The 1990 Ohio State Buckeyes

That’s Vinnie Clark in the above photo.

Season Recap: One of those fantastic John Cooper 7-4-1 seasons. 6 wins over unranked teams. The 7th win was a squeaker 27-26 over the 6th-ranked 7-1 Iowa Hawkeyes (who went on to lose to Minnesota a few weeks later and then lost to Washington in the Rose Bowl… so, an 8-4 Iowa team). The Bucks lost to 18th ranked USC, 13th ranked Illinois, and Michigan. Oh, and we tied vs. 22nd ranked Indiana.

Michigan: A loss to 19th ranked Michigan for our 3rd consecutive loss to the team from the Mitten State.

Bowl: And then we lose to unranked Air Force 23-11 in the Liberty Bowl. We end up 5th in the Big 10, and not ranked in the top 25. A classic early John Cooper season!

Awards, etc: Robert Smith – Big Ten Freshman of the Year! I love Robert Smith!

• All Big 10 – Greg Frey, Jeff Graham, Dan Beatty(C), Steve Tovar, Vinnie Clark (DB).
• All American – none, I guess.

Quarterback(s): Greg Frey was starting QB and had 16 TD’s and 16 INT’s, 2000 yards. Kent Graham threw a few passes and a guy named Kirk Herbstreit was 0 for 1 passing but had 1 run for 10 yards.

Running Backs: Robert Smith, 1100 yards as a freshman. Raymont Harris, over 500 yards. Scottie Graham and Butler By’not’e had over 200 yards. I feel the need to note there were three dudes with the last name Graham on this team.

Other Offense: Jeff Graham and Bobby Olive, each with 7 receiving TD’s.

Defense: Vinnie Clark – 7 INT’s in 1990.

Drafted:

• Vinnie Clark, DB, 19th. Drafted by Green Bay, Vinnie played seven seasons in the NFL for the Packers, Falcons, Saints, and Jaguars. 83 games. 13 INT’s, 280 tackles. 1TD on a 46 yd fumble recovery. Vinnie was an assistant coach for the Columbus Destroyers of the Arena Football League under head coach Chris Spielman, his former teammate.
• Jeff Graham, WR, 46th; Drafted by Pittsburgh. As a Buckeye, Jeff had 99 catches for 1800 yards in his 3 seasons. He also had 3 punt return TD’s and a TD pass. 16th all time in Buckeye receiving yards, right behind Ken-Yon Rambo. Played 11 years in the NFL. Over 8000 yards receiving and 30 TD’s. In 1995, playing for the Bears, he had 82 catches for 1300 yards with someone called “Erik Kramer” as his quarterback. He’s like the Terry MacLaurin of the early 90’s or something.
• Bobby Olive, WR, the 300th pick in the draft! Bobby is going to coach the Columbus Wild Dogs, which begin play in 2022, provided we’re not all dead from the Coronavirus. I know we’re all looking forward to many seasons of successful Indoor Football League games and if you have a lot of money you should definitely invest.

1991

Peace

-Eric