You’re Nuts: What will be Ohio State’s most chaotic game this season?

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Everybody knows that one of the best parts of being a sports fan is debating and dissecting the most (and least) important questions in the sporting world with your friends. So, we’re bringing that to the pages of LGHL with our favorite head-to-head column: You’re Nuts.

In You’re Nuts, two LGHL staff members will take differing sides on one question and argue their opinions passionately. Then, in the end, it’s up to you to determine who’s right and who’s nuts.

Today’s Question: What will be Ohio State’s most chaotic game this season?

Jami’s Take: Oregon at Ohio State on Nov. 7

As the West Coast Bureau Chief, I agree with my pal Matt that the Buckeyes’ most chaotic matchup will come from this side of the country, but it won’t be the team from Southern California. Instead, that honor will go to the Oregon Ducks, who will head to Columbus the first Saturday in November.

While the two teams’ rankings could change between now and November, at the moment, Ohio State sits at No. 1 and Oregon at No. 2, with both teams considered heavy contenders for both the Big Ten and the national title. 

Oregon head coach Dan Lanning, an early favorite for Big Ten Coach of the Year honors, has assembled one of the most complete rosters in the country, one the Buckeyes match up with neck-and-neck. Neither team has glaring weak spots, with dangerous backfields and threatening defenses on both sidelines. 

The Ducks are anchored by returning quarterback Dante Moore, who is by most early projections, a major Heisman contender. Moore turned down the NFL Draft to return to Eugene in pursuit of a national championship. Behind him is an arsenal of offensive weapons in wide receivers Dakorien Moore and Evan Stewart, plus tight end Jamari Johnson. 

If it sounds intimidating, it might be—to any team that’s not Ohio State. The Buckeyes have depth and experience of their own in quarterback Julian Sayin, a 2025 Heisman finalist, and the best wide receiver in college football in Jeremiah Smith, back for what most expect will be his final collegiate season. 

In 2025, Moore threw for 3565 yards with a 71.8 completion rate, while Sayin boasted 3610 yards with a 77 percent completion rate. Together, they are generally considered the top two Draft-eligible quarterbacks for the 2027 NFL Draft. On the other side of the ball, both teams are projected to have commanding defenses, with both well-rounded defensive lines and secondaries for their opponents to wrestle with. In fact, these two teams are so evenly matched, both teams rank in the top 3 in projected SP+ offense and defense. 

The major difference in these two teams, then, may largely come down to style.

In my experience as someone consistently rooting for more chaos in sports, the most chaotic games occur under two circumstances: When the teams are so evenly matched the games come down to the smallest moments or when one team has nothing to lose. There’s no question these two teams are evenly matched, perhaps more evenly than anyone else the Buckeyes will face this season, and both have the talent and drive to remain focused and pull off something crazy.

Because both teams have the offensive firepower to make it a bloodbath, balanced by defenses that can force turnovers, make plays and throw a wrench in momentum at a moment’s notice, games like this can turn on a dime. I don’t expect either team to hold more than a narrow lead at any point. If I turn out to be right, it puts each team just one brilliant drive away from taking control. 

We’ve already seen this between the two programs. In 2024, when they met in Eugene as the No. 2 and No. 3 teams in the country, it was a back-and-forth offensive battle that saw seven lead changes. Early in the fourth quarter, the Ducks held a one-point lead, but the Buckeyes went up by two with just six minutes left in the game. The Ducks got all the way to the Ohio State 9 but were forced to settle for a field goal, taking a one-point lead with just 1:47 on the game clock. The Buckeyes managed to get within field goal range before being backed up on an offensive pass interference call. Ultimately, then-quarterback Will Howard took off running in the final seconds, gaining just 12 yards on 3rd-and-20 and sliding as the clock wound down, sealing the victory for the Ducks. 

Both teams looked spectacular at moments, and both teams made mistakes. In the end, it boiled down to a costly one in the final four seconds of the game. This is the result of two teams that are so similar they have to claw and fight their way to victory, and on paper, we’re going to see this repeated in 2026. 

