Finally, the Saturday everyone had circled is upon us.
No, not the Arch Manning one. Not any of those three away games over a four-game stretch, at least one of which was destined to be tricky. Ohio State beat Washington, Illinois and Wisconsin in their houses by a combined 70-point margin.
No part of those road trips was tricky, but none of those games were circled either.
We had this one circled all offseason! Not Nico Iamaleava's return to Neyland North. Not Michigan. This Saturday was circled! One of our idiot writers even suggested it might be the first of three meetings:
Penn State and Ohio State are the B1G's top two entering this season and they meet up Halloween weekend. The postseason infrastructure allows for an Indianapolis rendezvous and then another over the holidays.
Everyone had it circled! As for playing any team three times in one season, Georgia and Texas would have pulled that off in 2024 had Notre Dame and Ohio State not gotten in their way. If Penn State had been able to, I don't know, complete a single pass to a wide receiver against the Irish that could have been their fault too.
If you're a Penn State fan, JIM KNOWLES left OHIO STATE for a lateral move and more money. If you're literally anyone else, you just politely agree.
This meeting felt like yet another Game of the Century of the Week following the Nittany Lions' shrewd move to copy the Ohio State 2024 playbook of bringing back NFL-ready proven performers and program loyalists - along with a high-price DC coming off a CFP title which featured the nation's top defense. This highly-anticipated circled game has since been downgraded to BIG NOON SATURDAY.
And that's because Penn State enters November seeking its first win against a Power Four opponent all year in what's been a stunning tumble which all began a month ago with a touchdown-lead over Oregon in overtime. Since then, arguably the longest non-scandal month in program history.
The Lions have allowed 119 points in their past four games. Their opponent this Saturday has allowed 116 over their past 11, which includes six ranked opponents and two deposed number ones. But the crazy thing is that aforementioned high-price DC coached four of those games. For each team!
Jim Knowles missed Ohio State's national championship celebration after deciding the precious few days between the Texas Cotton Bowl and the CFP National Championship was the best time to talk about his employment contract. If you're a Penn State fan, he left OSU for a lateral move and more money. If you're literally anyone else, you know what - just avoid making eye contact.
He'll be back in the building Saturday for the last Penn State game until 2028. Let's get Situational.
OPENER | EVERYTHING MUST GO
Jeremiah Smith runs toward Indiana Hoosiers DB Amare Ferrell during the 2nd half of the game at Ohio Stadium in Columbus on Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. Ohio State won 38-15. © Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
The Buckeyes beat two top-five teams last November. Championship-level football; that's how the final month of the 2024 regular season is remembered in Ohio State football lore.
It began as a methodical post-Eugene recalibration toward a controlled destiny which would include Gold Pants, a trip to Indianapolis and then the perks of a no.1 seeding. They eventually got what they wanted all along, but took the long painful route to get there.
One year later, Ryan Day's program is competing almost exclusively with itself, which is what patient, mature, loaded and disciplined juggernauts do. When we last saw them, they were treating the Wisconsin game in Madison as a series of passing drills and coachable moments for the offensive line. People paid to watch it.
LAST November being a failure despite beating two top-five teams is the essence of WHAT IT MEANS TO HAVE Ohio State Problems.
The Buckeyes missed a short field goal and allowed a converted fake punt on 4th and 20, while the hidden yardage battle still somehow ended as a push. A 34-0 shutout on the road means nothing in a world where Ohio State faces Ohio State every weekend.
Everyone who remembers last November also remembers what's happened with each of Day's post-pandemic teams after reaching their usual midseason heights. The clunky post-bye 2022 team barely resembled the one which obliterated its first six opponents. The 2023 one was determined to showcase its mediocre OL and pitiful blocking TE running stretch plays into the boundary. And hey, they did just that.
Last season's November memory goes right to Michigan, but this happened one week earlier:
4 straight run up the middles, capped off by a god awful 4th down play pic.twitter.com/6EhR40VgnI
— Official Ohio State DG (@DylanEveryday) May 21, 2025
Four straight rushing plays into a turnover on downs. A sneaky bit of foreshadowing tucked into a comfortable 23-point win against an eventual CFP team playing its first game away from home against a bowl-eligible opponent. The Buckeyes stopped playing around after that and behaved in a way that would escape them the following week.
