Our Honor Defend

Since I’m kind of bored this Thanksgiving day, with nothing really to do nor any work projects that need my attention, I thought I’d upload another Michigan-related Drive-Thru compilation.  It came down to 1970, 1974, 1987 or 1994.  The first three constitute much more interesting games in the series, but the 1994 game was easier to compile.  So, to celebrate Thanskgiving, I’ve uploaded John Cooper’s first… and sadly penultimate… win over Michigan in 1994.

This game was something of a career make-or-break game for Cooper.  He had received an extension after the 1992 tie, much to the chagrin of several Buckeye fans.  While his 1993 season marked a significant improvement over his previous years at the helm of the Buckeyes, the season ended in a shutout loss at Michigan and a very bleeh win over a 6 win Brigham Young team in the Holiday Bowl.  To make matters worse, the 1994 season was something of a painful one.  The Buckeyes lost early to Washington in Seattle, again lost to Illinois in a second-half collapse in the Horseshoe and, the coup de grace, were routed by Penn State 63-14 in Happy Valley.  Another loss to Michigan would put Cooper’s record against the Wolvereenies at 0-6-1 and make his already hot seat one hot enough for him to spontaneously combust.

The Game started off well enough for the Buckeyes.  They kicked off to Michigan, who drove about 60 yards through the strength of Tyrone Wheatley.  However, they found themselves in a 4th and Inches situation at the fringe of the Buckeyes red zone.  Instead of taking 3 points, Moeller opted to go for it with a pass to the fullback in the flats.  It backfired, giving Ohio State the ball on the turnover on downs.  However, it didn’t take long for an Eddie George fumble to give Michigan the ball back in great field position.  Before his Heisman season in 1995, fumbles were a chronic problem for Eddie George.  Combine his fumble-itis with some of the impatience you can see in his earlier games and you can imagine why the coaching staff, at the time, honestly thought Pepe Pearson would be their tailback for the future (that is: 1995).

Michigan’s offense, in spite of the great field position given to them, went backwards 34 yards.  On 3rd and 44, Michigan went with the draw for a short gain and punted back to Ohio State’s offense.  Ohio State’s offense, a very anemic unit in 1994 in spite of the brilliance of future Pro-Bowler Korey Stringer and professional mainstay Joey Galloway, stalled, setting up a punt.  However, the Scott Terna punt that followed was a gamechanger.  Amani Toomer, Michigan’s punt returner, made a curious decision not to field the ball with a fair catch¹.  Ohio State’s punt team eventually downed the ball within the Michigan 2 yard line.  A few plays later, Todd Collins, Michigan’s QB, tripped over himself in the end zone for a safety.  This safety marks the first real appearance of the LOLverines for this game.  Later in the second half, they would show up in full force to give the game to the Buckeyes.

The kickoff following the safety gave Ohio State a short field.  It didn’t take that long for Ohio State to capitalize.  After marching deep into the Michigan red zone, Bobby Hoying ran a poorly executed bootleg keeper into the end zone for the first touchdown of the game.  The Buckeyes had taken a 9-0 lead early in the second quarter.

Bill Young, pictured to the left, had held Michigan in check through the first half.  After Michigan’s ensuing drive went nowhere, the Buckeyes received the ball back.  On this drive, the Buckeyes found themselves in that gray area between punting and going for it on 4th down.  With the down and distance 4th and 5, Hoying connected with Joey Galloway to extend the chains.  However, on 3rd and goal later in that drive, Hoying overshot a wide-open Galloway in the end zone.  The Buckeyes settled for a field goal and a 12-0 lead.

Michigan’s ensuing drive was cause for consternation for the Buckeye faithful.  It had seemed that Michigan’s offensive coordinator had finally found something he liked in Bill Young’s defensive schemes.  A bootleg fake-stretch play to Tyrone Wheatley freed up Amani Toomer deep down field for an enormous gain early into the drive.  With it, Michigan had moved from their own 30 yard line to the Ohio State 11 yard line.  Fortunately, Bill Young’s unit held, forcing Michigan to settle for a field goal to cut into the deficit.  The 12-3 scoreline eventually carried over into the intermission.  Ohio State led by virtue of the game-changing punt by Terna and the safety gift by Todd Collins.  Failing that, they were outplayed in most statistical areas in spite of the brilliant play from the defense.

