College Football Elites, Part 1: What makes a ‘blue blood’?
By Dante Pryor
- Conference championships: 40 (last in 2019)
- 10-plus win seasons: 28
- Consensus All-Americans: 87
- Heisman Trophy winners: 7
- NFL players: 493
The Ohio State Buckeyes are the model of consistency. In 40 years (1980-2020), the Buckeyes have missed the postseason just four times; once due to a postseason ban (2012). Ohio State is in a bowl every year it seems, and more specifically, rarely, they are not playing in the postseason on New Year’s. The Buckeyes have practically owned the 21st century winning 11 Big Ten Championships since 2000.
Ohio State wasn’t always the model program they are today. Until 1951, the Buckeyes had only two postseason appearances in their history to that point.
Enter Woody Hayes.
The Buckeyes hired Hayes from The Cradle of Coaches at Miami (OH). He was the coach that built the Buckeyes into what it is today. In 28 years as Ohio State’s head coach, Hayes won 205 games, eight conference championships (including six in a row from 1972-77), and five national championships.
Despite his success in building Ohio State, Hayes’ most famous moment might be more infamous. Known for his temper, Hayes struck a Clemson player in the 1978 Gator Bowl which would prove to be his last game.
As the landscape of college football changed, the Big Ten did not change with it. Most programs in the Big Ten considered winning the conference and going to the Rose Bowl for a successful season. Most years in the 1980s, the annual Michigan/Ohio State game would determine the conference champion.
For years, a successful tenure at Ohio State was defined by beating Michigan. The Buckeyes would not win another national title until 2002. In the 1980s and 1990s, Earle Bruce and Jim Cooper won seven conference championships between them.
Jim Tressel was hired to beat Michigan and bring Ohio State back to national prominence. John Cooper, who won 111 games during his time in Columbus, was 2-10-1 against Michigan including 1993, 1995 and 1996 seasons they were contenders for a national title and lost to inferior Michigan programs.
Tressel, on the other hand, was 9-1 against the Wolverines. Tressel led the Buckeyes to three title games winning in 2002. He might still be the coach had it not been for “Tattoogate”.
If Woody Hayes built Ohio State from the ground up, Urban Meyer brought the Buckeyes into the 21st century. When Meyer, a Toledo, Ohio, native, came from Florida he brought a concept not widely used in the Big Ten — he recruited nationally. Meyer went to Florida, Texas and even California to recruit players. He turned “Slo-hio State” into one of the fastest teams in the country.
Before the rise of Clemson, the Buckeyes were one of the few programs that could run with the speed of SEC schools. Coming from Gainesville, Meyer saw first hand how speed changed the game. Meyer’s tenure single-handedly changed the culture and aspirations fo the Big Ten. It would no longer be acceptable to just win the conference and go to the Rose Bowl; Meyer wanted to win national championships and he did just that in 2014.
Current head coach Ryan Day finished his first full season as head coach of the Buckeyes and continued their winning ways. He has recruited nationally just as Meyer had before him with speed and playmakers on the perimeter. He also beat Michigan which extends the streak against the Wolverines to eight games in a row.