Throughout the year, we will be asking and answering questions about various Ohio State teams, the players, and anything else on our collective minds of varying degrees of importance. If you have a question that
you would like to ask, you can tweet us @LandGrant33 or if you need more than 280 characters, send an email HERE.
I know that off weeks are incredibly important for football teams, especially ones that have designs on playing late into January, but for fans, they are less important. Personally, I am very glad that, save for a first-round College Football Playoff bye and the subsequent extended layoff, it will be nothing but uninterrupted weeks of football for the No. 1 Ohio State Buckeyes for essentially the next three months.
Now that we are back in the regular swing of things, it’s time for this week’s Land-Grant Holy Land fan survey. With the Penn State Nittany Lions coming to Columbus on Saturday, we wanted to check in with Buckeye Nation to gauge how the fans were feeling about a game that was once expected to be one of the biggest of the entire season. Are you excited? Nervous? Relieved? Annoyed? Let us know in the survey’s first question.
Then, as it is game week, we want to get your insight into Saturday’s contest, so we want you to pick the winner and margin of victory.
Check out the questions below, and then make sure to vote in the survey beneath the article. If none of the options included in the survey line up with what you want to pick, feel free to head down to the comments at the bottom of the page and write in your pick. Then, on Saturday morning, check back with LGHL to see the results.
Question 1: How has Penn State’s fall from grace impacted how you feel about Saturday’s game?
Obviously, this is not how any of us anticipated this game being before the season started. A lot of folks imagined that it would be a battle of unbeatens, a battle of the top two teams in the country, a battle for a spot in the Big Ten Title Game, and a battle for the top spot in the College Football Playoff rankings.
However, now it is a game between the best team in the country and a squad that has suffered embarrassing loss after embarrassing loss. But that doesn’t mean that it has changed how every individual fan feels about the game.
Whether it is because of an intense hatred of the Nittany Lions or a resentment for how Jim Knowles left Columbus, perhaps you are still out for blood on Saturday.
Or, maybe you are more fearful about the possibility of a Buckeye loss, because Penn State’s internal Kryptonite, James Franklin, is no longer roaming the sidelines.
On the other hand, you might not give a rat’s patootie about Penn State, and you are just happy that it’s an opponent that doesn’t seem to have much of a chance to spoil Ohio State’s season.
However you feel about the game, let us know in the survey below.
Question 2: What will the margin of victory be in Saturday’s game against Penn State?
When the FanDuel Sportsbook opened its betting for this game, Ohio State was installed as a 20.5-point favorite, and that is where the line has stayed. The gold standard college football analytics system, SP+, has it as a 32-19 game in favor of the Buckeyes, which is just 13 points, quite a bit closer than Vegas has the game.
So, while I will make my official pick and prediction on Saturday morning in the “Land-Grant Tailgate Podcast,” right now, I am inclined to go with something like 35-6. Look, until someone proves to me that it is possible to score double digits against this defense, I won’t believe it.
Throughout the year, we ask questions of the most plugged-in Ohio State fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.
