In partnership with
Vo. 1, No. 2
Ohio State lost last week, but history shows the season must go on.
That is convenient because this newsletter is about the past — welcome back to the Buckeye Historian, a regular feature from Cus Words Sports.
Here are some fun facts that may interest only me (but hopefully you, too) about the Kent State series and OSU’s record against the MAC.
What to know about the Ohio State-Kent State series
Ohio State is 3-0 against the Golden Flashes (recaps below).
The average score has been 55-6.7 with a margin of victory of nearly seven touchdowns.
Beyond that, Ohio State is 40-1 against current members of the Mid-American Conference, including a 56-3 win over Ball State earlier this season. The only loss was to the school now known as the University of Akron in 1896 at the Ohio State Fairgrounds.
Notable individual performances include J.T. Barrett tying the school record with six touchdown passes against the Golden Flashes in 2014 and Brian Hartline setting the school record with a 90-yard punt return for a touchdown in 2007.
Terrelle Pryor threw for 233 yards and ran for 113 against Miami University in 2010.
Turn AI into Your Income Engine
Ready to transform artificial intelligence from a buzzword into your personal revenue generator?
HubSpot’s groundbreaking guide "200+ AI-Powered Income Ideas" is your gateway to financial innovation in the digital age.
Inside you'll discover:
A curated collection of 200+ profitable opportunities spanning content creation, e-commerce, gaming, and emerging digital markets—each vetted for real-world potential
Step-by-step implementation guides designed for beginners, making AI accessible regardless of your technical background
Cutting-edge strategies aligned with current market trends, ensuring your ventures stay ahead of the curve
Download your guide today and unlock a future where artificial intelligence powers your success. Your next income stream is waiting.
In-state dominance
The Buckeyes have a 197-50-13 record against teams from the state of Ohio.
Their last loss to a team from Ohio was a 7-6 setback at home against Oberlin on Oct. 8, 1921.
The Buckeyes tied Wooster 7-7 on Nov. 1, 1924.
They did not play an in-state opponent from 1935-91 before taking on Bowling Green in 1992.
Since them, Ohio State is 34-0 against teams from Ohio, including a 6-0 mark against Cincinnati and 3-0 against Youngstown State.
In the early days of Ohio State football — the first game was a 20-14 win over Ohio Wesleyan in the spring of 1890 — most games were played against teams from Ohio — and it did not always go well for the Buckeyes starting that fall.
Ohio State posted three losses — to 64-0 to Wooster, 14-0 at Denison and 18-10 to Kenyon — to finish what the school recognizes as the first season in school history at 1-3.
(Ohio State’s first out-of-state game was not until 1895 when the Buckeyes won 8-6 at Kentucky.)
In an ironic twist, Ohio State has a worse all-time record against current members of the Ohio Athletic Conference (30-4-3), which counted Ohio State as a member until the Buckeyes joined the Big Ten in 1913.
The Buckeyes took their lumps from a few in-state teams early on, especially Oberlin. The Yeoman won the first six meetings in the series before Ohio State beat them 6-0 in 1899, but Ohio State eventually took a 13-10-3 lead in the series.
Ohio State started 1-2-1 against Ohio Wesleyan but won the last 25 games in the series while one Ohio college still has a winning record against the Buckeyes.
Western Reserve won the first five in the series and maintains a 6-5-1 advantage despite losing the last two, including a 76-0 wipeout in 1934.
It wasn’t always quite this
Believe it or not, Ohio State used to have a competitive game with a MAC team from time to time.
Since Ryan Day took over full time in 2019, the margin of victory for the Buckeyes is an astounding 51.7 points per game, but it was only 38.7 under Urban Meyer and 25.4 under Jim Tressel.
During the Tressel era, four games were decided by 14 points or less, including his first (28-14 over Akron).
In 2003, the defending national champions topped Bowling Green just 24-17, and the 2004 team needed a last-second field goal by Mike Nugent to hold off Marshall 24-21.
The 2006 Ohio State team that was ranked No. 1 to start the season beat Northern Illinois 35-12 in its season-opener and topped Bowling Green 35-7 later that season.
The following two seasons also had some tense moments as the 2007 Buckeyes slogged to a 20-2 win over Akron (but later crushed Kent State 48-3), and the 2008 team stumbled to a 25-14 win over Ohio one week before getting blown out at USC.
Since the end of the Tressel era, two games have been decided by single digits but only three by less than 21.
One of those was a 40-20 win over Buffalo to open the 2013 season, a game Ohio State fans might remember as the coming out party for Khalil Mack.
