Nearly three decades after his final season at Ohio State, the brilliance of Orlando Pace at the collegiate level remains unrivaled.
Pace's 1996 and his Buckeye playing career across three seasons serve as arguably the highpoint for any offensive lineman in recent college football history. His top-five finish in Heisman Trophy voting during his junior year still holds distinction as just one of three for offensive linemen in the sport's two-platoon era dating back to the mid-60s. He remains the only lineman to win the Big Ten's Graham-George Offensive Player of the Year award since its inception 36 years ago, as well as the only two-time winner of the Rotary Lombardi Award at any position in its 55-year existence.
Yet, despite all the hardware, Pace's greatest legacy as a Buckeye likely became his elevation of the term "pancake block" into the sport's general lexicon. Pancakes as a football concept predated Pace by three decades going back to the days of West Virginia head coach Jim Carlen and his system for awarding helmet stickers. But as OSU sought ways to creatively brand its unique star at an under-appreciated position ahead of his Heisman campaign upon becoming an upperclassman, "The Pancake Man" quickly emerged as an obvious nickname choice.
Yet, in a career illustrated by consistent domination across 38 games as a starter in three seasons, picking out just one performance as the best of the bunch seems a tall task. After all, Pace never allowed a sack across his last two years as a starter, making it a challenge to distinguish one particularly stellar pass-blocking performance among the rest of his clean sheets.
The lack of quality camera footage compared to the current digital era and several all-time Buckeye offensive talents somehow overshadowing Pace on many of his best plays only complicate this choice further. The cruel irony of the most brilliant offensive linemen in football continues to be that the very best often achieve a job most well done when their assigned area of the field — and the defenders within it — go unnoticed to the common eye.
So the question persists: what was the greatest game of Orlando Pace's Ohio State career?
Perhaps the answer depends on how one defines "greatest." Either way, the two clearest candidates seem to exist within Pace's 1995 season rather than his more decorated follow-up slate the next year.
In terms of overall individual impact and quality of opponent, one choice could be Pace's game against the #21 Wisconsin Badgers in October of 1995. On that afternoon, Ohio State needed a fourth-quarter comeback in Camp Randall Stadium to remain undefeated. Eddie George finished with 141 of the Buckeyes' 207 total rushing yards that day and scored three times on the ground, including a pair of touchdowns in the fourth quarter to put OSU ahead for good. Pace drove Wisconsin linebacker Daryl Carter 10 yards off the line of scrimmage before arriving as the first Buckeye to greet George in the end zone on the team's final visit to paydirt of the day.
But the most impactful play of the game for Pace was perhaps his most unique during his career in scarlet and gray. While Ohio State entered the final quarter of play trailing by a field goal, the deficit could have amounted to even more if not for The Pancake Man's performance on special teams. Roughly two and a half minutes prior to the end of the third quarter, Pace blocked a 46-yard field goal attempt after bursting through the A-gap and deflecting a low kick.
Photo: ABC Broadcast of Ohio State vs. Wisconsin, 10/14/1995
One could make a decent argument for Pace's afternoon as a sophomore in Madison as the best of his OSU career on those aforementioned merits. But if sheer dominance serves as the chief criteria, it would be difficult to argue against his contributions to the win over Illinois just four games later.
The 1995 victory against the Fighting Illini often lives fondly in the memories of Buckeye fans as the game that cemented George as that season's Heisman Trophy winner. Touchdown Eddie became the first Ohio State football player to rush for over 300 yards that day, shattering the school's previous single-game rushing record held by Keith Byars since 1984 — also against Illinois. George's record of 314 yards remained intact until Trey Sermon's herculean 331-yard performance facing Northwestern in the 2020 Big Ten Championship.
Even the best running backs will often only go as far as their offensive line permits them. Therefore, one could logically infer that George's statistically-best career day as a Buckeye would also serve as that of Pace. For those that remain unconvinced, the proof resides in the pancakes.
According to page 65 of Ohio State's 1996 media guide, Pace recorded 10 pancake blocks during the 41-3 win over the Fighting Illini. While Pace's pancake tally from either of his underclassmen years may never become a certain quantity, OSU credits him with 80 total across the 12 games from his junior season. In that context, it seems difficult to imagine he had a more prolific day flattening defenders than November 11th, 1995.
The tape appears to back up that assumption. Pace pancaked a defender on George's longest rush of the first half (39 yards) and on the first two of three rushing touchdowns Ohio State scored, including George's 64-yard scamper in the third quarter.
Even on snaps when Pace's assignment did not find themselves helplessly pressed into the earth, the opposing defender often became completely removed from any opportunity to make a play on the ball carrier. The unstoppable force of The Pancake Man never met anyone or anything close to an immovable object.
There are indubitably other performances from Pace's time as a Buckeye that one might argue were actually his best — that 1996 Heisman candidacy certainly wasn't built on hype from the previous season alone. In a career stamped with so many phenomenal accomplishments, choosing a game that does not qualify as such may prove more difficult than debating between those that do fit the bill.
Pace ultimately became the top overall pick in the 1997 NFL Draft before completing a 13-year NFL career with the St. Louis Rams and Chicago Bears that saw him named to the NFL 2000s All-Decade Team. He earned All-Pro honors five times, made seven Pro Bowls and won a Super Bowl in 2000 at the expense of George.
The Pancake Man claimed a spot in the NFL Hall of Fame's 2016 class alongside Marvin Harrison Sr. and their children ultimately became teammates at Ohio State. Pace's son Jalen achieved Academic All-Big Ten honors in 2023 before adding a national championship to his resume during his senior year last season.
Put another way, Pace's legacy as a Buckeye continues to endure in more ways than one.
