We’re starting a series here across our sister sites of USA TODAY on the all-time best of each program. We’ll be taking a look at the four best at each position — including coaches each day throughout this week, and maybe beyond.
So buckle up, enjoy and feel free to get in on the debate and discussions because we’re sure opinions vary and differ depending on what era you lived through, and what your particular feelings are for personalities, etc.
There’s plenty to choose from and it’s sometimes difficult to pick the best four with so many quality choices at a place like Ohio State, but hey, we’re game. It’s time to take a look at the four best Buckeye football teams in history.
Next … back in a big way
2002 (14-0, National Championship)
It wasn’t supposed to happen so quickly. Ohio State hired Jim Tressel in 2001 hoping to turn the page on a program that had started to slide under John Cooper. That first year was a pedestrian 7-5 season, but it ended with a momentum-building upset over Michigan in Ann Arbor.
Ohio State used that season as a jumping off point for 2002. The team started out No. 13 in the preseason rankings but just kept finding a way to win week after week. Each game seemed to be a white-knuckler, and then all of a sudden, The Game was on the doorstep with a chance to head out to Arizona for all the marbles with a victory.
The Buckeyes took care of business in dramatic fashion again, went to the Fiesta Bowl to take on an all-timer of a Miami team that was touted as unbeatable. Ohio State took it to the Hurricanes early on, and won a double-overtime thriller 31-24 for its seventh national title and first since 1968.
The team had a ton of talent but often played to the level of its competition. In the end though, every game was a notch in the win column, and you can’t do any better than that.
Next … what should have been
1969 (8-1, lone loss to Michigan)
We went back and forth on whether to make this one of the best teams in Ohio State history, but the collection of talent is just too much to ignore. Yeah there’s no national title to speak of, and getting upset by Michigan put a sour taste in the season, but this team was perhaps the most dominant team to ever suit up in Columbus.
Up until the Michigan game, the Buckeyes were unchallenged. The most competitive game was a 54-21 against Michigan State in the Horseshoe, and Ohio State averaged a 46-9 winning margin — until it traveled to Ann Arbor to paint the best victory of Bo Schembechler’s career.
The Wolverines won a shocking 24-12 ballgame, and the Buckeyes were left home at a time when only the Big Ten champion got to go to a bowl game.
Still, there’s no denying the talent on that team as the sophomore’s that had won the national championship the year prior were a year older and more dominant. Rex Kern, Jim Otis, Bruce Jankowski, Jack Tatum, and Jim Stillwagon were all on the team.
Next … a tumultuous season turned around
2014 (14-1, national champions)
Urban Meyer’s third season at the helm at Ohio State didn’t start out like one destined for greatness. The Buckeyes lost their starting quarterback Braxton Miller just prior to the season and had to rely on an unproven quarterback named J.T. Barrett to pick up the pieces.
Ohio State got by Navy in game one, then ran into a hungry and well-game-planned Virginia Tech team that surprised and outwitted the Buckeyes 35-21. It looked like a lost season, but slowly Meyer got this team to believe and improve.
The Buckeyes went on to win ten-straight games to end the regular season, then went on a postseason run to remember. They walloped Wisconsin in the Big Ten Championship Game that ended being just enough to impress the College Football Playoff Committee. OSU squeaked in as the No. 4 seed in the inaugural College Football Playoff, messed around and won the whole thing.
It slayed the big, bad SEC beast and No. 1 seed Alabama 42-35, then pummeled No. 2 seed Oregon 42-20 to take home a national championship.
That team had career Big Ten record-holder J.T. Barrett at quarterback, Ezekiel Elliott at running back, Michael Thomas at wide-receiver, and a whole host of other future NFL players.
Next … the greatest?
1968 (10-0, national champions)
The team Woody Hayes had coming into the 1968 season wasn’t supposed to be one of his best. But with a collection of sophomores that matured and played with reckless abandon, it continued to get better and better and is widely considered the best combination of team and results the program has had on the field.
Ohio State announced its arrival when it beat No. 1 Purdue in West Lafayette, then marched on all the way to Ann Arbor where it proceeded to give Michigan a super-wedgie in front of the home crowd to the tune of a 50-14 score.
The team went on to play in the Rose Bowl and beat USC in come-from-behind fashion 26-17 to secure the national championship.
The team had eleven eventual All-Americans and six first-round NFL Draft picks. Rex Kern, Jim Otis, Jack Tatum, John Brockington and Jim Stillwagon were just a piece of the abundant talent that will forever be remembered in Buckeye lore.
