Since this is the final year of the Bowl Championship Series Championship Game era I decided to try and figure out which Buckeyes team would be the best during this tenure. The BCS is being replaced next season with a four team playoff system for the 2014-2015 season and we will have more on that later in another post. The BCS began at the beginning of 1997-1998 season, through the years there has been it’s fair share of controversies on who plays in the championship game. I’m not going to go into all of that. I am going to try and pick one Buckeye team during this era as who I feel is the best. This is not going to include the obvious choice of the Champions from the 2001-2002 season. The only reason is it would be to short of a post and not very interesting. Is it one of the best teams? Yes they brought home the crystal football.
During this tenure the Buckeyes were one of the best teams in the NCAA. They had 94 players selected in the NFL Draft, 21 of them being selected in the first round. Ohio State has a record of 147 wins to 39 losses. They won 79 percent of their games averaging 9.8 wins a season to 2.3 losses placing them second overall behind Boise State (85 percent) as best win loss percentages. (hater adjustment alert) If you figure in the vacated games due to Tattoo Gate then they fall to third Oklahoma moves into second. Buckeyes are one of 5 teams to play in 3 or more National Championship games. I know it could have been and should have been more but we will just stick to the facts. Oklachokma Oklahoma Sooner’s went to four NC games going 1-4, Alabama has won all three of their appearances to date, LSU has gone 2-1 in their three appearances, the Buckeyes and Florida State both went 1-2 in their respected games .Now you can see why everyone hates The Ohio State Buckeyes, they are one of the best in the nation.
I have whittled my choices down to four. If you care to debate it I would love to talk with you about it. My choices are the 1998, 2005, 2006, 2007 seasons. What 2010 and 2012 seasons not on the list. Nope they aren’t, last years team while they did finish undefeated, had some great players on it overall they weren’t that great compared to my final four. The 2010 season will not be recognized by me because of my anger in what those players did and the turmoil that ensued afterwards. I have to say this is very hard with all the great teams Ohio State has fielded over the years, plus it’s sad that one of the greatest teams in my opinion wasn’t even during the BCS years. Just want to give a shout out to the 1996-1997 Rose Bowl Champions. My criteria for what I would constitute the best Buckeye BCS Era team would have to be strength of schedule, win/loss record and point differential, and who I felt had the best combined players.
The 1998 season had a 11-1 record the only loss was to unranked Michigan State. They opened the season on the road beating West Virginia who was ranked #11 at the time. Other ranked opponents they beat were #21 Missouri, #7 Penn State, #11 Michigan all home games. They beat #8 Texas A&M in the Sugar Bowl. I feel if they would have made the championship game that year they would have taken home the prize. This team averaged 35.86 points per game while giving up an average of 12. Key players on the team were QB Joe Germaine, WR David Boston, DB Antoine Winfield, LB Andy Katzenmoyer.
The 2005 Season finished will a record of 10-2 their losses were to #2 Texas (at home) and #6 Penn State (away). Other key ranked opponents were #21 Iowa, #17 Michigan State, #22 Minnesota, #17 Michigan all being at home except Minnesota. They averaged 32.67 points per game and surrendered 15.25 each contest on average. A.J. Hawk, Donte Whitner, Bobby Carpenter, Santonio Holmes, and Nick Mangold were some of the stars from this squad.
2006 football team went undefeated in the regular season its only loss was to Urban Meyer’s Florida Gators in the National Championship. They beat #2 Texas in Texas, #13 Iowa and #2 Michigan were home victims. The Ohio State Michigan game was Numbers 1 vs 2 and dubbed the Game of the Century. You might remember some of the players that year WR and return specialist Ted Ginn Jr, CB Malcolm Jenkins, LB James “The Animal” Laurinaitis, and some guy who won the Heisman Trophy named Troy Smith. Their offense averaged 34.61 points per game and the defense averaged 12.78 points against them.
The 2007 campaign was successful in returning to the National Championship game making back to back appearances. They also unfortunately lost in the NC game to LSU for one of their two losses the other being to an unranked Illinois team. The ranked opponents they beat that year was both #20 Perdue, #23 Michigan both at The ‘Shoe and #25 Penn State, #19 Wisconsin were road games. The Buckeyes that year averaged 31.4 points offensively and surrendered 12.78. Key players were CB Malcolm Jenkins, WR Brian Hartline, TE Jake Ballard, RB Chris Wells.
That is my Final Four for the greatest Buckeye teams of the BCS Era. My final selection is going to be the 2006 season. Even though we got run out of the University of Pheonix Stadium in Arizona against Urban and Company I feel this team can stack up and beat another team out there. Please feel free to tell me yours and if you agree or disagree with mine.
Leave a Reply