PISCATAWAY, N.J. — C.J. Stroud was in no rush.

As Ohio State’s quarterbacks took the field prior to its road matchup against Rutgers, Ohio State quarterback coach Corey Dennis made sure to tell the redshirt freshman to take his time, do what he needed to do.

Stroud was still working his way back from a lingering shoulder issue, one he said hindered his performance against Tulsa and kept him out against Akron. The quarterback wanted to make sure everything was right heading into the Buckeyes' return to Big Ten play.

As teammates Quinn Ewers, Kyle McCord and Jack Miller III began their throwing routine, Stroud wasn’t quite ready yet, loosening his arm with the warm-up balls. When he first threw a football, it was slower and more contained than his counterparts, but it was a throwing routine.

Before receivers got involved, Dennis looked at Stroud, making sure he was good to go. As he walked toward the next drill, he gave his coach a thumbs up.

Stroud was back. And he had a whole hell of a lot to prove.

The first drive, he didn’t have to do much, dumping off a short four-yard pass to tight end Jeremy Ruckert before handing the ball off to running back TreVeyon Henderson for a 44-yard score. Then the quarterback found his groove: a 22-yard completion to wide receiver Garrett Wilson, a nine-yard completion to Ruckert, a 17-yard pass to Wilson.

It was a rhythm Ohio State saw every day in practice. It’s a rhythm that won Stroud the starting quarterback job initially, beating McCord and Miller for the role.

It was a rhythm that those outside of the program had doubted.

But 330 yards — his career high — five touchdowns and a 74% completion percentage will change a lot of minds, minds that Stroud wasn’t looking to please.

“The real people know what I can do,” Stroud said. “That’s all that really matters to me. I couldn’t really care less what the world has to say. I’m God’s son. Whenever I look in the mirror, I see God’s son. That’s how I look at myself and that’s how I feel my teammates look at me.”

While he was out, Stroud not only had an opportunity to rest and rejuvenate his shoulder. He had an opportunity to take a step back and realize where he was and what kind of position he was in.

He was the quarterback at Ohio State. Watching meetings, practices and the Akron game, he began to see himself in that role, how to come into the calling God gave him to be great.

What separated Stroud this week to Ohio State head coach Ryan Day was his toughness, challenging him with what it means for a quarterback to be tough.

Day saw that from his quarterback at the end of the first half.

After nearly throwing an interception at the end of the second half, Stroud regrouped on the very next play, stepping out of the pocket, evading one defender to his right before stepping up and throwing a ball to wide receiver Chris Olave near the left sideline, bouncing back in and breaking free for a 56-yard touchdown.

It was that play — one example of an off-schedule play — that allowed Stroud to build comfort, to build confidence not only in those pieces around him, but in himself.

“I think it’s the most comfortable he’s looked,” Day said. “At the same time he’s very, very young, still green in this whole thing. He’s got a lot of football ahead of him. He’s going to have good days, good times and bad times, bad plays. He didn’t get rattled. He had a few plays that maybe didn’t go his way but he came right and continued to make plays.”

Stroud’s comfort looked like six incompletions on the stat sheet. It looked like composure in the pocket, not panicking on his third touchdown throw — a 19-yard post to Ruckert — when a Rutgers defender was coming in barreling on his blind side.

Comfort looked like scrambling when he needed to scramble, tucking and running when Ohio State needed yards — taking the ball himself for a 10-yard gain at the end of the second quarter.

Comfort was confidence for a quarterback who didn’t have much during the Tulsa game.

“I definitely felt way better heading into this game with my shoulder,” Stroud said. “That Tulsa game, I wasn’t feeling right at all. This week, I can actually step into my throws. I can actually put something into my throws without feeling like my shoulder’s going to fall off.”

To Olave, it was a night-and-day difference. It was the quarterback he was used to.

“That’s the C.J. we saw at fall camp, summer,” the senior receiver said. “He came out there, had some rest on his shoulder. He felt like he was 100%. He was slinging it today.

Stroud described his shoulder as 100% better. And with that reality, Stroud feels like it’s just the beginning.

It’s the beginning for an offense just finding its stride, the balanced offense it showed against Rutgers, recording 333 yards passing and 197 yards on the ground, getting its big plays through the air, but doing enough on the ground to be able to warrant attention.

It’s the beginning for a team that feels it’s been counted out, that feels its the underdog: a feeling Stroud loves.

There’s work to be done. Different defenses are going to give Stroud different looks based on what the film shows against Rutgers.

But through the highs and the lows of 2021, Stroud’s feeling about Ohio State has not changed. And it will not change.

“It doesn’t really matter what the world sees,” Stroud said. “Like everyone says, even before I was here, it’s Ohio against the world. It took me to get to play to understand that, to come to this great university.

“It really is Ohio against the world.”