Based on what we've learned from the grisly and then triumphant aftermath of November 2024, it's highly unlikely Day is going to stray from Ohio State's strengths and play to weaknesses to prove something to someone. That doesn't mean there aren't temptations to stray from a plan to Just Win the Game Their Way.
Knowles is back in the building, and one thing we know about Day is his thirst for comeuppance - ask Dabo Swinney - that's a temptation. The Indiana Hoosiers are shooting each of their opponents right in the face with a cannon and the comparison thieves are taking notice. Penn State gets IU right after Ohio State. You think those scores will be compared against each other? Mmhmm, tempting.
Carnell Tate and Jeremiah Smith, IU's Elijah Sarratt and Omar Cooper Jr and Tennessee's Chris Brazzell II and Braylon Staley are engaged in a Cold War battle for best receiving tandem in the country. They're all in the top 50 nationally for yards per game. Tempting? It's got to be tempting.
No one is going to remember which team beat the shit out of Illinois more demonstrably while celebrating on the podium in Miami.
And working against all of those temptations is Ohio State's pace of play initiative, which is prioritizing load management and forfeiting as many as three drives per Saturday in order to optimize stamina for a 16-game journey.
Conflicting priorities abound for a team that's not even allowing a touchdown per game into November. It will be fascinating to see the battle between the angel and devil on Day's shoulders in the regular season's final month. If it's narrative control and style points he wants, leaning on the Buckeyes' receivers and Ball Placement Specialist QB isn't exactly getting suckered into playing to a weakness.
But if they just keep competing against themselves, barely covering Las Vegas spreads instead of obliterating them - and preserving team health for games into late January, then maybe 2024 was not an aberration. No one is going to remember which team beat the shit out of Illinois more demonstrably while celebrating on the podium in Miami.
If Day conquers the temptation to deviate, you can safely call Ohio State a Natty or Bust program.
INTERMISSION
The Solo
Last year in an attempt to exorcise the demons of Michigan claiming a national title* songs exclusively from 1997 were sacrificed in this space. This strategy worked marvelously, so this year's theme will be Songs From Any Year Except 1997 or 2023.
The then-married couple behind Boy Meets Girl - Shannon Rubicam and George Merrill - wrote two of Whitney Houston's immortal bangers, How Will I Know? and I Wanna Dance with Someone Who Loves Me for her.
That's a solid songwriter's epitaph. They were watching her perform them live when they both saw a shooting star in the sky above them, which resulted in them banging out Waiting for a Star to Fall for her to add to their shared catalog. But Whitney passes, which was shocking.
So they give it to Belinda Carlisle, who loved it and recorded it for her next album. Unfortunately, it sounded like complete shit and her producer refused to include it for her own good. So Shannon and George decided to record the song they conceived for Whitney Houston at a Whitney Houston concert themselves.
Waiting for a Star to Fall contains a saxophone solo. Let's answer our two questions.
Is the musician in the video actually playing saxophone?
Sax is handled by session specialist Andy Snitzer, who wasn't invited to the video shoot because it was a family affair. It features Shannon, George and their daughter frolicking on the beach, set to a tune Whitney was too good to record herself. VERDICT: Inconclusive.
does this saxophone solo slap?
A soaring woodwind wave crashing over an E-flat major 4/4 time signature singy songy - reader, this is the peak, proven, 100% satisfaction guaranteed pop sax solo recipe. This is exactly how it's done.
These conditions are rigged for success. Sub out the sax for a ridiculous instrument like a kazoo or a trained farting hamster - doesn't matter, you cannot hack musical science. It's easier to divide by zero than to make this solo suck. VERDICT: Slaps.
The Bourbon
There is a bourbon for every situation. Sometimes the spirits and the events overlap, which means that where bourbon is concerned there can be more than one worthy choice.