The two close games were a 27-22 Ohio State win over Toledo in 2011 under Luke Fickell and a 20-13 win over Northern Illinois in 2015.
The close shave against the Huskies is probably one of the oddest games of the past two decades.
Ohio State was the defending national champion and featured a loaded roster, though questions about whether or not Cardale Jones or J.T. Barrett should be the starting quarterback persisted through the first half of the season.
Jones threw two interceptions in that game, including one on the first drive that was turned to the Ohio State 22 and eventually led to a touchdown.
After another Jones interception set up a Northern Illinois field goal early in the second quarter, Meyer turned to Barrett.
The Buckeyes went three-and-out on his first possession, but Barrett hooked up with Michael Thomas for a 23-yard touchdown pass on the next drive to tie the game at 10.
Barrett led an 11-play, 73-yard drive that ended with a go-ahead field goal in the third quarter, but those were the last points produced by the offense that day.
(The defense added a pick-6 in the third quarter.)
John Cooper was not immune to the plucky MAC challenge, either.
His Buckeyes beat Bowling Green 17-6 in 1992, the first time Ohio State played an in-state foe since the 1930s.
They also got pushed for a while by Ohio University before pulling away for a 40-16 win in 1999 and were in real peril for a while against Miami University before winning 27-16 in 2000.
If you want to sound smarter without doing more…
Read Morning Brew. 5-minute daily email. Day's most important news. Explained in simplest terms. Really, it’s a news experience you’ll actually enjoy.
At this point, it's not about trying Morning Brew's daily newsletter—It's about missing out.
Click below to join 4,000,000+ daily readers.
Ohio State-Kent State series history
2002: Ohio State 51. Kent State 17
On a sweltering 86-degree day, Ohio State raced out to a huge lead thanks to a pair of Maurices and a pair of pick-6s.
Maurice Clarett started the scoring with a 2-yard touchdown run less than three minutes into the game, and Maurice Hall added another from 28 yards out with 4:35 left in the first quarter. Clarett scored on a 7-yard pass early in the second quarter. That made it 28-0 because All-American safety Mike Doss had returned an interception 45 yards for a touchdown in the first quarter.
After a 40-yard field goal by Mike Nugent, freshman linebacker A.J. Hawk returned an interception 34 yards to make it 38-0 with three minutes left in the first half.
The Buckeyes getting out to a huge early lead made watching the Kent State quarterback more of a curiosity than a concern. Who was that quarterback? A guy named Joshua Cribbs. The future Cleveland Browns standout threw for 160 yards and two touchdowns, but more impressive was the way he scrambled around making the dozen future pros on the Ohio State defense look silly trying to corral him. He ended up with 94 yards rushing.
If you were there that day — and I was — it was hard not to be impressed with Cribbs.
Meanwhile, Craig Krenzel completed 12 of 14 passes, a percentage of .857 that was tied for the fourth-best in school history at the time.
2007: Ohio State 48, Kent State 3
Brian Hartline caught a 14-yard touchdown pass to start the scoring then returned a punt 90 yards for a touchdown to give the Buckeyes a 14-0 lead a minute into the second quarter.
After Beanie Wells ran for a 7-yard touchdown, Donald Washington returned an interception 70 yards for a touchdown to make it 28-0, and the Buckeyes never looked back.
Todd Boeckman completed 13 of 16 passes for 184 yards and two touchdowns while Piqua High School grad Brandon Saine ran nine times for 69 yards and caught five passes for 76 yards on an efficient day for the Ohio State offense.
Julian Edelman started at quarterback for the Golden Flashes and looked like a future wide receiver, completing just 4 of 10 passes for 49 yards. He was sacked five times, including twice by Vernon Gholston, and finished with -7 yards rushing on the day.
2014: Ohio State 66, Kent State 0
One week after a deflating loss to Virginia Tech, Ohio State took out frustrations on the Golden Flashes.
J.T. Barrett tied an Ohio State single-game record with six touchdown passes, including two to Michael Thomas, and Curtis Samuel ran for 100 yards and two touchdowns.
Ezekiel Elliott ran for 65 yards and caught four passes for 52 yards for the Buckeyes.
Raekwon McMillan led the defense with seven tackles, including two sacks and three tackles for loss.
Saturday might be boring once the ball is kicked, but these weeks I find fun because of the annual opportunity to recount all the silly stats Ohio State has accumulated against in-state foes over the last 14 decades.
If you know anyone who might enjoy this type of thing, please help spread the word!
Interested in starting your own newsletter? I’m using Beehiiv, and I highly recommend it.
Click here to learn more (and if you end up subscribing, I would get a commission, but it is free to try and to maintain a newsletter).