Just A Month Away
Save us.
That said, with the season we get the return of my two favorite personalities: Lou Holtz and Lee Corso. Never underappreciate watching two old guys enjoying doing something that they clearly love doing, especially when one — if not both — is clearly insane. Further, I think we all look forward to seeing what a 6’6 240lb weapon of mass destruction with a 4.33 40 can do under center. May our offensive line be worthy of him. They were not worthy of the last nightmare-ish skillplayer we had.
Getting on point, I thought I’d use the month-away thing as a cover to announce my upcoming YouTube schedule. Remember: last year I, more or less, uploaded a Drive-Thru compilation relevant to the foe at hand. I think the only one that I was not able to do was Michigan State. At the time, I had no games involving Michigan State. Now I do. Alas, Sparty isn’t on the register for 2009. This time around, I have YouTubes lined up for all but two opponents: USC and New Mexico State. With respect to New Mexico State, 2009 will be the first meeting between the two. Regarding USC: we seldom beat those clowns. I already uploaded the one available victory over them to be had on DVD. As far as I know, there’s no usable copy of the 1974 Rose Bowl. If you have a presentation quality DVD of that game2, please, please let me know.
Alas, here’s what I have in store. I’d like to limit myself to one a week. So, if there are more than one game available, let me know if you have a preference… and, no, I’m not uploading the 2005 Michigan game. That’s too easy.
- Navy: 1981 Liberty Bowl. This game is one my prized possessions. It was Art Schlichter’s finale, but a disappointing one at that. He was not his best in this game and was frustrated by the Middies en route to a close victory. It was sadly the start for more disappointments regarding someone who I still consider the most talented Buckeye QB in the program’s history.3 This game is also interesting for a variety of reasons. There were some big plays on special teams, made possible by Buckeye hero Fred Pagac Sr. He was a GA at the time, but was responsible for coaching the special teams. Therein, he gave a preview of the defenses to come when he took over as coordinator in 1996. Further, not many Buckeye fans my age remember that this game preceded the “New Years Eve Massacre” in Columbus. The 1981 Liberty Bowl, played on December 30th that year, capped off such a disappointing effort that Earle Bruce axed his defensive coordinator, his defensive line coach and his secondary coach. The secondary coach firing was curious. He was a young and upcomer who came from West Virginia to fill the vacancy left by Pete Carroll (yes, that Pete Carroll) when he left Ohio State after the 1979 season. When he was fired on December 31, 1981, he was replaced by the aforementioned Fred Pagac Sr. His name: Nick Saban4. Yes, that’s right Nick Saban: Earle Bruce fired you for sucking on the job. Anywho, I have a feeling Joe Fox at 11W and I are probably going to do respective write-ups on this game since he’s their resident historian and I’m interested in this game.
- Toledo: Toledo @ Ohio State 1998. I don’t have much to add on this, other than it’s a rare game involving the Toledo Rockets that I actually have. That, and we blanked them 49-0. It was our first meeting with them (and to date: only) and it should be fun. I thought about uploading Michigan’s encounter with the Rockets last year, but, nah, too easy.
- Illinois: Illinois @ Ohio State 2005. I like to shy away from the recent stuff, but the 2007 result leaves a sour taste in my mouth… and I want blood. Lots of it. I have the 2000 game, but enh… this one is going up.
- Wisconsin: Ohio State @ Wisconsin 2002. This, to my knowledge, is the oldest game available involving the Badgers and the Buckeyes where the Buckeyes won. Badger upsets of the Buckeyes in the Bruce era are out there, but they’re not for me. This game is one of my favourites in Buckeye lore since, at the time, I thought of Camp Randall as hell on earth. The Buckeyes being able to go into Camp Randall and secure that victory let me know the Buckeyes were probably on to something that year. I’m thankful to John F. for finally giving me a copy of the game.
- Purdue: Purdue @ Ohio State 1985, Purdue @ Ohio State 2003. The 1985 game was more lopsided and had more fireworks, but the 2003 game had Ben Jones being the hero of the day5. If you have a preference here, speak up. Unless I can somehow get my hands on the 1968 game between these two teams, one of those two is going up. Besides, I already uploaded the 2002 game. I’m still looking for the 1999 game.
- Minnesota: Ohio State @ Minnesota 1989. Yep, one of the biggest come-from-behind victories in college football history is in my possession. This game is a classic.
