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Vo. 1, No. 8
Hello and welcome to another edition of Buckeye Historian from Cus Words Sports!
Today we take a closer look at the Ohio State-USC series, which began 79 years ago and has featured some of the most memorable games in the history of each school.
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Ohio State-USC Series History
USC leads the all-time series 10-13-1.
Ohio State won the last meeting 24-7 in the Cotton Bowl on Dec. 29, 2017, snapping a seven-game losing streak for the Buckeyes.
The last win before that was 42-21 in the 1974 Rose Bowl (’73 season).
This will be their first meeting as members of the Big Ten.
Other fun facts:
USC won the first two games in the series in 1937 and ’38 before the Buckeyes won three in a row in the early 1940s.
They did not play in the Rose Bowl until Jan. 1, 1955, a 20-7 victory for Ohio State, the national champion for that season.
The teams have played in the Rose Bowl seven times with USC winning four.
Both teams have been ranked in every matchup since Oct. 17, 1964, when Ohio State was No. 2 and won 17-0.
Ohio State has played USC more times (24) than any other non-Ohio-based or (previously) non-Big Ten school with the exception of Pittsburgh (25 times).
Ohio State is 2-5-1 against the Trojans at the Coliseum, where the Buckeyes have not won since 1946. They tied 13-13 in ’49, which is also the last time Ohio State scored a touchdown in that stadium.
The USC game notes observe five of the Trojans’ former head coaches have Ohio roots, including College Football Hall of Famer Howard Jones of Excello in Butler County. The first great coach of the Trojans led Ohio State to a 6-1-3 record in 1910 before going on to lead USC to four of their claimed national titles.
Pete Carroll is from California but was a member of Earle Bruce’s staff in 1979 while Larry Smith is from Van Wert, Elmer “Gloomy Gus” Henderson was born in Oberlin and attended Oberlin College, and Paul Hackett was an assistant for the Cleveland Browns.
Notable statistic achievements
O.J. Simpson’s 80-yard run in the 1969 Rose Bowl is still tied for seventh-longest run by an Ohio State opponent.
In 1989, Todd Marinovich completed an 87-yard pass to John Jackson that is the fifth-longest pass allowed by Ohio State.
Charles White’s 247 rushing yards in the 1980 Rose Bowl were an OSU opponent record until Tim Biakabutuka in 1995. Now they are No. 3.
Sam “Bam” Cunningham set an OSU opponent record with four touchdown runs in the 1974 Rose Bowl. That’s been tied three times and surpassed once.
Top five wins for Ohio State against USC
1942: Ohio State 28, USC 12
After a dramatic come-from-behind win over Indiana the previous week, Ohio State fell behind early by a touchdown to the Trojans. The Buckeyes responded with 28 consecutive points, a run that started with Paul Sarringhaus throwing a 64-yard touchdown pass to Bob Shaw. Shaw later caught a 40-yard touchdown pass from Tommy James, then Bob Frye and George Lynn added touchdown runs to bury the Trojans and improve to 3-0. On the downside, talented Ohio State end Dante “Glue Fingers” Lavelli suffered a knee injury in the second quarter. The win propelled Ohio State to No. 1 in the Associated Press poll the following week, and they would go on to win their first national title.
1954: No. 1 Ohio State 20, No. 17 USC 7 (Rose Bowl)
Woody Hayes’ first Rose Bowl was a true Woody Hayes-type game as the Buckeyes ran for 305 yards and held the Trojans offense out of the end zone on a rainy day in Pasadena. Howard “Hopalong” Cassady ran for 92 yards while QB Dave Leggett went for 67 on the ground and Bob Watkins added 64 more. Leggett, who completed 6 of 11 passes for 63 yards with a touchdown and an interception, was named the MVP, and Ohio State claimed its second national championship. USC scored on an 86-yard punt return in the second quarter, but Bob Harkrader put the game away with a 9-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter.
1968: No. 1 Ohio State 27, No. 2 USC 16 (Rose Bowl)
The rise from the ashes of the Faculty Council’s decision to decline an invitation to the Rose Bowl in 1961 was complete as Woody’s Super Sophs outscored O.J. Simpson and the Trojans 17-6 in the second half to prove why they were deserving of the national championship.
Simpson’s 80-yard touchdown run gave the Trojans a 10-0 lead in the second quarter, but the Buckeyes responded with a 1-yard Jim Otis touchdown run and a 26-yard field goal by Jim Roman in right before halftime to tie the score.
Game MVP Rex Kern threw touchdown passes to Leo Hayden and Ray Gillian in the fourth quarter to give the Buckeyes a commanding 27-10 lead. While Simpson ran for 171 yards, Otis had 101 and Hayden added 90 more.
The undefeated 1968 season ended a six-year Big Ten title drought, a lull some attributed to the faculty council decision being used against Hayes as he recruited in the Midwest in the following years. That forced him to widen his recruiting focus, an approach that yielded such talents as John Brockington of Brooklyn, N.Y., Bruce Jankowski and Jack Tatum from New Jersey, and Jan White of Harrisburg, Pa..
1973: No. 4 Ohio State 42, No. 7 USC 21 (Rose Bowl)
Future Heisman Trophy-winning tailback Archie Griffin ran for 149 yards and fullback Pete Johnson added 94 yards and three touchdowns as Ohio State scored 28 unanswered points in the second half.
QB Cornelius “Flam” Greene scored the game-winning touchdown on a nine-yard run after a 56-yard punt return by Neal Colzie in the third quarter. Bruce Elia extended the lead with a 2-yard run in the fourth quarter, then Griffin put the game away with a 47-yard scoring jaunt with 4:35 left. Greene (who later changed the spelling of his last name to Green) was named the game’s MVP after throwing for 129 yards and rushing for another 45.
The Buckeyes avenged a 42-17 throttling from the Trojans 365 days earlier.
2017: No. 5 Ohio State 24, No. 8 USC 7 (Cotton Bowl)
After missing the four-team College Football Playoff for the second time in three seasons, the Buckeyes took out their frustrations on the Trojans.
The offense didn’t do much, but the Silver Bullets defense recorded eight sacks and 14 tackles for loss, including 2.5 and 3.5, respectively, for Sam Hubbard. The Buckeyes picked off USC QB Sam Darnold once and forced him to lose two fumbles in his final college game while the OSU offense got a pair of touchdown runs by J.T. Barrett in his last appearance for the Scarlet and Gray.
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Other games of note:
Ohio State’s first win against USC was 33-0 in L.A. in 1941. The Buckeyes won in Columbus the following year then shut out the Trojans again 21-0 at the Coliseum in 1946.
USC upset Ohio State by one point in the Rose Bowl in 1975 and ’79. The Buckeyes were undefeated and trying to clinch a national title in Earle Bruce’s first season in ’79.
The home-and-home in 2008 and ’09 was highly anticipated at the time since the teams had not played since 1990, but it did not go well for Ohio State. The Buckeyes were walloped 35-3 in the Coliseum in 2008 as Mark Sanchez threw four touchdown passes and Rey Maualuga returned an interception 48 yards for a touchdown.
A year later, Ohio State hoped to have the upper hand with No. 3 USC coming to Columbus with a freshman quarterback Matt Barkley. With Terrelle Pryor in his second season as a stater, Ohio State led 15-10 entering the fourth quarter, but Barkley led a 14-play, 86-yard touchdown drive to give the Trojans an 18-15 lead with just over a minute left to put them on top.
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