Brendan Gulick and Anthony Moeglin give their reactions to another big performance from TreVeyon Henderson.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:03 What a win for the Ohio State Buckeyes on the road, 35-16.
00:12 And there is no way they win this game over the Rutgers
00:16 Scarlet Knights without Travion Henderson,
00:19 who for the second week in a row had a monster
00:21 individual performance.
00:23 Again today, over 200 yards of total offense
00:26 between what he did on the ground
00:28 and on a really long catch.
00:31 Anthony, I thought Rutgers defensively
00:35 did a pretty good job of not letting Ohio State beat them
00:37 over the top.
00:38 They regularly were giving up things underneath.
00:42 But they gave Travion way too much space
00:44 on a couple of occasions, and he really burned them.
00:46 Yeah, he's been very fun to watch these past couple of
00:49 weeks, because you can see almost in his eyes
00:51 this incredible uptick and sense of urgency.
00:54 And just his ability above the rest of the running backs
00:58 in the room, and honestly, compared to everyone else
01:01 on the field, he's become one of the better guys
01:04 that Ohio State has from a production standpoint
01:06 and from just the total.
01:07 Just watching him play, his athletic ability
01:09 is off the charts.
01:11 Finishing the game 22 carries for 128 and a score
01:14 on the ground, and then five catches for 80
01:17 through the air.
01:18 But the biggest one of the day was the 65-yarder
01:21 that came on just to check down.
01:22 That I absolutely loved.
01:24 We've talked about it a little bit,
01:25 but Kyle McCord spent the day--
01:28 Rutgers was trying to take everything away deep
01:30 down the field.
01:31 He did a really nice job of checking it down and not
01:33 trying to force things.
01:34 And when you check it down to some of your elite guys,
01:36 things like that play can happen,
01:38 where he just caught a little hitch route over the ball.
01:40 Maybe the ball went 10 yards in the air.
01:43 He turned up the field, turned on the burners, man.
01:45 It was fun to watch it and just totally dusted the Rutgers
01:48 defense for a 65-yard gain.
01:50 And it's little things like that, that on third--
01:52 it was a third down--
01:53 that just break the will of the opposing defense.
01:57 And you could see it a number of different times
01:59 throughout the game today.
02:00 He's a special, special bat.
02:02 Yeah, and I think more than anything else,
02:04 what Trey told us a couple of weeks ago about making
02:08 a better decision this year in not trying to rush back,
02:13 where last year he was just trying to show the toughness
02:17 to play through an injury.
02:20 And ultimately, it hurt him more in the long run
02:24 because he was never himself.
02:26 And then people started questioning his toughness
02:29 and wondering if he was good enough to play at this level.
02:32 And I'm not talking about Division I,
02:34 but to play at a place like Ohio State,
02:36 because he didn't look like the Trevion Henderson
02:39 that we knew he could be what we saw from him freshman year.
02:42 So he takes a little bit of a cheap shot against Notre Dame,
02:46 and it knocked him out for a couple of weeks
02:48 because he wasn't ready.
02:49 And when he made the decision, OK, I'm finally ready.
02:52 I'm back and healthy, you saw what
02:54 that looked like last week against Wisconsin,
02:56 and man, did you see it again today.
02:59 So I hope he can continue to stay healthy,
03:02 but there's no doubt that this offense looks so much
03:06 different when he's out there.
03:07 And that's not a knock on Chip Trenum or on Mayan Williams
03:11 when Mayan was still able to play before he got hurt.
03:13 I like what we've seen from Dallin Hayden for sure.
03:16 Haven't really gotten a chance to see anything from Evan Prior
03:19 because he's sort of fallen on the depth chart
03:22 after dealing with injuries during his career.
03:24 But there is a really, really high level running back
03:30 on this Ohio State offense.
03:32 And when he's at full go, man, he changes things big time.
03:34 He's really amazing because oftentimes,
03:37 when you think of the great running backs,
03:39 they're good at a couple of things, right?
03:41 Where either they can get between the tackles
03:43 and really finish with a punch and deliver
03:46 tough, hard-nosed runs.
03:47 Or they're the speed guys where they get on the edge
03:50 and they burn you down the sidelines.
03:52 Well, Travion's got that unique and rare mix of both,
03:56 where, hey, if you need a monster play,
03:58 you can get him on the edge and he'll beat you to the edge
04:00 and get down the field for a long game.
04:02 Or we saw it at the end, if you're
04:04 trying to milk the clock out and run down the clock
04:07 or get hard, tough yards, you hand it to him,
04:10 and he's going to just run through someone's face
04:12 and punish them for being in his way.
04:16 So he's got that.
04:17 It's super rare and it's super unique.
04:18 And his ability to have both of those skill sets
04:21 is pretty special.
04:22 And the way that he--
04:23 and I love what you had just said about his approach
04:28 to coming back.
04:29 And he just saved a couple of weeks on his legs, too.
04:31 These are long football seasons.
04:32 And you can do that.
04:34 You come back, he looks fresh.
04:35 He looks really, really fresh.
04:37 And he's running like it.
04:39 Well, it's good to have him back for sure.
04:41 And Kyle McCord can lean on him.
04:43 That's for sure.
04:44 And frankly, Ryan Day can lean on him
04:46 because Ryan has made it extremely clear.
04:51 He wants to have balance in his play calling.
04:54 And he felt like that even when Justin Fields and when
04:58 CJ Stroud were out there offensively.
05:00 It's not because there was a lack of ability
05:02 to throw the ball.
05:03 He just wants to run and show that we can do both.
05:06 And this year, I think it's even more out of necessity
05:10 than desire to have that balance.
05:13 And so Travion is really showcasing
05:16 that he's a pretty special guy.
05:17 And today, look at the stats today.
05:19 26 attempts passing the ball and 29 rushes,
05:22 two of those being Kyle McCord.
05:24 And those were both facts, I believe.
05:26 So there you go, 26 passes and 27 runs.
05:30 So exactly where he wants to be, 189 yards through the air,
05:34 139 on the ground.
05:35 I mean, that's--
05:36 Ohio State football, you maybe want those yards
05:38 to be a little bit better.
05:39 But the play calling is perfectly balanced right
05:43 where Ryan Day wants it and makes this team really,
05:46 really tough to stop, even on a day
05:48 where they don't have their best game.
05:50 Well, guys, 35, Rutgers Scarlet Knights, 16,
05:53 as Ohio State improves to 9-0.
05:55 And they've got a big one coming up next weekend
05:57 at home with Michigan State.
05:59 Then the Gophers will come into town.
06:01 The Gophers, their J-Fleck from Minnesota.
06:04 They'll be on their way to Columbus in two weeks.
06:06 Then there's a game up in Ann Arbor we're looking forward
06:09 to in three weeks time.
06:11 For Anthony Meglin, I'm Brendan Gulick.
06:13 Thanks for hanging out with us for a little bit.
06:15 Buckeyes Now on FAN Nation, part of the SI Media Group.
06:17 We would certainly appreciate it if you'd subscribe
06:19 to our YouTube channel.
06:20 And for all the latest news and information on the team,
06:23 head over to buckeyesnow.com.
06:25 [BLANK_AUDIO]