Ohio State football: Confidence level against Penn State

The Ohio State football team’s biggest home game of the season will be this Saturday when they play host to undefeated Penn State. The Nittany Lions come into Saturday’s contest ranked sixth nationally in the AP Poll and boast the nation’s number-one-ranked defense. Ohio State isn’t too shabby themselves, ranked third in the AP Poll while boasting the seventh-ranked defense in the nation.

One would think that with two of the nation’s best defenses about to square off, more attention would be placed on that side of the ball, but it is the young first-year starting quarterbacks that appear to be getting all the attention. Penn State’s Drew Allar, who is an Ohio native, has the Nittany Lion faithful believing they can compete nationally and get back to their first Big Ten championship since 2016.

Ohio State on the other hand has seen Pennsylvania native Kyle McCord go from a quarterback competition earlier in the year to the man of many nicknames including Mr. Ice, Kyle McCool, and Comeback Kyle.

In the past, this “competitive rivalry” game, as the Big Ten coined it back during the previous release of future schedules when they determined that only Michigan would be Ohio State’s guaranteed yearly rivalry game, has been one of the most competitive on Ohio State’s schedule. Despite its competitive nature, the Buckeyes have been extremely successful in recent years.

Ohio State is on a six-game winning streak against Penn State and has won 10 out of the last 11 in the series. The last time the Nittany Lions won in Columbus was in 2011. If Ohio State plans on extending this series record win streak come this Saturday, they are going to need to win on several fronts. Let’s break down our confidence level and see what percentage we get.