For the first time in two months, you'll have to findsomething else to do this weekend
Everyone has a different way of coping with a loss. You could go out for dinner at a nice restaurant, pick up a seasonal hobby, support a cause or make a new friend. Personally, I like to make life miserable for everyone around me. But perhaps you’re the optimistic type, and believe that a bye week will surely give Ohio State some time to right the wrongs. Surely The Vest has something up his short sleeve, you say.
Not so fast my friend.
In games immediately following a bye week, Jim Tressel’s record at Ohio State is a horrifying 1-4. Let’s survey the damage, shall we?
2001: Ohio State v. UCLA
Jim Tressel kicked off his tenure with two things in his pocket: a promise to beat Michigan, and a terrible football team. The Buckeyes had a bye week, then flew to Pasadena ranked #21 and with a ho-hum 28-14 victory over Akron in their pocket. Then they ran into #12 UCLA. Bob Toledo (who’s currently presiding over this train wreck) and his Bruins kept Ohio State out of the end zone entirely and roughed up Steve Bellisari, who completed only 5 of 23 passes for 45 yards and two interceptions. Ohio State’s only score came on a blocked punt; the Buckeyes even missed the PAT.
UCLA’s offense was largely stymied by a solid Ohio State defense that limited the them to only 61 yards rushing, but the Bruins did enough to win, and handed Ohio State its first of five defeats on the season. The six points scored by the Buckeyes were the lowest total since a 28-0 loss to Michigan in 1993. (Anyone care to remember that game? I didn’t think so.)
The Vest did beat the Wolverines that year, so we'll let him off the hook.
2002: Ohio State v. Kent State
It’s never bad to schedule a MAC school after a bye week. In fact, it’s almost never bad to schedule a MAC school at any time – well, almost never. Ohio State opened its season with a solid 45-21 victory over Texas Tech, took a week off, then happily welcomed the Golden Flashes (happily, because this guy was out of eligibility).
The Buckeye defense gave up 358 yards of offense, and Kent State held the ball for more than 39 minutes, but Ohio State scored quickly and often, and came away with a 51-17 win. Craig Krenzel tied Jim Karsatos’ record for consecutive completions in a game (12), and Mike Nugent kicked three field goals. Maurice Hall and Ryan Hamby scored, too.
Some other guy scored twice, as well and Tressel was batting .500 when playing after a bye week.
2003: Ohio State v. Wisconsin
Jim Tressel’s Buckeyes were unbeaten, ranked #6, the defending national champions and coming off a nondescript 20-0 victory over Northwestern. Wisconsin was 5-1 and unranked. Camp Randall is a crazy place to play, though, so OSU took a week off before heading to Madison for a game that proved to memorable for two reasons.
First, a national television audience got to see Buckeyes linebacker Robert Reynolds do his best Baron von Raschke impression when he choked Wisconsin quarterback Jim Sorgi during a pile-up. Sorgi did not return to the game, and was replaced by Matt Schabert.
Second, that same audience got to see the rare sight of Chris Gamble being burnt on a deep ball. Ohio State trailed 10-3 going into the fourth quarter, but tied the game at 10 when Craig Krenzel found Michael Jenkins from six yards out. Just 49 seconds later, Schabert (who?) hit Lee Evans on a 79-yard “go” route. Gamble was beaten at the line of scrimmage, OSU safety Will Allen was late coming over to help, and Wisconsin beat Ohio State 17-10. Tressel’s record following a bye week now stood at 1-2.
2004: Ohio State v. Northwestern
Once again, Ohio State enjoyed a bye week before going on the road, ranked #6 in the nation. Once again, they played a trash-talking, unranked team at night. And, once again, they were beaten.
On second thought, don’t follow that link. Ohio State stunk. Northwestern outgained Ohio State 444-308, and Wildcats running back Noah Herron scored three touchdowns. The Buckeyes had to score ten points in the closing minutes of the fourth quarter just to force overtime. Mike Nugent missed a 40-yard field goal in Ohio State’s only overtime possession, and Northwestern promptly replied by scoring a touchdown that beat Ohio State 33-27.
How awful was this game? It was Northwestern’s first victory over Ohio State since 1971, and first win against a top-ten team since 2000. Ugh.
Under Jim Tressel, Ohio State fell to 1-3 after a bye week. Sensing a trend?
2005: Ohio State v. Penn State
Ohio State (3-1) had hammered Iowa 31-6 in Columbus. Now, repeat after me: The Buckeyes, ranked #6 in the nation, had a bye week, then went on the road to play a night game. Sound familiar?
