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1973 is sort of a perfect storm of nearly every blueblood having a great season.  Having 6 such programs going undefeated in the regular season was sick.
Although Penn State was not yet held in such high esteem as it eventually would (didn't help in '94, though), they had experienced great success.  

As for '07 LSU....losing to unranked Arkansas in their regular season finale was certainly an OH FUCK WE'RE DONE moment, falling from #1 to #7.  It took an unprecedented perfect storm for them to parley a 7-point win over a Tennessee team ranked in the teens to immediately jump back up to #2.  

When OSU lost to UM again, all of the chicken little shit had ZERO to do with any playoff ramifications and EVERYTHING to do with losing 4 straight to TTUN and OSU fans' psycho mindsets.

I'm a few years younger than you, and I didn't hear much about 1968 until 2002. Instead it was Archie Griffin era that was held up as the gold standard of CFB history. He played before we were born as well.

Really it was just "Woody Hayes" until Urban Meyer got hired. Tressel was just a poor man's Woody Hayes. Or maybe a rich man's Earle Bruce.

Tressel does not get his due enough. He is the one that flipped the script in THE GAME and started dominating Michigan. Oh and he also won a Natty and beat probably the most talented college football program ever. Those '01-'02 Canes teams were insane. And he beat em. For the Natty. That's LEGEND status right there.

Tressel does not get his due enough. He is the one that flipped the script in THE GAME and started dominating Michigan. Oh and he also won a Natty and beat probably the most talented college football program ever. Those '01-'02 Canes teams were insane. And he beat em. For the Natty. That's LEGEND status right there.

Completely agree with this. He won a title and beat a completely loaded Miami team with Craig Krenzel. Ohio State has had the luxury of absolutely incredible coaching and it completely shifted when the Sweatervest hit campus. 

Tressel does not get his due enough. He is the one that flipped the script in THE GAME and started dominating Michigan. Oh and he also won a Natty and beat probably the most talented college football program ever. Those '01-'02 Canes teams were insane. And he beat em. For the Natty. That's LEGEND status right there.

Completely agree with this. He won a title and beat a completely loaded Miami team with Craig Krenzel. Ohio State has had the luxury of absolutely incredible coaching and it completely shifted when the Sweatervest hit campus.

Tressel deserves a lot of credit but there is also another Ohio State coach who deserves some . . .

For as much as most Ohio State fans (not excluding myself here) hated Cooper's repeated losses to Michigan, especially the losses to obviously inferior teams, John Cooper brought Ohio State's recruiting into the modern era and made it national.  

Back when Woody was coaching Ohio State really didn't recruit nationally.  Ohio obviously has a lot of HS Football talent so to some extent they didn't need to but that is also part of the reason that by the end of Woody's tenure the Buckeyes were almost as bad in Bowls as Michigan.  Woody ended up 4-4 in Rose Bowls but note that he was 3-0 before Bo got to Michigan then went 1-4 during the Ten Year War.  Meanwhile Bo went 0-5 so the two teams were a pathetic 1-9 in Rose Bowls from the 1969-1978 seasons (1970-1979 Rose Bowls).  

Early in Woody's tenure he REALLY pissed off the west coast media with a comment that Ohio State's Rose Bowl opponent was a good team, then he said something to the effect that they would probably finish "4th or 5th in 'our' league".  It was probably stupid to say that but it wasn't wrong.  The Big Ten / Pac 8 / Rose Bowl agreement started with the 1946 season (1947 Rose Bowl) and from there the results were:

• Six straight Big Ten wins (1947-1952)
• A Pac win (1953)
• Six straight Big Ten wins (1954-1959)
• Two Pac wins (1960/61)
• A Big Ten win (1962)
• A Pac win (1963)
• Two Big Ten wins (1964/5)
• A Pac win (1966)
• A Big Ten win (1967)
• A Pac win (1968)
• A Big Ten win (1969)

Overall, in those first 23 years the Big Ten went 17-6 so when Woody said that the Pac Champions would probably be 4th or 5th in the Big Ten he probably wasn't wrong.  However, that changed as the national population shifted which probably contributed to the Big Ten being so bad in the Rose Bowl in the 1970's.  

