Ohio State had just beaten Notre Dame — led by an unlikeable coach — handily in the Fiesta Bowl and guys were lining up for the NFL Draft. No, this isn’t about current events. I’m talking about the Buckeyes of a decade ago.
Then, as now, the Buckeyes were a team of high expectations, who had been unable to avoid the critical misstep to keep them in the hunt for a shot at a national championship. In the case of the 2005 team, it was a dropped pass in the end zone against No. 2 Texas — but also a loss by a single touchdown on the road at No 18 Penn State.
Those two losses put Ohio State in the Jan. 2 Fiesta Bowl against the Fighting Irish of Charlie Weis. The Buckeyes came out and made a statement in that game, much like they would 10 years later by quickly pouncing on Notre Dame by two scores, before the ejection of Joey Bosa sort of equalized things a bit.
Following that bowl win at the birth of the year 2006, Ohio State sent nine players into the NFL on draft day, including five in the first round. Linebacker A.J. Hawk was the first to go, leaving for Green Bay with the No. 5 overall selection. Safety Donte Whitner went to the Bills at No. 8 and Bobby Carpenter followed at No. 18 to Dallas.
Then it was time for the offense to go. Wide receiver Santonio Holmes went to Pittsburgh at No. 25 and center Nick Mangold to the New York Jets just four picks later.
After the first round, cornerback Ashton Youboty joined Whitner in Buffalo in the third round (70th overall) and the third of the three starting linebackers, Anthony Schlegel, was taken by the Jets six picks later. Safety Nate Salley went to the Carolina Panthers in the fourth round and guard Rob Sims to Seattle just a few picks later in the same round.
There are so many parallels between that 2004 team and the one we watched in 2015. Both were so close to perfection that a play here or there would have made all the difference. Both teams could have folded in the desert against Notre Dame but chose not to, instead winning comfortably. Both times Notre Dame had the kind of coach you’d enjoy seeing routinely lose by 70 points.
The parallels between Jim Tressel’s 2005 Buckeyes and Urban Meyer’s 2015 Ohio State team are uncanny.
And both teams were gutted by defections to the NFL. It just remains to be seen how fecund the 2015 team will turn out to be in producing NFL draft choices. There will be several. Instead of nine players drafted this time around, there might be nine underclassmen taken, along with multiple seniors, such as Adolphus Washington, Nick Vannett, Taylor Decker and others.
So, what happened after all those guys left the 2005 team?
Well, after Jim Tressel replaced all of his linebackers, most of his defensive backfield and a good chunk of his offensive line, along with one of his biggest playmakers on offense, he entered 2006 with a younger, hungrier team that somehow was ranked No. 1 in the nation. The 2006 Buckeyes opened the season by winning three non-conference games by an average of 23 points, including a revenge victory over No. 2 Texas, by 17 — on the road.
That team started the Big Ten season by avenging the loss at Penn State by beating the No. 24 Nittany Lions by 22 points and followed that by beating No. 13 Iowa by three touchdowns — on the road. Next came a weird mid-season non-conference game against Bowling Green, which Ohio State won by 28, followed by a 31-point win over Sparty — on the road.
The Buckeyes beat Indiana by 41 and Minnesota by 44. Then the oddity that is Champaign, IL, nearly derailed a seeming juggernaut. Ohio State managed only a 17-10 win over Illinois on the road and then completed the sweep of the Land of Lincoln with a 54-10 win at Northwestern the next week. Ohio State finished the campaign with a 42-39 win over No. 2 Michigan in the Game of the Century and earned a trip to the national championship game.
Only two teams all that year played Ohio State closer than 17 points.
No one knows yet what 2016 will bring, or if the history of 2005-2006 will repeat itself — and we certainly hope the postseason next year is nothing like the gut punch that took place in January of 2007. But the parallels between Jim Tressel’s 2005 Buckeyes and Urban Meyer’s 2015 Ohio State team are uncanny.
Meyer will rebuild his defense by replacing most of his defensive backfield and two of his three linebackers. But unlike Tressel, there’s also a big void to replace on the defensive line. He has to put his offensive line back together, like Tressel did a decade ago. He loses a playmaker at wide receiver — Mike Thomas in place of Santonio Holmes — but also has lost Jalin Marshall and starting tailback Ezekiel Elliott.
Can Meyer pull off the same kind of quick rebuild that Tressel managed? We’ll find out more about that on Sept. 3 — against Bowling Green, a common opponent from the 2006 season. In the immortal words of recently departed rock legend David Bowie...let's dance.
