Beat Writer Q&A: Digging into Ohio State vs. Penn State with Audrey Snyder

Bill Landis and Audrey Snyder delve a little more into Buckeyes vs. Nittany Lions

Ohio State receiver Brandon Inniss celebrates a touchdown during last year’s win against Penn State (Photo courtesy of Ohio State athletics).

COLUMBUS — Ahead of Saturday’s game between Ohio State and Penn State, we wanted to give one final look at the story lines and matchups with fellow Substacker Audrey Snyder, who covers the Nittany Lions for Inside The Lions.

Audrey and Bill Landis had a quick Q&A this week about the game. That conversation, as well as our separate podcast with Audrey, can be found below.

Snyder: Bill, I’m not lying when I tell you that Penn State did plenty of studies this offseason on how this was the year they could finally, just maybe beat Ohio State. Franklin had the entire staff watch last year’s game together and had Jim Knowles explain to OC Andy Kotelnicki why he called what he did to stifle Kotelnicki’s offense. Knowles spent time this spring meeting with Allar and even gave him Ohio State’s scouting report on him. Well, none of that matters now as Penn State just looks to get through these next two weeks against Ohio State and No. 2 Indiana. Do you think there’s any added juice from the Ohio State side, given that it is Knowles’ first trip back to Columbus?

Landis: Yes. Ryan Day stared daggers at my guy Doug Lesmerises on Tuesday when Doug asked Day about Knowles, and Day punctuated his answer with, “We try not to take things personal, but we’re all human.” This game doesn’t have the Big Ten and postseason stakes we thought it would, but the Buckeyes still have plenty of fire because Knowles is on the other side. Or, at least, Day seems to. It makes me so curious to see how aggressive both sides will be. Knowles has nothing to lose. Will he throw the kitchen sink at Day’s offense?

Ohio State has played slowly and been content to merely control games rather than try to run teams off the field. Will that change this week? There’s certainly a version of that script where aggression could do either side in, but I feel like I know this: If Ohio State has a chance to make this a runaway and put up a big number on Penn State’s defense, it will.

Day was still very complimentary of Penn State’s overall talent level despite the coaching change and the injury to Drew Allar. What’s the chance this team gets up off the mat and gives Ohio State a real game, even as three-touchdown underdogs?

Snyder: This is the most perplexing Penn State team I’ve covered in 15 seasons. Truly, there’s still a lot of talent on this roster, and yet they haven’t won a conference game yet. Penn State could set a school record for NFL draft picks this spring, and still, we’ll wonder how it all fell apart this season.

If Allar were healthy, I’d maybe give Penn State a 10% chance of pulling the upset, and that would be because maybe he’d get hot, they’d have a takeaway or two, and Knowles’ defense would keep this team in it. But this team now has too many injuries to go along with underwhelming play. One of the biggest problems is not having linebacker Tony Rojas, who is done for the season. It’s crazy to say that a defense was held together by one player, but in the case of Rojas, it might’ve actually been true. Penn State was paper-thin at linebacker and knew it going into the season. They expected Knowles’ 4-2-5 defense to help, but losing their best linebacker has forced Dom DeLuca (number 0) into extended action, and he’s been exploited. He’s not athletic enough to hang in these matchups, and I expect it’ll again be a problem this week. Now, you add in redshirt freshman QB Ethan Grunkemeyer, an Ohio guy who grew up a fan of the Buckeyes, and this is a tall order.

I think this team will play hard for Smith, the interim head coach. They did that at Iowa when Grunkemeyer made his first career start. But, there’s just been so few signs of life for this offense that I struggle to see Penn State posing any kind of real threat. We spent part of this week talking about Penn State needing to throw the ball less horizontally and more vertically. That’s a good indicator of where things are at with an offense that’s 99th nationally (55th in rushing, 110th in passing).

In the preseason, I was excited to see how Penn State cornerbacks, notably A.J. Harris, would match up against this receiving corps. I now think PSU will struggle in that area too. How does OC/WR coach Brian Hartline keep doing it year after year with these guys?

Landis: I always have a difficult time explaining the secret sauce to Hartline’s success in making Ohio State the premier destination for receivers, but it’s happening again with Jeremiah Smith and Carnell Tate looking like, maybe, the two best receivers in the country.

