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Football

All things pigskin.

A Look at Ohio State in Big Games Since 1969

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Some of you want to highlight Ryan Day's 2-7 record versus top-5 opponents. It would be relatively easy to "defend" Day's performance in most of those games, but I'm not his defense attorney. Instead, I want to take a look at how some previous Buckeye head coaches fared in big (and little) games:

Woody Hayes

In his last ten seasons, Hayes had six legitimate chances to win national championships and blew all six of them. He posted a losing record against Michigan (4-5-1) including dropping his final three Games; and in bowl games (2-6); and against top-5 competition (4-8-2, going 0-4-1 in his last five attempts). In addition, Hayes lost three games as the #1 ranked team in the country, once to an unranked opponent (Michigan State, 1974); and lost two games as the #2 ranked team, once to an unranked opponent (Missouri, 1976).

1969: #1 Ohio State loses to #12 Michigan, costing the Buckeyes the consensus national championship
1970: #5 Ohio State defeats #4 Michigan...

Week 10 Games Discussion

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November is time for midweek MACTion. Saturday has two good SEC games, Mizzou at UGA and LSU at Bama.

A tricky matchup for Texas against Kansas State. And do we have to care about ND/Clemson, or just hope for a small meteor?

Week 10

Tuesday, Oct. 31

Northern Illinois at Central Michigan | 7 p.m. | ESPNU
Buffalo at Toledo | 7:30 p.m. | ESPN2

Wednesday, Nov. 1

Ball State at Bowling Green | 7 p.m. | ESPN2
Kent State at Akron | 7:30 p.m. | ESPNU

Thursday, Nov. 2

TCU at Texas Tech | 7 p.m. | FS1
Wake Forest at Duke | 7:30 p.m. | ESPN
South Alabama at Troy | 7:30 p.m. | ESPN2
Mississippi Valley State at Bethune-Cookman | 7:30 p.m. | ESPNU

Friday, Nov. 3

Princeton at Dartmouth | 7 p.m. | ESPNU
Boston College at Syracuse | 7:30 p.m. | ESPN2
Colorado State at Wyoming | 8 p.m. | CBSSN

Saturday, Nov. 4

Ohio State at Rutgers | 12 p.m. | CBS
Kansas State at Texas | 12 p.m. | FOX
Texas A&M at Ole Miss | 12 p.m. | ESPN
Notre Dame at Clemson | 12 p.m. | ABC...

This Week in Buckeye Football: Aloha From Columbus

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The big story coming out of Monday night's game was the quality and depth of talent the Buckeyes employ at the skill positions. Seemingly capable of big plays at will, Ohio State was praised a historic juggernaut and the nation's most enjoyable team to watch. However, that was certainly not true today.

Because of the recognized talent the Buckeyes have, when things aren't going smoothly, some fans struggle to identify the reasons or possible solutions. Not moving the ball? It must be the playcalling because a team this talented can only be held back by the guys who tell them what to do on every snap. Not moving the ball through the air? Feed Zeke. Or maybe they should switch quarterbacks. Maybe it's none of those things. Perhaps it's the short turnaround between the Virginia Tech game and this one. Maybe it's those stupid refs.

What often goes unnoticed is the performance of the offensive line. Good play in the trenches makes everybody else look good. You can run...

College Football Right Meow: Week 2

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This week we start with a little more background on our furry friend Poobert. This past week was his birthday. He just turned ten. We got him a new collar for his birthday. The ungrateful little butthole didn't like it. Wish him a happy birthday!

Poobert was a rescue cat - mangey and emaciated when he was taken into the shelter that my wife adopted him from. Because he was often starving and scavenging as a kitten, he eats voraciously and is always looking for his next meal. This was just the first time that my wife saved his life...

QUICK OBSERVATIONS FROM THE BARCALOUNGER

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1. QUARTERBACK CONTROVERSY

Love Cardale. Just love him.

Like the other one better.

2. PROPER USE OF YOUR DVR REMOTE

If you press the fast forward button and the pause button while holding your mouth just right you can get any of OSU's players to do a spin move.

3. THE DOW AND THE ZEKE

If you draw a trend line of Zeke's rushing yards in his last four games and extend it out he will have negative yards rushing against Hawaii.

