Notre Dame at Ohio State: What you need to know about Saturday’s season opener

Where: Ohio Stadium, Columbus, Ohio

TV/Radio: ABC/1410

Series history: Ohio State leads 4-2 and has won four in a row after dropping a pair of games in the 1930s.

Last meeting: Ezekiel Elliott ran for 149 yards and four touchdowns as Ohio State topped Notre Dame 44-28 in the Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 1, 2016.

Coaches: Ohio State’s Ryan Day is 34-4 in three seasons, including 23–1 in the Big Ten. Marcus Freeman is 0-1 entering his first full season as a head coach at Notre Dame. (He coached the Fighting Irish in their Fiesta Bowl loss to end last season.)

Ohio State notes: Ohio State has played the nation’s No. 5 team to start the season twice and lost both times. The Buckeyes fell to Penn State at home 19-0 in 1978 and lost 16-10 to Alabama at home in 1986… Ohio State has six starters back on offense and seven on defense… Ohio State last started the season against a ranked team in 2003 when the Buckeyes beat Washington 28-9… The Buckeyes have won their season-opener 22 years in a row with the last loss coming against Miami (Fla.) in the 1999 Kickoff Classic at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.

Notre Dame notes: The Fighting Irish last started a season with a top five matchup in 1990 when No. 1-ranked Notre Dame beat No. 4 Michigan 28-24 in South Bend… Notre Dame has won five consecutive seasonopeners… Freshman offensive lineman Aamil Wagner, a Yellow Springs native who graduated from Wayne High School, is among nine Ohioans on the Notre Dame roster… Notre Dame’s most recent road victory against a top 10 team was Oct. 27, 2012, when the fifth-ranked Irish topped No. 8 Oklahoma 30-13 in Memorial Stadium… The school’s last road victory over a top five team was in 2005 when No. 20 Notre Dame beat No. 3 Michigan 17-10 at Michigan Stadium.. ND defensive end Isaiah Foskey enters the season with 15.5 career sacks in 29 games played and needs nine sacks to match the school record of 24.5 by Justin Tuck (2002-04).

Quotable: “Any competitor wants this. You want an opportunity to go and play against the best. There is no better way to see where we are as a football team than to go and say, let’s go play one of the best teams in the country and see where we’re at. We’re excited. I really, really am pleased with the progress we’ve made as a team over these past three or four weeks of fall camp.” -- Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman

Next game: Ohio State will be back home next Saturday to face Arkansas State at noon. Notre Dame will begin its home slate against Marshall at 2:30 p.m.

Prediction: Ohio State 41, Notre Dame 23