Ohio State Buckeyes opponent breakdowns: Penn State

Opponents: Florida Atlantic | Cincinnati | Indiana | Miami (OH) | Nebraska | Michigan State | Northwestern | Wisconsin | Maryland | Rutgers

The college football season is still weeks away but anticipation is starting to build as the calendar turns from June to July and we are closing in on less than two months from the first kickoffs of the season.

Much has been made of Ohio State’s schedule this season with its lack of a Power Five non-conference opponent on it, but don’t let anyone convince you that this schedule does not pose more than its fair share of problems for a team that will be breaking in not only a new quarterback but essentially a new head coach as Ryan Day takes over for Urban Meyer as the Buckeyes look to defend their back-to-back Big Ten championships.

The lack of a P5 non-conference opponent may overshadow the fact that Ohio State has about as difficult of a crossover schedule as a Big Ten East team can have with games against Nebraska, Wisconsin and Northwestern and the schedule maker did this team no favors with a final two of Penn State and Michigan to wrap up the regular season in November.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. That must mean that Penn State head coach James Franklin is getting close to being insane after seeing the Buckeyes eek out comeback win after comeback win in this series.

In 2018 the Buckeyes were down 26-14 to Penn State with eight minutes to go in the game only for Ohio State to roar back to a 27-26 win. The year before? Ohio State was down 38-27 with less than six minutes left in the game. The result? Ohio State wins 39-38.

That does not mean that Ohio State is impervious as the Buckeyes squandered a 21-7 lead from the third quarter in 2016 only to lose 24-21 after a blocked field goal led to a Penn State touchdown and Ohio State could not march down the field to answer in the final four minutes of the game.

The point being, this has been a hell of a series with all the twists and turns that one can handle. But the Buckeyes have held the upper hand winning six of the last seven. And there will be no whiteout in this one, unless Ohio State decides to try and do something of that nature with this game in Columbus.

When was the last time that Penn State won in Columbus you ask? Try 2011.

Last Year: 9-4, 6-3 Big Ten East

Insert the joke about being an ‘elite team’ here.

Now that we have gotten that out of the way, it was a season of almost for the Nittany Lions in 2018, yet another year that the Penn State faithful decried, ‘Why not us?’ only to come up short and really end the season on what has to be a decided sour note.

Maybe everyone should have seen the writing on the wall in week one when Appalachian State took Penn State to overtime and honestly should have probably won the game when it scored the then-go-ahead touchdown with 1:47 left in the game. Credit Penn State for coming back though and scoring in the final 45 seconds to force overtime and then making the most of the OT period to score and then coming up with a big interception to end the game and escape with a 45-38 win.

After that speedbump, Penn State came out on fire and just eviscerated Pitt, Kent State and Illinois, scoring more than 50 points in each game and breaking 60 in the last two.

That set up a top-10 matchup against Ohio State in Happy Valley, a white out game, because of course it was.

We all know how that game turned out and Ohio State escaped with a 27-26 win and prompted head coach James Franklin to give a memorable postgame press conference where he exclaimed that his team was not elite yet.

The Nittany Lions were not elite the following week after dropping a home game to Michigan State either. A 21-17 loss led to a second loss on the season in conference play and ultimately ended Penn State’s conference title dreams.

Penn State would rebound in a pair of wins over Indiana and Iowa but neither were convincing on the scoreboard but that did set up a big game against Michigan at the Big House, a game that Penn State would feel the full effect of the ‘Revenge Tour’ in a 42-7 stomping.

The Nittany Lions would run off three wins to end the season and draw Kentucky in the Citrus Bowl.

Penn State would fall down 27-7 late in the 3rd quarter and come back with 17 in the 4th, only to come up short in a 27-24 loss, adding to a unspectacular showing by the conference as a whole in bowl play (4-5).