Saturday's Big Ten: No. 3 Buckeyes overcome sluggish showing to extend winning streak over Hoosiers
Bloomington, Ind. – Ohio State quarterback Kyle McCord gave himself an average grade in Saturday's season opener.
Coach Ryan Day thought the whole offense could have played better.
Miyan Williams rushed for two touchdowns and the third-ranked Buckeyes overcame an uncharacteristically sluggish start to beat Indiana 23-3, giving McCord his first victory since being named Ohio State's starter.
“I thought it was all right,” McCord said of his performance. “I thought there were some good plays, some bad plays. I want to look at the film and see where I can improve."
McCord finished 20 of 33 with 239 yards and one interception as the Buckeyes (1-0, 1-0 Big Ten) won their 23rd straight season opener and extended the longest active winning streak in an FBS series to 28 in a row over the Hoosiers.
But Day knows there's plenty to critique after scoring only two touchdowns while settling for three field goals and going 2 of 12 on third down. Even the Buckeyes established stars struggled.
Williams rushed seven times for 25 yards, TreVeyon Henderson added 47 yards on 12 carries and All-America receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. caught two passes for 18 yards. Harrison also hurt his left shoulder in the first half and had a touchdown catch nullified by an illegal touching penalty in the second half.
And the Buckeyes couldn't pull away until the Hoosiers defense wore down.
“We know what we need to do in order to win down the stretch – play great defense and run the football,” Day said. “But you’ve got to get that first win and any time you’re dealing with a new quarterback, first game on the road, it’s good to get that one.”
Indiana (0-1, 0-1) lost for the ninth time in 10 games dating to last season, this time with two inexperienced, second-year quarterbacks – Brendan Sorsby, who started, and Tayven Jackson, who will start next weekend – splitting snaps.
Neither generated much, though. They were a combined 9 of 21 with 82 yards through the air and rushing nine times for nine yards. The Hoosiers finished with 153 total yards and their only score came on a 40-yard field goal that bounced in off the right upright.
“Our decision was to play them both these first two weeks,” coach Tom Allen said of his quarterbacks. “It was kind of like, ‘Man, they are so similar (in practice),’ so we thought the best thing to do was let them both play. That’s how we set it up.”
It looked like it might work for a while.
After Williams capped Ohio State’s opening possession with a 7-yard scoring run, the teams traded field goals to make it 10-3 at halftime. The Buckeyes added a short field goal to take a 13-3 lead midway through the third quarter before Williams finally broke through with a 3-yard TD run to give the Buckeyes a 20-3 late in the third.
The Buckeyes closed it out with another field goal.
“You’d like to have more than 23 points,” Day said. “But the No. 1 goal was to get a win today. Glad we got the win, now we’ve got to get better.”
More Saturday games
(At) Wisconsin 38, Buffalo 17: Chez Mellusi ran for 157 yards and two touchdowns, Braelon Allen added 141 yards and two more scores and No. 19 Wisconsin started Luke Fickell’s coaching tenure with a victory.
Fickell coached his first regular-season game since joining the Badgers after six seasons at Cincinnati. He was with Wisconsin for the Guaranteed Rate Bowl victory over Oklahoma State last season.
Mellusi, a Clemson transfer who came to Wisconsin in 2021, had an 89-yard touchdown run in which he navigated through the defense to make it 21-10 in the third quarter. He had 13 carries.
Allen had 14 rushes, and caught seven passes for 25 yards. His 37-yard touchdown run extended the lead to 28-10 in the third.
SMU transfer Tanner Mordecai threw for 189 yards and a touchdown, and two interceptions, in his first start for the Badgers.
Melusi had a 1-yard TD run to put the Badgers on the board first in the first quarter. Buffalo scored less than two minutes later when Cole Harrity caught a 7-yard pass from Cole Snyder.
The Badgers had 101 yards rushing in the first half but found their footing on the ground in the third with 150 yards in the quarter.
Chimere Dike caught a 29-yard touchdown pass that gave Wisconsin a 14-7 lead with a minute to go in the first half.
Buffalo’s Devin Grant picked off Mordecai's pass at the 50 and returned it to the 16. But Alex McNulty missed a 34-yard field-goal attempt three plays later.
McNulty made a 53-yard field goal with seven seconds left in the first half to pull the Bulls to 14-10.
