Ohio State vs. Rutgers Preview: One Final Overmatched Big Ten Foe Comes to the Shoe As Michigan's Shadow Looms

Presented by First Bank of Central Ohio

Rutgers

Scarlet Knights

5-5 (2-5)

roster  |  schedule

NOV. 22, 2025 - Noon

Ohio Stadium

Columbus, OH

FOXOSU -32.5

Sixty minutes of November football hold back the anxiety of the whole state of Ohio.

No. 1 Ohio State plays a game against Rutgers this week, but it’s hard for fans and media not to be thinking ahead to The Game the following Saturday. Rutgers is the last of five consecutive Big Ten teams the Buckeyes have played that will finish the regular season with a .500 or worse record, assuming they unsaddle the Scarlet Knights.

There will be some nice festivities around Senior Day. Multiple games would have to go wrong (namely, the one in Ann Arbor next week) for it not to be Ohio State’s final home game of the year. Rutgers offers a solid offense, but possesses one of the worst defenses in the FBS – the worst in the nation in yards allowed per play, in fact. No one is looking ahead from the Buckeyes’ perspective as a team. They haven’t all year. But for everyone else, No. 18 Michigan will be back of mind when the Rutgers contest kicks off at noon and move to the front whenever the game is in hand.

“It's easy to lose focus on what's going on right now,” Ryan Day said on Wednesday. “Throughout the season, there's different things that can drift you away from what needs to be, where all your energy needs to be, and that's it. So that's what we're going to do this week, and that's been the message all along. And it's not going to change next week either. From Sunday all the way until we play the game, the foot hits the ball, we've got to be focused on our opponent.”

The Headlines

One Final Run Game Tuneup

More than anything, for a 5-5 team with a 2-5 record in Big Ten play, run defense has been the Achilles heel of Rutgers this season. Listing the Scarlet Knights as the worst run-stoppers in the FBS was no exaggeration earlier. In fact, Rutgers is the worst yard-per-play defense in the country, giving up 7.48 yards per play. Greg Schiano's squad lies a nose ahead of Air Force's 7.42 yards per play allowed. 

Rutgers surrenders 6.6 yards per carry to its opponents, worst in the country by a much larger margin. The gap between Rutgers and the next-worst yard-per-carry defense in the FBS, Georgia Southern, is the same as the gap between that 135th-ranked run defense and 106th-ranked Georgia Tech.

Four of the Scarlet Knights’ five losses came after they allowed at least 160 rushing yards to their foe. Oregon pounded Rutgers for 415 rushing yards, the 11th-most in the Ducks’ program history. RU allows 196.5 rush yards per game, 125th nationally and last in the Big Ten.

Ohio State’s ground attack took serious strides last week, though the Buckeyes were facing the second-worst run defense in the Big Ten, UCLA. They picked up 222 rushing yards at a clip of 6.7 yards per carry, both their high-water marks in conference play. Bo Jackson, Isaiah West and James Peoples all shone out of the backfield with short-yardage specialist CJ Donaldson injured. Day said Donaldon is "good," "strong" and had a good Wednesday practice. The younger trio each averaged at least seven yards per carry. Peoples recorded one of the greatest highlights of OSU’s season. He coupled it with a second excellent touchdown run.

2nd TD of the night for James Peoples @OhioStateFB

: NBC pic.twitter.com/DQozXJ4vye

— Big Ten Football (@B1Gfootball) November 16, 2025

Overall, Ohio State still ranks just 35th nationally in yards per carry (4.8) and 61st in rushing yards per game (161.8). But the team has faith that the strides they showed on the ground vs. the Bruins will scale up when competition stiffens after this weekend.

“In practice, you can just tell,” tight end Will Kacmarek said. “We're operating as a unit now, and I think we just have a lot more confidence. We all believe in each other and just know that we're going to get the jobs done. So I think just the confidence overall.”

Wellness Check

Priority No. 3, after winning the matchup and building on the running game, should be player health for Ohio State. Jeremiah Smith and Carnell Tate’s health, first and foremost.

Tate missed his first action of the year at Purdue in a surprise. Not noted on the Buckeyes’ status report entering the game, he is said to have been injured in warmups and didn’t play. Then he was listed as “out” against UCLA. Day has stayed mum about Tate’s status since. Both he and Smith’s status, really. Tate has 39 receptions for 711 yards and seven touchdowns in eight games this year, emerging as one of the nation’s best wideouts.

“They're working hard to get back on the field, and that's it,” Day said. “That's what they're focused on, and I don't really have much more of an update other than that.”

Smith hasn’t missed a game yet, but was limited to just three series against UCLA before exiting to rest what appears to be a lower back or leg injury. He was spotted limping off the field after the game and grimacing in warmups before the game, though he looked just fine during, making an incredible one-handed catch up the sideline as the highlight of a four-reception, 40-yard performance in just 22 snaps. He has 69 receptions for 902 yards and 10 touchdowns this season.

Quarterback and Heisman Trophy candidate Julian Sayin also got banged up vs. the Bruins with what NBC reported as an ankle injury. He’s clear to play on Saturday, but it’d be good to get him out of the game early as a precaution. Ditto everyone else important on Ohio State’s roster given the opponent next week.

Senior Sendoff

After replacing 14 NFL draft picks from a senior-laden 2024 team, Saturday will be the last home game for several key seniors on this year’s squad.

