Brett Ludwiczak
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You’re Nuts: What is your most memorable Indiana-Ohio State football game?
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 Andy Lyons/Getty Images
Your (almost) daily dose of good-natured, Ohio State banter.
On Saturday afternoon, Ohio State and Indiana will square off at Ohio Stadium in a matchup between top-five teams. While nobody is surprised at the Buckeyes being one of the top-ranked teams at this point of the season, the only person in the country who thought the Hoosiers would be entering this game with a 10-0 record is Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti. With Oregon already clinching a spot in the Big Ten Championship Game, Saturday’s clash in Columbus will pretty much be an eliminator game for the other spot in Indianapolis. With a win, Indiana will secure a date with Oregon in early December, while the Buckeyes would only need to beat Michigan next week if they are able to defeat the Hoosiers this week.
To say Ohio State has dominated the series with Indiana would be an understatement. The Buckeyes have won 28 straight meetings with the Hoosiers, with the last win by Indiana coming in 1988. Many of the meetings between the two schools have been lopsided in favor of Ohio State. That doesn’t mean there haven’t been some fun battles over the years. Today we want to know what has been the most memorable game between the Buckeyes and Hoosiers that you have seen.
With so few close battles between the teams, it is completely understandable if a choice for the most memorable game in the series might be a Buckeye blowout that had a massive individual performance, or even an Ohio State offense or defense as a whole that was firing on all cylinders. No matter what games in the past between the Buckeyes and Hoosiers have been most memorable, hopefully on Saturday we are in for a classic between the teams that won’t soon be forgotten.
2012 was Urban Meyer’s first season as Ohio State’s head coach. It was already known the Buckeyes wouldn’t be able to play in a bowl game at the end of the season since for some reason athletic director Gene Smith decided that going to a bowl game as a 6-6 team in 2011 was a better decision than being eligible for a bowl game the following season. The decision would turn out to be one of the worst ones during Smith’s illustrious career as athletic director at the school since Meyer led the Buckeyes to an undefeated season in 2012, and Ohio State would have played Notre Dame in the BCS Championship Game had it not been for the bowl ban.
The Buckeyes entered the game in Bloomington coming off a 63-38 win over Nebraska in Columbus. Despite entering just his seventh game as Buckeye head coach, it was obvious that Meyer’s high-powered offense was starting to gel with versatile quarterback Braxton Miller. Ohio State didn’t take long to get on the scoreboard in the game, as Corey Brown’s 12-yard run just over four minutes into the game gave the Buckeyes a 7-0 lead.
Indiana didn’t roll over after falling behind 10-0. A pair of Stephen Houston touchdown runs allowed the Hoosiers to pull ahead 14-10 early in the second quarter. Ohio State responded with a Bradley Roby blocked punt recovery for a touchdown and a Devin Smith 60-yard touchdown catch to take a 24-14 lead into halftime.
While there were some offensive fireworks in the first half, things got really wild after the break. Braxton Miller’s 67-yard touchdown run three minutes into the second half extended Ohio State’s lead to 31-17, but the Hoosiers struck back with a Shane Wynn 76-yard receiving touchdown from Cameron Coffman four minutes later. Smith’s second receiving touchdown from Miller with just under seven minutes left in the fourth quarter seemed like it was the dagger for the Buckeyes, as it put them up 52-34.
The Hoosiers apparently didn’t get the memo, putting a scare into Ohio State with two touchdowns 35 seconds apart with less than two minutes left in the game. Houston’s third touchdown of the game, followed by a two-point conversion closed the gap to 52-49. The score would be the last of the game, as the Buckeyes were able to close out the final minute of the game to avoid an embarrassing collapse.
What I loved about this game is pretty much every play had the possibility of ending with a touchdown. There were five scores of at least 40 yards in the game. While defensive battles are intense, sometimes you just want to see teams run up and down the field, putting a ridiculous amount of points on the board. I can’t even be mad at the Buckeyes for making the game more interesting than it needed to be, since I would have felt confident if the game did somehow go to overtime since Ohio State had Braxton Miller, who was really starting to put it all together at quarterback in his second season as starter.
I’m going to go with a slightly more recent OSU-IU matchup by looking back at the incredibly weird and wonky COVID-impacted season of 2020.
Even before the games got underway, I had high expectations for the Hoosiers, and while the general consensus was that a six-Windiana would be an impressive feat, Michael Penix Jr. was able to lead his team to a 6-2 record, and a No. 16 ranking.
As you might remember, one of IU’s losses came at the hands of Ohio State in a thrilling 42-35 nail-biter in the Horseshoe. Led by Justin Fields, the Buckeyes entered the fourth quarter of that game up 42-21, but the Hoosiers got the ball back with less than a minute with a chance to tie or win the game.
However, the Ohio State defense held tough, never giving the visitors a chance to pull off the upset. It was an uncharacteristically uneven day for Fields. While he threw for exactly 300 yards on 18-of-30 passing and two touchdowns, he also threw three interceptions.
His counterpart for Indiana, however, had a monsterous game going 27-of-51 for 491 yards and 5 TDs, while throwing only a single pick; 219 of those passing yards went to wide receiver Ty Fryfogle during one of the worst defensive years — especially in the secondary — in Ohio State memory.
Helping to balance out Fields’ somewhat sloppy play, Master Teague was a monster for Ohio State, 169 yards on 26 carries and scoring 2 touchdowns.
I tend to think that this year’s installment will be a little more defensively focused than 2020’s, but with Ohio State’s offensive line in perpetual dissarry, who knows exactly how that game will look.
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 Andy Lyons/Getty Images
Your (almost) daily dose of good-natured, Ohio State banter.
