Ohio State heads into October with a 42-19 win over Illinois in the rearview, but the trip to Iowa City on October 3rd carries a lot more danger than that final score suggests.
The Buckeyes won comfortably on the scoreboard, yet the tape left a few red flags hanging in plain sight. Illinois ran for 199 yards and averaged 6.0 yards per carry against Ohio State’s defense, a number that stood out enough to be flagged as a concern moving forward.
Aidan Laughery did plenty of damage on the ground, finishing with 113 yards on 11 carries, while Katin Houser completed 21 of 37 passes for 263 yards. Illinois didn’t have the same talent level at the skill spots, but it still moved the ball on the ground and stayed physical all afternoon.
Ohio State safety Jaylen McClain made some timely plays, and Jeremiah Smith’s huge day on the other side helped cover over a defense that still showed it can be pushed around.
That matters because Iowa is exactly the kind of team that can lean into those cracks.
The Hawkeyes just proved that they can win a tight road game in the final moments, going into Ann Arbor and knocking off No. 18 Michigan, 20-19.
Iowa trailed at halftime and looked like it might open Big Ten play with a loss, but it put together an 11-play, 91-yard march in the final two minutes. Hank Brown finished it off with a 16-yard touchdown pass to Reece Vander Zee, and Iowa took the lead with two seconds left.
Michigan’s loss came on the final play of the game.
That’s the identity Iowa is carrying into Kinnick Stadium: a team that doesn’t flinch in a hostile setting, doesn’t cave when the game gets tight, and already has a ranked win because it kept pushing late. Now it gets that same mentality back home, in a building that has long been one of the toughest places for visiting teams to handle.
Ohio State knows exactly how ugly that can get.
The last time the Buckeyes played in Iowa City, on November 4, 2017, the result was a disaster. Iowa blasted then-No.
6 Ohio State 55-24 at Kinnick Stadium. Nate Stanley threw five touchdown passes, Josh Jackson picked off three passes, and Iowa piled up 487 yards against an Ohio State defense that had entered the game allowing just 302.5 yards per game.
The nightmare started immediately when Amani Hooker intercepted J.T. Barrett on the opening snap and returned it for a touchdown seven seconds into the game.
Ryan Day was on that staff as Ohio State’s co-offensive coordinator, and he has not hidden how that game lingers. He has said he has tried to completely block it from his memory, calling it simply "bad." He has also referred to it as "a scar that doesn't go away."
This will be Ohio State’s first trip back to Kinnick Stadium since that loss, and the backdrop is impossible to ignore. The Buckeyes are the more talented team, and Iowa is not about to score 55 points on anybody in 2026. But the combination of Ohio State’s ground-game issues, Iowa’s recent poise in a pressure game, and the history tied to that stadium gives this matchup a very real edge.
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Jeremiah Smith Looks Like A Heisman Star And An Ohio State Warning
Jeremiah Smith keeps making the impossible look routine, and his latest outing against Illinois only hardened the case that he belongs in the Heisman conversation. With 12 catches, four touchdowns and 217 receiving yards, the Ohio State star again looked like the player most capable of tilting a game on his own, giving the Buckeyes the kind of explosive presence that can carry an offense when everything is clicking around him.
Smiths rise, though, comes with a familiar Ohio State undercurrent: the better he gets, the more obvious it becomes how much the rest of the offense has to do to match him. The Buckeyes can lean on his production and his star power for only so long before they need more consistent help elsewhere, because as dazzling as Smith has been, the burden on him has started to look like both a weapon and a warning. [Read more 🡒]
Ohio State Faces Fresh Spotlight On A Road Test That Matters
Ohio States next trip already had some weight to it, and now it comes with an added national stage. College GameDay is headed to Iowa City for the Buckeyes matchup with Iowa, the first time in 20 years the show has made that stop, giving a midseason road game a bigger spotlight than usual. The Buckeyes are coming off a win over Illinois, while Iowa arrives with momentum after beating Michigan, which only sharpens the attention on a meeting that already looked like a useful measuring stick.
For Ohio State, the trip also lands at a time when the discussion around the team has not been limited to the win column. Defensive concerns have been part of the conversation, and the schedule does not offer much breathing room after this one, with more ranked opponents waiting ahead. A game like this tends to reveal whether a team is simply surviving the calendar or starting to answer the tougher questions that come with it. [Read more 🡒]
Ohio State's Title Hopes Face A Stretch That Will Tell Everything
Ohio State has steadied itself after the gut punch in Week 2, when a 20-point fourth-quarter lead against Texas slipped away. Since then, the Buckeyes have handled Kent State and Illinois, and they still sit fifth in the rankings with advanced metrics that say their national title path remains very much alive. Even with the early setback, there is enough talent and enough rsum left to keep the conversation pointed toward January.
The next stretch, though, is where the season starts asking harder questions. Ohio State needs a better running game and a tougher run defense to hold up against what is coming, beginning with an undefeated Iowa team that will tell a lot about how sturdy this roster really is. The Buckeyes do not need perfection yet, but they do need proof that the issues exposed by Texas are getting fixed before the schedule gets any less forgiving. [Read more 🡒]