(At) Iowa 24, Utah State 14: The play call wasn't designed to help Cade McNamara make a big debut as Iowa's quarterback.
“We’re not that cerebral,” coach Kirk Ferentz joked. “We were just trying to score.”
McNamara's first pass for the No. 25 Hawkeyes was a touchdown, one of the two he threw Saturday in a 24-14 victory over Utah State.
McNamara, who transferred from Michigan, was listed as questionable for the game with a quad injury to his right leg he suffered during an open scrimmage on Aug. 12, but he made an immediate impact in this game with a 36-yard touchdown throw to Seth Anderson on Iowa’s second play from scrimmage.
“Gosh, I was so fired up,” McNamara said. “We got the exact look we wanted. To be honest, I was kind of surprised that play was called that early. I was expecting maybe a play-action or something. I was so fired up to hit that, and Seth made a great play on it.”
It was the first passing touchdown on the opening series of the season in Ferentz’s 25 years as the Hawkeyes’ coach, and the first for an Iowa team since 1991.
McNamara threw a 3-yard touchdown pass to Erick All, another transfer from Michigan, on Iowa's next drive, but the Hawkeyes' offense bogged down at that point. Iowa's only other points in the first half came on Drew Stevens' 20-yard field goal seven seconds before halftime. The Hawkeyes wouldn't score again until Kaleb Johnson's 3-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter.
Iowa, which had one of the worst offenses in the nation last season, finished with 284 yards.
“Overall, I thought we left a lot out there, to be honest,” McNamara said.
“They didn’t do anything to stop us,” Anderson said. “We were just stopping ourselves. We just have to execute better.”
McNamara admitted he wasn’t feeling his best. At one point in the third quarter, he was shaking his right leg after making an awkward throw.
Ferentz, who was noncommittal during his Tuesday news conference about whether McNamara would start, said the quarterback felt better throughout the week.
“It was pretty clear, he was intent on playing,” Ferentz said. “He practiced well.”
McNamara said the injury is improving.
“I knew I wasn't going to be 100% going into this game," he said. "There were a couple of awkward positions I was put in today. But the offensive line really protected me today.”
Still, Ferentz said, it's an injury that could linger throughout the season.
"It’s probably going to be week to week, day to day," he said. “My guess is it’s something we’ll have to manage as we go along. Hopefully it will get better as we go. There’s really no way to predict that stuff.”
Utah State (0-1) got field goals from William Testa and Elliott Nimrod and a 16-yard touchdown pass from Cooper Legas to Terrell Vaughn late in the fourth quarter.
The Aggies had 329 total yards but were penalized 10 times for 91 yards, including five personal fouls. Utah State also turned the ball over once, and couldn't recover two fumbles by the Hawkeyes.
“Those are called self-inflicted wounds, unforced errors,” Utah State coach Blake Anderson said. “You're not going to beat a bad team with those, let alone a good team like Iowa.”
Legas was 32 of 48 for 213 yards with an interception.
“I think we had glimpses of what we can do,” he said. “I felt like the defense did a great job of holding them, and the offense needed to do a better job of capitalizing on that.”
(At) Maryland 38, Towson 6: Taulia Tagovailoa threw for three touchdowns and ran for one in the first half. The Terrapins (1-0) had little trouble pulling away from a Towson team playing its first game under coach Pete Shinnick. Maryland leaned on its veteran quarterback, with Tagovailoa throwing for 260 yards in under three quarters, and the offense looked mostly sharp against this FCS opponent.
Corey Dyches had six catches for 108 yards and a touchdown for the Terps.
The Terrapins have high hopes in coach Michael Locksley's fifth season at the helm. They're coming off an eight-win campaign last year and have a talented, experienced quarterback in Tagovailoa. He opened the scoring with a 23-yard touchdown run.
Tagovailoa struck twice more in the first quarter with a 23-yard TD pass to Dyches and a 24-yarder to Jeshaun Jones. He added a 13-yard scoring toss to Kaden Prather with 14 seconds left in the half to make it 28-3.
Roman Hemby scored on a 9-yard run in the third quarter.
Tagovailoa had 32 pass attempts in the first half and only one in the second before he was replaced by Billy Edwards Jr.
Nathan Kent threw for 128 yards for Towson (0-1).
