Harrison too many targets?
COVER PHOTO: OSU wide receiver Marvin Harrison, Jr. shrugs off a Rutgers defender in last year's matchup versus the Scarlet Knights in Ohio Stadium. Harrison finished with three catches for 18 yards and one touchdown in the team's 49-10 win. Picture by Sam Fahmi/Columbus Wired.
Is quarterback Kyle McCord targeting wide receiver Marvin Harrison, Jr. too much?
It sounds like a preposterous question but one that’s been floated around Buckeye Nation recently, including to McCord and Harrison themselves.
Some feel maybe Ohio State’s starting QB has been attempting to get the ball to his former high school teammate a little too often. After all, opposing defensive coordinators are generally pretty smart cookies at this level and are surely going to catch on and implement a scheme that’s going to curtail the amount of damage that one of, if not THE, best wide receivers in the country can and, most assuredly, will do.
Although others feel McCord throwing the pigskin to “Marvelous” Marvin as often as possible is the best option when it comes to the passing game. The two started alongside each other for three straight years at St. Joseph’s Prep (Philadelphia) High School and built a great rapport with each other so it just seems natural they would fall back into their old ways.
Besides, Harrison is so freaking good this year that his name is being included in the Heisman race and many NFL draft pundits have him not only being the first receiver taken in the draft but potentially the No. 1 overall pick. So why not challenge opposing defenses to prove they can stop the overcharged Maserati the Money Man has become?
“I don’t think it matters what the defense tries to do him (or) what route we give him,” McCord said this week. “He’s going to find a way to get open and make plays.”
Harrison said he’d like to get the ball as much as humanly possible.
“Yeah, there’s definitely no limit,” he said this week, with a smile. “I think any receiver wants the ball every play, a running back wants the ball every play. It’s just human nature being a competitor. You work very hard and want to be a showcase on Saturday, so I think depending on the position, there’s never a limit to how many touches you want in a game.”
His head coach agreed.
“I would think if you would ask a receiver, they would never say that there’s too many. I think they always want the ball,” Ryan Day said this week.
Through eight games this season, Harrison leads the team with 48 catches for 889 yards and eight touchdowns on 89 targets with a team-high average of 11 per game. So far, he has five games with double digit targets including the last four with a game-high 16 coming against Penn State.
The next closest targeted guys are fellow receiver Julian Fleming and tight end Cade Stover with 33 each while Emeka Egbuka is fourth with 32. True freshman Carnell Tate is fifth with 18. Egbuka and Stover are the only other receivers to have a double-digit targeted game, each with 11 against Notre Dame. Harrison had seven targets against the Fighting Irish.
McCord said they had a good all-around receiving corps in high school but he pretty much looked for Marv most of the time.
“Obviously given the type of player he is, there are a lot of times it’s not a bad answer trying to find him regardless of the route and the coverage,” he said. “He’s going to do a good job of finding a way to get open and I think you guys can see that day in a day out from him.”
Day said he and his staff don’t come up with a specific number of targets per game for Harrison.
“You always want to make sure they’re featured in the offense. What is that number? I think it’s different based on what you’re seeing defensively, what the opponent is doing but that’s why we spend so much time game planning and trying to figure out how that all shakes out.”
At this point last season, Harrison still led the team in targets but by a slimmer margin than currently with 71 targets while Egbuka was second with 65. However, those numbers are somewhat skewed considering Egbuka has been out the last two games and hasn’t caught a pass since reeling in four against Maryland on Oct. 7.
The most single-game targets Harrison had last year were 12, which came against both Penn State and Indiana.
Day said there have been times they’ve tried to get other guys the ball but it’s worked out to where Harrison was open while other guys were covered.
“Last week, we had several plays to go to the tight end and it didn’t quite turn out that way.”
That notwithstanding, Day basically admitted without directly saying so that their passing offense has been primarily designed to go around Harrison.
“We keep personnel in mind.”
Harrison led the Buckeyes in last weekend’s road game against Wisconsin with six catches for 123 yards and two touchdowns on 10 targets. Tight end Gee Scott, Jr. led the tight ends with two catches on two targets for 18 yards. Cade Stover was not thrown to all night.
Ohio State takes on Rutgers in Piscataway on Saturday, Nov. 4 at noon airing on CBS.