Ohio State-Iowa: Clash of styles in store Saturday

“This team is always difficult to beat,” Ohio State head coach Ryan Day said Tuesday. “It doesn’t matter what year it is.”

Here are five things to know about the game:

1. Two elite units will be on the field when the Buckeyes have the ball.

No one averages more points than Ohio State so far this season (48.8), and only two teams are allowing more points than Iowa (9.8).

The Buckeyes are good at passing and rushing, and Iowa is good at stopping both so something has to give.

“This time of year where you truly start showing if you’re tough and you’re physical and you’re disciplined and you play with respect and you have good preparation,” Ohio State offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson said. “I love the way our kids practiced last week. Liked the quick start we had yesterday. But we’re in the stretch where you find out what kind of football team you got, and it’s gonna be a great test on Saturday.”

2. Ohio State should be at least close to full strength.

Day tries to avoid discussing injuries during the week, but he said Thursday he expects both of his top running backs to be available Saturday after TreVeyon Henderson and Miyan Williams alternated missing games the previous two weeks the Buckeyes were in action.

“I think the bye week really helped both of them, and we’re looking forward to having a full-strength running back corps,” Day said.

He also indicated junior receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba could finally be ready to return from a hamstring injury that knocked him out of Ohio State’s third game of the season and has kept him out since, but his status likely won’t be known until the availability report is published Saturday morning.

“We try to take a lot of the gray out of it and just say that they’re available, or they’re not available to play, but I think whether they’re available to play for an entire game or not, those are the decisions that for all of our guys we continue to look at and try to figure out how many plays is the right number of plays for a guy.”

3. Iowa’s most-productive offensive player is a freshman from Southwest Ohio.

Kaleb Johnson was a three-star prospect in the 2022 recruiting class and the No. 15 prospect in Ohio according to 247Sports Composite rankings after rushing for 1,002 yards and 14 touchdowns last season for Hamilton High School.

Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz said at Big Ten Media Days in July he could see the 6-2, 212-pounder contributing right away, and he has.

Johnson enters Saturday second on the team with 232 yards rushing and leads the team at 4.6 yards per carry and three touchdowns. As the team’s primary kickoff return man, he is fourth in the Big Ten with a 25.5-yard average and leads Iowa with 392 all-purpose yards.

Ferentz also indicated linebacker Jestin Jacobs, a linebacker from Northmont High School who had season-ending surgery last month, could make the trip to Columbus with his teammates if there is room on the travel roster.

“I haven’t told him that, but yeah,” Ferentz said Tuesday during his weekly press conference in Iowa City. “I had that thought a couple days ago. Keep it quiet. Keep it on low burn right now. I don’t know what the roster is going to look like. We typically have room. For guys that are established starters, we have an open mind on that. Certainly it makes sense if we can fit them in. Fingers crossed, I think we’ll be able to. He’s doing better, but it’s, you know, the mental part of injuries is tough and it hit him hard. Disappointing.”

4. Day wants the Buckeyes to have revenge on their mind.

Five years have passed since Ohio State last played Iowa, but the Hawkeyes’ 55-24 upset was a memorable contest to say the least even though almost no current Buckeyes were on the roster then.

“Just because we weren’t a part of it doesn’t mean people in this building still aren’t affected by that game,” Ohio State center Luke Wypler said. “It doesn’t matter if you were a part of it or not, it’s still revenge. They beat us. It’s in our heads. Anything that can get your blood boiling a little extra and kind of make you go a little harder.”

5. Ultimately, the game could come down to control.

Day wants a track meet while Ferentz wants to play in a phone booth.

“Well, they want to run the ball they want to control to control the clock, so we got to get off the field on third down,” Ohio State safety Ronnie Hickman said. “Another possession with them could be another 3-4 minutes just because of how their offense plays, what they like to do. So you know, it’s a priority for us to get off the field when we can.”

Ferentz noted putting Ohio State into challenging down-and-distance situations can be a challenge, but that is the goal.

“The thing that jumps out is it’s tough to knock them off the tracks,” Ferentz said. “It’s tough to get them behind in the count. Good defenses try to do that to offenses, make them have to go the long field or third and longs, those kinds of things.

“It’s not easy to do with this football team because they’re really adept at what they do. They have that explosive capability, too, with the receivers. They had two (NFL) first rounders last year. They feel like the guy on campus were better than or as good as. Gives you an indication of the kind of talent. Like the team we played a couple weeks ago, every play you’ve got to be on top of your game, or it can be sudden death real fast for you.”

SATURDAY’S GAME

Iowa at Ohio State, Noon, Fox, 1410