The Ohio State football team will take the field in seven weeks for its season opener against Minnesota on a rare Thursday night game for the Buckeyes. It has been quite some time since the Buckeyes have lost a season opener, going all the way back to the start of the 1999 season when Ohio State lost to Miami (Fla.) in the Kickoff Classic, 23-12.

Since then, for 20-plus season openers, the Buckeyes have come out on top and over the course of the past 15 openers, Ohio State has enjoyed an average score of 47.1 versus 13.4 points.

During that same 15-year stretch, Ohio State has scored into the 70’s twice, putting up 77 on both Oregon State (2018) and Bowling Green (2016) and has scored at least 40 points in every opener since the 2014 season when a trip to Baltimore to take on Navy would see the Buckeyes only put up 34-17 in an opening win. Of course we know what happened the following week with the loss at home to Virginia Tech and then how the Buckeyes would win the rest of them to be the first College Football Playoff national champions.

Season openers are unique games, many players are seeing their first action, last year’s back-us become this year’s starters and it is the first time that you are lining up against a team that isn’t wearing the same uniforms as you are.

It got us to thinking about how Ohio State has fared in those past 15 openers. Some of them were just about perfect while others gave cause for concern, for one reason or another.

Let’s take part in some quick hitters regarding season openers for the Buckeyes as the season is rapidly approaching.