Unsung Heroes: Evan Spencer's Unforgettable Showing vs. Alabama in the 2015 Sugar Bowl

Welcome to the sixth edition of Unsung Heroes, where I delve into the archives to find some of the best individual performances in Ohio State football history.

You know what would really suck? Seeing your team lose a playoff game. You know what would suck even more? Seeing your favorite team that is the clear-cut favorite to win the title, with one of, if not the greatest coach in the history of the sport, going against a coach you claimed for years fled the SEC because he was scared of your coach, and going up against a third-string quarterback making only his second start for a team you’ve claimed for years is too slow to keep up with your team, lose a playoff game. Man, I can’t imagine how I would feel if that happened to my favorite team.

I think all of us knew this one was inevitable. I originally planned on writing a piece about Chris Gamble’s sensational game against Miami in the ’02 National Title as a one-time thing. But as the idea for the Unsung Heroes series began developing in my mind, I knew right away that Evan Spencer’s game against the Tide was going to be included. It’s too good a performance to ignore.

Spencer entered the game as the third “pure” receiver on the depth chart, behind Devin Smith and Michael Thomas. Though players like Jalin Marshall, Dontre Wilson, and Curtis Samuel were also good receivers, they were listed in the H-Back role (occasionally referred to as the “Percy Harvin” position due to Harvin’s immense success when playing at Florida during Urban’s time there).

To say Spencer’s numbers were pedestrian is too nice of a compliment. He entered the game with a measly 14 catches for 142 yards and 3 touchdowns, having no more than two receptions in any game that season. His best statistical performance came in the season opener against Navy when he caught two passes for 24 yards.

Despite his lack of production, there’s no denying he was one of the team’s leaders. Spencer was one of the few remaining players on the 2014 team that played during the infamous 2011 season. He was a part of the 2012 team that was prohibited from competing for a national title, and watched while the 2013’s title dreams were crushed by Michigan State in the Big Ten Championship a year earlier. If nothing else, you can tell how respected he was by the coaching staff just by the amount of helmet stickers he had.

On BTN’s Big Ten Elite episode of the 2014 OSU team, when the Buckeyes traveled to East Lansing in a rematch against the Spartans, Spencer speaks about watching the highlights of the previous year’s game against MSU on his phone and growing infuriated by what he was watching. It lead to him standing before all his teammates in the locker room before taking the field and saying that he wasn’t leaving the field that night until either someone kills him or they either won. (Link to video. Spencer’s MSU segment begins at 20:42)

The Buckeyes won in East Lansing, beat Minnesota, Indiana, and Michigan, and obliterated Wisconsin to enter the inaugural College Football Playoff against Alabama, the team that had won three of the previous five national championships. They would enter the game with Cardale Jones making only his second career start, along with several more media narratives. Urban Meyer was going to face Nick Saban, the coach that “ran Urban out of the SEC”, Ohio State had never beaten Bama, and according to whom you may ask, either had zero or one wins against any SEC team in any bowl game, and this on top of many prognosticators and fans claiming either Baylor or TCU deserved a playoff bid over a “slow, unathletic” Big Ten team. All this lasted for over three weeks from the time OSU made the playoff till game day.

Come New Year’s Day 2015, it was time to finally play.

On Cardale’s first pass of the game, he rolls right, stops, lobs a pass twenty yards downfield to Spencer, who was between Bama’s Landon Collins and Nick Perry. Spencer plucks the ball out of the air with his right hand before getting hit midflight by Perry. The pass was ruled incomplete, the nearest official saying the ball came out after Spencer was hit; though the replay showed, at the very least, that it could’ve been controlled by Spencer, but still was unlikely. Alas, the replay booth didn’t stop to review the call and play continued with Cardale scrambling twelve yards to gain a first down on 3rd and 6.

Spencer didn’t record a single catch in the first half. As the seconds ticked away before halftime, it looked as though he would go to the locker room without having made a significant play. But that all changed on the half’s final drive.

