This is the 47th in a series of 100 daily posts, a Countdown to College Football. (Sort of.)
Today’s countdown is in honor of the 1954 Ohio State football team that won the second national title in school history.
After beginning the season unranked, the ’54 team finished 10-0, never allowing more than 14 points to an opponent all season long.
They defeated the No. 12 Michigan Wolverines 21-7 in front of 78,447 Ohio Stadium faithful.
Interestingly, however, that was the second-lowest attendance of the home season for the Buckeyes.
I’m assuming the prices on StubHub were simply too outrageous and people completely misjudged the market.
Six of OSU’s 10 games that season were against ranked opponents, which was huge factor in the computer rankings at the time.
Unfortunately, only the United States government had a computer powerful enough to compute football scores, so the rankings were mainly just an in-house thing over at the Pentagon.
But you didn’t come here for a history lesson. You came here for today’s countdown, which only talks about history a little bit.
If you missed yesterday’s edition of the countdown, you’ll want to remedy that by reading it here.
Now please join us as we continue our countdown of the 100 greatest Buckeyes of The Ozone era (1996-present).
We will also preview one of the 100 most exciting games on this fall’s college football schedule, and one of the 100 things we’re most looking forward to this fall.
Plus, we’ll preview one of this season’s 100 biggest personnel matchups.
Greatest Buckeyes Of The Ozone Era
#54 Will Allen, 2000-2003
Will Allen was part of Ohio State’s 2000 recruiting class that would go on to help anchor the 2002 BCS National Championship team. Allen was joined by names like Darrion Scott, Will Smith, Michael Jenkins, Shane Olivea, and Alex Stepanovich.
Allen played in all 12 games as a true freshman, but found his time mostly on special teams. As a sophomore, Allen played a bit more, doubling his tackle numbers from 7 in 2000 to 14 in 2001.
As the nickel back in 2002, however, Allen finally came into his own and became a vital cog during OSU’s title run. With veterans Donnie Nickey and Mike Doss ahead of him at safety, he was still able to make an impact for the Buckeyes.
Allen actually got the first start of his career in the season opener due to Texas Tech’s pass-happy offensive attack. Allen finished with 32 tackles that season. While most everyone will remember his interception at the end of the Michigan game, that actually wasn’t his first game-saving interception. That came early in the season against the Cincinnati Bearcats.
As a senior in 2003, Allen finally got out from behind the shadow of 3-time All-American Mike Doss, starting all 13 games for the Buckeyes. He finished second on the team in tackles (83) behind A.J. Hawk. He also had a 100-yard interception return against San Diego State.
Allen was named a First-Team All-American in his only year as a starter. He went on to play for the Pittsburgh Steelers and is now in charge of The Will Allen Foundation, which you can read more about right here.
Best Games This Fall
#54 Northern Illinois at Florida State
Everybody loves an underdog, and they’ll especially love Northern Illinois in this one. This is game four for the Huskies in a schedule that features an opener at Iowa, followed by Utah and Central Michigan at home. Needless to say, NIU will be well-tested as they head to Tallahassee to face Florida State. Then in late October, Northern Illinois travels to BYU for some reason.
Last year, the Huskies faced Power 5 teams Boston College and Nebraska, winning in Lincoln 21-17 and losing at home 23-20 to the Eagles. This isn’t a new challenge for them, but it will be a higher level of talent. The Seminoles should know who their starting quarterback is by game four, which will help. NIU quarterback Marcus Childers was the MAC Freshman of the Year last season, and he’ll be facing a defense dotted with names who were once recruiting by Ohio State, including sophomore defensive tackle Marvin Wilson.
Florida State is 4-0 all-time against the MAC, including a 31-10 win over Northern Illinois in a neutral setting in the 2013 Orange Bowl.
What We Can’t Wait To See
#54 West Virginia’s National Title Run
Granted, this “national title run” may only last three quarters, but it could go a little bit longer than that.
West Virginia opens the season against Tennessee in Charlotte, then they host Bo Pelini and Youngstown State. They then head to North Carolina State for another significant test. If they can start the season 3-0, they’ll already have two wins over Power 5 teams before they even get to conference play.
The Mountaineers have a talented passing attack, which is exactly the kind of flash that people like. There will be shootouts, which we all like as well. If they continue to come out on the right side of those shootouts, momentum will build.
West Virginia gets Kansas State, Baylor, TCU, and Oklahoma at home. Road games at Texas Tech, Iowa State, Texas, and Oklahoma State won’t be easy, but they are winnable.
All of this, of course, means that the Mountaineers will be starting 1-2 this season.
Matchup To Watch
#54 Ben Bredeson, MICH LG vs. Nick Bosa
What do you get when you pit Michigan’s best offensive lineman against Ohio State’s best defensive linemen? You get 16 Buckeye wins over the last 20 years of the best rivalry in sports.
But you also get Ben Bredeson against Nick Bosa.
You won’t get it all the time because Bosa won’t always be inside and won’t always be on Bredeson’s side. When he is, however, expect full-on human carnage.
Think what you want about Michigan’s offensive line, but Ed Warinner is going to make all of them better, and that includes Bredeson. By the time The Game rolls around, expect Bredeson and his linemates to be clicking.
Of course, Nick Bosa will show up day one in tap shoes, so he’ll be clicking from jump street.