Earle Bruce was a terrible recruiter.  He basically just tried to be a continuation of what Woody had done but Woody started in 1951.  Note that in the 1950 US Census:

• Ohio had only recently been passed by California (Ohio had a larger population in the 1940 census)
• Ohio still had a larger population than Texas (7.9M vs 7.7M)
• Ohio's population was roughly 3x the population of Florida (7.9M vs 2.8M)
• Other than California, in 1950 the only states with larger populations than Ohio were in the midwest (IL) or in the northeast (PA, NY)

In the 1950's there wasn't a need to recruit nationally because there wasn't that much talent in the rest of the country anyway.  

Bruce's attempt to replicate Woody's tenure but ~30 years later resulted in a bunch of pretty good Ohio State teams that weren't great.  They lost exactly three games each year from 1980-1986 and the school pulled the plug in 1987.  Bruce had more-or-less dominated the 'little eight' and he'd been competitive with Michigan (5-4 in his nine years) but he hadn't been nationally competitive.  

Cooper obviously struggled with Michigan and in bowls but he modernized and nationalized Ohio State's.  Tressel won in 2002 mostly with players that John Cooper brought to Columbus.  Tresel maintained that then Urban Meyer REALLY ramped it up.  

A couple things I wanted to comment on:

First is that Ohio State's defense deserves a LOT more credit than they'll get for not just the ND win but the CFP run in general.  

Notre Dame rushed 26 times on Monday night and gained 53 yards.  That is 2.0 ypc.  That is pathetic.  It actually gets worse.  When I first saw that stat I thought to myself "didn't they have 40-someting on their first drive?"  I finally took the time to go and check and yes, they did.  On their opening drive Notre Dame rushed 13 times for 44 yards (3.4 ypc).  They also had their two longest runs of the night, an 8 yarder by Riley Leonard on the game's second play and a 9 yarder by Jadarian Price to get into the Red Zone.  If you back out the 13 plays and 44 yards that ND had rushing on the first drive, for the rest of the game they ran 13 more times for 9 more yards.  That is a just flat out insane performance by the Ohio State defense.  

Second is that when you look at the stats it is astounding that this game was as close as it was:

• tOSU outgained ND 445-308
• tOSU had an advantage in TOP despite ND's 9 minute opening drive
• tOSU outgained ND on passing attempts 11-8
• tOSU outgained ND on rushing attempts 5.2-2.0
• ND did have an advantage in turnovers 1-0 but that was more-or-less equalized by ND's failed fake punt

I will say that the Egbuka fumble probably prevented this from being a blowout.  At that point the 4th quarter had just started, Ohio State was still up by 16 (31-15), and Egbuka's catch and run had gotten tOSU into the Red Zone.  If he doesn't fumble there the Buckeyes have a 1st down at the ND 21 with a 16 point lead and <15 minutes to go.  


I absolutely despise ND but you have to give them and their Buckeye coach credit for staying in this game.  They could easily have folded down 31-7 but they didn't.  They kept fighting and kept it together and miraculously made this a one-score game in the fourth quarter.  

My take on the deciding factor in the game was OSU's essentially unstoppable offense in the first three quarters--and yeah, the fumble is what got ND back into it. Who knew: turnovers make a big difference? Ordinarily an offense can have a couple of rough drives and still be in the game. Not this time. By the third time ND had the ball, it was clear they were desperate. They were only down 14-7, but OSU had simply carved up their defense, which is no small thing--that was a pretty good defense all year. By the fourt time, ND was in a huge hole. The first (only?) OSU punt was in the fourth quarter, right, after the fumble?

That's not to say that OSU's defense doesn't deserve credit--of course it does--but ND was out of its gameplan early because OSU's offense was so good.

And on the other point: yeah, Tressel was a great head coach for Ohio State. I guess Urban Meyer sucked some of the air out of Tressel's tenure because of how good he was, but that Tressel team was really, really good every year. Woody Hayes was Woody Hayes. Unfair to compare anyone to him. Kind of like Knute Rockne for Notre Dame. He was amazing, but the coaches that came after stood on their own--as does Tressel (or at least he should).

@SFBadger96 those are two really good posts and spot on.

Except 1 area. It's not hating. It's simply reminding them a large amount of them wanted their coach fired at the end of the regular season because of a specific outcome and all of these seniors are still searching for their misplaced gold pants. They did win fair and square and had a great run and had to be a fun time for a Buckeye fan. To go from a place of great frustration at the end of November to the trophy holding Monday night is a huge roller coaster, yet probably awesome ride.