OL Orlando Pace (7-time Pro Bowler, Super Bowl Champion, CFB HOF, NFL HOF)

[Jaxbuck]

notably if Tressel keeps the Buckeyes going at their current pace he will surpass Cooper's win total early in the 2011 season.

Tress matched Coopers record vs scUM in his second year.

Tress matched Coops Bowl win total in his 3rd year.

Cooper was the Buckeye coach for 13 years and chose to stay in Columbus and maintain an emeritus office on campus after he was fired: he sure didn't start out as one, but he became and will always remain a Buckeye. He was the only head coach during my time at OSU, and I'll always appreciate his great run through the mid- and late-90s.

Coop-Coop-Cooper!

:osu:

He had exactly 4 good years at OSU. In that time he managed to beat scUM once. The other 9 years were bad to mediocre at best.

Jimmy Carter was the only US President during a certain 4 year period of my life. Doesn't mean I remember it fondly.

 

[Oh8ch]

This is the difference between expectations at programs like OSU versus an Illinois or Wisconsin.

They get coaches like Zook and Alvarez and follow them to new heights.

We get HOF coaches like Cooper and Bruce - and fire their asses.

 

[BayBuck]

He had exactly 4 good years at OSU. In that time he managed to beat scUM once. The other 9 years were bad to mediocre at best.

No, he had 4-5 great years at OSU, plus another 3-4 good ones. #2 two out of three seasons, 3 Big Ten titles (albeit shared), our only Rose Bowl win since Archie, and oh those legions of NFL alumni, those make for some pretty heady times on our way to the Tressel era. I realize you are among a large contingent of Buckeye Nation who can't get past 2-10-1 etc, and I understand your complaints, but I am most definitely a Cooper fan.

 

[Best Buckeye]

JMO but I feel that a lot of people think that his biggest problem was mental, that he just never bought into being a Buckeye or embraced it. I feel that it was this and the won- loss against scum that hurts him in the eyes if we Buckeyes

 

[Jaxbuck]

No, he had 4-5 great years at OSU, plus another 3-4 good ones.

Oh really?

1988: 4-6-1 loss to scUM, no bowl
1989: 8-4 loss to scUM, loss in Bowl
1990: 7-4 loss to scUM, loss to Air Force in Bowl
1991: 8-4 loss to scUM, loss in Bowl
1992: 8-3-1 tie scUM, loss in Bowl
1993: 10-1-1 loss to scUM, win in Bowl
1994: 9-4, beat scUM, loss in Bowl
1995: 11-2 loss to scUM, loss in Bowl
1996: 11-1 loss to scUM, win in Bowl
1997: 10-3 loss to scUM, loss in Bowl
1998: 11-1 win vs scUM, win in Bowl
1999: 6-6 loss to scUM, no Bowl
2000: 8-4 loss to scUM, loss in Bowl


My definition of a great season: 10+ wins including scUM and the Bowl.
How many times we did that under Coop: 1

My definition of good: 9 + wins and beat scUM
Times done under Coop(not counting the "great" season): 1


Like I said, his entire run at OSU consisted of 1995-1998 and in that time he still went 1-3 vs scUM, 2-2 in Bowl games and coached one of the biggest choke jobs in OSU history.

Now shall we start bringing up off the field incidents, and grades? If you are a Cooper fan I'm guessing your related to him.

 

[Oh8ch]

For those who weren't around -

OSU was mediocre at best for Cooper's first four seasons, but from 1992 through 1998 the program had one of its best runs ever.

During that time we were 70-15-2 (80%).

He took ND to the wood shed twice. In 1996 he was one slip from beating UM and playing for the NC. In 1998 he was a fingertip catch away from an NC shot.

OSU gave him two years after the stellar 1998 season and he was gone. If we had been that impatient with Woody his name would rank right up there with guys like Wes Fesler. (Although with JT on the sidelines you can't question the decision.)

IMO his problem wasn't just that he didn't beat Michigan - but that it didn't give him an ulcer. He did not publicly share the pain the rest of the Buckeye Nation felt.

 

[BUCKYLE]

"It's just another game" - John Cooper

That felt like he was spitting in my face.

 

[Best Buckeye]

That's what I meant when I said he never bought into , or embraced being a buckeye. The guy did have a fairly good overall record, no denying that, but if you are not a buckeye all the way then IMO you just aren't a Buckeye.

 

[Jaxbuck]

OSU gave him two years after the stellar 1998 season and he was gone. If we had been that impatient with Woody his name would rank right up there with guys like Wes Fesler.

If he was treated as Woody was in the beginning of his career he wouldn't have survived(nor should he have) the Air Force fiasco. One of the truely darkest nights in OSU football history.

I have been embarrassed to be a fan of the OSU team I saw on the field exactly twice in my life. Both came under Cooper-Air Force and South Carolina.

In 1998 he was a fingertip catch away from an NC shot.

They blew a 23-9 3rd quarter lead, at home to a 6-6 MSU team with one of the most talented teams ever assembled at OSU. There is no way in hell anyone can spin anything remotely close to positive out of that game.

 

[Oh8ch]

They blew a 23-9 3rd quarter lead, at home to a 6-6 MSU team with one of the most talented teams ever assembled at OSU. There is no way in hell anyone can spin anything remotely close to positive out of that game.

As an OSU fan I absolutely agree.

As a College Football fan that game was wonderful.

 

[BUCKYLE]

As an OSU fan I absolutely agree.

As a College Football fan that game was wonderful.

I can't seperate the two. Fuck that game.

 

[shetuck]

I have mixed emotions about this... I tend to agree with Jax's posts and sentiments but I can't help but recall that those years also had some exhilirating moments. Maybe Jax's point is that there weren't as many as people think, but, one way or the other, it was always a roller-coaster for me as a Buckeye in those years.

There were huge thrills and deep disappointments. Because it was Coop who was at the helm, I still black out a bit when I think back to his tenure and those years. In fact, I still have an emotional tick - that knot in my stomach that screams out that all hell's gonna break loose. I only used to experience that feeling for every snap during TSUN games, but during / because of the Coop era, it became a part of every single snap of every single game. It's the swing between the euphoria I felt when his teams pulled a mind-blowingly brilliant play on one down to an absolute coming implosion and coming apart at the seams on the next play.

So that's my Cooper-era trauma scar... But, having said that, I'm still proud that there's another Buckeye Hall of Famer and I'm happy for him because I think he worked very hard while he was at the helm.

 

[NFBuck]

Jim Tressel has helped a good bit of the ill-will I felt towards Coop subside. That said, year after year from 1995-1998 he found a way to somehow, someway break your heart. For every thumping of NoD, there was a 1996 scUM game or 1998 MSU game. It's appalling that he couldn't manage one National Championship in that four year period.

I'll absolutely agree with Jax in that there have been two times in my life where it was actually hard to be a Buckeye fan...Air Force and South Carolina. Shameful performances both led by the same man.

 

[Best Buckeye]

I remember buying a Cooper towel on the way to a game and not getting to use it much that day. They didn't become collectors item.

man , when I remember the talent he had it's mindboggling

 

[briegg]

You definately know he can recruit considering he assembled most of the 2002 NC team.

Does anyone really believe that Cooper comes close to getting the same results from that 2002 team as Tressel did? 9-3 at best under Coop - losses to Wiscy, Purdont, and of course ... (and maybe even UC, though Coop was pretty good at early season thumpings of inferior teams).

Nice man, but I despised him as a coach during my 4 (...errr 6) years of school which started with a forfeit vs. USC.