100 Teams in 100 Days: The 1991 Buckeyes Played Eight Games in the Great State of Ohio

Smith's shocking departure left the running back position open for Butler By'not'e and Carlos Snow. Kent Graham won the quarterback job to replace three-year starter Greg Frey, another new face at an important position.

Games of Note

September 14th • Louisville • Ohio Stadium 
No. 22 Ohio State faced Arizona in the season opener game and used big plays to come out with a huge victory. Snow and By'not'e combined for 294 rushing yards and two touchdowns. By'not'e's 189 yards were the most by a Buckeye since Keith Byars ran for 274 against Illinois in 1984.

In Week 2, Louisville put up a much tougher fight in the first meeting between the schools. Ohio State led 10-0 at halftime and a By'not'e 4-yard touchdown run extended the lead to 16-0. The momentum shifted a bit when Louisville blocked Time Williams' extra point and returned it for two points. On the ensuing drive, the Cardinals covered 70 yards in six plays to make it 16-9 with 13:03 remaining. 

Both teams scored touchdowns on their next possessions and the Buckeyes hung to a 23-15 led. With 2:30 on the clock, Louisville had the ball on its own 29. Eric Watts completed four passes for 49 yards and Ralph Dawkins had an 11-yard run to move the ball to Ohio State's 12. From that spot, the Cardinals faced 4th-and-2 with 54 seconds remaining.

Howard Schnelleberger went for it and dialed up a lob to the right corner of the end zone. The attempt fell behind Jeff Brohm and Ohio State avoided the upset. Kirk Herbstreit – who entered after Graham suffered a concussion – took two knees to end the game.

Top players for Ohio State were By'not'e with two touchdowns, Jeff Cothran with a team-high 61 rushing yards and Alonzo Spellman with two sacks.

Ohio State was lucky the 15 penalties it committed did not prevent the victory. After the game John Cooper addressed the mistakes.

"A win is a win. We're 2–0, but I'm not very happy with the way we played today," Cooper said. "We had way, way, way too many penalties. This is the second week in a row I've said that (Ohio State committed eight infractions against Arizona). I've got to coach better; we've got to eliminate our penalties."

October 12th • #20 Illinois • Memorial Stadium 
Kirk Herbstreit made his first start at quarterback when No. 16 Ohio State defeated Washington State 33-19. Herbstreit completed 8-of-13 passes for 158 yards, a touchdown and an interception. 

The following week, the Buckeyes defeated Wisconsin for the fourth straight time. The defense held the Badgers to 28 rushing yards, Joey Galloway caught his first pass of his collegiate career and for the fourth consecutive game, Ohio State scored a touchdown on its first possession.

The victory also gave the Buckeyes their first 4–0 start since 1984 and first victory in a Big Ten opener since 1987. 

After beating the Badgers, No. 11 Ohio State played a game outside of Columbus for the first time in 1991. Many expected matchup against No. 20 Illinois to be a high-scoring affair, but it turned into anything but.

The Illini's Darren Boyer tallied the only points in the first half on a 7-yard touchdown run with 5:29 left in the first quarter. Neither team scored again until the final period.

Roger Harper — who also picked off two passes in the game — set up Ohio State's touchdown. Harper ripped the ball away from Kameno Bell and Judah Herman recovered the fumble at the Illinois 36. Two plays later, Graham found a streaking Galloway for a 44-yard touchdown to tie the game with 3:10 left.

The Illini proceeded to take the ensuing drive to the Ohio State 2-yard line and kicked the game-winning field goal with 36 seconds on the clock. The outcome of the 10-7 loss could have been different had Herbstreit's pitch to By'not'e not bounced off the back's shoulder pad. The turnover came early in the fourth quarter and with the Buckeyes on the Illini 3-yard line.

November 2nd • #11 Iowa • Ohio Stadium 
A record crowd of 95,357 filled The Shoe to watch No. 11 Iowa and No. 13 Ohio State play on a chilly 37-degree day in early November. Although the sun shined, a cloud of darkness hung over the game after a gunman killed several students and himself on the Iowa campus earlier in the week. To show support, the Hawkeyes did not wear any decals and played with all black helmets.

After a scoreless first quarter, Matt Rodgers put Iowa on the board with a 1-yard keeper. The Buckeyes countered with a Snow score to tie the game 7-7. The back-and-forth scoring continued when Rodgers connected with Alan Cross for a 61-yard touchdown pass. Ohio State blocked the point and Jason Simmons returned it for two points to make the score 13-9 at the half.

The only score in the second half came on Jeff Skillett's 30-yard field goal near the end of the third quarter. The Hawkeyes' 16-9 victory marked the first time since 1962 they defeated Ohio State by more than six points.

The Hawkeyes held the Buckeyes to a season-low 124 rushing yards, and for the fourth straight game, Ohio State did not have a 100-yard rusher.

In his press conference Iowa coach Hayden Fry – who improved to 3–9–1 against the Buckeyes – shed light on the week's event.

"That tragedy back in Iowa City is so sad that I know it had a big part of us winning because I think our guys just gave that 20 percent extra effort," Fry said. "Just to bring a little happiness to the people back in Iowa, the people that are so down right now, that's why this victory has special meaning. Our guys played their hearts out for the university family. So That's why this victory is very, very special." 

November 23rd • #4 Michigan • Michigan Stadium 
Following the loss to Iowa, Ohio State ran away from Minnesota and needed two Williams' field goals in the fourth quarter to grind out a 20-16 victory against Indiana. The Buckeyes now sported an 8–2 record when they traveled to Ann Arbor to face No. 4 Michigan.

