EVANSTON, Ill. – No. 4 Ohio State’s 12-game winning streak – second longest in FBS – is on the line Friday night when it takes on Northwestern.
(4) Ohio State (6-0, 3-0) at Northwestern (1-4, 0-3)
Fri., Oct. 18 – Ryan Field, Evanston, Ill. (8:30 p.m./BTN)
NOTE: The TV network carrying the game was changed this week
The Buckeyes have bulldozed everyone in their path, putting up big numbers on offense and strangling opponents with its defense while Northwestern is struggling.
The game Friday night between two teams that played in the Big Ten championship game last season — won by Ohio State 45-24 — sure looks like a mismatch on paper. And with a showdown against No. 6 Wisconsin next week, coach Ryan Day reminded the Buckeyes not to look past the Wildcats.
“This week we’ve talked about having a white belt mentality, which is a mentality that you’re starting right from scratch and that you don’t take anything for granted, you don’t make any assumptions,” Day said. “If we start to look ahead or start to let our egos get in the way, then we’re in trouble.”
The Buckeyes have a 6-6 record all-time on Fridays, but this is their first Friday night regular season game since Ohio State lost to USC, 17-0, at LA Memorial Coliseum on Oct. 2,1959
However, the Buckeyes’ 24-7 win over USC in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl on Dec. 29, 2017, was a Friday. So was the win over Notre Dame in the 2016 Battlefrog Fiesta Bowl and, most notably, the 31-24 double overtime win over Miami in the Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 3, 2003, when Ohio State won its seventh national championship.