Ryan Day: Ohio State quarterback CJ Stroud was 'on his game' this week

While Ohio State played nearly perfect in a 59-31 thumping of Purdue on Saturday in Columbus, a big reason for the Buckeyes’ success – especially on the offensive side of the ball – was because of the way quarterback CJ Stroud performed.

Stroud, a redshirt freshman out of Inland Empire, California, put together a sensational outing for Ohio State – completing 31-of-38 passes for 361 yards and five touchdowns with no interceptions. His passing led to two different receivers – Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Garrett Wilson – finishing with 100-plus yards, while Chris Olave tallied 85 yards.

As an offensive group, the Buckeyes’ unit racked up 624 total yards and averaged 9.0 yards per play against Purdue. Ohio State punted just one time in the game.

“First off, I think CJ had the best preparation of the season this week,” Ohio State head coach Ryan Day said during his postgame press conference. “He was on his game. They brought some different things that made it challenging, but he really put a lot of work in – and I was glad to see him get paid off like that. But two, we also talked about that it may have been a higher completion percentage game with maybe not as many yards based on how we were putting the gameplan together.

“It just depends on the style of defense that you’re playing, they ended up playing a little bit more zero than we expected, so the numbers got a little higher.”

Now 9-1 on the season with a perfect 7-0 mark in Big Ten play, No. 4 ranked Ohio State faces a big test Saturday as it hosts No. 7 Michigan State.

Ryan Day: Powerful, versatile Garrett Wilson continues to impress

After missing last week’s game against Nebraska because he was experiencing concussion-like symptoms, Ohio State junior wide receiver Garrett Wilson returned to the field Saturday against Purdue and put together an outstanding performance in the Buckeyes’ dominating 59-31 win over the Boilermakers.

Reeling in 10 receptions for 126 yards and three touchdowns while rushing for another 51-yard score, Wilson was all over the field for Ohio State – and he’s a big reason why the Buckeyes were able to put up 59 points.

It’s safe to say that Ohio State head coach Ryan Day was happy to have his wideout back.

“I think he did it a couple of different ways tonight,” Day said of Wilson’s scoring against Purdue. “The first [touchdown], he took a short route and went the distance. He caught the ball in the red zone there – he jumped over the defender, which is an amazing catch. And then he took a handoff. He’s versatile. He can do a lot of different things. He’s very powerful and strong, he’s got tremendous ball skills and he played really well tonight.”

After his best performance of the season on Saturday, Wilson has now tallied 53 receptions for 813 yards and nine touchdowns on the year.