COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — No. 5 Ohio State plays its first home game of the season Saturday when the Buckeyes welcome Youngstown State to Ohio Stadium for a noon kickoff.

OSU is coming off a 23-3 road win over Indiana. The Buckeyes defense shined in the win, while the offense struggled to be consistent.

Here are three things to know about the game against the Penguins, an FCS team that won its opener 52-10 over Valparaiso.

Can Kyle McCord make the jump?

Ohio State coach Ryan Day has repeatedly said college teams make the biggest jump from week one to week two. But will that be the case for quarterback Kyle McCord? Day said the junior’s performance was a “mixed bag” after completing 20 of 33 passes for 239 yards and one interception. Earlier this week, Day said Big Ten officials told him Marvin Harrison Jr.’s touchdown catch against Indiana should have counted because he was pushed out of bounds.

“There were some good moments, some good throws, some other things you wish you had back,” Day said. “When you look at first-time starters here in the past that was probably similar. … It was good enough to win, which is the most important thing. That’s not just Kyle. It’s the offense across the board. It won’t be good enough moving forward to reach our goals.”

Day said McCord will start again this week, but added he “would love” to play sophomore Devin Brown more against the Penguins, the only FCS opponent on the schedule.

“I’m trying not to draw too many hard lines when it comes to [quarterback] right now, honestly,” Day said. “Our goal is to be a really good quarterback room and win games, and as these first few games start to develop, we get a better feel for what that looks like.”

Offensive line week one mishaps

Ohio State struggled mightily in short-yardage situations against the Hoosiers. The Buckeyes were an abysmal 2-of-12 on third down, but a closer look at that stat is even more concerning. Eight of those third-down attempts came with 4 yards to go or fewer, but OSU only converted on two of them. Day said the Buckeyes should convert on those situations “about 80% of the time.”

Day added they were “only 50% efficient overall” on first and second downs on designed run plays

“That’s not good enough,” Day said. “[Indiana] certainly did give us some things that maybe we weren’t expecting, but even when they did, I didn’t think we handled it as well as we could’ve. … We’ve got to execute better. That’s just the bottom line.”

Offensive tackle Josh Fryar, the only lineman to be graded a champion against Indiana, said all the mistakes are “correctable.”

“It’s just little, slight communication errors on us that we have to fix,” Fryar said. “I would say [we were] mediocre, but at the same time, I don’t think a lot of people take into account it’s the first week. … But we’ve got a lot of stuff to improve on.”

The Jim Tressel Bowl

Hall of Fame coach Jim Tressel has deep ties to both Ohio State and Youngstown State. He coached the Penguins to 153 wins and four I-AA national championships in 15 seasons. He then became one of the greatest coaches in Ohio State history, leading the Buckeyes to 94 wins, six Big Ten titles, three national championship appearances and the 2002 title.

Earlier this year, Tressel retired as president of Youngstown State after nine years. Several prominent Buckeyes hail from Youngstown, including former captains John Simon, Corey Linsley and Bo Pelini, as well as All-American running back Maurice Clarett.

Below is an interview with Jim Tressel from the Ohio State high school coaches camp in April.