The Scarlet and Gray

[toysoldier00]

Week 7 Preview: Indiana–Oregon Headlines a Saturday Built on Proof

Marissa Bleday
October 9, 2025


The calendar still says October, but Week 7 already feels like the kind of weekend that starts reshaping the playoff picture. College GameDay is headed to Autzen Stadium for a top-six unbeaten showdown as No. 6 Indiana visits No. 2 Oregon, and the sport’s other marquee stage belongs to the Red River rivalry, where No. 8 Oklahoma tries to keep its defensive masterpiece rolling against an uneasy, desperate Texas team.

#6 Indiana Hoosiers (5-0) at #2 Oregon Ducks (5-0)
Oregon has spent the last two weeks convincing everyone that its September wasn’t a mirage. The Ducks went into Happy Valley and beat Penn State, then used the bye to heal up and sharpen the edges of an offense that looks like it’s running on a timer. Dante Moore hasn’t thrown an interception through five games, and his efficiency is the reason Oregon can play with tempo without playing reckless.

“You don’t win big games by trying to be perfect,” Oregon coach Dan Lanning said this week. “You win by being consistent, and by responding when it gets uncomfortable.” Indiana’s job is to make it uncomfortable from the opening kick.

Curt Cignetti’s Hoosiers don’t arrive as a novelty act, either. They’re 5-0 with wins that travel, most notably over Illinois and at Iowa, and they’re doing it with a transfer quarterback who has made the offense look mature beyond its years. Fernando Mendoza has been clean, productive and, most importantly, unflinching in big moments, pairing zero interceptions with a dual-threat edge that forces defenses to defend every blade of grass.

“We didn’t come this far to admire the scenery,” Cignetti said. “We came to compete with anybody.” That’s the challenge: can Indiana’s trio of receivers keep winning against an Oregon front that can end drives with sacks, and can the Hoosiers match Oregon’s red-zone punch when the field shrinks?

#8 Oklahoma Sooners (5-0) vs #18 Texas Longhorns (3-2)
In Dallas, the storyline is simpler and harsher: Oklahoma is undefeated, suffocating and suddenly looking like the sport’s most complete team, while Texas is staring at the kind of game that decides whether a season is salvageable or simply survivable. The Sooners have allowed only 25 total points through five games, and John Mateer has given Brent Venables the quarterback play his defense has been waiting for.

“Our identity is effort and detail,” Venables said this week. “If we play like that, the scoreboard takes care of itself.” Texas, meanwhile, has talent on defense, Colin Simmons has been a wrecking ball, but the Longhorns need Arch Manning to elevate the offense beyond “functional.” “The margins are thin,” Steve Sarkisian said. “The answer isn’t panic. The answer is execution.” After losses to Ohio State and Florida, Texas doesn’t have the luxury of learning slowly.

#1 Ohio State Buckeyes (5-0) at #13 Illinois Fighting Illini (5-1)
Elsewhere, No. 1 Ohio State goes to No. 13 Illinois in a game that feels sneakier than it looks: the Buckeyes are still the standard, but Luke Altmyer is good enough to test a pass defense that just leaked yards to Minnesota.

Michigan heads west to face No. 24 USC in a style clash that could turn into a fourth-quarter fight, while Alabama’s redemption tour hits Columbia against No. 14 Missouri and a Tigers offense that believes it belongs in the heavyweight division.

LSU and South Carolina both need a statement, Notre Dame can’t afford another stumble, and the Big 12 offers a three-game truth serum with Arizona State–Utah, Kansas–Texas Tech and BYU–Arizona.

#10 Michigan Wolverines (4-1) at #24 USC Trojans (4-1)
#7 Alabama Crimson Tide (4-1) at #14 Missouri Tigers (50)
#23 South Carolina Gamecocks (3-2) at #11 LSU Tigers (4-1)
North Carolina State Wolfpack (4-2) at #21 Notre Dame Fighting Irish (3-2)
#16 Arizona State Sun Devils (4-1) at Utah Utes (4-1)
Kansas Jayhawks (4-2) at #15 Texas Tech Red Raiders (5-0)
#12 BYU Cougars (5-0) at Arizona Wildcats (4-1)



[Soapy]

Carson Beck got too much credit in this video game fr

CFB26 knows ball

[toysoldier00]

Carson Beck got too much credit in this video game fr

CFB26 knows ball

honestly, that final drive last night was worth the price Miami paid him. Legendary stuff.

