Tag: Ohio State vs. Illinois

Ohio State game against Illinois canceled because of further positive coronavirus tests

The Ohio State football game against Illinois has officially been canceled according to a release from the OSU athletic department.

According to a release from the Ohio State athletic department, the game between Ohio State and Illinois has been canceled.

It was going to be a Cloak and Dagger proposition as it stood with the team not flying out until Saturday morning, going promptly to the game and trying to pull it all off without their head coach because he was one that tested positive already. Still, as of Friday afternoon, optimism was still high that Ohio State would be able to play the game and soldier on.

From the university:

The football game between No. 3 Ohio State University and the University of Illinois, scheduled for this Saturday at 12 noon (EST) in Champaign, Ill., has been cancelled by Ohio State University after further positive tests for the coronavirus were discovered after a round of PCR testing this afternoon.

The Department of Athletics has paused all team-related football activities. The decision to cancel and pause was made jointly by Director of Athletics Gene Smith, University President Kristina M. Johnson, head team physician Dr. Jim Borchers and in consultation with the Big Ten Conference.

“We have continued to experience an increase in positive tests over the course of this week,” Smith said. “The health, safety and well-being of our student-athlete is our main concern, and our decisions on their welfare will continue to be guided by our medical staff.”

The program will resume its team activities when its medical staff determines it is safe to do so based on protocols established by the Big Ten Conference.

It remains to be seen if Ohio State will be able to play next Saturday’s game against Michigan State on the road. With what has been confirmed as a growing number of positive tests, it seems like a difficult proposition to clear protocols in just seven days.

If the Buckeyes miss one more game, it would take them out of eligibility to play in the Big Ten Championship Game. Current conference policy is to play a minimum of six games to be eligible, but you have to think that may be re-visited with OSU’s spot in the game in jeopardy.

We shall see.

For now, the focus is on getting the surge in cases under control. As we know more, we’ll pass it along.

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Five keys to Ohio State beating Illinois on Saturday

Ohio State travels to Illinois Saturday to try and remain undefeated. Here are five keys to the Buckeyes winning another Big Ten contest.

Ohio State takes on Illinois this weekend in what should be a fairly easy win for the Buckeyes. There are some pitfalls the team can not fall into, however. OSU has a more talented roster overall and that should help. With Ryan Day being sidelined for the game, coaching will play a huge role in the game, but it shouldn’t be too much of a problem in this one.

We shall see.

The 2020 Ohio State Buckeyes are still trying to get their defense to be more complete, so a lot of may be on the offense. That doesn’t mean the defense won’t have to play its role, but this season it all starts when this team has the ball. Let’s look at the five keys to an Ohio State victory Saturday over Illinois.

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NEXT … Master Teague has to be unleashed

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Ohio State vs. Illinois Buckeyes Wire staff predictions

As we do every week, our writers provide their predictions and rationale for the Ohio State football game. This week its against Illinois.

Here we go with another week in what feels like a bob and weave type of Big Ten college football season. Ohio State travels to Illinois and there are rumors that the Buckeye program is dealing with a mild coronavirus outbreak.

However, the game is on at this point, and the team even went through a practice Thursday. Buckeyes Wire also received confirmation from an Illinois spokesman that the game is still on.

So, off we go. Ohio State needs a good bounceback from a poor defensive performance the nation saw and took to heart against Indiana last week. So much so that the Buckeyes were only ranked No. 4 in the initial College Football Playoff rankings revealed on Tuesday.

OSU should outmatch Illinois in almost all areas of the game, but the Illini are riding a two-game winning streak.

With all of that in mind, we asked two of our writers to pick the final score and winner of Saturday’s game in Champaign. Here’s what they had to say.

Next … the predictions

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Ohio State football delays player availability report amid positive coronavirus rumors

Ohio State has delayed its player availability report for the Illinois game per an OSU spokesman. The report will be released Saturday.

