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Vo. 1, No. 3
This week in Ohio State football we are appreciating in-state games.
I thought about writing, “celebrate,” but maybe that’s too strong.
They aren’t the greatest thing in the world, but I like them. They’re part of college football.
I see people talk about how they can’t wait until the power programs such as Ohio State break away from the bottom of the FBS to form their own “super league” and only schedule each other, and I can only shake my head in dread.
Be careful what you wish for.
Although college football Saturdays and NFL Sundays are both great, they also are just about nothing alike to me.
NFL games are almost too tense. There are no off days for anyone. It’s almost intimidating deciding to commit emotionally to following a game because there are guaranteed to be lots of twists and turns even if it looks like a mismatch on paper (I know that’s a feature, not a bug, of following sports). That’s because even mismatches in the NFL are still relatively even.
College football is not that way, at least for the teams at the top of the food chain. In fact, sometimes the “matchup games” turn out to be mismatches, too, but that’s why they play them on the field and not just on paper.
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For all the groans about the schedule, I strongly believe the average college football fan is more than happy to have a few Saturdays a year in which they know their team will win.
Show up to the stadium, hang out with some friends, eat some delicious grilled meat, maybe down a beverage or two then head inside and watch a three-touchdown win.
Sure, the first quarter might have some brief interludes of drama, but you’re really there looking to see your guys ball out, right?
Yes, you are. It’s OK to admit it.
Of course the schedule needs those big games, but the big games only feel bigger thanks to the juxtaposition with the rest of the schedule, right? That’s kind of how it works.
Plus there are still upsets. We haven’t seen one at Ohio Stadium in a long time, but Ohio pulled one just last week against West Virginia. The Bobcats nearly beat Rutgers, too, in the season-opener.
Wasn’t that fun? Was that more interesting than watching Rutgers play a three-point game against, say, Minnesota? Yeah, it was to me.
College football is a big stew that requires lots of different ingredients to come out right. Let’s not start cutting back….
Ohio State’s current coach agrees:
But anyway, about the in-state games
Ohio State might be unique in that it hasn’t lost one in more than 100 years.
Ohio, the state, is unique since we have so many proud programs that were once peers of the Buckeyes but are now in Division III and a relatively large concentration of teams now populating that lower-end of the highest division.
I once did a story for the Dayton Daily News about how Rutgers got off to a worse start in its series with Ohio State than several small colleges in Ohio. Maybe that interest only me, but I thought it was fun (and it was well-received).
Sorry, playing Ohio U. or Miami U. Is just more interesting than playing Troy or Western Kentucky regardless of the relative competitiveness of the programs.
There are more storylines, and it just kinda seems to make more sense. Let’s promote our teams, right?
Jim Tressel believed in keeping the money in the state, and I haven’t heard any explanation why that isn’t a good idea.
He may not get a say since the All Mighty Dollar is more mighty than ever before (and his boss seems to be more committed to chasing it than any of his predecessors), but Ryan Day endorsed scheduling teams like Ohio this week.
You know, I kind of leave that up to Ross to schedule these games. And I think it's good for the state. I think it's great for the state of Ohio.
I know OU has a very proud tradition, and there's a lot of Ohio players on the roster who are going to come into the ‘Shoe and want to play really hard and play really well and win the game. So I think it's good for the state. I think it's great for their school.
I think it's great for our school. And, you know, when you're from the state of Ohio, having a memory of playing in the horseshoe during your college career is significant. And we know these guys can be playing with their hair on fire.
I know there is an argument that teams like Ohio State have nothing to gain playing this sort of game, but I also find that ridiculous. They don’t gain anything from playing those other teams, either.
And even if the Buckeyes did lose one of these games, what would be the ultimate upshot? Nothing other than some embarrassing headlines in the short term. It would really only matter if all of a sudden they started losing recruits to that school, which of course would never happen unless lots of other things went way wrong for Ohio State.
What do you think? Let me know in the comments, or just reply to this email!
Your feedback is always welcome.
As for the game and the rest of the week…
Ohio State leads the all-time series 7-0
That includes a 43-7 win in 2010 that was vacated back when the NCAA still enforced its rules.
The Buckeye also beat the Bobcats in 1899, 1900, 1901, 1902, 1999 and 2008.
The only close game was in 2008 when Ohio actually held an eight-point lead in the third quarter before the Buckeyes scored 20 unanswered points to win 26-14.
Piqua’s Brandon Saine scored the eventual game-winning points, and Ray Small returned a punt for a touchdown to put the game away in the fourth quarter.
Ohio State is 38-1 all-time against teams currently in the MAC with the only loss coming to Akron (then Buchtel College) at the Ohio State Fairgrounds on Sept. 5, 1894.
