Purdue's impressive five victories over Ohio State this century, including an all-time upset in 2018, have one thing in common -- they were played in West Lafayette, Ind. The struggling Boilermakers (1-7, 0-5 Big Ten) won't have that luxury in Columbus on Saturday against the Buckeyes, who are ranked No. 2 in the season's first College Football Playoff rankings released Tuesday.
In the first-ever CFP poll in 2014, Ohio State ranked 16th because of a home loss to Virginia Tech. Two months later, the Buckeyes defeated Oregon in the national title game. The Buckeyes (7-1, 4-1) have the same destination in mind this season after a 20-13 victory at No.
6 Penn State on Saturday gave them a clear path to the Big Ten title game and a possible rematch with No. 1 Oregon, which edged the visiting Buckeyes 32-31 on Oct. 12.
Ohio State needs to win its final four regular-season games and can't afford a slip-up against the Boilermakers before playing Northwestern (at Wrigley Field), and No. 8 Indiana and rival Michigan, both in Columbus. "We're just focused on Purdue," Ohio State coach Ryan Day said Tuesday.
"No matter what happened the game before, that game is over with. Whatever the rankings are, we've always said, the ones that matter are the ones at the end of the year." Purdue coach Ryan Walters knows his team is a heavy underdog at Ohio Stadium, where the Boilermakers haven't won since 1988.
But he will try to draw inspiration from six years ago, when the unranked Boilermakers humbl.