At least the opponent wasn’t unranked. This time, it was #16 Penn State (5-0), experiencing something of a renaissance after a few years of the doldrums under Joe Paterno. It was also the first game in which school officials called for an insidious, sophomoric “white out.”
Whether blinded by the white shirts, or just so familiar with the previous year’s script that they thought it best to just play along, the Buckeyes turned in an awful performance. A senior-laden team with plenty of returning starters, widely expected to make a run at the national title was able to generate only 230 yards of offense, and committed two critical turnovers. Does this sound familiar?
See if you’ve heard this part before, too: In the game’s closing moments, Ohio State’s dual-threat quarterback was sacked and fumbled the ball away, eliminating any chance for a Buckeye comeback.
Tressel’s teams dropped to 1-4 following a bye week, and had lost three straight games after taking a week off. A trend now became a pattern.
2006 & 2007: Ohio State v. Scheduling Gods
At long last, Ohio State enjoyed two straight seasons without a bye week as Tressel lucked out with the scheduling gods. But the bye weeks had cleverly morphed into 50-day layoffs and you know how that went down.
Now, in 2008, Ohio State has a week off to lick its wounds, and will take a national ranking into a road game against an unranked opponent. The WWL has spoken and set kickoff for daylight, though, so maybe we’ll be safe.
Maybe.
Comments
Not a very stellar record. Goes well with the recent bowl record. I remember that NW loss. That was like getting kicked really hard in the balls. Hopefully we learned some lessons (ha!) and won't sleep on a good and scrappy Wildcat team.
"I remember that NW loss. That was like getting kicked really hard in the balls."
Definitely. Which game do you think was worse to watch, the 2004 NW game or the 1990/91 Liberty Bowl 23-11 loss to Air Force? I'm gonna go with the Liberty Bowl. The 2004 game has to be a close 2nd in the "worst to watch" category for me. Of course, there are a lot of Michigan games in the top 10, too.
Sorry, got a little sidetracked. I think OSU breaks the trend in 2 Saturdays and becomes 2-4 after bye weeks. Let's hope they never get a bye week before the Michigan game.
Last years Illinois game left my balls aching for sure, along with my hand that always finds itself cut and bruised on the sunday after a buckeye loss. I was picking up shards of broken bud light glass for days after that "Dufrene no call"
2004 Northwestern was like getting your balls cut off with a rusty knife. Twice.
I don't have balls, but if I had them, they would have hurt as well.
That 2003 Wisconsin game sucked donkey nuts. I'll never stop wondering what-might-have-beens had #13 not been such a fuck-tard. We would have rolled that season with him in the backfield, but twasn't to be. Lot of that going around.
"Which game do you think was worse to watch, the 2004 NW game or the 1990/91 Liberty Bowl 23-11 loss to Air Force? I’m gonna go with the Liberty Bowl. "
Oh, the Liberty Bowl, without question. We went in trash-talking, telling those servicemen (Gawd bless 'em) "Welcome to the Big Ten!," and left with them chanting "Welcome to the WAC!" Horrible.
The '04 Northwestern game is right up there, though. What an awful night that was.
(If you talk to my father, the 1969 Ohio State-m*ch*g*n game was the worst thing he ever saw. I was never more depressed than after the 1996 m*ch*g*n game, but the Liberty Bowl left me both depressed and shocked. That's a terrible feeling.)
Speaking of depressed and shocked, that's the 2007 BCS Championship game.
But I do remember that Liberty Bowl as well and that completely sucked.
The Liberty Bowl was the most embarrased I have ever been to be a Buckeye fan --and I am still not sure how Coop survived after that one.....
Tress does not do well with Layoffs of any kind (see 50 days x 2)......... Northwestern is not that bad, so I would be on upset alert. They Buckeyes seem to be lacking a soul and I am not sure who is responsible.... why haven't we scored a TD on offense 3 times this season?? Can it all be on the O-line?? Screens??? Quick outs???
We should never speak of those games again. The only thing we've learned is Tressel over prepares his players instead of just going with what has worked. We need to find out who we are on offense. Its a shame we wasted this defense. JL, Jenkins, Freeman will all be gone next year but that should be it. We could have another great d next year if we keep up this style of play as of late. Sabino, and Rolle could fill in at outside LB and Holman can jump into the Middle. Jenkins will be tough to replace Chekwa would become our shut down corner and washington the weakside CB. Thad Gibson could leave next year being a red shirt soph. but I think he'll stay and get even better next year.
