter.com/eBwG6z5q2c— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) October 24, 2021
Ruckert actually could have had three touchdown receptions against the Hoosiers, but one of them was called back due to an ineligible receiver downfield penalty against Matt Jones. Olave’s touchdown reception came two plays later.
Because Ohio State has a reputation for not throwing the ball to its tight ends regularly, a productive night like Ruckert had on Saturday always generates attention – and subsequent questions about the tight end finally getting his chance to shine. That said, Ruckert told reporters after Saturday’s game that his approach against the Hoosiers was no different than it’s been all year.
“Like I’ve always said since I’ve been here, some days it’s in the run game, some days it’s in the pass game. Whatever it is, just being able to make the plays when your name’s called is the culture here,” Ruckert said. “Some days the game plan’s different than the others, and like I said before, not forcing anything and just playing free, the ball’s gonna come your way.”
Pryor sees extended playing time
During his radio show on the Ohio State Sports Network on Thursday, Ryan Day hinted at the possibility that true freshman running back Evan Pryor could see more playing time against Indiana than he had in previous games.
“Evan has now done some good things in practice, so he’s gonna get some opportunities in the game as well,” Day said.
When Ohio State released its status report for the Indiana game on Saturday afternoon, it became clear why Pryor could see more playing time. Master Teague and Marcus Crowley were both unavailable for Saturday night’s game, leaving just three running backs on the travel roster: TreVeyon Henderson, Miyan Williams and Pryor.
Henderson and Williams played all of the snaps at running back in Saturday’s first half, but Henderson (who had nine carries for 81 yards, one catch for 14 yards and three total touchdowns against Indiana) did not play at all in the second half for precautionary reasons and Williams (who had eight carries for 60 yards and a touchdown) only played on Ohio State’s first two possessions of the second half, giving Pryor for the opportunity to play for the rest of the game.
Pryor had played only 18 snaps as a Buckeye entering Saturday’s game, and his inexperience showed at times against the Hoosiers, like on one play shortly after he entered the game on which he was bull-rushed back into C.J. Stroud on a blitz by Indiana linebacker Micah McFadden, nearly leading to an interception. A couple plays later, though, Pryor effectively picked up a blitz in pass protection on 3rd-and-4 to give Stroud time to complete a downfield pass to Cade Stover for an 18-yard gain.
With the ball in his hands, Pryor ran for 48 yards on 11 carries – highlighted by an 16-yard run – and caught two passes for eight yards after getting just 10 carries (on which he gained 50 yards and a touchdown) in his previous three game appearances for the Buckeyes. And Day was encouraged by what he saw from Pryor in his first extended action.
“I was impressed with the way Evan ran down the stretch, and that’s good,” Day said. “We’re gonna need some of the depth there.”
Evan Pryor played 27 offensive snaps for Ohio State against Indiana.
Day was not asked after the game about why Teague and Crowley were unavailable, so it’s unclear when they will be able to return. Stroud’s postgame comments about the running backs, however, suggested that Crowley’s injury could be the more serious of the two.
“I feel like Miyan did a great job when he was in, when Evan was in he did a great job and of course Trey, he had a great game,” Stroud said. “When you have three great backs like that, and then when we get Teague back, and I feel bad for Crow, but whenever he comes back, we have great backs. So that kind of just makes our job easier.”
James, Leroux play first offensive snaps
While Ohio State’s travel roster for the Indiana game mostly consisted of players who had already seen playing time this season, two second-year offensive linemen played the first offensive snaps of their Buckeye careers during the fourth quarter of Saturday’s game.
As has been the case for the past few games, Ohio State used several different offensive line combinations against Indiana. Matt Jones mixed in with the starters at both left and right guard. Early in the first half, Thayer Munford moved to his old position of left tackle and Nicholas Petit-Frere moved to his old position of right tackle with Dawand Jones coming out of the game. With Enokk Vimahi and Harry Miller both unavailable, Dawand Jones later returned to the game at right tackle to play on the second-team offensive line with Josh Fryar at left tackle, Matt Jones at left guard, Toby Wilson at center and Donovan Jackson at right tackle.
Then, on Ohio State’s final possession of the game, Jakob James entered the game at left guard for his first-ever snaps as a Buckeye while Trey Leroux, who played his first-ever snaps as a Buckeye on the field goal team against Maryland, checked in at right guard with Jackson moving outside to right tackle.
Including Leroux and James, 14 different offensive linemen have now played snaps for Ohio State this season. The only scholarship offensive linemen who haven’t yet played at all this season are redshirt freshman Grant Toutant and true freshmen Ben Christman and Zen Michalski.