Jaylen McClain names three under-the-radar Buckeyes entering 2026, and Urban Meyer thinks a missed penalty led to Ohio State’s 2016 loss against Penn State.
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WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN. Urban Meyer believes one missed penalty changed the course of Ohio State's 2016 season.
In a clip from The Triple Option released this week, Meyer said an uncalled penalty on a late field goal attempt prevented the Buckeyes from tying Penn State — and ultimately cost them a Big Ten championship.
Holding a 21-17 lead with 4:39 remaining in the fourth quarter, Ohio State lined up for a 45-yard field goal on 4th-and-7. Penn State blocked Tyler Durbin's kick, and Nittany Lions cornerback Grant Haley scooped up the live ball and returned it for a touchdown, turning Ohio State's three-point lead into a 24-21 deficit.
The Buckeyes had one final chance to respond, but Penn State's defense forced a 4th-and-23 from Ohio State's own 29-yard line, where the offense failed to convert.
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“By rule, you can’t physically pull the field goal protector out of the way of the guy jumping through, and Penn State, the one win they got against us in 2016, they blocked the field goal,” Meyer said. “I turned it in, and I didn’t bitch a lot about it; my fault that we ran the field goal team on late. That cost us the Big Ten championship in ’16, and they later came back and said it could have been, and should have been, a penalty, if I remember right. That’s one that might have been — if they would have thrown that flag, obviously we win.”
Ohio State's loss to Penn State was its only regular-season defeat in 2016 and kept the Buckeyes out of the Big Ten Championship Game. Penn State went on to beat Wisconsin 38-31 for the conference title, but the College Football Playoff selection committee still selected Ohio State over the Nittany Lions for the four-team playoff.
Penn State lost to USC in the Rose Bowl.
Ohio State lost to Clemson in the Fiesta Bowl.
I wonder if those results would have been different if the referees had thrown a piece of yellow laundry 10 years ago at Beaver Stadium.
The world may never know.