[redsox907]

Carson Beck got too much credit in this video game fr

CFB26 knows ball

it took Beck getting some pornstar poon to finally come up clutch

[toysoldier00]

Game Preview: Illibuck Is Back, and Illinois Has Been Waiting for This Kind of Night
By Zachary Anderson on October 10, 2025





Saturday night in Champaign won’t feel like a normal Big Ten game. Not with the No. 1 team in the country walking into Memorial Stadium, not with the Illibuck Trophy finally on the line again, and not with an Illinois roster built to make this exact moment matter. Ohio State is 5-0, rolling through September like a machine with fresh parts. Illinois is 5-1, veteran and stubborn, the kind of team that doesn’t need to be perfect to be dangerous, it just needs to make you play its game for four quarters.

For Ohio State, that’s the point of this trip. The Buckeyes have handled what they were supposed to handle and passed their first road test at Washington, but this is the first time since Texas in Week 1 that the opponent can realistically punch back with matching adults in the trenches and a quarterback who doesn’t blink.

“We’ve played good football,” Ryan Day said this week, “but October is about proving you can travel, respond and play your brand when the crowd, the weather, and the game script aren’t cooperating.”

Illinois has been circling Ohio State on the calendar since the summer, because the Illini know what they are and what they aren’t. They’re not trying to win with surprise. They’re trying to win with experience. Bret Bielema has leaned into that all week, describing his team as “old enough to understand what a possession is worth” and “physical enough to make you earn it.” That’s a coach who believes the stat sheet is nice, but the moment is better.

The moment, on paper, is a tricky one for Ohio State. The Buckeyes are favorites (-6.5) and have the higher scoring average (41.4 points per game), but Illinois is the kind of opponent that can turn a track meet into a grind without warning. The Illini average only 27 points per game, yet they’re moving the ball at 391.5 yards per game, a reminder that their offense isn’t broken, it’s just been forced to take longer routes. Luke Altmyer is the clearest reason. The senior is completing 71 percent of his throws with 14 touchdowns and only one interception, and he’s done it without feeling like he needs to be the hero on every snap. If Illinois is going to spring the upset, it likely looks like Altmyer staying efficient early, keeping Ohio State’s pass rush from playing downhill, and then leaning on the parts of the roster that have already survived close games.

That’s where Kaden Feagin comes in. At 6-foot-3 and 255 pounds, he’s not subtle, and Illinois doesn’t ask him to be. Since Aidan Laughery went down, Feagin has become the personification of Bielema football, the kind of back who makes a defense feel every tackle and, by the fourth quarter, makes the scoreboard feel closer than it should. Ohio State’s defense has been excellent (13.4 points allowed per game, third nationally), but Illinois doesn’t need 200 rushing yards to be effective. It needs enough of a run game to hold the edges, force linebackers to step up, and create the windows Altmyer has been carving up all season.

If that’s Illinois’ hope, Ohio State’s counter is obvious: make Altmyer uncomfortable. That starts with Caleb Downs, who has turned “best safety in the country” into something that shows up on tape every Saturday, not just on preseason lists. It also includes Arvell Reese, fresh off Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week honors, and the potential return of Sonny Styles, whose hamstring kept him out against Minnesota but who is expected back for this one. Ohio State has been aggressive, disruptive and opportunistic, the Buckeyes and Illini both sit at a +5 turnover margin, and when Ohio State has gotten early takeaways this season, it has turned them into points fast.

The most fascinating chess match might be the one that decides whether this game tilts into Ohio State’s comfort zone or Illinois’ preferred chaos: pressure versus poise. Illinois linebacker Gabe Jacas [Pictured Right] is playing like a weekly problem, with six sacks and 13 tackles for loss already. He’s the guy who can wreck an otherwise efficient offensive plan, especially against a quarterback who’s still learning how to manage the full menu of checks and protections in real time.

Julian Sayin has been excellent, 1,154 yards, 11 touchdowns, two interceptions, 72 percent completions, and he’s coming off a five-touchdown performance against Minnesota that felt like a breakout. But this will be the loudest environment he’s faced, against the most disciplined front he’s faced since Texas, with an Illinois secondary that has actual answers on the outside. Xavier Scott is one of the conference’s best corners, and safety Matthew Bailey brings the kind of contact that can turn intermediate routes into business decisions.

