Ohio State’s wide receivers vs. Kent State’s defensive backs decided the game

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Kent State simply had no answer for the depth and explosiveness of Ohio State’s wide receiver room today.

After last week’s loss to Texas exposed how dependent the Buckeyes were on Jeremiah Smith, Ohio State made a point of getting more receivers involved Saturday. The result was a 59-3 demolition of Kent State and one of the clearest examples yet of just how many weapons Julian Sayin has at his disposal.

Ohio State finished with 382 passing yards on 22-of-28 passing, averaging 17.4 yards per reception.

Four different Buckeyes receivers topped 60 yards. Jeremiah Smith had five catches for 85 yards, Brandon Inniss caught four passes for 78 yards and a touchdown, freshman Chris Henry Jr. turned one catch into a 75-yard touchdown, and freshman Brock Boyd added four catches for 66 yards.

That is the matchup that decided this game. Kent State’s defensive backs were routinely forced into impossible situations.

When they tried to account for Smith, Inniss, McCuin, Henry and Boyd. When the Golden Flashes rotated to Jeremiah and tried to double team or bracket him, Ohio State could attack with Innis, Henry and Boyd. And when Kent State failed to get enough depth over the top, the Buckeyes had the speed and the YAC abiliity to turn a routine completion into a touchdown.

Smith, of course, remains the centerpiece. The junior entered the season already having produced two 1,000-yard seasons and 27 touchdown catches in his first two years, and Saturday he broke Ohio State’s career receiving-yardage record previously held by Michael Jenkins.

Smith now has 3,045 career receiving yards through just 32 games, but the more important development for Ohio State may have been everything happening around him.

Inniss has spent much of his Ohio State career waiting for a consistent offensive role despite being a former five-star recruit. He had 35 catches for 271 yards and three touchdowns in 2025 while also becoming one of the Big Ten’s better returners.

Saturday, he looked like the player Ohio State envisioned when they recruited him, including a 49-yard hail mary touchdown on the final play of the first half.

Then came the freshmen. Henry was the No. 1 wide receiver and No. 10 overall player in the 2026 recruiting class according to the 247Sports Composite. The 6-foot-5 former Mater Dei standout arrived with enormous expectations, but only had one catch for 15 yards through his first two games.

Against Kent State, one opportunity was all he needed. Luke Fahey found him, and Henry turned it into a 75-yard touchdown.

Boyd’s emergence may be just as interesting. Unlike Henry, he arrived without the five-star hype, but the former Southlake Carroll standout quickly earned the trust of Ohio State’s coaches during the spring.

Boyd lost his black stripe after only six practices and was praised for his route running and football IQ. His four catches for 66 yards Saturday showed why he has continued to earn opportunities.

Those two plays also make the decision to get the younger receivers involved even more important moving forward.

I wrote earlier this week that Ohio State needs to let its young talent play more, particularly Henry and Boyd. Kent State provided the perfect environment to do exactly that, and both freshmen rewarded the opportunity.

Ohio State finally showed what this receiver room can be

The obvious caveat is that this was Kent State. The Golden Flashes entered the afternoon coming off a 57-0 loss to South Carolina, but that does not make the receiving performance meaningless.

Ohio State needed to see what happens when Sayin can distribute the ball instead of forcing everything through Smith. Against Texas, Sayin completed only two passes to wide receivers not named Jeremiah Smith. Against Kent State, four receivers alone surpassed 60 yards.

That is the difference between having one elite receiver and having a truly difficult offense to defend. Julian Sayin deserves credit, too. He completed 18 of 22 passes for 241 yards and two touchdowns before giving way to Luke Fahey, who added 141 yards and a touchdown on 4-of-5 passing.

More importantly, Sayin consistently found favorable matchups and allowed Ohio State’s receivers to do what they do best, create separation and turn space into explosive plays.

The challenge now is carrying that depth into Big Ten play. Nobody expects Ohio State to throw for 382 yards every week or have four receivers clear 60 yards.

However, if Inniss can continue producing, Henry can become a legitimate rotational threat and Boyd continues earning snaps, defenses will have a much harder time simply building their game plan around stopping Jeremiah Smith.

That is what made the receiver versus secondary matchup so decisive Saturday. Kent State could not cover everyone. Ohio State finally made them pay for it.

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