Crushing the Irish set the right tone for a title run in 2005.(www.troysmithonline.com)
The 2009 Ohio State football season is in the books now, and the dust has settled after a very gratifying Rose Bowl victory. I was watching the game again the other day (ah, the magic of the DVR) and I was thinking of how well this year's team stacks up against teams from the past. At the beginning of each season, OSU fans often find themselves searching for similarities to the great 2002 National Championship squad (inexperienced offensive line, new starter at QB, tough defense, etc.). But now that we know exactly how this year's team fared against real competition, there are at least three teams that the 2009 Buckeyes remind me of.
1986
The 1986 Ohio State team finished the season with a record of 10-3 and a final AP ranking of #7. One of their 2 out-of-conference losses was to a PAC-10 team and they lost once in the conference. After a shaky start, the defense became stellar as they gave up only 123 points in their last 11 games. And they finished with a bang by upsetting 8th ranked Texas A&M 28-12 in the Cotton Bowl.
But that is where the similarities end. 1986 was kind of an odd season schedule-wise, as Ohio State played their first two games away from home. They started by losing 16-10 against Alabama in the now-defunct Kickoff Classic, and followed that with a 40-7 blowout loss at Washington. But they righted the ship after that and were cruising for a Big Ten championship until the last game of the season against Michigan. Despite a remarkable 29-tackle performance from linebacker Chris Spielman, the defense gave up 529 yards to the Wolverines en route to a 26-24 loss.
1993
In 1993, Ohio State got off to a much better start, marching to 8 straight victories before settling for a tie at Wisconsin. A win at Michigan would have given the Buckeyes an undefeated season and possibly have gotten them into the national title picture. The team defeated BYU in the Holiday Bowl and finished ranked #11 in the AP poll. They compiled a 10-1-1 final record despite breaking in a new sophomore starter at QB.
But again, the comparison falls short due to the loss at Michigan. The 1993 Buckeyes came out flat against their arch-enemies, fading out to the tune of a 28-0 loss. As a result, they dropped like a lead balloon in the polls, and missed out on all of the New Year's Day bowl games. To their credit, they did rebound with a victory in the Holiday Bowl, although not without a considerable scare at the end. Finally, the defense was not particularly strong, giving up over 20 points five times during the season, including the last two games.
2005
For my money, the team that the 2009 Buckeyes most resemble is the 2005 version. That team had an excellent defense, led by linebackers A.J. Hawk, Bobby Carpenter, and Anthony Schlegel. The offense was led by QB Troy Smith, who had taken over as starter the previous season in relief of Justin Zwick. Smith took some criticism early in the season, especially after a conference loss on the road at Penn State. But Coach Tressel stuck with him and it paid off. Smith led the team to a resounding victory in the Fiesta Bowl and that win set the program up for a serious run at the national title in 2006.
Unlike the 1986 and 1993 teams, the 2005 Buckeyes took care of business in the season finale, dispatching the Wolverines in Ann Arbor by a score of 25-21. They finished 11-2, and ended the season at #4 in the final BCS rankings. The two teams that beat them finished #1 and #3. And they began the next season ranked #1.
So what do you think? Is the 2009 team comparable to that great 2005 team? Does the Rose Bowl victory set the team up well for a title run in 2010? Is there another team from the past that this team reminds you of?
Comments
I think it really does compare to 2005 very well. Here's to a run at another MNC, hopefully next season won't compare to the end of 2006.
If I remember the states right, the offense of the 2005 team in terms of yardage and YPC and all of that was pretty prolific, and in some ways topped the juggernaut NFL-talent laden 2006 team. On that point, the 2009 team lacked so much consistency and fearsomeness in their offense; during the first 2/3rds of the season, we all held our collective breath hoping that, at a mininum, the offense could stay on the field long enough to give the defense a breather.