Ohio State won the first-ever College Football Playoff in 2014, then spent a couple of seasons awkwardly trying to maintain a standard of greatness.
Pinhook. Every year is a championship year.
They went 23-3 during that stretch, which ended with Urban Meyer firing his offensive coordinator and QB coach after the Fiesta Bowl. It's a Lunatic Fringe standard to be proud of, and the singular reason Buckeye football is recession-proof.
Meyer hired Day ahead of the 2017 season, which coincided with newly-retired NFL receiver and OSU alumnus Brian Hartline coming back to campus to see if he could help out as a quality control coach - and those are the bones of Buckeye football today.
This little snapshot in history runs parallel to Pinhook, which released its first vintage in 2014 and then spent a couple of years figuring out how to maintain a standard before taking over the famed Colonel E.H. Taylor distillery which had been abandoned since 1972.
Each year Pinhook releases a Bourbon War vintage. The 2024 series is powerfully oaky and reminded me so much of the Cherry Coke Zero I had with my lunch earlier that day that I cleansed my palate and jumped in a second time - only to get Cherry Coke Zeroed again.
Some tobacco and cedar plank essence on the nose. Pinhook is just fun to be around. I hope it's always like this - which is the best thing you can say about a football program or a bourbon with a championship standard.
You should be able to find the Bourbon War series from Pinhook for under $100.
CLOSER | EVERYBODY WANTS TO GO TO HEAVEN BUT NOBODY WANTS TO DIE
Brandon Inniss celebrates with Carnell Tate after scoring in the 2nd half at Camp Randall Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025. © Samantha Madar/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
Ohio State committed the worst sin in sports just prior to its 2024 national title run.
The Buckeyes turned one loss into two losses, blowing the Michigan game to close out 2023 and then shuffling into the Cotton Bowl without its quarterback or best player. For a few weeks, the program was at a crossroads. Then, Day finally rejected passivity for urgency.
Parker Fleming, Corey Dennis, Perry Eliano and an increasingly stale Tony Alford all turned in their practice facility keys. Seniors forfeited early departures for one more shot at anything resembling what they were promised when they were recruited.
That urgency wasn't forgotten. James Franklin could have learned something from that.
He copied the big, memorable things - retaining the veterans, hiring a CEO for each side of the ball, selling a vision and then running as fast as they can toward it. What he didn't learn was the urgency piece that Day picked up after realizing that tolerating mediocrity requires a swift and demonstrative response.
Franklin failed to see how Day responded to his own Oregon loss in a Natty or Bust season. The defensive philosophy changed radically against Nebraska in their next outing, which - without that urgency - Ohio State may very well have turned one loss into two losses.
THE 2024 BUCKEYES TURNED A LOSS INTO LESSONS. THE 2025 NITTANY LIONS TURNED A LOSS INTO MORE LOSSES.
They survived the Huskers. Penn State did not survive its Nebraska, which was UCLA.
Instead, the Lions turned one loss into two losses, which became three when they allowed Northwestern to win their Homecoming game. A year earlier, the Buckeyes were still smarting from that Oregon loss and Nebraska hangover but escaped the Nittany Lions, overcoming an early pick-six to finish the game on a 20-6 run.
They lost their best offensive lineman in Eugene, then the Rimington winner prior to the Indiana game. Setbacks that would be impossible to overcome without an unrelenting sense of urgency and commitment. One loss as a B1G power in the 12-team playoff era can be a blessing. Two is a fire drill.
Do you know what Penn State changed after losing to Oregon? UCLA? Northwestern? The only noticeable change - outside of Drew Allar's injury - was the university changed who the coach was.
Which is to say that nobody at Penn State above Franklin and not nearly enough below him could see the vision beyond simply copying what Ohio State did. That's not why the Buckeyes won the 2024 national title. That team turned a loss into lessons.
A year later, the Lions flaws were the same as before they cut all of those big offseason checks to maintain and upgrade personnel. Then it got worse. They turned a loss into more losses.
Thanks for getting Situational today. Go Bucks. Beat Penn State.
