Ohio State suffered its first loss of the 2026 season at Texas last Saturday, Sept. 12, after the Longhorns rallied and scored 21 points in the fourth quarter to win 24-23.
The Buckeyes dropped from the top to No. 6 in Sunday’s Associated Press Top 25 poll while Texas rose to No. 1.
Georgia and Notre Dame remained at Nos. 2 and 3, respectively, and Indiana and Miami rounded out the top five.
Matchup details
Who: Kent State Golden Flashes at Ohio State Buckeyes. Kickoff: Noon ET. Broadcast: FOX.
Pregame
Essential resources
Kent State game notes: https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/sidearm.nextgen.sites/kentstatesports.com/documents/2026/9/14/03_-_Ohio_State.pdf?timestamp=20260914113207
Ohio State game notes: https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/sidearm.nextgen.sites/ohiostatebuckeyes.com/documents/2026/9/14/3_Kent_State.pdf?timestamp=20260914013113
Mid-American Conference release: https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sites/mac-sports/documents/2026/9/17/2026_FB_Release_Week_Three.pdf
Big Ten Conference weekly release: https://img.boostsport.ai/boost-cms/2026%20FB%20Week%203%20Release.pdf
Benge Notes
Buckeyes bouncing back
Coach Ryan Day and the Buckeyes fell outside the top-five ranked teams for the first time since their fourth-consecutive loss to Michigan in 2024.
They return to Columbus this Saturday and will play in-state opponent Kent State, which is venturing to Ohio Stadium for the first time since 2014.
The Buckeyes are 3-0 against the Golden Flashes all time, 40-1 all time against members of the MAC and haven’t lost to another Ohio school in over 100 years.
The average margin of victory for the Buckeyes in the previous three Kent State matchups is 48.3.
Ryan Day met with Buckeyes captains, encouraged team to ‘take ownership’
The Ohio State coach said on his radio show Thursday, Sept. 17, that he met with the seven Buckeyes captains after the loss to Texas this week.
He wanted the captains and roster as a whole to take ownership of their roles, and now that the “new” Buckeyes who haven’t experienced a loss at Ohio State before have after last Saturday, they know that the standard is not to lose games.
“We’ve got a lot of football ahead of us,” Day said.
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