Ohio State Has Another PROBLEM... for College Football

0:00This is Belie, one network, every topic, everywhere. Now, how does state already has the most terrifying receiver and college football? Nobody should dispute that. I guess I'm in Miami fans because, you know, well, it's a whole different video. The problem for everybody else is that the buck guys may have just found the guy who makes covering Jeremiah Smith even harder. And yes, it happened against Ball State. I understand the opponent. But in this episode of the Big Ten Huddle presented by Fandool, I want to focus on one Devon McEwan because what he did on Saturday might be much more important than simply just having a nice game against an overmatched defense. The question is not whether McEwan can become Jeremiah Smith. He doesn't need to do that, right? The question is whether Ohio State or finally become Carl Tate. Sorry, that's what I meant to say. Does he need to be Carl Tate? No, he doesn't need to do that. The question is whether Ohio State finally has a second receiver that defenses cannot afford to ignore, because if the answer is yes, Ryan Day and Julian St. St. Settling have a much easier answer for everything that defenses were planning to throw in Smith this season.

1:10Because that's one of the biggest things, right? Ohio State had Carl Tate last season. That was huge for them, but a lot of questions going into this season was, well, yeah, Brandon, in this, do you have, who do you have to go next to him? And that was a huge need for Ohio State was to find that consistent wide receiver to some people thought it could be Chris Henry Jr. Some people thought it would have been Brandon in this, but it looks like it'll be one Devon McEwan. The Ohio State beat ball state 56 to three rolled up 200 and 671 yards of offense and averaged more than nine yards per play. Julian St. was extremely efficient. He completed 21 of 25 passes for 320 yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions and a rushing touchdown. You'd love to see it. Jeremiah Smith did dare Jeremiah Smith things. Eight catches, 151 yards, two touchdowns, but the St. Settling, I keep coming back to is the guy next to him. That is one, like I said, Devon McEwan, six catches, 97 yards and a touchdown.

2:11That is better than 16 yards every time he touched the football, right? 16 and more yards every time on average that he touched football and that, or I'm sorry, and this was not just one like 60 yard busted coverage or anything like that creating an inflated. Statline, his long reception was only 19 yards in this one. He was consistently catching the ball down the field. That means he consistently moved the football. He consistently got open and say consistently trusted him. How many times can I say consistently? Because one of the biggest questions surrounding this Ohio State offense was never Jeremiah Smith. We all knew that and when we talked about the White receivers rotating, we all knew Jeremiah Smith would stay in. The question was what happened when a defensive coordinator says, fine, somebody else beat us. Saturday gave us the first idea of who that somebody might be and actually ball state did try to do that. They tried to bracket Jeremiah Smith. They tried to, you know, cloud cover him a little bit and they also tried to go one on one with him. It didn't work. And before we get deeper into Devon McEwan, this is where Jeremiah Smith's Heisman odds really actually do matter.

3:18Smith is currently third in the Heisman on Fandall plus 1100 to win the Heisman trophy, the third best odds in the country right now. And you think about it, Ohio State obviously wants Jeremiah Smith to get recognition for that. They want Julian to stay in too, but Jeremiah Smith. We're talking about a wider seabed being priced among the absolute top Heisman contenders in the sport. We're quarterbacks dominate the award. In fact, he's even above Julian saying who just had a great game in himself, right? Every defensive coordinator knows where number four is. Every secondary Ohio State place is going to spend the week trying to figure out how to keep number four from wrecking the game. They're going to do entire segments in the training room on how to cover Jeremiah Smith. And that's exactly why Devon McEwan matters so much. Because Ohio State does not need another receiver to become a Heisman candidate. They need another receiver who makes double teaming the Heisman candidate hurt you really bad. So, Carl Tate was able to do for them quite a bit last season, but they need to continue to have that. That's not a completely different standard. And it's much more attainable than one might think.

4:20If a safety shades towards Smith, somebody gains space or somebody gains space. If a defense bracket Smith, like they tried to do, like Ball State tried to do, somebody gets a favorable matchup. If the corner opposite of Smith is consistently isolated, that receiver needs to win. Last year, Ohio State could attack that with weapons all over the field. Like I mentioned already before, Carl Tate. The question entering this season was whether the next version of that supporting cast was ready. McEwan just gave us a pretty encouraging answer to that. But there is something deeper here than his 97 yards. I think there are three pieces of McEwan's performance that make this more interesting than just a week one box score that everybody's going to go and read and try to figure out. First, Julian saying absolutely trust him. Absolutely trust him. That might be the biggest one in this. You can have all the talent in the world at receiver, but it does not mean the quarterback never gets to you. Julian saying try to go to him early was kind of a misread on where McEwan was going, but McEwan still caught six passes. Smith caught eight passes. Smith and McEwan together combined for 14 catches on 16 targets.

5:32Two nearly 250 yards receiving three touchdowns and because saying through for 320 yards and three touchdowns, those two accounted for over 75% of sayings passing yards and all three of sayings passing touchdowns. That means McEwan was not some just occasional fourth option who happened to hit one explosive play. He was part of the offense and the connection between McEwan and saying did not suddenly just appear on Saturday. McEwan had already been building momentum. Ryan Day said in a press conference that he's as good as we've had here. Well that was something we wanted to see if it was true and it does look true. It does look like McEwan is one of the better wide receivers in college football and belongs amongst the greats that have been at Ohio State really in history and the past few years. Now we saw that translate when the game started and that's important because quarterback receiver chemistry is not just about throwing the football to somebody when he's wide open. It's about timing. It's about trust. Understanding where that receiver is going to be when the coverage changes knowing which matchup you like before the snap. Say and look comfortable going to McEwan.

