At one point in time, Wisconsin and Ohio State were the annual favorites in each now-defunct division. Over six years, the two faced off five times, with three matchups coming in the Big Ten Championship. The last time the Badgers topped the Buckeyes was in 2010. Since then, Ohio State has won 10 in a row, kicked off by a legendary last-second touchdown from Braxton Miller to Devin Smith in a massive upset in 2011. In that time, the two have had great battles, like that 2011 matchup, along with 2012, 2013, 2016, and the 2017 Big Ten Championship. Conversely, the Buckeyes have routed the Badgers, like the 2014 Big Ten Championship that ended 59-0, propelling the Buckeyes to the inaugural College Football Playoff.<\/p>\n
Fast-forward to 2025, and these programs could not be more different. While Ohio State is still an annual contender to win it all, this year’s Wisconsin squad is reeling. There is a prevailing sentiment that Luke Fickell, the former interim head coach and longtime assistant coach for the Buckeyes, will not reach 2026. As our Tony Siracusa put it<\/a>, “We are not going to prognosticate on who else might lose their jobs. Preying on people\u2019s employment is gross.” At the same time, Wisconsin is 2-4 this year after going 5-7 last year. One would assume the Badgers have higher expectations.<\/p>\n All signs point to a dominant Buckeye victory at Camp Randall, but can Wisconsin salvage the season with a massive upset at home?<\/p>\n In six games, Wisconsin has not played many top-tier quarterbacks. The Badgers held DeQuan Finn<\/a> to 83 yards in the opening week, but then Ty Simpson<\/a> went off for 383 yards and four touchdowns two weeks later. The following week, true freshman Malik Washington<\/a> only completed 52.9% of his passes, but accounted for 265 yards (a career high) and two touchdowns. It’s not crazy to say Julian Sayin<\/a> and the Ohio State weapons should have a similar amount of success.<\/p>\n Alabama’s former 17-year-old Ryan Williams<\/a> found his footing against the Badgers’ defense, accounting for 165 yards and two scores off just five receptions. It still stands as his second-best individual performance in his career.<\/p>\n Sayin still paces the nation with his incredible 78.4% completion percentage. After being held to just 166 yards and two touchdowns against Illinois<\/a>, the Buckeyes should be looking to get the passing attack going against a vulnerable secondary. Wisconsin has forced only four interceptions this year. None of those games were against the two competent passing offenses.<\/p>\n Alabama has a few NFL-bound receivers, something none of the other teams on Wisconsin’s schedule can say with certainty. Ohio State has two future first-round talents, at the very least. It would be a surprise if Jeremiah Smith<\/a>, who hasn’t gone over 81 yards yet in Big Ten play this year, or Carnell Tate<\/a>, do not have plenty of success.<\/p>\n In the four games against teams not named Miami or Iowa, Wisconsin allowed over 281 yards per game through the air. Ohio State may be 43rd in the country in passing yards per game, but it’ll be the second-best passing attack the Badgers have faced to this point (Alabama). There is an opportunity here for the Buckeyes.<\/p>\n The one thing that has stood out in the Fickell era at Wisconsin is subpar quarterback play. The Badgers have utilized the transfer portal and have swung and missed a handful of times. This year is no different. Through six games, the Badgers have used three different quarterbacks.<\/p>\n To put into perspective where Wisconsin’s offense is, the Badgers lost 37-0…to Iowa. It’s not putting it too bluntly to say that was an awful result for Fickell’s team. It was so bad that the Wisconsin beat is wondering if the Badgers will even score a point against the Buckeyes’ tenacious defense.<\/p>\n Week 1 starter and Maryland transfer Billy Edwards Jr.<\/a> is battling an injury and has been out for weeks. Last week, third-stringer Hunter Simmons<\/a> took over after an injury sidelined Danny O’Neil<\/a>. At this point in the week, O’Neil and Simmons have been battling for the right to face an Ohio State defense that has, at every turn, dominated.<\/p>\n O’Neil leads the way with 640 yards and five touchdowns, but he’s thrown five interceptions. As you could guess, Simmons did not have much success last week. Against Iowa, the fifth-year senior transfer from Southern Illinois, Simmons completed just eight passes for 82 yards and no touchdowns. The previous week, he accounted for 177 yards with no touchdowns against Michigan.<\/p>\n Whoever lines up at quarterback, Matt Patricia’s defense will be ready to pin their ears back and make an already difficult job nearly impossible.<\/p>\n The Buckeyes tout a handful of mid-season All-Americans on defense, but nobody has stood out quite like Arvell Reese<\/a>. Coming into the year, he was an unknown. Now, he has an opportunity to be a top-10 pick and the first Buckeye off the board. Yes, even before Caleb Downs<\/a>. He flashes in every game and has NFL Draft experts and wannabe experts alike excited. He will be relied upon to create chaos.<\/p>\n The key to this one will be the Buckeye defensive line. Caden Curry<\/a> and Kayden McDonald<\/a> have been having great seasons to this point, but defensive tackle Tywone Malone<\/a> has been coming along. Eddrick Houston<\/a> was the expected breakout candidate this year, but a lower-body injury has been nagging him this year. So, the former Ole Miss Rebel has stepped up.<\/p>\n Wisconsin struggled against an Iowa defense that is solid in its own right, but it’s not quite to the level that Ohio State’s is. While the matchup with Penn State in two weeks’ time does not have the cach\u00e9 it did a month ago, Ohio State is looking to be as dominant as possible heading into its second bye week.<\/p>\n Then, things get interesting.<\/p>\n Main Image: The Columbus Dispatch<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Buckeyes and Badgers face off with both programs heading in complete opposite directions. Will Wisconsin score?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4051,"featured_media":81293,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[35609,5,35651],"tags":[6277,272,34863,3348],"class_list":["post-81270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ohio-state-buckeyes","category-bigten","category-wisconsin-badgers","tag-braxton-miller","tag-luke-fickell","tag-matt-patricia","tag-ryan-day"],"modified_by":"Tony Siracusa, CFB Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4051"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81270"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81270\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81294,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81270\/revisions\/81294"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Buckeyes’ Business Trip to Badgers Before Bye<\/h2>\n
Let Sayin Talk<\/h3>\n
Make Bad Worse<\/h3>\n
Keep Up The Pressure<\/h3>\n