All-Aughts: Offense
It’s been a bountiful decade for the Ohio State football team. Despite the 15-9 start that spanned the final season of the Cooper era and Tressel’s first campaign, the Buckeyes trail only Boise State (111), Texas (110) and Oklahoma (109) with 101 victories since the world did not end and people were safely able to consume their stockpiles of rice and potatoes.
The decade includes the miracle run of 2002, six Big Ten championships and 18 All-American awards. We’ve seen Buckeyes take home the Butkus, Nagurski, Lombardi, Groza, Guy, Camp, O’Brien, Thorpe and Rimington awards. And then there was the national-best 7th Heisman Trophy, captured by Troy Smith in 2006.
Now it’s time to pick the best of the bunch. The following team represents our consensus on an all-decade offense. We stretch the squad a bit with three receivers, two running backs and the five linemen selected with no particular respect paid to true position. We wanted to name the best of the best and we felt this way best achieved that.
Backs
QB: Troy Smith (2003-06)
Though Craig Krenzel has the crystal and a sterling 26-2 mark as a starter, Smith is the guy you’d take if you actually wanted to deal damage from the quarterback spot instead of just managing the game. Besides, Smith’s 25-3 mark as a starter (including three monster Michigan games) weren’t so shabby either and his record 30 passing TDs in 2006 is probably safe for as long as Tressel is in Columbus.
RB: Beanie Wells (2006-08)
Undoubtedly the most talented Buckeye to line up at running back this decade, Wells saw action right away, finishing with one sick spin move and a 52 yard touchdown against the Wolverines on the way to 576 yards as a frosh. His sophomore season, despite playing injured, he racked up a school sophomore-best 1,609 yards and 222 yards in the Michigan game. Injuries took a heavier toll his junior year, but he still averaged 5.8 yards per carry on the way to 1,197 on the season and many, many, highlights. (Let’s face it, if you put Wolverine’s Adamantium skeleton into Beanie, you have the perfect back.)
RB: Antonio Pittman (2004-06)
Pitt was a model of consistency as he became the first Buckeye since Eddie George in the mid-nineties to string together back-to-back 1,000 yard seasons. Though his 2,945 yards on the ground are good enough for just 9th place in the career books, his 15 100-yard games are good enough for 4th all-time. The second Akron product in our backfield also earns points for being one of the only players to show up for the Florida game.
Receivers
WR: Michael Jenkins (2000-03)
Every time Krenzel and the Buckeyes needed a bailout in the ‘02 season, Jenkins was there to provide it. The two biggest examples being the 4th and one beauty at Purdue and the 17 yard strike he hauled in on 4th and 14 in the first overtime of the Fiesta Bowl. C-L-U-T-C-H. His 2,898 career receiving yards top the Ohio State books and his 165 career receptions are good enough for third (behind Boston and Carter).
WR: Santonio Holmes (2003-05)
Picking up where Jenkins left off, Holmes led the team in receiving his sophomore and junior seasons. The second of which, occurred while Smith was coming of age as a junior quarterback and saw the Florida native finish with 53 receptions for 977 yards. Before turning pro early, Holmes set a Fiesta Bowl record with an 85 yard touchdown haul against the Irish to provide for the eventual margin of victory in the blowout win.
WR: Ted Ginn Jr (2004-06)
Though he wreaked havoc as a freshman and a sophomore, Ginn played second fiddle to Holmes in the offense and wasn’t counted on to do anything more than stretch defenses and pluck the occasional bomb from the sky. That only made it that much more enjoyable to watch him blossom into a viable receiving threat throughout all levels of the secondary when he was finally called upon to be the man in the receiver corps as a sophomore. Though his last game will go down as one of the weirder exits in Buckeye football history, perhaps no player caused opposing defensive coordinators more headaches than Ginn did during his stint as a Buckeye.
Line
Rob Sims (2002-05), Shane Olivea (2000-03), Nick Mangold (2002-05), LeCharles Bently (1998-2001), Kirk Barton (2004-07)
Linemen don’t have statistics upon which to draw comparisons (outside of the sporadically-tracked pancake), but all of the preceding were NFL draft picks — which is something you can’t say for some of the more hyped Buckeye linemen of this decade. This group also slants more towards the Cooper era than any other group on the team and you’re free to draw your own Jim Bollman conclusions on that nugget. In Bentley and Mangold, you have two stars, while Olivea and Sims were very good contributors on their units. Finally, Barton netted all-league and All-American honors in 2007 before sliding to the 7th round of the draft that year.