- Penn State: Ohio State @ Penn State 1976, Penn State @ Ohio State 1996, Penn State @ Ohio State 2000, Penn State @ Ohio State 2002, Penn State @ Ohio State 2003. I’m torn on which one to upload. The vindictive monster in me wants to upload the 2000 game6 because that game was an ass-kicking. However, the 1976 game is important because it was the first of a then 60 year old (non-continuous) series to be played in Happy Valley. 1912 was the first meeting, but 1976 was the first game played outside of Columbus. It was also the Rod Gerald show. I could just as well upload the 2002 game, but that’s too easy.
- Iowa: Ohio State @ Iowa 1990. I already uploaded the famous 1985 game, where we derailed the Hawkeyes national title aspirations and Chuck Long’s Heisman hopes. Iowa had no one in the Heisman race in 1990, but they were the best one-loss team in the country when we punked them in their house. I don’t have — but could easily get — the 2000 game between these two, but I’m not inclined to do so. I also don’t have any of the meetings from 1995 to 1999. That said, I think someone contacted me awhile ago with an offer for the 1977 game between these two. I know nothing about that game, but the fact that it’s out there, and involves Ron Springs, makes me really interested.
- Michigan: Take your pick. I have too many options here. I will upload the 1974 game and give a lengthy write-up on it. It’s a classic in the century-long Ohio State-Michigan enmity, and this will be the 35 year anniversary of it. I’m also considering uploading another game too. I have the 1982, 1987 and 1998 games. I also have 2005, but that’s too easy. The aforementioned friend of the program, John F., also told me that there’s a copy of the 1979 game out there. Having that game in my hands would make it one of my prized possessions.
- …rather than recognizing it for what it is: a good run that comes after rather grim years from 1998 to 2005. The way it gets discussed by talking heads, and by the locals, takes on a rather ugly, primordialist bent that’s setting discourse in this country back to the 19th century. [↩]
- …and by presentation quality, I mean one that’s not silent game film for all of the first half, since that’s all I have seen so far. [↩]
- Please prove me wrong Terrelle Pryor. [↩]
- A friend of mine who currently works for him in an unspecified role (for his or her privacy), speaking under condition of anonymity, described him as “an angry little smurf who obsesses about winning. I love that quote. [↩]
- …inside joke, let’s see if my college friends reading this can remember. [↩]
- I won’t upload the Taliaferro injury, though. [↩]
Would love to see that 1998 Michigan game…………Thanks for all your work Vico……..and the Drive-Thru’s-all of them- are just fantastic…………….
I’m partial to the 2006 Iowa game. There’s nothing like gratuitous crowd shots of hung over Hawkeye fans as their pipe dream / bubble / fantasy of actually beating tOSU comes crashing down.. Be sure to include lots and lots and lots of crying Hawkeye coeds.
would love to see the 2002 penn st game just to see joe pa run after the refs after the game
I agree with Todd………….I too like the 2006 Iowa game. That place just went dead silent after reality swooped in from Columbus……………
Also Vico , speaking of broadcasters…………..I watched the replay of OSU / NC State 2003 last weekend on BTN . One of the announcers was complaining about the bad calls going against NC State all game, and the other announcer quietly reminded him ( on the air mind you ) that the officials calling the game were from the ACC…………all you herd was silence for like 10 seconds. I absolutely was losing it after that segment.
I remember the 2006 game as awesome, but I’ve not made peace with how that season ended. Instead, I’ve hunted down every single brain cell that remembered that God awful finale and killed it like the dog it is. Now, all I can remember from that entire month is something about a bicycle. Not necessarily something about a bicycle… just a bicycle.
Anywho, the 1990 Iowa game is getting the nod because there’s no earthly reason we should’ve beaten the Hawkeyes that game. None. I know they’ve shown that game on the BTN and on ESPN Classic before and, if you caught it, you’d see why. 1990 was the height of the most uninspiring Cooper years. The players played with no gusto; they were simply running plays. That was on full display against the Hawkeyes, who clearly dominated all facets of the game from whistle to whistle… and somehow lost in the end. The Hawkeyes were the top-ranked 1 loss team to that point (their only loss to undefeated Miami) and had an outside shot at being a national champion if they had a few bounces go their way. Even when dominating the Bucks, and with the Bucks unable to do anything, that door was suspiciously open for the Bucks to rebound and take the lead. As it was happening, the announcers (Musburger was one of them, I think) was reminding viewers that the Buckeyes had vexed the Hawkeyes for decades now, with heartbreakers in 1984, 1985 and 1986 underscoring that point. The fans in Kinnick knew it too, and when it happened? Oh, the reaction from the crowd tells the story.
