Steve Tovar!
Welcome back to a little series going through the highlights and lowlights of each Buckeye team from 1990 forward. The Millenial Era!
Season Recap: After SQUEAKING out an opening win vs Louisville and then a ho-hum defeat of Bowling Green, the #21 Bucks go to #8 Syracuase and put a beatdown on them 35-12. After 2 close losses to UNRANKED Wisconsin and Illinois, the boys rip off 5 straight wins.
Michigan – #17 Ohio State hosted #6 Michigan at the Shoe. I was 11 and I was there! My mom and I went. There was a streaker. Many many many binoculars were immediately raised. One of my weirder memories. It was a tie, 13-13. This was one of Michigan’s weirdest seasons ever. Undefeated with 3 ties! They tied #3 Notre Dame to open the season and then tied Illinois and OSU to end the season, before winning the Rose Bowl over #9 Washington, finishing 5th in the country. Coach Coop is now 0-4-1 vs. Michigan.
Bowl – We head to the Citrus Bowl vs. Georgia and lose 21-14. Final ranking 18/19.
Awards:
- Big 10 – Robert Smith (RB) Korey Stringer (OT), Greg Smith, Jason Simmons, Dan Wilkinson (DL), Steve Tovar (LB), Roger Harper (DB). Stringer is Big 10 Freshman of the Year.
- All American – Tovar.
Quarterbacks: Herbie, fully loaded. Kirk throws for 1900 yards… 4TD’s and 6INT’s. In the 2020’s if someone did that, they had better also run for 1500 yards and 14 TD’s. But no, Kirk ran 75 times for -29 yards. MINUS 29. A young kid named Bobby Hoying had 1TD and 1INT in limited action.
Running Backs: Oh hey Robert Smith is back on the team – 800 Yds and 10 TDs. Raymont Harris – over 450 yards. Some dude named Jeff Cothran had 100 carries for 400 yards and 19 catches for 200 yards. My guy Butler By’not’e saw a little action, scoring a TD. Oh and a freshman by the name of Eddie fucking George (that’s his given name, I swear) had 37 carries and 5 TD’s, which is kind of a lot for a team that CAN’T SCORE TOUCHDOWNS AT ALL (53rd of 107 teams in points per game in 1992, according to College Football Reference).
WR/TE: Joey G only plays in 2 games as a sophomore – severely messing up any plans Kirk had of throwing the ball downfield.
Other Offense – We could run a bit, but receiving yards were difficult to come by. Brian Stablein and Greg Beatty tied for the most receiving TD’s (2).
Defensive Line: Big Daddy’s a sophomore now.
LB/DB: Steve Tovar leads team in tackles for 3rd straight year and is 2-time All American. Roger Harper!
Drafted:
- Robert Smith – 21st Pick, Vikings.
- I wanted to list every high school race Smith ran in, especially his duels with Chris Nelloms. I’ll just say Robert Smith was very fast. Could he run a 58 second 400 meter right now, at age 48, considering all the knee problems he had? I say yes. Nelloms is probably the best track athlete in Ohio High School history, ran at Ohio State, and… we can’t talk about him because, well, click here if you must know.
- In 1991, Smith TOOK THE YEAR OFF FROM FOOTBALL and ran track. It was more complicated than that, obvs. He ran a 10.24 100 meter dash. For reference, that’s would have been 5th in the 1992 American Olympic Trials.
- For the Vikings, over 8000 rushing/receiving yards, 38 TD’s. Pro Bowl in 1998 and 2000. Smith and Daunte Culpepper and Randy Moss and Chris Carter should have won a super bowl. It’s crazy they didn’t. And then boom, he retires at age 28. He wanted to walk away early instead of limp away late, he said. A lot of good stuff here.
- He likes astronomy and classical music, wrote an autobiography that analyzes a whole bunch of shit, was on Mystery Science Theater 3000, and was in this astronomy documentary.
- He’s currently an analyst at Fox Sports, lives in Texas with his wife and kids, and openly discusses his alcoholism and sobriety. Just a lot going on w/ Mr Smith.
- Roger Harper – 38th pick, Falcons. A local kid from Independence High School. Spent 4 years in the NFL, playing 56 games. One of the best defensive rookie seasons in Falcons history. 112 tackles. All-Rookie Team. Injuries derailed his career after that. Spent 1 season for the cowboys – the defending champs – and then it was done. And I can’t find any other info about him.
- Steve Tovar – 59th pick, Bengals. Tovar had an 8 year career in the NFL with the Bengals, Chargers (twice) and Panthers. Played in 121 games. 7 INT’s, 525 tackles, 6 forced fumbles. Coached at Army, on the Dolphins (under Nick Saban’s illustrious tenure), and at Kansas. Not sure what he’s up to now aside from living in Iowa and adopting Dobermans. Great!
- Brian Stablein – 210th pick, Broncos. Never playing for the Broncos, Stablein had a 6 year NFL career with the Colts and Lions. 77 receptions, 792 yards, 3 TD’s.
-Eric
The Buckeye Football Blog 
2 Comments