COLUMBUS – A lot changes in 100 years.
A century ago, the Ohio State football team won the Western Conference championship at the end of an undefeated season, generating enough enthusiasm among fans to go ahead and build 66,210-seat Ohio Stadium. Thanks to the popularity of the star of that 1916 team, Chic Harley, the new horseshoe-shaped Stadium was nicknamed “The House that Harley Built.”
Saturday night, 108,750 people sat in the much-expanded stadium beneath the lighted placard bearing Harley’s retired No. 47 and watched the 2016 Buckeyes, wearing throwback-style jerseys in honor of their predecessors of a century ago, dismantle what was expected to be a tough opponent.
Sixth-ranked Ohio State (8-1, 5-1 Big Ten) beat 10th-ranked Nebraska (7-2, 4-2), 62-3, slightly less than half the 128 points the 1916 team hung on Oberlin.
“Wow,” said head coach Urban Meyer afterward. “I didn’t see that one coming.’
The offense racked up 590 yards behind quarterback J.T. Barrett, who threw for 290 and four touchdowns, two of them on back-to-back plays.
He fired a 1-yard jump pass to Curtis Samuel on the final play of the first half and hit a streaking Samuel on a post route for a 75-yard touchdown on the first play of the third quarter.
It was the kind of home run ball the Buckeyes had failed to hit for eight previous games and it buried the Huskers under a 38-3 deficit.
Samuel, who may have played the breakout game many have anticipated, amassed 178 all-purpose yards.
“It is a little relief to know that right now I saw some explosiveness that we kind of have been lacking in some positions,” Meyer said. “No better time than November to get that thing going.”
With the Buckeyes leading 24-3 in the second quarter, Cornhusker fans watched their best chance of closing the gap roll out of Ohio Stadium on a stretcher when quarterback Tommy Armstrong, Jr., slammed his head hard against the turf on a tackle by Malik Hooker after an 11-yard run. He lost consciousness but gave a thumbs-up sign as he was wheeled to the ambulance and returned to the sideline after being treated at a hospital.
Demario McCall, who entered in relief of starter Mike Weber, led the Buckeyes with 73 yards rushing while Weber finished with 72 and a touchdown, as did backup quarterback Joe Burrow, who took over for Barrett with 12:40 left in the game.
Noah Brown and Terry McLaurin caught Barrett’s other two scoring passes.
The defense added two of their own, starting with the game’s first points, when Damon Webb returned an interception of an Armstrong pass 36 yards for a touchdown on the opening drive. It was Ohio State’s fifth pick-six of the season, new school record.
Hooker added one of his own, a 48-yarder off Tyler Fyfe at the end of the third quarter. It was the sophomore safety’s team-leading fourth pick of the season, and his second score.
The win keeps Ohio State on a collision course with Michigan at The House That Harley Built on Nov. 26 in a game that will probably determine the Big Ten East Division representative to the conference championship game.
Probably.
But a lot can change in three weeks.