2003 might be an accurate gauge; we lost Clarrett so we had no consistent running game, using Lydell "Loss of 3" Ross and Maurice Hall, mirroring Saine/Herron, and the passing game struggled too. However, we had a beast defensive line during that year, as was the case this year. Of course, the loss to Michigan in 2003 doesn't help the comparison.
i think its a combination of the 2004 2005 team overall solid d with a few blown plays and bad quarters and the struggles of a soph qb in 2004 thru 2005. until the end of 2005 the offence figuring out what they were. my thoughts are this years squad grew up much quicker so that is why they remind me of the two years combined
I felt that the 2005 team was the most talented team that Coach Tressel has ever had. I think this season we stacked up comparably on defense, but the offense was much better in 2005 especially late. 2009's offense I think was similar to the 2002 offense; minus Clarett but better rushing threat from the QB spot. It wasn't pretty, but I don't think it was as ghastly as 2003 or 2004. 2005 offense was also the most explosive of the Tressel era, but lacked the efficiency that 2006 had.
This season was similar to '05 in the inability to field punts category. I remember being in the student section chanting "catch it, catch it, catch it" and then cheering when Santonio or Teddy would actually catch a punt.
But yea I agree - that 05 offense was off the chains.
As far as receivers go, I can see 2005 resembling well with 2009 because we had Ginn, Holmes, and Gonzo and we all know that was a pretty good receiving corp. Now we got Posey, Sanzy, and Carter. Posey = Ginn, Carter and Sanzy are kinda like Holmes and Gonzo together. Tough receivers and they run relatively crisp routes. Gonzo though was just plain sneaky, he found a way to get Troy out of trouble by getting open at the right time as well as getting through traffic, (see TD at Iowa in 2006). That catch and run was probably an OSU's receivers best maneuverability in traffic I have ever seen!
Only one problem with the comparison to the 2005 team - all of Ohio State's 4 touchdowns in that Fiesta Bowl came from at least 40 yards out. They boasted deep threats Holmes and Ginn, as well as a solid go-to RB in Pittman. I do not believe the 2009 offense looks anything like that in any facet. Despite a suffocating performance over Oregon, I do not have confidence in their abilities to hang with the top 2 teams in the SEC (as it stands right now). Next year, the Big Ten is going to be lights-out tough. If this squad gets through unscathed, I'll be shocked. The Rose Bowl was unreal. I'd certainly prefer to see a repeat appearance in that venue than have to share a stadium with slack-jawed fans from anywhere south of the Ohio River.
I've said this before, but I feel compelled to repeat it: The national championship game is a travesty to sports. To say you're the best college football team is a middle-finger to any sort of logic taught at any university - institutions these teams represent. The favortism/beauty contest that's driven by television networks' contracts with conferences is only going to get more and more corrupt (as seen by the $2 Billion deal ESPN now has with the SEC). The SEC has had exactly 2 undefeated national championship teams in the BCS era, yet still has 6 national titles. There is a major disconnect there, and on paper it is remarkably unfair.
The Big Ten has the Rose Bowl. Aside from the crowd control problems, it was the best trip I've ever taken. Screw everyone else.
Posey will never be that fast :P
Damn Joe, Hated to see you tag this team as most like the 2005 one. I still have nightmares about the MNC game the following year.
My Favorte season was the 05 Season when they had they dream team. We had 7 or 8 or so players picked in the first round. The linbacker trio of Hawk, Carpenter and Schleigel and the bad ass squad at receiver (Gonzalez, Ginn, Holmes and Robiskie and Roy Hall). Not to mention Antonio Pittman and the Heisman Troy Smith in the backfield. They also had Whitner and Youboty at DB. My favorite part of that year was when they decimated Notre Damage in the Fiesta Bowl in Weis' first year. That was funny to me because I despise the Fightin Irish. That season also served as a springboard for a lot of true freshman like Laurenitis, Malcolm Jenkins, Gholston and many others.
I believe Gholston left OSU as a redshirt junior after the 2007 season, meaning his true frosh season was in 2004.
Unless he was a redshirt freshman. It was his first year playing. I said all that and thats all you saw out the whole comment. That wasn't even the point I was making.
