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LGHL Five clutch performances by Ohio State footballers over the last 25 years
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Five clutch performances by Ohio State footballers over the last 25 years
Brett Ludwiczak via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images
The Buckeyes always have players who step up in the biggest spots. Here are five memorable performances since 2000.
Playing for one of the most prestigious college football programs in the country, the lights are always bright when Ohio State takes the field. Over the years the Buckeyes have done a great job at bringing in players who are able to meet the moment.
Just look at what Ryan Day has been able to do since taking over as head coach for Urban Meyer prior to the 2019 season. Following this year’s national championship season, Day has posted a 70-10 record as head coach at Ohio State. Since 2000, the Buckeyes have suffered three losses or more in a season five times, with none of those instances coming after the 2011 season.
With such high expectations set for the football team each year, today we’re going to look at five clutch performances by Buckeyes over the last 25 years. While most of the selected performances were by one player over a single game, there is also a three-game stretch that is highlighted, as well as a game where three players were a force that couldn’t be stopped.
If you have any strong opinions on clutch performances since 2000 that we may have missed, feel free to drop your choices in the comments.
For simplicity, these performances are going to be listed from oldest to newest. This is more of a list and not a ranking, since the true winners are Buckeye Nation since we were able to bask in the greatness these players displayed in the clutch.
The 2004 Ohio State offense was a tough watch at times. After Craig Krenzel led the Buckeyes to a national title in 2002, followed by a Fiesta Bowl win over Kansas State at the end of the 2003 season, Justin Zwick was handed the keys to the offense after Krenzel graduated. In their first two games of the season, Ohio State scored 51 combined points in wins over Cincinnati and Marshall at home.
Luckily the Buckeyes had Mike Nugent in the Marshall game since the kicker was able to crush a 55-yard field goal to thwart the upset attempt by the Thundering Herd. Nugent’s number would be called early and often the following week when Ohio State hit the road for the first time in the 2004 season, traveling to Raleigh to meet up with NC State.
The Wolfpack pushed the Buckeyes to the limit the previous year in Columbus, with Krenzel edging Philip Rivers 44-38 in triple overtime.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/26005529/51321859.jpg "Ohio State v North Carolina State")
Photo By Grant Halverson/Getty Images
Nugent would open up the scoring early in Raleigh, kicking a 50-yard field goal to give the Buckeyes a 3-0 with just under six minutes to go in the first quarter. Nugent would add another field goal later in the second quarter, which was followed by an Ohio State touchdown before halftime to extend their lead to 13-0. Coming out of halftime, Nugent would kick his third field goal of the game to push the lead to 16-0.
North Carolina State would get on the scoreboard with a touchdown, which the Buckeyes responded to with field goals from 46 and 47 yards. The five field goals by Nugent tied a school record, matching the five field goals Bob Atha kicked in 1981 against Indiana.
Nugent would go on to hit on 24 of his 27 field goal attempts in his senior season, with five of his kicks coming from at least 50 yards. The Centerville native would win the Lou Groza Award as the best kicker in the country.
What made Nugent’s performance so massive is the Buckeye offense struggled mightily against the Wolfpack, totaling just 137 yards of offense. The defense helped to pick up the slack, forcing five turnovers. Luckily a number of those turnovers were in NC State territory, as four of Ohio State’s scoring drives totaled 10 yards or less.
Had it not been for the accuracy Nugent displayed kicking the football, we might be looking back on a four-game losing streak for the Buckeyes since they would go on to lose their next three games.
2014 was such an odd season. Even before the season began, Braxton Miller was ruled out for the year after shoulder surgery, leaving redshirt freshman J.T. Barrett to take the snaps. After a loss to Virginia Tech everyone thought Ohio State’s chances at making the playoff were dead, but Barrett and the Buckeyes turned things around and entered the Michigan game riding a 10-game winning streak.
Ohio State would beat the Wolverines, but they suffered a massive loss, losing Barrett for the rest of the season to a broken ankle.
With Barrett sidelined, the rest of the team knew they would have to step up since quarterback Cardale Jones would be making his first start in a game that would determine if the Buckeyes would make the first-ever College Football Playoff. The job became a little easier since Jones had Ezekiel Elliott to lean on.
