Buckeye Leaves: Arvell Reese, Julian Sayin, Carnell Tate Star In Ohio State’s 38-14 Win Over Penn State

Ohio State remained undefeated this season with a 38-14 win over Penn State at Ohio Stadium. The Buckeyes scored five touchdowns on former defensive coordinator Jim Knowles’ Nittany Lions unit.

Here are three players who the BSB staff believes deserves Buckeye Leaves in the win:

Sam Cipriani: For leading the Buckeye defense with a career-high 12 total tackles in Ohio State’s victory over Penn State Saturday, I’m giving my Buckeye Leaf to linebacker Arvell Reese.

The junior backer played a crucial role in thwarting the Nittany Lions offense — which accrued just 200 yards of total offense. Reese finished his outing with five solo tackles, one sack and tied for the team lead of 2.5 tackles for loss.

Reese’s most impactful play came late into the third quarter with the Penn State offense set up for a third-and-10 on its own 20-yard line. The Cleveland native flew off the edge, catching Nittany Lions quarterback Ethan Grunkemeyer off guard for an 11-yard sack.

Bobby Gorbett: My Buckeye Leaf is going to junior receiver Carnell Tate, who continued his stellar season in Ohio State’s win.

Tate finished the game with five catches for a team-high 124 receiving yards and a touchdown. As he’s done all season, Tate scorched opposing defenses with his explosive catches. The Chicago native had a season-long catch of 57 yards, but made arguably his biggest play on a 45-yard touchdown catch.

Tate’s touchdown catch came in the second quarter when Ohio State’s lead was only 10-7. On the first-and-10 play, Tate cut past Penn State cornerback Zion Tracy, before adjusting to a slightly underthrown pass by redshirt freshman quarterback Julian Sayin, making the catch and reaching the ball into the end zone.

It was Tate’s third time going for at least 100 receiving yards this season.

Greg Wilson: My Buckeye Leaf is going to Julian Sayin, who I expect to see at the top of every list of Heisman odds for at least the next week after this contest.

Even though Sayin was already playing as one of the best quarterbacks in the country, it seems like he is still improving every week. If any Buckeye fans wished that the redshirt freshman would look downfield more often for Jeremiah Smith or Tate, hopefully they were watching this game, because he was finding his star receivers with deep passes often.

He finished the game 20-of-23 passing (87.0 percent), somehow raising his completion percentage, which was at 80.0 percent before this contest. His 20 completions went for 316 yards and four touchdowns.