Fresno State 39, (at) Purdue 35: Mikey Keene threw for four touchdowns. Keene, a University of Central Florida transfer, threw a 22-yard touchdown pass to Erik Brooks with 58 seconds left for the game winner. Keene connected on 31 of 44 passes for 366 yards. Brooks had nine catches for 170 yards.
Purdue, which led 28-17 early in the third quarter, managed to regain the lead at 35-32 on Mockabee’s 11-yard TD run with 4:36 to go.
Malik Sherrod’s went wide from 1-yard out early in the fourth quarter to give the Bulldogs a 32-28 lead. Boilermakers running back Devin Mockobee was stopped on fourth-and-goal at the Fresno State 1 with 8:13 left.
Fresno State’s Dylan Lynch missed a 20-yard field goal but redeemed himself by hitting a 52-yarder as time expired in the first half to narrow the Bulldogs’ halftime deficit to 21-17.
The Bulldogs trimmed the deficit to 28-25 with 6:44 remaining in the third quarter when Keene connected with Jaelen Gill for an 18-yard TD pass and the conversion pass to Jalen Moss.
In his Purdue debut, Hudson Card, a Texas transfer, completed 17 of 30 passes for 254 yards and two touchdowns, including an 84-yard TD pass to Deion Burks.
(At) No. 7 Penn State 38, West Virginia 15: Drew Allar threw for 325 yards and three touchdowns in his first career start. KeAndre Lambert-Smith caught two touchdown passes – including a 72-yard dart launched with a simple flick of Allar’s wrist on his second attempt of the game – while Nick Singleton added a rushing touchdown.
Malik McClain caught another midway through the fourth quarter for the Nittany Lions, who pulled away after leading 14-7 at halftime.
Backup Beau Pribula ran for a touchdown with six seconds left and kicker Alex Felkins added a 25-yard field goal.
It was the first time the two regional rivals played since meeting every year from 1947 until 1992. Penn State won all but six of those games and, with a deep, experienced roster that expects to contend for the Big Ten championship and more left little room for the Mountaineers to err in the opener.
Penn State outgained West Virginia 405-198 through three quarters. Meanwhile, a swarming defense forced four punts and three turnovers on downs.
Still, the Big 12 foes played hard after making the 184-mile trip north to Beaver Stadium. Quarterback Garrett Greene accounted for 233 total yards and CJ Donaldson scored on a short run to tie it at 7 early in the second quarter.
From there the Mountaineers ran out of steam until Greene plunged in from a yard out with 3:34 to play. He hit Donaldson for a 2-point conversion to cap the scoring.
(At) Illinois 30, Toledo 28: Caleb Griffin kicked a 29-yard field goal in the closing seconds in the season opener for both teams. Luke Altmyer threw for two touchdowns. Miles Scott returned an interception 48 yards for a score, and the Illini squeezed out the win in a back-and-forth game to start coach Bret Bielema’s third season.
Illinois led 27-19 early in the fourth quarter after Scott’s interception return and touchdown passes from Altmyer to Pat Bryant on back-to-back possessions. But instead of staying in control, the Illini had to rally again to come away with the win.
Toledo’s Luke Pawlak kicked a 44-yarder that made it a five-point game with 9:38 remaining, and quarterback Dequan Finn put the Rockets on top with 2:59 remaining when he rolled to his right for a 1-yard touchdown to put the Rockets on top 28-27.
Altmyer helped set up the winning field goal when he hit Casey Washington with a 33-yard pass to the Toledo 36 on fourth-and-4. The Illini had the ball on the 11 with eight seconds left when Griffin booted the winner.
Altmyer was 18 of 26 for 211 yards with an interception in his Illinois debut. The transfer from Mississippi also ran for 69 yards, after beating out Ball State graduate transfer John Paddock and Donovan Leary for the starting job.
Josh McCray ran for a touchdown. The Illini committed 10 penalties for 100 yards, but made enough plays to come away with the win after struggling down the stretch last year. They lost four of their final five games, a sour finish to a breakthrough, eight-win season.
Finn threw for 230 yards and two TDs. He also ran for 72 yards and a score.
Jacquez Stuart added 82 yards rushing. But the reigning MAC champions fell to 6-16 against the Big Ten. The Rockets’ most recent victory against the conference was over Purdue 2010.