Joel Klatt: Ohio State won with its best 'pitch' in Marvin Harrison Jr.

There’s no questioning Marvin Harrison Jr.’s status as one of the best players in the nation. However, for all the notoriety around him, FOX Sports’ Joel Klatt also thinks he’s, somehow, Ohio State’s secret weapon.

Klatt made his point during an episode of his show on Monday after calling the Buckeye’s 20-12 win over Penn State last weekend. He started by simply describing Harrison Jr. as the winning component in the Top-10 matchup in the Big Ten.

“Marvin Harrison Jr. was unbelievable for Ohio State,” said Klatt. “He was the difference in the game.”

From there, Klatt started making his larger, overall point about Harrison Jr. being for Ohio State what an outpitch is to a great pitcher in baseball. With him as their reliable option on offense, he says the Buckeyes can always make a throw that, in most games, other teams can’t handle, even when they know it’s coming.

“When I think of baseball? I think of great pitchers, big moments,” said Klatt. “Generally speaking, great pitchers are great because they have somewhere to go in pressure moments. Where do they go? They go to their best pitch and their best pitch is an outpitch. It’s a pitch that they can rely on because of its greatness. It’s that pitch that makes them who they are.”

“Ohio State has one of those pitches and that pitch just happens to be Marvin Harrison Jr.. He’s the best player on the field,” Klatt continued. “You have to give them a lot of credit because they, like those great pitchers, knew that they were not going to go down without giving their best, their outpitch. Penn State was going to see, feel, and have to deal with Marvin Harrison Jr. time after time after time.”

With that being the case, Klatt then gave Ohio State’s coaches a lot of props. Rather than play around, he appreciated the clear, unashamed effort to get the ball in Harrison Jr.’s hands as much as possible and in as many different ways as they could think of.

“This is why Ryan Day and Brian Hartline, the wide receivers coach/offensive coordinator, need to get a lot of credit. You can tell they spent all week trying to figure out ways to creatively get Marvin Harrison Jr. the ball,” said Klatt. “That’s all they did.”

“He was lined up all over. He was everywhere, he lined up everywhere. Bunch sets, tight sets. Lined up as a single wide receiver, out wide, in tight, off the ball, on the ball. They would get him the ball on easy throws, designed screens, designed slips in the flat, one on one on a slant, one on one on the in breaking route, on the wheel route, bring him across on a shallow cross,” explained Klatt. “It was just a really well-designed gameplan from the Ohio State perspective.”

Without a few weapons on offense, Ohio State could have had a much more difficult outing against the Nittany Lions. Instead, they force-fed Harrison Jr. to the tune of 11 catches for 162 yards and a touchdown.

That’s why, after watching it live in Columbus, Klatt left as impressed as he was with the Buckeyes WR1 and the effectiveness of the plan from the weekend.

“They knew they were going to be undermanned. They didn’t have TreVeyon Henderson, their best running back, available, they didn’t have Emeka Egbuka, their number two wide receiver, available. Kyle McCord wasn’t playing particularly well,” Klatt noted. “And, guess what? It didn’t matter because you were going to get Marvin Harrison Jr. – their outpitch.”

“They weren’t going down unless they were going down with their best. He was targeted 16 times in that game,” said Klatt. “He was unbelievable.