By Danielle Daniels
11 15 2025
FIRST AND TEN
- The No. 1 ranked and unbeaten – 9-0 and 6-0 in the Big Ten Conference – Ohio State Buckeyes host the UCLA Bruins (3-6 and 3-3 B1G), Saturday in a rare, November night game at Ohio Stadium. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. with NBC televising.
- Ohio State has played five home night games in the month of November and the team is 5-0 in those games, winning by an average of 34.2 points per game. The opponents: Illinois (2014), Minnesota (2015), Nebraska (2016), Rutgers (2020) and Michigan State (2023).
- Ohio State is 27-5 all-time in night games at Ohio Stadium and 86-30 in all night games.
- Ryan Day‘s Buckeye teams are 25-4 all-time in night games, including a 12-0 mark at Ohio Stadium.
- This is Ohio State’s 19th 9-0 start to a season.
- A Buckeye win would be the 32nd 10-or-more win season for the program.
- Ohio State is on a nation’s-best 13-game winning streak.
- Ohio State and UCLA are meeting for only the 10th time and for the first time since 2001.
- Ohio State and UCLA are next scheduled to meet in the regular season in 2028 in Los Angeles.
BY THE NUMBERS
3x: The 2025 season is the third time for Ohio State to play three night games in a season, after previously having three such games in 2014 and 2022. Ohio State has played Ohio and Minnesota at night so far.
6th: A win over UCLA will give Ryan Day six seasons with 10-or-more wins, moving him to within one such season of the seven by Jim Tressel & Urban Meyer. COVID limited the 2020 season to just eight games.
4th: The Buckeyes have won a nation’s-best 13 consecutive games … the fourth 10-plus game winning streak under Ryan Day with 16 consecutive wins in 2018-19, 13 in 2024-25, 12 in 2021-22 and 11 in 2023.
No. 1: Ohio State’s defense is Top 5 in no less than 14 different categories, including the big defensive four of scoring (No. 1 at 7.2), total defense (No. 1 at 211.6), passing (No. 2 at 128.7) and rushing (No. 5 at 82.9). games.
WR1 SETS MORE RECORDS
Jeremiah Smith caught a career-high 10 passes against Purdue. In the process, he became the fastest Ohio State receiver to catch 25 touchdown passes … 25 games to break David Boston’s previous mark of 25 TDs in 30 games. Smith’s burgeoning season stats include five top seven marks nationally, including 10 TDs (2nd), 65 receptions (6th), 862 yards (6th) and 95.8 ypg (5th).
- 1: THAT’S WHAT WE’RE SAYIN
- Julian Sayin is coming off his sixth 300-yard passing game of the season vs. Purdue and his fifth game completing at least 80 pct. of his passes. He did have a wonderful stretch of 173 consecutive passes without an interception snapped.
- Sayin enters this week as one of the favorites for the Heisman Trophy with consistency a hallmark of his game while leading an unbeaten, No. 1-ranked team.
- The RS freshman leads the nation by considerable margins in both completion percentage (80.9 pct.) and quarterback rating (192.6).
- He also enters this week’s game vs. UCLA ranked No. 2 nationally at 9.9 yards per attempt, No. 4 with 24 touchdown passes, No. 13 with 276.8 yards per game and No. 14 with 2,491 passing yards.
- He is only the second quarterback in the last 30 years (West Virginia’s Geno Smith, in 2012) to have three games with at least 300 yards passing, three touchdowns, no interceptions and an 80.0 completion percentage.
- He has completed at least 85 percent of his passes (min. 10 attempts) in four different games (vs. Grambling, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Penn State), an Ohio State record and something that had only been done at Ohio State 14 times entering the season
- He’s earned nine player of the week awards.
BEST IN THE CFP ERA
- Since the start of the College Football Playoff era in 2014, Ohio State …
- Is third in CFP appearances (6) and T2nd in CFP title game wins (two; 2015 and 2025);
- Has the best winning percentage at .890 (138-17); Alabama is second at .881, 142-19;
- Has the fewest losses with 17 (Alabama, 19); and
- Has the second-most wins with 138; Alabama has 142 and is followed by Ohio State, Georgia (133) and Clemson (133).
OHIO STATE’S LAST 100
- Ohio State, at 9-0 overall, is seeking its 32nd 10-win season in school history.
- A 10th win would mark the 13th consecutive season for 10-or-more wins for Ohio State, a streak that started in 2012 but excludes the 2020 COVID-19 season when Ohio State advanced to the CFP national championship game but only played eight games on the season.
- The schools with the most 10-plus win seasons: 1. Alabama (44); 2. Oklahoma (42); 3. Michigan (32); 4. Ohio State (31); 5. Georgia (29); 6. Nebraska & USC (28); 8. Penn State 27; 9. Texas (26); and 10. Florida State (26).
OHIO STATE VS. UCLA
- These teams haven’t played in football since the 2001 season.
- They were scheduled to meet Sept. 15 in Los Angeles that year, but 9/11 happened and the game, and life as we knew it, was paused while America mourned more than 3,000 killed in the attacks.
- The teams played on Sept. 22 with No. 14 UCLA defeating No. 21 Ohio State, 13-6.
- It was Jim Tressel’s second game as Ohio State head coach.
MORE ON THE SERIES
- No team has won consecutive games in this nine-game series.
- Except for a tie in 1976, the two schools have flip-flopped wins and the series is even at 4-4-1.
COURTESY OHIO STATE ATHLETIC COMMUNICATIONS
