Week 1 of the Big Ten football season has arrived and all 14 of the league’s teams are gearing up for action. The first two Big Ten games of the week, however, won’t come on Saturday.

The first league game of the week will come Thursday at 8 p.m. as No. 4 Ohio State and Minnesota square off at Huntington Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.

“We talked about this right from the jump when we started that first practice in the spring,” Buckeye head coach Ryan Day said of his team’s season-opening matchup with in-conference foe Minnesota. “We knew when we saw the schedule that this was something we were going to have to get game-ready early in the season.”

The Buckeyes will enter Thursday’s game with a new face at quarterback. On Aug. 21, Day announced that redshirt freshman C.J. Stroud would start at QB for the Buckeyes this season. He replaces 2020 Buckeye QB Justin Fields, who was drafted by the NFL’s Chicago Bears in April.

Stroud hasn’t started a single college game, though he has played in the Scarlet and Gray three times in relief of Fields. Last season, Stroud participated in Ohio State’s College Football Playoff Semifinal matchup against Clemson when Fields briefly exited with an injury. Stroud also appeared in Ohio State’s regular season blowouts of Rutgers and Michigan State in 2020.

Stroud did not throw a single pass in any of the three games he played last year.

RELATED: Big Ten East preview: Ohio State the overwhelming favorite

“I guess you can look at [past Buckeye quarterbacks] and the blueprint that has been set, but if we don’t take care of the football and do a good job on third down and in the red zone, then none of that stuff matters,” Day told reporters Monday. “You still have to go play. Just because you’re Ohio State, or just because you’re the quarterback, doesn’t mean [success is] just going to happen. It’s not magic.”

Thursday’s Ohio State-Minnesota matchup isn’t the only Big Ten game taking place prior to Saturday. Northwestern and Michigan State will collide Friday at 9 p.m. at Ryan Field in Evanston, Illinois.

In total, eight of the Big Ten’s 14 teams will play a conference game this weekend. No. 19 Penn State will travel to Camp Randall Stadium in Madison, Wisconsin, for a matchup with the No. 12 Badgers at 11 a.m. Saturday, and No. 17 Indiana will head to Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City for a game against the No. 18 Hawkeyes at 2:30 p.m.

“First of all, your schedule is your schedule,” Hawkeye head coach Kirk Ferentz said Tuesday. “You play who’s in front of you. The fact is, that we’re playing a really good football team [Saturday] . . . There’s no downside to it in my mind. We all knew this back in January. We’re playing a good football team to open up the season.”

Counting Illinois and Nebraska’s Week 0 matchup on Aug. 28 in Champaign, 10 of the Big Ten Conference’s 14 teams will open their seasons with games against league opponents in 2021.

Harbaugh reaffirms that McNamara is Michigan’s starting QB

During a meeting with reporters on Monday, Michigan head football head coach Jim Harbaugh confirmed that junior Cade McNamara will start at quarterback for the Wolverines on Saturday.

McNamara was previously named the Wolverines’ starting quarterback in April after Michigan’s 2020 starter Joe Milton announced that he had entered the transfer portal.

McNamara appeared in four games in 2020, completing 43 of his 71 pass attempts for 425 yards and five touchdowns.

“I think my role on the team has changed,” McNamara told 24/7 Sports Tuesday. “I always wanted to be the starter, and after winning the job last season I had never been through an offseason as the starter. So, basically just my role is what’s changed. My job is to be consistent, so I’m just trying to be as consistent as I possibly can.”

The Wolverines will kick off their 2021 campaign Saturday at 11 a.m. as they take on Western Michigan in Ann Arbor.