Ohio State did not celebrate as many national championships during the 2016 calendar as it did a year ago but that doesn't mean the athletic programs were short on memorable moments. There were still a multitude of fantastic players, teams and coaches that found success.
With the year drawing to a close, let's take a look back at the top 11 moments from Ohio State athletics in 2016.
11. Men's Volleyball, Pistol and Baseball Lead Non-Revenue Sports Triumphs
The Ohio State men's volleyball and pistol teams won national championships in 2016. It was the pistol team's third straight title and eighth in program history, while the volleyball team ripped off a 23-match winning streak to hang its second banner in five seasons. Pete Hanson's club finished 31-3 and is the preseason No. 1 team in the country.
Greg Beals' baseball team didn't win a national championship but did something for the first time since 2009: make the NCAA Tournament.
Ronnie Dawson spent the second half of 2016 in the Houston Astros organization. He spent the first half leading one of the most improbable runs ever for a college baseball team. The Buckeyes entered the month of May needing to make a run in the Big Ten tournament to even have a prayer at an at-large NCAA Tournament bid. Behind Dawson, the Buckeyes nabbed 16 wins in 20 tries over the course of May's 31 days. Dawson's performance in the Big Ten Tournament not only earned him Most Outstanding Player honors but led Ohio State to five wins, including four straight in consecutive elimination games in two days.
Dawson set two conference tournament records, knocking 15 hits and six doubles. He hit .571, stole four bases and scored the eventual tournament-winning run in the top of the ninth against Iowa in the title game. Dawson raced from first to home on a double by Troy Kuhn to make the score 8-7 and Ohio State held in the bottom half of the inning to win.
No player in #B1G tourney history has hit more doubles (6) in an event than @OhioState_BASE LF Ronnie Dawson. https://t.co/i4vrvMsgo9
— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) May 29, 2016
Ohio State drew Wright State in the Louisville region of the NCAA Tournament and defeated the Raiders 7-6 in the first game. The Cardinals throttled the Buckeyes 15-3 the next day to force them into an elimination game against Wright State, who won 7-3 to end the dream season. But we will never forget the way Dawson and the Buckeyes electrified the conference tournament in Minneapolis.
10. Pat Elflein Wins Rimington Trophy
It sounds crazy, but before this season began, Ohio State hadn't had a player win a national individual award since Malcolm Jenkins took home the Jim Thorpe Award in 2008.
That all changed when Buckeyes senior Pat Elflein recently claimed the Rimington Trophy, given annual to the top center in college football. Elflein beat out Ethan Pocic of LSU and West Virginia's Tyler Orlosky for the honor.
A three-year starter on Ohio State's offensive line, Elflein enjoyed a banner senior season anchoring a unit with three new starters. He was a unanimous All-American and the winner of the Big Ten's Rimington-Pace Offensive Lineman of the Year award.
Elflein has 41 career starts up front for the Buckeyes as he paved the way for an Ohio State offense which averages 258.3 yards per game on the ground and 42.7 points per contest.
Elflein was also named a finalist for the Outland Trophy, given to the nation's top interior lineman. Alabama left tackle Cam Robinson claimed that award.
9. J.T. Barrett Sets School Records For Touchdown Passes and Touchdowns Responsible For
By the time he hangs up his Ohio State uniform and cleats, J.T. Barrett is set to own a number of football program records. The 2016 season brought along two more.
Ohio State's quarterback surged past Bobby Hoying to become the all-time leader in touchdown passes with a second-quarter scoring toss to Marcus Baugh in his team's 58-0 shelling of Rutgers. That gave Barrett 58 passing touchdowns in his career. He ended his 22nd career start with 59 and continues to add to the total. When Barrett steps on the field at University of Phoenix Stadium to face Clemson on Dec. 31, he will do so with 69 touchdown passes in his back pocket.
Barrett's 7-yard scoring toss to Noah Brown under the lights and in overtime against Wisconsin on Oct. 15 provided to be the game-winning score but also represented his 89th career touchdown responsible for. Welcome to the second school record Barrett set this season. Only this time, the man whose name he erased atop the list and replaced with his own is a former teammate, two-time Silver Football winner Braxton Miller.
