Who we watched, college football edition: Ohio State’s secondary, South Carolina stars lead Week 10 standouts

Week 10 of the college football season provided a bit of a “Separation Saturday” feel in a lot of ways. We entered the weekend with eight undefeated teams in the AP Top 25, and finished the weekend with only five unbeatens.

Additionally, three playoff-contending one-loss teams — Texas A&M, Clemson, and Kansas State — added second losses. Those teams likely remain alive in the race for the 12-team playoff field, but obviously, adding a second loss to open November hurts their chances.

Today the 247Sports national scouting team takes a closer look at the difference-making players and position units from this past weekend’s six influential winners: Ohio State, Texas Tech, SMU, South Carolina, Louisville and Houston.

OHIO STATE’S PASS DEFENSE

Caleb Downs (Photo: Brandon Sloter/Image Of Sport, Getty)

Ohio State limited Penn State’s passing game to fewer than 150 yards and a startling -0.579 expected points added per passing play, according to Pro Football Focus. Penn State completed 13 of 21 pass attempts, and only three of those completions went to receivers. A team, especially toward the top of the rankings, simply cannot afford to get so little production from the receiver position in today’s game.

Former Top247 four-star Harrison Wallace III — the only Nittany Lion wideout with multiple receptions — represented the only Penn State receiver with a PFF single-game receiving grade (64.7) higher than below average. Next was the squarely below average 56.2 grade from former Top247 five-star and ex-Ohio State Buckeye Julian Fleming.

On the other hand, Ohio State’s defense featured eight players who graded average (65.0) or better in coverage, including several who graded higher than 70.0. Cornerback Davison Igbinosun, a former Top247 four-star himself, led that contingent, following by former Top247 five-star safety Caleb Downs, who both graded strongly above average at 76.5 and 75.3, respectively.

Those coverage grades stand out even more considering none of Ohio State’s five defenders with at least 10 pass rush reps in Saturday’s game graded better than average.

Ohio State’s game-sealing, all-on-the-ground drive deserves mention, of course. After the all-important goal line stand the Buckeye defense assembled to hold its 20-13 lead, Ohio State’s ground game went to work backed up against its own end zone, running for 58 yards in 11 snaps to milk the final 4:40 from the game clock.

To be clear, neither team graded well at all in the run-blocking category; Ohio State got a bad 48.8 team-wide grade, while Penn State got an even worse 45.9. But Ohio State center Carson Hinzman logged the game’s highest individual run-blocking grade (65.8), in concert with the highest pass-blocking grade (86.4) for either team.

Hinzman made a couple of critical blocks on that game-closing possession, sealing off talented Penn State D-lineman Zane Durant on a first down-earning gain before recovering from initial heavy-handed pop from Alonzo Ford to keep lanes available for runners.

Hinzman, a former Top247 four-star IOL, gained valuable snapping experience at the 2022 All-American Bowl. He’s experienced his share of struggles earlier this season, but Saturday’s game marked his second-highest single-game overall offensive grade and perhaps his best overall performance via eyeball test so far this season.

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