Buckeye Leaves: Moving chains and taking names, Marvin Harrison Jr. carries Ohio State offense against Penn State
Win or lose, every week there are a handful of Ohio State players who stood out above the rest. Following the tradition of the helmet stickers that dates back to the days of Woody Hayes, Lettermen Row shares out our version of the award every Sunday morning for the best performers on offense, defense and special teams for the Buckeyes.
COLUMBUS — Ohio State cornerback Jordan Hancock had to repeat the question he was asked postgame after a 20-12 win over No. 7 Penn State Saturday.
“How hard is he to stop?” Hancock said.
“I don’t think you can stop him. You can slow him down, but you can’t stop him.”
Hancock was speaking, of course, about his classmate and superstar teammate Marvin Harrison Jr.: a generational NFL prospect whose impact is so much bigger than his 6-foot-4, 205-pound frame.
“We went into this knowing that we need to have an awareness and limit the impact of 18 in the game,” Penn State head coach James Franklin said.
“We had a hard time doing that. Guy’s a heck of a player, you’ve got to give him a lot of credit.”
Harrison eviscerated the Nittany Lions’ defense for the second year in a row, once again setting a single-game career high in receptions. He followed up last season’s 10-catch, 185-yard performance in Happy Valley with an 11-catch, 162-yard outing in the Horseshoe, a career day that featured an 18-yard, catch-and-run touchdown for the No. 3 Buckeyes, which effectively put Penn State away in the fourth quarter.
As was often the case Saturday, Harrison found himself facing man coverage, this time in the red zone with less than four and a half minutes remaining in the top-10, Big Ten East showdown. Harrison made a move on cornerback Kalen King, who passed off Harrison on the Ohio State mesh concept.
Penn State’s linebackers collided, thanks to a simultaneous drag route on the other side of the field from the Buckeyes’ second-leading receiver, tight end Cade Stover, who created a pick of sorts for Harrison.
Quarterback Kyle McCord delivered the pass to Harrison in stride. Harrison gobbled up yards after the catch before following a block from true freshman wideout Carnell Tate, ultimately bending around toward the pylon for the score.
That touchdown was the icing on the cake for Harrison, who often had a safety hovering around his side of the field yet still managed 11 receptions on 16 targets while amassing 44.4% of Ohio State’s total yardage on offense. A year after moving the chains 10 times on first down against Penn State, he did so nine more times this season versus the Nittany Lions.
One of those first downs came on a red zone 3rd-and-10 in the second quarter, in which Harrison was being bear hugged by an interfering King — who ended up being flagged — yet made the reception anyway. That was one of two contested catches Harrison made Saturday, doubling his total in that category for the season, according to Pro Football Focus.
“It’s hard for me to find somebody who’s better in the country,” Ohio State head coach Ryan Day said. “So I don’t know how he gets on these lists or doesn’t get on these lists. But, to me, he’s one of the most special players in the country.”
Harrison was notably snubbed from the ESPN midseason All-American Team earlier in the week. He was a second teamer on other midseason All-American lists. He also doesn’t get talked about in the same breath as the Heisman Trophy nearly as much as he should.
“Yeah, I mean, if it’s truly the award that goes to the best player in college football, I don’t see how he’s not in the mix,” McCord said. “What he’s done, especially these last few games, I don’t know if we’ve seen kind of a stretch like that, just how consistent he is and how reliable he is.”
Although Harrison recognizes that winning the Heisman is a tremendous honor for any player — and especially a wide receiver — he said he’s not worried about that trophy right now.
There are other accolades on his mind, namely the Big Ten Championship trophy. Beating Michigan, likely a requisite to reach Indianapolis for the league title game, is up there, too, among his biggest goals for the season.
Ohio State might need a game like he had versus Penn State to thwart the Wolverines in Ann Arbor. That’s not too much to ask from Harrison. His fashion-forward outfits are louder than his words, but, when he speaks, his words flow with confidence — and deservedly so.
“I think you can say a lot’s on my shoulders,” he said. “But that’s my job at the end of the day.
“My teammates and coaches count on me to be the focal point of the offense. Each and every week, I know they’re going to lean on me. And the offense, sometimes, goes as I go.”
That was the case Saturday against Penn State.
Harrison’s highlight-reel afternoon will earn him some Buckeye Leaves in the Woody Hayes Athletic Center this week. It certainly warranted one from Lettermen Row.
So let’s go ahead and hand out leaves from the Ohio State win against Penn State, starting with Harrison’s.
Offense
WR Marvin Harrison Jr.
FOX play-by-play announcer Gus Johnson, a legend in the industry, has a rolodex of nicknames he uses in his broadcasts. He debuted another Saturday, “Maserati Marv.”