The running back would rush for 220 yards and two touchdowns on 20 carries in the 59-0 win over the Badgers. The blowout shutout allowed the Buckeyes to get the nod from the CFP committee as the fourth seed in the playoff.
Early on in the Sugar Bowl it looked like the fairy tale for Jones and the Buckeyes would suffer a nightmare ending at the hands of the Crimson Tide. Despite the 21-6 deficit they faced, Ohio State kept their composure and went into halftime trailing by just a point. The Buckeyes would take the lead for good in the second half, sealing the game with an 85-yard touchdown run by Elliott, who finished with 230 yards rushing and two touchdowns on 20 carries.
Despite the win over Alabama feeling like a national championship win, Ohio State still had one game left to win if they wanted to raise the crystal football. There wasn’t nearly as much drama against Oregon. Elliott’s 33-yard touchdown run tied the game at 7-7 in the fourth quarter, followed by three more touchdown runs later in the game to add to Ohio State’s lead. The game’s offensive MVP finished with 246 yards on 36 carries in the 42-20 win.
Had it not been for Elliott’s rushing exploits over those three games, it’s highly doubtful the Buckeyes would have made the playoff, let alone beat Alabama and Oregon.
COVID-19 wrecked havoc all over the world in 2020. Originally the Big Ten announced the conference wouldn’t be playing football in the fall before reversing course and holding a shortened season.
After the first three games of the season for the Buckeyes went off without a hitch, three of their next five games, including the annual battle against Michigan, were postponed before schools were battling the spread of COVID-19.
There was no question Ohio State was the best team in the conference in 2020, but had the conference stuck with their original requirements for qualifying for the Big Ten Championship Game, the Buckeyes wouldn’t have been eligible to play.
Knowing Ohio State was their best shot at a national title, the Big Ten allowed the Buckeyes to take on Northwestern in Indianapolis.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/26005531/1230387308.jpg "COLLEGE FOOTBALL: DEC 19 Big Ten Championship Game - Northwestern v Ohio State")
Photo by Robin Alam/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
The Ohio State offense was already without Chris Olave, who wasn’t able to play after testing positive for COVID-19, and early in the game Master Teague was injured, leaving Trey Sermon to be the main option at running back for the Buckeye offense.
The Oklahoma transfer relished the spotlight, breaking the Ohio State single-game school record set by Eddie George, rushing for 331 yards in the win over the Wildcats. 260 of Sermon’s rushing yards in Indianapolis came in the second half. The emergence of Sermon came at the perfect time since quarterback Justin Fields didn’t look right throwing the football against a tough Northwestern pass defense.
While Sermon was in Columbus for just one season, he etched his place in school history with what he did against Northwestern, as well as his performance in the Sugar Bowl against Clemson in the College Football Playoff, helping the Buckeyes earn some revenge for the heartbreaking loss Ohio State suffered in the Fiesta Bowl against the Tigers.
In the grand scheme of things, the 2022 Rose Bowl didn’t mean a whole lot. Ohio State lost to Oregon and Michigan in the regular season, meaning they wouldn’t be playing in the College Football Playoff for a third consecutive year. Since the game was essentially just an exhibition, wide receivers Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson decided to forego playing in the game, as they wanted to start preparing for the 2022 NFL Draft in April.
One Buckeye who would play in the game was C.J. Stroud, since it was already known that he would be back in Columbus for another season as he was only in his second season of college football. Little did we know just how big a game that meant very little would be to the development of not only Stroud, but a couple of upcoming Ohio State receivers.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/26005535/1237500232.jpg "COLLEGE FOOTBALL: JAN 01 Rose Bowl Game - Ohio State v Utah")
Photo by Brian Rothmuller/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Stroud and the Buckeyes would find themselves trailing for most of the game after falling behind 14-0 in the first quarter. Early in the second quarter, Stroud would find Marvin Harrison Jr. to cut the lead to 14-7.
The receiving touchdown would be the first of three on the day for Harrison. In most cases a three touchdown day by a receiver would grab all the headlines. Harrison’s trifecta of touchdowns was almost an afterthought because of what Jaxon Smith-Njigba did.
