Ryan Day talks CJ Stroud’s struggles, second half success

Ohio State quarterback C.J. Stroud probably would’ve scripted a better first half of college football for himself had it been up to him.

Thursday night’s game between the Buckeyes and Minnesota pit two high-powered offenses against each other, but the talent advantage Ohio State has made it likely they would pull away late. On the whole, the game did not look that much different than expected. 

However, in the first half, the Buckeye offense looked unlike itself. The pressure seemed to be getting to Stroud. He was overthrowing his receivers (to be fair, they also dropped a couple of balls), and he threw an interception on Ohio State’s third drive. Ohio State could not score when they had the ball, and it seemed rare that they had it at all. Minnesota won the time of possession battle 38:41 to 21:19. 

During the broadcast, other recent Buckeye quarterbacks came up. Braxton Miller. J.T. Barrett. Cardale Jones. Dawyne Haskins. Justin Fields. Certainly the idea was not to write Stroud off, but commentary showed just how high pressure a top quarterbacking job is in college football. 

Stroud is the quarterback at Ohio State. He has to be good, right?

At the end of the day, Stroud pulled it together to lead the Buckeyes to a 45-31 win over the Gophers. It was their 12th straight victory against Minnesota, and they now lead the series 46-7. 

Head coach Ryan Day was proud of his quarterback, and complimentary of his opponent, following the game. 

“You don’t just walk out at Ohio State at quarterback and expect to throw 3-4 touchdown passes and call it a day in this conference,” Day said. “Minnesota is a very good team and PJ does an excellent job. That’s a very well coached, hard-playing team. Going on the road is not easy in this conference to get wins. It doesn’t just happen.”

Stroud finished 13-for-22 with 294 yards, four touchdowns and an interception.

Big plays seal Minnesota’s fate

To their credit, Minnesota stuck around. When Stroud opened the second half with a 38-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Chris Olave to take the lead, the momentum change was palpable. Tanner Morgan, Minnesota’s veteran quarterback, never panicked, and he had a lot of help from his star running back Mohamed Ibrahim who rushed for 163 yards on 30 carries before leaving the game with an injury. 

But midway through the third quarter, Ohio State’s talent advantage began to shine through.

“When you look at the defensive score that we got, that was huge,” Day said. “The guys up front and Chris [Olave] and Garrett [Wilson] made some big plays. Obviously the play with TreVeyon [Henderson] on third down was big.”

The defensive score to which Day is referring is a strip sack by defensive end Zach Harrison which his fellow lineman Haskell Garret scooped up for the score. Stroud threw touchdown passes of 38, 56, 70 and 61 yards in the second half. Ohio State finished with 495 total yards.