Minnesota at Ohio State: What to know about Saturday’s game
Previous meeting: In the 2021 season opening, Ohio State defeated Minnesota 45–31 thanks to a touchdown pass from C.J. Stroud that gained 294 yards and four completions. It was also the collegiate football debut for numerous current team mainstays, including Denzel Burke, J.T. Tuimoloau, TreVeyon Henderson, Marvin Harrison Jr., and Stroud, who was making his first start of the season.
Coaches: Ryan Day of Ohio State is 55-6 in five seasons, with a 38-2 record in the Big Ten. P.J. Fleck, the head coach of Minnesota, has led the Golden Gophers for seven seasons and has an overall record of 79-54.
Notes about Ohio State: Ohio State is second nationally in passes defended (54), second in points allowed (9.9 per game), and second in passing yards allowed (149.8 per game). With 75 career receptions, tight end Cade Stover ranks third at Ohio State. In its final three games, Ohio State’s rushing average dropped from 138.6 yards per game to 165.6 yards per week. In terms of total offense (428.8) and passing yards (290.2 per game), Ohio State tops the Big Ten. When it comes to yards per completion (14.07), Kyle McCord tops the Big Ten. This season, the Buckeyes’ turnover margin is
Notes from Minnesota: Ohio State was last defeated by the Golden Gophers in 2000. Dragan Kesich, who has made 21 of 25 field goals, is a semifinalist for the Lou Groza Award. In 2006, Fleck worked as a graduate assistant at Ohio State.
Three Ohioans are on the Minnesota roster: junior kicker Jacob Lewis (Delaware Olentangy Berlin), sophomore linebacker Devon Williams (Dublin Coffman), and freshman offensive lineman Phillip Daniels (Cincinnati Princeton).
Fleck on his team’s inability to live up to expectations this season: The year seven component doesn’t make a lot of sense when you’re talking about, ‘It’s year seven, so it should be at X, Y, and Z.’ I realize that’s not where everyone wants it to be.
However, given the portal, NIL, and other factors, we recognized that, despite having an experienced team the previous year, this team will grow significantly younger and less experienced very soon, particularly given the way our program is administered.
We demonstrated this to our team yesterday. There are several distinct teams here. They’ve won ten, nine, eleven, whatever—and then everything went wrong. They may have had an injury bug for a year.