The question is which direction are we going on offense. Will we see Tressel continue to call the plays. Everyone in the nation knows what we run and when we will run it. I can't believe we don't see more play action or bootlegs with TP in the backfield. No question this year will help Pryor in the future but eventually you have to let the kid just throw the ball, and you can't leave the Tight end out of the game plan.
They should be alright on defense, looking toward '09. Homan probably slides inside, leaving some openings on the outside - but (as Tampa stated) they've got some young people coming. Don't forget about Andrew Sweat, and incoming freshman Dorian Bell. The defensive front will likely be about the same (will Goebel and/or Mobley contribute?), and the backfield will need a little work, but I think they'll be in decent shape.
Offense? Wow.
(It's a pity they waste the talents of a guy like Ballard. He can flat-out play, but he's kept in to block so often that I swear the QBs forget about him, even when he is out, running free. Ballard's a beast in practice.)
Nice post Tampa, but the TE has to stay in and block because of a weak O-line. Everybody for a long time has wondered about TE's and other plays but sometimes we need all the blockers we can get. The Vest seems to me, to keep alot of players into pass block and i would imagine that is why some of the plays are called. We don't run alot of wide open formations and i believe its because of a horrible line that limits what you call. All this being said i am very disappointed about the season, i had high hopes that i thought were realistic:( As the season goes along i do second guess if Tressel had to almost guarntee Pryor a starting spot and wonder if we would be better with TB. I know all the hate will poor in, just wondering because USC game was horrible but nobody could have done well with blocking. I have been watching some of last years games and he made some nice throws, by no way i'm saying Pryor is not going to be great but maybe the Vest had to sell Pryor on coming here. Last year we could score a little and i think people underrate our WR because some of the pass plays i have seen this year they have been wide open. I wish we had a game this week because you do ponder alot if you are a big time fan.
Boeckman is not the answer for this team JB. If Pryor who is very mobile and elusive, is running for his life behind this shit line, the Todd would do just as well to take the snap whilst laying down so he doesn't injure himself.
"(It’s a pity they waste the talents of a guy like Ballard. He can flat-out play, but he’s kept in to block so often that I swear the QBs forget about him, even when he is out, running free. Ballard’s a beast in practice.)"
Amen, brother. I'm so tired of the game plan ignoring the TEs.
new option for the week...throw rocks at Bollman's office window until he gets so pissed he opens up the window...then we verbally challenge him to a fight but when he gets outside..we just continue to throw rocks at him til he cries and starts sucking his thumb in his corner...then he'll know he should've never screwed with the buckeye fans and their season
The 2005 OSU game was not the first whiteout for PSU, they had at least one when they sucked in 2004
"The 2005 OSU game was not the first whiteout for PSU, they had at least one when they sucked in 2004."
The white-out against Purdue was begun by the students. The first stadium-wide white-out, called for by the administration, was against Ohio State in 2005, as noted.
Tragic that we have become a read option team. With TP and Beanie in the backfield we should be lining up in power I and running the ball straight ahead and play action pss off that. TP could naked bootleg with the option to pass to a TE. Now that would be crazy enough to work. I hate the spread, pro teams don't want a read option QB and you will never progress as a QB unless you learn to run through your 3-4 pass options. Look at Auburn with their recent option success. By the way Tommy T can bite me. Sucking like he does couldn't happen to a better guy
buckeyebrowny919 -- I'm all for throwing rocks at Bollman's office but to stay in theme maybe we should present Tressel with three different rocks to choose from first. Also, don't take more than a 3 step drop or you'll get buried by five mouth breathing defenders.
The two worst losses for me were Air Force in the Liberty Bowl, and South Carolina in 1999. Both losses cut me to the bone for the same reason, both of those teams got hit in the mouth, and quit. I can stand to see us get beat, what I can't stand is a team that quits, or worse, starts taking cheap shots (Thank You 1999 Buckeyes). There is no shame in getting beat, The only shame is quitting.
"There is no shame in getting beat, The only shame is quitting."
Couldn't agree more. On a lighter note, I think the 1999 Buckeyes could've used a halftime pep talk from this guy. :-)
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ahha..true chris..true
"The two worst losses for me were Air Force in the Liberty Bowl, and South Carolina in 1999. "
Yeah, that was an awful game. I also recall a beat-down from Florida State that I attended back during the Earle regime, and that was just dreadful. They were so superior to us, in almost every facet of the game.
What killed me about the South Carolina game(s) was being beaten by a former Mr. Football Ohio of whom we didn't think highly enough to recruit. Ugh.
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