This week we lost a musical legend and great Ohioan… so, this morning’s soundtrack should help you get through the middle of your workweek.
Silver Is Pretty Freaking Awesome
Buckeye 411
You’re either reading this from home on a “ice day”, or from work after having dug yourself out of yet another mid-week snow storm. Stupid freaking groundhog… At any rate, here’s today’s soundtrack… for reasons that will hopefully soon be evident.
In addition to Gold Pants…
Buckeye 411
Yeah… we’re wistful. But still, here’s the rundown
Michigan State (11-1, 9-0 B1G) vs Stanford (11-2, 7-2 PAC12)It’s the 100th Rose Bowl game and this years rendition of the classic features two similar teams that play an old fashioned “defense and run” style of game. Can the Cardinal move the ball on the ground as they like to do against the Spartan defense? Will the Spartans be able to move the ball at all against the Cardinal defense? We’ll find out in what should be a classic.
Oh, and you can’t have a Rose Bowl without Buckeyes- Orlando Pace will be enshrined in the Rose Hall Of Fame on Wednesday, and Archie Griffin was named Rose Bowl “All Century” player for his successes in four straight games.
Michigan State: The Spartans roll into Pasadena for the first time since 1988 when they defeated USC 20-17. Head coach Mark Dantonio has his team believing after knocking off second ranked Ohio State in the Big Ten Championship Game. However, beating Stanford will be no easy task and an off-field issue has made it even more daunting.
Max Bullough is undoubtedly defensive heart and soul. Due to an off-field issue that we won’t speculate on, he has violated team rules and will not be participating in the game. To put in perspective, though he’s not as good of a player, this would be like the Buckeyes losing Ryan Shazier for the Orange Bowl.
The Spartan defense does still has Darqueze Dennard and he is looking to go out with a bang in his last game in Spartan green. I also am a believer in teams, especially when it’s a key player on an already outstanding defense, being able to rise above the loss of a star player. Sparty may be just fine when the Cardinal have the ball. Read More
Archie went off for 128 yards that day.
In today’s edition, we celebrate number 8, the Ohio State’s margin of victory over Penn State on September 20th, 1975, 17- 9.
This game in Columbus, was the 1st between Woody Hayes and Joe Paterno. As you’d imagine, this was a defense-dominant game. The Buckeye took an early 7-0 lead, then alternated FG’s with Penn State closing the gap 7-6 at the half. The Nittany Lions’ kicker was Chris Bahr (of The Kicking Bahr’s), so you know there’d be FG’s aplenty.. This also marked OSU’s first victory over PSU in more than a couple tries, four to be exact.
After OSU’s Tom Klaban and PSU’s Bahr traded field goals, the Buckeyes went into the 4th quarter with a 10-9 lead. The 4th quarter game-winning drive was sustained by Archie Griffin’s over the shoulder catch on a 3rd down wheel route. Eventually, Pete Johnson scored the game clinching TD.
Earlier, I told you that this was a defense-dominant game. Ohio State moved to 2-0 on the year, not giving up touchdown to that point, and held PSU w/o a TD for the first time in 27 games.
In this video (from Vico @ OHD, at the time) you’ll also notice what an offensive force Pete Johnson was: Read More
Since I’m visiting family in Oregon this week (more Wednesday), it only makes sense that our 61 is the total score of the 1974 OSU battle, where THE Ohio State University overwhelmed the Oregon State University 51-10.
Fantastic ‘Fro
The Buckeyes were led, of course, by the eventual Heisman Trophy winner- Archie Griffin. Over 86 thousand packed into The Horseshoe for the matchup, which was the Buckeyes’ home opener- they had began the season in Minneapolis the week before.
The game against the eventual 3-8 Beavers saw Ohio State ranked second in the nation; following the victory, they jumped to number one. They would stay there until the upset in East Lansing, yet would still represent the Big Ten in the Rose Bowl against USC.
As for the match itself- Neither quarterback Alvin White nor running threat Elvin Momon could find much success against the Buckeyes; the Scarlet and Gray had 15 members of this squad selected in the 1975 NFL draft.
Interestingly enough, the Beavers and Buckeyes would meet again in exactly 10 years. I’m guessing you can surmise the outcome, but I’ll leave that for a future update.
Welcome to Wednesday, the first of May… it’s officially grilling season (unless you live in California, where it’s always that time). Here’s today’s soundtrack; if you don’t know why, then… well… keep reading.
Archie’d
Buckeye 411
Spiral bound and everything!
Another Wednesday, another mainstream media member making less than accurately informed statements about issues they think they understand…
Buckeye 411
Next to last set of sights from Nebraska- mostly focusing on the events pre-game. This may read like a letter from your aunt on vacation… remember, sometimes she has good things to say. Oh, and yes, I’ll talk about the game itself a bit later… once my therapist says it’s OK.
I arrived at the stadium around 11:00, which seems early for a 7:00 game but seems ludicrous given that it was 9:00 AM Los Angeles time. Even though the Buckeyes won’t be back for several years, I’ve got to take this moment to strongly encourage Ohio State fans to travel to a game here at some point in their lifetime… seriously, they take “Husker Hospitality” as a challenge.
Upon arriving, I had the opportunity to survey the wonder of the ESPN truck… and all I did, for the record, is survey. The suggestions I received via text and email would have surely landed me in jail for the game, although I’m confident even there someone would have asked me if I was having a nice visit to Lincoln.
The Huskerest Picture Ever
Moving onward I decided to connect with some folks I’d met via Buckeye Planet, and was welcomed into my first Nebraska tailgate to talk football and watch the OU/UT game. The consensus- this is the “asteroid strike” game for Husker fans, similar to our TTUN/ND wishes. In talking conference expansion, the overall vote is “anyone but Texas”.
After bidding these folks adieu, I connected with some other Buckeye fans from Columbus for a “tour of Lincoln’s finest watering holes”. Even there, Scarlet and Gray was proudly represented (with the exception of a couple of Michigan fans), and I actually met people who were familiar with my ridiculously small corner of Ohio. Read More
