History 101: Memorable Moments in Buckeye History

When I look back over the past years of Ohio State football it is hard to pick years where Ohio State wasn’t good. But in the years between 2006-2016 Ohio State was nothing but the best, and that was not an understatement.

Best Players on Offense:
Terrelle Pryor Sr. – Quarterback
Picking a QB that played for THE Ohio State University was probably the hardest part of the offense part of article. The reason why I picked Pryor over everyone else was simple because of his stats. In his three years at OSU he finished with 6,177 passing yards, 57 TD’s and only 26 INT’s. He also rushed for a whopping 2,164 yards and 17 TD’s. He won the Big Ten Freshman of the Year, 3x All Big Ten Honorable Mention, Rose Bowl MVP, Big Ten MVP runner up, and the Miller-Digby Award. He led the team in Rushing and Passing in 2009 as well.

Ted Ginn Jr. – Wide Receiver
The reason why I picked Ted Ginn over the many other wide outs who played football at Ohio State is because his stats don’t lie. He was one of the most productive WR’s to ever set foot in a OSU uniform ever. Ginn racked up a staggering 1,943 receiving yards with 15 TD’s in his time at OSU. He also rushed for 213 yards and three TD’s, returned 38 kickoffs for 1,012 yards, gained 900 yards from 64 punt returns, which is second highest in Buckeye history. Overall, he gained 4,068 total yards and scored 26 touchdowns. He set a Big Ten record for most career punt return touchdowns with 6. Some of the awards he won were: First Team All-American as a returner all three years he was at OSU, First Team All-American as an All-Purpose Player, and First Team All-Big Ten. His stats clearly back up his play.

Ezekiel Elliot – Running Back
There’s so many stats I can say about Zeke, but I am going to stick with the most recent and big ones. He had the best seasons ever by an Ohio State running back in 2014. In fact, it would be easy to argue that it was the best due to the Buckeyes winning the national championship, and Elliott being the MVP of both the Sugar Bowl win over Alabama and the national title game against Oregon. He turned in the second-most single-season rushing yards in program history with 1,878, averaged an amazing 6.9 yards per carry and scored 18 touchdowns all in 2014. He also became the first player in OSU history to rush for 200 yards in back-to-back games. And he did it in three consecutive games on the biggest stages one could imagine. He rushed 220 yards and 2 TD’s vs Wisconsin in the 2014 Big Ten championship game. Then in the next game he went for 230 yards and 2 TDs vs Alabama. Finally, he ended up with 246 yards and 4 TD’s vs Oregon. He also won the 2016 Graham-George Offensive Player of the Year, 2015 Ameche-Dayne Running Back of the Year, Unanimous First Team All-Big Ten, and 2015 Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year.

Andrew Norwell – Offensive Tackle
I must give some love to the big men up front! They are one of the prime reason the QB’s, RB’s, basically everyone does the things they do in games. The front line and their blocking plus protection. I picked Andrew Norwell because he was a force up front and I will tell you why! In his Freshman season, even though he was a backup at right tackle, he still managed to play in 11 games and make the Big Ten-All Freshman Team. His Sophomore season he played left guard and tackle and started all 13 games and was named honorable mention All-Big Ten. His Junior season he was named first team All-Big Ten Conference when the Buckeyes went 12-0 in 2012. He played more downs on offense (862) than any other player on the team. He also played so well that the coaches named him co-offensive lineman off the year. He was on the line for 98.8% of the team’s offense plays from scrimmage. Him and the rest of the line helped the offense average 242.2 yards per game rushing (10th in nation) in 2012, lead the Big Ten in scoring at 37.1 points per game and score a 34-year team high 37 rushing touchdowns. Last but not least in his Senior year he played all 14 games, 904 snaps from scrimmage, and names first team All-Big Ten Conference for the second time.