Ohio State doesn’t have to win with fireworks, but it can if it needs to. Jeremiah Smith’s usage hasn’t always been as overwhelming as the hype suggests, yet the production keeps stacking up anyway: 36 catches, 435 yards, six touchdowns. The Buckeyes have found secondary scoring through Brandon Inniss and Mylan Graham, and that matters on the road, because if Illinois sells out to keep Smith from changing the game in one snap, Ohio State has shown it can still score in bunches through the rest of the receiver room and the tight ends.

And then there’s the quiet stat that could decide everything: third down. Illinois converts 56 percent, Ohio State 54 percent, the best two marks in the Big Ten. That’s not a coincidence. It’s an identity. It’s the difference between a stadium staying alive and a stadium slowly realizing it won’t get the ball back.

Illinois hasn’t beaten Ohio State since 2007, the last time an Illinois upset shocked a No. 1-ranked Buckeyes team. The Buckeyes have won 10 straight in the series, and this is the first Illibuck meeting since 2017. Those numbers are history, not prophecy, but they are a reminder of why Champaign is going to feel like it’s holding its breath Saturday night. Illinois doesn’t just want to play the contender. It wants to become one. Ohio State doesn’t just want to stay No. 1. It wants to prove it can walk into a place that believes in its own upset and make it stop believing.

Date	Opponent	Stadium	TV	Result
Aug. 30	Texas Longhorns	Ohio Stadium		W, 31-13
Sept. 6	Grambling State Tigers	Ohio Stadium		W, 46-6
Sept. 13	Ohio Bobcats	Ohio Stadium		W, 40-10
Sept. 20	BYE
Sept. 27	Washington Huskies	Husky Stadium		W, 37-16
Oct. 4	Minnesota Golden Gophers	Ohio Stadium		W, 53-22
Oct. 11	Illinois Fighting Illini	Memorial Stadium		6:00 PM
Oct. 18	Wisconsin Badgers	Camp Randall
Oct. 25	BYE
Nov. 1	Penn State Nittany Lions	Ohio Stadium
Nov. 8	Purdue Boilermakers	Ross-Ade Stadium
Nov. 15	UCLA Bruins	Ohio Stadium
Nov. 22	Rutgers Scarlet Knights	Ohio Stadium
Nov. 29	Michigan Wolverines	Michigan Stadium

[toysoldier00]

it took Beck getting some pornstar poon to finally come up clutch

there's a future storyline in there somewhere

[toysoldier00]

Ohio State 38, Illinois 6: Buckeyes Roll in Champaign as Sayin, Smith and Defense Power Illibuck Win
By Zachary Anderson on October 11, 2025


Ohio State's defense suffocated Illinois, allowing just 156 yards of offense.



Ohio State's first drive Saturday night in Champaign looked like the kind of uneasy opening you can talk yourself into when you’re walking into a ranked road environment with an old trophy on the line. Three plays, punt, and Memorial Stadium got a quick jolt. And then, almost immediately, the entire night snapped into focus: Illinois didn’t get the version of Ohio State that plays with its food. It got the version that squeezes the air out of a game until there’s nothing left to breathe.

The Buckeyes’ defense answered that opening three-and-out with one of its own, and the offense came back on the field looking like it took the punt personally. On the second play of the next drive, James Peoples took a handoff and detonated the evening. A crease became daylight, daylight became a sprint, and 56 yards later Ohio State was up 7-0 in a way that felt less like “early points” and more like a statement of intent.

Ryan Day has talked for weeks about Ohio State’s “travel-ready” mindset, the idea that good teams don’t wait for comfort before they play fast, and this was the proof. “We wanted to start with urgency,” Day said afterward, “because on the road you can’t give a team oxygen. You give them one drive where they feel the crowd and you feel the momentum, and it becomes a different game.”


James Peoples kicked off the scoring with a 56-yard touchdown in the first quarter.

Illinois, to its credit, tried to make it that different game anyway. Luke Altmyer steadied them enough to put together their best early possession, working the ball into the red zone and giving the Illini a chance to answer the punch. The response they got instead was a reminder of what Ohio State’s secondary is capable of when it’s locked in. On back-to-back snaps, Keenan Nelson Jr. and Jermaine Mathews Jr. broke up throws that were designed to be simple, efficient, and confidence-building. Those two plays didn’t just force a field goal, they announced that the Buckeyes were playing tight coverage with intention, and that Illinois’ plan to live on third-and-manageable wasn’t going to survive first contact.

