A few Big Ten teams got the kind of opening weekend to conference play they were hoping for. Others got blindsided.
Week 4 brought a little bit of everything: Oregon surviving chaos in Los Angeles, Minnesota grinding out a late win, Michigan getting burned at the buzzer, and Ohio State and UCLA rolling in lopsided fashion. The league’s first round of conference games didn’t waste time delivering drama.
Oregon’s trip to USC turned when Dante Moore left the game after a targeting penalty from linebacker Desman Stephens II ended both players’ nights. Moore was carted off and taken to the hospital, where he was diagnosed with a concussion, while Stephens was ejected. That opened the door for former Nebraska starting quarterback Dylan Raiola, who stepped in and immediately took control.
Raiola’s first drive ended with a 3-yard touchdown pass, and Oregon never looked back. He finished with 289 yards and two touchdowns, powering the Ducks past the Trojans.
Tight end Jamari Johnson and wide receiver Dierre Hill Jr. each topped 100 yards without scoring, with Johnson going for 119 and Hill posting 105. Hill also hauled in a 62-yard catch.
USC quarterback Jayden Maiava kept the Trojans moving with 326 yards and two touchdowns, but it wasn’t enough.
The late-night window produced another tight one in Minneapolis, where Minnesota outlasted Washington 27-24 to grab its first Big Ten win of the year. The Huskies made things interesting after an interception of Drake Lindsay led to a touchdown that cut into the margin in the fourth quarter.
Minnesota answered with a field goal, then Washington quarterback Demond Williams Jr. drove his team for another touchdown with less than two minutes left. Minnesota then held on a three-and-out, and Washington couldn’t finish the final push.
Indiana also had to deal with some pressure in its Friday night matchup with Northwestern, but the Hoosiers did enough to stay unbeaten. Northwestern trimmed the gap with a third-quarter drive and later pulled within one score, but Indiana stretched it back to 29-20 with less than two minutes remaining. Jackson Kleather added a late field goal for the Wildcats, though the comeback bid ended there in a 29-23 Indiana win.
Then came the shocker in Ann Arbor.
Michigan looked like it had the edge statistically, piling up 429 total yards to Iowa’s 285, and Bryce Underwood turned in a better outing than he had in the first few weeks, throwing for 276 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. But Iowa had the final word. As time expired, Brown hit Reece Vander Zee in the front corner of the end zone for the game-winning touchdown, with Vander Zee getting both feet down for the score.
Iowa’s offense got a lift from Hank Brown, who threw for 227 yards and two touchdowns, but the play that really jump-started the Hawkeyes came on special teams. Braeden Jackson took a kickoff 99 yards for a touchdown to get Iowa going.
UCLA kept its strong start under Bob Chesney rolling with a 54-3 demolition of Maryland. Nico Iamaleava threw for 209 yards and a touchdown, while the Bruins’ ground game added 266 yards and four scores.
The defense was even more disruptive, forcing four interceptions - including two pick sixes - from Maryland’s Malik Washington. UCLA also held the Terrapins to 181 yards, sacked Washington twice and finished with seven tackles for loss.
Ohio State matched that kind of statement performance at home, beating Illinois 42-19. Julian Sayin and Jeremiah Smith were the headline act.
Smith exploded for 217 receiving yards and four touchdowns, while Sayin completed 27 of 36 passes for 367 yards. The Buckeyes also got 151 yards on the ground.
Illinois moved the ball well enough to finish with 462 total yards, but the offense repeatedly stalled when it mattered. The Fighting Illini settled for two field goals and came up short on two fourth-down tries, leaving them with too much ground to make up.
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Penn State Already Faces An Uncomfortable Question About Life After Franklin
Penn States stumble at Beaver Stadium against Wisconsin in Matt Campbells Big Ten debut as head coach put an immediate spotlight on what life looks like after James Franklin. Coaching changes are never clean, especially when a new leader is being asked to steady a program with expectations as high as Penn States. Campbell arrives with a reputation as a builder, the kind of coach who needs time to shape a team in his image rather than simply patching over what came before.
For the Nittany Lions, the uncomfortable part is not just that the transition has begun, but that recent results have already started to look more fragile than the standard Franklin set in earlier years. This is the part of a changeover that programs hope to avoid, when every loss turns into a referendum on the new era and every uneven performance invites comparisons to the old one. Penn State is only at the beginning of that process, but the pressure to show progress is already very real. [Read more 🡒]
Penn State Has A Scheduling Problem Fans Cant Ignore
Penn State had plenty to feel good about when it took a 17-0 lead into halftime, but the second half against Wisconsin turned into a reminder that early control does not always mean a game is secure. The offense managed only a field goal after the break, while Wisconsin kept chipping away and eventually put up 24 points to flip the result. Matt Campbell acknowledged the missed opportunities afterward, and the loss fit a familiar pattern for a team that can look polished before the pressure really ramps up.
That is why the conversation around the Nittany Lions non-conference slate has become hard to ignore. An easier early schedule can help a team build confidence and stack wins, but it can also hide flaws that only show up once the calendar turns and the opponents get stronger. For Penn State, the concern is not just the loss itself, but whether the schedule has given a truer picture of what this team is before the tougher conference tests arrive. [Read more 🡒]
Penn State's Offense Hit A Troubling Low In Loss To Wisconsin
Penn States offense has had uneven stretches this season, but the loss to Wisconsin brought a new low in the grading as well as the scoreboard. Pro Football Focus gave the unit its worst mark of the year, while the defense, which held up far better, posted its second-highest grade of the season and had one of the days biggest bright spots in freshman Josiah Zayas.
Zayas finished with the top defensive grade on the team after returning an interception for a touchdown, a play that briefly gave Penn State some life. The other side of the ball told a harsher story, with quarterback Rocco Becht turning in a rough outing and several offensive linemen also drawing season-low grades, leaving the offense searching for answers after another frustrating night. [Read more 🡒]