A week ago, Ohio State’s trip to USC looked like the toughest game left on the schedule. A true freshman quarterback making his first career start, on the road, at night, on Halloween in the Coliseum against one of the Big Ten’s best offenses - it had all the ingredients of a game where the Buckeyes might have to score 30-plus just to keep pace.
Then USC went to Madison and scored seven points.
Wisconsin handled the Trojans 24-7 on Saturday night, the fewest points a Lincoln Riley team has ever managed. USC dropped out of the AP top 25 and enters Saturday at 6-2 with its playoff hopes hanging by a thread. For Ohio State, that completely changes the way this matchup looks.
What happened in Madison was ugly from the start. USC came in averaging 36.4 points and 462.4 yards per game, while leading the country in first downs.
Jayden Maiava was pacing the Big Ten with 292.1 passing yards per game and had thrown only three interceptions on 224 attempts. Even the offensive line was drawing postseason watch-list attention, landing on the Joe Moore Award midseason list.
None of that traveled with them.
USC finished with 241 total yards, its fewest under Riley. The Trojans never hit a play of 20 yards or more.
They went 1-for-3 in the red zone, and four drives died in Wisconsin territory without producing points. Maiava was 31 of 50 for 258 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions, including one pick that helped set up Wisconsin’s first points from the USC 18.
He was sacked five times and flagged for intentional grounding twice.
The ground game was even worse. USC finished with minus-17 rushing yards on 25 carries.
Even when the sack yardage is removed, the running backs still got nothing going. Riley didn’t soften the edges afterward, saying, “We flat-out didn’t play good enough on any of the three sides of the ball.”
And somehow, Wisconsin won by 17 even though Colton Joseph threw for only 58 yards.
That’s why Ohio State has a very different kind of challenge now.
It does not mean USC’s offense suddenly forgot how to score. A team does not average 36 points over seven games by accident, and Maiava is still one of the better quarterbacks in the conference.
Riley has been building elite offenses for more than a decade, and USC will be desperate at home with its season on the line. A better showing Saturday is still the most likely outcome.
But Wisconsin also put the blueprint on the table.
Stop the run. Force USC into obvious passing downs.
Heat up Maiava when he’s behind the chains. Once the Trojans couldn’t stay ahead of schedule, everything started to stall.
That should sound familiar to Ohio State. Over its last three games, the Buckeyes held Iowa to 39 rushing yards, Maryland to 82 and Indiana to 73.
Indiana entered that game averaging 221 rushing yards per contest. If Ohio State can bottle up USC the same way Wisconsin did, Maiava will be living in those third-and-long situations that led to all that pressure.
The question for the Buckeyes is whether their pass rush can finish the job. Ohio State has not consistently gotten home this season, and Wisconsin showed how much pressure can bother Maiava.
Ryan Day expects to have most of his injured defenders back, likely including Kenyatta Jackson Jr. If Jackson and the rest of the edge group can win a few one-on-one battles on third down, Ohio State has a real shot to take control defensively.
That shifts the whole feel of the game.
What looked like a potential shootout in Los Angeles now feels much more like the Indiana game: physical, lower scoring, and shaped by whether Ohio State’s defense can set the tone while the offense avoids mistakes. That is a far better setup for Luke Fahey, or whoever gets the start.
USC’s defense has given up 25 points per game, so there should be opportunities. If Ohio State can run the ball with Bo Jackson and Isaiah West, get Jeremiah Smith involved on quick throws and protect the football, it does not need to score 35.
The wild card is everything around the game, because that part still favors USC. Saturday night in the Coliseum, outside the top 25, with playoff hopes on the edge - that is a volatile mix, especially for a young quarterback making his first start. The Trojans are going to come out swinging early, and the crowd will be loud.
Even with Wisconsin’s result, this still feels like Ohio State’s hardest remaining game because of the setting, the quarterback situation and the desperation on the other side. But the Trojans just showed the Buckeyes how to beat them, and Ohio State has the defense to do it even better.
In Other News...
UCLA Faces A Sneaky Test That Could Expose Any Slowdown
UCLAs next stop at the Rose Bowl brings a different kind of test, one that does not look especially dangerous at first glance but could be more revealing than the record suggests. Nevada arrives at 3-4 and has been more respectable on the defensive side than its overall standing indicates, which makes this a useful checkpoint for a Bruins team still trying to keep its season moving in the right direction.
The bigger concern for UCLA is how the backfield holds up if Wayne Knight is unavailable after getting hurt against Michigan State. His status remains uncertain, and if he cannot go, the Bruins will need others to shoulder the ground game against a Nevada defense that has been difficult to solve through the air. It is the sort of matchup that can quietly expose whether a team is just getting by or truly in rhythm. [Read more 🡒]
UCLA Gets An Early Test That Could Shape Its Whole Season
Before the Big Ten grind even begins, UCLA is getting a measuring-stick night in Las Vegas against a familiar heavyweight in Arizona. The Wildcats are ranked No. 5 and enter the season as the Big 12 favorite, with preseason player of the year Motiejus Krivas leading a roster that still looks built to contend. UCLA, ranked No. 22 and projected to finish fourth in its new conference, will have a chance to see early just how far it has to go, and how much its own offseason changes can help close the gap.
The Bruins have added Texas Tech transfer guard Jalen Petty, a move that should give Mick Cronin another backcourt option as he tries to sort out a team with real upside but plenty left to prove. Arizona's returnees and UCLA's new faces make this more than a neutral-site opener, even if both camps are still speaking in broad season-long terms right now. For UCLA, the trip is the kind of early test that can shape a November narrative before the schedule starts piling up. [Read more 🡒]
UCLAs Bob Chesney Has The Bruins Chasing More Than A Turnaround
Bob Chesney has turned UCLAs season into something bigger than a simple rebound, taking over a program that had just come off a rough year and putting it back into the conversation in a hurry. After his success at James Madison, Chesney arrived with a reputation for steady program-building, and the Bruins have responded by navigating injuries and a difficult early stretch while looking every bit like a team that believes the season can still become something special.
The challenge has only gotten sharper as UCLA has had to keep winning without its starting quarterback, a test of depth and poise that could have derailed a lesser team. Instead, the Bruins keep pushing toward the kind of finish that can change the perception of an entire program, with the possibility of a conference title path and even a playoff run now hanging out there as the stakes rise. [Read more 🡒]