Ohio State’s homestand rolls on Saturday with Northwestern coming to Ohio Stadium for a Noon ET kickoff, and the matchup carries a little extra familiarity for the Buckeyes. It will be the first time the two teams have met at Ohio Stadium in the Ryan Day era and the first such meeting since the 2016 season.
The Buckeyes have handled Northwestern well for a long time, and the numbers back that up. Ohio State has won 11 straight in the series, has taken 35 of the last 36 meetings dating back to 1971, and owns a 66-14-1 all-time record against the Wildcats. In the Day era, Ohio State is 4-0 against Northwestern, including a pair of Big Ten title game wins.
Home field has been a major edge for the Buckeyes, too. Ohio State is 491-116-20 all-time in Ohio Stadium, and its 160 home wins since 2000 are eight more than any other program in the country. Since the start of the 2019 season, the Buckeyes have piled up 48 home victories, the most by any team in that span.
Jeremiah Smith continues to put himself in a class of his own. Since entering college football in 2024, he leads all players in receptions with 232, receiving yards with 3,758 and receiving touchdowns with 41.
Through the first nine games, Smith has 69 catches for 1,200 yards and 14 touchdowns. Over 32 quarters this season, he has averaged 2.2 catches, 37.5 yards and 0.44 touchdowns per quarter, a pace that projects to 95 receptions, 1,650 yards and 19 touchdowns by the end of the regular season.
Smith enters Saturday needing 31 receiving yards to break the Big Ten records. He already owns the most career 100-yard games in Ohio State history with 16, and one more would tie the Big Ten record held by David Bell of Purdue and Braylon Edwards of Michigan. With 41 touchdown receptions, Smith is tied for the most receiving touchdowns by any wide receiver in their first three seasons, and he needs three more touchdowns to own the highest three-year total by any Power-4 receiver ever.
Ryan Day’s Big Ten track record remains stacked with wins. Saturday will be his 67th Big Ten game in charge, counting the win over Rutgers as acting head coach in 2018.
In his previous 66 conference games, Ohio State is 59-7 overall and 30-3 at home. The Buckeyes are also 17-4 against ranked Big Ten opponents during his tenure.
Day’s teams have been especially strong in November, going 24-5 in the month with an 8-3 mark against ranked opponents. At home in November, Ohio State is 14-3 under his direction.
Since the start of the 2019 season, the Buckeyes’ 48 home wins are tied for the highest total in the country. Across Day’s 66-game Big Ten run, Ohio State has averaged 39.2 points per game while allowing 15.7.
Northwestern arrives at 6-3, with losses at Indiana, at Oregon and against Iowa. The Wildcats are 1-2 on the road this season, with their lone road win coming in a 24-21 result at Michigan State.
David Braun’s program has gone 25-22 over four seasons, with bowl-winning campaigns in 2023 and 2025. Against Iowa, Northwestern was without starting quarterback Aidan Chiles because of injury, and Nicco Marchiol made his first start as a Wildcat. He completed 24 of 32 passes for 181 yards and a touchdown while leading the team with 52 rushing yards.
Griffin Wilde has been Northwestern’s top receiving threat, posting 49 catches for 813 yards and five touchdowns through nine games. He added five receptions for 52 yards against Iowa after back-to-back 100-yard outings, including a five-catch, 146-yard, one-touchdown performance at Oregon.
On defense, Braydon Brus has been a steady force. The linebacker has 75 tackles through nine games, and his 13.5 tackles for loss over that stretch are the most by a Northwestern player since 1995.
In Other News...
Ohio State Fans Have A New Reason To Worry About Legend Bey
Legend Bey arrived at Ohio State with some buzz, but his first season has not gone the way many Buckeyes fans hoped. The freshman running back has seen limited playing time, and his path has already been complicated by a suspension early in fall camp. Even with the season moving along, Bey has not been able to carve out much of a role in a backfield that has been difficult to crack.
Bey added another layer of uncertainty this week by posting a cryptic message on social media, which naturally sparked concern about where things stand. Nothing official has been announced, and there is no confirmation that he is entering the transfer portal, but the timing of the post is enough to make people around the program pay attention. For a player still trying to find his footing, and for a fan base watching the running back room closely, it is the kind of development that raises more questions than answers. [Read more 🡒]
Ohio State Makes Another Special Teams Change After Costly Problems Persist
Ohio State has moved on from special teams coordinator Robby Discher after the 2026 season, another sign that the Buckeyes are still searching for answers in a phase of the game that never quite stabilized. Discher was hired in January with the expectation that he would help clean up a unit that had become a recurring concern, but the same issues kept surfacing, from kickoff and punt return troubles to penalties and miscues in important moments.
Head coach Ryan Day has already acknowledged the problems and made clear the responsibility does not rest with Discher alone, which suggests this is as much about broader accountability as it is about one staffing change. For a program with Ohio States standards, special teams has become too familiar a source of frustration, and the latest move only adds to the sense that more adjustments could still be coming. [Read more 🡒]
Ryan Day Owns Ohio State Collapse As Pressure Builds Fast
Ohio States latest setback was the kind that lingers, because it began with control and ended with a collapse. The Buckeyes jumped out to a 14-0 lead against Oregon, then watched the Ducks reel off 38 unanswered points as the offense stalled and the game slipped away, leaving Ohio State at 6-3 overall and 4-2 in Big Ten play.
Ryan Day did not try to soften the aftermath. He acknowledged the teams problems on offense, where the Buckeyes have struggled to find consistent production on the ground and through the air, and said coaching changes, play calling and personnel adjustments are all under consideration. With the season moving deeper into November, the pressure around the program is only getting louder, and the next steps now matter as much as the loss itself. [Read more 🡒]