Joe Montgomery was a guy with heart.
He came close to losing his leg at the knee after taking a wicked hit directly to his knee. I am not a doctor, but from what I remember there was some arterial damage and they thought it might irreversibly (is that even a word) interrupt the blood flow to his lower leg.
He made it through the injury and back to the playing field. There was always more talent around him, but not more heart. He was behind Wiley in the lineup on a very talented team in 98.
After the MSU debacle in 98, our next game was at Iowa. It was clear early in that game that we were suffering a hangover and we struggled. Until Joe got his longest TD as a buckeye(IIRC)
We went to the bowl game that year to see tOSU beat aTm. Anyone who went to that game, saw that the Buckeye fans were outnumbered 3:1. We were concentrated mainly in the one endzone of the Superdome.
After the game the team gets together and is celebrating. After a minute, Joe breaks from the team, takes his helmet off and heads right for us fans. You could see the tears in his eyes. It was his last game as a Buckeye and you could tell how much it meant to him.