Since then, Barrett has pushed his career total touchdown mark to an even 100; 69 passing and 31 rushing. He set the record for touchdowns responsible for in only 24 career starts. Barrett also tied his own school record against Bowling Green in the season opener with six total touchdowns. He shares that mark with former quarterback Kenny Guiton.
For a look at where Barrett sits on multiple other lists in Ohio State lore with at least one and maybe two games left this season in addition to a 2017 campaign should he return for his senior year, Chris has you covered.
8. Ohio State Runs Rampant Over Notre Dame, Urban Meyer's First Senior Class Reaches 50 Wins
While many consider Ohio State's 2015 season a disappointment because the Buckeyes failed to reach the College Football Playoff, one of the best moments of 2016 came on New Year's Day. More than a month removed from smashing Michigan 42-13 in Ann Arbor, Urban Meyer's team stayed the course and sent its senior class out in style against the Fighting Irish.
Star running back Ezekiel Elliott capped his remarkable career with a Fiesta Bowl-tying four rushing touchdowns to go with 149 yards in addition to a 30-yard reception. J.T. Barrett took home offensive MVP honors with 307 total yards (211 passing) and a touchdown while the Buckeyes ran for 285 yards. Notre Dame couldn't keep up, trailing 14-0 before the halfway point of the first quarter and never really threatening despite closing the gap to one score early in the third.
The win catapulted Ohio State to a No. 4 finish and 12-1 record but the most impressive statistic is the incredible four-year span of winning completed by Meyer and Co. The 50 victories are a school record, as seniors like Taylor Decker, Jacoby Boren, Nick Vannett, and Joshua Perry put together remarkable careers.
The class won both a Big Ten and national championship while at Ohio State. And while it didn't get a chance to do either of those things last season, it served as the backbone for a team that kicked off the 2016 calendar with its 50th victory and a dominant win against a college football blue blood.
7. Martin, Snyder Capture NCAA titles
Ohio State’s wrestling program has achieved quite a bit of success in recent years under head coach Tom Ryan and that train certainly kept right on rolling during the 2015–16 season as the Buckeyes claimed a pair of individual national championships.
Myles Martin, a true freshman, and Kyle Snyder, a sophomore, claimed crowns in the 174-pound and heavyweight divisions, respectively, as each took down No. 1 seeds in the championship matches to earn their titles.
Martin defeated Penn State’s Bo Nickal, 11-9, after falling to Nickal twice earlier in the season. Meanwhile, Snyder took down top-ranked Nick Gwiazdowski of NC State in sudden victory, ending Gwiazdowski’s 88-match winning streak.
6. Noah Brown’s Four-Touchdown Performance at Oklahoma
Ohio State traveled to Norman, Oklahoma on Sept. 17 for one of the marquee non-conference games of the college football season. For a team filled with unproven talent, this was a huge stage for the Buckeyes.
And boy did they deliver.
Ohio State throttled the Sooners, 45-24, thanks to a four-touchdown performance from one of those emerging stars: wide receiver Noah Brown. The redshirt sophomore, who missed the entire 2015 season after suffering a leg fracture in fall camp, announced his comeback was complete as he hauled in touchdown passes of 4, 37, 21 and 8 yards from quarterback J.T. Barrett.
None of Brown’s touchdown receptions that night were more impressive than his third, the 21-yarder he literally pinned on the back off of Oklahoma defensive back Michiah Quick.
5. ‘Rushmen’ Provide Walk-Off Win at Wisconsin
Ohio State ventured north to Madison, Wisconsin on Oct. 15, unbeaten, for a primetime showdown against the eighth-ranked Badgers at Camp Randall Stadium — one of college football’s most difficult environments.
Wisconsin opened the game with a bang, jumping out to a 16-6 lead at halftime. The Buckeyes responded, however, and eventually forced overtime after Tyler Durbin tied the game at 23-all on a 31-yard field goal with 3 minutes, 57 seconds to play.
Noah Brown’s touchdown catch gave Ohio State a 30-23 lead in overtime. Wisconsin then faced a fourth-and-goal from the 4-yard lead needing to score to send the game to a second overtime.
Alex Hornibrook took the snap and dropped back to pass, but Tyquan Lewis, Jalyn Holmes, Nick Bosa and Sam Hubbard — Ohio State’s ‘Rushmen’ package — collapsed the pocket and swallowed up Hornibrook for the walk-off sack.