Somewhere along the line of those years Ray Small shot his wad.
Dont leave out the part where his Dad cleaned it up and said that Tressel spiked his son's urine with weed flavoring.....
Yeah I double-checked, Gholston was a true frosh in 2004.
http://ohiostate.rivals.com/co...
Also, it's spelled "Laurinaitis."
Congratulations are in order to Penn State, a school that is very good at (womens) sports!
http://www.gopsusports.com/gen...
Go Title IX! Now if they just had female college football, PSU might contend for the Big 10 on a regular basis!
Kind of like Tennessee being a lady's basketball school these days?
All of their females would have a better chance of tackling our superstar QB with the nice jeans than Sean "Blame my ACL" Lee
Wow good for you, you know how to spell Laurinaitis. Let me get you a medal. And who gives a shit when Gholston was a true freshman that wasn't even the topic. WOW
Troy Smith won't be traded.
http://www.rotoworld.com/conte...
He'll be lucky if he ever starts for any team. He was the shiz in college but thats the boundary of his greatness.
I posted before. Baltimore would have been wise to implement him in a wildcat formation. Batl. offense is one dimensional and dull. Troy would be ideal there with the caleber of backs they have.
That game is now "never again" territory. We will always remember.
While it is true that the 2005 offense finished well, they took a few games to get to that point. They struggled to find the end zone against Texas, and even in the next game against San Diego State. And then they struggled even more against PSU. They found their stroke in mid-season and rolled from there on. They had better receivers than the 2009 team and a much better offensive line. And Troy was a more polished player at that point (his 4th year in the program) than TP was in 2009. So in that sense, the analogy fails. But the end result was very similar: a 2-loss season that ended with a resounding bowl victory. Truthfully, OSU should have won both games that they lost in 2009, but the end result would have been the same: a Rose Bowl berth against Oregon.
They dont need him in the wildcat when they got both Ray Rice and McGahee. But I guess he would be the ideal candidate for that offense.
After Flaco's last game what makes you think he won't get a look in camp?
I agree with you here the 2005 offense at least scared opponents. I don't think that OSU scared even a 1-AA school on the offensive side of the ball this past season.
I don't think the rose bowl win sets OSU up for a titlle run in 2010. The truth is how can any fan be 100% sure that we are going to see a big jump in TP's game? All of us saw him really make no progress from year 1 to year 2 as a starter actually he may have gotten a little worse.
Watching this year I didn't see a Beanie Wells type of back we can ride in 2010. So unless TP makes a gigantic leap in his game we are still going to have a below average offense which makes it extremely hard to win a title.
BUCKU is angry.
I remember that SDSU game..I had nightmares.
See, I totally disagree that no one has seen any progress from TP from year 1 to year 2. I think the 2nd half of this season, whether he threw a ton of passes or not, he looked remarkably better. He had poise, he made good decisions and I think it was pretty obvious the game slowed down a lot for him. The Rose Bowl was a really good game for him. I'd als like to add that he would have at least 4 more passing TD's, and at least 300 more yards if it weren't for guys dropping wide open passes.
Good point. Flacco didn't exactly lead them to the Promised Land.
OSU had 3 TD drives in that game, none of them longer than 32 yards (20, 32, 1). Other than that, they had 2 field goals and nothing else. After the initial TD by SDSU, OSU's defense shut them down to the tune of 99 total yards on 40 plays. So OSU's offense was constantly working with a short field, but still could score only 27 against a vastly inferior team. Eventually, they got it together. But no one was jumping on the Troy For Heisman bandwagon at that point.
While Ginn was good, I really feel like Holmes was a much better receiver. I dont' see anyone this year that really compared to Holmes at all. His had so much speed, ran great routes, and NEVER seemed to drop the ball. That said, the 3 receivers who will get the bulk of the snaps have a pretty high ceiling talent wise and will probably become comparable to that year's corps.
Morgan Moses news might be nothing, but usually the coaches make a move on an under the radar recruit like that when they finally conclude that they won't be getting someone who they want--here, Seantrel or Matt James. If this is the case, I hope it's the latter we've missed on.
