Penn State head coach James Franklin has one of the best résumés in college football.
Since taking over in 2014, he's 84-36, with a Big 10 Championship and a Rose Bowl win. His players, such as Micah Parsons and Saquon Barkley, have found success in the NFL. His teams have been consistently bowl-eligible and are frequently in the AP Top 25.
He's accomplished nearly everything short of winning a national championship. If Franklin is going to reach that mountaintop, he'll need to remove his main stumbling block: beating Ohio State and Michigan.
Of Franklin's 36 losses as head coach at Penn State, 14 of them have come at the hands of Michigan and Ohio State. In nine seasons, he's beaten the Wolverines just three times. Ohio is heading into Saturday's matchup after winning its last six games against Penn State's Nittany Lions.
Franklin's lone victory against the Ohio State Buckeyes came in 2016. The Nittany Lions' victory over then-second-ranked Ohio State propelled them to a Big 10 championship. But their two losses earlier in the season, one to Michigan, kept them out of the College Football Playoff. They lost the Rose Bowl to USC 52-49.
And while some will point to Franklin's less-than-stellar record against teams ranked in the top 10 (just three wins in 18 tries), two-thirds of those games were against Michigan and Ohio State.
The Penn State coach gets another opportunity to exorcize the demons in scarlet and gray when the Nittany Lions travel for a road game against the No. 4 Buckeyes. In his Tuesday press conference, Franklin tried to keep the focus on this week's game rather than past disappointments.
"We're trying to find a way to get a win this week against a really good team, against a program we got tremendous respect for, coaching staff we got a ton of respect for, the talent they have," Franklin told reporters. "But we approach it the same every single week. Everybody on the outside is talking. We're approaching it the way we do every single week. This is a really important game. Why? Because of how we've handed the previous six."
Penn State has been on a roll since last season's loss against Ohio State, winning each of its 11 games by at least 14 points. The Nittany Lions enter Saturday's game on the heels of last week's 63-0 victory against UMass.
Ohio State, also undefeated and ranked fourth in the country, enters the game following a 41-7 victory last week against Purdue. Franklin's counterpart, Ryan Day, is 51-6 at Ohio State. Day has not lost to Penn State and is nearly flawless in Big 10 action, holding a 34-2 record in conference games.
Day isn't resting on the possibility of Penn State leaving Ohio Stadium with a win.
"Against any team we play, you prepare just like you have for the weeks prior, but you also know that it's a very good team and there are challenges across the board," Day told reporters during Wednesday's press conference. "You prepare for every scenario that could come up. It's like a test, and you find out how you do on Saturday."
How to Watch Penn State vs. Ohio State
Ohio State hosts Penn State for a noon ET kickoff. On Fox, Gus Johnson (play-by-play), Joel Klatt (analyst), and Jenny Taft (sidelines) will call the action. The game will also be available to stream via Fox Sports and other online resources.
Betting Info
Ohio State is a 4.5 favorite, according to Thursday's odds on BetMGM. Penn State hasn't allowed an opponent to score more than 15 points this season, and Ohio State has held every opposing team under 20. Oddsmakers expect a low scoring, as reflected by the over/under set at 45.5 points.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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