THE PERTINENT INFO

When: Friday, October 18, 2019
Where: Ryan Field, Evanston, Illinois
TV: 8:30 // FS1
Announcers: Joe Davis, Brock Huard and Bruce Feldman

This will be the 78th time Ohio State and Northwestern (1–4) have faced each other in football. The Buckeyes hold a 62–14–1 advantage in the all-time series and are 27–6–1 when playing the Wildcats in Evanston. 

Pat Fitzgerald's team has lost three-straight games including a 13-10 defeat to Nebraska on October 5. Like Ohio State, Northwestern is coming off of a bye week. 

The Wildcats also have losses to Stanford (17-7), Michigan State (31-10) and Wisconsin (24-15). Their win was against UNLV (30-14) in Week 2. 

Below, you will find some interesting facts about the teams, key offensive player stats, coach information, and team stats.

THE LAST TIME...

• Ohio State played Northwestern, the Buckeyes beat the Wildcats 45-24 in last year's Big Ten Championship.
• This game was played in Evanston, the Scarlet and Gray won 40-30.
• The Buckeyes played the seventh game of the season against Northwestern was 1998. The team defeated the Wildcats 36-10 in Evanston. 
• Ohio State played on October 18th was 2014. The team defeated Rutgers, 56-17, in Columbus.
• The Scarlet and Gray lost the seventh game of the season was 2016, Penn State blocked two kicks and won 24-21 in Beaver Stadium.

ON THE HORIZON​

• K.J. Hill is 29 yards away from 2,000 career receiving yards, he will be the ninth Ohio State player to reach this milestone.
• Chase Young needs 1.5 sacks to become the second Buckeye to have back-to-back double digit sack seasons.
• Jordan Fuller is six tackles away from 200 for his career.
• If J.K. Dobbins breaks the century mark on Friday, he will find himself fifth on Ohio State's all-time career rushing list. He is currently 32 yards behind Braxton Miller (3,314) and 100 yards behind Beanie Wells (3,382).  
• K.J. Hill is currently second on Ohio State's all-time receptions list. He needs 20 catches to tie David Boston (191) for first.
• The Buckeyes are going for their eighth straight win over Northwestern. Ohio State has won 31 out of the last 32 in the series.

 Northwestern University

GET TO KNOW NORTHWESTERN

• Northwestern is located in Evanston, IL.
• The university was established in 1851. 
• The Wildcats are in their 136th season of playing football. 
• Willie the Wildcat, the team's mascot, made its debut in 1933.  
• Northwestern has won eight Big Ten/Western Conference championships. however, six of them are as co-champions.
• Notable alumni are Charlton Heston ("Damn dirty apes" dude), John Paul Stevens (Supreme Court dude), Jerry Reinsdorf (owner of the Bulls and White Sox), Jerry Springer (white trash talk show host), Meghan Markle (Duchess of Sussex dudette) a crap ton of actors: Warren Beatty, Zach Braff, Stephen Colbert, Zooey Deschanel, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Cloris Leachman, Ann-Margret, Garry Marshall, Megan Mullally, Shelley Long, Tony Randall, Jeri Ryan, David Schwimmer, Brent Musberger (broadcaster and degenerate gambler) ESPN schills: J.A. Adande, Kevin Blackstone, Mike Greenberg, Rachel Nichols, Steve Weissman and Michael Wilbon, Joe Girardi (MLB) and Otto Graham (NFL). 

​TODAY'S TRIVIA QUESTIONS:

1. How many rushing touchdowns has Ohio State's defense allowed this season? 
2. Since 1950 how many Ohio State coaches have lost to Northwestern? Can you name the losing coach(es)? 
3. Including this week's game, how many times have the Buckeyes played a regular season game on a Friday night?

Answers at the bottom of today's article.

2019 Player Comparison

OFFENSIVE LEADERS
JUSTIN FIELDS	1,298 YDS // 18 TD // 1 INT	PASSING	HUNTER JOHNSON	367 YDS // 1 TD // 4 INT
J.K. DOBBINS	826 YDS // 7.1 YPC // 6 TD	RUSHING	DRAKE ANDERSON	366 YDS //  4.9 YPC // 3 TD
BINJIMEN VICTOR	348 YDS // 3 TD	RECEIVING	BENNETT SKOWRONEK	141 YDS // 0 TD
DEFENSIVE LEADERS
JORDAN FULLER	32	TACKLES	TRAVIS WHILLOCK	44
CHASE YOUNG	8.5	SACKS	JOE GAZIANO	3.5
JEFF OKUDAH	3	INTERCEPTIONS	PADDY FISHER JR PACE	1
SPECIAL TEAMS
DEMARIO McCALL	8.7 YPR	PUNT RETURNER	RILEY LEES	7.3
DEMARIO McCALL	22.1 YPR	KICKOFF RETURN	RILEY LEES	33.3
DRUE CHRISMAN	46.8	PUNTING	DANIEL KUBIUK	37.8
7		EDGE	2

THE COACHES

Ryan Day

• 9–0 (1.00) at Ohio State
• 9–0 (1.00) overall

Day's hometown is Manchester, NH. He attended Manchester High School and attended college at New Hampshire. Day has been in coaching for 18 years and is Ohio State's 25th head coach. 

After this season's first six games, Ryan Day and the Buckeyes are outscoring their opponents 296-53. That is an average victory of 49-9. The numbers stay fairly steady when you add in the three games Day coached last season.

After nine games with Day as head coach, Ohio State is beating teams by an average score of 52-13. The only teams not to lose to Day by more than 40 points are Oregon State, TCU and Florida Atlantic. He has the program record for points scored after his first nine games with 465.

