Julian Sayin passed for 320 yards and three touchdowns, including a pair to Jeremiah Smith, as No. 1 Ohio State crushed Ball State 56-3 on Saturday afternoon in Columbus, Ohio.
Sayin completed 21 of 25 while adding a fourth touchdown on the ground. Smith caught eight passes for 151 yards while Devin McCuin added six catches for 97 yards and a score.
Ohio State (1-0) produced three scoring drives of 90-plus yards and another of 83 while limiting Ball State (0-1) to 165 total yards.
Keldric Luster hit 18 of 33 for 89 yards and one interception for the Cardinals while Brody Boehm booted a 54-yard field goal with 1:17 left in the first half to account for the visitors’ points.
In preparation for their showdown on Sept. 12 at No. 5 Texas, the Buckeyes displayed a potent passing game as expected. The running game took longer to show progress as Bo Jackson’s 65-yard touchdown run on the Buckeyes’ first drive of the third quarter, which made it 35-3, nearly doubled their first-half total of 35 rushing yards.
On the next series, Ja’Kobi Jackson (no relation) ran 49 yards for a 42-3 lead. Each Jackson contributed 83 yards on the ground.
The Buckeyes went three-and-out on their first possession of the season when Sayin, who completed 77.0% of his passes last season, misfired on his first two throws. After that, Sayin and Smith took over to build a 28-3 halftime lead.
Smith opened the scoring with a 48-yard catch at the goal line. McCuin followed with a 17-yard TD catch before Sayin tucked the ball under pressure and ran 3 yards to make it 21-0 with 12:08 left in the half.
Following the Ball State field goal, Sayin spotted Smith at the back of the end zone and he tapped both feet inbounds with 10 seconds left for the 28-3 lead at the half.
Five-star freshman receiver Chris Henry Jr. capped the scoring with a 15-yard catch from Tavien St. Clair with 1:55 left in the game.
