COLUMBUS – With sweat accumulating on his forehead, Ohio State quarterback Will Howard paused answering questions in his postgame press conference after OSU’s 52-6 win over Akron on Saturday in its season opener to ask a question of his own.

“Is it hot in here?” the Kansas State transfer asked.

It was indeed hot in the interview room. And so were the No. 2-ranked Buckeyes in the second half of Saturday’s game after a slightly tepid first half.

OSU coach Ryan Day thought his team played “a little tight” in the first half when it led only 17-3 at halftime.

“I thought we kind of settled in (in the second half) and started to have more fun. We started to play a little looser, which is the way we want to play,” Day said. “It wasn’t all great but it wasn’t all bad, either.”

Howard, who completed 17 of 28 passes for 228 yards and three touchdowns and rushed the football four times for 19 yards, said, “At the end of the day we just had to get together and say, ‘Settle down, just play our game, don’t think about it too much.’

“We definitely need to work on starting a little faster, starting a little better and not having those mistakes we had in the first half, me included. I think we settled in in that second half and were able to go from there.

“A win is a win. When you win by as much as we did, it’s good. I’m happy we won but there’s still a lot to clean up,” he said.

Howard produced one of many good performances by Ohio State players but one stood out above the rest – the debut of freshman wide receiver Jeremiah Smith, who caught six passes for 92 yards, including two touchdown catches and lived up to everything that has been said about him being extraordinarily advanced for a freshman.

His day started with a couple of minor blips when he dropped the first pass thrown to him and was called for a false start a few minutes later.

But from there it was all good all the time for him. He caught touchdown passes of nine yards and 16 yards and had a non-scoring catch of 45 yards that he said was his favorite in the game.

Smith said he didn’t feel any pressure to live up to the sky high expectations for him.

“I don’t really feel pressure. I just want to go out there and play football and win games. I know all the hype around me was crazy coming in. I just wanted come in and be a guy who worked. I wanted to impress my coaches and my teammates and peers around me,” he said.

Carnell Tate (four catches, including a 34-yarder for a touchdown) and Emeka Egbuka (four catches, 51 yards) were Howard’s other favorite receivers.

TreVeyon Henderson led OSU’s running game with 65 yards on eight carries and Quinshon Judkins had 55 yards on 13 carries.

The Buckeyes’ defense held Akron to 177 yards of total offense, sacked the Zips’ quarterbacks five times, had 10 tackles for losses got interceptions from cornerback Denzel Burke and linebacker Gabe Powers, whose pick turned into a touchdown for the back-up linebacker.

Two-time Heisman Trophy winner Archie Griffin dotted the “i” in the Ohio State band’s Script Ohio at halftime.