For better and worse, I am old enough to remember when Ohio State wide receivers were but a wrinkle in the offense. Wrinkles being inevitable, the Buckeyes had to throw to their wideouts, but Woody Hayes, Earle Bruce and even Jim Tressel preferred the smooth look of a ball-control run game. Paul Warfield is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a wide receiver whose average yards per reception (20.1) remains the highest in NFL history among players with at least 300 catches. Woody instead used Warfield as a halfback who caught 39 passes in three seasons. Ohio State’s Jaxon Smith-Njigba nearly caught that many (36) in his last three games last year. Over the entire 1973 season, the Buckeyes attempted 87 passes, the same number C.J. Stroud has attempted the past three weeks, even with the Northwestern game played in a wind tunnel. It says something about Bruce’s…
Continue Reading: Can Ohio State beat Michigan, win natty with A+ passing game alone? | Rob Oller
