1968-1975 a quick reminder of a golden age

This came up in the countdown thread and i thought I'd post a quickie but a goodie about it. The 8 years between 1968 and 1975 were probably the single best era in OSU history and for those who don't know why I'll give a quick recap and compare it to current times.

The super sophs could very well have gone 30-0 with 3 straight NC's.
1968 10-0 B10 and National Champs. Outscored opponents 323 to 150.
1969 9-1 last game of the season was played for a NC but lost to tsun in the single worst loss in tOSU history imo. Outscored opponents 383-93 that year and never had a close game untill The Game. We beat a huge underdog tsun team and we are B2B NC's. The team could not go to a second consecutive RB at the time.
1970 9-1 B10 champ and some say NC although we lost to Stanford in RB. 4th quarter collapse vs another underdog team costs us NC, I personally never could count this as one. You can't lose the last game and still be NC imo.

Quick reload year
1971 6-4 Super Sophs were gone and AG was a year away. Still took a blind ref to let tsun win The Game. Fuck Darden.

Archie G era
1972 9-2 B10 co champ beat tsun. The MSU loss was a TO fest that we gave to them but the USC loss was an ass beating from a clearly better team.
1973 10-0-1 We were #1 untill the tie vs tsun, the went to Pasadena and rolled USC 42-21. A very convincing argument can be made that this was our best team ever. Outscored opponents 413-64 including 4 shutouts and a 5 game stretch of surrendering a total of 7 points! Fucking Domers were voted #1 because of the tie. Remember that BS anytime you start to feel pity for their second tier asses in the current era.
1974 10-2 B10 co champs. The big upset in east lansing that will never be forgotten. The RB loss to USC was a battle of 2 pretty even teams so you can't say it was a missed NC opportunity year.
1975 11-1 B10 champs. Loss to a UCLA team we pounded in the Rose Bowl earlier that same year costs us a NC. Complete fucking head scratcher.

Overall 8 year record:
74-11-1 .860 win %
6 B10 Championships
5-2-1 vs tsun
6 Rose Bowl appearances
Played for 4 NC's
1 National Championship(some contend 2)
2 Heisman's

Our current 6 year run under JT by comparison:
62-14 .814 win % (can't catch up)
3 B10 titles (can't catch up)
2 NC games (mathmatically able to match but probably unlikely)
5-1 vs tsun (advantage current era)
1 NC (current era could hopefully win this category)
1 Heisman (Wells for Heisman in '08 anyone?)

So the current era can't match up in terms of win % or B10 titles, has to win 1 of the next 2 to claim an edge in The Game, probably wont match in total NC opportunities but hopefully will exceed NC's won. The second Heisman has a fairly reasonable shot as well.

Just another reminder of how you must take advantage of those NC games when you have them in hand and how truely fortunate we are to be living out this current era under JT.

 

But when we look back and get to choose the starting year and ending year of the decade (cutting out 2001 in favor of a later year, for example, or cutting out '04 and starting the decade in '05 ect...) I think we might have something comparable on our hands by the end of JT's tenure, or at least I hope so.

Edit: And I don't mean to take away from the '68 through '75 teams, clearly the golden age of Woody Hayes and quite possibly of Ohio State football up to this point.

 

Was the "74" game at MSU the "hold down the OSU football players till the clock ran out" game? That one still makes me angry!

 

But when we look back and get to choose the starting year and ending year of the decade (cutting out 2001 in favor of a later year, for example, or cutting out '04 and starting the decade in '05 ect...) I think we might have something comparable on our hands by the end of JT's tenure, or at least I hope so.

Edit: And I don't mean to take away from the '68 through '75 teams, clearly the golden age of Woody Hayes and quite possibly of Ohio State football up to this point.

True but this was a natural watershed of two great classes as they came and went. It wasn't just an arbitrary set of years. I would say you could do this way in the future for JT starting in 2005 and see what happens.

Was the "74" game at MSU the "hold down the OSU football players till the clock ran out" game? That one still makes me angry!

It was indeed that debacle. The sick part is the guys got up, ran a play and appeared to score with time remaining. One ref even raised his arms for the TD. 45 minutes after the game the B10 commish made a ruling, if I understand it correctly, and we got fucked. Should have never been in that situation however. Much like 1998 they had no business even being in the game.