Bret Bielema’s whole week had been about earning a marquee win with veteran composure, but the early red-zone stall felt like the kind of moment that starts making a team press. “You don’t get many chances against a team like that,” Bielema said. “And when you do get them, you have to finish. We didn’t.”

Ohio State didn’t waste its next chance. The Buckeyes had already shown they could win with their backs, but what changed the game from “Ohio State is in control” to “Ohio State is taking this away” was how deliberately they started feeding Jeremiah Smith. On a third-and-4 from Ohio State’s own 21, Julian Sayin did the simple thing: he went to the best receiver in college football for 11 yards and a first down. Then, on the very next play, he did the thing that makes defensive coordinators stare at the call sheet like it’s written in another language. Sayin took a deep shot to Smith, and Smith turned it into a 68-yard touchdown that felt like it broke the night open. There are touchdowns that put points on the board, and then there are touchdowns that change how the rest of the game is called. That one did the latter. Suddenly it was 14-3, and Illinois’ margin for error, already thin, evaporated.


Jeremiah Smith scored his seventh touchdown of the season in the first half against Illinois.

From there, it became a different kind of story: not an upset watch, but a demonstration of depth and rhythm. Illinois tried to rally its defense, but Ohio State’s next drive turned into a Carnell Tate showcase, a sequence that looked like a quarterback and wideout playing a private game of catch inside a public stadium. Tate went 26 yards, then 10, then 14, each completion forcing Illinois to cover the entire width of the field and the entire depth of it too. When the Buckeyes reached the red zone, Sayin finished the drive with a five-yard touchdown to tight end Max Klare, and with 12:27 left in the second quarter the scoreboard read 21-3 in a way that felt almost too clean. When Jayden Fielding drilled a 31-yard field goal later in the half, the lead became 24-3 and the game’s tone changed again, not to complacency, but to control.

The telling sequence of the night might have come right before halftime, when Ohio State, already up three scores, coached the game like it still needed to be won. After a Caden Curry sack and a third-and-13 stuff, the Buckeyes took timeouts, trying to steal one more possession and one more chance to make the margin feel crushing. It was the sort of ruthless, detail-driven approach that good teams carry with them from the film room, the kind of approach you’d expect after Ohio State’s recent road trip to Washington, where the Buckeyes learned firsthand that road games have a way of flipping if you leave the door cracked. Ohio State didn’t want a crack. The only reason the half didn’t end with points was a missed 52-yard Fielding attempt at the horn, the rare moment that didn’t go the Buckeyes’ way in a half where almost everything else did.

If Illinois’ halftime message was “reset and survive,” the second half began by doing the one thing you absolutely cannot do when you’re trying to climb back from a three-score deficit: handing the ball to the opponent in your own shadow. On third-and-9 from Illinois’ own 16, Altmyer threw an interception to Arvell Reese, and the emotional math of the night changed from difficult to impossible. Five plays later, Sayin hit Peoples for a three-yard touchdown, Sayin’s third scoring pass and Peoples’ second trip to the end zone, and the game officially slipped into that familiar Ohio State gear where the opponent is still playing full-speed but the outcome is no longer in doubt.

“That was a huge swing,” Day said. “Those are the plays that travel. You take the ball away, you turn it into points, and you force the other team to start chasing.”


RB James Peoples scored two touchdowns as a key part of Ohio State's offense.

At 31-3, Ohio State did what top teams do when they’ve earned the right: it started rotating. The Buckeyes went to the ground game, bled clock, and used the rest of the night as a controlled live rep session, the kind that matters when you’re trying to get through October with a roster that’s not just talented but ready. The closing drive that pushed the lead to 38-3 was a snapshot of that philosophy. It was 13 plays, 7:27 of Ohio State squeezing the clock, with true freshman Bo Jackson finishing it off with a three-yard touchdown run and younger pieces leaving fingerprints all over it. Quincy Porter snagged a nine-yard catch, Isaiah West hauled in a 12-yarder out of the backfield on third-and-6, and the Buckeyes looked like a team building a season rather than simply surviving a night.

