COLUMBUS, Ohio — Garrett Wilson feels confident with the ball in his hands. He’s always been the player with the ball in his hands.

It didn’t feel right for him to not have one in his hands last weekend.

The Ohio State junior wide receiver was sidelined due to injury for the first time in his career, not making the trip to Lincoln as the Buckeyes earned their eighth win of the season against Nebraska. Wilson admitted that he couldn’t even watch the whole game, stressing himself out not being able to contribute for his team, something he’s done consistently over the past three years.

It’s something he never wants to do again.

“I don’t plan on that happening again,” Wilson said.

In his first game back, Wilson made sure his presence was felt, that he made up for lost time.

The offensive game plan favored a receiver like Wilson: facing a defense that provided a heavy zero-pressure look, forcing redshirt freshman quarterback C.J. Stroud to make quick throws to the perimeter and allow his receivers to make defenders miss with the space given.

All Wilson did Saturday afternoon was make defenders miss, recording Ohio State’s 38th four-touchdown game in school history, the first since running back J.K. Dobbins’ four-touchdown game against Michigan Nov. 30, 2019 and the first by a wide receiver since Noah Brown’s four-touchdown performance against Oklahoma Sept. 27, 2016.

Wilson was versatile, beating defenders with his speed on slants and crossing routes, jumping over defenders in the red zone and using his speed in the run game on jet sweeps, all combining for 177 all-purpose yards and four touchdowns.

“He’s so versatile. He can do a lot of different things,” Ohio State head coach Ryan Day said. “He’s very powerful and strong, he has tremendous ball skills. He played very well tonight.”

Wilson’s performance woke up a sleeping giant that was the Ohio State offense, a unit that recorded 59 points in its previous two weeks combined, recording four total offensive touchdowns split between the performances against Penn State and Nebraska.

With Wilson on the field, facing a Purdue pass defense that was one of the better units statistically in the Big Ten offense, Ohio State scored 59 points on 70 plays — only 14 of which were not in a Buckeye scoring drive.

Stroud was efficient, completing 81.6% of his passes — his highest percentage of the season — for 361 yards and five touchdowns: hitting Wilson three times, Chris Olave once and Jaxon Smith-Njigba once.

To Stroud, this was Ohio State’s best offensive performance. To Smith-Njigba, this was an example of what the Buckeyes can do when their offense is at full force.

And it really doesn’t matter who.

“It’s just real scary. I feel like it’s hard for defenses to cover all of us,” Smith-Njigba said of himself, Olave and Wilson. “It doesn’t really matter if I’m covered. Someone’s open hopefully, usually. That’s what we work on. That’s what we do.”

Stroud really doesn’t care which receiver does the work. It could be Smith-Njigba: Ohio State’s first 1,000-yard receiver since Parris Campbell in 2018. It could be Olave: who planted himself in the top-five in Ohio State history for career receptions and is one touchdown away from tying and two from breaking David Boston’s record for most touchdowns by a Buckeye receiver in a career.

Or it could be Wilson: a receiver Day said who has improved greatly in his overall route running, understanding where he fits into the concept of play calls.

But that’s just Wilson’s job, the one he didn’t get to perform last weekend, the reason why he was stressing out at home, unable to watch the entire game against the Cornhuskers.

It’s what he wanted to be a part of.

Saturday afternoon, Wilson’s job turned Ohio State’s offense around.

“I just came out here and did what I love doing,” Wilson said. “I missed it las week, being able to be out there with my brothers. To come back and play like we did on offense, having the game I did, it feels good for sure.”