OHIO STATE AT MICHIGAN STATE
PAINFUL MEMORIES
Michigan State has an annoying habit of wrecking promising seasons for top-ranked Ohio State football teams
Saturday, October 14, 2006
Tim May
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
1974 Michigan State?s Levi Jackson, left, sprints down the Spartan Stadium sideline, with Ohio State?s Bruce Ruhl (43) and the Buckeyes defense in pursuit, on his way to the winning touchdown in 1974.
1998 The Spartans mauled Michael Wiley and the top-ranked Buckeyes again in 1998, rallying from a 24-9 third-quarter deficit for a surprising 28-24 victory.
Bruce Ruhl was in on one of the more memorable plays in Michigan State football history. There?s a famous photo of it, with thousands of copies circulating through the years. It was even used on MSU season tickets in 1975. Ruhl, however, does not have a framed copy up on his office wall at Worthington Industries. Not by a long shot. The famous photo shows fullback Levi Jackson in the midst of an 88-yard sprint down the sideline in Spartan Stadium on Nov. 9, 1974, on the way to the winning touchdown in an upset of topranked Ohio State. Visible in his wake are Ruhl, an OSU safety, plus several other Buckeyes and their national championship dreams.
The 16-13 loss is remembered just as much by fans as a game they thought the Buckeyes won anyway with a last-ditch drive culminated by Brian Baschnagel picking up a fumbled snap and slashing into the end zone on the final play. One official signaled a score. One said the clock had run out.
"But they all left the field," Ruhl said.
After the officials huddled with then-Big Ten commissioner Wayne Duke for almost an hour to discuss what had happened ? giving Ohio State coach Woody Hayes enough time to destroy an oak chair by beating it against a pole in the locker room ? Duke emerged to rule that the clock had expired before the ball was snapped.
The discussion, of course, should have been moot. Ohio State was loaded with talent, led by tailback Archie Griffin, who won the first of his two Heisman trophies that season. Ruhl, a sophomore, still recalls it as a day when "what could go wrong, did go wrong."
On Jackson?s scoring run, an Ohio State defensive lineman and a linebacker covered the wrong gaps. Jackson burst through unfettered, shrugged off Ruhl and motored off into history.
"Mistakes," Ruhl said. "That?s what beat us that day."
It?s a lesson he hopes topranked Ohio State understood as it prepared for its game at Michigan State today, when the Buckeyes again are big favorites over what appears to be a flagging Spartans team.
"No mistakes. If you don?t make mistakes, they won?t beat you," Ruhl said. "Woody Hayes always used to say, ?Don?t give a sucker a break.? "
Especially one who has embarrassed you before. But that?s just what the 1998 Ohio State team did.
Those Buckeyes were undefeated, the undisputed No. 1, full of stars including receiver David Boston, quarterback Joe Germaine, linebacker Andy Katzenmoyer and cornerback Antoine Winfield. They were the overwhelming favorites to keep rolling when a 4-4 Michigan State showed up in Ohio Stadium on Nov. 7.
The Buckeyes had the Spartans down 24-9 midway through the third quarter before Michigan State rallied behind quarterback Bill Burke to a 28-24 upset.
"As good as that Ohio State team was that year, they probably weren?t used to someone hanging in there with them," Burke said the other day. "By the time they woke up to the fact that we weren?t going away, it was too late."
As in 1974, the Buckeyes tried to mount a comeback after the Spartans took the lead. The first attempt ended when running back Joe Montgomery was stuffed on fourthand-1 in MSU territory. The second reached the MSU side again, but then Germaine threw three straight incompletions before being intercepted by Reynaldo Hill near the goal line.
"There?s not a day that goes by that I don?t think about it," said Dee Miller, who was the intended receiver on the final pass. Miller said he has seen the play rerun many times this week. When he spoke to the current Buckeyes at midweek, he made clear what was on the line.
"I told them this whole city ? this whole state, really ? goes round and round based on what they do," Miller said. "I told them very few teams do you get to be in a position they?re in, and that one bad afternoon can take it all away. Not just for the seniors, but for everybody on the team, this season could be their legacy.
"Just like now when people talk about the most talented teams they?ve seen at Ohio State, the 1998 team doesn?t seem to come up. It?s because of that one loss."
He said the ?98 Buckeyes knew they?d blown it as soon as the game was done. Many of them showed up at his apartment that night for what amounted to a wake.
"Seriously, it was like there had been a death in the family," Miller said. "We went on to win the Sugar Bowl and finish No. 2 in the polls. But we know what could have been. To this day, it?s like something is missing."
Ruhl knows the feeling.
"It?s a regret. I wouldn?t say it haunts me," Ruhl said. "It is a sincere regret, because we came so close."
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