The Ohio State Buckeyes dominated the UCLA Bruins 48-10 at the "Shoe" this past Saturday, notching their 10th win of the 2025 season and marching on towards a season-defining game against TTUN in Week 14.
What was most impressive about the win was that the star of the game wasn't one of the usual suspects. Running back Bo Jackson had 112 yards on just 15 carries, with a touchdown run to punctuate his performance.
FOX Sports' Joel Klatt shared an amazed assessment of the performance, focusing on how the Buckeyes were able to gain 440 yards of offense, 222 of it on the ground, without Carnell Tate at all and without Jeremiah Smith for a good chunk of the game.
Klatt shouted out OSU for having a better rushing performance than the Utah Utes, who had more yardage (286 yards) but on far fewer carries.
“Even without Carnell Tate on the field and no Jeremiah Smith late in the game, what did they do? They just decided to run the football for 6.7 per carry, which is the most per carry UCLA has given up since 2019," Klatt said on Monday's edition of his podcast.
"They run it better against UCLA than anybody has this entire season, including Utah. Maybe Ohio State can run the football pretty well.”
With the main mission of the season getting ready for the Wolverines and "The Game," Ohio State has one more game to complete its tune-up this weekend in its home finale against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights.
With Jackson and the RB room up and running -- Isaiah West and James Peoples both had seven or more yards per carry against the Bruins as well -- the Buckeyes are big game ready. Right on time for the biggest game of Ryan Day's career in Ann Arbor on November 29.
We'll see if Jackson can continue his breakout year, which his 2025 campaign can now be considered after the UCLA game, against RU in Columbus.