Day’s team went on the road to beat Michigan State two weeks ago, but third-ranked Oregon figures to their biggest challenge so far no matter where the game is played.
“We’re going to stay on East Coast time, and I think we’ve got a good plan,” Day said. “We’re going to stay on our time schedule, and the time of the game and everything fits kind of how we practice. So we’re not going to look too much into it.”
Jon Wilner of the Bay Area News Group noted Sunday that Big Ten teams traveling at least two time zones for conference games are 1-8 so far this season.
(Indiana got the only win and had the dual benefit of an extra day off from having played the previous Friday and facing UCLA, which looks like one of the worst teams in the country.)
Such trips will become common after the conference added Oregon, UCLA, USC and Washington, but Ohio State does not have a lot of recent history going so far west in the regular season.
The last time the Buckeyes did so was 2013 when coach Urban Meyer’s team trounced California 52-34 in Berkeley.
Prior to that, the Buckeyes lost 35-3 at USC in 2008, beat Washington 33-14 in ‘07 and lost 13-6 at UCLA in 2001.
Overall, Ohio State is 15-10-1 in the Western time zone in the regular season.
That includes a 30-0 win at Oregon in 1967, the only one of the team’s 10 prior meetings to take place on the Ducks’ home turf.
The Buckeyes first made such a trip in 1937 when they lost 13-12 at USC. The Trojans have handed the Buckeyes half of their losses on the left coast while Ohio State has two wins and a tie against them at the L.A. Coliseum.
Ohio State is 3-0 at Cal, 1-1 at Stanford, 2-2 at UCLA, 4-2 at Washington, 1-0 at Washington State and beat Fresno State in a neutral site game in Anaheim, Calif.
After playing at Oregon this year, Ohio State will have a week off to prepare for an Oct. 26 visit from Nebraska.
Oregon has not left the West Coast yet, having won three home games and visits to Oregon State and UCLA.
SATURDAY’S GAME
Ohio State at Oregon, 7:30 p.m., NBC, 1410
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