COLUMBUS, Ohio – The long absence of the offseason was worth it for the Buckeyes as they are now sitting at 1-0 on the season and optimism is high around the program after a big week one win against Florida Atlantic.

We are taking a look at some of the things that we gathered from that season-opening win, why it pays to be a Buckeye and much, much more in this edition of the 3-2-1 presented by Hague Water Conditioning.

1 - Olave is still as advertised

Everyone got a glimpse of Ohio State wide receiver Chris Olave toward the tail end of the 2018 season when Austin Mack was lost for the year due to injury. Olave scored a combined three touchdowns in the games against Michigan and Northwestern and showed that he will be the next guy up in the Ohio State receiver pipeline.

With a good amount of talent returning this season however, there were some questions where Olave might fit into things with returners like Mack, KJ Hill, Bin Victor and others.

Olave proved in week one that he will not be forgotten as he led the team with five receptions and 68 receiving yards in Ohio State's 45-21 win over Florida Atlantic.

In fact, Olave has had 10 receptions over the span of his last three games, all the more impressive with consideration to the fact that he was shutout in the Rose Bowl against Washington.

Olave may not end up being a high-volume receptions guy this season with some of the guys around him but he has proven to be a consistent option, regardless of who the quarterback has been throwing the ball and the numbers are only going to rise as the former three-star receiver goes on to prove the recruiting evaluators wrong.

2 - Big Ten firepower

I am going to preface this by admitting that many teams in the Big Ten did not go out and play the most difficult of week one opponents, but with that being said, there were a lot of points put up by the conference as the Big Ten only dropped two games last week and the 12 winning teams won by a 32.1 points margin of victory.

Sure, Maryland and Penn State each putting up 79 points in their games looks impressive just from a distance but playing against Division I-FCS Howard and Idaho, respectively, is not going to do much to move the needle in terms of strength of schedule.

Across the board however, every Big Ten team outside of Northwestern scored at least 28 points in their game and seven teams reached or surpassed the 40-point threshold. Sure, there is a strong argument that college football as a whole has become more of an offensive game as pass interference, targeting and other calls have made it more difficult for defenses to do their job on a consistent basis.

But you can also go and look at a league like the mighty SEC and see how they did as a league. 9-5 (granted there was a conference game where UGA defeated Vanderbilt) may be a little bit behind the Big Ten's 12-1, but losses by Ole Miss, Tennessee, South Carolina and Missouri all sting. South Carolina is the only team in the league that can claim a loss to a fellow Power Five team (just like Northwestern) while teams like Mississippi State, Arkansas and Kentucky all were less than impressive in their wins.

When it comes to scoring, only three teams broke the 40-point threshold, led by LSU (and former Ohio State quarterback Joe Burrow's five touchdown passes) 55 points.

Of course that does not change the fact that six of the top-12 teams in the AP poll are from the SEC while the Big Ten only has two teams (Ohio State, Michigan) in the top dozen. The Big Ten will still be fighting to get over the hump and try and wrestle away the designation of being the top conference, but as we all know it really doesn't matter until you get to the College Football Playoff, an event that the Big Ten Champion has been left out of for the last couple of seasons.

3 – Breaking the bank

On Wednesday morning the news came out that the Dallas Cowboys and former Ohio State running back Ezekiel Elliott had come to an agreement on a six-year contract extension worth 90-million dollars, ending Zeke’s holdout just in time for week one of the upcoming NFL season.

This new deal will now make Elliott the highest-paid running back in the NFL, surpassing the deal in place between the Los Angeles Rams and Todd Gurley, a deal worth just shy of 58-million dollars over four years.

According to reports, 50-million dollars of that contract will be guaranteed.

Elliott now joins former Buckeye Michael Thomas as highest-paid players at their position as the second-round draft pick of the New Orleans Saints signed an extension of his own, a five-year deal worth 61-million dollars, a deal that made Thomas the highest paid wide receiver in the league.

Ohio State has been very proud of its ‘Developed Here’ campaign that highlights success in putting players into the NFL. Expect another graphic to be coming out very soon as Ohio State players continue to break the bank.

1 - Will the Buckeyes get off to a quick start this week?

It would be difficult for the Buckeyes to come out to any quicker of a start this week than they did last week after scoring on their first four drives, none of those drives going longer than four plays or more than two minutes.

The level of competition will be significantly higher as Cincinnati possessed the No. 9 scoring defense and the No. 11 total defense last season. The Bearcats don't have everyone back from that defense but have a system in place and players that have bought into Marcus Freeman and Luke Fickell's systems.

For all of Ohio State's success last season, it was not the quickest starting team in the nation, especially as the season went on. In Ohio State's final five games of the season, the Buckeyes scored 31 first quarter points with 14 of them coming against Northwestern in the B1G Championship Game. The Buckeyes got off to a much quicker start earlier in the year with an average first quarter of 17.3 points in non-league games.

Granted, Tulane and Oregon State did not have the type of defensive bones that Cincinnati does. It will be interesting to see what kind of start the Buckeyes can get off to.

2 - Just how far has the rush defense come along?

Last season the Buckeyes were right in the middle of the pack nationally in run defense, No. 56 overall and definitely bottom of the barrel when it came to yielding big plays.

Week one against Florida Atlantic in 2019 showed a much better run defense against a team that had made its bones by running the ball. Of course most of the known rushers from a year ago were no longer with the Owls and the guy who was supposed to be the answer, BJ Emmons, broke his ankle after just one carry and never had an opportunity to push the Ohio State run defense.

So, we really don't know where this defense stands as a whole when it comes to running the ball since the Owls were not operating on full capacity for much of that game.

Michael Warren is a different back than James Charles (10 carries, 25 yards) or Larry McCammon (11 carries for 22 yards).

It will be interesting to see what the final tally will look like after the game on Saturday going against one of the better backs that few people know little about.

Not sure if it will be in the return game or with the defense but I just have a feeling that this will be the week that someone breaks through. Demario McCall was close to taking the opening kickoff last week to the house and you have to like his chances once again if Cincinnati does not bury every kickoff eight yards into the end zone.

If not there, this might be a game where Ohio State's dominant line is able to 'scoop and score' or someone in the secondary like Jeffrey Okudah will get their hands on a ball and take it back the other way for six.