Under partly cloudy skies with an increasing chance of rain, the two rivals played in 49-degree temperatures with 12-20 mile per hour winds.

The Wolverines received the opening kick and drove 76 yards in 10 plays and just more than five minutes to take a 7-0 lead. Ohio State's only points of the game came off of Williams' foot early in the second quarter. His 50-yard field goal made the score 7-3, but Michigan scored the next 24 points to cruise to an easy 31-3 victory.

What is most remembered from this game is Desmond Howard's performance and the pose he struck after his punt return for a touchdown late in the second quarter.

 Howard's big day as written in the Cleveland Plain Dealer: 

Howard sped away from two defenders closing on him at the 10-yard line, high-stepped out of another attempted tackle and veered to the left sideline, dodging his final pursuer at midfield and sprinting in for the touchdown that gave Michigan a 24-3 halftime lead.

"I told my friends from Ohio State that if I got in the end zone, I'd do something special for them," said Howard, who punctuated his punt return by striking a Heisman Trophy pose.

Howard further legitimized his Heisman candidacy with two wondrous pass receptions of 50 and 42 yards.

The first came on Michigan's initial snap of the second half, setting up Tyrone Wheatley's 6-yard touchdown run that ended the scoring.

Howard loped evenly with OSU cornerback Tim Walton until the 106,156 in attendance grew convinced quarterback Elvis Grbac's pass would be unreachable. Howard then glided into a higher gear and made a diving catch at OSU's 20-yard line.

Chico Nelson and Tim Patillo were Howard's victims early in the fourth quarter when he levitated long enough to grab Grbac's jump ball from the Wolverines" 9-yard line.

"If I was voting for Heisman," said Michigan coach Gary Moeller, bound for the Rose Bowl at 10-1, "I'd mark Desmond down 10 times."

The performance solidified Howard as the winner of the 1991 Heisman Trophy.

Cooper signed a three-year extension before the game. The talk on the Columbus airwaves and near water coolers was about the mistake Ohio State made by extending Cooper's contract before The Game. Many speculated that if the negotiations came after it, Ohio State would have fired the head coach following his fourth consecutive loss to Michigan. 

The Wolverines now led the series 50–33–5.

January 1st • Syracuse • Hall of Fame Bowl
No. 25 Ohio State (8–3) received a New Year's Day bowl bid against No. 16 Syracuse. Still smarting from the 31-3 rout of Michigan, the Buckeyes had to listen to everyone talk about how the team finished the past two seasons with losses to the Wolverines and their bowl opponent. 

The players realized the only way to quiet the critics was to end the trend. Highlights of the bowl game from the 2015 Ohio State Team Guide:

The Buckeyes made their second trip in three years to the Hall of Fame Bowl.

Marvin Graves staked the Orangemen to a 14-0 first quarter lead, throwing a 50-yard scoring pass on the first Syracuse possession and later running 3 yards to paydirt as the quarter expired.

OSU battled back to tie the score at 17, however, when All-America linebacker Steve Tovar blocked a punt that was recovered in the end zone by Tito Paul. The score came with 8:03 to play.

But the Buckeyes’ jubilation was short lived. Less than a minute later,
Graves connected with wide receiver Antonio Johnson on a 60-yard bomb
to bury Ohio State.

Ohio State had two more possessions after Graves’ game winner, but
did not mount a serious threat either time.

Two Hall of Fame Bowl records were set in Ohio State's 24-17 loss. The first was Marvin Jones' game-winning 60-yard touchdown pass to Antonio Johnson in the fourth quarter. Jones finished the game with 18 completions for 309 yards and two touchdowns.

Carlos Snow had the other record with his 50-yard kickoff return. He surpassed Michigan's Allen Jefferson's return in the 1988 game by five yards.

1991 Recap

• No. 22 Ohio State defeated Arizona 38-14 and Butler By'not'e rushed for 189 yards in the Buckeyes' first win against the Wildcats.
• Louisville had a chance to tie the game late, but a fourth down pass to the end zone fell incomplete in the Buckeyes' 23-15 victory.
• Kirk Herbstreit made his first start in Ohio State's 33-19 win over Washington State.
• Joey Galloway made his first collegiate reception and OSU defeated Wisconsin 31-16.
• Cleveland's Municipal Stadium played host as the Buckeyes beat Northwestern 34-3.
• Carlos Snow ran for 169 yards in the 27-17 win over Michigan State.
• An emotional Iowa team won 16-9 in Ohio Stadium.
• Herbstreit scored on a 72-yard option keeper as Ohio State defeated Minnesota 35-6, the longest run by any Buckeye in 1991.
• Tim Williams' two field goals in the fourth quarter secured OSU's 20-16 victory over Indiana.
• No. 4 Michigan routed Ohio State 31-3 as Desmond Howard put on a Heisman-winning performance.
• Marvin Jones threw a Hall of Fame Bowl record 60-yard touchdown pass for the game-winning score. Syracuse won 24-17.
• Steve Tovar was named an All-American.
• Alonzo Spellman, Scottie Graham and Kent Graham were selected in the NFL Draft.
• Ohio State started the season ranked 22nd, rose to 11th, but finished unranked. 

The defense improved and only allowed 187 points for the season. However, the 1991 Buckeyes lost all of their games against ranked opponents. Although he signed a three-year extension, John Cooper felt the heat from the fans after his fourth straight loss to Michigan and third straight bowl defeat. 

Carlos Snow led the team in rushing (828) and finished his career with a school-record 1,380 kickoff return yards. Kent Graham threw for 1,018 yards and Bernard Edwards had a team-high 381 receiving yards.

Tim Williams led the team in scoring (63) and Steve Tovar led the team in tackles with 97.