COLUMBUS, Ohio – Saturday marked the first game to be played in Ohio Stadium since November of 2020 with the Spring Game taking center stage in front of a limited number of fans, the Ohio State marching band and cheerleaders and everyone in attendance was treated to an offensive display as Team Brutus defeated Team Buckeyes 14-7 and then the offense would outscore the defense 14-6 (based on how the game was scored) for an overall 28-13 win.
There will be plenty of questions and perceived answers after a multi-hour scrimmage, but we really won't know anything until the season gets underway the first week of September when Ohio State lines up for real, on the road against Minnesota in week one action.
The first half of the game saw split teams between Brutus and Buckeye with the quarterbacks alternating series. CJ Stroud ended the first half at 11-14 for 127 yards and two touchdowns while Kyle McCord was 9-13 for 130 yards and a score with Jack Miller ending the first half at 12-23 for 100 yards and a pick.
Of course everyone wants to know who is ahead at this point. Head coach Ryan Day was quick to say on postgame that the spring game is only a small sample size of a spring full of work.
"You can't come out there and win the job on one play, it does not work that way," Day said.
The game did now allow tackling, opting for a "thud" style of playing to a whistle, that limited the running game with the two teams accounting for just 14 yards after sack yardage was factored in on 19 carries.
Receivers like Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson did what was expected from them, but the receiving game really seemed to focus on young guys like Marvin Harrison Jr. (7 receptions, 49 yards 1 TD) and Emeka Egbuka (4 receptions, 45 yards).
On the defensive side of things, it was the Jack Sawyer show in the first half with a pair of sacks, a forced fumble and several uncredited quarterback hurries. Sawyer would end the day with three sacks total, but many would claim that he should have been credited with a fourth in the exhibition.
For the second half it was offense versus defense and with no way for the defense to score outside of returning a fumble or interception, this figured to be heavily slanted to the offense in terms of the scoreboard.
The offense would score three touchdowns, the first would be the lone touchdown on the ground as Steele Chambers would dive in from two yards out. The second would come off the arm of McCord to tight end Joe Royer and the final would come way of fourth-string quarterback Jagger LaRoe, finding Sam Wiglusz from 20 yards out.
Not to be lost in all of this is that this is the first time since the 2019 season that non-family members of players have been allowed at Ohio Stadium and while it was just at 20-percent capacity, it was a huge step in the right direction.
"I think the most exciting part was getting back in the stadium and seeing The Best Damn Band in the Land, having some fans around and just.. it felt almost normal out there today." Day said.
The final score of the game won't be remembered beyond this weekend but now the speculation will begin about who will be able to carry a strong spring performance on through the summer and beyond. Will Stroud be able to hold off the other two quarterbacks going into the year? Just how highly will true freshman running back TreVeyon Henderson be able to ascend in the off-season depth chart at running back, especially with no Master Teague in the spring game?
On the defense, who made a name for themselves at linebacker with thin numbers during the spring game? Will guys like Darrion Scott-Young and Sawyer bust into the depth chart this fall?
We will go through a lot of these questions in the coming days as we unpack everything that we saw during the 2021 spring game.
