Indiana at Ohio State: What you need to know about Saturday’s Big Ten showdown

Where: Ohio Stadium, Columbus, Ohio

TV/Radio: Fox/1410

Series history: Ohio State leads 80-12-5. The series began with five Indiana wins and a tie from 1901-13, but the Buckeyes are 80-7-4 since then, including two losses since 1952. Those were back to back in 1987 and ‘88.

Last meeting: Kyle McCord completed 20 of 33 passes for 239 yards with an interception as the Buckeyes opened the 2023 season with a 23-3 win in Bloomington. Cade Stover caught five passes for 98 yards while Chip Trayanum and TreVeyon Henderson combined for 112 yards on 20 carries for the Buckeyes.

Coaches: Ohio State’s Ryan Day is 65-9 overall and 45-4 in the Big Ten in six seasons, all at Ohio State. Curt Cignetti is 10-0 in his first season at Indiana and 135-29 in 14 seasons as a head coach.

Ohio State notes: The Buckeyes have allowed 37 points the last four weeks after giving up 32 to Oregon in an early October loss…Ohio State leads the Big Ten in scoring defense, total defense, passing defense, third down defense, red zone offense and red zone defense… Six Buckeyes on scholarship are from Indiana: DE Caden Curry (Greenwood), OT Josh Fryar (Beach Grove), receiver Mylan Graham (New Haven), OT Zen Michalski (Floyds Knob), DE Josh Mickens (Indianapolis) and OT Ian Moore (New Palestine)… Ohio State offensive line coach Justin Frye was a 45-game starter for the Hoosiers, his home-state school, and current OSU safeties coach Matt Guerrieri was the co-defensive coordinator at Indiana last season… Ohio State has forced a turnover in four consecutive games.

Indiana notes: The Hoosiers lead the Big Ten in scoring offense, rushing defense, tackles for loss and sacks… They are 14th in red zone defense but seventh or better in every other major stat… Indiana already has set a program record for wins in a season with 10… The Hoosiers have held seven opponents below 100 yards rushing this season… Indiana has 57 offensive touchdowns, tied with Miami (Fla.) for the most in the country… Cignetti added 27 players to his roster via the transfer portal, including 10 starters on defense. Thirteen of the transfers played for Cignetti at James Madison last season.

Quoted: Cignetti on his high expectations for his teams: “I think any P4 school with the proper commitment is capable of being successful and being ultimately successful because really the difference between victory and defeat in most of these games is very slight, slim. It’s all attainable. We’ve put ourselves in a position right now to be talked about quite a bit. That’s nice. It doesn’t help us prepare, doesn’t help us play any better. But we’ve got some great opportunities ahead of us. This is a team that’s capable, and the only limitations on this football team would be those we put on ourselves — between our ears.”

Prediction: Ohio State 21, Indiana 13.

Next week: Ohio State will play host to Michigan for the 120th edition of The Game at noon. Indiana will return home to play host to Purdue in the battle for the Old Oaken Bucket.