Just Missed
All good teams deserve honorable mentions and this one is no different. Starting at quarterback, Krenzel was a winner, pure and simple. At running back, we have Jonathan Wells and Maurice Clarett. Yes, that guy. For all of the bad off the field, he was that good on the field. Anthony Gonzalez deserves some love at wideout, as does Brian Robiskie. Jermil Jamar Martin would have been our fullback had we named one, as would Ben Hartsock at tight end. Finally, Dough Datish, Alex Stepanovich and Alex Boone earn recognition for their play on the line. With Boone, it’s easy to point out his follies against the elite ends in the game, but he also spent a good part of his career owning the guys he was supposed to own.
What do you think?
Great write-up. One minor addition you could make to the list of awards, though–Malcolm Jenkins took home the Thorpe Award.
An observation–in my opinion, the three best OSU o-linemen of the last decade have all been centers (Bentley, Stepanovich, and Mangold).
This is only the offense the defense is coming in a couple days so watch for Malcolm then
Then why did you include Butkus (best linebacker) in your list?
Hey man, have another cup of coffee.
He didn’t include any Butkus award winners on this list
Good call. Totally slipped on Malcolm’s Thorpe.
All Cooper guys… just sayin’
all the talent in the world with no leadership from the top down.
I think I would take Jamar Martin over Jermil.
Yep – another brainfart. Jamar > Jermil.
really no arguments here, and there are some great players on the offense, but man this is going to look lopsided in comparison to the all-aughts defense
No Ryan Hamby? Wierd….
or Schnitcker…
Shitkicker?
……
Could have picked any WR, let’s be honest, this IS WR-University. The rest of the picks are solid. Could def pick from any list of OL as well. Going with Smith over Krenzel is a no brainer. I love Krenzel was a great game manager, but I’m pretty sure Troy was just as good.
Holy Buckeye, that play never gets old…
Just the complete testicular fortitude that Krenzel had to have to loft that pass up there on 4th and the game was incredible and it was a perfectly thrown ball and Musberger’s classic call. Just a truly remarkable, unforgettable play all around.
No doubt….I think it ranks up there with the Stanford v. Cal kickoff return with the band on the field even. Def. one of the top 5 best plays in CFB history
Craig Krenzel to Michael Jenkins always equalled magic.
I think if MoC had managed even one more year, he’d have to be on the list. Even though in that one year he was probably the best RB we had this decade, not sure it can be compared with a full career like beanie’s or pittman’s. Good call on leaving him off
I’ll compare it just because he was such a HUGE piece to them winning the championship.
Stan White Jr was the best fullback.
Curtis Terry 4 LYFE, son.
i personally liked Ole’ Brandon Joe.
Was the Dough Datish intentional, or a fun quip at the doughy linemen? :)
Where’s Lydell Ross? What kind of list is this?
The All-Decade Guaranteed Loss of 3 Yards Team is for next week. Mo Wells is the other RB, and Steve Bellisari might be making an appearance, too.
Brandon Saine in September deserves an honorable mention
That’s actually called Team All-”Negative 3 Yards and a Cloud of Fail”.
giggity
I actually have a Steve Bellasari signed football (no, I’m not kidding)
I honestly think, even though he was a clown, Clarrett was the most talented offensive player of the decade. I know it was only one year, but he was unbelievable when healthy in that year. He single handedly beat a very very good Washington State team, and his rip away fumble recovery against Miami saved the day. I don’t like the guy, but I think he was even more special than Beanie, just a clown.
Yeah I think I’d put Mo C over at least Pittman or Beanie. He was also the best receiving RB we had the entire decade, too. Played through pain in a way that Beanie would never dare. I’ve never seen someone run with more passion and fire than Mo C, dood was an animal. The Fiesta Bowl strip of Sean Taylor personifies who he was. That strip, as well as an AK-47, body armor, and a bottle of grey goose.
Ditto.
Whole-heartedly agree. Mo-C was a beast…imagine if he’d played another year or two…
Beanie = MoC > Pittman
Pittman was perfect for the offense we were running in 2005-2006 though.
(tapping fingers)…Well that’s just great.
Ben, I lobbed for you, I really did. At the end of the debate, going with a third receiver instead of a tight end was the prevailing sentiment of the day.
Suuuuuurrrre you did. Everybody forgets who caught the ball to make it 4th and short right before ole Holy Buckeye. I block my tail off for my entire career, catch the few balls thrown to me. Oh, and don’t forget the game-saving *cough* catch *cough* I made at Happy Valley in ‘03.
What’s the use?
Hey, look at it this way: you’re not Ryan Hamby.
+1
If it were up to me I think I would have moved Teddy to KR/PR and substituted with Gonzo. And the fact that I drank beers with his family in Texas has absolutely nothing to do with my decision.
