Penn State at Ohio State: What you need to know
■ Who: No. 9 Penn State (9-1, 6-1) at No. 2 Ohio State (9-0, 6-0)
■ When: Noon, today
■ Where: Ohio Stadium, Columbus
■ TV/Radio: Fox/1410
■ Series history: Ohio State is 20-14 including a 38-14 victory in 2010 that was vacated by NCAA sanctions. The Buckeyes have won two in a row and six of the last seven. They are 18-8 against the Nittany Lions since Penn State began play as a Big Ten member in 1993.
■ Last meeting: Dwayne Haskins rallied Ohio State from a 12-point fourth quarter deficit with touchdown passes to Binjimen Victor and K.J. Hill and Chase Young stopped Miles Sanders on a fourth-and-5 play to secure a 27-26 victory last season at Beaver Stadium. ■ Coaches: Ohio State’s Ryan Day is 13-0, including a 3-0 mark last season as interim coach of the Buckeyes. He is 8-0 in Big Ten games. Penn State’s James Franklin is 52-22 at Penn State and 78-37 overall as a head coach including three seasons at Vanderbilt.
■ Ohio State notes:
The Buckeyes lead the nation in scoring (51.5 points per game) and scoring defense (9.8) . ... QB Justin Fields is tied for second in the nation with 41 total touchdowns . ... Young leads the nation with 1.69 sacks per game . ... J.K. Dobbins is 24 yards shy of passing Eddie George for third on the school’s all-time rushing list . ... No team has gained 300 yards against Ohio State . ... Ohio State has three players from Pennsylvania: safety Marcus Hooker (New Castle), offensive lineman Jonah Jackson (Media Penncrest) and punter Jake Metzer (Doylestown Central Bucks West).
■ Penn State notes: The Nittany Lions are No. 4 in the nation against the run (75.9 yards per game), No. 17 in total defense (316.2) and No. 7 in scoring defense (13.5 points).
... Receiver KJ Hamler has five receptions of 40 yards or more . ... Four running backs have 35 or more carries: Journey Brown (86 for 521 yards), Noah Cain (68 for 350), Devyn Ford (48 for 289) and Ricky Slade (36 for 120) . ... Penn State has six players from Ohio: quarterback Sean Clifford (Cincinnati St. Xavier), defensive tackles Aeneas Hawkins (Cincinnati Moeller) and Antonio Shelton (Westerville North), offensive linemen Juice Scruggs (Ashtabula via Cathedral Prep in Pennsylvania) and Mike Miranda (Stow-Munroe Falls) and long snapper Chris Stoll (Columbus DeSales) . ... Penn State has won two of 13 meetings in Columbus since joining the Big Ten. ■ Quotable: Franklin on Fields, who committed to Penn State in high school before ultimately signing with Georgia and transferring to Ohio State: “Obviously we were involved with him early, had a significant relationship for a long time. Obviously very talented guy. You come up with your list of things that you’re looking for in terms of characteristics, height, weight, speed, intelligence, release, accuracy, touchdown-tointerception ratio, win/ loss percentage, all the things we look at when we’re evaluating and studying quarterbacks. Watching him in games, watching him in practice, throwing live. He checked a lot of boxes. Based on what I’m seeing on film right now, I think we were right. He’s pretty good.” ■ Next game: The Buckeyes play Michigan in Ann Arbor at noon next Saturday. Penn State returns home to play Rutgers at 3:30.
■ Prediction: Ohio State 41, Penn State 20
— MARCUS HARTMAN, STAFF WRITER