Ohio traveled to State College over the weekend to take on Penn State in front of more than 107,000 fans at Beaver Stadium, and it went about as one would expect.
Ohio was blown out 46-10 by Penn State. It only had three drives that crossed midfield, which is the same number of drives that No. 6 ranked Texas A&M had against Appalachian State Saturday, but that is neither here nor there.
Both Ohio and Penn State played three or more quarterbacks Saturday, and by the fourth quarter, they were simply going through the motions.
Kurtis Rourke followed up his career night against Florida Atlantic by completing just over 46% of his passes for 119 yards. In addition, Ohio ran for under 100 yards as a team. Its defense allowed a score on more than half of Penn State’s drives and was consistently gashed for big plays.
It is clear that Ohio was out-classed by a far more talented team. There was much optimism surrounding Ohio after its week one win over Florida Atlantic, and it would be easy to fall back into the state of disappointment that surrounded the team for the majority of the 2021 season.
But here’s the thing, this game didn’t matter, at all.
This is exactly what was supposed to happen. Teams in the Mid-American Conference, and the Group of 5 in general, schedule one or two of these games every year, and this is how it almost always goes.
They are often referred to as ‘buy games,’ and the MAC has a host of them this season. Just in week one, for example, Ball State was paid $1.5 million to play Tennessee in Knoxville, Kent State made $1.8 million to take on Washington in Seattle and Bowling Green made $1.15 million to play UCLA at the Rose Bowl, according to Forbes.
Given these figures, it is safe to assume that Ohio made similar amounts for its two nonconference road games against Penn State and Iowa State. Ohio’s fate in the first of these two games was the same as the other MAC teams mentioned above. Ball State lost to Tennessee 59-10, Kent State lost to Washington 45-20 and Bowling Green lost to UCLA 45-17.
The goal for Ohio when it played Penn State was to get a nice payday, play in a stadium with a great atmosphere and provide cannon fodder for Penn State on its quest for a Big Ten title, which is exactly what it did.
Now this is not to say that this game did not matter for the players and coaches, who will certainly use this opportunity to improve and will likely be better in MAC play because of it. It is also not to say that these games cannot provide great moments for teams and their fans, like Ohio’s upset of Penn State did back in 2012.
But this game does not matter for the immediate direction of the program. Ohio head coach Tim Albin should not be fired for losing to Penn State on the road by 36 points. Barring significant injuries, Ohio’s ‘buy games' require no sweeping conclusions about what is to come.
Ohio may end up competing for a MAC title this year, or it might not. However, its games against Penn State and Iowa State will play no part in how many games Ohio is playing in December.
