Explanation of the points system: two top ten lists were compiled, one for the community based upon comments and votes, the other based upon the resumes of the players mentioned on the thread. First on a list = ten points, second = nine, and so on.
7(t). Zeke Elliott, 2013-2015 RB, 7 points
Watch him play without the ball; some of his best plays you could say are plays he makes without the ball. He kind of has an offensive lineman's mindset but he plays running back.
Tony Alford
Zeke had an incredible career running the ball for Ohio State, but that is not why he appears on this list. Elliott is likely the best pass protector at running back that the buckeyes have ever had. And he certainly wasn’t afraid to lower the boom on a defender if it meant his quarterback could get the ball off, or for one of his other teammates to gain a few extra yards on the ground.
Also one cannot forget Elliott’s prowess on the kick-off team before he became the great back we all know and love.
7(t). Orlando Pace, 1994-1996 OT, 7 points
Orlando Pace is not only the best offensive lineman I have ever coached, but he is the best I have ever seen. Every game was a highlight reel for him. We ran a lot of counter sweeps and a lot of screens, and on many of those plays Orlando had to be out in front of the ball carrier. And we had some pretty good ball carriers.
John Cooper
When you are the main reason a statistic on Madden exists, it says something about your play. Orlando Pace made the “Pancake Block” famous. The two-time Lombardi Award winner and two-time All-american made a career in Columbus flattening a multitude of defensive ends, linebackers, and defensive backs that dared to step into his path.
Pace was key to the success of the team and the backs that ran behind him. Eddie George probably doesn’t win a heisman in 1995 if not for Orlando’s hard clear outs of defensive ends, and the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year was essential to a 1996 Rose Bowl win.
7(t). Joey Bosa, 2013-2015 DE, 7 points
In a polarizing three-year career playing in the ‘Shoe, Joey Bosa could strike fear into the heart of any opposing quarterback. The only defensive lineman on this list had an almost unstoppable motor and a knack for finding the ball to lay the wood on somebody. Teams were so afraid of Bosa, in fact, that coming off his breakout 13.5 sack sophomore season (second most in a single year) the big bear would be double or even triple teamed on almost any play where he could possibly have an impact. Joey would twice be named an All-american for his efforts and take home a Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year in 2014.
7(t). Randy Gradishar, 1971-1973 LB, 7 points
The best linebacker I ever coached.
Woody Hayes
The above video is just one example of a goal line stick by the linebacker who may have been the best at it in buckeye history.
Ohio State defenses in the late 60’s and early 70’s were some of the best in college football, and for three seasons Gradishar was the centerpiece of these great attacks. The first linebacker of four in the top ten, he possesses a quality that is thematic of all of them: athleticism. Randy was all over the field defensively it seemed, as he finished with 320 career tackles, 11th all-time at this school.
Gradishar’s defensive capabilities would lead to a 1973 Rose Bowl win for his team and two All-american namings in 1972 and 1973 for himself
6. Chris Spielman, 1984-1987 LB, 8 points
You have to be a pretty solid hitter to bring down a school-record number of ball carriers by yourself. Chris Spielman is not only third all-time for Ohio State with 546 total tackles, he owns the record for solo stops with 283. Chris is most famous in Columbus, however, for one of the most incredible performances in “The Game” ever seen. He made 29 tackles in a losing effort in 1986, one of the main reasons that it was just a two point loss. It still stands as a tie for the most tackles by any player in a single game for the buckeyes.
After assisting with Citrus and Cotton Bowl wins in 1985 and 1986 respectively (Spielman was an All-american the latter year), in 1987 the Team Captain version of Spielman would pack on the individual accolades with a second All-american selection, a Team MVP, a Lombardi Award,and a 6th place finish for the heisman.
5. Mike Doss, 1999-2002 SS, 9 points
My apologies for the atrocity that was the music in the above video, but dang what a destroyer Doss was.
The school record holder for tackles from the safety position (331), to say one of number two’s strengths was run support would be a drastic understatement. Not to say he wasn’t just as effective against the pass. For any strong safety to pick off 8 throws in a career is highly commendable.
But this article is about the hard hitters, and Mike Doss is certainly one of them. He had no shortage of these sticks against Miami in the 2002 national championship win, the same year he was named an All-american and Team Captain.
3(t). Antoine Winfield, 1996-1998 CB, 12 points
Antoine Winfield is the first name that pops into my head when someone starts talking about press coverage. The dude didn’t really care who was coming off the line, the “bump” in his “bump and run” wasn’t much of a bump at all... it was more of a crash followed by a thud.
In 1998 Winfield had one of the most decorated seasons in the history of the Ohio State defensive backfield, taking home the Jim Thorpe Award as the nation’s best DB, he was the Captain of a team that won the Sugar Bowl that year, and he became an All-american. His whole career was one filled with toughness and hard knocks though, as one of the flat-out meanest buckeyes ever to play the game.
Antoine had 3 career interceptions.
3(t). Ryan Shazier, 2011-2013 LB, 12 points
Shazier may not have had the size of the other linebackers on this list, but he could lower a boom just the same. He was a big reason the buckeyes had back-to-back undefeated regular seasons in 2012 and 2013. Shazier was first-team All-Big Ten both of those years.
The twelfth all-time leading tackler for Ohio State (317, 210 solo) was second in the nation in TFLs as a Junior with 23.5 of them. Shazier was one of the few on this list I actually got to watch play, and from my recollections I could always count on a big hit from Shazier at some point in every game.
2. Andy Katzenmoyer, 1996-1998 LB, 18 points
I know I would be quivering in my cleats if I saw “The Big Kat” staring at me through that reflective visor. And the hits delivered by the final linebacker on this list would be understated if we used the second word in his nickname as the adjective. Katzenmoyer started as a true freshman and would proceed to start all 37 games he played as a buckeye, being a main cog in a 1996 Rose Bowl and 1998 Sugar Bowl win.
Andy was named first-team All-Big Ten three times and was an all-american in 1997, the same year he won the Butkus Award as nation’s best linebacker.
1. Jack Tatum, 1968-1970 SS, 20 points
To this day, that was as good a defensive game as I've ever seen somebody play. And he was about as good as it gets. We've had a lot of great defensive players play at Ohio State, but I think if you had to pick one, it would be Jack Tatum.
Ohio State football historian Jack Park, on both Tatum’s famous game shutting down Purdue’s Leroy Keyes and his career as a whole.
Just by having that intimidating force in his position, people had to decide whether they really wanted to run that direction or not.
Former OSU Fullback Jim Otis
My idea of a good hit is when the victim wakes up on the sidelines with train whistles blowing in his head.
Jack Tatum
Taking the number one spot with just the second perfect score we’ve had (and he wasn’t even close to being denied that) is Jack Tatum. I mean, who else when the weekly award for the hardest hit is named after him?
He didn’t care who he was hitting either, he was going to assassinate them all. Jack slaughtered fullback, receiver, tight end, running back, and quarterback alike; and if a lineman got in his way he would bowl right over him too. I’ve only ever seen two highlight reels of Tatum (all I could ever find), but what I watched was somebody who came after the ball carrier like he’d just stolen something from him and let no one get in his way of dishing out some just punishment.
Jack Tatum was the most-renowned and likely best player on two national championship squads (1968 and 1970) with a career record of 27-2 as a “super soph”. He was an All-american in 1969 and 1970 with a seventh-place heisman finish in the second of those years.
Honorable Mentions: Zack Dumas (3 points), Nate Salley (1 point)
Stats from: Sports-reference.com and buckeyefansonly.com.