Ol Willis might be cut; Troy was named the starter last year before he got sick, and since I really hate the Ravens I would love to see Troy elsewhere.
I feel like the 2005 team was one of the most talented teams in OSU history. If I remember correctly Troy Smith was the QB, Ginn, Gonzales, and Santonio Holmes--all NFL first-rounders--were the WRs, Pittman and Beanie were the RBs, and the O-line had Mangold, Sims, Barton, and I'm fuzzy on the rest.
The defense was even better, with Carpenter and Hawk at LB, Youboty, Whitner, and Salley in the secondary, and Pitcock and Jay Richardson on the D-Line.
Many of the backups on that team were future NFL first-rounders (i.e. James Laurinitus; Beanie; Malcolm Jenkins). I think this year's tearm may resemble that team record-wise, or based on what they have achieved, but I don't think next year's team will return as stacked as the 2006 squad was. The 2005 team should have beaten #1 Texas as we all know and their #4 final ranking was definitely an underachievement.
F Ryan Hamby... we could've beat Texas and Penn State...he dropped a TD pass twice on the same play against Bevo, and whiffed on a block near the end of the Penn State game that led to a Troy Smith fumble.
I curse you Ryan Hamby!
Live chat with Moeller HC going on right now at cincinnati.com!
Matt...you are correct...somewhat...in 2005 after the PSU loss...OSU struggled for some time on offense...esp. TS. In fact some newspaper articles and posters were referring to him as a one trick pony and calling for Zwick...as the season went on he got better and better, capping off with 2 straight 300 yard games. It never topped 2006
not even close....1968...1973....1998....and I don't want to here about era's....1973 had a truly dominate offensive line that took games over...
sorry i need glasses...i did not see "one of the most talented" you are correct
beanie wasn't till the 2006 team as a true freshmen.
He still gets hate mail I hear....
Wasn't Morgan Moses a recruit they were after 2 years ago or last year? I remembered the name, then just saw his pic and swear they were in the mix for him a class or 2 ago.
I don't understood why so many Buckeye fans are hyper nostalgic about 2005. Until the final 7 minutes of the Michigan game that year, I wasn't convinced that team had much heart, honestly. They seemed to find ways to lose to Texas, PSU, and they halfwat tried to lose to a mediocre Michigan team. Coming off the 2004 season, I wasn't that enthused about a team that I felt underpeformed until the Fiesta Bowl against ND (and that ND defense was weak).
I actually prefer the 2003 team to the 2004 team. Ugly, but they were scrappers, at least. Yeah, they lost to that TSUP, but that was a very good Wolverine team. No, they weren't as good as the 2005 team by any means, but I remember them just as fondly.
And I definitely like the 2009 team better than the 2005 team because they ended up getting just as much out of less. Likewise, the 2010 team probably won't be as talented as the 2006 squad, but they could end up with greater glory.
I meant that I prefer the 2003 team to the 2005 team.
Beanie wasn't around until 2006. Great team though.
Is it just me, or is it getting to the point of depressing when Michigan fans try to get themselves excited, or at the very least justify the value, about a 2-star Ohio recruit's commitment? I mean, is this really what's become of the program with the most wins of all time?
http://mgoblog.com/content/hel...
We had something up in Good Shizzy about it yesterday. Offer sheet included about a half dozen MAC schools.
RR is trying to win the Big Ten with Big East (or worse) players.
Are you insinuating thats not a winning formula?
Everything else in WV is done ass-backwards, why not this?
Just a shame that this will be his last season and he's leaving a cupboard full of shit for his successor.
Which means the rivalry will likely blow for a year or two after he's run out of town.
I enjoyed seeing the Wolverines stumble a bit, but this is getting to be too much.
maybe 11w can start selling maize and blue "just f-ing hire harbaugh already" shirts about mid-season to the dis-illusioned blue horde? its gold jerry, gold!