Additionally, some of you might remember that back in 2024, I viewed the game as a consolation prize for the playoffs: Historically, it is challenging to beat the same team twice (though we will likely see more of it in the expanded playoff system). Oregon managed to beat OSU in the regular season, but not when it counted in the Rose Bowl. There is a world where the inverse is true this year. Oregon is certainly a team capable of winning a national title (in my opinion, OSU is as well, though their schedule will work against them far more than Oregon’s will against the Ducks), but it’s entirely possible these teams will meet a second time, either in the Big Ten Championship or in a playoff game. Could a close loss in Columbus fuel Oregon for the rest of the year? Absolutely. 

It’s also possible Oregon will take this one on the road, peppering in some chaos for a Buckeye team with an unforgiving schedule. Could that be the thing that fuels the Buckeyes through the last third of their very challenging season? 

I expect the game itself to be neck-and-neck. I expect there to be several gasp-worthy moments that leave fans’ jaws on the floor in either wonder or heartbreak, depending on which side you’re on. But the chaos from this game also goes far beyond four quarters of football. It has season-long ramifications for Big Ten rankings, CFP rankings, Big Ten Championship berths and bye weeks. Arguably no other game on the Buckeyes’ schedule will have such a ripple effect on the season at large, and for that reason, the Ducks’ stop in Columbus on Nov. 7 will be the most chaotic game the Buckeyes—and perhaps anyone in college football—plays all season long.

Matt’s Take: Ohio State at USC on Oct. 31

If you are looking for the most difficult game on Ohio State’s schedule this season, there are a few obvious candidates. If you are looking for the most chaotic game, however, I would like to direct your attention to Halloween night in Los Angeles.

Because college football has taught us time and time again that the truly weird stuff rarely happens when everybody has spent seven days screaming about the Game of the Century, I am fine with letting Jami take the Oregon game — or Texas, Indiana, or even Michigan for that matter. The most bonkers shit usually happens when the better team is supposed to win, but the circumstances slowly start piling up until you look around in the third quarter and wonder why the Buckeyes are tied with a team they should probably be beating by three touchdowns.

And the trip to USC has a whole heap of circumstances.

To start things off, thanks to the ridiculous geographic footprint of the Big Ten, Ohio State will travel across the country to play this game. While they played in Seattle last year, and are used to traveling for bowl and playoff games, I don’t want to undersell the physical toll cross-country travel can have.

Additionally, this game comes after OSU’s bye week. Normally, I would consider that a good thing; Ryan Day is 8-0 following regular-season byes as Ohio State’s head coach, with his teams winning those games by an average score of 45.5-11. Clearly, giving Day an extra week to prepare is generally a bad idea for the other team.

But this one comes with the Buckeyes hosting Oregon one week after taking on the Trojans. I don’t care that USC is one of the most storied programs in college football history; when a massive home game with the Ducks is looming, you can’t tell me that Day and his staff won’t be spending at least some of the off week getting ready for what could be a top-2 matchup against Dan Lanning’s squad. While that is likely just good time management, taking even a little time away from preparing for USC could make things at least a little wonky.

Then there is the possibility that 18-to-22-year-olds might be looking ahead to the massive marquee matchup coming up the following Saturday before taking care of the current one. I’m not saying it’s going to happen, just that it could happen.

Also — and I cannot stress this enough — the game is on Halloween. If that doesn’t immediately add 15% more probability to something spooky happening — a muffed punt, tipped interception, inexplicable officiating decision, or tight end throwing a TD pass — then you have not watched enough college football or horror movies… they will be in Hollywood after all.

Then there is Lincoln Riley. For years, Riley was supposed to become what Ryan Day ultimately did: the quarterback whisperer and offensive genius who returned an elite program to national championship position. Instead, Day has a ring and all of the accolades while Riley is still trying to get USC even into the conversation. Somehow, the two have never coached against each other, and I cannot imagine Riley won’t have a little something extra invested in their first meeting, even if he would never admit it.

The funniest potential wrinkle, though, might be the crowd. USC announced just 51,144 fans for its Week 0 opener, and they had to have counted everybody in the stands — including ushers, security, and concession stand workers — at least three times to get to that number. The vast majority of seats at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum were empty. Buckeye fans, meanwhile, have never met a road trip they couldn’t turn into a hostile takeover.

So, on Halloween night, Ohio State could travel 2,200 miles for a trap game against a motivated offensive mad scientist, one week before Oregon, and discover that half of the supposedly hostile stadium is wearing scarlet instead of cardinal.

Nothing about this game sounds normal, which is exactly why I expect it to get weird.

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