This Week in Buckeye Football: Week 1

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The offseason can seem interminable, even when you get the spend the entire time reliving a championship season from the year before. After watching everybody else take the field, we finally got to see the Buckeyes. What can we take away from this game?

Top Plays:

3.)Michael Thomas: perhaps the most underrated player on the team, and in the country.


More after the jump...

This Week in College Football: Week 1

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COLLEGE FOOTBALL IS BACK.

We spend eight months taking in every little morsel of information we can get. We project who will win and who will lose, who will have a successful season and who will not. After all of the talk and hype, the first week of games should make things a little more clear about how the season will go. Did it though?

Most people thought TCU would be really good and Minnesota would be just OK. After what happened on Thursday, it seems we know less now than we did before they played each other. Does Minnesota miss its departed players on offense that bad, or were they simply stymied by a TCU team that traditionally has one of the best defenses in the country? Is TCU going to struggle to move the ball despite bringing everybody back from an offense that was nearly unstoppable last season, or is Minnesota better than we thought? Is this going to be one of those "good" Northwestern teams that sneaks up on people, or is Stanford just inept?

That's just one...

Overview of Ohio State's Defense - 2015

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Ohio State's defense wasn't great in 2014 (22.0 ppg, 342.4 ypg), but it didn't really need to be because the offense was (44.8 ppg, 511.6 ypg). The two biggest positives for the defense were its ability to create turnovers (25 interceptions, 8 fumble recoveries, 6 touchdowns); and the progress that it made during the post-season with impressive performances against Wisconsin, Alabama, and Oregon and their respective superstars (Melvin Gordon, Amari Cooper, and Marcus Mariota).

The defensive line was a strength in 2014, but the unit will have to replace All American defensive tackle
Michael Bennett; starting defensive end Steve Miller; and key reserve Rashad Frazier. Fortunately, junior All American Joey...

Overview of Ohio State's Offense - 2015

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The biggest question concerning the Ohio State offense - really the only question - is who will be the starting quarterback. The battle is between redshirt sophomore J.T. Barrett, who set team records last season with 3,772 total yards and 45 total touchdowns; and redshirt junior Cardale Jones, who led the Buckeyes on their amazing run to the national championship after Barrett suffered a season-ending ankle injury during the fourth quarter of the Michigan game. With his keen grasp of the read-option, Barrett probably fits Urban Meyer's scheme better. On the other hand, Jones has outstanding size (6' 5", 265 lbs) and a rocket arm that can force opponents to defend the entire field. The winner supposedly won't be declared until the opening series of the Virginia Tech game. My guess is that Barrett will start and Jones will also see some valuable playing time.

Running back...

The Ten Greatest Buckeye Teams of All Time (#1)

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1. The 2002 Ohio State Buckeyes

The 2002 Buckeyes were characterized by a tenacious defense, a strong running attack, and an ability to win close games late in the contest. Some people might call this final quality "luck", but I prefer the term "preparation meeting opportunity". Whatever you want to call it, the Buckeyes had tons of it that year. And they needed every last ounce of it.

In their four previous national championship seasons, Ohio State opened their schedule with a team from the state of Texas: 1957 TCU; 1961 TCU; 1968 SMU; 1970 TAMU. In 2002, it would be Texas Tech. The Buckeyes routed the Red Raiders, 45-21 (and the game wasn't even that close). True freshman tailback Maurice Clarett rushed for 175 yards and 3 touchdowns (59, 45, and 2 yards) as the Buckeyes amassed 318 yards on the ground. The defense forced seven sacks and an interception, while holding Tech's high-powered offense to 21 points and 372 yards; 14 of...

College Football Right Meow: Week 1

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Welcome to College Football Right Meow!

Not long ago, BuckeyePlanet got a brand new front page and @Clarity put out a call for #content to drive #traffic to the site. I thought to myself, “Gee, I’d really like to contribute but I’m not really an expert or insider.” Then I remembered that BuckeyePlanet is a site on the internet. The internet is comprised of about 50% college football #hottakes by idiots, and the other 50% is cats. That gave me an idea...