The wide receiver from Texas would go on to set an Ohio State single-game record, bowl record, and FBS record with 347 yards receiving on 15 catches. Like Harrison, Smith-Njigba would score three times, with his last touchdown giving the Buckeyes a 45-38 lead with just over four minutes left in the game.
Stroud’s 573 yards and six passing touchdowns were also single-game school and Rose Bowl records. Despite this game lining up to be a forgettable contest, Stroud, Smith-Njigba, and Harrison all made sure that Buckeye Nation would remember the win over the Utes for years to come.
After showing love to offensive players for the first four entries on this list, we’ll close it out with one of the most dominant defensive performances by a player in football history. J.T. Tuimoloau was a monster in State College, forcing four turnovers in Ohio State’s 44-31 win.
Tuimoloau started off the game by tipping a Sean Clifford pass that teammate Zach Harrison was able to intercept. The Buckeyes weren’t able to put any points on the scoreboard following the interception, but it would be the only of the four turnovers that Tuimoloau had a hand in that they wouldn’t score off of.
On Penn State’s next possession, Tuimoloau would pick off Clifford’s pass, which would lead to a Miyan Williams touchdown, giving the Buckeyes a 10-0 lead. Then in the fourth quarter with Penn State leading 23-21, Tuimoloau would strip Clifford and Ohio State would score on the next play to take the lead for good. Tuimoloau would add some insurance when he would pick off another Clifford pass and return this one for a touchdown to extend the lead to 44-24.
Tuimoloau would finish with two interceptions, two sacks, a forced fumble, and a fumble recovery, as well as a tipped pass that led to an interception. Those types of numbers in a game for any defensive player are unheard of, let alone for a defensive end.
If Ohio State didn’t have Tuimoloau against the Nittany Lions, we might not have seen the Buckeyes leave State College with a win, which would have kept them out of the College Football Playoff. While Ohio State would go on to lose to Georgia in the Peach Bowl in the semifinals, the experience Tuimoloau and a number of Buckeyes that were on the 2024 title team gained in the loss was invaluable.
Continue reading...
Brett Ludwiczak via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images
The Buckeyes always have players who step up in the biggest spots. Here are five memorable performances since 2000.
Playing for one of the most prestigious college football programs in the country, the lights are always bright when Ohio State takes the field. Over the years the Buckeyes have done a great job at bringing in players who are able to meet the moment.
Just look at what Ryan Day has been able to do since taking over as head coach for Urban Meyer prior to the 2019 season. Following this year’s national championship season, Day has posted a 70-10 record as head coach at Ohio State. Since 2000, the Buckeyes have suffered three losses or more in a season five times, with none of those instances coming after the 2011 season.
With such high expectations set for the football team each year, today we’re going to look at five clutch performances by Buckeyes over the last 25 years. While most of the selected performances were by one player over a single game, there is also a three-game stretch that is highlighted, as well as a game where three players were a force that couldn’t be stopped.
If you have any strong opinions on clutch performances since 2000 that we may have missed, feel free to drop your choices in the comments.
For simplicity, these performances are going to be listed from oldest to newest. This is more of a list and not a ranking, since the true winners are Buckeye Nation since we were able to bask in the greatness these players displayed in the clutch.
Mike Nugent - 2004 at North Carolina State
The 2004 Ohio State offense was a tough watch at times. After Craig Krenzel led the Buckeyes to a national title in 2002, followed by a Fiesta Bowl win over Kansas State at the end of the 2003 season, Justin Zwick was handed the keys to the offense after Krenzel graduated. In their first two games of the season, Ohio State scored 51 combined points in wins over Cincinnati and Marshall at home.
Luckily the Buckeyes had Mike Nugent in the Marshall game since the kicker was able to crush a 55-yard field goal to thwart the upset attempt by the Thundering Herd. Nugent’s number would be called early and often the following week when Ohio State hit the road for the first time in the 2004 season, traveling to Raleigh to meet up with NC State.
The Wolfpack pushed the Buckeyes to the limit the previous year in Columbus, with Krenzel edging Philip Rivers 44-38 in triple overtime.
