Big Ten Football Roundup, Week 5: Ohio State-Iowa, Oregon-USC Fallout, and Illinois' Defensive Reset
By Owain Jones
September has just ended, and things are already starting to get uncomfortable around the Big Ten.
The first few weeks of the season give teams plenty of room for patience, but as conference play begins, things are getting twitchy. New systems need time, early performances can be dismissed as small samples, and even disappointing results can usually be explained away with another game waiting around the corner.
That becomes considerably harder a third of the way through the regular season.
Now we are starting to see which early problems actually matter, which teams might be better than we expected, and where coaches are being forced to find answers much earlier than they would have hoped.
And after another eventful weekend around the Big Ten, there is plenty worth digging into.
Illinois Needs To Get Back To Basics
We have already gone into much greater detail about why the Bobby Hauck experiment failed, but the speed of its collapse leaves Illinois with another problem.
What on earth does the defense do now?
Bret Bielema hired Hauck to change the way Illinois played defense. He promised an “exciting new style that has never been seen here at Illinois,” moving towards the multiplicity and disguise of Hauck’s 3-3-5 background.
Four games later, he is out of the door.
But Illinois cannot install a new defensive identity in a week. Too much work has gone into learning Hauck’s system, and attempting another significant change in the middle of the season would risk creating even more confusion.
So, it’s time to go back to basics.
That means exploring fewer pressure packages, fewer post-snap rotations, and maintaining simpler run fits and checks. Bielema will need to find ways to get Illinois lined up correctly and playing with more fight and aggression again, because the Illini have spent far too much of this season making ordinary defensive snaps look difficult.
The nine-man goal-line snap against Ohio State was probably the most embarrassing example. While we maintain that it does not prove Hauck’s defense was too complicated, it does perfectly capture a unit that had lost its way operationally.
Nevertheless, there is still enough of the season remaining for Illinois to salvage something. But after spending the offseason trying to become something completely different, the quickest route forward might be making football considerably simpler again.
The Fallout From Oregon-USC Goes Far Beyond the Result
It has been difficult to escape the fallout from Oregon’s victory over USC this week, and understandably, very little of the conversation has been about the football or the result.
Dante Moore left the Coliseum in an ambulance after taking a brutal hit from Desman Stephens II while he began his slide, but the reaction and anger that followed almost became as significant as the targeting penalty itself.
Stephens was seen exuberantly celebrating on the field and smirking on the sideline while Moore received on-field medical attention, which has prompted widespread criticism from across the college football landscape. Lincoln Riley called his behaviour “unacceptable,” prompting USC to suspend Stephens for one game. The linebacker has since apologised, admitting his reaction was “completely inappropriate and inexcusable.”
Thankfully, the news around Moore has been considerably more encouraging. He was unsurprisingly diagnosed with a concussion, but fortunately CT and MRI scans showed no additional structural injury.
Rightfully, Dan Lanning has said Oregon will do the right thing and give Moore all the time he needs. There remains no timetable for his return, and clear scans do not mean he has cleared concussion protocol, although Oregon’s bye gives the team additional time before facing UCLA.
In the meantime, the Ducks have learned they absolutely have something in Dylan Raiola.
Raiola completed 19 of 25 passes for 289 yards and two touchdowns after replacing Moore, helping Oregon finish with 504 yards of offense. More importantly, USC tied the game at 27 in the fourth quarter before Raiola helped lead consecutive touchdown drives to put it away.
Oregon obviously wants Moore back as quickly as he can safely return. But if he does miss any significant time, the Ducks know their backup quarterback is capable of keeping this offense moving and providing continuity into the 2027 season.
Iowa Has Earned Its Return to the National Stage
College GameDay is finally returning to Iowa City.
It has been 20 years since ESPN last brought college football’s leading pre-game show to Kinnick Stadium, when No. 1 Ohio State arrived in town and left with a 38-17 victory.
Now, fittingly, the Buckeyes are coming back, with Iowa once again preparing for one of its biggest home games of the year.
The significance of the show’s arrival can’t be overstated. College GameDay is coming off its most successful September ever. All four episodes for the 2026 season rank in the show’s top 10 most viewed, with Texas at Tennessee in Week 4 averaging 2.8 million viewers and is the show’s fourth-biggest audience to date.
Entering the game, Iowa is 4-0 after beating Michigan in Ann Arbor, but the biggest reason for optimism remains a defense allowing only 8.0 points per game.
The Hawkeyes have only conceded three touchdowns through 16 quarters, recorded two shutouts, and are allowing opponents to convert only 26.8% of their third downs.
However, Ohio State represents an entirely different, more dangerous problem.
Jeremiah Smith alone produced 217 yards and four touchdowns against Illinois in Week 4, and Iowa cannot afford to let the Buckeyes turn this into the type of game where Hank Brown has to chase points all afternoon. That isn’t how Iowa wins football games.
That means the Hawkeyes somehow need to find ways to make Ohio State uncomfortable offensively. They will need to slow the game down, win field position battles, get off the field on third down often, and force the Buckeyes to consistently drive the length of the field, because Iowa has already shown us that its usual formula might have another dimension this season.