 

True but this was a natural watershed of two great classes as they came and went. It wasn't just an arbitrary set of years. I would say you could do this way in the future for JT starting in 2005 and see what happens.

I don't think anything like the super sophs will ever happen again though, but if you count 2005 as the year that JT's recruiting completely filled out the two deep than maybe that would make the start date a little less arbitrary?

Anyways, sorry if I'm sidetracking this thread. '68-'75: discuss...

 

Good analysis, but here's how I look at that era: one NC ('68), 5 blown chances ('69, '70, '73, '74, '75).

 

Why not just act like Alabama and go ahead and count them as NCs? :p

Nice work Jax.

 

I don't think anything like the super sophs will ever happen again though, but if you count 2005 as the year that JT's recruiting completely filled out the two deep than maybe that would make the start date a little less arbitrary?

That what I was getting at, you probably said it better. maybe if we are looking back at the JT era in 30 years we can say from 2005 till 2011 look what they did etc etc.

OTOH you could say the current watershed is/was JT's arrival and considering I'm taking the full 6 years(good and the bad) its a fair comp I think. You'll never get the clear delineation of 4 year classes again imo with kids going pro early and redshirting.

The main point is that the two classes that essentially went back to back at OSU from 68-75 were unreal. Second point is one I am constantly preaching, we are in a Golden Era right now, appreciate it accordingly.

 

As LJB pointed out, we could do a whole thread just on the heart breaks!
It would be like being in love all those times and having her leave you! Sometimes for the strangest of reasons! :(

 

As LJB pointed out, we could do a whole thread just on the heart breaks!
It would be like being in love all those times and having her leave you! Sometimes for the strangest of reasons! :(

At least there's always a new season to fall in love with, and when they don't break your heart (2002) it makes all of the heartbreak (2006) worth it. That being said, so many years in a row of being so close must have been brutal.

 

Nice post Jax , Thanks.
I don't know that I can compare the teams against the other and try to decide which was better. They both had great players who played great games and yet lost a few. There would be no way IMO to improve on them unless a team went undefeated for say 4 -6 years. Those of you who will be around in 30 years may remember the memory of these present teams the same way that I remember those older teams. It is hard for me to believe that the players today are any better than those of days gone by yet I know that they are.
The players from 68 -75 were some of my heros and still are. Kern, Stillwagon, Parker, Otis, Cassady, Griffin, Johnson, Marek are just names to the youngsters because you never got to see them play so you can't really appreciate their play. Oh Crap the players, Tatum would hit people twice as hard as people do nowaday. Campana, Flam, Donley (white lightnin). Man I am smiling .
Sorry just a senior moment. :tongue2:

 

Penn State had a higher winning percentage than Ohio State between 1968 and 1975.

Boise State, USC and Texas have higher winning percentages from 2001-present.

Hopefully, when we look back on the Tressel Tenure from an historical perspective; we will remember the Golden Age of Ohio State Football as a span of years, be it 8 or 10 or 20, when the Buckeyes had the highest winning percentage of all Div. I teams (among their other accomplishments).

Best': I don't know how you list that many players from the era in question (along with others from different eras) and not mention Randy Gradishar. If someone had asked me when I was 10 years old what number I'd like to wear as a Buckeye, I would have said 53.

 

Four National Championships lost in either the Michigan game or the Rose Bowl. I'm not saying that we should have won them all, but had we even split the four games, it may have gone down as THE best run in college football history. Then throw in the lost NC in the Rose Bowl in Earl's first year.

 

Why not just act like Alabama and go ahead and count them as NCs? :p

Because the official bi-monthly newsletter of the Alabama Car Dealers Association did not name us national champions.

 

Four National Championships lost in either the Michigan game or the Rose Bowl. I'm not saying that we should have won them all, but had we even split the four games, it may have gone down as THE best run in college football history. Then throw in the lost NC in the Rose Bowl in Earl's first year.

Just win the games where we clearly had the better team and youve got a 3 year NC run from 68-70 and another in 75. We should have been voted as #1 even with a tie in 73.

1968, 1969, 1970, 1973, 1975

What a run that would have, could have and should have been.