The countdown of Ohio State's top 25 plays from the last 25 years continues.
Two spectacular catches and two memorable game-winners against Penn State populated spots 21 through 25 in part 1 of Eleven Warriors' rankings. Check that out if you haven't already. A quick recap, with the opponent and season attached:
25. Marvin Harrison Jr.'s acrobatic sideline snag (Indiana, 2022)
24. Chris Gamble's pick-six (Penn State, 2002)
23. Noah Brown's around-the-back catch (Oklahoma, 2016)
22. J.T. Barrett to Marcus Baugh to complete 18-point comeback (Penn State, 2017)
21. Justin Fields delivers bomb to Chris Olave through injury (Clemson, 2020)
Part 2 of our top plays countdown marches forward to the beat of defensive heroics and open-field excellence from two of the most dynamic athletes ever to wear scarlet and gray. Any list like this is going to feature a lot of subjectivity when compiling, but we did our best to rank each moment based on importance, quality in a vacuum, the stage it occurred on, how iconic it's become and how impactful it was to winning that game.
If you enjoy this series, be sure to check out our five-part countdown of the top 25 games of the quarter-century, too.
20. Sept. 7, 2015: Braxton Miller hits the B button
Those who have played a college football video game on Xbox know that the B button is reserved for spin moves. On a crisp September afternoon in 2015, Braxton Miller brought his controller with him.
Ohio State entered the 2015 season as defending national champions and started the year at Virginia Tech. The Hokies were the only team to notch a win over the Buckeyes in 2014, and Urban Meyer's team wanted atonement for that loss. The game also marked Miller's return to the OSU lineup after the dynamic quarterback missed the 2014 season due to a shoulder injury and moved to wide receiver.
Late in the third quarter, Ohio State held a 21-17 lead and had the ball near midfield. Miller lined up at quarterback and took a first-down snap, then ran toward the Hokies' sideline. As he reached the first down marker, two Virginia Tech defenders descended upon him. He planted his feet and spun by both of them in one of the most electrifying open-field moves in program history.
Miller outraced the Hokies' defense the remaining 40 yards of the 53-yard touchdown run to put the Buckeyes up 28-17. They cruised to a 42-24 win from there, the first in program history over Virginia Tech.
A potential highlight reel play on every snap, there were many Miller plays that came to mind for this list, including his juke, jive and dive touchdown against Penn State in 2012. He finished his Ohio State career with nine runs of 50 yards or more, with seven of them resulting in touchdowns.
19. Nov. 20, 2004: Ted Ginn Jr. sets Michigan's punt team ablaze
Five Michigan men tried to tackle Ted Ginn Jr. None succeeded.
Even in his weaker seasons, Jim Tressel's program held the edge over its most bitter rival from the mitten. Unranked Ohio State entered as a heavy underdog against No. 7 Michigan in 2004, the Buckeyes holding a 6-4 record to the Wolverines' 9-1. It was considered a rebuilding year for Ohio State after a school-record 14 of its players were selected in the 2004 NFL draft.
But amid that rebuild, one man who possessed the power – even as a freshman – to take a stadium's breath away was Ginn. He returned four punts for touchdowns during the 2004 season alone, finishing his career with six punt return and two kick return scores to go with 1,943 receiving yards in three seasons.
Michigan was clinging to life in the third quarter before a raucous Shoe, punting the ball back to Ohio State and facing a 20-14 deficit. Ginn caught the ball at his own 18-yard line and faced near-immediate contact from a Wolverine gunner, but a quick hop to the left sent him flying by.
Ginn eluded a second charging coverage man with a sharp cut to his right, then threw on the brakes to swim past a third defender and one of his blockers. He burst back to the left and sent a fourth would-be tackler tumbling by. The last defender with a chance was hapless Michigan punter Adam Finley, who did his best impression of a fisherman trying to stop a tsunami as Ginn sailed past him on the sideline.
The 82-yard punt return touchdown put Ohio State ahead 27-14, a lead it expanded to 34-14 on a Santonio Holmes score from Troy Smith before locking up a 37-21 win in The Game.
