PENN STATE NOTES:
OPENING KICK: No. 3/3 Penn State welcomes No. 4/4 Ohio State to Beaver Stadium on Saturday, November 2. Kickoff is set for noon on FOX. • BIG NOON KICKOFF: Penn State will appear as FOX’s Big Noon Kickoff for the third time this season and 12th time in program history. Big Noon Kickoff will be hosted in Happy Valley for the fourth time in the show’s history. Penn State was the featured game for its 34-12 win over West Virginia and its 27-11 victory over UCLA. • SERIES HISTORY: Penn State meets Ohio State for the 40th time in program history. Penn State trails 25- 14 in the all-time series. Seventeen of the 40 previous matchups have been decided by one possession. In 2023, Penn State fell 20-12 in Columbus. Drew Allar threw for 191 yards and a touchdown, while Alex Felkins hit two 40+ yard field goals. Abdul Carter and Curtis Jacobs tied for the team lead with nine tackles, while Johnny Dixon had two tackles for loss and a sack. • STORIED PROGRAMS SQUARE OFF: Saturday’s matchup will feature two of the Top 10 winningest programs in NCAA history. Both teams are ranked among the Top 10 in all-time victories and all-time winning percentage. Penn State and Ohio State are meeting as AP Top 25 opponents for the 23rd time in series history. The teams have met as AP Top 10 opponents on 11 occasions. This will be the second time the teams have matched up as AP Top 5 opponents. Saturday’s game will be the 13th time that Penn State-Ohio State has been the featured game for ESPN’s College GameDay, taking over as the show’s most frequent matchup, breaking a tie with Alabama-LSU. • 7-0 START: Penn State is off to a 7-0 start for the 20th time in program history and the third time under James Franklin (2017, 2019). The Nittany Lions are also 4-0 to start Big Ten play for the eighth time in school history and third time under Franklin (2017, 2019). • THE OPPOSITION: Ohio State is 6-1 this season, including a 3-1 mark in Big Ten play. Last Saturday, the Buckeyes earned a 21-17 win over Nebraska. Will Howard threw for 221 yards and three touchdowns, while Carnell Tate had 102 receiving yards, including a 40-yard score. Jeremiah Smith added a 60-yard touchdown grab. Ohio State tallied 13 tackles for loss and three sacks.
SERIES NOTES:
HEAD COACH RYAN DAY • Ryan Day became the 25th head football coach at Ohio State on Jan. 2, 2019. • Day is in his fifth full season with a career record of 62-9, a 42-4 mark in Big Ten Conference games, and two Big Ten Championships and two College Football Playoff appearances. • A QB coach for the San Francisco 49ers in 2016 under Chip Kelly and in 2015 for the Philadelphia Eagles under Kelly, Day is in his fourth season overall at Ohio State and his 19th season as a coach in the NFL or collegiate ranks. He was Ohio State’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach from 2017-18. • Day was a three-year starting quarterback at New Hampshire when Chip Kelly was offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, graduating in 2002. SCOUTING THE BUCKEYES • Ohio State is 6-1 overall and 3-1 in Big Ten play this season. • The Buckeyes are coming off a 21-17 win over Nebraska. • QB Will Howard threw for 221 yards and three touchdowns, connecting on touchdown passes with Carnell Tate (40 yards), Jeremiah Smith (60 yards) and Quinshon Judkins (9 yards). • On offense, Ohio State ranks second in the Big Ten in scoring (40.3 ppg; 11th nationally) and total offense (471.9 ypg; 9th), fourth in rushing offense (188.0; 35th) and fifth in passing offense (283.9; 22nd). • QB Will Howard is second in the Big Ten in passing touchdowns (17) and third in completion percentage (74.0). • WR Jeremiah Smith is second in the conference in receiving yards per game (89.0) and receiving touchdowns (8), while sitting third in total receiving yards (623) and 10th in receptions per game (5.0). • RBs Quinshon Judkins (520 yards, 6 TD) and TreVeyon Henderson (449 yards, 4 TD) lead the rushing attack. • On defense, the Buckeyes rank first in the Big Ten in scoring defense (11.9 ppg; 4th nationally) and total defense (254.4 ypg; 2nd), second in rushing defense (91.3; 6th) and third in passing defense (163.1; 8th). OSU also paces the Big Ten averaging 7.6 tackles for loss per game (13th). • S Sonny Styles paces Ohio State with 42 tackles, while DE JT Tuimoloau leads the squad with seven tackles for loss and four sacks.