Michigan held the Hawkeyes to only 58 rushing yards last weekend, yet Brown responded by completing 13 of 19 passes for 142 yards and two touchdowns in the fourth quarter.
His final possession traveled 91 yards, beginning at Iowa’s own nine with 1:46 remaining and ending with the winning touchdown with two seconds left.
Now, that doesn’t suddenly make Iowa an explosive passing offense. But it does mean the Hawkeyes arrive at their biggest home game with more oomph offensively than most recent Iowa teams have possessed.
A win would be a major upset in the Big Ten. But twenty years after GameDay last came to Iowa City for Ohio State, Kinnick gets another chance to become the centre of the college football world.
Why Does Washington Look So Passive?
Have no doubt, Washington has been deeply disappointing to start the 2026 season. We expected considerably more from the Huskies than they have shown so far this year.
Jedd Fisch’s team was one of our picks to make a significant jump in the Big Ten, with Demond Williams returning at quarterback and Fisch entering Year 3 with a roster increasingly shaped in his image.
Instead, Washington is 3-1 after a 27-24 home loss to Minnesota, and despite the win column being positive, something about this team just feels off.
The Huskies lack intensity. They rarely seem to impose themselves on games, as they did offensively last season, and against Minnesota they looked far too passive until they were already chasing a 21-10 halftime deficit.
Surprisingly, it is offensively where that problem is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.
Washington is averaging only 3.7 yards per carry and managed around 40 rushing yards against Minnesota, leaving far too much responsibility on Williams. The quarterback took far too much responsibility in 2025 also, but with different results against middling teams.
The result against the Gophers was seven sacks, although putting all seven on the offensive line would be unfair. Williams admitted after the game that he needed to get the ball out quicker, and his instinct to extend plays can occasionally make a bad situation worse.
Injuries also haven’t helped. Quaid Carr and Jayden Limar have both missed time, stripping the backfield of the premium players expected to carry a significant part of the rushing workload.
But Washington cannot explain everything away through injuries. A week before Minnesota, Williams completed 27 of 33 passes for 373 yards and four touchdowns against Eastern Washington.
We have already seen how dangerous this offense can be when everything is working. It has been their identity. The problem is how quickly it seems to disappear when opponents disrupt their initial structure.
Ultimately, that falls on Fisch. He deliberately chose not to hire a traditional offensive coordinator after Jimmie Dougherty left, saying he would continue running the offense, calling plays and controlling the game plan himself.
While that doesn’t mean Fisch caused seven sacks against Minnesota, it does mean finding a way to give this offense more aggression, balance, and identity is his responsibility.
Washington has too much talent, and we expected too much from this team for the Huskies to spend the season being far too reactive when they have the offense to be proactively assertive.
Can Michigan State Afford Not To Change Without Cam Edwards?
One of the sport’s most productive and exciting running backs is done for the year. Losing Cam Edwards for the remainder of the season is a significant blow for Michigan State. Yet Pat Fitzgerald doesn’t seem to think it should change much.
Asked whether losing his starting running back would alter the Spartans’ offensive game plan, Fitzgerald offered a pretty emphatic response: “No. He’s a great player, but no.”
But that confidence is about to be tested. Edwards accounted for roughly 55% of the carries given to Spartans running backs, finishing with 304 yards and three touchdowns before suffering his season-ending injury against Nebraska.
What makes it difficult for Fitzgerald is that the offense wasn’t exactly firing with him in it.
Michigan State is averaging 22 points and only 3.2 yards per carry, while Alessio Milivojevic has already been sacked 15 times. The Spartans have struggled to create explosive plays, protect their quarterback, or consistently make his job easy.
Attention now turns to Jaziun Patterson, who gets his opportunity for an increased role.
The Iowa transfer carried 16 times for 54 yards and Michigan State’s only touchdown against Nebraska, and Fitzgerald believes he can handle an expanded role.
Marvis Parrish will also need to take a more commanding role after rushing for 576 yards and catching 36 passes for 203 yards while earning Conference USA All-Freshman team recognition at Western Kentucky last season.
Neither has proven so far that they have the firepower to replace Edwards individually. But together, they could still pack a punch in an aggressive rushing scheme.
Simply, Michigan State needs enough production collectively to stop an already limited offense from becoming even more dependent on Milivojevic, particularly when protecting him has already been such a problem.
Fitzgerald has said he doesn’t want to change the plan. Big Ten followers know his MO, but against Wisconsin this weekend, we will find out if the Spartans have the depth to collectively replicate the firepower missing from their star rusher.
Big Ten Football Roundup is published every week throughout the 2026 college football season, breaking down five of the biggest stories shaping the conference.
OWAIN JONES
COLLEGE FOOTBALL & NFL DRAFT ANALYST
OWAIN jones COVERS EVERYTHING college football & NFL DRAFT. COMING WITH PLENTY OF EXPERIENCE, OWAIN was PREVIOUSLY a writer for pfsn, and WAS THE NFL DRAFT EDITOR AT NINETY-NINE YARDS, WHERE HE CREATED DRAFT TALK. YOU CAN FOLLOW HIM ON TWITTER @OwainJonesCFB.
