Ohio State draws afternoon kickoff at Rutgers
COLUMBUS – Ohio State is ready to return to Big Ten play, and the Buckeyes now know when they will get that restart.
The Buckeyes will kick off at 3:30 p.m. at Rutgers on Oct. 2 in Piscataway, N.J.
That follows its non-conference primetime game against Akron on Saturday. Both games will be broadcast on Big Ten Network.
In their most recent bout, the Buckeyes pulled away from Rutgers in a 49-27 home win in 2020 on the way to a fourth straight conference title. The Buckeyes, who got out to a 1-0 mark in the conference by beating Minnesota in a Week One night game, will continue their campaign for a fifth consecutive Big Ten championship by traveling to face the currently unbeaten Scarlet Knights.
The Scarlet Knights have jumped out to a 3-0 mark this season with blowouts of Temple and Delaware sandwiched around a 10-point win over Syracuse. Rutgers travels to Ann Arbor this Saturday to face Michigan in a matchup between undefeated conference foes.
Following the Akron game, the matchup with Rutgers should provide Ohio State coach Ryan Day and the Buckeyes with another opportunity to fix the mistakes that have caused struggles through their first three games of the season.
Ohio State pulled away late in wins against Minnesota and Tulsa to move to 2-1 this season. But defensive issues and inconsistent offense have led to the Buckeyes loss to Oregon, its first non-conference defeat in the regular season since 2017, and they have led to a pair of uncomfortable wins.
The Buckeyes will now have back-to-back shots to show marked improvement as Big Ten play resumes.
The Buckeyes have gone 4-0 against Rutgers and outscored the Scarlet Knights, 213-51, in the four seasons in which Day has been with Ohio State as either the head coach or as an offensive coordinator.
