Ohio State and Northwestern will meet on Saturday afternoon in the Big Ten Championship Game. But it wasn’t until mid-September that either of these teams, its players and coaches knew for certain that they would play this year and it wasn’t until late-October that the season actually kicked off.
While all Big Ten coaches wanted to take the field if it was safe to do so, Ryan Day and the Buckeyes were at the forefront of the push back against the Big Ten and encouraged the conference to play. Earlier this week, Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald gave Day a lot of credit for allowing the Scarlet and Gray, the Wildcats and the rest of the Big Ten to play in 2020.
“Starting in the offseason, we had a lot obviously that was on our plates as head coaches and his leadership in the offseason and his commitment to work his tail off to get this season up and going,” Fitzgerald said of Day. “I’ve always respected Ryan incredibly well at the utmost level and to see what he did all summer long was awesome.”
Fitzgerald said Day received his vote for Big Ten Coach of the Year, an award Day shared with Minnesota’s P.J. Fleck last year, becoming the first Buckeye to win Coach of the Year in 40 years.
But Fitzgerald didn’t just vote for Day because he helped get the season back on track. The conference’s second-longest tenured head coach has kept an eye on the Buckeyes throughout the season, not just this week, and is impressed with the second-year head coach getting the Scarlet and Gray back to the Big Ten Championship Game for the fourth year in a row.
“They’ve played clean in all three phases,” Fitzgerald said of Ohio State. “They haven’t really made a lot of mistakes. Maybe they’ve had a couple of trick plays that have gotten them or some gadgetry. But they’ve just been so sound in everything that they’ve done fundamentally, everything that they do to attack you schematically and then their talent at every position speaks for itself. So it’s going to be a huge challenge for us Saturday but I’m excited for the opportunity.”
While the Buckeyes and the Wildcats have only played four times since 2008, the two teams have met in each of the last two years, both of which involved Day. In the 2018 Big Ten Championship Game, Day was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for Urban Meyer‘s team that won 45-24. Last year, with Day taking over as head coach for Meyer, the Scarlet and Gray traveled to Evanston and came home with a 52-3 win.
In both of those contests, Ohio State has had its way with a Northwestern defense that is expected to be the strength of its team every year. In 2018, the Buckeyes managed 607 total yards with quarterback Dwayne Haskins throwing for 499. Last year, the Scarlet and Gray were able to take their foot off the gas with a comfortable lead in the third quarter, but still managed 480 total yards with Justin Fields throwing for 201 before taking a seat on the bench.
What Day and offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson have done well against Northwestern is find advantageous situations in which Ohio State can take advantage. That could be a scheme they see that will work against the Wildcats’ defense or a player-on-player matchup that they identify either pregame or once the contest starts.
Two years ago, it was the Buckeye slot receivers of Johnnie Dixon and Parris Campbell, with a combined 14 catches for 218 yards and a touchdown, who shined against Northwestern in the conference title game. In last year’s route, the Scarlet and Gray rushed for 279 yards with three running backs going over the 50-yard-rushing mark.
“I think there’s nothing more valuable than experience,” Fitzgerald said of these last two meetings. “I think that group has been really consistent all year long and now we’re going to face our stiffest challenge. We thought we were going to have a huge challenge when we played Purdue and that’s nothing compared to the challenge this Saturday.
“We sure weren’t very close last year. They probably had a better game against their twos than the way we played. We’re just going to erase that from the memory bank.”
This season, Northwestern once again boasts a talented defense entering the Big Ten Championship Game. The Wildcats have the country’s No. 2 scoring defense, allowing just 14.6 points per game, and No. 13 total defense, conceding only 313.9 yards per game.
Names like Paddy Fisher, Blake Gallagher, Chris Bergin and others have been in the games against the Buckeyes and have gained that experience Fitzgerald mentioned. Of course, knowing what is coming and stopping Day’s offense are two different things.
On Saturday, Northwestern will face another prolific Ohio State offense that is top 10 in yards per game and top five in points scored per game. The Buckeyes’ worst offensive output this year was 498 yards and that came in the first game of the season.
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Fitzgerald is not surprised by these offensive numbers, and also believes the Scarlet and Gray possess a talented defense that may be underrated coming into the Big Ten Championship Game. He has seen the work Day has done with this team and the way he leads a group, as he did Big Ten coaches this offseason.
To get a win in this game against the conference’s perennial powers would mean a lot for Northwestern. It would also be a big deal for Fitzgerald against a coach and an opponent he very much respects.
“They’ve earned that. You can’t take anything away from what they’ve done on the field,” Fitzgerald said of Ohio State.
“Obviously (a win) would mean that we would be Big Ten champions. And that’s the goal of 14 institutions each year and two of us get an opportunity to compete for it. So that would be something that obviously hasn’t happened during my time. So personally, I would take great pride in the way that our guys played and the way that our coaches coached and enjoy the heck out of next Saturday night. Not gonna lie to you, it would be a helluva ride home on I-65.”
