Paul McDonald, the 1978 national championship winning QB who defeated Ohio State in the 1980 Rose Bowl, will lead the Trojans out of the tunnel vs the Buckeyes this Saturday
I'm sure I watched, with my dad, but I was a few months shy of five years old so I don't remember it.
Based on the summaries I've read, it was a great game. #1 Ohio State was 11-0. They had started the year at #15 but climbed steadily grabbing the #1 spot in the final pre-bowl poll. 10-0-1 USC was #3. They had started the year at #1 but dropped to #4 due to a tie at home with a mediocre Stanford team.
Alabama was #2 and beat #6 Arkansas in the Sugar Bowl so in retrospect USC had no NC path but Ohio State would likely have won it with a win over USC.
This was Earle Bruce's lone great team. They had a few close calls early including a 17-13 win at UCLA but once they got their footing they cruised until The Game in which they beat #13 Michigan 18-15 in Ann Arbor.
USC scored the first 10 points to take a 10-0 lead early in the second quarter but Ohio State scored 10 in the second quarter to take a 10-10 tie into halftime. Then Ohio State got a FG in the third quarter and another in the fourth to take a 16-10 lead on 16 unanswered points but USC scored a late TD for a one point 17-16 win.
This is somewhat surprising given how good Ohio State has been overall, but the 1979 team was the last Ohio State team to finish with less than three losses until 1993. I realize that these are #helmetschoolproblems as
@betarhoalphadelta will remind me but . . . Ohio State went 13 consecutive seasons with at least three losses. For me, those 13 'meh' seasons were when I was 5 (1980) through 17 (1992) so in the portion of my childhood that I actually remember Ohio State never had a great team. After those 13 consecutive 3+ loss seasons, Ohio State hasn't had that many since:
- 9-4 in 1994
- 10-3 in 1997
- 6-6 in 1999
- 8-4 in 2000
- 7-5 in 2001
- 8-4 in 2004
- 10-3 in 2008
- 6-7 in 2011
