Ohio State's eighth national championship was an unusual campaign. If not for the advent of the College Football Playoff, the Buckeyes would've clashed with the Ducks in Pasadena and not Arlington. After that game, fans would've begrudgingly watched Alabama manhandle Florida State in the BCS National Championship Game en route to another national championship.
Instead, Ohio State's no. 4 ranking became a no. 4 seed in a four-team post-season tournament, which the Buckeyes won.
Further, it finished the toughest part of its schedule, and won the national championship at the end, with its preseason third-string quarterback. Cardale Jones guided the Buckeyes to wins over no. 11 Wisconsin (with the country's no. 2 total defense), no. 1 Alabama (whose defense have been the country's best since 2007), and no. 2 Oregon.
Ohio State accomplished all this while having what amounted to be the worst loss ever suffered by an eventual national champion. Notre Dame's boner of a loss against Ole Miss in 1977 couldn't compare to the poor quality of the Virginia Tech loss.
This all underscores that the four-team playoff came just in time for the Buckeyes. For the sake of this season, this is true. However, it assumes that the path Ohio State took to the national championship has been previously untraveled. This is untrue. Two of Ohio State's most celebrated teams suffered unfortunate early season setbacks en route to a national championship.
The problem is assuming that all national champions fit one of two molds. There are the national champions that go undefeated, either gutting out each win (e.g. Ohio State in 2002) or obliterating every team in its path (e.g. Miami). There's also the national champion of late that suffers a mid-season setback against a solid team and gets a mulligan at the end of the season. Alabama won its past two national championships like this. It's also how Urban Meyer won his first two.
Ohio State's 1957 didn't fit either of those molds. A celebrated national championship squad headlined by Dick Lebeau, Jim Marshall, and Dick Schafrath (among others) began its season much like the 2014 Buckeyes did: losing at home to a barely .500 team.
Ohio State's national championship campaign in 1957 opened with a home loss to Texas Christian, which had just opened its season the week earlier by tying Kansas (which finished 5-4-1 in that year). TCU would itself limp to a 5-4-1 season, scoring one touchdown in those four losses.
Further, it was a bad loss even before knowing how TCU's season would unfold. TCU, a 13-point underdog, rallied against two Ohio State leads, including a TCU touchdown scored on a 90-yard punt return. Ohio State fumbled three times, including two key fumbles in the second half (one which gave TCU the winning score early in the third quarter). Texas Christian held Ohio State's vaunted rushing attack to just 98 second-half rushing yards.
A similar loss in today's era of 24-7 coverage of college football would've been covered (and ridiculed) in a manner similar to Ohio State's loss to Virginia Tech.
Like the 2014 Buckeyes, the 1957 Buckeyes rallied the next game. Traveling to Seattle to play Washington the next week, the Buckeyes took out their frustrations on Jim Owens' Huskies. The Buckeyes outgained Washington 353-221 en route to a 35-7 win.
The Buckeyes never looked back the rest of the season. Only Wisconsin (in Madison) and then-no. 5 Iowa came within two touchdowns of the Buckeyes. Ohio State secured the no. 1 spot in the Coaches Poll before the Rose Bowl game against Oregon.
Four years later, Ohio State would need to do it again.
The 1961 Buckeyes opened its season with Texas Christian again in Ohio Stadium. It was the first meeting since the upset in 1957. This time, TCU forced a 7-7 tie. After Ohio State scored on its first possession of the game, the Buckeyes' offense was shut out.
Texas Christian, which opened its season with a one-point win over a solid Kansas team, would win just two games the rest of the way through the season. It finished 1961 with a 3-5-2 record.
Ohio State used that game, a flat performance for all but the first drive of the game, as a springboard to better games ahead. No team remaining on the 1961 schedule came within nine points of the Buckeyes. The 50-20 win over Michigan was good enough to secure a no. 1 slot from the Football Writers Association of America before Ohio State's faculty controversially voted to decline the 1962 Rose Bowl bid.
The similarities of the 2014 Buckeyes and the 1957 and 1961 Buckeyes are not lost on those who played on those teams. Galen Cisco, a team captain on the 1957 Buckeyes, noticed the similarities of this year's Buckeyes with his team in 1957.
“I was just thinking about the similar situations between our team and this (2014) team,” 1957 team captain Galen Cisco said this week. “We got better every week, just like they are.”
Cisco made the comparison at the end of November when the Buckeyes were still trying to make their case for inclusion in the playoff. Much like the 1957 Buckeyes, the 2014 Buckeyes eventually proved their worth when it mattered most: at the end of the season, and not just the beginning.
