Andy & Ari On3 - Ohio State SMUSHES Penn State | Buckeyes vs Nittany Lions Instant Reaction

Episode Date: November 1, 2025

Ohio State let Penn State get close just before halftime, but then the Buckeyes tapped into their superior talent early in the second half and rolled to an easy win. Andy and Ari break down exactly how good Ohio State is and what happens to Penn State the rest of the season. Our show is presented by BetMGM! If you haven’t signed up for BetMGM yet, use bonus code CFB and you will get up to a $1500 First Bet Offer on your first wager with BetMGM! Here’s how it works: 1. Download the BetMGM app and sign-up using bonus code CFB.2. Deposit at least $10 and place your first wager on any game.3. You will receive up to $1500 in bonus bets if your bet loses! Just make sureyou use bonus code CFB when you sign up! Make this college football season one for the history books. Make it legendary. See BetMGM.com for Terms. 21+ only. US promotional offers not available in New York, Nevada, Ontario, or Puerto Rico. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER (Available in the US). Call 877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY). Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP (AZ), 1-800-327-5050 (MA), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA), 1-800-981-0023 (PR). First Bet Offer for new customers only. Subject to eligibility requirements. Rewards are non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire in 7 days. In partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel.  This show is also sponsored by Modelo! Some things in life are just made for each other. Peanut Butter and jelly. Macaroni andcheese. Modelo and college football. If you’re watching this, it means you live and breathe football. All season long. You know what that makes you? A Full-Time Fan. Which means you deserve a Modelo. Because football wouldn’t be the same without you. Modelo is the official beer sponsor of The College Football Playoff. Join On3 today and get one full year of access to The Athletic included! https://www.on3.com/subscribe/C Watch our show on YouTube! https://youtube.com/live/VHLwyDG3DssLike/Follow us on Facebook   / on3sports   Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey Interested in partnering with the show? Email [e-mail] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to an instant reaction, Andy Nari on three, presented by BetMGM. We are here at Ohio Stadium. Ohio State. Ah, you got a let's go bucks right there because they just won 38 to 14. This was a mushing. This game was 17, 14 at halftime. And then Ohio State just showed every bit of its superiority in the second half. In every way.

I wish I could tell you how many times I've been walking off this field on November. November days like this, and it's just, I got to say, man, I, there are times where I really miss being here and I miss, you know, covering the team and living in Columbus. And there are other times, they're like, man, this is boring. Like, you know, it's just like there was no point in that game. I don't know, it was not boring to me because I have not seen these guys in person yet, seeing Julian saying in person. Because I've already seen, I mean, I've seen Jeremiah Smith play. I've seen Cornell Tate play. I haven't really gotten to see the full Arbel Reese, but I got to see that today. but seeing Julian say in in person, that dude is awesome.

Yeah, we can spend this next 10, 15 minutes rattling off quarterbacks. You would for sure take over him. Do you want to do that? Or is it only going to take a second? I don't even know. It's either Ty Simpson or no one, and I don't know if it's Ty Simpson. So this morning when we were out at the Modelo tailgate, I asked you if they have the four best players in college football. Are you starting to be getting maybe it's five?

I don't know. I'm sorry. I'm not trying to be homerish. Let me just read off his stats. today. 20 of 23 for 316 yards and four touchdowns. There is a sequence where it was in the third quarter, right? So he is a third down. Two guys have him sacked. He slips him. He then runs for the first down. He then uncorks a beautiful throw on a double move by Colonel Tate for a touchdown. Then later on another drive throws the most perfect ball you've ever seen

your life to Jeremiah Smith. It's a laser show. Yeah. Unreal. Andy, he's even throwing touchdown passes where balls are getting tipped at the line of scrimmage. And part of that is because Jeremiah Smith is an alien. Yeah.

But like, listen, I don't like, you know, overreaction is my specialty and not yours, but hearing you talk about it. Like, are you fully on board now? He looked great. And look, this is a defense that has really good players. Is it a good defense? I don't know. I don't know if I'm ready to go that far.

