We’ll Talk About This Later: That’s a boggart, that is

Each week, we’ll break down something that happened during the Ohio State game (and occasionally other games) that we’ll be talking about for a while—you know, the silly sideline interactions, the awful announcing and the weird storylines that stick with us for years to come. We’ll also compare each of these happenings to memorable moments in pop culture, because who doesn’t love a good Office reference?

Since the Rose Bowl in January, we’ve known that Marvin Harrison Jr. is a special receiver. Saturday afternoon against Michigan State, we started to wonder if he might actually have some superpowers since he seems to defy logic with his receiving abilities.

Harrison has 31 catches for 536 yards and nine touchdowns so far this season (Harrison is actually not the leading receiver in terms of yards — that title currently belongs to Emeka Egbuka). Especially in the absence of Jaxon Smith-Njigba for much of the season, Harrison has become a favorite target of C.J. Stroud.

You had to watch the third touchdown catch in particular (yes, three touchdowns) a few times because it just doesn’t seem to make sense. The pass from Stroud was a little off. The defense was playing tight coverage. Harrison was not in a position to make the catch.

There was absolutely nothing more Michigan State cornerback Charles Brantley could have done to prevent the touchdown and, from his perspective, it probably looked like the touchdown wouldn’t happen anyway given where the ball was. But it didn’t matter: Harrison was going to make the catch no matter what.

While Harrison doesn’t seem to be wholly evil on the level of Thanos (at least from an Ohio State fan’s perspective), his skills bring Ohio State an almost unfair advantage that hasn’t gone unnoticed.

Harrison is the boggart to opposing teams. In the Harry Potter universe, boggarts are shapeshifters that take on the form of what the people seeing them fear the most, and they can only be repelled with the simple riddikulus charm and laughter.

There are two ways to think about this. First, Harrison is what every opposing defensive back fears most; that receiver who has the size, flexibility and shiftiness to be able to catch balls that receivers should simply not be able to catch.

The other way is that Harrison is himself a shapeshifter. How else would he have been able to get into position to catch that third touchdown?

Unfortunately for Ohio State opponents, the only “RIDDIKULUS” thing is Harrison’s catching ability.