Linebacker Sonny Styles tops the list. Capping his career as a team captain and Block “O” jersey wearer, he’s been the second half of the nation’s best linebacker tandem in 2025, alongside junior Arvell Reese. Styles has 57 tackles, trailing only Reese on the team this season, with 3.5 tackles for loss, two pass breakups, an interception and a forced fumble. He’s the green-dot wearer for the nation’s No. 1 scoring and total defense.

Defensive end Caden Curry has always been a strong backup for Ohio State, but in his senior season, he’s taken full advantage of his first starting opportunity. The MVP of the Buckeyes’ win at Washington, he has 43 tackles, a team-high 11.5 TFLs and a team-high seven sacks this season.

Two defensive backs will make the walk, cornerback Davison Igbinosun and nickel Lorenzo Styles Jr., both excellent pieces of one of the best secondaries in the nation. The Styles brothers get to make their walk together in a cool twist.

“It's awesome,” Sonny Styles said. “I've got a lot of family coming for this game. So it's going to be a super cool moment, just take it all in and try to make the most of it.”

Kacmarek, Donaldson, starting defensive tackle Tywone Malone Jr., kicker Jayden Fielding, offensive guard Ethan Onianwa and long snapper John Ferlmann are also among the seniors playing their likely last home game. Juniors like Reese, Caleb Downs and Tate could also play their final game in the Shoe on Saturday before entering the 2026 NFL draft.

Our own Dan Hope has a far more in-depth look at the senior class and the legacy they want to leave coming out later today. 

Watch Out for These Guys

Rutgers RB Antwan Raymond

With 200 carries for 1,000 yards (five yards per carry) and 11 touchdowns, Raymond is Rutgers’ best offensive weapon in 2025. He’s fresh off a career day in the Scarlet Knights’ win over Maryland, in which he rushed 41 times for 240 yards and a score. Rutgers features the No. 39 total offense in the country at 420.5 yards per game and the No. 59 scoring offense at 29.9 points per game.

Rutgers WR KJ Duff

Vincent Carchietta – Imagn Images.

Duff is the second featured weapon of the Rutgers offense, racking up 53 receptions for 923 yards and six touchdowns this season. Raymond is No. 2 in rushing yards in the Big Ten and Duff is No. 2 in receiving yards. Senior quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis captains the charge, completing 62.3% of his passes for 2,705 yards and 17 touchdowns against seven interceptions.

Ohio State RB Bo Jackson

With Rutgers’ abhorrent run defense, Ohio State’s most productive, most used and most explosive rusher will be in position to take advantage. The freshman Jackson has 110 carries for 725 yards (6.6 per carry) and three touchdowns in 2025.

Game Week Talk

“It's going to be a special moment. Last guaranteed game in the Shoe with the packed house, playing my home team in the Shoe. It's going to be one exciting moment for me and my family.”– Ohio State DT Tywone Malone Jr. on playing his hometown team on Senior Day

Malone rose up the ranks to become the Buckeyes’ starting three-technique defensive tackle in his redshirt senior year, and Saturday, he gets to enjoy Senior Day against his hometown team as a New Jersey native. He was the No. 1 player from New Jersey in the 2021 recruiting class, in fact. He said it’s “hard to count” how many family members will be there in support.

“First off, they’re very, very talented. Second off, they are really well-coached. So they execute very well. Matt Patricia has done a magnificent job. You can see his fingerprints all over it. I’ve known Matt for a long time and it doesn’t surprise me one bit.”– Rutgers HC Greg Schiano on the challenge of facing Ohio State's defense

Schiano came up as a defensive coordinator and knows good defensive football, even if his team this year (and the Ohio State defense he coordinated in 2018, following a great 2017 unit) is falling short on the defensive side of the football. The Silver Bullets have been generationally good this season. It’s hard to envision Rutgers – even with a few good offensive pieces – being the team that cracks the armor.

Get Smart

• Ohio State is 10-0 all-time vs. Rutgers. All 10 games have been played since 2014, when Rutgers joined the Big Ten.
• Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano was Ohio State’s defensive coordinator from 2016-18.
• Ohio State has six players from New Jersey, including three defensive starters (Davison Igbinosun, Tywone Malone Jr. and Jaylen McClain) and three freshmen (Quincy Porter, De’zie Jones and DeShawn Stewart).
• Rutgers has four players from Ohio: starting right guard Kwabena Asamoah (Pickerington), backup defensive linemen Elijah King (Gahanna) and Bradley Weaver (Hilliard) and freshman tight end Ben Rothhaar (Norwalk).
• Ohio State will celebrate Senior Day before Saturday’s game. 17 Buckeyes are expected to participate.

How It Plays Out

Line: Ohio State -32.5, O/U 55.5

Rutgers has a bad defense and a decent offense. Ohio State has an elite defense and a great, if not elite, offense, with the only non-elite part of it thus far (the run game) standing opposite the Scarlet Knights’ top weakness. 

Especially with the focus they’ve displayed all year, the Buckeyes should win dominantly, even if Smith and Tate are on the sideline. If either plays, things are that much more secure. Michigan will be front of mind soon. 

 The closest margin of victory predicted by the Eleven Warriors staff is Ohio State by 24 points.

Eleven Warriors Staff Prediction
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