Not great football on Ohio State’s end (far far from it), but just a great result. It’s a result that’s clearly not a banner one in our lore, but clearly a scar on theirs.
That kind of reminds me. I love seeing generic games from past years. Just to get to see players from the past and how they did (or in Tyson Walter’s case didn’t) execute their jobs.m None of my kids got to see him play, but they all have heard of Archie. Being able to see him break ankles with his cutbacks and fakes really opend their eyes to just how good he was.
I would love to see the LSU game in the ‘shoe. One of my favorite memories was standing in the rain in Chemical Abstracts parking lot singing the Buckeye Battle Cry over and oer and then going to the Jai Lai and basically ruining everyone’s dinner by trying to get the entire restaurant to sing. Yet, because of the alcohol embibed after the game, my memory OF the game is completely erased.
Heh, TnB. That’s why the games that I’m always trying to hunt down involve the interesting, inter-regional nonconference games we’ve played. Games like those against Oregon State, Oregon, Boston College, Utah, Colorado, Washington State (in the 80s), Fresno State and the like are the ones that interest me most.
Hi, everybody! (Hi, Dr. Nick!) Ha!
Miss me? Wait, don’t answer that…
Man, Vico, you hit the nail on the head about needing thick skin to watch CFB coverage these days – the deification of Tebow, the ESS-EEE-SEE stuff, the Mark May…I came up with a GREAT solution about a season and a half ago: watch college football, but watch no (and I mean like basically NONE AT ALL) college football COVERAGE/commentary. No GameDay, no pregame, no halftime, no whatever-they-call-that-Saturday-night-thing on ESPN. Just the football. If/when the time disconnect btw the TV and radio broadcasts isn’t too disconcerting/annoying, I mute the TV and listen to Keels/Lachey/Karsatos instead. I’ve even stopped reading Forde/Maisel/Mandel/Dodd et.al.
And you know what? I’m a much, much happier CFB fan in general and Buckeye fan in particular. Also, since I get all my commentary from blogs, I think I’m actually a better-informed one – does anyone think that Orson and Cook and Hinton, for example, are less knowledgeable than the four writers mentioned above? Or, put another way, I’m just really sick of the four writers above and the Mark Mays and even Kirk Herbstreits of this world being so clearly engaged in defining and enforcing and defending their networks’ overlapping narratives and every once in a while being disingenuously “contrarian” to give themselves some buzz/avoid giving the game away.
I’m casting a vote for the Rice beatdown – remember, I didn’t get to see that game.
I’m always going to be partial to the 2002 season. How about one of the more obscure close games of that season–namely, the 2002 UC game at Paul Brown, or the 2002 OT Illinois game?
Oh yeah, I forgot I have that game. It was one of the donations from John F, friend of the program. I’m still inclined to go for 2005, since that was our last victory against the Illini in Ohio Stadium, and it was an asskicking, and I want to double that effort in 2009… and I want to see Ron Zook cry. I would find his tears to be nourishing and a compliment to a balanced breakfast.
If you haven’t figured out by now after a year and a half of this blog, I am a petty, vindictive monster.
Don’t have 2002 UC (do want, though) and don’t have 1996 Rice. As always, I’m on the lookout for any nonconference matchups out there to be had.
You’re right on the money, El Caballo. I still watch Gameday — my parents and I phone each other to discuss football (college football is serious business in my family), but I even found myself making changes. I change the channel when some feature talking about how Tim Tebow is a good, white Christian comes on, or anything else putting the SEC on a pedestal (“the Mad Hatter”, the Tide (pronounced locally as “Taaahhhhd”) “rising again”, how nice of a guy Mark Richt is (done before screwing over that Georgia recruit who was going to commit on his visit) and the like). I mute Mark May. I love Lou Holtz, but can’t listen to Mark May. Unless I’m told ahead of time that there will be some Buckeye fluff — which usually involves me also seeing a helmetless Earl Everett, Stanley Havili blowing past Marcus Freeman, and Todd Boeckman getting clotheslined — I think I’m not going to watch. To hell with Gameday coming to my cit-taaay.
You know, I never, ever read any of the SI or ESPN guys. The only time I’ll read something from SI is if my dad forwards it to me. I could care less about the ESPN personalities. That’s why I’m hoping for a guy like Brian Cook to make it big time. He’s a trailblazer and can do what he does better than any of the household names and does so without any pretension.
Would love to see 2003 Purdue, 1996 Penn State, and 1998 Michigan.