Season Recap: This team was pretty crazy. Games 1 and 2 were against Rice and Pittsburg. Combined score 142-7. That’s a lot of points. CJ Stroud against MSU kinda stuff. The Rice Owls weren’t even a terrible team. They finished 7-4 including a 51-10 win over 20th-ranked Utah. (Pitt, on the other hand was pretty bad… in 1996 they gave up 39.1 points per game – 3rd worst in the country). Anyway, after these two monumental beat downs, we are ranked 4th and we take out #5 Notre Dame 29-16 in front of Touchdown Jesus. This was a big deal in the capital city.
Let’s take a moment to talk about Ron Powlus, the best football player to ever have lived. Powlus won all the high school awards and signed with Notre Dame. Whereupon the football analyst Beano Cook “famously predicted that Powlus would win the Heisman Trophy at least twice and that he would be the best quarterback in the history of Notre Dame.” I’m quoting from Wikipedia like all good journalists. So, to make a long story short, we won and he lost. Ron didn’t do much in pro football, but did end up coaching at ND, Akron, and Kansas.
Now we are Ranked 3rd and we take out #4 Penn State 38-7 at home. We then squeak by Wisconsin 17-14. Wisconsin was led by a big fella named Ron Dayne. Then we smoke Purdue. Ranked 2nd in the country, we defeat #20 Iowa. We head into the Michigan game 10-0 and ranked #2 in the country. For the season, we outscored our opponents by a score of 455–131.
Michigan: Well, we lose 13-9. Michigan had previously lost fairly close games to Northwestern, Purdue, and Penn State. And then they lose a close game to Alabama in the Outback Bowl. They were a decent team – Tai Streets, Brian Griese, Charles Woodson. A sophomore QB named Tom Brady just stood there holding a clipboard while planning to have a kid with Bridget Moynihan and then DUMP her for Giselle. So that sucked and Coach Coop is now 1-7-1 vs. Michigan. We limp into the Rose Bowl ranked 4th in the country.
Bowl Game: A fun comeback win over Jake the Snake and #2 Arizona State. Joey G leading us home. Dave Boston airplaning into the end zone for the winning score. The Rose Bowl was #2 versus #4. The Sugar Bowl that year was #1 Florida State vs. #3 Florida. Florida ends up beating the shit out of FSU 52-20 and winning the title. Those were pretty clearly the top 4 teams and is a pretty good demonstration of what the playoffs would look like 20 years later. Each team had 1 loss. Florida vs. the Bucks for the title game would have been nice. BYU finished 14-1, 5th in the final poll. But they don’t count. Right?
Awards:
—Big 10 Freshman of the Year – Andy Katzenmoyer, smashing through dudes.
—Orlando Pace: ALL THE AWARDS (Outland Trophy, UPI Lineman of the year, Heisman Finalist, Big 10 MVP, Big Ten Offensive POY, Big 10 Lineman of the year (again), Lombardi (again).
—Vrabel – Big 10 D Lineman of the year.
—All Big 10 – Pepe Pearson, Juan Porter (C), Pace, Matt Finkes, Vrabel, Luke Fickell, Andy Katzenmoyer, Greg Bellasari, Shawn Springs, Damon Moore.
—All America – Pace, Vrabel, Katzenmoyer, Springs.
Quarterbacks: Stanley Jackson and Joe Germaine split time. 1300 Yds and 12 TD’s for Stanley. 1200 yards and 15 TD’s for Joe. Buckeye fans were totally cool with this splitting of snaps and were totally chill whenever Stan fucked up because Joe was clearly better. Also, Bobby’s little bro Tom Hoying threw a TD! Stanley was quicker and could tuck and run but he only had 2 TD’s on the ground. He was more of a Steve Bellisari than a Justin Fields, if you know what I mean.
Running Backs: Pepe Pearson with almost 1500 yards and 17 TD’s. Joe Montgomery and Jermon Jackson as his backups. Mike Wiley and Matt Keller play some RB/FB.
WR/TE: Dimitrious Stanley – 43 catches, 8 TD’s. He’s also the primary kick returner. Super Sophomore David Boston – 33 catches and 7 TD’s. Mike Wiley catches balls out of the backfield and can split out as WR. John Lumpkin is a big TE.
Other Offense: Rob Murphy, Orlando Pace!
Defensive Line: Luke Fickell, Winfield Garrett
LB/DB: A monster group… Greg Bellisari, Ty Howard, Andy Katzenmoyer, Rob Kelly, Central McClellion (a great name), Damon Moore, Ahmed Plummer (FR), Gary Berry (FR), Shawn Springs!, Mike Vrabel!, Antoine Winfield!
Drafted:
Orlando Pace – Left Tackle. First overall pick. St Louis Rams. 12 yrs with St Louis and 1 with the Bears. 169 games. 1 super bowl, 7x Pro Bowl, 3x All Pro. All Decade Team (2000’s). Hall of fame (College and Pro). The pancake. Helped Kurt Warner and Marshall Faulk win the MVP in 1999, 2000, and 2001. Greatest Show on Turf! The best player in buckeye history? Yes! The best pro career of any Buckeye in history? Yes! Should have won the Heisman? Maybe!? From Sandusky OH. Owned a sports bar in Sandusky for a while. Made about $75M in salary/bonuses. Pace’s son Jalen was a tight end/linebacker in St Louis and was an “invited walk-on” to the Buckeyes in 2021. I don’t have any idea if he has a shot at playing time this year.