The Buckeyes are 49-0-1 against teams from Ohio in Ohio Stadium, which opened in 1921, and 195-50-1 against in-state foes, including 46 straight wins. The last loss was 7-6 to Oberlin at Ohio Field in 1921.
Long-time beat writer Doug Lesmerisis, who has also joined the newsletter game this year along with Bill Landis, had an interesting piece this week on that game.
Doug found a few parallels to this year, including that the 1921 Buckeyes were coming off a great season (their first to end with a trip to the Rose Bowl) like these ones. He also discovered that Oberlin’s 7-6 victory might have had its roots in a humiliating defeat at the hands of the Buckeyes five years earlier.
Check out the whole piece here.
What about this year?
Ohio is coming off its first 11-win season in school history and won the MAC for the first time since 1968 last year.
They return standout quarterback Parker Navarro from that squad but have replaced head coach Tim Albin with Brian Smith after Albin left to become the head coach at Charlotte.
Navarro will be working behind a mostly new offensive line as well.
According to PFF, Navarro is 17 for 24 on throws 10 yards or more this season, including 7 for 10 over the middle, but he is also 6 for 8 deep and intermediate to the right.
Like all QBs, he is better with a clean pocket, but he has been solid under pressure as well.
Chase Hendricks is by far his favorite target, having more than twice as many targets as any other Bobcat. He has caught 17 passes for 236 yards and a touchdown. He primarily lines up in the slot.
None of the offensive linemen have graded out well (for what that’s worth, which might not be much), but PFF has only charged the line with one sack allowed.
The defensive front has graded out pretty well overall led by tackle Pius Odjugo and linebacker Michale Molnar, but the secondary has had some tackling issues and graded poorly in coverage.
Odjugo has also been credited with four hurries and a quarterback hit.
Although they have three veteran DBs back from last season, the Bobcats’ corners have really struggled in coverage so far this season according to PFF.
Overall, OU is fourth in the nation in third down defensive percentage but 100th in team passing efficiency defense.
Run defense has been decent but pass defense has struggled.
Offensively they have been able to move the ball but not been as good at turning yards into points.
They have had success both rushing and passing, in no small part because Navarro is a threat in both areas.
He is the team’s leading rusher with 180 net yards and has completed 43 of 62 passes for 486 yards and four touchdowns, but he also has three interceptions.
The defense does have 12 tackles for loss and five sacks, including four sacks last week in the win over West Virginia.
Ryan Day says ball placement tends to be an innate trait for QBs
— #Marcus Hartman (#@marcushartman)
12:41 AM • Sep 11, 2025
What about the Buckeyes?
Day likes to say, “Every week is about us,” and that is especially true early in the season when they are still in development mode.
To that end, we finally got some chalk talk this week. 2
Day was asked what went into the decision to start utilizing two-tight end sets more often, and he gave a detailed answer about the evolution of his thinking and what went into making it actually happen.
On the flip side, the revamped defense gets a different type of challenge this week from Navarro, a running quarterback who could change the math for coordinator Matt Patricia when it comes to game planning.
On top of that, BuckeyeHuddle.com had a nice piece this week further explaining the new odd-front defense the Buckeyes have been using a lot, the “Penny” front.
Specifically, Patricia has installed the “Penny” front, which is a 5-1 alignment with a 0-tech Nose Tackle head up on the Center, two 3-technique Defensive Tackles lined up in the B-gaps, two stand-up Edge players, and just one lone off-ball Linebacker. One of the big advantages of Odd fronts is that they more or less take away an offense’s ability to find success on Zone run plays.
I touched on this a little bit last week for Press Pros Magazine and here after the win over Texas in case you missed it.
Here is a look from the Texas game:
Check out the whole post from BH here.
As for what is going to happen Saturday, well I don’t think I’m going to get into the business of predictions here, but I could always change my mind later. (As I said, I’m kind of constructing the plane in mid-flight at this point.)
Ohio is on a good run lately, and the Bobcats certainly looked like they belonged on the field with power conference teams the first two weeks, but Ohio State is a different animal.
Day might have adopted some Tressel traits over the past couple of seasons, but I don’t think playing close games against MAC teams is going to be one of them.
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1 I wasn’t sure when I first wrote that sentence, but according to Gemini we trail only Texas for FBS schools, which makes sense since they also love football there and have a lot more people these days.)
2 I hope to have a section on Xs and Os every week in this newsletter and to fill my YouTube channel with clips like the one above, but sometimes it is easier said than done to get the coaches going on such a topic — especially since Kevin Wilson is gone.