Nugent would open up the scoring early in Raleigh, kicking a 50-yard field goal to give the Buckeyes a 3-0 with just under six minutes to go in the first quarter. Nugent would add another field goal later in the second quarter, which was followed by an Ohio State touchdown before halftime to extend their lead to 13-0. Coming out of halftime, Nugent would kick his third field goal of the game to push the lead to 16-0.
North Carolina State would get on the scoreboard with a touchdown, which the Buckeyes responded to with field goals from 46 and 47 yards. The five field goals by Nugent tied a school record, matching the five field goals Bob Atha kicked in 1981 against Indiana.
Nugent would go on to hit on 24 of his 27 field goal attempts in his senior season, with five of his kicks coming from at least 50 yards. The Centerville native would win the Lou Groza Award as the best kicker in the country.
What made Nugent’s performance so massive is the Buckeye offense struggled mightily against the Wolfpack, totaling just 137 yards of offense. The defense helped to pick up the slack, forcing five turnovers. Luckily a number of those turnovers were in NC State territory, as four of Ohio State’s scoring drives totaled 10 yards or less.
Had it not been for the accuracy Nugent displayed kicking the football, we might be looking back on a four-game losing streak for the Buckeyes since they would go on to lose their next three games.
Ezekiel Elliott - 2014 vs. Wisconsin/Alabama/Oregon
2014 was such an odd season. Even before the season began, Braxton Miller was ruled out for the year after shoulder surgery, leaving redshirt freshman J.T. Barrett to take the snaps. After a loss to Virginia Tech everyone thought Ohio State’s chances at making the playoff were dead, but Barrett and the Buckeyes turned things around and entered the Michigan game riding a 10-game winning streak.
Ohio State would beat the Wolverines, but they suffered a massive loss, losing Barrett for the rest of the season to a broken ankle.
With Barrett sidelined, the rest of the team knew they would have to step up since quarterback Cardale Jones would be making his first start in a game that would determine if the Buckeyes would make the first-ever College Football Playoff. The job became a little easier since Jones had Ezekiel Elliott to lean on.
The running back would rush for 220 yards and two touchdowns on 20 carries in the 59-0 win over the Badgers. The blowout shutout allowed the Buckeyes to get the nod from the CFP committee as the fourth seed in the playoff.
Early on in the Sugar Bowl it looked like the fairy tale for Jones and the Buckeyes would suffer a nightmare ending at the hands of the Crimson Tide. Despite the 21-6 deficit they faced, Ohio State kept their composure and went into halftime trailing by just a point. The Buckeyes would take the lead for good in the second half, sealing the game with an 85-yard touchdown run by Elliott, who finished with 230 yards rushing and two touchdowns on 20 carries.
Despite the win over Alabama feeling like a national championship win, Ohio State still had one game left to win if they wanted to raise the crystal football. There wasn’t nearly as much drama against Oregon. Elliott’s 33-yard touchdown run tied the game at 7-7 in the fourth quarter, followed by three more touchdown runs later in the game to add to Ohio State’s lead. The game’s offensive MVP finished with 246 yards on 36 carries in the 42-20 win.
Had it not been for Elliott’s rushing exploits over those three games, it’s highly doubtful the Buckeyes would have made the playoff, let alone beat Alabama and Oregon.
Trey Sermon - 2020 Big Ten Championship Game vs. Northwestern
COVID-19 wrecked havoc all over the world in 2020. Originally the Big Ten announced the conference wouldn’t be playing football in the fall before reversing course and holding a shortened season.
After the first three games of the season for the Buckeyes went off without a hitch, three of their next five games, including the annual battle against Michigan, were postponed before schools were battling the spread of COVID-19.
There was no question Ohio State was the best team in the conference in 2020, but had the conference stuck with their original requirements for qualifying for the Big Ten Championship Game, the Buckeyes wouldn’t have been eligible to play.
Knowing Ohio State was their best shot at a national title, the Big Ten allowed the Buckeyes to take on Northwestern in Indianapolis.
The Ohio State offense was already without Chris Olave, who wasn’t able to play after testing positive for COVID-19, and early in the game Master Teague was injured, leaving Trey Sermon to be the main option at running back for the Buckeye offense.
