Guiton leads No. 4 Ohio St. past Cal
BERKELEY, Calif. — Kenny Guiton threw three of his four touchdown passes in the first six minutes of his first career start and No. 4 Ohio State rolled to its 15th straight victory, 52-34 over California on Saturday.
Guiton, a fifth-year senior, got the start in place of injured Braxton Miller and there was no drop-off in performance for the Buckeyes (3-0).
Guiton connected with Devin Smith on a 90-yard pass on Ohio State’s second offensive play for the longest play from scrimmage in school history. He added a 47-yard touchdown to Smith and a 1-yarder to Chris Fields on fourth-and-goal as Ohio State jumped out to a 21-0 lead over the Golden Bears (1-2) less than halfway through the first quarter.
Guiton completed 21 of 32 passes for 276 yards and added 92 yards rushing to lead the Buckeyes.
Jordan Hall added 168 yards on the ground and three touchdowns as Ohio State extended the longest winning streak in major college football by outgunning the Bears in a high-paced offensive game.
With both teams running no-huddle offenses for much of the game, the defenses were scrambling as the teams combined for 86 points, 11 touchdowns and 1,111 total yards on 177 plays.
Cal’s prolific freshman quarterback Jared Goff just missed his third straight 400-yard game to begin his career, going 31 for 53 for 371 yards with three touchdowns.
But he also lost a fumble and threw an interception in the first quarter to put the Bears in an early hole they could never escape.
But Goff got little help from the running game or defense. Brendan Bigelow, who rushed for 160 yards and two touchdowns on four carries last year against Ohio State was held to 39 yards on 11 carries in the rematch.
Cal’s injury-ravaged defense has allowed at least 500 yards every game this season under first-year coach Sonny Dykes and even the opportunity to face a backup quarterback in Guiton couldn’t change that pattern.
Guiton had thrown just 26 career passes before stepping in during the first quarter last week against San Diego State when Miller left with a sprained left knee. Miller practiced sparingly this week but was unable to play in the game, giving Guiton his long-awaited shot as a starter.
He was ready and on his second play found Smith behind safety Damariay Drew for the 90-yard play that delighted the thousands of scarlet-clad fans who made up nearly half of the crowd at Memorial Stadium.
That started an action-packed opening quarter that featured 38 points, three turnovers and 445 yards of offense between the two teams.
Despite that fast start, the Buckeyes only led 31-20 at the half as Goff threw a pair of TD passes and Dykes pulled out all the stops.
On fourth-and-8 late in the half, Dykes appeared to send the punting unit out. But Goff, who wears the same number as punter Cole Leininger, lined up in punt formation and threw an 11-yard pass to Caleb Coleman that set up Vincenzo D’Amato’s 43-yard field goal on the final play of the half.