The Buckeyes had gotten the ball back with 1:30 remaining in the half, starting at their own 23. In just 5 plays they were at Bama’s 13 with 19 seconds and one timeout remaining. Cardale handed the ball off to Jalin Marshall (who also played a great game) on a jet sweep running to the right side. Spencer, who was the lone receiver on the right side of the formation, received the pitch from Marshall on what appeared to be an end around. Spencer stopped at the 22, set his feet, and fired arguably the best pass of the entire night to Michael Thomas in the front left corner of the end zone. Thomas, who was tightly covered by Bama’s Cyrus Jones on the play, was able to pluck the high throw from the air, get his left foot down inbounds, and score the first of what would be his many touchdowns inside the Louisiana Superdome.

The touchdown pass to Thomas is the only throw Spencer ever attempted. He is officially listed to have a 100% completion percentage with a career 539.2 passer rating. That’s gotta be some sort of record, right?

The play itself is fondly remembered by us Buckeye fans, and rightfully so. It wouldn’t have mattered if Tom Brady or Joe Montana threw that ball, it deserves the praise it gets for being put in the literal only spot where Cyrus Jones couldn’t make a play on it, and where Thomas could snatch it while having a realistic chance of getting a foot inbounds. But for a receiver to make that throw? It’s unfathomable. I’m getting goose bumps just reliving that moment.

If that pass is incomplete, it sets up a 3rd and 10 with 12 seconds left. Say the Buckeyes don’t convert and are forced to settle for another red zone field goal. It’s still a one-score game, which is huge considering they were down 21-6 about ten minutes earlier, but 21-16 and having to kick three first half field goals doesn’t give you the same sort of morale booster that a 21-20 score and a beautiful touchdown pass and catch does. We would be looking back at that decision to have a receiver attempt a pass in the same realm as not giving the ball to Carlos Hyde on 4th and 1, or running 30 QB runs while only giving Zeke 12 carries.

The second half was more of the same for Spencer. With eight minutes remaining in the 3rd, he caught a first down throw from Cardale for seven yards. That would be his only catch of the game, and would be his final catch as a Buckeye, as he didn’t make a reception in the title game against Oregon. If the Buckeyes wound up winning, Spencer would be immortalized for his signature touchdown pass at the end of the first half. But he wasn’t quite finished.

With three and a half minutes remaining in the game, up 34-28 on their own 15, the Bucks ran a power sweep play to the left side of the formation. Spencer was the lone receiver to that side, and was supposed to go in motion toward the ball before delivering a crack back block. Cardale forgets to gesture Spencer to go in motion, meaning Spencer would be a smidge tardy to his block. His tardiness allowed for him to deliver a punishing block to Alabama linebacker Shaun Dion Hamilton, which simultaneously cut the legs out from under fellow linebacker Trey DePriest, clearing a path for Zeke to take it all the way to the house. With that, 85 Yards Through the Heart of the South is born.

Bama allowed just 85 yards rushing on average per game. Zeke got that in his final carry of the game. Bama hadn’t allowed a single 100-yard rusher the entire season. Zeke ran for 220. The Big Ten was supposed to be nothing but slow Midwesterners that couldn’t keep up with the vaunted SEC speed. Zeke outran the entire Bama defense. It’s beautifully poetic. (I highly recommend this article from Ramzy Nasrallah back in 2015 detailing the play, as well as Holy Buckeye.) Evan Spencer has become a hero that will forever be mentioned in the epoch that is Ohio State football.

And yet, the story doesn’t end there.

The play Spencer is most remembered for is the touchdown pass to Michael Thomas before halftime. I think most who say his second best play was the crushing block on two Bama defenders to spring Zeke lose for 85 Yards Through the Heart of the South. Hell, most probably remember the grandiloquent one-handed snag better than his epic special teams play. But the onside kick recovery seems to get lost in the shuffle.

Look how close this was. Spencer leaps as high as he possibly can and still only grabs the ball by his fingertips over the outstretched arm of Bama receiver ArDarius Stewart. The ball took two hops, the second one elevating somewhere close to ten feet high, allowing the Bama kick team enough time to make a high percentage attempt at recovering it. Bama kicker Adam Griffith, most notorious for being the guy who missed the field goal in the famous Kick-Six against Auburn the year prior, makes a perfect kick. It’s what special teams coaches show to their players on film of what the ideal onside kick looks like. Two bounces, a high hop, at least ten yards downfield, to give your guys the best shot possible. Everything goes right for Bama—except the end result.