After the heartbreak inflicted from Tim Biakabatukulakanahafalha....
I can honestly say I hope they never get competitive again
So RR is recruiting like LllllloydC?
Great idea on the t-shirts!
As for recruiting like Lloyd, I think Lloyd's alleged poor recruiting was a myth started up north to make themselves feel better about the pain of RR Year One.
YEAR CMP ATT YDS CMP% YPA TD INT SACK RAT
2008 100 165 1311 60.6 7.95 12 4 21 146.50
2009 167 295 2094 56.6 7.10 18 11 22 128.91
Thats an improvement year over year? The second half of the year included a purdue loss where he threw 2 incredibly costly picks and an iowa game where he didn't even throw for 100 yards.
Like I said what did he show anyone from year 1 to year 2 that is telling you that he is going to make some huge jump and become a big time QB?
I said in my first post he got worse from year 1 to year 2 and that stats pretty much say that.
I still wonder if the staff is in place to really develop this guy to his full potential. I hope that I am wrong and he plays like a beast next year so I guess we will see what happens.
If you watched the rose bowl its clear that he has improved. More first down passing next year and he'll be fine.
I prefer to look at the entire body of work not just a game here or there. Its easy to pick out a good point here and there but overall he had a worse year in 2009 than in 2008.
I know most people like to ignore stats when it is convenient to do so for an argument. But in the end in sports stats rarely lie.
And again if you look at the question the article proposed it was do you think the rose bowl win set this team up for a title run in 2010? Are you going to tell me that a few more first down throws and we win the title?
Ya Flacco was dogshit, anyone is dogshit after only throwing for 34 yards in any game. But im sure Toy wouldn't have fared much better. And then again he might have but we'll never know.
They just got another LB from Ohio. Not impressive film on the guy. He's 6'6 205 LB. ScoutingOhio.com has it.
none of the film of these guys looks any good, what the hell is RR doing? i love that mgoblog has become this echo chamber of happy thoughts, because it's hilarious watching some of these guys justify these recruits.
also the "sleeper" argument is BS, michigan fans can't compare this to what Tressel's done with lower ranked recruits until RR actually has those same kind of recruits produce on the field.
these guys aren't going to be the next JL or even the next zach boren. deal with it
I don't know if you can call a 2* Ohio product that's going to Michigan a sleeper. If this kid had any potential the hometown team would have offered. Good luck to the kid, but tOSU obviously had a reason not to offer him.
The reason that OSU never offered is because they had already offered, and recieved a commitment, from Scott McVey, Jake Ryan's fellow linebacker at St. Igs. McVey is the much better player, but he was injured his senior year, which ironically opened up the door for Jake Ryan to make a splash on the field, and snag a UM schollie.
Just throwing stats out there doesn't give the whole picture anyway. His completion percentage was lower, but they were running a different type of offense for more than half the year. He also didn't have and unbelieveable talent in Beanie Wells he could hand the ball off too. The Iowa game, Pryor was hurt and they were running the ball at will on Iowa.
Also, account for the injuries and the flu the offensive line had this year, it's no wonder TP was getting killed in the Purdue game. After that game, he improved immensely. It's a funny thing just comparing stats from one year to another though. I heard someone telling me Tebow deserved the Heisman this year. So I did a blind comparison between Tebow and Pryor this year. Tebow had overall slightly better stats, but no one would be clamoring to give Pryor the Heisman, and rightfully so. BUt just comparing stats does nothing for me. Pryor is much better with the ball in his hands at this point in his career than that first USC game where he took the field as a Freshman.
I'm willing to see they overall progression of the team will set this team up for a title run. Don't know if you realize this but they did beat Penn State, Iowa, and Oregon in 3 of their last 4 games. They all ended the season in the top 11. It wasn't just deefense that beat thos e teams. With pretty much the whole offensive line back, a stable of running backs, and 3 good receivers, and TP. Yes, the team will have a chance to win the title next year. The toughest games will be Iowa and Wisconsin. Get past them and they'll be in great shape.
Classy.