Most Memorable Win: Buckeyes Win First Ever College Football Playoff
So, this one was so hard for me to pick. I narrowed it down between the game against Alabama in the Sugar Bowl and this one, the National Championship. The reason why I picked this was because no one expected us to get this far, let alone win it all! Buckeye fans will remember this one till the day they die, I mean, I know I will. Ohio State was going up against Heisman winner Marcus Mariota and the high-power Ducks offense who liked to score.

The Ducks came out flying and scored on their opening drive to go up 7-0 on a seven-yard TD pass from Mariota. The teams would go back and forth with both defenses locking down. The Buckeyes were then able to put together a 10 play, 97-yard TD drive capped off by an Elliott 33-yard TD run to tie the game at 7-7. Then about 3:30 later OSU was able to take a 14-7 lead thanks to a 1-yard TD pass from Cardale Jones. The second quarter would open up with both D’s on lock again and no team able to score. Then at the 4:49 mark of the second Cardale Jones ran it in from one yard out to make it 21-7 OSU and the half time score was 21-10. Just a couple minutes out of the half time Oregon would strike quickly with a 70-yard bomb from Marcus Mariota to cut the OSU lead to 21-17. They would tack on a FG to make it 21-20 with 6:40 left in the third quarter. Now Ohio State completely took over the game and never looked back. Zeke would cross the plane with a nine-yard scamper to the house as time expired in the third to make it 28-20. He would then add two more rushing TD’s in the 4th to cap off an amazing night and make the final score 42-20. Zeke finished the night with 246 yards on 36 carries and four TD’s and earned him the MVP of the game.

Most Disappointing Loss: Buckeyes Get Killed in 2006 BCS National Championship Game vs Florida
The 2006-2007 Ohio State Football team was one of the best teams, in my opinion, I have ever seen on a field. Had the likes of Heisman winner Troy Smith, Antonio Pittman, Chris “Beanie” Wells, Ted Ginn Jr, Brian Hartline, you name it. The team was stacked to the top and went undefeated going 12-0 and even beat The Team Up North, in what most people are calling it, the game of the century 42-39 in a matchup of number one and two in the nation. The Buckeyes took the number one seed into the big game while they went up against a strong Florida Gators team who was the number two seed. The irony here was at the time, the coach of Florida is the current head coach of the Buckeyes, Urban Meyer. The game was back and forth in the first half but the Gators were able to pull away in the second quarter on thanks to the dual QB tandem Chris Leak and Tim Tebow. The final score was 41-14 in favor of Florida and ended the Buckeyes season in major sadness.

Most Successful Season: 2014-2015
This was a little easier to pick then the other ones because the Buckeyes clearly had a fantastic season. To begin the Buckeyes were dealt a huge blow to their championship mindset when they got the news that their star QB, Braxton Miller would be out for the season with an injury. This had to force Urban Meyer to put in redshirt freshman J.T. Barrett and see how he would work out as he had no other option to go with. Well the first game went fine, but the Buckeyes would end up losing the next game to a measly Virginia Tech team. Barrett was by far the worst player on the field at that point and every thought that we were never going to make it far with that loss to Braxton and the loss the VT. The team and Barrett took that loss to heart and never loss another game and even destroyed MSU in East Lansing as a huge statement win. As the Buckeyes, winded down their regular season, they played their annual game against The Team Up North. Unfortunately, in the late stages of the game J.T. Barrett went down with a broken leg and had to come out of the game. Urban Meyer had no choice but to put in Cardale “12 gauge” Jones for the remainder of the game and so on. Jones’ fueled the Buckeyes to the stomping of Wisconsin in the Big Ten Championship game. And last but not least, capped off a great season by turning away Alabama and Oregon to lead OSU to the championship.

Most Disappointing Season: 2011-2012
It was pretty easy to pick this one as well. Just coming off the scandal Ohio State was basically forced to put Luke Fickell in at the interim head coach position. The Buckeyes started out strong going 3-1 in their first four games but after that it all goes downhill. They finished the next eight games going 3-5 to cap off the regular season record off at 6-6. It was the first time they lost to The Team Up North in the past 10 years. They just barely made it into the Gator Bowl against the Florida Gators and ended up losing that game 24-17 to finish the season at 6-7. It was all around a terrible season. The only positive note that came from this season was it led to the hiring of Urban Meyer!