Hartline took over the receiver room right as Ryan Day was revamping Ohio State’s passing attack with Dwayne Haskins at quarterback in 2018. So there’s some element of good timing. Hartline hit the ground running, recruiting some of the best players at the receiver position at the same time that OSU was putting an NFL-style passing offense on the field. Hartline was also a technician as a player, and that’s carried over to his coaching. There’s a professionalism in OSU’s receiver room that I think is attractive to the top players, and the momentum just keeps building upon itself.

The passing attack and an awesome defense will dictate whether Ohio State repeats as national champs, but the Buckeyes are also working through some issues on the offensive line. How’s Penn State’s defensive front been? Could they get after Julian Sayin some?

Snyder: Like most of this Penn State team, you don’t know what you’re going to get. The defensive front was supposed to be a strength, but the headliners like Dani Dennis-Sutton and Zane Durant haven’t hit that next level that they were expected to in Big Ten play. Penn State will sometimes stack one side of the D-line with Dennis-Sutton and Durant next to one another to try to exploit one side of the line, and I could see them trying it again.

Freshman defensive end Chaz Coleman (No. 19) has been the most pleasant surprise on this entire roster this season. Coleman, from Warren, Ohio, is surely someone Buckeye fans will keep an eye on Saturday and in the coming months, as Penn State’s roster could all be up for grabs via the transfer portal. One can argue – and I will – that Coleman is among the five most important players for Penn State to try and retain. He still needs to develop against the run, but Knowles quickly nicknamed him the Chazmanian Devil, and he sure looks like the next big-time pass rusher around here, or elsewhere. Dennis-Sutton has the chance to make a big-play play, and given all that’s at stake for his NFL future, he’s the guy OSU fans should be most worried about up front. Still, though, if Ohio State helps on him, I’m not sure Penn State has enough other guys who can win and get home.

Are there any weaknesses on this Ohio State team, or any areas where Penn State maybe could try and stay in this game?

Landis: Ohio State could have a change on the right side of its offensive line. Right guard has been a problem spot. Tegra Tshabola has been the starter for the last year and a half, but he’s struggling right now. Third-year lineman Josh Padilla has mixed in the last few games and played better. I think both will play again against Penn State, but I wonder if this could be the game where Padilla takes over for Tshabola for good.

The right side of the offensive line has generally been a bit of a problem the last couple of games. Right tackle Phillip Daniels, a transfer from Minnesota, isn’t in jeopardy of losing his job, but he needs to play better. I won’t be surprised at all if Knowles targets that side of the line early to test potential vulnerabilities.

These things go hand-in-hand, but OSU’s run game is still very much a work in progress. That’s an offensive line conversation, but also a running back conversation. The two best backs are a couple of true freshmen, Bo Jackson and Isaiah West. The fans are ready for those two to carry the load. We’ll see if the coaching staff is. I say all of that to say there’s a chance Penn State renders Ohio State one-dimensional in this game. Then again, that dimension is pretty lethal with Julian Sayin throwing to Smith and Tate.

So what’s your score pick? How do you see this playing out?

Snyder: I am not picking this one to be close. The end of Penn State, Ohio State as we know it (and for the last time until at least 2028) looks to me to be a Buckeye blowout. I’m going with Ohio State 44, Penn State 10.

With a young quarterback making his second career start, a receiving corps that’s underwhelmed, and a defense that, on paper, is very talented but struggled against inferior opponents like UCLA, Northwestern, and Iowa, it makes Penn State really difficult to even try to contend in this one. Maybe I’m wrong and Terry Smith pushes all the right buttons, Andy Kotelnicki dials up some creative trick plays, the defense scores a touchdown, or PSU blocks yet another punt this season, but it’ll take a serious Ohio State implosion for PSU to pull the upset.

Am I alone in thinking it’s a blowout?

Landis: I’m honestly a little torn because I don’t want to be dismissive of Penn State’s talent, nor do I want to ignore the history of close games between these teams.

But yeah, I think Ohio State wins pretty comfortably.

I could see Ohio State’s offense easing into things, but nobody has been able to score on the Buckeyes yet, and I’m not gonna pick a team with a backup quarterback and an offensive coordinator who really seems like he’s searching for the right stuff to be the first one to do it. The thing I’m most curious about is whether the OSU offense can hit some explosive plays. The offense has been very good, but not as explosive as Day would like.

If the big plays come, then things could really get out of hand. But I’ll be more reserved and pick OSU to win 31-7.