Ohio State football: Buckeyes, Huskers going separate ways despite similarities

Both are even coached by former quarterbacks who are known for being innovative offensive minds but talk a lot about toughness and grit.

The seasons have not gone similarly for the Buckeyes and the Cornhuskers to this point, but their high noon showdown Saturday could alter the course of the campaign for both.

Here are five things to know about the game:

1. Ohio State coach Ryan Day thinks the Cornhuskers are not far from getting back on track.

Coaches love to say their next opponent is better than their record, but in the case of Nebraska there is some evidence that is true.

To get to 3-6, the Cornhuskers have beaten overmatched Fordham, Buffalo and Northwestern and lost to Illinois, Oklahoma, Michigan State, Michigan, Minnesota and Purdue.

The Sooners, Spartans and Wolverines have one loss combined and were all in the top 10 of the first College Football Playoff rankings released this week.

The Cornhuskers lost to them by a combined 13 points.

“I think they’re very close,” Day said. “They have good coaches and they’re playing well. I know they’re very dangerous.”

2. How long “being close” will be good enough for coach Scott Frost with the fan base remains to be seen.

Frost, a national championship quarterback for the Huskers in the mid-90s, was seen as a savior for the program when he was hired in 2018, but it has not gone well so far.

He is 15-26 at NU so far and will need to pull multiple upsets — starting with Ohio State — to get his team to a bowl this season.

“Wins need to happen,” Frost said this week. “We have to win. The wins take care of everything and despite all the improvement that I’ve seen, that part hasn’t improved. We’ve had a tough schedule and played some really good teams, but we’ve got to get them done. We’ve got to get them done. That’s the nature of the business. I understand that because I understand that and we’ll keep fighting every day to make that happen.”

3. Nebraska has played its best against the best teams on its schedule.

While the Cornhuskers have three of the “best losses” in the country, they might be feeling a lot better about themselves if they had not lost to three other teams that are on their level (Minnesota and Purdue) or below (Illinois).

“We get people’s best shots,” Frost said. “We try to give people our best shots.

“I think (Ohio State) is a really talented team that is hitting its stride. Other than last week, they had not really had a close game for a long time, but our guys are excited. They love these games. I think we have probably played our best football against the best teams that we have played this year. This team is probably the best or close to it that we have played all year. I am sure the rest of the season will reveal all that, but they are going to come in ready and our guys are excited to play.”

4. Day believes in the mettle his team has displayed this season — but the Buckeyes still have a lot of work to do to reach their goals.

“I think we’ve experienced a lot so far,” Day said. “I think that is good for a young team to have experienced big wins, big losses. We’ve experienced close games. We’ve played on the road. We’ve played at home. We’ve played night games. We’ve played afternoon games. We’ve been up and we’ve been down.

“The offense has played well, the defense has played well. The offense has played OK, the defense has played OK. It’s been one of those seasons where we have already experienced a lot of things. We are still young, but we’ve gained a lot of experience throughout the year. I have been impressed with how they have approached practice and how serious they have approached preparation.

“I think this team likes football. They like preparing at a high level. Now, we’ve got to prove how consistent we are here in November because this is where championships are won.”

5. Turnovers are something to watch Saturday.

This is always a key stat, but it could be even more so in this matchup.

The Huskers are 94th in the country in turnover margin (-.3) and have struggled both in terms takeaways and giveaways, ranking 86th and 87th, respectively, in the country.

Ohio State is at the other end of the spectrum. The Buckeyes are 29th in turnover margin (1.0), 29th in takeaways (14) and fourth in giveaways (six).

Forcing a pair of turnovers was key to Ohio State’s success last week against Penn State while Nebraska was largely undone at Purdue by four interceptions.

The Huskers also lost the turnover battle against Oklahoma, Michigan and Michigan State.

SATURDAY’S GAME

Ohio State at Nebraska, Noon, Fox, 1410