Most Impactful Player: J.T Barrett
This was down between Barrett and Braxton Miller and oh boy it was a tough one. Literally, both players are equally as good and it was extremely hard to choose. I went with Barrett because I liked his game better then Miller and his stats. Barrett is a leader on and off the field. When he is off the field he is a captain to his teammates in the locker room, just look at any video and you can tell. In his three years so far he’s totaled 6,254 passing yards with 69 TD’s and only 19 INT’s. He’s also rushed for 2,467 yards and 31 TD’s. He has also won the Chicago Tribune Football Award (2014), Thompson-El Randel Freshman of the Year, College Football Performance Awards Freshman of the Year, Griese-Brees Quarterback of the Year (2014, 2016), Fiesta Bowl MVP, 6x Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week, and 7x Big Ten Freshman of the Week (2014). He also holds numerous OSU records including: Most Career TD’s – 100, Most Career Passing TD’s – 69, Most Season Total Offense – 3,772 (2014), Most Season TD’s – 45 (2014), Most Season Passing TD’s – 34 (2014), Most Game TD’s – 7 (2014), and Most Game Passing TD’s – 6 (2014, 2016). He holds one Big Ten Record: Most Season Total TD’s – 45 (2014). These are mind blowing stats and he has yet to say if he is returning for his senior year. If he does you know they will go way up.

Most Disappointing Player: Brandon Saine
You might remember this name but you might not it’s a 50/50 shot. I remember this name clearly and was most definably disappointed. Brandon Saine. Saine played running back for the Buckeyes back from 2007-2010 before turning pro. Saine was compared to Reggie Bush while entering his Freshman year at Ohio State, because of his ability to be a jack of all trades, running, blocking and even being able to play some slot WR. He was a 4 star recruit out of Piiqua, Ohio and was the 5th overall running back in the nation, 2nd in the state of Ohio, and 50th overall. He could never get it going at OSU in his four year career only accumulating 1,408 rushing yards and nine TD’s. Saine then entered the draft but went undrafted probably because of his lackluster performance at the colligate level. I know we all wish he did much more back in the day.

Most Impactful Coach: Urban Meyer
This one, like the many others, was pretty easy to choose. I went with Urban Meyer simply because he is a dominate coach and I hope will stay that way. In the five years that he was been a coach at OSU, Meyer has racked up an amazing record of 61-5! That’s a winning percentage of .924. He has a 2-1 record in bowl games with his only loss coming in his second year. He ranks third in highest winning percentages all time by a coach. He helped Ohio State win a National Championship in 2014 and hopefully again soon. All of Buckeye nation hopes Meyer stays for a long time as it’s clear he has a great impact on the players.

Most Noteworthy Off-Field Event: Bribery Scandal
This happened in 2011, and is the reason why I don’t count 2011 a season. Ohio State got hit with a one-year bowl ban and other penalties for a scandal that involved eight players taking a total of $14,000 in cash and tattoos. They took this in exchange for jerseys, rings and other Buckeyes memorabilia. Then-coach Jim Tressel, knew about it and did not report it to necessary authorities and got caught ending in those penalties. Luckily Meyer came in to save the day after this.

Most Successful Professional: Eddie George
This was the hardest topic to choose because there are so many players who are great. I decided to go with running back Eddie George. He was drafted in the first round with the 14th pick by the Houston Oilers (who are now the Tennessee Titans). George played nine NFL seasons and played in every game in all but one season. He also rushed for over 1,030 yards in seven of the nine seasons. George finished with a total of 10,441 rushing yards and 68 TD’s as well as 2,227 receiving yards and 10 TD’s. So you can clearly say Eddie George was one of OSU and NFL best running backs of all time!