There are arguably more stakes tied up in Ohio State's second top-five in-conference road matchup than in its first one.
#3 Penn State
Nittany Lions
That's probably because the Buckeyes lost to Oregon earlier in the campaign and eliminated their margin of error for the Big Ten Championship race, but Ohio State's first Big Ten title since 2020 almost certainly comes off the table with a loss at No. 3 Penn State on Saturday.
The No. 1 Ducks, Nittany Lions and No. 13 Indiana are still undefeated in conference play. Penn State suffering two losses other than Ohio State, and Indiana taking an additional defeat to force a massive tiebreaker scenario of teams with two losses seems near-impossible should the Buckeyes fall to the Nittany Lions.
Those stakes are met with a formidable Penn State squad. A defense ranked in the top 15 in the four biggest stat categories – scoring, total defense, rushing and passing defense – is married with a much-improved offense under new coordinator Andy Kotelnicki, who formerly ran a relatively prolific attack at Kansas.
As with Oregon, this week's Five Things to Know is focused fully on the football for this marquee matchup and not any fun facts as with the Bugeaters or Boogercats.
Unbeaten but not untested
Even though Penn State is 7-0 this season, it's still been on a roller coaster.
It started in Week 2 against a now 4-4 Bowling Green squad. The Nittany Lions trailed at halftime 24-20 before ultimately scraping out a 34-27 win. Penn State only outgained its MAC foe by 63 yards, as a few extended scoring drives shortened the game for the Falcons.
On Oct. 12, the Nittany Lions hit the road to USC and struggled to adapt to the time zone difference and the Trojans' offense and defense early on, trailing 20-6 at halftime. Quarterback Drew Allar and tight end Tyler Warren – more on both of them later – spearheaded a sharp comeback effort to force overtime tied at 30.
USC went three plays and out to miss a 45-yard field goal. Penn State's offense was also forced off the field in three plays in overtime but set up kicker Ryan Barker with a 36-yarder for the win, which he sank.
The Nittany Lions had a bye after that overtime battle and were hit with another challenge on the road last week at Wisconsin. Again, Penn State trailed at halftime, down 10-7 and with Allar knocked out of the game due to a left knee injury. Backup Beau Pribula went 11-of-13 for 98 yards and a touchdown in relief of the ailing star, safety Jaylen Reed opened the second half with a 19-yard pick-six and the team got out of Madison with a 28-13 win.
Stifling defense
Defensive end Abdul Carter headlines a fearsome Penn State defensive front. (Credit: Ben Queen-Imagn Images)
Ohio State's offensive line was in disarray without left tackle Josh Simmons on Saturday. With the elite nature of the front six in Penn State's 4-2-5 defense, that group is going to need to sort things out, likely with normal starting left guard Donovan Jackson kicking outside after an additional injury to Zen Michalski.
Defensive end Abdul Carter can take over games if left unchecked. A projected day-two NFL draft pick, Carter has a team-high four sacks and 9.5 tackles for loss. He's added 30 tackles, three pass breakups and a forced fumble to those numbers and is up to 15 sacks for his career.
Linebackers Kobe King and Tony Rojas have a combined 64 tackles this season with seven TFLs, and King has added a sack. Defensive tackle Zane Durant has piled up six TFLs and 2.5 sacks.
That's not to discount Penn State's secondary, though. Reed is a playmaker all over the field with two interceptions, including his pick-six, a team-high 44 tackles and 1.5 sacks. Fellow safety Zakee Wheatley is second on the team in tackles with 37 and cornerback A.J. Harris, a big five-star target at one time for Ohio State in the recruiting class of 2023, transferred in from Georgia this offseason to collect three pass breakups and one interception through seven games.
As well as being top 15 in the big four defensive counting stats per game, Penn State is No. 13 nationally in yards allowed per carry at 3.2 and No. 6 in yards allowed per pass attempt at 5.7. The group may have allowed 27 points to Bowling Green and 30 to USC, but it paved the way for a 34-12 win at West Virginia to open the season for the Nittany Lions and smothered then-No. 19 Illinois in a 21-7 victory.
All-out Allar
Allar is living up to his five-star billing three years into his college career. If he's able to play Saturday, he'll be a significant challenge for Ohio State's defense to contain.
Completing 71.3% of his passes for 1,640 yards and 12 touchdowns, Allar only has four interceptions through seven games and averages 10 yards per pass attempt. And he's achieved those numbers despite having no wide receiver who averages more than 50 yards per game.
Allar has been ruthlessly consistent in 2024. His worst completion percentage in a game was 64.7 after he connected on 59.9% of his passes in 2023. He did throw three interceptions against USC but made up for it with a furious second-half comeback effort, racking up 391 yards through the air.
A native of Medina, Ohio, Allar was overlooked by the Buckeyes in favor of Quinn Ewers early in the 2022 recruiting cycle, rising the ranks as time passed to earn his five-star status. By the time Ewers reclassified to 2021 and transferred to Texas after a few months in Columbus, Allar was already locked in with Penn State.
Penn State's rushing attack can't be ignored either, with the tandem of Kaytron Allen and Nicholas Singleton propelling Penn State to 29th in the country at 5.1 yards per carry.
But if Allar is healthy, he'll be hunting for revenge after completing just 42.9% of his passes at Ohio State in a top-10 showdown the Nittany Lions lost 20-12 last year. It was the Buckeyes' seventh straight win in the two sides' series.
Be wary of Warren
Tight end Tyler Warren is the most prolific weapon Penn State possesses on offense. (Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images)
I believe I forgot to mention Warren's stat line against USC when I noted he and Allar led the two-score comeback in Los Angeles. Warren had 17 receptions for 224 yards and a touchdown.
That ties the NCAA record for receptions in a game by a tight end. It's the second-most in Nittany Lion school history by any pass catcher regardless of position, only surpassed by wide receiver Jahan Dotson's 242-yard performance at Maryland in 2021.
For the season, Warren's piled up 47 receptions for 559 yards and four touchdowns, pacing the team in all three categories. That outing against the Trojans isn't his only big one of the year, as he put up eight catches for 146 yards against Bowling Green.
Another note to keep in mind: Warren has completed two passes running trick plays this year, including a 17-yard scoring toss against Kent State in Week 4.
Big Game James
Ryan Day's got narratives to kick about his ability to win the games that matter most at Ohio State. On Saturday, he'll battle another head coach with an identical narrative, albeit perhaps a tier lower.
Penn State head coach James Franklin is 3-17 with the Nittany Lions against top-10 teams. That includes his aforementioned seven consecutive losses to the Buckeyes, though he did get one of his three top-10 wins against them in 2016.
Excluding the COVID-19-shortened 2020 season, Franklin's squad has reached 10 wins in five of its last seven full campaigns but never gotten to 12 victories. That same 2016 season is also Penn State's only Big Ten Championship under Franklin. They've been firmly entrenched at the top of the second tier of the conference for almost a decade, unable to break through that next barrier and become one of college football's elite programs.
Whichever head coach prevails on Saturday could be rewriting some storylines about his career.