“I feel like I get new nicknames like every week now,” Harrison said postgame. “But it’s great.”
Another he’s had for a while is “Super Marv.”
What’s funny, however, is that the soft-spoken Harrison adopts a “villain” mindset more than a “super hero” persona on the field.
Starting at Michigan State last October, Harrison began coming out of the tunnel pregame with his dreadlocks covering his face, kind of like a mask.
“Me and Coach [Brian] Hartline kind of joke about it — when you put the mask on and then kind of enter that villain mode and get into a different mind space for the game.
“That’s really all it is for me.”
It’s a “mind space” that makes everyone forget Harrison is playing through an ankle injury. It’s a “mind space” that makes everyone forget that the Buckeyes’ other potential first-round NFL wideout, Emeka Egbuka, is out right now.
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Harrison is always intentional about the work he puts in every week. Day explained postgame that a common question he gets at the Woody Hayes Athletic Center is, “Who’s going to leave first, you or Marvin?”
“I say, ‘I don’t know,'” Day noted while chuckling.
Harrison tweaked his routine and was more focused than ever after a disappointing, three-drop day at Purdue last week. His response against Penn State was seismic.
He got man-to-man coverage most of the day against the Nittany Lions, and he made them pay.
“I’ve said this, and I’ll say it again,” McCord said. “There’s not a matchup in the country, if Marvin’s 1-on-1, that I don’t like.”
Harrison dominates the Buckeyes’ receiving target share. He did so again versus Penn State. Don’t expect that to change.
Defense
DE J.T. Tuimoloau
While Ohio State’s biggest name was delivering on offense Saturday, its biggest name on defense had himself an encore performance against Penn State, too.
A year removed from causing four turnovers in State College, and helping the Buckeyes escape the Nittany Lions with a comeback victory on the road, defensive end J.T. Tuimoloau turned heads once more. From start to finish.
Whether it was snuffing out a screen pass in the first quarter, teaming up with safety Josh Proctor behind the line of scrimmage for a 3rd-and-2 stop in the third frame or his fourth quarter heroics, you had your pick of Tuimoloau’s game-changing plays.
The final two stuck out, naturally. First he sacked Penn State quarterback Drew Allar for a loss of eight yards, helping the Buckeyes get out of a pickle caused by a muffed punt. Then, on the next defensive series, he pressured Allar and deflected his 4th-and-4 pass from behind, turning the Nittany Lions over on downs. Six plays later, Harrison scored, and the Buckeyes increased their lead to 20-6.
Tuimoloau finished with a team-high six pressures, per PFF, his sack and that all-important pass breakup.
Special Teams
K Jayden Fielding, P Jesse Mirco
Special teams have been a thorn in Ohio State’s side this season. There’s no way to sugar coat it.
Place kicker Jayden Fielding and punter Jesse Mirco weren’t perfect Saturday, but they also came through when the Buckeyes needed them most. Fielding converted his first two field goals, at the time extending his perfect streak to 9-of-9. The first was from 33 yards and the next was from 37. Fielding did miss a 45-yarder in the waning stages of the final frame, except the game was all but decided by then.
On one hand, Mirco had a 34-yard punt that reached only the Penn State 24-yard line in the first quarter and a 43-yard punt that reached only the Penn State 31-yard line in the third quarter. But he rounded out the day with two punts that landed inside the Nittany Lions’ 20 and three total 50-plus-yard punts, including a 72-yarder in the third quarter that flipped the field, traveling from the Ohio State 4-yard line to the Penn State 24. From that point forward, the Nittany Lions didn’t make it past the Buckeyes’ 49-yard line until the final four minutes of the game.
X-Factor
CB Jordan Hancock
There’s no doubt true freshman Jermaine Mathews Jr. stepped up with top Ohio State cornerback Denzel Burke sidelined.
But Mathews — despite the most defensive snaps of his young Buckeyes career — didn’t start on the outside against Penn State. Jordan Hancock did, opposite of Davison Igbinosun.
Defensive coordinator Jim Knowles and cornerbacks/secondary coach Tim Walton moved Hancock everywhere Saturday: Hancock, traditionally Ohio State’s “nickel” corner this season, played 29 snaps in the slot. He was lined up outside for 22 snaps, at free safety for 14 snaps and in the box for four snaps, according to PFF.
Hancock allowed just three receptions for a mere 18 yards on seven targets, per PFF. Plus, he registered four solo tackles, including one on a 3rd-and-5 in the second quarter when he bottled up Penn State running back Nicholas Singleton around the line of scrimmage. That stop held the Nittany Lions to a field goal, preserving Ohio State’s lead before halftime.
“We missed Denzel a lot. He’s a great cover corner, lock down corner on his whole side of the field,” Hancock said. “But we showed up today.”
