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Hello and welcome to another edition of the Tressel Tales from Cus Words Sports!
This week 25 years ago we find Jim Tressel’s first Ohio State football team taking an unexpected break from Big Ten play to play host to San Diego State. The game was originally scheduled to be played in the second week of the season but postponed because of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
At 3-2, the Buckeyes were looking to get right with an easy win over an Aztecs team that came in 2-4, but that is not exactly how it worked out.
Buckeye Sports Bulletin, Oct. 27, 2001
Game recap: Ohio State 27, San Diego State 12
The Aztecs scored first on a 29-yard field goal, but Ohio State went on top with a 2-yard touchdown run by Lydell Ross.
Undeterred, San Diego State came back with the next nine points on a touchdown and 38-yard field goal in the second quarter to go into the locker room with a 12-6 advantage at halftime.
(The lead would have been seven if not for Ohio State cornerback Derek Ross blocking the PAT kick after the SDSU TD.)
With memories of a second-half collapse the previous week against Wisconsin still fresh, fans booed the Buckeyes off the field at the end of the second quarter, and the offense did not give them much reason to feel better with a three-and-out to start the third quarter against the Aztecs.
After a Steve Bellisari interception on Ohio State’s next possession only made things worse, the Buckeyes caught a break when San Diego State quarterback Lon Sheriff fumbled on the next play.
Ohio State linebacker Fred Pagac Jr. recovered at the Aztec 18, and Bellisari scrambled into the end zone from four yards out five plays later.
That set up freshman Mike Nugent’s go-ahead PAT kick with 4:35 to go that drew a bronx cheer from Ohio State fans because the kicking game had been anything but reliable to that point in the season.
Derek Ross intercepted Sheriff on the next possession and ran it back to the Aztec 5-yard line.
That led to three straight Jonathan Wells runs, the last one resulting in a 1-yard touchdown to stretch Ohio State’s lead to eight points with 2:19 left in the third.
On the next possession, Ohio State forced yet another turnover as linebacker Robert Reynolds picked off Sheriff at the Aztec 41.
Ohio State turned the ball over on downs at the 29, but again the defense picked them up as Ross snagged his second interception of the game on a deep ball.
The Buckeyes got the ball at their 35 with 11:25 to go and finally got some breathing room when Lydell Ross broke loose for a 51-yard touchdown with 9:41 to go.
“It’s a win. That’s good,” Tressel said afterward. “We had a chance to come back and play after being disappointed with our performance a week ago. And I don’t think there is any misconception in our locker room that we’re wonderful all of a sudden.”
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Game notes and quotes
SDSU coach Ted Tollner felt the boos might wake up the Buckeyes at halftime. “I told my team we’ve got their attention now.”
Linebacker Joe Cooper said the Buckeyes approached it like any other game, but a couple of his teammates admitted focus might have been an issue. “Going out, everybody had glazed eyes,” defensive tackle Mike Collins said. “But in the second half, you could see people in each other’s faces and you could see the spark in the eyes. It was like the start of a new game with the defense up first. We set the tempo.”
The defense forced five turnovers on San Diego State’s first five possessions of the second half. Mike Doss had 12 tackles, including five of Ohio State’s for loss, while Derek Ross had two interceptions and four pass breakups.
“That is the way we have to play all the time,” Tressel said. “Our defense is designed to pressure the passer and force turnovers. We didn’t do that early in the game. If we’ll play every quarter like we played the last two, we have a chance to be a good team.”
After accusations the game plan was too conservative in a 20-17 loss to Wisconsin the previous week, Ohio State seemed to make an effort to spread the ball around against the Aztecs. The Buckeyes attempted a season-high 32 passes, including more tries to the tight ends, and fullback Jamar Martin got five carries as another changeup.
Vance had one of the pass attempts on a reverse, and it drew a cheer from the fans despite falling incomplete. “I felt their energy because I know they’re tired of looking at the run offense,” Vance said. “For the first time, we tried something new. I thought it was about time to open up the offense and just add some new things, add a little spice, because all the good teams have trick plays somewhere.”
Steve Bellisari was 15 for 28 passing for 198 yards with an interception, but he was sacked four times. Vance caught five passes for 87 yards. “There were still some protection breakdowns that disturbed me, but I think we improved in that area, and it was good to see us spread it around,” offensive coordinator Jim Bollman said. “But most of all it was nice to get a ‘W’ no matter how we did it. It doesn’t have to be pretty.”
Jonathan Wells ran 17 times for 60 yards while Lydell Ross got 60 yards on nine carries, though 51 of those came on one run, so the running game wasn’t exactly sharp.
“They came in and loaded up the box, if you will, and they did it a little differently than some teams,” Tressel said. “Some teams load it up and play man; they loaded up and played zone blitz-type things, and we were able to find the zones that were left empty and I felt moved it along pretty well. But we didn’t finish off those things and we have a lot of work to do. There’s no question about it.”
Prior to the game, Tressel acknowledged Bellisari had not taken a step forward in consistency he wanted to see from the senior, and he left the door open to Scott McMullen getting some playing time. He also said McMullen had enjoyed a couple of positive weeks of practice that allowed him to create some separation with fellow sophomore Craig Krenzel in the competition to be the No. 2 QB.
“I thought Steve did a number of good things, but we need to get a lot better in a lot of things very quickly,” Tressel said after the game.
McMullen got a chance with 5:11 to go and threw three incomplete passes. Tressel said he thought that was the right time to make the move to give him a chance to run the offense when they would still be in a throwing mode rather than just handing it off to run out the clock. Meanwhile, Krenzel was not with the team. Instead he was at his sister’s wedding (which presumably was planned when this was expected to be an open week in the schedule), an absence he cleared with players and then the coaching staff according to his roommate, Bellisari.
Andy Groom had a solid day punting for Ohio State with 204 yards on four kicks, including a 61-yarder. He averaged 51 yards and had one downed inside the 20.
Josh Huston missed two field goals, including a 32-yarder in the first quarter.
This was Ohio State’s latest nonconference game since losing to Penn State 27-0 on Nov. 2, 1964.
Today’s perspective
Can you imagine if the Buckeyes had lost to a two-win team to drop to .500 to start the Tressel era?
And yet that possibility was very much alive going into the second half if you want a reminder of how things have changed over the last 25 years. (Ohio State last lost three regular season games in 2011 and has done so only twice since that 2001 season.)
I remember being in the stands for this game and certainly there were some tense moments.
The offense had struggled in the second half against the Badgers then never found much of a rhythm in this game, either. The passing game had never really been in sync at any point yet in the season, and yet they won by double digits thanks to the defense and opportunistic offense. Wonder if that would continue…
Topical this week with first-year Florida coach Jon Sumrall being asked about his team being booed last weekend at home: Tressel brushed aside the boos at Ohio Stadium in typical Tressel fashion. “Well, I wear one of those headsets, so I have an advantage. Again, we live in a wonderful country that allows you to say what you want and write what you want and so forth. And we’re busy, so we don’t pay much attention.”
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Next up: Penn State
The Nittany Lions began the season 0-4 before scoring a dramatic 38-35 win over Northwestern that allowed head coach Joe Paterno to tie Alabama coach Paul “Bear” Bryant for the most in NCAA Division I-A (now FBS) history at 323.
Freshman backup Zach Mills was one of the heroes of the game, throwing a 4-yard pass for the go-ahead touchdown with 22 seconds to play.
Previous editions of the Tressel Tales:
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