The third quarter was a nailbiting affair for Ohio State fans.  The Buckeyes began with the ball, but went 3 and out.  The would continue to go 3 and out for the remainder of the quarter.  Michigan, on the other hand, racked up 94 yards of offense in the quarter to Ohio State’s 10 total yards.  While Michigan continued to dominate possession, Ohio State’s offense couldn’t muster a first down.  Michigan’s first drive of the second half resulted in a field goal to halve the Buckeye lead.  Michigan’s next offensive series after that played out just like the first of the half.  With the clock rolling over into the final quarter of play, Michigan had the ball, the momentum, and were looking to take the lead.

However, Michigan’s offense did sputter again, setting up another field goal try for the Wolvereenies.  With momentum clearly on Michigan’s side, Marlon Kerner — special teams superhero for the Buckeyes — made the play of the game.  A high snap by the LOLverines on the try was all the delay Kerner needed to spike the ball and spike it backwards.  Mike Vrabel was in pursuit of the live ball, hoping for a scoop and score.  Vrabel, however, was not able to come up with it, but Kerner’s authoritative block not only denied Michigan 3 points, and not only turned momentum back to the Buckeyes, but also flipped field position.  Ohio State’s offense now had the ball within the Michigan half of the field.  They made good on Kerner’s efforts as only that 1994 offense could: by getting at least 3 points out of it.  Ohio State now had a 15-6 lead with about 10 minutes left in the 4th quarter, good enough to extend their lead back to a two-score cushion.

The LOLverines now woke up.  On the first play from scrimmage after the kickoff, Todd Collins found the waiting arms of the pass rush by Luke Fickell, the consensus scariest dude currently on the Buckeye coaching staff, who tipped the Collins pass to himself for the interception.  Unlike the last gamechanging play by Kerner, the Buckeye offense plowed ahead with Eddie George, then an impatient banger between tackles, for a touchdown.  The score was now 22-6, with about 10 minutes left.

Michigan’s next drive went a long way in making that the final score of the game.  Michigan’s offense took what the Buckeye defense gave them, eventually getting into the Buckeye red zone.  However, the LOLverine offense went backwards after that.  As you’ll see, on a 3rd and 23 play, Michigan’s left tackle flinched while a Michigan receiver was in motion, upending him.  As it turned out, the left tackle was flagged for a false start, and not an unnecessary roughness penalty against his own teammate.  3rd and 23 became 3rd and 28.  3rd and 28 became 4th and 28.  4th and 28 became a turnover on downs.  With about 5 minutes left, the Buckeyes were feeling it.

Ohio State ran out the next 4 minutes, exhausting Michigan’s timeouts in the process.  Michigan was set to get the ball back with about one minute and 30 seconds left, down 16 points, but the LOLverine special teams roughed the punter.  Now, the Buckeye offense could ice the game away, celebrate their first victory over Michigan in Columbus in 10 years (sigh…), and prepare to face the loser of the SEC Championship game in the Citrus Bowl.  That happened to be Alabama that year, and, sadly, I think you know what happened.  Fucking Jay Barker².

Still, for all the static John Cooper got at Ohio State, it was rewarding to see him feel so relieved after this game.  He deserved the free ride he got as time expired; it’s just unfortunate he couldn’t beat them more often.

Two other things of note about this game:

• First, it was Gary Moeller’s first loss in November as head coach at Michigan.  He was undefeated in November for 5 years to that point.
• Second, Ohio State set a team record for sacks this game, breaking a mark set in 1991.  Musburger and Vermeil didn’t say how much the Buckeyes tallied in this game.  However, the Buckeye pass rush was excellent this game.

Without any further ado, the game can be seen below.

1. He would eventually repeat this later in the game. [↩]
2. He does campus promotions all the time at the University of Alabama, maybe I should make time to find him and demand an apology for that game. [↩]