Urban Meyer, Earle Bruce and Carroll Widdoes are the only other coaches in program history to start their careers with nine straight victories. However, none of them won their games as convincingly as Day.

Pat Fitzgerald

• 97–74 (.567) at Northwestern (14th year)
• 97–74 (.567) overall as a college head coach (16th year)
• 56–54 (.509) against B1G opponents

Fitzgerald was born in Orland Park, Illinois. He grew up on the south side of Chicago is an avid supporter of the city's teams (Bears, Blackhawks and White Sox). Fitzgerald played linebacker for Northwestern and led the team to a 10–1 record in 1995 and the school's first Rose Bowl appearance since 1949. He made his mark in upset victories over No. 9 Notre Dame and No. 7 Michigan. The Wildcats won Big Ten titles in 1995 and 1996 with Fitzgerald on the team. However, the team did not face Ohio State during either of those seasons. 

After graduating, Fitzgerald joined Maryland's staff as a graduate assistant. He then spent time with Gary Barnett at Colorado and had a stint with Idaho before returning to Northwestern as coach of the linebackers in 2002. Fitzgerald was named the head coach after the sudden death of Randy Walker in the summer of 2006.

Fitzgerald is the second-longest tenure of any coach in the Big Ten. His teams have been to nine bowl games and he owns four of the school's five bowl game victories. Fitzgerald has the most wins and Big Ten wins in Northwestern history.

CLIFF CLAVEN'S LITTLE KNOWN FACTS CORNER

 

• 0......Number of losses for Ryan Day as Ohio State's head coach.
• 1......Justin Fields is the only quarterback in the country to have a passing and rushing touchdown in all six games this year.
• 2......Ohio State's rank in total defense.
• 3......Straight prime time games for the Buckeyes.
• 4......Number of 30+ yard plays OSU's defense has allowed this season.
• 9.......K.J. Hills rank for career receiving yards (1,971).
• 10.....Different Buckeyes have caught a touchdown pass in 2019.
• 13.....True freshman have played this year, three of them played last week. 
• 16.....Number of Friday games in program history (8–8).
• 17.....Different Ohio State players have caught a pass this season.
• 20.....Times the Buckeyes have scored 40 or more points since 2017.
• 24.....Consecutive wins is the program record set by Urban Meyer in 2012-13.
• 26.....Touchdowns Fields has accounted for through six games.
• 32.....Straight games the Scarlet and Gray has scored at least 20 points.
• 37.....Night games for Ohio State since 2012, 26 were road games (21–5).
• 40.....Straight games K.J. Hill has caught a pass, the program record is 48.
• 40.5..Points per game differential for the Buckeyes this year, best in the FBS.
• 62.....Punts Drue Chrisman has downed inside the 20 during his OSU career.
• 63.....Victories for the Buckeyes in night games (63–27).
• 98.....Number of wins Ohio State has had this decade.
• 111...Touchdown passes thrown by Ohio State quarterbacks since 2017.
• 200...Points scored by OSU in the first half this season, opposing teams have 28.
• 296...The number of points the Buckeyes have scored through six games, tied with the 1996 team for the most ever through six games.
• 323...Rushing yards for Ohio State against Michigan State.
• 454...wins OSU has had in Ohio Stadium.
• 587...Buckeye football games played in Ohio Stadium. 
• 691...Yards rushing the Buckeyes have racked up in the last two games.
• 826...Rushing yards for Dobbins this season, second in the nation.
• 908...Times Ohio State has been ranked in the AP poll.
• 917...Number of official wins for the program (we know it's actually 929).

2019 Statistical Comparison

OFFENSE
49.3	4th	POINTS FOR	14.4	128th
288.5	3rd	RUSHING OFFENSE	152.4	80th
246.0	63rd	PASSING OFFENSE	140.4	123rd
543.5	7th	TOTAL OFFENSE	292.8	125th
.559	1st	3rd DOWNS	.333	111th
.867	45th	RED ZONE	.688	121st
DEFENSE
8.8	4th	POINTS ALLOWED	19.8	30th
82.0	8th	RUSH DEFENSE	142.8	53rd
152.0	3rd	PASS DEFENSE	176.0	14th
95.1	4th	PASS EFFICIENCY DEFENSE	121.5	44th
234.0	2nd	TOTAL DEFENSE	318.8	26th
.256	3rd	3rd DOWNS	.350	47th
.533	3rd	RED ZONE	.714	19th
SPECIAL TEAMS
11.1	38th	PUNT RETURN	8.8	52nd
21.3	64th	KICKOFF RETURN	28.0	9th
43.0	11th	NET PUNTING	36.5	94th
MISCELLANEOUS
+1.2	8th	TURNOVER MARGIN	-0.8	115th
5.3	23rd	PENALTIES	5.8	39th
17		EDGE	1

TODAY'S TRIVIA ANSWERS

How many rushing touchdowns has Ohio State's defense allowed this season? 

Answer: Two. The Silver Bullets are also holding opponents to 2.4 yards per rushing attempt.

Since 1950 how many Ohio State coaches have lost to Northwestern? Can you name the losing coach(es)? 

Answer: Two. Woody Hayes (1958, 1962, 1963, 1971) and Jim Tressel (2004).

Including this week's game, how many times have the Buckeyes played a regular season game on a Friday night?

Answer: Two. The first regular season Friday night game was against No. 11 USC in 1959. The Buckeyes were blanked, 17-0, in Los Angeles. 

However, this will be the 17th time for a Friday game in program history, eleven bowl games and four regular season contests. The first two regular season Friday games were in 1890 and 1895.  

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