Ginn was a better athlete, but I still think Gonzo was a better receiver. I was really sad he was injured this year so we didn’t get to see what he was capable of as a full-time target. Dude had some of the best hands I’ve ever seen.
Mmmm, tell us more about the dude’s hands
Until he go hurt this year, Gonzo was probably the best Buckeye receiver in the NFL this year.
To me, great stats mean great teamwork.
You know who’s best?
Buckeyes.
Not hearing good things for Duron…hope his grades come in alright
Duron out? Talk about clown?
BuckeyePlanet agrees with you.
What’s your opinion of the 0.00?
Could not find the story, Link?
http://www.the-ozone.net/football/2009/postseason/bowlprepupdate.htm
i like the picks for the offence defence will be interesting .
speaking of older players and games secspn.com has a top games of the decade with a little right up on each. 03 fiesta bowl is there and guess what they go on about that penalty. tell these writers to give up on it refs blew calls in miamis favor that game also, less we forget gamble is still in bounds with the clock running tOSU 17 miami 10 deal with it secspn !!! oh they already did in the 5 reasons episode on classic.
also it was nice of almost every souther voter to leave gerhart off their hiesman ballot.
“Final score: Ohio State 31, Miami 24. It remains the only national championship game to need more than 60 minutes. That’s what they remember in Ohio. In the other 49 states, they remember the flag.”
A statement made by a true Douchebag that is simply looking for hits on his whack-ass blog…..Last I checked that crystal ball STILL sits nice and shiny in the WHAC, swing on by Schlabach to look at greatness.
Lost in all the madness is, of course, the slight inconvenience… that there was pass interference on the play.
I’ve given up hope on getting people to acknowledge it. I literally ran into the argument once that “even if it was pass interference, it shouldn’t have been thrown because it determined the outcome of the national championship game, and that game is just too important to be decided by a penalty”
First: it didn’t “decide” anything. Miami had plenty of opportunities to stop Ohio State and it didn’t. It then had plenty of opportunities to tie the game up and…. it didn’t. Tough noogies.
Second, so what’s the logic here – that a MNC should be “determined” by a play on which a player clearly cheats? I must have missed something, but it was the wackiest argument I’ve ever seen someone make.
I’ve definitely gotten that argument, too – clearly OSU haters aren’t the sharpest tools in the shed. Emphasis on “tools.”
Note the following:
On their first possession in overtime, the Hurricanes scored a touchdown on a 7 yard pass to Kellen Winslow. Ohio State had no choice but to play for another overtime, with Krenzel completing a fourth and 14 pass to Michael Jenkins, giving Ohio State new life. On fourth and 3, after an initial signal of defensive holding, a pass interference penalty was called by official Terry Porter on Miami defensive back Glenn Sharpe who held receiver Chris Gamble in the end zone. However the penalty was flagged after the play was completed and while Miami was celebrating an apparent victory, causing the call to become controversial. (Note: This play has been reviewed many times with sportcasters and fans offering different viewpoints, and potentially one of many reasons for College Football adding instant replay (although this would later not become a reviewable play) With a first-and-goal at the two, Krenzel scored three plays later on a one-yard touchdown run, sending the game into another overtime. Though initially shrouded in controversy, “The Call” has since been defended by sportswriters as a good one[4][5], was validated by the National Association of Sports Officials[6], and was selected by Referee Magazine as one of the “Best 18 Calls of All Time.”[7]
Source –
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Ohio_State_Buckeyes_football_team
I was dying to read the full list of the 18 calls, but it was not to be.
http://www.naso.org/PressReleases/st143.htm
hey,
big fan of the site. thanks for all your hard work.
just wanted to pass along a link to some pretty hilarious Buckeye t-shirts for the big game.
Oregon Dicks, indeed.
http://www.thirdstringshirts.com/TSS/college.shtml
FAIL
Can we see the second string Ts instead? Those ones sucked.
Beanie = Manchild on that fourth down TD run against the niners…would NOT be stopped!
And then he fumbles…ahh the memories
That was a hell of a hit on that fumble though.
Beanie never really had fumble-itis in the scarlet and gray. Just the injury bug….
That’s true, he did fix the problem after his freshman year
nice to see we all still have hate for the u dispite their efforts to entertain us all… nice to see we have hate ingeneral. just wondering with it being the holidays and all when duck hating can begin..lol…
screw it it begins now just think of how much letuce misoli can grow out the back of his helmet befor ethe new years, and speaking of helmets and uniforms with 18 days left how ungodly looking are those duck unis gonna be
Nuge deserves some kind of spot on the list. Just sayin.