But it has the type of athletes that he's going to. in the college football playoff and he handled it with no issues whatsoever yeah so i mean i'm at the point now where you know i wrote all these declarative columns last year about you know last year's ohio state team is the last team that we were going to see that had that much of a talent advantage the nil era has created a situation where you can't retain talent at the way that you used to or even amass it and here we are again in ohio stadium less than a year later a year later since that Tennessee game. And you're looking at these five best players or these five players. And the entire game, all of them were, their performance was a problem. There was a moment where it felt like

Penn State had a chance to be in the game. And there was a key third down. And Arvel Reese just closed like a cheetah on ground. At the end of the game had a pick. Jeremiah Smith had more than 100 yards receiving. Carnell Tate had more than 100 yards receiving. And Julian State played the best game as an Ohio State corner. All of their stars came out. And that's the thing. If all All of your stars are going to play the best against your best competition. That's all you can ask for. Now, here's the thing that's interesting. I want to back this up.

I'm sure most people watching this video saw that Nick Sabin referred to himself as a dumbass thing. Right, right, right. But he was actually, like, misremembering it because he got there after signing Sayan out of high school. Sayan was practicing before the Rose Bowl. He was not eligible to play yet. He wasn't a freshman yet. And then Saban retired very shortly after that. So there was never a point in time in which Sayan could have played in the game for Bama during

Sabin's leadership. Yeah. But the thing that I think is interesting, more than anything. Maybe he said, maybe he believes he was a dumb ass for not staying to make Julian say, maybe that's what he ends. But the, uh, but the, but if you like look at the tea leaves of this Ohio state season, right? Yep.

They beat Texas by seven. Now, Texas obviously hasn't been playing the way that we thought they would, but they did beat Vanderbilt. Seems like they might be coming around. Yeah. Um, you look up at the, the, uh, mass of talent that Ohio State possesses. Like, there are reasons to doubt. this team. They haven't played a really tough schedule. They won't play a ranked opponent until they

play Michigan in Ann Arbor at the end of the year. You know, although Texas will maybe jump back in after that win. Andy, to borrow Sabin's verbiage, if you're betting against this Ohio State team from making a run in the playoff, maybe winning the national title, you're a dumbass. You're a dumbass. Yes, I agree with that. Now look, what we saw near the end of the first half, I think if you're playing a really good team that's well coach that hasn't fired its coach, in the playoff, you're You're playing kind of the best of the best. It's not that this team is invincible. There are ways to play and be in games.

But you have to play almost perfect because, like what you saw, they get close at the end of the half. And it was a three-point game, but it felt like a three-touchdown game. And then Ohio stays out at the start of the second half and just smushes them. It was immediate. Yes.

It was, oh, my, the talent differential is so vast here. Because it did feel like at halftime. It's like, oh, here we go again. Ohio State is much better than Penn State. They're controlling the game, and they're only up by three. Like, that's how these games have gone over the years, traditionally. And then, you know, and maybe that's something that James Franklin did that they were unable to do without him, which is mock up the second half of this game to make it a 10 or a 14 point difference.

Ohio State just rolled them the entire second half. Never was a sweat. Blowout win, you name it. Like, that's just kind of the way it is. So, you know, I don't know when they play Alabama or Georgia or inevitably Indiana. Indiana and the Big Ten, yeah. I don't know. Indiana is an interesting team because I do think Indiana is going to give them a better game than Penn State did. But the question is, does Indiana have the talent to hang with them for four quarters? And I'm not sure the answer is yes.

