Ohio State Buckeyes vs. Illinois Fighting Illini
The No. 3 Ohio State Buckeyes will hope to extend their winning streak to 23 games when they travel to Memorial Stadium to take on the Illinois Fighting Illini on Saturday.
Ohio State has opened the season at 9-0 after winning the national championship last season, but is ranked third by the College Football Committee after some shaky wins over inferior opponents. Still, the Buckeyes are surely in if they finish the season undefeated no matter how ugly some of the wins are, and should rack up another victory this weekend if they can avoid looking ahead to a pair of huge games to end the year.
Quarterback J.T. Barrett will get the start at quarterback on Saturday after serving a one-game suspension last week against Minnesota for a DUI. Ohio State’s offense has been much better as a whole with Barrett under center in place of Cardale Jones, and put together its best game of the year two weeks ago against Rutgers in his first start of the year.
That is likely going to mean trouble for Illinois, which enters the weekend at 5-4 and is dealing with some off-the-field distractions following the firing of athletic director Mike Thomas earlier this week. While the Illini offense has struggled against the better Big 10 defenses, receiver Geronimo is a dangerous weapon with 53 catches for 756 yards this season.
Ohio State is deservedly a double-digit favorite, but only needs to look back to the 2007 game against Juice Williams and Illinois to know that crazy things can happen. The contest begins at Noon eastern on ABC and the WatchESPN app.
Further details for Saturday’s game are below:
Date: Saturday, November 14, 2015
Start Time: Noon eastern
Location: Champaign, IL
Stadium: Memorial Stadium
TV Info: ABC
Live Stream: WatchESPN
Radio: Ohio State Radio Network, Illinois Fighting Illini Sports Network, Sirius XM 84