Blue White Illustrated's magazine editor, Matt Herb, is taking a closer look at Penn State football's upcoming schedule this month. With spring practice now in the rearview mirror and on campus recruiting still a few weeks away, now is the perfect time to look at where each opponent stands heading into the summer.

Last season, the Nittany Lions' biggest game on the schedule turned into a disappointing Week Two dud when hosting the Buckeyes in front of a crowd of fewer than 1,000 fans at Beaver Stadium. Now, Penn State will travel back to Columbus for what is certain to be a radically different atmosphere on Oct. 30.

Herb previews Penn State's trip to face Ohio State this season, here:

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2020 RECORD 7-1, 5-0 Big Ten

COACH Ryan Day (23-2 in two full seasons and one partial season at Ohio State; career record: same)

SERIES HISTORY The Buckeyes have won four in a row and lead the series, 21-14.

MOST RECENT MEETING Justin Fields completed 28 of 34 passes for 318 yards and four touchdowns and Master Teague rushed for 110 yards and a score, as Ohio State held off a second-half comeback attempt to defeat the host Nittany Lions, 38-25, on Oct. 31, 2020.

OFFENSE If you need to break in a new quarterback, as is the case at Ohio State this year following Fields’ departure, you could hardly do better than to have a pair of receivers like Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson helping ease the transition. Olave delayed an NFL payday to come back for one more season after catching 50 passes for 729 yards and seven touchdowns in seven games last year. Wilson, meanwhile, had 43 catches for 723 yards and six TDs as a slot receiver and is set to move outside this fall. Also back is tight end Jeremy Ruckert, who had five TD catches a year ago.

Who will be on the other end of those passes in 2021? That’s a tricky question to answer at this point, given that Fields was the only QB to attempt a pass for the Buckeyes last year. C.J. Stroud appears to be regarded by Ohio State watchers as the favorite. He had a strong spring game, throwing TD passes on two of his three first-half possessions. But Jack Miller and early enrollee Kyle McCord are also said to be in the mix. At running back, Master Teague III is back, but Trey Sermon has moved on after leading the team in rushing in his lone season in Columbus. Four-star 2021 signee TreVeyon Henderson could make an early impact.

DEFENSE The last time we saw this unit, it was giving up 621 yards and 52 points to Alabama in the title game of the College Football Playoff. Nobody in the Big Ten can match the Crimson Tide’s firepower, but Ohio State definitely has some questions on this side of the ball coming off a season in which it ranked 122nd in the Football Bowl Subdivision in pass defense. There weren’t a lot of answers on display in the Buckeyes’ spring game. The overhauled linebacker corps was so depleted that Ohio State mostly used a 4-2-5 formation rather than its usual 4-3. Whether that was a sign of things to come remains to be seen. The secondary was also shorthanded, as cornerbacks Sevyn Banks and Cameron Brown were hurt and safety Marcus Hooker was suspended after he was arrested in March for operating a vehicle while impaired. One positive note this spring was the quick development of true freshman defensive end Jack Sawyer. The five-star prospect from nearby Pickerington, Ohio, had three sacks in the spring game.

SPECIAL TEAMS Ohio State needs a new place kicker and punter. Dominic DiMaccio mostly handled kickoffs last year, but he also went 1 of 2 on field goal attempts, hitting from 22 yards. The punting job may go to Jesse Mirco, a 23-year-old freshman from – you guessed it – Australia. He’s a former Aussie rules football player who took up American punting in his homeland and was rated as the No. 4 punter in the Class of 2021.

SCHEDULE The Buckeyes aren’t going to have the luxury of a soft opening as they bring their new quarterback along. They begin the season with a Thursday night visit to Minnesota, followed by a home game vs. Oregon. The date with the Ducks was supposed to be the second half of a home-and-home series, but last year’s matchup in Eugene was canceled. Consecutive games against Tulsa, Akron, Rutgers and Maryland – all but the game vs. the Scarlet Knights are in Columbus – should allow Ohio State to build up a head of steam heading into back-to-back games against Indiana and Penn State. If they make it to November unscathed, the Buckeyes will have a good chance to run the table, as their last four regular-season games are against Nebraska, Purdue, Michigan State and Michigan.

GAME OF THE YEAR Beating Michigan will never get old, so The Game is always going to be the highlight of Ohio State’s regular season, no matter how lopsided this series gets. Last year, the Buckeyes were denied a chance to extend their current eight-game winning streak vs. the Wolverines, as COVID forced the season’s most anticipated Big Ten matchup to be canceled. It was the first time since 1917 that the two rivals didn’t meet, and it will add to the sense of anticipation that greets the resumption of the series on Nov. 27 in Ann Arbor.

OUTLOOK Remember that old coaching truism about defense and special teams winning championships and offense just needing to stay out of the way? This year’s Buckeyes are probably going to underscore how archaic that approach has become. To the extent that a program this talented has holes, they’re mostly on defense and in the kicking game. And yet Ohio State is inevitably going to be the runaway preseason favorite to claim the conference championship. It has some holes on offense, too – not just at quarterback, where none of the the three contenders for the starting spot have attempted a pass at the college level, but also on the line, where Josh Myers and Wyatt Davis must be replaced.

But personnel losses on this side of the ball don’t really seem to faze the Buckeyes. They just keep rolling. Maybe they’ll run into a regular-season opponent this coming fall that can keep up with them for four quarters. Maybe their scoring pace will be a bit slower with so little experience returning at quarterback. But they have yet to lose a Big Ten game under Day, and until they do, there’s no reason not to pick them to win their fifth consecutive league title.

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