The Oklahoma transfer relished the spotlight, breaking the Ohio State single-game school record set by Eddie George, rushing for 331 yards in the win over the Wildcats. 260 of Sermon’s rushing yards in Indianapolis came in the second half. The emergence of Sermon came at the perfect time since quarterback Justin Fields didn’t look right throwing the football against a tough Northwestern pass defense.
While Sermon was in Columbus for just one season, he etched his place in school history with what he did against Northwestern, as well as his performance in the Sugar Bowl against Clemson in the College Football Playoff, helping the Buckeyes earn some revenge for the heartbreaking loss Ohio State suffered in the Fiesta Bowl against the Tigers.
C.J. Stroud/Jaxon Smith-Njigba/Marvin Harrison Jr. - 2022 Rose Bowl vs. Utah
In the grand scheme of things, the 2022 Rose Bowl didn’t mean a whole lot. Ohio State lost to Oregon and Michigan in the regular season, meaning they wouldn’t be playing in the College Football Playoff for a third consecutive year. Since the game was essentially just an exhibition, wide receivers Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson decided to forego playing in the game, as they wanted to start preparing for the 2022 NFL Draft in April.
One Buckeye who would play in the game was C.J. Stroud, since it was already known that he would be back in Columbus for another season as he was only in his second season of college football. Little did we know just how big a game that meant very little would be to the development of not only Stroud, but a couple of upcoming Ohio State receivers.
Stroud and the Buckeyes would find themselves trailing for most of the game after falling behind 14-0 in the first quarter. Early in the second quarter, Stroud would find Marvin Harrison Jr. to cut the lead to 14-7.
The receiving touchdown would be the first of three on the day for Harrison. In most cases a three touchdown day by a receiver would grab all the headlines. Harrison’s trifecta of touchdowns was almost an afterthought because of what Jaxon Smith-Njigba did.
The wide receiver from Texas would go on to set an Ohio State single-game record, bowl record, and FBS record with 347 yards receiving on 15 catches. Like Harrison, Smith-Njigba would score three times, with his last touchdown giving the Buckeyes a 45-38 lead with just over four minutes left in the game.
Stroud’s 573 yards and six passing touchdowns were also single-game school and Rose Bowl records. Despite this game lining up to be a forgettable contest, Stroud, Smith-Njigba, and Harrison all made sure that Buckeye Nation would remember the win over the Utes for years to come.
J.T. Tuimoloau - 2022 at Penn State
After showing love to offensive players for the first four entries on this list, we’ll close it out with one of the most dominant defensive performances by a player in football history. J.T. Tuimoloau was a monster in State College, forcing four turnovers in Ohio State’s 44-31 win.
Tuimoloau started off the game by tipping a Sean Clifford pass that teammate Zach Harrison was able to intercept. The Buckeyes weren’t able to put any points on the scoreboard following the interception, but it would be the only of the four turnovers that Tuimoloau had a hand in that they wouldn’t score off of.
On Penn State’s next possession, Tuimoloau would pick off Clifford’s pass, which would lead to a Miyan Williams touchdown, giving the Buckeyes a 10-0 lead. Then in the fourth quarter with Penn State leading 23-21, Tuimoloau would strip Clifford and Ohio State would score on the next play to take the lead for good. Tuimoloau would add some insurance when he would pick off another Clifford pass and return this one for a touchdown to extend the lead to 44-24.
Tuimoloau would finish with two interceptions, two sacks, a forced fumble, and a fumble recovery, as well as a tipped pass that led to an interception. Those types of numbers in a game for any defensive player are unheard of, let alone for a defensive end.
If Ohio State didn’t have Tuimoloau against the Nittany Lions, we might not have seen the Buckeyes leave State College with a win, which would have kept them out of the College Football Playoff. While Ohio State would go on to lose to Georgia in the Peach Bowl in the semifinals, the experience Tuimoloau and a number of Buckeyes that were on the 2024 title team gained in the loss was invaluable.
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2025 Countdown Thread
- Buckeye Football
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THOMAS “PEPPER” JOHNSON
- Captain 2x
- Defensive MVP 2x
- UPI All-American (1985)
- Sporting News All-American First Team (1985)
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