LAST MEETING:
COLUMBUS, Ohio. – No. 7/6 Penn State dropped its Big Ten road contest at No. 3/3 Ohio State. Penn State’s defense held the Ohio State offense 16 points below its season scoring average, allowing just 20 points. The Nittany Lions put defensive pressure on the Buckeyes all afternoon, securing a muffed punt fumble and also forcing a turnover on downs by Ohio State inside the five-yard line. Linebackers Abdul Carter and Curtis Jacobs led Penn State with nine tackles apiece. Johnny Dixon (1), Kobe King (0.5), and Adisa Isaac (0.5) each contributed to the Nittany Lions’ sack total with the Nittany Lions also racking up nine tackles for loss in the game. Offensively, quarterback Drew Allar threw for 191 yards and a touchdown. KeAndre Lambert-Smith posted a team-leading 52 receiving yards on six catches, while Kaden Saunders hauled in Allar’s touchdown pass. Ohio State got on the board on its first trip down the field. The Buckeyes took a 3-0 lead on a 33-yard field goal by Jayden Fielding at the 10:49 mark of the opening quarter, the result of an 11-play, 57-yard drive. Penn State answered later in the first quarter, with Alex Felkins knocking through a 40-yard field goal with 2:36 left in the frame to tie the game at three apiece. The Nittany Lions went 39 yards in six plays for the score. A 5:16 drive for the Buckeyes resulted in the first touchdown of the ballgame at the 7:31 mark of the second quarter. Miyan Williams recorded the game’s first touchdown on a 2-yard run to put Ohio State up, 10-3. The Nittany Lions added a field goal in response to Ohio State’s touchdown, a 41-yarder by Felkins. Penn State went 51 yards in seven plays for the score with just over three minutes remaining in the first half. The Nittany Lions entered the halftime break trailing 10-6. Neither team was able to get anything going in the third quarter, as the defenses led the way into the fourth and final frame. The Nittany Lion defense forced a goal-line fourth down stop and another special teams turnover in the third quarter but were unable to convert. Ohio State kicked its second field goal of the afternoon at the 8:59 mark of the fourth quarter to increase its lead to seven points. The Buckeyes took nine plays and 4:40 off the clock to go 71 yards, taking a 13-7 advantage. The Buckeyes tacked on another touchdown with 4:07 to play, taking a 20-6 advantage on an 18-yard touchdown by Marvin Harrison Jr. Penn State scored its first touchdown with 29 seconds left in the game, an eightyard pass from Allar to Saunders that cut the Ohio State lead to 20-12.
OHIO STATE NOTES:
It will be a Top 5 matchup in Happy Valley the first Saturday in November between No. 4 Ohio State (6-1, 3-1 Big Ten Conference) and No. 3 Penn State (7-0, 4-0 Big Ten). FOX will televise the game nationally. The two teams are each nationally ranked for an eighth consecutive meeting – every game since 2017 – and for the 25th time in this, the 40th meeting in the all-time series. This is only the second Top 5 game between these traditional powers. The other came in 1996, a 38-7 Ohio State (No. 3) win over No. 4 Penn State at Ohio Stadium. This is the 12th meeting with both teams in the national Top 10 rankings. The two teams are meeting on the gridiron for the 32nd consecutive year, all since Penn State joined the Big Ten Conference in 1993. The 32 consecutive years is Ohio State’s longest active streak of playing one opponent. The teams will play in Columbus in 2025. Date is TBA. A watch list: Downingtown, Pa., native Will Howard at QB for Ohio State and PSU WR Julian Fleming (10 rec. for 148 yards), who started 22 games for Ohio State between 2021-23.
Ohio State leads the all-time series with Penn State, 24 victories to 14. Ohio State has also won seven consecutive in the series with Penn State’s last victory coming in 2016 when the unranked Nittany Lions defeated No. 2 Ohio State, 24-21, in State College. Since Penn State joined the Big Ten in 1993, Ohio State holds a 22-8 advantage in the series, including a 9-6 record in games played at Beaver Stadium.
If there’s one thing the Ohio State-Penn State game has annually provided, its drama. In 2014, Penn State came back from a 17-0 halftime deficit to force overtime. J.T. Barrett scored on TD runs of five and four yards in the OTs and Joey Bosa had a “walk off” sack to help Ohio State win, 31-24. Penn State scored 17 unanswered points in the fourth quarter in 2016 to win, 24-21. Ohio State rallied from fourth quarter deficits of 10 points or more in both 2017 and 2018 and won by one point each time. Ohio State’s 11-point win over Penn State in 2019 was its leanest margin of victory over a Big Ten opponent all season. And in 2022, Ohio State scored 28 fourth quarter points in just over seven minutes to rally from a 21-16 deficit to a 44-24 lead on its way to a 44-31 victory at loud and hostile Beaver Stadium.
Julian Fleming, a five-star recruit from Catawissa, Pa., near Harrisburg, spent four seasons – 2020-23 – at Ohio State before entering the transfer portal following the final regular season game of the 2023 season. He’s now a Nittany Lion. As a Buckeye, he played in 37 games, started 22 times and had 80 career receptions for 990 yards and seven touchdowns on teams that had five other star receivers who were selected in the first round of the NFL Draft: Garrett Wilson, Chris Olave, Jameson Williams (transferred to Alabama), Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Marvin Harrison Jr.
The Buckeyes were cruising along at No. 2 in the nation and 5-0, having outscored its opponents 183-34, before a trip to No. 3 Oregon: a 32-31 loss where the offense played well but the defense did not. That loss was followed by a 21-17 fourth quarter comeback win over Nebraska after an off week. The defense returned to form, although Nebraska’s 273 total yards were second-most allowed by the defense this year. The offense, down LT Josh Simmons, did not play up to par with just 285 offensive yards, including only 64 yards rushing. Will Howard threw three TD passes; lovely aerials of 40- and 60-yards to Carnell Tate and Jeremiah Smith, and a game winner to RB Quinshon Judkins with just six minutes to play.