It sounds like Ohio State’s game against Illinois is still on for Saturday, but it’s becoming increasingly clear that the Buckeye program is dealing with at least a mild case of positive coronavirus results that put the game in jeopardy earlier this week. That news was first reported by Bucknuts Dave Biddle Wednesday.

Ohio State has always taken a stance on not revealing specifics around any players that may be out because of COVID-19 protocols, and it is continuing to protect the privacy of its athletes by not releasing a player availability report it normally releases on Fridays. That report will be delayed until two hours prior to kickoff per a university spokesman.

It would be pretty easy to determine which players may have potentially tested positive by reading between the lines depending on which players are listed as unavailable despite not suffering any sort of known injury.

So, we won’t be bringing you any sort of player availability report as normal until tomorrow morning around 10 AM. What we can tell you is that the team practiced yesterday and is scheduled to fly to Champaign, Illinois tonight at 9 p.m. Also, Justin Fields was shown slinging passes around, so it’s clear he is not in any sort of COVID-19 protocol.

The game is still on at this point, and unless something drastic changes over the next few hours, we’ll have more of an update tomorrow morning.

Ohio State football releases trailer for Illinois game

It might be Thanksgiving, but it’s still Thursday. That means the Ohio State football creative team has your trailer for the Illinois game.

Yeah, we’re a little late sharing this on Ohio State football trailer Thursday, but we were enjoying some turkey, pumpkin pie, and red velvet cake (my family’s tradition). Even the social media folks were a little later than normal, but again — it is Thanksgiving.

Yum.

Speaking of things we’re thankful for, we continue to be grateful and impressed by these Hollywood-level productions the folks at OSU continue to churn out. Anyway, we still have the trailer the creative team dropped for the game at Illinois this weekend once we got rid of the second-helpings coma we passed out from.

So, here you go. Dial this bad boy up, turn up the volume, and feel the emotion and adrenaline of the fight that continues in Champaign this Saturday.

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Do you have goosebumps yet?

Ohio State takes on Illinois at Noon Saturday, with Joel Klatt and Gus Johnson on the call over on FS1.

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Five reasons Ohio State beats Illinois on Saturday

Ohio State travels to Illinois this Saturday to continue its journey in the Big Ten. We give you five reasons the Buckeyes come out winners.

Ohio State showed some warts on defense against Indiana last weekend, but now it’s time for the next step on the journey towards a Big Ten Championship and potential College Football Playoff berth.

Ohio State travels to Illinois for another Big Ten matchup, and despite some rumors of a mild coronavirus outbreak at OSU, the game appears to still be on.

This is technically a rivalry game where an illibuck trophy is on the line, but let’s be real, this hasn’t been a “rivalry” for a long time. Ohio State has won nine-straight, and Illinois is still trying to compete at a consistent level.

With all that in mind, here are five reasons Ohio State beats the Illini on Saturday at Noon.

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NEXT … Redemption

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Ohio State practices Thursday, hopeful for game against Illinois despite rumors of coronavirus outbreak

In a sign of optimism, the Ohio State football team is practicing Thursday amid rumors of a mild coronavirus outbreak in the program.

If you’re looking for another reason to be thankful on this day of Thanksgiving 2020 — albeit on a lighter note — the Ohio State football team is on the practice field today according to a report from the Columbus Dispatch. This, after rumors and reports circulated Wednesday that the program was dealing with a mild coronavirus outbreak based on some positive test results. Those numbers were thought to be in the single digits.

It was enough of a concern on Wednesday that the team participated in a walkthrough rather than the regularly scheduled full-fledged practice. Since then, reporters have been scrambling to get any kind of official information from Ohio State, but all we’ve seen are inside sources and signs pointing to the game still being on at this point.

More hope is springing forth today with the team now on the practice field according to reports. That would lead one to believe that the situation has not evolved into a worsening of the positive results we heard about Wednesday.

