College Football

Ohio State, C.J. Stroud pass first test in season-opening win at Minnesota

Updated Sep. 3, 2021 2:48 a.m. ET

By RJ Young
FOX Sports College Football Writer

MINNEAPOLIS – Huntington Bank Stadium was rocking, fueled by the return of a raucous crowd that was sensing an upset against the No. 4 team in the country.

Making his first college start on the road in that hostile environment, Ohio State redshirt freshman quarterback C.J. Stroud shook off an uneven first half to throw four second-half touchdown passes and rally the Buckeyes against a Minnesota squad that refused to go away in the season opener for the Big Ten rivals.

C.J. Stroud's strong second half propels Ohio State's 45-31 victory over Minnesota

C.J. Stroud's strong second half propelled Ohio State to a 45-31 victory at Minnesota on Thursday. Ohio State will face a stiff test in Week 2 at home against the No. 11 Oregon Ducks.

Here are my three takeaways from the Buckeyes' 45-31 victory over the Golden Gophers on Thursday night.

1. Stroud showed the poise that earned him the nod to become The Guy to follow Justin Fields as the starting quarterback in Columbus.

When No. 4 Ohio State (1-0 Big Ten, 1-0 overall) walked into the locker room at halftime down 14-10, in part because Stroud hadn’t played well, he could have folded.

He didn't.

In the second quarter, Stroud threw a pass behind receiver Chris Olave (who finished with 117 receiving yards and two TDs) that led to the first interception of his career and shifted the early momentum.

"Things in football happen like that sometimes," Stroud said. "We persevered in this game, went through a lot of adversity in this game."

There were five lead changes before two quick TDs helped the Buckeyes finally open up a double-digit lead late in the third. And Stroud was feeling the impact of a game that was a pure battle for three quarters.

Stroud took a shot that appeared to hurt his shoulder, but only reminded him he’s actually here playing meaningful football for the first time in two years.

"I hadn't played football in like two years," he said. "I hadn't gotten tackled in like two years. I felt that one though."

At intermission, Stroud had completed just eight of 14 passes for 58 yards, along with that one he threw to Minnesota defensive back Terell Smith.

Cries from Ohio State fans on social media grew louder for coach Ryan Day to bring in true freshman QB Quinn Ewers, never mind that Ewers wasn't even on the travel roster.

Ewers reclassified from the class of 2022 to the class of 2021, in part, so he could sign a reported $1.4 million deal under the new name, image and likeness deal, which was outlawed in his native state of Texas as long as he was a high school recruit. But he joined the team just a month before kickoff.

True freshman Kyle McCord was a five-star quarterback like Ewers, though, and redshirt freshman Jack Miller was recruited ahead of Stroud by the Buckeyes in the same class.

Both were there if Day chose to go to the bullpen. The Buckeyes coach had no such move in mind.

"He and I had a conversation early on," Day said of Stroud, "that we're going to keep swinging no matter what happens. And we're not going to play close to the vest. That's not the way we do it here."

We got to see Stroud answer a fundamental and all-important question posed to every quarterback at a big-time college football program like Ohio State:

What’re you made of, C.J.?

And he might’ve known.

He might’ve known he was poised for a 294-yard debut with four TDs against a solid Gophers defense – but he didn’t have to know it alone.

"Right when I came into the locker room everybody was encouraging me," Stroud said, "telling me that I could do it. My teammates all had belief in me. That was the biggest thing."

Stroud showed what he’s made of in his first start; the first time people were actually trying to hit him while he threw passes in college; the first he was playing in front of not just a packed house, but 50,000 angry Gopher fans shouting at him in the rain.

Now he knows, for sure, he’s supposed to be here.

And his coach demonstrated he wouldn’t give him the hook because he wasn’t playing elite football at the start.

Against No. 11 Oregon next Saturday, Stroud won’t have the luxury of a slow start, and neither will the Ohio State defense.

2. There’s a hole in the Ohio State front seven, and Mo Ibrahim kept finding it.

In part, that’s due to Minnesota’s unique running game: a zone-blocking scheme that allows Ibrahim the ability to cut back into gaps — or a defender’s chest — and create angles fit for a tailback with Ibrahim’s combination of size and speed.

In this rushing attack, he’s a bowling ball covered in razor blades. Ohio State’s defense didn’t have an answer for him, and it showed. He rushed for more than 100 yards in the first half, and he looked to be going for more than 200.

At one point in the second half, the Gophers (0-1, 0-1) had run 45 total plays, and 24 of them were Ibrahim rushes.

"P.J. [Fleck] does a really good job," Day said. "And they played complementary football. There was a point there in the second quarter where we just couldn't keep seeing the ball back, couldn't get off the field on defense."

But an injury to Ibrahim's left leg forced him to leave the game in the third quarter. He finished with 30 rushes for 163 yards.

Ibrahim is the best tailback in the Big Ten, and one of the five best in the country. Oregon has a running back in CJ Verdell, who also is capable of gashing the Ohio State defense next week.

If Ducks quarterback Anthony Brown proves more capable than Gophers QB Tanner Morgan, the Buckeyes could be in for a fistfight in Week 2 against a team more talented than Minnesota.

And that’s what saved the Buckeyes in the second half Thursday. Their talent bore out.

3. Ohio State can’t be this sloppy if it expects to beat Oregon.

Had defensive end Zach Harrison not come screaming off the edge, knocked the ball free from Morgan so that defensive tackle Haskell Garrett could scoop it and score — his second defensive TD in five games dating back to last season — along with Ibrahim’s unfortunate and untimely injury, the Gophers might’ve had a shot to finish the upset.

Expect Mario Cristobal to study this tape, to see the weaknesses Minnesota exposed, and to toss the entire plate of pâté at the Bucknuts.

What I’m saying is that game in Columbus could be crunchy, and all the more delicious.

RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports and the host of the podcast "The No. 1 Ranked Show with RJ Young." Follow him on Twitter at @RJ_Young, and subscribe to "The RJ Young Show" on YouTube. He is not on a StepMill.