Kenny Guiton waited until his fifth year at Ohio State to get his first start. Two plays into the game, he was already in the Buckeyes’ record book.
Guiton threw three of his four touchdown passes in the first six minutes, including a school-record 90-yarder to start the onslaught, and No. 4 Ohio State rolled to its 15th straight victory, 52-34 over California on Saturday night.
“That’s pretty cool,” Guiton said. “I’m in my fifth year, getting my first start. It’s a blessing.”
Guiton got the start in place of injured Braxton Miller, and there was no drop-off in performance for the Buckeyes (3-0). He connected with Devin Smith on the deep ball on Ohio State’s second offensive play — the longest 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.
“He’s a very good distributor,” coach Urban Meyer said. “He gets the ball to the right people at the right time. What I was more impressed with with him were the downfield throws. Those were right on the dot, a few of them, and Devin Smith made some excellent catches.”
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.
“I felt like we had a good chance to make some plays early on,” Goff said. “We kind of fell behind the eight ball there going down 21-0. That kind of hurt. But I was proud of the way we fought back. We never quit.”
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.
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