Ohio State Football: Confidence level against Western Kentucky
By Eric Boggs
Overall Score – Confidence Level 90%
Western Kentucky offers the Ohio State football team its greatest challenge this season up to this point. Their unique style of play coupled with their David versus Goliath approach offers the Buckeyes a new and different challenge. Many view this game as a warm-up before next week’s giant showdown against Notre Dame. That would be a major mistake if the coaching staff viewed this week’s game in that manner. Thankfully that isn’t how their coaching staff does their work.
No doubt Ryan Day and company have been preparing for Western Kentucky just like they were preparing for last week’s opponent, and just like they will prepare for next week’s big game. That is why I am still at 90 percent on my confidence level scale for this week. I am not confident that Ohio State will be able to go over the spread of 27 ½ points, but I am confident that they are going to win this game.
As I stated last week, the Ohio State football team doesn’t have the luxury of just rolling their helmets out on the field and expecting the opponent to fold. Western Kentucky isn’t afraid of Ohio State. They have played road games at Auburn, Michigan State, and Indiana in the past two seasons.
They haven’t walked out of any of those games with a win, but they have come close. One can make the argument that Ohio State is at a completely different level altogether when compared to those other schools, and I am inclined to agree. But that doesn’t mean it is going to be an auto “W.”
What I am most interested in seeing is how the Buckeye defense adapts to a third straight opponent who brings a different style of offense to the table. There is a lot of buzz around the Woody Hayes Athletic Center that the Buckeye defense is championship-level.
If that is the case, then we need to see it against a team that is going to attack the secondary, which is what we are signing up for on Saturday. Can they pass this test with flying colors, or will we see some chinks in the armor?
Next. Ohio State's three keys to victory over WKU. dark
As they say, that is why they play the games on the field and not on paper. If you won’t be watching the game from the Shoe on Saturday, you can tune into FOX for the broadcast. Kickoff is scheduled for 4:00 pm EST.