Yeah. And I don't know, I don't know the answer. And I'm excited to see it in Indianapolis as we assume that that's what's going to happen. And every time we assume something, it ends up not being true. Because we're dumb asses. Yeah, because we're dumb asses. But I don't know how much expert analysis the people watching the show need. Did you watch the game? Like, what do you want from me? Like, what do you want from Andy? like you saw it you saw what's going on here so it was pretty spectacular though because i think with saying you know we started watching him in the texas game and you thought okay how much are they protecting the young guy how much are they limiting what what he has to do i think now they realize he is in full control of this offense there's so much they can do with him

and i think you've seen that of all over the course of the season so i now i think by the time you get to the end of the season by the time you're assuming indiana game in the big 10 championship he's going to be fully formed at that point we have to start having a conversation and maybe we can talk about it on today's show of like whether ohio state is turning into the the new dynasty program because they seem to be the one that's most unaffected by the climate changes in the sport they can recruit really well out of high school they can compete at the highest level in nil and they can retain their players a way that most other programs can't and i wonder if we're starting to see that this is going to be the next three to five year run where a team

owns the sport listen if they can have this level of talent for the next three to five years they will. I didn't think they won't have this year. Because everybody else is not doing this. You know, at least before, because Ohio State had this kind of talent during the Urban Meyer era, early in the Ryan Day era, but there were other teams like Alabama, like Georgia, there were teams that had more. Nobody has more anymore.

No. In fact, I think those teams that had more are no longer nearly as good. So, you know, I don't know. It's so stupid to say, well, a team's going to go win a national title in November. Remember, winning a national title is very hard. The Big Ten championship game, you've got four potential games after it. It's not an easy thing to do, and teams get beaten all the time when you don't think they're going to. So I'm not going to sit here and say they will win the national title.

They're not invincible, but they are the prohibitive favorite. Like, they're better than everybody from a talent standpoint. For player, they're better than everybody else, and you're going to have to play almost perfectly to beat them. Yeah. It's simple enough. And Ryan Day is coming to his own as a coach. Brian Hartland, I thought, called a really good game today. I don't know.

I don't know what the critique is of how they would be better. Maybe, you know, you want to play sharp. You want your team to win every quarter by two touchdowns. That's not a realistic goal. I don't lose the ball right in front of your own end zone, I guess. That's pretty much it. That's all you can really quibble with. But there's no such thing as a team that doesn't make mistakes.

Right. You know, I feel pretty good about this team. I think this team is, I mean, it's basically a board. It's a lock 100% will be in the play off no matter what happened. There's no question. It's a shame that you can still say that in today's era, but that is true. I'm very excited to see if they get tested in Ann Arbor. This team is very good.

But as we know, we've been really excited about Ohio State in the past. They've lost that game. Maybe that thing creeps up and you start to feel like they're mortal. I don't know. We're excited. We're going to the Detroit. We'll see. But I feel really good about Ohio State as everybody else who watched the game probably knows.

I think I'm not saying anything. Julian's saying we'll be shooting up the Heisman boards tomorrow. I think this was his, definitely his coming out party. He was already on them. Yeah. But, you know, people were putting him. on their highsman boards, their top 10. He'll be in the top three tomorrow.

Maybe the secret to retaining your talent is just to get players that are all-American-level players before they're even able to leave for the NFL. It's like, well, Jeremiah Smith was a true freshman doing that. Caleb Downs had one more year of eligibility left, like, before he could go. So wait, recruit better than everybody else? Just like, but not just recruit better than everybody else. Emphasize high school at a way that you always have, but only go for superstar freshmen or players that will start as freshman.

So what you're saying is stars matter? Stars matter a lot here because if you get the guy early enough, you can get, if you get three years of Jeremiah Smith, no shame in that. It worked out pretty well for them, I think. He's coming back next year, by the way. I know. It's not even fair. But that's the way it is Ohio State has built a monster here.

And it's fun to see that. It's going to be fun if we see somebody challenge them too. I can't wait for that first time because these guys are such super premium good players. like when they are challenged, I'm excited to see how they overcome those challenges. They haven't had to, but I bet they can. And if they have the edge to do it, if they are challenged in that way,

because a lot of times when teams win a national title, they don't have that same edge. Just think about how great, like that Jeremiah Smith play on the deflection was. Now imagine if that's in a one-possession game. Yeah, well, I mean, it's going to be fun. Yeah, it'll be great. I can't wait to watch it, and it was really fun being back.

Yep, let's go talk to some buck guys. We'll see you. See you guys later tonight. Later night. Thank you. Hey Hey Hey

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