Shawn Springs – Defensive Back. Third overall pick. Seattle Seahawks. Springs played 13 seasons for Seattle, Washington, and New England. 169 games, 33 INT’s, 4 TD’s, 111 passes defended, 723 tackles. 1 pro bowl, in his 2nd year. 5 times in the playoffs – looks like only 1 playoff win. A great career in the pros!
· Springs’ dad was Ron Springs – a running back at OSU (All Big 10 in 1977) and played in the NFL for the Cowboys and Buccaneers. IN 1983 he led NFL running backs in receiving. 112 games, 38 TD’s. He had diabetes and needed a kidney – Shawn offered to end his career and donate a kidney, but his dad refused. Ron got the transplant in 2006 but had other health issues and passed away in 2011 at age 54.
· Springs is the founder and CEO of Windpact Inc, which is “a technology & material science company founded by @shawnsprings, utilizes its patented Crash CloudTM technology to improve impact protection.” That’s from its twitter bio. What! Springs was inspired by Paul Allen (Seahawks owner and co-founder of Microsoft) and the Seattle startup culture and then decided he was going to revolutionize impact technology (from football helmets to car seats). This is cool. In my cursory deep dives it’s always interesting when a player you liked but haven’t heard anything about for a while is doing something cool.
Rob Kelly – Defensive Back. 33rd overall – New Orleans Saints. Kelly played for the saints 1997 to 2000. 60 games, 4 INT’s, 101 tackles, 1 TD. He retired in 2002 at age 28 after an injury. In 2018, Rob’s wife Emily wrote an article for the New York Times called “I’m the Wife of a Former NFL Player. Football Destroyed His Mind.” One quote: One tackle he attempted while playing for the Saints was so damaging, he doesn’t remember the rest of the game. He got up, ran off the field and tried to go back in — as an offensive player. He knows this only because people told him the next day. I didn’t know this about Rob Kelly. I remember him being fast and hard-hitting – the things about football that are exciting and visceral. And that’s why we like it. But also, like… what the fuck are we doing? In a 2018 article in the Newark Advocate, Kelly says he would never let his son play football and doesn’t watch anymore. Anyways, Emily and Rob, I hope you’re doing OK and wish you the best. In my cursory deep dives it always sucks when a player you liked but haven’t heard anything about for a while has had their life shattered by the thing you liked watching them do.
Ty Howard – Defensive Back – 84th overall – Arizona Cardinals. Briggs High School. Ty played 4 NFL seasons, 37 games – 73 tackles, 1 sack. Retired after a series of leg injuries and lives in Ohio. After the NFL he worked at Worthington Steel, CR Bard, St Jude Medical, Abbott, and is now Regional Sales Manager for the Ohio Valley Region for Hologic – a medical device company (according to his LinkedIn). Great!
Mike Vrabel – Defensive End – 91st overall – Pittsburg Steelers. The steal of the draft! Mike is about 6 years older than me and he 1) Played at Ohio State 2) Went pro and won 3 super bowls on the Patriots 3) Retired to coach at OSU 4) Became a head coach in the NFL. On the other hand, I recently had a gout flare up. SMDH, as the kids say. 34 sacks in 3 years in college. 14 seasons in NFL with PIT, New England, and KC. 206 games. 11 INT. 57 Sacks. 762 tackles. 10 catches FOR 10 FUCKING TOUCHDOWNS (one of the best NFL stats ever). 20 playoff games – 9 sacks, 88 tackles, 2 catches (for 2 TD’s, naturally). 3 Superbowl wins. Retires after the 2010 Season to join Luke Fickell as the linebackers coach for the Buckeyes, right smack in the middle of the post-Tressel/pre-Urban sandwich. Vrabel stays on when Urban comes to town. Then he heads to the Texans as LB coach, then Defensive Coordinator. And then he’s hired in 2018 as head coach in Tennessee. 4 winning seasons to start his coaching career, including a loss to the eventual champion KC Chiefs in the AFC Title game in 2019. Just a crazy playing career and also coaching career so far. His son Tyler plays O-Line at Boston College, and his son Carter plays college baseball.
Nicky Sualua – RB – 129th pick – Dallas Cowboys. A badass, who at times looked like the best player on the team. Blocked the hell out of people for Eddie to win the Heisman. For the Cowboys, he played behind Daryl Johnston and Hershel Walker – bad luck! In May 1999, after a night of partying with Sualua, his teammate Mark Tuinei was found dead of a heroin/ecstasy overdose. YIKES. No charges filed, ruled accidental OD. Tuinei’s wife sued Sualua in 2001, alleging he didn’t call 911 for several hours and should have. Yikes again. Total of 26 games played in 2 seasons. And… no stats? Troy Polomalu’s cousin.
Matt Finkes – Defensive End – 189th pick – Carolina Panthers. Never played for the Panthers. 8 games in 1997 for the NY Jets. He’s currently the director of development at OSU’s Wexner Medical Center and a franchise owner of Winans Chocolates and Coffees. Sounds delicious.
Ok great. Well done everyone.
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