Last December, Northwestern and Ohio State met for the Big Ten championship in Indianapolis.

On Friday, some 10 months later, the Buckeyes are still the team to beat, leading the conference with a 6-0 record and No. 3 national ranking. The Wildcats, meanwhile, find themselves at the bottom of the Big Ten West at 1-4, the worst five-game mark in head coach Pat Fitzgerald's 14 years in Evanston.

As a result, Northwestern is a 28.5-point underdog against the Buckeyes, the biggest number the program has faced since its 1995 matchup with Notre Dame. The Wildcats won that historic game. Do they have a chance of pulling a similar Herculean upset at Ryan Field against a team they've beaten just once in the last 32 meetings?

We talked to Kevin Noon, publisher of BuckeyeGrove, to learn all about the big, bad Buckeyes.


Q. Northwestern fans saw Ohio State in the Big Ten championship game last December, but this team looks like it’s on a mission. What changes have you noticed in the Buckeyes from last year to this one under new coach Ryan Day?