A 59-3 win over Kent State tells you almost nothing. Ohio State was favored by more than 50 points against a MAC team that had to roll out four different quarterbacks just to survive the afternoon. Mission accomplished, on to Illinois.
But set the scoreline aside, because Jeremiah Smith gave this game the one thing a 56-point blowout never provides on its own: a reason to care. On Ohio State's second drive, Smith caught a ball over the middle for 23 yards and became the program's all-time leader in career receiving yardage, passing Michael Jenkins' mark that had stood since the early 2000s. He finished with five catches for 85 yards, modest by his own standards, and none of that mattered. The record is the story. Everything else Saturday was noise.
This game will get filed under "get-right win," and it is one. Ohio State came in still stinging from blowing a fourth-quarter lead at then-No. 1 Texas the week before, a loss that knocked the Buckeyes out of the AP top five for the first time in a couple seasons. Ryan Day talked afterward about wanting a response, about clean execution and violence on defense, and by the letter of it, his team delivered: touchdowns on each of the first four drives, a Hail Mary before half, and a 349-pound freshman defensive tackle scooping up a fumble and running it in.
But don't mistake beating up a 1-2 Kent State team, one that couldn't keep a quarterback healthy or a snap off the ground, for evidence that Ohio State fixed what went wrong in Austin. It didn't need to be tested to win this one. Kent State never threatened. The Golden Flashes' only points came on a field goal with less than two minutes left, set up by a backup-quarterback interception that had nothing to do with the starters. That's a formality, not a measuring stick.
Julian Sayin's day is the closest thing to a real data point here, and it's a good one for Ohio State fans: 18-of-22 passing for 241 yards and two touchdowns, no turnovers, pulled early because there was no reason to keep him in. Efficient and clean, unspectacular because the opponent never demanded more. That's what you want against a team like this. It's also exactly what you'd expect regardless of what happened against Texas.
So enjoy the Jeremiah Smith moment. It's real, and it'll still be true no matter how the rest of this season shakes out. Everything else about this result is Ohio State doing arithmetic against a team it was never going to lose to. The actual test comes next week, at home, when Illinois opens Big Ten play and shows whether last week's collapse was a blip or a preview.
