More Ohio State lessons from freshmen backup QBs, plus the pileup of 31 contenders and why worrying only about the Buckeyes is silly: Doug Rants

Dissecting results last weekend from Illinois and Arizona State backups, and examining how many games Ohio State has left against contenders compared to other teams.

Ohio State is one of 31 power conference teams with two or fewer losses. (Photo courtesy of Ohio State football).

COLUMBUS — Ten thoughts on Ohio State and college football in the middle of the week.

1. Two true freshmen finished games in victory for Power 4 teams Saturday. Encouraging sign for Ohio State and Luke Fahey, right? For winning yes, for QB play, no.

But that’s OK. Ohio State isn’t trying to win a quarterback competition at USC on Saturday. It’s trying to win a football game.

I went back and watched Illinois true freshman Michael Clayton II in his first career start in Saturday’s win by the Illini, and I watched Arizona State true freshman Jake Fette enter as the Sun Devils’ third QB of the day as they pulled out a win over Kansas State. (Both were facing opponents also playing backup QBs, FYI.)

The lesson from those wins? Don’t ask the QB to do too much. And pop some explosive runs.

Clayton, as we mentioned in our backup QB look around the nation last week, is the best comparison you could make for Fahey. Illinois lost a veteran starter to injury, had a bye week to get Clayton ready, and then started him against a talented yet beatable opponent in Oregon.

The Illini called run plays 60 percent of the time, and Clayton finished 11-of 18-passing for just 84 yards. He threw two touchdowns. One was an easy 9-yard crosser to a tight end who was schemed open. The other was a shot to the corner of the end zone that hit Oregon corner Brandon Finney cleanly in the hand and somehow landed in the grasp of Illini receiver Collin Dixon for a touchdown.

Clayton threw just five passes more than 10 yards down the field, completing two. And one of those was the deflected TD. He didn’t try any 20 yards or deeper. He had a smart, crucial scramble on a third-and-6. He also got sacked and fumbled on the first play after Illinois had forced a turnover.

Illinois won because after giving up a TD drive on Oregon’s first possession, the Illini defense didn’t let the Ducks in the end zone again. Oregon made only one of four field goal tries. And Illinois popped two huge runs — a 75-yard touchdown by Aidan Laughery just before halftime and a 33-yard run by Jordan Anderson in the fourth quarter as it seemed like Illinois was trying to blow the lead.