What if I made picks for college football games every week? What if one of my cats made picks too, and we tried to see who's best? We could generate #content every week complete with college football #hottakes, #banter, and cats. We could achieve Peak Internet. We could become famous on Twitter, which is pretty much the loftiest achievement one can aspire to in 2015...

The Ten Greatest Buckeye Teams of All Time (#2)

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2. The 2014 Ohio State Buckeyes

Regardless of what happens in the future, this team will always be remembered as the winner of the first ever college playoff for major college football. But the road to that playoff berth was a rocky one, and the final destination was in doubt until the very end.

Ohio State began the 2014 season ranked #5 in the AP poll, but before the team ever saw the field that ranking was already in jeopardy. Just eleven days before the opening game, starting quarterback Braxton Miller (2012, 2013 Big Ten OPOY) was lost for the season with a shoulder injury. The Buckeye offense would now be in the inexperienced hands of redshirt freshman J.T. Barrett, who had never taken a snap at the college level. To make matters worse, Barrett would be operating behind an offensive line that was breaking in four new starters, none of whom had been a blue chip recruit.

The Buckeyes opened on the road against Navy, and they certainly didn't look...

The Ten Greatest Buckeye Teams of All Time (#3)

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3. The 1968 Ohio State Buckeyes

In the eight-year span from 1954 to 1961, Woody Hayes won three national titles (1954, 1957, and 1961) and four Big Ten championships (1954, 1955, 1957, and 1961); and produced thirteen All Americans and a Heisman Trophy (Hopalong Cassady), a Maxwell Award (Bob Ferguson), and an Outland Trophy (Jim Parker).

But after those glory days, Hayes saw his program enter the doldrums. From 1962 to 1967, Ohio State had a record of 35-18-1 (.657 winning percentage), with no Big Ten championships, no major award winners, and only six All Americans. To many observers, it looked like Woody's career at Ohio State might be done.

And then came 1968. In a year that symbolized unrest in the world at large, Ohio State arose from the ashes to upend the college football world. The Buckeyes were young, and they would start as many as twelve untested sophomores, including Rex Kern at the all-important quarterback position. By...

The Ten Greatest Buckeye Teams of All Time (#4)

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4. The 1954 Ohio State Buckeyes

In the nine years between the 1944 perfect season and 1953, the Buckeyes had four head coaches who posted a combined record of 48-27-7 (for a mediocre winning percentage of .628) with just a single Big Ten co-championship in the 1949 season. Against arch rival Michigan the Buckeyes had performed much worse, with a record of 1-7-1 while being outscored by the Wolverines 149-49. And even those lousy numbers painted a brighter picture than reality: In their lone win (1952), the Buckeyes had scored 27 of those 49 points; in the other eight games, they averaged less than three points, failed to crack double digits, and had been held scoreless on three separate occasions.

During the Buckeyes' slide into mediocrity, Ohio State was becoming known as the graveyard of coaches. The fourth head coach in the post-Paul Brown era was a relatively young and unknown commodity who'd had brief tenures at Denison University and...

The Ten Greatest Buckeye Teams of All Time (#5)

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5. The 1973 Ohio State Buckeyes

In most seasons, having a 10-0-1 record would be good enough to win at least a partial national championship. But not in 1973, when six football powerhouses – Notre Dame, Alabama, Ohio State, Michigan, Oklahoma, and Penn State – all entered the bowl season undefeated, with the Fighting Irish and the Crimson Tide squaring off in the Sugar Bowl with the AP national championship on the line.

The 1973 Buckeyes simply rolled through their first nine games, outscoring their opponents by a total of 361 to 33, for an average score of 40 to 4. The defense pitched four shutouts and only once gave up double-digit points (Iowa scored 13 fourth-quarter points in a 55-13 rout). The offense cracked the 50-point barrier on three separate occasions. The closest contests were a pair of 24-point blowouts. Entering the final week of the regular season, this looked like it might be the best Ohio State team of all time, and the...

