Ohio State dropped another BCS Championship Game this week–but Will Burge says that doesn’t mean the Buckeyes don’t have a dynasty in the works. Turn on any national talk show in America and you will hear the jokes and slights.
The Ohio State Buckeyes are being disrespected by just about anyone outside the state of Ohio. Maybe this verbal berating is justified.
After all, the Buckeyes have been outscored in the past two BCS National Championship games by a combined total of 41 points.
It’s easy to point and laugh at the team that almost wins it all including such teams as the Buffalo Bills, Atlanta Braves or even the Cleveland Indians. To take shots at them is elementary. No brains needed for that.
Obviously, the Buckeyes did not belong on the same field as Florida or LSU. Yet, another perspective can be taken on this whole scenario that paints the Jim Tressel era at Ohio State as a legit dynasty not a runner-up.
Many things have changed since Jim Tressel took over the program in 2001. Ohio State has become a recognized power in the college football world. Besides this year, the Buckeyes schedule a major out of conference opponent every year.
Out of conference games in recent memory have included matchups with Texas, Notre Dame and Washington. Ohio State does not just schedule these opponents, they beat them. The Buckeyes have a 29-8 record against ranked teams and an 8-4 record against Top-10 teams under the Tressel.
The recreational football fan would point out that they have been shellacked in the past two national title games, but the Buckeyes have been to five BCS bowls in seven years and have a 3-2 record over that span.
Ohio State has made a bowl game every season under Tressel, recording a 4-3 record in those contests. Ohio State has notched an overall record of 73-16 under Tressel.
It is amazing to me that “The Sweatervest”, as he is so lovingly referred to, is having his big game coaching put under fire. The man is 4-1 in overtime games and 20-10 in games decided by a touchdown or less.
In the Michigan games, which matter the most to any Ohio State fan, he is 6-1. Four of those wins coming in years the Buckeyes won the Big Ten title.
Five ten win seasons, five top five finishes, a BCS National Championship, and a Heisman Trophy award winner are just enough accolades to have your coaching questioned and your program called weak.
Ohio State has engineered 34 current NFL players and annually lead the Big Ten in Academic All Conference picks.
These accomplishments get you scrutinized by the national media? Who said being a head coach is a thankless job?
When it’s all said and done people will form any opinions they feel. I do believe that most of the negative connotations that are put upon Ohio State are because of fans, not football itself. You would be hard pressed to find any bad statistics from the Scarlet and Grey.
The fans, on the other hand, carry a stigma that 90 percent of the country dislikes. This must be most of the reason Ohio State is regarded the way that it is. When vibes from this most recent loss wear off and you step back and look at the whole picture, it’s tough to find a program that’s had a better seven years.
So hosts can belittle Jim Tressel and they can use Ohio State’s name in jest. They can even question whether or not they really are “The” Ohio State University, but the numbers do not lie.
In 50 years, when all this is just stat sheets and box scores, the picture that will be drawn will look a lot more like a dynasty than a doormat.
13 replies on “Ohio State Buckeyes: Doormats or Dynasty?”
The other 10% ARE Buckeye fans. You’re right – Ohio State are generally tossers. My friend at the Penn State game there at The Horseshoe a couple of years ago had not only Buckeye Nuts thrown at him, but also rocks from above him. And Penn State lost.
However, I’m sure he felt better – as we all did- by seeing photos of the crying Buckeyes fan after his team lost at home to Illinois.
Michigan’s another team I hate, but unfortunately, every Michigan fan I’ve met has been extremely courteous.
nice I like it, brief and to the point but well-done. I agree completely to…their Championship victory under Tressel was an upset against a great team, and though they unfortunately ran into two unbeliveably talented teams in the last two championship games, they weren’t even expected to be there. Arguably they were barely in the top 5 ‘best’ teams in the nation this year, but either way they were there at the end like great teams are. I’m a guy who talks about the Bills and say, “okay they made it there four straight years, but it doesn’t matter because they never finished it out.” And I hold to that sentiment in all sports, including Ohio St. in college football, but they still deserve respect, especially for the format that college football is in, for being that good so consistenly and never trying to sneak in via weak non-conference schedules. Ohio St. is getting way too much flack for how good there DYNASTY has become.
very impressive improvement as far as your writing goes. nice piece. keep writing.
"Quick" Edit “such teams as the Buffalo Bills”
I would say: “Obviously, the Buckeyes did not play like they belonged on the same field as Florida or LSU in these championship games. Yet, another perspective can be taken on this whole scenario that paints the Jim Tressel era at Ohio State as a legitimate dynasty and not just perennial runner-ups.”
“Ohio State has become, once again, a recognized power in the college football world. With the exception of this year, the Buckeyes always schedule a major out-of-conference opponent and an argument could be made that Washington (who they played this year) used to be a more serious opponent.”
“In the Michigan games, which matter the most to any Ohio State fan” (your comma)
“Five ten-win seasons, five top-five finishes, a BCS National Championship and a Heisman Trophy winner are just enough accolades to have your coaching questioned and your program called weak.” (You could even finish this with a question mark.)
Just for the record, I like it and I’m a Wolverine fan. You’re point is very good and I’d like to see someone like Dan Wetzel or Terry Bowden run something like it.
You’re own fault I loved the article, but it is a week now and you don’t even fix the grammar. You gotta do that to get my vote. Sorry.
OSU not belonging in title game? I would disagree with your opinion that OSU did not belong in the title game against LSU. If not for a dropped TD pass and blocked field goal in the 2nd quarter, they would not have been behind by 14 points at halftime. I’m a MN Gopher fan, so have no loyalties to OSU, but I think they held their own for most of them game.
LSU shouldn’t have lost those 2 OT games in their season, and I have no problem with them being national champions, albeit pseudo champs, since there is no playoff.
Why not clean it for that final vote? I’m sitting here looking at this article after almost two weeks. The fact it has a score of three is seriously threatening the credibility of this site as you still have not corrected the blatant errors in the article, yet our peers keep voting for it.
The reason is simple; It is a decent article. I don’t expect you to accept my re-wording of some of your paragraphs, but the fact you don’t correct the obvious errors is a shame. The piece raises good points and should be published….AFTER YOU EDIT IT !
Sorry Yeah that was horrible. I should have corrected those a while ago. Ive been busy as hell and havn’t really been on the site much lately.
Anything else? If you see anything else please let me know because im really bad at catching those things for some reason. Thanks
Perenial Powermats — OSU is definatly a doormat. In fact the entire Big 10 is a doormat. Of course you cant expect a team from a conference that can’t count to win a title right(Big 10, 11 teams). OSU should do themselves a favor and be sure to lose a few games next year to save themselves another humiliating loss at the hands of another superior SEC team such as LSU(again),Florida(again) or Georgia. My condolences to those perenial powermats.
OSU Ohio st. sucks … damn yuppies think they can hang.Just keep putting them in the championship game and the SEC will prevail every year!!!!!