The Ohio State Buckeyes celebrates their 38 -7 win against the Michigan State Spartans at Spartan Stadium on September 28, 2024 in East Lansing, Michigan. (Photo by Rey Del Rio/Getty Images)
November brings us a must win college football game Saturday as Ohio State visits Penn State. Must win for who? Both! And this is a must win game for multiple reasons. Both teams are fighting for a chance to appear in the Big Ten Championship game in December. And both, likely college football playoff participants, will fight for advantageous seedings and possible home field advantage for those playoffs.
Let us begin with Ohio State. They are at a disadvantage because they already have one loss when they were on the short end of a one point game at Oregon. They cannot afford another loss in the Big Ten race, but they would still be safely in the college football playoffs at this point. A loss Saturday with games against a ranked Indiana team with something to prove and the Michigan game where anything can happen, puts Ryan Day and the Buckeyes in a tough spot. Another disadvantage for them is Saturday's game is on the road at Beaver Stadium, one of the toughest places to play in the country.
One strategic item to keep track of is Ohio State's offensive line. They are banged up and their running game suffered against Nebraska last week.
MUST WIN COLLEGE FOOTBALL
This is a must win game for James Franklin and undefeated Penn State for all the same Big Ten title and college football reasons we gave above. But there is added incentive for the Nittany Lions in this game. Penn State is routinely a 10-win team. They always beat teams they are supposed to beat. But they always lose the big games against teams like Ohio State. If not now, then when will they ever win a game like this?
A strategic note for Penn State is the health of starting quarterback Drew Allar who twisted his knee in the Wisconsin game and his availability will be a game time decision. The team is also banged up along its offensive and defensive lines.
It is a must win college football game for both and we cannot wait to watch. For more college football talk and analysis tune in each weekday to Craig Shemon and Company from 2-6pm on ESPN Southwest Florida.