18. Jan. 1, 2015: Steve Miller's Sugar Bowl thick six
Ohio State's first College Football Playoff game against No. 1 Alabama produced three plays that will crack our top 25 for the last 25 years, an honor it shares with just one other contest, the 2003 BCS national championship game between the Buckeyes and Miami.
It's hard to select which stands out more, the individual effort here or the defensive play call. Ohio State defensive coordinators Luke Fickell and Chris Ash correctly assessed that Alabama would target Heisman Trophy finalist wide receiver Amari Cooper on third-and-7, and dialed up a zone blitz that dropped defensive end Steve Miller to the exact spot where Cooper's route was heading.
Defensive linemen rarely get the chance to showcase any open-field running ability. Miller didn't waste his opportunity.
Miller jumped to snag the dart from Alabama quarterback Blake Sims at the Crimson Tide's 41-yard line and took off the other way before Cooper could properly react. He picked up a caravan of blockers and had enough speed to prevent two of the Tide offensive linemen from getting an angle to shove him out of bounds.
The pick-six put Ohio State ahead 34-21 late in the third quarter, but it wasn't the play that knocked out the defending national champion Crimson Tide, a play that will rank much higher on this list.
17. Jan. 1, 2022: Jaxon Smith-Njigba's over-the-shoulder catch during record-breaking night
JAXON SMITH-NJIGBA FOR THE LEAD!!
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) January 2, 2022
THIS MAN CAN'T BE STOPPED pic.twitter.com/AgDWhFSas6
The 2022 Rose Bowl was the backdrop for one of the best receiving performances in college football history. Jaxon Smith-Njigba finished the game with 15 catches for 347 yards and three touchdowns, but there was one catch that stands out among the record-breaking rest.
Following a first half in which Kyle Whittingham's Utes controlled, a shorthanded Ohio State squad clawed back from multiple 14-point deficits and had the ball with the game knotted at 38-38 late in the fourth quarter. The play before this epic catch, Buckeye quarterback C.J. Stroud and Smith-Njigba connected for 9 yards on fourth-and-4 from the Utah 39-yard line to keep the team's drive alive.
Stroud laced a precise throw to Smith-Njigba's outside shoulder. The wideout clasped two hands around the ball and tapped two feet in bounds before sliding out with a go-ahead score in the fourth quarter.
"You can watch this sport forever, you won't see many better games from a wide receiver than this one," ESPN's Chris Fowler exclaimed on the broadcast.
The Buckeyes took a 45-38 lead on the catch, and after Utah tied the score at 45, a last-second field goal secured a 48-45 Rose Bowl victory. Smith-Njigba set Ohio State's single-game receiving yards record, becoming the first Buckeye ever to collect 300 in one game. He tied his own single-game record for receptions, which he set earlier in the 2021 season against Nebraska.
16. Nov. 17, 2012: Ryan Shazier forces a Doak Walker winner to fumble on the goal line
It's hard to make a better play as a linebacker than meeting the best running back in the country at the goal line and separating the football from his body. Ryan Shazier did exactly that for Ohio State in fourth-quarter crunch time against Wisconsin in 2012.
The Badgers faced fourth-and-a-foot from the Buckeyes' 1-yard line, trailing 14-7 in a hostile Camp Randall Stadium with less than three minutes to play. Montee Ball made perfect sense to give the ball in this situation. A 2011 Heisman Trophy finalist, Ball won the 2012 Doak Walker Award as the best running back in college football. Wisconsin has a decorated history of running backs, and he has the most rushing touchdowns in school history with 77. He posted 1,800-yard seasons in 2011 and 2012.
But when he tried to leap over the pile, 1 yard from another score, he encountered a different beast in Shazier. Shazier met Ball midair with his shoulder, stonewalling him at the line and knocking the football loose to be recovered by Buckeye safety Christian Bryant.
Shazier's hit, one of many bone-clattering tackles in the career of the consensus first-team All-American, would rank higher on this list if Ohio State had won the game as a direct result. Wisconsin did ultimately tie the contest at 14 to force overtime, where the Buckeyes won 21-14 thanks to a Carlos Hyde rushing touchdown and one more fourth-down stop.