6:41And so for a second year, sorry not first year, for a second year starting quarterback having that second dependable target is huge, especially when one of Julian sayings best assets is how decisive he is and how quickly he gets the ball out. The second thing with McEwan is that he does not need Smith's role. Right. This is where I think people can evaluate the receiver room incorrectly. If the conversation because there is definitely McEwan as good as Jeremiah Smith. No stop. Right. Absolutely nobody is that's not the job. The job is to make the defense regret how much attention they provide to Smith because there's somebody else that will also destroy you if you don't cover him. Imagine trying to defend Ohio State. Imagine being a defensive coordinator. You have Jeremiah Smith on one side. You know you know if you leave him one on one enough times eventually he's going to ruin your afternoon. So you rotate a safety over now McEwan gets the corner without the safety help. If he consistently wins that matchup, what you do or what what do you do? Right. You try to bring the safety over. Well congratulations Jeremiah Smith just got what he wanted and that's the entire point.

7:49We saw that on on Saturday we saw that when they tried to go single coverage over Jeremiah Smith. It didn't work a single time and that's not just because it's ball state because he's Jeremiah Smith. A great secondary can sometimes erase one player by dedicating enough resources to him. It becomes much harder when the offense has a second player who keeps changing you a price for doing it who keeps charging you a price for doing it. But when does not have dominate every Saturday six catches for 75 yards can completely change how somebody defends Ohio State if those catches are happening because Smith is pulling coverage away. Third, this offense may have more answers than we thought. That is part that is the part that keeps that that should really concern Ohio State opponents going forward. McEwan is not the only encouraging development here. Bo Jackson ripped off a 65 yard touchdown run. Jacobi Jackson had a 49 yard touchdown run. These kind of explosive plays are what you want. Legend Bay contributes as both a runner and a receiver Ohio State had explosive play and explosive play with him too. They've had explosive plays everywhere.

8:58Now imagine being the defensive coordinator. You want two defenders involved against Jeremiah Smith. Okay, good luck. You still have to account for McEwan. You still have to account for the running backs. You still have to account for say and distributing the football and say and running for the touchdown show that you still have to account for say and sneaking off and getting a first down or getting the touchdown on the goal on the goal line. However, it might be and if legend Bay is in the game, you got to account for him too because he just joked out the entire ball state team on one catch. If Ohio State keeps getting explosive runs, you cannot just live and light boxes and devote everybody to stopping the passing game. That's when an offense starts putting the defense in a bind. You are not really choosing the correct answer anymore. You're choosing which problem you would rather have to deal with. That's why I think McEwan's performance could become much more important than his final stat line even though it's a softer one game. Am I declaring that Devin McEwan is the next Ohio State superstar receiver or anything like that? No.

9:58Do I think that he belongs with other wider receivers who have come to Ohio State? Yes. Do I think he's going to be a first round pick lock? I don't know. We'll see what happens, but I do think he's going to be somebody that goes the NFL and contributes a good amount. Ball State does matter here. The next test is much different. I'm absolutely buying him as a legitimate answer opposite of Jeremiah Smith. I was buying him before the season. And honestly, that is all Ohio State needs right now. If McEwan becomes consistent 70 to 100 yards threat per game, this receiving core becomes extremely difficult to defend. Even more difficult to defend than they were before. I think that Smith already demands unusual defensive attention. The Heisman odds prove how highly people think of him. Defenses are not going to suddenly forget that because Devin McEwan had 97 yards against Ball State, but when McEwan can do is make that attention expensive. The biggest positive is not that Ohio State apparently found another guy capable of filling up a stat sheet or anything like that. It's that McEwan looks capable of filling a very specific role the offense desperately needs. The punish them for single coverage, move the chains, create explosive plays, give Julian Sain another player he trusts up there so he can continue to do what he does best, which is have his quick release and be decisive on the field.

11:26And when everybody in the stadium knows the defense is tilted towards Jeremiah Smith, you win the matchup, up sitting on the other side with Devin McEwan. If McEwan consistently do those things, Ohio State does not have a wide receiver to problem and has a wide receiver to advantage. And now we get to the perfect test, right? Because it's great you did against Ball State, but now you've got the test. Texas, I really do not care if McEwan has 97 yards against them or not, like or more. Like that is not what I'm watching for in this game. I want to see how Texas chooses to defend Jeremiah Smith. Then I want to see what happens opposite of him does McEwan continue to get targets early does say and look his direction on third down can McEwan win when the corner across from him is much better than what we saw against Ball State. And most importantly, does Texas eventually have to adjust because McEwan is hurting them? That's the test. If Texas spends the afternoon tilting coverage towards Smith and McEwan catches another six or seven balls or anything like that. Now the story becomes very real because the question stops being whether Ohio State has enough weapons. The question becomes how anybody is supposed to dispute enough or distribute distribute enough defenders to stop all these weapons Ohio State has.

12:52And that's what Saturday may have revealed the most about this team Jeremiah Smith is still the superstar. He's still the guy defenses are going to build around and game playing for but sometimes the most important offensive player is the one who created the defensive attention. And it's a player who takes who takes advantage right and David McEwan might be that guy for Ohio State. If he is the buckeyes did not simply just find another receiver in the portal. They found another problem for defenses. To have to try and solve and when Jeremiah Smith is already one of those problems that is about the last thing the rest of the country wants to see. So what do you think about Devon McEwan? What do you think about what you saw against them? And how do you think you'll do against Texas? Let me know down in the comments below and like the video subscribe here to the big tin hotel for more big tin football basketball analysis. We really appreciate you being here. Join us at 9 p.m. Eastern time on YouTube for Sunday night recaps of the entire week Tuesday night previews of the entire week.

13:56Podcasts are posted the next day as well. Thanks so much for joining us. Have a good one. We'll see you next time.