That’s all we have at this point in time, just two days away from the scheduled game against Illinois. With OSU only playing four games up until this point, any more canceled games would make the margin of error even greater when it comes to the postseason.

As we know more, we’ll pass it along to everyone.

 

Ohio State vs. Illinois football game still on, but in jeopardy because of positive coronavirus results at OSU

Ohio State is reportedly dealing with a mild coronavirus outbreak in the program. The game against Illinois is still on but in jeopardy.

According to reporting from Dave Biddle of Bucknuts, the Ohio State game against Illinois is in jeopardy because of some positive coronavirus cases the Buckeye football team is dealing with. However, according to Letterman Row, the Woody Hayes Athletic Center was still open  Wednesday night and, as of now, the game is still on.

According to another report from Eleven Warriors, the team is dealing with positive results in the single digits with a spokesman for the program having “no news to share.” According to a source though, the team changed a regularly scheduled practice to a walkthrough because of the news.

The fact that the team changed to a walkthrough as opposed to full out practice appears to be a result of what can only be determined at this time as a mild outbreak within the program.

Ohio State has already had one game canceled because of an outbreak within the Maryland program a couple of weeks ago. The team has so far played four games with three scheduled. According to Big Ten policy, a team must have played in six games to be eligible for the Big Ten Championship Game, so any further loss of games would put a season on life support for Ohio State unless that policy changes, or unless the average number of games played per team drops below six.

Wisconsin is already staring that fact straight in the face with another cancelation (this time Minnesota) because of the virus. The Badgers dealt with an outbreak earlier this year that resulted in two games canceled already. The most Wisconsin can play is now five regular-season contests.

So, at this point, the game is still on, but we’ll stay close to this news because, as we’ve seen, a pocket of positive test results is often the beginning of a larger problem. We’re not saying that’s the case here, but proceeding with caution clearly the modus operandi at this point.

 

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WATCH what Illinois head coach Lovie Smith said about Ohio Sate prior to the game

Illinois coach Lovie Smith had his weekly press conference early this week. He discussed the challenge of facing a talented Ohio State team.

Ohio State hits the road to face its next challenge against Illinois. After a game against Indiana in which the defense got exposed through the air, the Buckeyes need a bounce-back type of effort to change the national narrative of where things stand. But more than anything, it needs to begin the improvement towards the end of what they hope is a special journey.

Illini head coach Lovie Smith knows the challenge his team faces. He met with the media early this week to discuss the upcoming game and what he sees from Ohio State.

He was very complimentary of the talent the Buckeyes have and understands that Illinois is a huge underdog. In case you missed any of his comments, we’ve got the video for you here thanks to Jim Cotter of the Danville Commercial News.

Listen to Smith talk about the talent of Justin Fields, how special the talent is at Ohio State, how he believes his team is improving, and more.

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Contact/Follow us @BuckeyesWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Ohio State news, notes and opinion.

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Ohio State vs. Illinois State basketball preview, prediction, and odds

The Ohio State basketball team is set to tip the season off today against Illinois State. We’ve got your preview and prediction.

Records

Ohio State 0-0, Illinois State 0-0 (Hey, basketball is back)

Broadcast, TV, Game Time

Date: Wednesday, November 25
Game Time: 2:00 PM
Venue: Value City Arena, Columbus, OH
Network: ESPN

Rejoice hoops fans! College basketball is back and that means Ohio State is ready to hit the hardwood for the first time since the last game of last year’s regular season, March 8. It’s been a long time and the roster for the Buckeyes looks drastically different than what it did before with several new faces, transfers, and players hopefully coming back from injuries.

Because of all of that, the expectations aren’t extremely high for OSU, but it is ranked just inside the top 25. Nobody really knows what to expect, and a game against the Illinois State Redbirds probably won’t give us much indication on how good this squad is just yet because it’s a bunch that figures to struggle this season.

Regardless, it feels a little like Christmas morning that snuck up on is, and we’re all excited to get this thing going, so buckle up.

Next … The Ohio State game plan

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