Marvin Harrison Jr. doesn’t mind carrying the load for Ohio State as long as it means the Buckeyes win
In Ohio State’s opening game of the season, star wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. had just two catches for 18 yards. After a breakout 2022 where Harrison never had fewer than three receptions and only held under 45 receiving yards once, this stat line was alarming.
Coming out of the Buckeyes’ 20-12 win against Penn State on Saturday, that performance against the Hoosiers felt like it was a long ago. Since then, Harrison has been held below five catches only once – against Notre Dame in a game where he suffered an ankle injury but didn’t miss a play – and has at least 105 receiving yards and a touchdown in every other contest.
In a top-10 matchup, facing a Nittany Lions’ defense that ranked No. 1 in the country, the Scarlet and Gray needed everything Harrison could give them. With fellow receiving star Emeka Egbuka sidelined with an injury, Harrison caught a career-high 11 passes on 16 targets for 162 yards and the game-winning touchdown.
“I’ve gotta give Marvin Harrison so much credit,” head coach Ryan Day said postgame. “To go for 11 catches for 162 and a touchdown when I think most teams, the first thing they look at is how do we take away Marvin Harrison. We targeted him 16 times, I think he was open on most of those plays. And so he showed up in a big spot today again.”
In a game that mostly highlighted Ohio State’s “championship-level defense,” the Buckeyes needed to make enough plays on offense to win. With the run game struggling with starting running back TreVeyon Henderson also unavailable, quarterback Kyle McCord knew where to go with the ball. He threw to Harrison on nearly 46 percent of his passes, and the receiver accounted for 44 percent of the total offense and one of two touchdowns the Scarlet and Gray scored.
In Ohio State’s opening game of the season, star wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. had just two catches for 18 yards. After a breakout 2022 where Harrison never had fewer than three receptions and only held under 45 receiving yards once, this stat line was alarming.
Coming out of the Buckeyes’ 20-12 win against Penn State on Saturday, that performance against the Hoosiers felt like it was a long ago. Since then, Harrison has been held below five catches only once – against Notre Dame in a game where he suffered an ankle injury but didn’t miss a play – and has at least 105 receiving yards and a touchdown in every other contest.
In a top-10 matchup, facing a Nittany Lions’ defense that ranked No. 1 in the country, the Scarlet and Gray needed everything Harrison could give them. With fellow receiving star Emeka Egbuka sidelined with an injury, Harrison caught a career-high 11 passes on 16 targets for 162 yards and the game-winning touchdown.
“I’ve gotta give Marvin Harrison so much credit,” head coach Ryan Day said postgame. “To go for 11 catches for 162 and a touchdown when I think most teams, the first thing they look at is how do we take away Marvin Harrison. We targeted him 16 times, I think he was open on most of those plays. And so he showed up in a big spot today again.”
In a game that mostly highlighted Ohio State’s “championship-level defense,” the Buckeyes needed to make enough plays on offense to win. With the run game struggling with starting running back TreVeyon Henderson also unavailable, quarterback Kyle McCord knew where to go with the ball. He threw to Harrison on nearly 46 percent of his passes, and the receiver accounted for 44 percent of the total offense and one of two touchdowns the Scarlet and Gray scored.
This was not out of the norm for an Ohio State offense that hasn’t been as explosive this season. Harrison’s 766 receiving yards make up nearly 40 percent of McCord’s passing yards, and he has caught half of the quarterback’s passing touchdowns in 2023. Over the last three weeks, with Egbuka missing some or all of the games, Harrison leads the country with 433 receiving yards and has a touchdown in each contest.
“I think you can say a lot’s on my shoulders, but that’s my job at the end of the day,” Harrison said. “My teammates and coaches count on me to kind of be the focal point of the offense. Each and every week, I know they’re going to lean on me, and the offense sometimes goes as I go, so I just try to do my job and help the offense go.”
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