Ryan Day lauds breakout performance from Marvin Harrison Jr

With star wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba out for Saturday’s contest against Arkansas State, the Ohio State Buckeyes needed someone in the receiver room to step up and take his place. And sophomore receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. was up for the challenge. With Smith-Njigba absent, Harrison became the top target for quarterback CJ Stroud. After his monster game, head coach Ryan Day lauded his breakout performance.

“He’s very mature for his age. But Marvin’s route running is very mature for his age,” said Day. “To see somebody that’s played as much as he has with that high level of route running is pretty remarkable.

Harrison Jr had arguably his best game as a Buckeye against Arkansas State. He ended the game with seven catches for 184 yards with three touchdowns. And he almost had a plus-200 yard performance with four touchdowns had it not been for one of his touchdowns grabs being called back.

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“He had a chance at four touchdowns today. He had the one that they called an incompletion; he could have finished that one off. So, the potential’s there. You can see it in the couple of plays he made; he did it a bunch of different ways. He caught a couple of slants that got us going. And I think that’s important. Marvin was a big part of getting us going and certainly had the big play capability. And when you’re playing against a team that wants to really load the box and pressure the line of scrimmage, you gotta win in the outside; he did that for us today.”

Ohio State makes final decisions on Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Julian Fleming vs Arkansas State

Ohio State receivers Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Julian Fleming have been officially ruled out for Saturday’s game against Arkansas State, ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported on College GameDay. The announcement came after Thamel reported earlier in the day that both were unlikely to play.

“Jaxon Smith-Njigba, I was told by sources at Ohio State yesterday, is unlikely to play against Arkansas State,” stated Thamel. “He may warm up and try to give it a go, but there’s a lot of skepticism on whether we’ll see him and wide receiver Julian Fleming, who’s Ohio State’s fourth receiver and one of the more talented wide receivers in the country.

“I would classify both as unlikely to play, both of them potentially coming back for Toledo, ahead of their Big Ten opener against Wisconsin in Week 4.”

Fleming was also held out of the season opener against Notre Dame with an unknown injury. Smith-Njigba left the game against the Fighting Irish in the first half after being on the receiving end of a hard hit. Although he would return briefly, he sat out the entire second half of that contest.