If Spencer doesn’t catch that ball, Bama gets the ball back with 1:59 left, two timeouts at their disposal, going against a Buckeye defense that hardly had any time to catch their breath. Hell, had ArDarius Stewart gone up with both hands instead of just one, he may be able to wrestle it free from Spencer’s grasp. It’s not the most memorable play of the game, probably not in most people’s top five; and it’s probably not the best play of the game either; but I think it’s the most important.

Would Bama have gone and scored again? That’s a mystery none of us can answer. But let’s assume they would’ve. The score is tied 42-42. The Buckeyes still had all three timeouts, somewhere around a minute remaining. Does Urban let Cardale sling it or does he play for overtime? If they start airing it out and get within field goal range, do they try to setup the field goal as best they can, or do they go for the end zone? If they play for the field goal, Sean Nuernberger, while having made two chip shots in the first quarter, was 13-for-20 on field goals in 2014, resulting in a 65% success rate. He hadn’t attempted a kick that contained even half the pressure as he would have on this occasion. I could argue it would’ve been the most pressure packed field goal for any OSU kicker since Devin Barclay’s overtime game-winner against Iowa in 2009, and I could probably go even farther back than that.

85 Yards Through the Heart of the South isn’t bestowed the glorious nickname it now has since it wouldn’t have been the dagger through the heart. The Eleven Warriors Dry Goods Store is deprived of the iconic t-shirt that even Ezekiel Elliott’s mother Dawn wore while being interviewed by ESPN for Zeke’s E:60 feature. (Link) Who knows if Ohio State wins it in regulation? Who knows if the Buckeyes win it at all? I don’t know how it all would’ve ended in this scenario, but I’m sure glad I’ll never have to find out, because the actual ending, while still nerve racking, is much better.

Back to reality. Even with Urban’s horrendous clock management that resulted in an incomplete bomb, then two straight runs with people not named Ezekiel Elliott, the first being with Curtis Samuel, and the second being Cardale on a designed QB keeper that lost ten yards, Bama had to use both their timeouts and now had a minute and a half to go 82 yards instead of two minutes and two timeouts to go 50 yards.

Bama reached the OSU 42 before having to throw a hail mary that was intercepted by Tyvis Powell, who returned it to the 28 before going down.

The clock showed triple zeros. That was it. It was over. They did it. They beat Bama. Holy shit, they actually did it. They were going to the natty with a third-string QB.

I can still remember my reaction. Once Tyvis Powell fell to the turf, I opened my front door, ran outside into my snow-covered lawn in 20-degree early January Ohio weather wearing only a t-shirt and shorts, and ran a victory lap around the exterior of my house, barefooted, at precisely one in the morning. I had confidence going in that they could beat Bama. I had watched Bama’s defense get shredded by Auburn in that year’s Iron Bowl. They won 55-44, but it was clear that this wasn’t the same team as the past five years. And still, I couldn’t believe they had done it. To this day, I still believe it’s the best Buckeye game I’ve ever watched. At the very least, it’s my personal favorite.

Embrace the fact that the 2014 team did what very few have done since Saban took the reins. Since he won his first national title with Bama in 2009, only eight teams have beaten Bama: Auburn four times, LSU thrice, Ole Miss twice, Clemson twice, Texas A&M once, Oklahoma once, South Carolina once, and Ohio State once. But none of those other teams did it with a third-string QB. It’s rare that Bama ever loses, and it’s even rarer when they lose to a new team. Even SEC teams like Mississippi State, Arkansas, and Tennessee that play them every year have never been able to beat them in this timespan. The Buckeyes are in elite company.

The MVP award is given to the best player on the field. Its measurement of value is purely statistical. We all understand this and likely agree with it. Ezekiel Elliott won the MVP award that night, and it’s easy to see why. 220 yards and 2 touchdowns against a Bama defense allowing only 85 yards per game on the ground is phenomenal. It was a performance deserving of being named the best player on the field that night. But with regards to eye test value that looks beyond the stat sheet, my vote would go to Evan Spencer.

His stat line isn’t glorious. He had one catch for seven yards, plus a touchdown pass off a trick play. But it was his block on two Bama defenders that sprung OSU football’s most iconic play of the decade, his touchdown pass to Michael Thomas before halftime that many consider the second best play of the game (possibly third behind Steve Miller’s pick-six), his herculean effort to leap as high as possible and hold onto the onside kick by his fingertips, may just be the three most important plays in the entire contest. That is value if I’ve ever seen it.