50 For 50: What Can Sonny Styles Do In Year Two At Linebacker?

Welcome to our daily feature that I am calling “50 for 50” where I attempt to get us to Big Ten Media Days — which are 40 days away — with a daily sampling of what we can look forward to this upcoming college football season. Today’s edition features Ohio State wide receiver Quincy Porter, linebackers Sonny Styles and Arvell Reese, and more.

As always, we will do this via the following categories: the 50 biggest individual matchups for the Buckeyes this season, the 50 most important college football games this season, 50 Buckeye things to look forward to this season, 50 national predictions, 50 Big Ten predictions, and 50 predictions involving the Buckeyes.

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Biggest Buckeye Matchups

PENN STATE RB KAYTRON ALLEN VS. OHIO STATE LB ARVELL REESE

Penn State running back Kaytron Allen has been one of the Big Ten’s toughest runners since he arrived in the conference three years ago. He has rushed for nearly 3,000 yards during his career, leaving plenty of defenders sore and bruised. When Ohio State hosts Penn State on November 1, Allen will have his first real opportunity to contend with OSU junior linebacker Arvell Reese. Allen has been held to 53 yards rushing on 21 carries in his last two outings against the Buckeyes. As Ohio State’s starting middle linebacker this year, Reese will have the responsibility of keeping that yards per carry average right where it has been the past two seasons.

Most Important Games

GEORGIA BULLDOGS VS. FLORIDA GATORS, NOV. 1

This will be the last time Georgia and Florida meet in Jacksonville for a few years, and as anybody who has ever been to Jacksonville knows, if you’re not going to be back in Jacksonville for a while, you’re gonna go ahead trash the place. Next year the game moves to a more familiar neutral site for SEC teams — Atlanta. The Gators will have already played games at LSU, Miami, and Texas A&M, and hosted Texas before they ever get to this game, so we should be pretty up to speed on this Florida team by then. They will have certainly been hardened — unless they’ve been completely softened. Georgia, meanwhile, will be favored in every game they play this season, save for possibly Nov. 15 when Texas comes to town. This game may be Florida’s last stand.

Things To Look Forward To

SONNY STYLES AS AN EXPERIENCED LINEBACKER.

Sonny Styles is now a senior at Ohio State and he’s just now finally playing the same position two years in a row. There is every reason to think that this could be a special season for Styles, who finished second on the team with 100 tackles last season. He got better as the season went on because he got more experienced, and he was then better able to be used as a defensive weapon. Now, new defensive coordinator Matt Patricia is figuring out how to keep the momentum going. Patricia may just want to watch last year’s playoffs for some ideas. In OSU’s last two playoff games, Styles posted 15 tackles, 4.0 tackles for loss, 2.0 sacks, one forced fumble, and one pass broken up. What could year two look like for Styles? There are a ton of possibilities and all of them are exciting.

National College Football Predictions

CLEMSON WILL MAKE THE COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF.

Dabo might be back. Clemson will have one of the most explosive offenses this season and they’ve always got some impressive defensive talent. If they can contain LSU’s offense in the season opener, you might want to look out. They should be favored in every conference game by a touchdown-plus this season, but it will be the bookend-games against LSU and South Carolina that will determine the overall narrative. Still, even if they go 0-2 in those games and 11-0 everywhere else, they’re in the playoffs.

Big Ten Football Predictions

DYLAN RAIOLA WILL DOUBLE HIS PASSING TDS FROM LAST SEASON.

Last year was very much a learning experience for Nebraska freshman quarterback Dylan Raiola. Over the course of 13 starts — and the Huskers’ first bowl appearance in eight years — Raiola completed 67.1% of his passes and threw for 2,819 yards. Unfortunately, he only threw 13 touchdowns to go with his 11 interceptions. The number of interceptions may remain the same, but the TDs must go up this year. Nebraska has added some receivers via the portal, which will help. The experience Raiola gained in the red zone last year will help as well.

Ohio State Football Predictions

QUINCY PORTER WILL FINISH WITH 10-20 RECEPTIONS.

Predicting that Ohio State freshman receiver Quincy Porter will catch between 10-20 passes this year may not seem like much of a prediction, but only 13 OSU freshman receivers have managed to catch at least 10 passes in the last 40 years. Not among those 13 are names like Emeka Egbuka and Michael Thomas. Only five Buckeye freshmen receivers have ever reached 20 receptions in a season. And the number of receivers who have finished exactly between 10-20 is eight. So take this prediction to mean that Porter should be pretty darn good.

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