There is so much to go through about the final chapter of 2019 that I’m forgoing my usual format for the sake of brevity, since some of you have referred to my work as tomes. So, let’s see what it looked like from the average Ohioan couch. Even with two weeks to digest this before finalizing this article, this one is going to leave a deep scar. Losses like Purdue 2018, Iowa 2017, the Other Fiesta Bowl, MSU 2015, the losses at the end of 2013, the losses to USC, to LSU, to Florida; all of those cut deep. Thwarted championships. The thing is you can sum up the flaws of those games in a single sentence; not this game. 2018 Purdue; Defensive disappearing act and B1G West night game voodoo. 2017 Iowa; Defensive disappearing act and B1G West night game voodoo. The Other Fiesta Bowl and 2015; Our inept offensive coordinators wrecking the Ferrari. 2015 MSU; Give the ball to Zeke. 2013; Give the ball to Hyde. USC; We were outcoached. LSU and Florida; outran. But where do you begin for the night of December 28th, 2019?
The bogus targeting call on Shaun Wade that extended the drive, kicked Wade out, and gave Clemson life (again) when they were about breathe their last gasp? The refs screwing us over further on a catch, fumble, scoop and score that had the jerseys been reversed would have stood? Further ref idiocy calling a 15-yard roughing the kicker (Giving Clemson life that was slipping from them) instead of the appropriate 5-yard running into the kicker that it was? J.K. Dobbins drops? The first Olave-Fields miscommunication of the season? Tuf Borland dropping a pick-six? The RedZone offense puckering and getting as conservative as the most tightly called Jim Tressel offensive game plan? J.K. getting caught from behind on a 64-yard run? The ball hitting the Clemson return man on Ohio State’s final punt? Letting the most feminine looking quarterback in football scramble for a 60-yard plus touchdown run? Playing on good turf and not that pathetic excuse for grass at what is supposed to be a world class venue? Pick one. Change one of those things and we’re playing LSU on Monday.
I curse those officials. The way they called that game, they are thieves. I will go to my grave believing that if Pac-12 or Big 12 or any officiating crew outside of the SEC calls that game, the Buckeyes win by more than two touchdowns. Some say they screwed us as much as Vince McMahon screwed Brett Hart, and others including Bama fans say that the SEC refs have been that incompetent for a long, long time. The fact that it happened over and over again in that game is a travesty. Unlike Miami Hurricane fans, we have a true gripe that the refs screwed us through either treachery or incompetence. That won’t change. It’s a fact.
What is also a fact is that if Fields and Olave are on the same page, or if J.K. somehow finishes his second 64-yard run (and in his defense, the only Buckeye back I’ve ever seen who doesn’t get caught there is the sprinter Zeke Elliott), or if Borland makes the biggest Buckeye defensive play since Steve Miller in the 2015 Sugar Bowl, or if the RedZone offense punches it in just once out of those three times, or Browning catches Sunshine and keeps him out of the endzone, then we win.
It’s not just the unfairness or the so close but so far aspects of this that will leave a defining scar. It’s the young men on this team. I felt nothing but love for this team both before and after this game. I wanted the win for them as much as for myself. These guys left it all on the field and played their hearts and souls out. Not one Buckeye was giving less than their all. I’ve never seen a team as unified as this team lose. Teams that play this hard and support each other this much have walked away with national championships. Each and every one of us know that the likes of K.J. Hill, Ben Victor, Brandon Bowen, Jordan Fuller, Austin Mack, Damon Arnette, Chase Young, J.K. Dobbins, and Jeff Okudah are champion men and champion Buckeyes. That’s why for me, and for now (and I hope this changes with time) the theme of the 2019 Ohio State Buckeyes will be heartbreak because of how close they came and how well and hard they fought.
You can find a positive in every season of the last decade (I intend to go through some of them with you this offseason). In 2011, Braxton Miller dawned and beat Russell Wilson. In 2012, the team was unbent, unbowed, unbroken, undefeated. In 2013, Urban Meyer’s offense shined as the Buckeyes won 24 straight. In 2014, Ohio State became the first college football playoff national champion and that says it all. In 2015, we enjoyed watching legends like Elliott, Thomas, Bosa, Miller, Bell, and Lee become some of the best to ever wear scarlet and gray. In 2016, we broke the hearts of that team up north in a double overtime none of us will forget. In 2017, we said goodbye to J.T. Barrett while saying hello to J.K. Dobbins, Chase Young, and Dwayne Haskins. In 2018, Dwayne Haskins re-wrote the record books and Urban Meyer rode off in the sunset a Big Ten again and a Rose Bowl champion for the first time. As I finish, I can see that this season will be remembered for Chase Young, and J.K. Dobbins shattering records in their own rights, and the privilege it has been to watch them, and this team play at Ohio State. Yet even now it is with a slightly bitter heart.
The good news is great. In the Meyer/Day Era Ohio State is 99-10. Ryan Day, and his staff are only further strengthening this already stalwart and dreadnaught of a program. We weathered the NFL draft really well too. Jeff Okudah, J.K. Dobbins, and Chase Young should and likely will be first round draft picks. Jonathan Cooper decided to come back for another year, so did Josh Myers, Wyatt Davis, and Thayer Munford. The biggest return has to be Shaun Wade. The secondary would be breaking in four new starters without him, but he’s coming back and will likely continue to develop into a lockdown corner and the next first round draft pick out of DBU. With Fields, Teague, and Wilson headlining the skill positions this team will be just as lethal in 2020, even with an early road test at the reigning Pac-12 Champions; Oregon. What’s scary is that Ryan Day still hasn’t hit the ceiling with the program under his leadership. It was said for most of the 2010’s so it only seems right to say it at the start of the 2020’s. The future is bright at Ohio State and it’s a great time to be a Buckeye.
