When the Buckeyes break you: Did Ohio State break Penn State?

First in a series looking at the damage Ohio State has done to other programs, coaches and players in college football

Ohio State won in State College last season for the Buckeyes’ eighth consecutive win over Penn State. (Photo courtesy of Ohio State)

COLUMBUS — In any sport, there is who you are and there is what you do to others. Ohio State’s goal is to succeed on its own. But along the way, any great team is also presented with the opportunity to derail other programs.

With that in mind, we will begin to look every now and then at programs, coaches and players that Ohio State might have broken. We have a a few more in mind, but we are of course open for your suggestion. This idea, in fact, came from a subscriber who suggested it as a series during our Zoom call with BAD Tier subscribers this month (Zoom calls with us is one of the perks for subscribing to the top tier of this Substack experience.)

That was a great idea … and then Penn State suffered an embarrassing loss to a UCLA team that I thought had a chance to go 0-12 this season.

There may have been a hangover effect from Penn State’s double overtime loss to Oregon. There was the West Coast travel. But I think there’s a reasonable argument that chasing Ohio State was the biggest contributor to this Penn State loss.

We discussed this on our Around the Shoe show on YouTube this week, and Landis suggested Ohio State was 90 percent responsible for the Nittany Lions disastrous showing last weekend.

With that in mind, here’s our Buckeyes BREAKdown.

Did Ohio State break Penn State?