4. Ohio State Dominates 2016 NFL Draft, Has 12 Players Selected By The League
The stage of the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University in Chicago held a Scarlet and Gray hue all weekend long at the end of April. A total of 12 Buckeyes heard their names called, including a record 10 in the first three rounds, or 94 picks. Seven came off the board in the first two rounds, which tied another record. And five stars—Joey Bosa at No. 3, Ezekiel Elliott at No. 4, Eli Apple at No. 10, Taylor Decker at No. 16 and Darron Lee at No. 20—became top-20 selections.
Urban Meyer spent time on NFL Network grinning from ear-to-ear and fist-pumping when Buckeye after Buckeye heard his name called, gladly basking in the record class that boosted recruiting and Ohio State's brand even further.
Michael Thomas, Vonn Bell, Adolphus Washington, Braxton Miller, Nick Vannett, Joshua Perry and Cardale Jones joined their five former teammates to round out Ohio State's NFL Draft circuit. Jalin Marshall is in New York playing for the Jets as an undrafted free agent and Tyvis Powell took the same route to Seattle and joined the Seahawks.
The Buckeyes had at least one player taken from every position (excluding specialists) in the 2016 NFL Draft. Not bad at all.
3. Kyle Snyder Wins Olympic Gold
It’s hard to imagine any college athlete having a better year than Snyder.
After becoming the youngest world champion in United States wrestling history at age 19, Snyder won an NCAA title during his sophomore season for Ohio State. Then, after accomplishing those in succession, he qualified for the Olympic team and headed to Rio to represent the United States in the 97-kilogram weight class for freestyle wrestling.
And he was dominant all the way through the gold medal match where Snyder met Khetag Gazyumov of Azerbaijan. In a low-scoring affair, Snyder defeated Gazyumov, 2-1, to become the youngest American freestyle wrestling Olympic gold medalist in history.
Not bad for a 20-year old junior in college.
2. Ohio State Beats Michigan in The First Overtime Installment of The Game
In one of the best and most exciting installments in The Game's 113-year history, Ohio State and Michigan battled one another for nearly four hours on Nov. 26 at Ohio Stadium. The matchup came down to the final play, which ended up being a Curtis Samuel sweep left and skip over the goal line to give the Buckeyes a 30-27 victory in double overtime. It was the first time an Ohio State-Michigan game needed an extra session.
While Samuel's scoring play will live in infamy, what he did two plays earlier gave the Buckeyes a chance to secure their fifth straight victory over the Wolverines. Samuel took a handoff right, reversed fields, then did again before turning back left and racing for nine yards. J.T. Barrett picked up the yard needed on 4th down, then Samuel ended it on the very next play.
That sequence was only one of multiple heart-stopping and exciting moments in the game. Malik Hooker added his third pick-six of the season to keep Ohio State in the game while Michigan statistically dominated the first three quarters. Jerome Baker intercepted Wilton Speight later on and the Buckeye defense bowed up to allow just five yards in the final quarter. Walk-on kicker Tyler Durbin had two chances to tie the game with makeable field goals but shanked both. He nailed the one that counted, though, a 23-yarder with 1 second left in regulation to send the game to overtime.
Meyer is now 5-0 against Michigan as head coach of the Buckeyes. The Wolverines still lead the all-time series 58-48-6 but Ohio State has won 12 out of the last 14 matchups.
1. Ohio State Makes 2016 College Football Playoff
Ohio State's victory over Michigan gave it a share of the Big Ten East Division title but the Buckeyes did not earn a trip to Indianapolis and the conference championship game. That invitation instead went to Penn State, who beat them 24-21 on Oct. 22 in State College.
However, Ohio State became the first ever team in the College Football Playoff's brief history to make its way into the top four without a conference crown. The committee slotted the Buckeyes third in their rankings on Dec. 4. Ohio State plays Clemson in the Fiesta Bowl on New Year's Eve.
Road victories first at Oklahoma (45-24) and later at Wisconsin (30-23 in overtime) represented a firm foundation for Ohio State's Playoff resumé. The victory against Michigan and 62-3 annihilation of then-No. 10 Nebraska served as the final pieces of the puzzle that kept the Buckeyes in the top-4 even without a Big Ten Championship.
Should the Buckeyes defeat the Tigers on Dec. 31, they will advance to the national championship game and face the winner of the other national semifinal between top-ranked Alabama and Washington.