The Ten Greatest Buckeye Teams of All Time (#6)

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6. The 1944 Ohio State Buckeyes

The year 1944 was the height of World War Two, and the United States was fighting on three fronts - in Italy and France against the Germans, and in the Pacific against the Japanese. With patriotism running high (and the draft in full force and effect), many young men were leaving college campuses to join the war effort. For that reason, most college football teams that year were comprised solely of freshmen who were too young to enlist or be drafted, together with a few older players who were physically unable to serve in the military and were granted "4F" status. With 31 of its 44 players being freshmen, Ohio State was no exception.

In fact, the only colleges that were unaffected by the war effort were the military academies, whose students were obviously exempt from immediate military service because they were in school for the express purpose of receiving officer training. Led by future Heisman Trophy...

The Ten Greatest Buckeye Teams of All Time (#7)

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7. The 1942 Ohio State Buckeyes

The greatest football coach of all time was Paul Brown. Brown's record as a high school coach during the 1930's (primarily at his home town school, Massillon Washington) was 92-10-3 (.890 winning percentage), with seven state titles and four national championships. As the head coach of the Cleveland Browns from 1946 to 1962, Brown turned the fledgling franchise into the greatest power in professional football, with a record of 111-44-5 (.709 winning percentage), with seven titles (4 AAFC, 3 NFL). Brown even had a winning record with the Cincinnati Bengals.

Between high school and the pros, Paul Brown was briefly (1941-43) the head coach of Ohio State. Although he was on the job for only three seasons, Brown led the Buckeyes to their first national championship in 1942. The Ohio State offense was led by a pair of All Americans, fullback Gene Fekete (910 yards, 10 TDs) and halfback Paul...

The Ten Greatest Buckeye Teams of All Time (#8)

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8. The 1957 Ohio State Buckeyes

In 1957, a mediocre team from Texas Christian (5-4-1) once again cost Ohio State a perfect season and a chance for a consensus national championship. The Buckeyes began the season unranked, so expectations for that team were not very high. But after playing poorly in an 18-14 loss to the Horned Frogs in the opening game, it seemed that the 1957 season was going to be even worse than anticipated.

However, under the guidance of head coach Woody Hayes, the Buckeyes quickly righted the ship and ran off nine straight victories to close out their schedule. The highlights were road wins against Washington, #19 Wisconsin, and archrival Michigan, and a hard-fought home victory against #6 Iowa. The Buckeyes capped off their surprising season with a 10-7 triumph over #17 Oregon in the Rose Bowl, and they were named national champions in the coaches poll and by the FWAA.

In looking back on the 1957 season, it...

The Ten Greatest Buckeye Teams of All Time (#9)

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9. The 1961 Ohio State Buckeyes

For Buckeye fans, 1961 was the year of almost: Fullback Bob Ferguson almost won the Heisman Trophy (he finished a mere 53 points behind Syracuse running back Ernie Davis, the third closest ballot of all time), thereby almost becoming the first black player to win that award (Davis, who was also black, did earn that distinction). The Buckeyes almost went to the Rose Bowl, but an Ohio State faculty committee voted (28-25) to keep the team out of that "commercial venture" lest the school become an "athletic factory" where "the football tail is wagging the college dog." And the Buckeyes almost finished with a perfect record and almost won a consensus national championship.

The 1961 Buckeyes got off to a slow start, playing a hapless Texas Christian squad (3-5-2 final record) to a 7-7 draw in Columbus in the opening game. Behind the running of two-time All American fullback...

The Ten Greatest Buckeye Teams of All Time (#10)

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T-10. The 1996 & 1998 Ohio State Buckeyes

2-10-1: That's about the only thing most Buckeye fans remember about the John Cooper Era, although the hardcore cynics are quick to point out that his teams were also 3-8 in bowl games. But lost amongst those dismal numbers is the undeniable fact that Coop lead Ohio State to a pair of second-place finishes in both major polls.

The 1996 Buckeyes had lost all their offensive superstars to the NFL – first round picks running back Eddie George (Heisman trophy), wide receiver Terry Glenn (Biletnikoff Award), and tight end Rickey Dudley had combined for 4,363 yards and 49 touchdowns in 1995, and third round selection quarterback Bobby Hoying set many single-season and career records (since broken). But the Buckeyes still had All-World left tackle Orlando Pace (1995-96 Lombardi; 1996 Outland) to anchor the offensive line and a Silver Bullet defense headed by All...

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