One of the things I thought was interesting from Ohio this past game for them was their senior QB making his first start this past weekend and throwing for over 390 yards in this first start. While it was a triple OT game, he was still in the mid 300 range during regulation, so it was a very impressive performance where he also threw for 4 TDs and 0 INTs. So my immediate questions were if this was something common with the Ohio offense and something that will be easily repeatable for them this season...thus did a little bit of investigating...
Who is Greg Windham?
In addition to throwing the ball for all of those yards, he also ran the ball 8 times averaging 4.6 ypc, so he looks like a guy capable of running. Given his past spot duty performances, that does seem about right for him. But passing the ball in relief duty last year, he wasn't as good. For all of last season he completed less than 50% of his passes (19 of 40) for 298 yards, but only 1 TD to 4 INTs. QBs can definitely improve from year to year, but those numbers suggest he has a tendency to throw some INTs, which we didn't see this past week from him.
Do QBs throw for a lot for Ohio?
Just looking at this past season, they typically don't. Now Ohio does throw the ball and has been pretty decent doing it, ranking in the top 50 of passing yards per game last year. But last year, they only had two throwing performances yardage wise like this one against Texas State last year - one was an easy win against Southeastern Louisiana and one was a fairly big loss against Buffalo. So you really didn't see these type of passing numbers in competitive games for them.
Who was catching the ball for Ohio against Texas State?
One of the more interesting things to me when looking over their numbers last week - two of their top three receivers are RBs. The guy with the most catches and third most catches typically lineup in the backfield - LBs and DBs have to be aware of these guys...
Who was Windham passing against Texas State?
This provides quite a bit of insight, IMO. Texas State returned a solid CB that start all of last season and was preseason all conference 2nd team. But after him, here are the LBs and DBs (they run a 3 man front D) that started against Ohio:
Gabe Loyd (JR, LB): JUCO transfer
Easy Anyama (JR, LB): well he did transfer from Texas...but transferred from their track team...first year starting and only played 5 games at LB last year
Gavin Graham (FR, LB): true freshman
Bryan London (FR, LB): redshirted last year
Stephan Johnson (S, LB): started one game last year
Javante O'Roy (S, SR): started four games last year
Clarence Guidry (JR, CB): made his first start this past weekend
and note their backups included a couple of true freshman - that's a lot of new faces, again remembering this is a new coaching staff for Texas State - I'm not surprised at all that group got passed on a lot...
Could running hurry up offense against Ohio somehow hurt their passing offense?
I think you could maybe argue this, but this could also be just a coincidence. Again TSU, Ohio ran in the mid 90s in terms of number of plays. Remembering again this was a Triple OT game, so that number is a little skewed, But did notice something interesting from their schedule last year...
For the most part, Ohio was a middle of the pack team in college football in terms of number of offensive plays per game, being in the mid to low 70s. Only twice last year did they run quite a few plays in a game - against Buffalo and Bowling Green...two of their biggest losses on the season. They passed for an OK number of yards against Bowling Green and one of their highest totals against Buffalo. But more importantly - combined in those games they threw for 0 TDs and 6 INTs...it could be a situation where if they are forced to hurry up, they tend to make mistakes...
Who is Greg Windham?
In addition to throwing the ball for all of those yards, he also ran the ball 8 times averaging 4.6 ypc, so he looks like a guy capable of running. Given his past spot duty performances, that does seem about right for him. But passing the ball in relief duty last year, he wasn't as good. For all of last season he completed less than 50% of his passes (19 of 40) for 298 yards, but only 1 TD to 4 INTs. QBs can definitely improve from year to year, but those numbers suggest he has a tendency to throw some INTs, which we didn't see this past week from him.
Do QBs throw for a lot for Ohio?
Just looking at this past season, they typically don't. Now Ohio does throw the ball and has been pretty decent doing it, ranking in the top 50 of passing yards per game last year. But last year, they only had two throwing performances yardage wise like this one against Texas State last year - one was an easy win against Southeastern Louisiana and one was a fairly big loss against Buffalo. So you really didn't see these type of passing numbers in competitive games for them.
Who was catching the ball for Ohio against Texas State?
One of the more interesting things to me when looking over their numbers last week - two of their top three receivers are RBs. The guy with the most catches and third most catches typically lineup in the backfield - LBs and DBs have to be aware of these guys...
Who was Windham passing against Texas State?
This provides quite a bit of insight, IMO. Texas State returned a solid CB that start all of last season and was preseason all conference 2nd team. But after him, here are the LBs and DBs (they run a 3 man front D) that started against Ohio:
Gabe Loyd (JR, LB): JUCO transfer
Easy Anyama (JR, LB): well he did transfer from Texas...but transferred from their track team...first year starting and only played 5 games at LB last year
Gavin Graham (FR, LB): true freshman
Bryan London (FR, LB): redshirted last year
Stephan Johnson (S, LB): started one game last year
Javante O'Roy (S, SR): started four games last year
Clarence Guidry (JR, CB): made his first start this past weekend
and note their backups included a couple of true freshman - that's a lot of new faces, again remembering this is a new coaching staff for Texas State - I'm not surprised at all that group got passed on a lot...
Could running hurry up offense against Ohio somehow hurt their passing offense?
I think you could maybe argue this, but this could also be just a coincidence. Again TSU, Ohio ran in the mid 90s in terms of number of plays. Remembering again this was a Triple OT game, so that number is a little skewed, But did notice something interesting from their schedule last year...
For the most part, Ohio was a middle of the pack team in college football in terms of number of offensive plays per game, being in the mid to low 70s. Only twice last year did they run quite a few plays in a game - against Buffalo and Bowling Green...two of their biggest losses on the season. They passed for an OK number of yards against Bowling Green and one of their highest totals against Buffalo. But more importantly - combined in those games they threw for 0 TDs and 6 INTs...it could be a situation where if they are forced to hurry up, they tend to make mistakes...