Illinois’ final points came the way a lot of points come in games like this: against younger players, late, and without the ability to change the story. The Illini strung together a few first downs and hit a 47-yard field goal with 4:49 left to make it 38-6, a small reward for a team that came in needing perfection and never found it. Ohio State’s second string offense then did exactly what it was supposed to do, no drama, no quick givebacks, no unnecessary risk. Lincoln Kienholz guided the group through the final 4:46, bleeding the clock all the way down and leaving Champaign with the Illibuck still in Ohio State’s hands. Day sounded as pleased about that finish as he did about any highlight. “Those snaps matter,” he said. “You win the game, and then you win the game again by finishing it the right way.”

The numbers matched the feeling. Ohio State piled up 465 yards to Illinois’ 156, held the ball for 32:22 to 19:38, and ran 66 plays to Illinois’ 46. The third-down discrepancy was the kind that decides games before the fourth quarter arrives: Ohio State went 10-of-15, Illinois went 1-of-11. Sayin was sharp and efficient, finishing 25-of-31 for 285 yards and three touchdowns as his comfort in the offense continues to look less like a “young quarterback trend” and more like a weekly expectation.

Peoples did damage in every phase, nine carries for 74 yards, three catches for 24, and two touchdowns, while Bo Jackson’s workload was a storyline all its own, with 13 carries for 56 yards and a score in a night that included a noticeable bump in his involvement (25 snaps) after a quiet usage week against Minnesota. Jeremiah Smith’s eight catches for 99 yards and the 68-yard touchdown were the kind of production that reminds everyone why defensive game plans start with his name, and Tate (4 catches, 75 yards) and Klare (4 catches, 25 yards, TD) gave the passing game the balance it needs on the road.


True Freshman Bo Jackson got a healthy workload, going for 56 yards on 13 carries.

Defensively, Ohio State didn’t win with a sack parade, the front only recorded one sack, with Curry adding to his season total (now 7.5), but the back end and linebackers played like a group that took last week’s Minnesota passing yardage personally. Reese’s interception set the third-quarter tone, the cornerbacks smothered throwing windows all night, and the run defense once again looked like a hard rule rather than a suggestion, holding Illinois to 38 rushing yards on 18 carries.

Sonny Styles, back from the hamstring issue that kept him out against Minnesota, looked like he’d been waiting to hit someone for a week: seven tackles and three tackles for loss in a game that never required him to play hero, only to play like himself. For Illinois, the night was a harsh reminder of how thin the margin is against the nation’s best. Altmyer finished 11-of-24 for 68 yards and the interception, Feagin never got the chance to become the game’s physical center (nine carries, 26 yards) because Ohio State’s early lead erased the script Illinois wanted, and even Gabe Jacas’ sack couldn’t spark a defense that spent too many snaps on the field and too many drives defending short down-and-distance.

The subplot worth watching going forward might be in Ohio State’s backfield. CJ Donaldson didn’t record a carry and only played three snaps, and because he was on the field at all, it didn’t look injury-related. That doesn’t automatically mean anything dramatic, but it does suggest the rotation has shifted toward Peoples as the clear feature option, with Bo Jackson’s role expanding into something more than “freshman cameos.”

Another quiet note: Will Kacmarek only played four snaps and didn’t appear after the first drive, while Bennett Christian’s usage increased and Maxence LeBlanc saw 10 snaps in heavier sets. Ohio State didn’t sound alarmed, and the way the tight end room absorbed the shift made it feel like more maintenance than emergency.

Most of all, this was Ohio State doing the thing that elite teams do on the road against a ranked opponent that’s been waiting for the moment: it removed the “moment” from the game. Illinois entered the night needing a signature win, needing Memorial Stadium to feel like a force, needing the Illibuck to become more than a trophy. Ohio State turned it into a four-quarter lesson in efficiency, explosiveness, and suffocating control, and when it was done, the Buckeyes walked out of Champaign with another win, another statement, and the same little wooden turtle they’ve kept for nearly two decades.

Qtr	Time	Team	Result	Play	OHST	ILLI
1st	9:40		TD	James Peoples, 56 Yd run	7	0
1st	5:00		FG	David Olano, 30 Yd FG	7	3
1st	3:06		TD	Jeremiah Smith, 68 Yd pass from Julian Sayin	14	3
2nd	12:23		TD	Max Klare, 5 Yd pass from Julian Sayin	21	3
2nd	2:06		FG	Jayden Fielding, 31 Yd FG	24	3
3rd	10:47		TD	James Peoples, 3 Yd pass from Julian Sayin	31	3
4th	8:58		TD	Bo Jackson, 3 Yd run	38	3
4th	4:45		FG	David Olano, 46 Yd FG	38	6