All stock market bets are off.
The investments made by Ohio State throughout the course of the 2025 season have all led to this time of the year. Michigan. A possible Big Ten Championship game after that. The College Football Playoff after that.
This weekend, for the 11th game out of 11, stocks are up for the Buckeyes. They’ve been the best team in college football all season and dominated another overmatched Big Ten squad, Rutgers, 42-9 on Senior Day. But it’s all for naught if Ohio State can’t snap its four-game losing streak to Michigan.
Stock Up
Max Klare
Ohio State’s top tight end threat stepped up in the absence of Jeremiah Smith and Carnell Tate, dropping his first 100-yard game as a Buckeye with seven receptions for 105 yards and a touchdown. Klare’s quietly reached 400 receiving yards this year, rarified air for a Buckeye tight end. He flexed some athleticism on a 39-yard catch-and-run off a check-and-release to a drag route.
With Smith and Tate out, Max Klare has reminded everyone that Ohio State also has one of the best tight ends in the country.
— Bobby Football (@Rob__Paul) November 22, 2025
The Purdue transfer is now over 100 yards today. Another playmaker for defenses to worry about in the CFP. pic.twitter.com/3aLwmHHrxE
Caden Curry
A titanium wrecking ball in his senior year, Curry collected six tackles and two sacks against Rutgers, including a strip sack he recovered near the Scarlet Knights’ endzone that might have been a touchdown if it were reviewed. Every bit the anchor Ohio State needed at defensive end this season, he leads the Buckeyes in both tackles for loss (13.5) and sacks (nine) this year, with 49 total tackles.
BANG! CURRY!
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) November 22, 2025
Once again, the @OhioStateFB defense makes a big-time play pic.twitter.com/6gzMt1kkGd
The Silver Bullets
Ohio State maintained its spot as the nation’s No. 1 scoring and No. 1 total defense with a dominant outing against Rutgers. A top-40 offense entering the contest, the Scarlet Knights were smothered to a season-low 147 total yards and 1.9 yards per carry on the ground. The middle of the Buckeyes’ defense has been impregnable all season thanks to Kayden McDonald, Sonny Styles, Arvell Reese, Tywone Malone Jr. and company, and it will need to be once more against the downhill-running Wolverines this Saturday.
The Run Game*
The run game appeared in Stock Up with an asterisk last week, and it appears again with an asterisk for the same reason this week. UCLA is the second-worst run defense in the Big Ten. Rutgers is the worst run defense in the country. All that being noted, Ohio State averaged 6.7 yards per carry on a 254-yard rushing day when the Scarlet Knights expected it given the lack of Smith and Tate. Michigan is the No. 10 yard-per-carry run defense in the country, though, so it will be a different beast.
Luke Fickell
Wisconsin’s beaten two out of three foes in upset fashion, I hear? The former Buckeye has responded well since Badger athletic director Chris McIntosh backed him by saying he’ll coach the team again next year. A then-ranked Illinois squad got beaten soundly in Camp Randall by a 27-10 scoreline this Saturday.
Hate
One week per year for Ohio State fans, hate is valid. It festers. It consumes. The Buckeyes need a reckoning in this game, and the sweet joys of vengeance and victory will be all of Ohio’s if they prevail. For now, the state hates.
Stock Down
The Next Wave at Receiver
No, I won’t hear the arguments that Ohio State leaning on its running game against Rutgers was why Julian Sayin and his backup wide receivers had less chemistry than I and my most recent date. The Buckeyes’ wideouts combined for four receptions for 43 yards against the worst yard-per-play defense in the country. It was Senior Day, and he’s a senior; he’s also Ohio State’s best blocking receiver, but former walk-on David Adolph playing twice as many snaps (48) as touted prospects Bryson Rodgers (23) and Mylan Graham (12) is a red flag.
There’s a sharp, sharp dropoff in this receiver room once Smith and Tate are out of the picture. Look at this attempt at a back-shoulder ball to Graham and tell me with a straight face that Sayin is on the same page with the second-stringers out wide.
I wrote more in-depth about the struggles with backup receivers after the game Saturday, but I wanted to address this main counterargument I heard here. A lean on the run game does not force miscommunications and a putrid 5.4 yards per pass attempt when receivers were targeted vs. the Scarlet Knights.
It’s sounding likely that both Smith and Tate play against Michigan, so this entire conversation could be irrelevant, anyway. Until the backups are needed again, if they are. But the Rutgers game underscored why their health is such a major concern. It’s nice to have Klare, too.
Georgia Tech
Pitt smacked then-No. 16 Georgia Tech 42-28 to knock another top ACC squad off its pedestal. The Yellow Jackets came back from a 28-0 deficit to get within a score at 35-28, but all for naught.
Chickenshit Saturday
While Big Ten schools battled and scratched through the dregs of November in conference competition this past weekend, the SEC participated in one of college football’s worst traditions: playing FCS schools during what’s supposed to be the meat of the sport’s calendar. No. 3 Texas A&M played Samford. No. 4 Georgia played Charlotte (not technically FCS, but a 1-10 FBS team). No. 10 Alabama played Eastern Illinois. Vomit-inducing. Hopefully, this will finally go the way of the dodo next year when the SEC moves to a nine-game conference schedule.
Tranquility
The next four days will have all of Buckeye Nation on edge. Try not to let the anxiety fester. It can consume you. Like the Michigan hate. Whatever happens on Saturday, the sun will come up the next day – but ideally it rises with a metric ton weight lifted from Ryan Day’s program.