On Saturday afternoon, Ohio State and Indiana will square off at Ohio Stadium in a matchup between top-five teams. While nobody is surprised at the Buckeyes being one of the top-ranked teams at this point of the season, the only person in the country who thought the Hoosiers would be entering this game with a 10-0 record is Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti. With Oregon already clinching a spot in the Big Ten Championship Game, Saturday’s clash in Columbus will pretty much be an eliminator game for the other spot in Indianapolis. With a win, Indiana will secure a date with Oregon in early December, while the Buckeyes would only need to beat Michigan next week if they are able to defeat the Hoosiers this week.
To say Ohio State has dominated the series with Indiana would be an understatement. The Buckeyes have won 28 straight meetings with the Hoosiers, with the last win by Indiana coming in 1988. Many of the meetings between the two schools have been lopsided in favor of Ohio State. That doesn’t mean there haven’t been some fun battles over the years. Today we want to know what has been the most memorable game between the Buckeyes and Hoosiers that you have seen.
With so few close battles between the teams, it is completely understandable if a choice for the most memorable game in the series might be a Buckeye blowout that had a massive individual performance, or even an Ohio State offense or defense as a whole that was firing on all cylinders. No matter what games in the past between the Buckeyes and Hoosiers have been most memorable, hopefully on Saturday we are in for a classic between the teams that won’t soon be forgotten.
Today’s question: What is your most memorable Indiana-Ohio State football game?
We’d love to hear your choices. Either respond to us on Twitter at @Landgrant33 or leave your choice in the comments.
Brett’s answer: 2012 in Bloomington
2012 was Urban Meyer’s first season as Ohio State’s head coach. It was already known the Buckeyes wouldn’t be able to play in a bowl game at the end of the season since for some reason athletic director Gene Smith decided that going to a bowl game as a 6-6 team in 2011 was a better decision than being eligible for a bowl game the following season. The decision would turn out to be one of the worst ones during Smith’s illustrious career as athletic director at the school since Meyer led the Buckeyes to an undefeated season in 2012, and Ohio State would have played Notre Dame in the BCS Championship Game had it not been for the bowl ban.
The Buckeyes entered the game in Bloomington coming off a 63-38 win over Nebraska in Columbus. Despite entering just his seventh game as Buckeye head coach, it was obvious that Meyer’s high-powered offense was starting to gel with versatile quarterback Braxton Miller. Ohio State didn’t take long to get on the scoreboard in the game, as Corey Brown’s 12-yard run just over four minutes into the game gave the Buckeyes a 7-0 lead.
Indiana didn’t roll over after falling behind 10-0. A pair of Stephen Houston touchdown runs allowed the Hoosiers to pull ahead 14-10 early in the second quarter. Ohio State responded with a Bradley Roby blocked punt recovery for a touchdown and a Devin Smith 60-yard touchdown catch to take a 24-14 lead into halftime.
While there were some offensive fireworks in the first half, things got really wild after the break. Braxton Miller’s 67-yard touchdown run three minutes into the second half extended Ohio State’s lead to 31-17, but the Hoosiers struck back with a Shane Wynn 76-yard receiving touchdown from Cameron Coffman four minutes later. Smith’s second receiving touchdown from Miller with just under seven minutes left in the fourth quarter seemed like it was the dagger for the Buckeyes, as it put them up 52-34.
The Hoosiers apparently didn’t get the memo, putting a scare into Ohio State with two touchdowns 35 seconds apart with less than two minutes left in the game. Houston’s third touchdown of the game, followed by a two-point conversion closed the gap to 52-49. The score would be the last of the game, as the Buckeyes were able to close out the final minute of the game to avoid an embarrassing collapse.
What I loved about this game is pretty much every play had the possibility of ending with a touchdown. There were five scores of at least 40 yards in the game. While defensive battles are intense, sometimes you just want to see teams run up and down the field, putting a ridiculous amount of points on the board. I can’t even be mad at the Buckeyes for making the game more interesting than it needed to be, since I would have felt confident if the game did somehow go to overtime since Ohio State had Braxton Miller, who was really starting to put it all together at quarterback in his second season as starter.
Matt’s answer: 2020 in Columbus
I’m going to go with a slightly more recent OSU-IU matchup by looking back at the incredibly weird and wonky COVID-impacted season of 2020.
Even before the games got underway, I had high expectations for the Hoosiers, and while the general consensus was that a six-Windiana would be an impressive feat, Michael Penix Jr. was able to lead his team to a 6-2 record, and a No. 16 ranking.
As you might remember, one of IU’s losses came at the hands of Ohio State in a thrilling 42-35 nail-biter in the Horseshoe. Led by Justin Fields, the Buckeyes entered the fourth quarter of that game up 42-21, but the Hoosiers got the ball back with less than a minute with a chance to tie or win the game.
However, the Ohio State defense held tough, never giving the visitors a chance to pull off the upset. It was an uncharacteristically uneven day for Fields. While he threw for exactly 300 yards on 18-of-30 passing and two touchdowns, he also threw three interceptions.
His counterpart for Indiana, however, had a monsterous game going 27-of-51 for 491 yards and 5 TDs, while throwing only a single pick; 219 of those passing yards went to wide receiver Ty Fryfogle during one of the worst defensive years — especially in the secondary — in Ohio State memory.
Helping to balance out Fields’ somewhat sloppy play, Master Teague was a monster for Ohio State, 169 yards on 26 carries and scoring 2 touchdowns.
I tend to think that this year’s installment will be a little more defensively focused than 2020’s, but with Ohio State’s offensive line in perpetual dissarry, who knows exactly how that game will look.
Continue reading...