It was an all-around solid week for the Big Ten to open the 2025 season. Ohio State, Penn State and Oregon looked as advertised. Unfortunately for them, so did Northwestern and UCLA.
Let’s talk about the games:
The Highlights
Ohio State stifles Texas, Arch Manning
The conference’s standard bearer emerged victorious in a hyped up bout with preseason No. 1 Texas and Heisman favorite Arch Manning.
Even if the scoreboard doesn’t show it, Saturday’s performance from the Buckeyes just felt like a beatdown in real time. Manning looked pedestrian at best throughout
the matchup, completing just 17 of his 30 attempts on the game for a wince-inducing 5.7 yards per attempt, one touchdown and one interception. The Longhorns did what they could spreading the ball around to seven different receivers, but the Buckeyes smothered any drive that showed even small amounts of promise.
Julian Sayin didn’t dazzle, going 13/20 with 126 yards and a score, but he did his job, which is more than what can be said for Manning. The Buckeyes should jump up to No. 1.
Barry Odom wins the Ross-Ade crowd
The new head man in West Lafayette coached his first game on Saturday, emerging with a convincing 31-0 win over a hapless Ball State team also led by a first year coach.
It’s not like the Cardinals are anything to write home about, but the Boilermakers played with the kinds of fundamentals that escaped Ryan Walters’ last team, which was a more than welcome sight for the Ross-Ade crowd.
If there was a demerit, it’s that Purdue couldn’t get much going on the ground, but it’s year one and this is a full-on rebuild. That can come with time. For now, competence at the top will do.
Northwestern gets trounced in New Orleans
Oof.
Northwestern got Beat by Tulane, 23-3, on the road in the big easy. Preston Stone tossed a mind-boggling four picks that kept the Wildcats offense from threatening to so much as make this game competitive. The Green Wave didn’t torch them offensively, but did more than enough to win the game.
To make matters worse, Tulane coach Jon Sumrall said after the game that the Green Wave has asked Northwestern for permission to wear road white uniforms for the matchup, the same color the program donned in 2005 for its first game after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city. According to Sumrall, Northwestern said no.
“That’s their prerogative, but when you show disrespect to the city of New Orleans that’s what’s going to happen to you,” Sumrall said. “You’re going to run into a team like this. They had a chip on their shoulder because I wanted to wear the exact same uniform that that team wore 20 years ago. Request got denied. We might have used that for a little bit of motivation to represent the city. So, don’t disrespect New Orleans ever.”
Not great.
The Rest
Illinois 52, Western Illinois 3:
- Not much to say on this one. This is to be expected. Solid tune-up for the Illini.
Rutgers 34, Ohio 31:
- Hm. This was a weird one. You shouldn’t take too much from a week 1 game BUT that’s an Ohio program with a first year coach. The MAC should be pretty good this year, but this could turn out to be an ill omen.
Minnesota 23, Buffalo 10:
- Again, the MAC is gonna be good this year and some power conference foes are still figuring themselves out. Ideally you put more than 23 points on the board though. One way or another, it’s funny to celebrate like you won a bowl after a week one G5 win
Nebraska 20, Cincinnati 17:
- See now this one was a bit weird. Nebraska entered this season with some level of hype and looked… okay against Cincinnati. I don’t think Scott Satterfield is long for that program and to this day do not understand that hire, but Dylan Raiola did enough to secure the win. Ideally the Cornhuskers find another serviceable running back to help him out.
Wisconsin 17, Miami (OH) 0:
- This is another one I wouldn’t take too much away from. Holding Miami scoreless is a solid feat and the Badgers suffered an injury to quarterback Billy Edwards.
Michigan State 23, Western Michigan 6:
- Western Michigan scored zero offensive points against Michigan State. Those six came from an interception return and a botched 2-point conversion when the Spartans had the game in hand. Aiden Chiles had a pretty good day and the Spartan running game tore the Broncos’ defense to shreds.
Penn State 46, Nevada 11:
- Also not too much to say here. The score would be more favorable to Penn State were it not for a late touchdown from Nevada. Drew Allar hit his receivers and the running game did its job. The Nittany Lions avoided mistakes, which is a pretty solid outing in this kind of game.
Oregon 59, Montana State 13:
- Montana State put up a decent rushing performance, but Oregon had this game put away before the second quarter even started. Dante Moore had a great day, passing for 213 yards and three scores. The same cannot be said for Puddles:
Michigan 34, New Mexico 17:
- Bryce Underwood looked good in his debut and the Wolverines punished the Lobos on the ground. The Michigan defense also picked off Jack Layne three times. New Mexico had to resort to some trickery to get one of its two touchdowns on the board. So there’s that.
Maryland 29, FAU 7:
- I don’t think anyone has particularly high hopes for Maryland this season, so a convincing win in the opener is a good first step towards proving that wrong, especially with a scoring burst from freshman quarterback Malik Washington in the second quarter.
Iowa 34, Albany 7:
- The good news: Iowa won in a blowout and Kirk Ferentz is a win away from becoming the Big Ten’s all-time leader in wins after tying Woody Hayes on Saturday.
- The bad news: Transfer quarterback Mark Gronowski left the game in the third with cramping issues after going 8-15 for 44 yards. Nothing long-term there, but that’s an Iowa passing stat line if I’ve ever seen one.
USC 73, Missouri State 13:
- Poor Missouri State was utterly outmatched, if you can’t tell. USC looked great. We’ll see if that carries into conference play.
UCLA 10, Utah 43:
- Yikes. If that’s what a Kyle Whittingham team does to the Bruins, I wouldn’t feel great about the Big Ten schedule.
Washington 38, Colorado State 21:
- Washington took a second to get going, entering halftime with a 14-14 tie before getting its act together and pulling away in the second half. Again, teams are still rounding into form and I wouldn’t take too much away, but that’s worth keeping a bit of an eye on.
