Ohio State's season will start with a true road game for the second time in three years.
That short time-span between season-opening road games belies how rare an occasion it is for Ohio State to start a season with a true road game. It has happened just eight times before with four of those contests happening before Ohio State joined the Big Ten in 1913. Here, we detail these season-opening true road contests and how the later entries coincide with seasons that fell short of expectations.
Readers will see a clear distinction between the distant and modern eras of football in this table summarizing Ohio State's road openers. The first four all happened in the first 22 years of the program's history and before Ohio State joined the Western Conference in the 1913 season.
The Pre-Big Ten Era
Ohio State's first-ever game happened to be on the road. The Buckeyes opened the 1890 season, as much as anyone could call it that at the time, with a May 3 trip 20 miles north to Delaware to play a squad representing Ohio Wesleyan.
The game here is a clear anachronism for multiple reasons beyond the May 3 date. The sport itself was in its infancy; the contest more closely resembled rugby than modern football. Forward passes were still impermissible and efforts to move the ball down the field without backward or lateral passes involved dropkicks. Ohio State's first-ever football contest experienced numerous delays as errant kicks landed in the waters of the Delaware Creek on the northern edge of the Ohio Wesleyan campus where the game was played.
| Year | AP Rank | Opponent | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1890 | NA | Ohio Wesleyan | W, 20-14 |
| 1892 | NA | Oberlin | L, 0-40 |
| 1893 | NA | Otterbein | L, 16-22 |
| 1912 | NA | Otterbein | W, 55-0 |
| 1974 | No. 4 | Minnesota | W, 34-19 |
| 1975 | No. 3 | No. 11 Michigan State | W, 21-0 |
| 1998 | No. 1 | No. 11 West Virginia | W, 34-17 |
| 2015 | No. 1 | Virginia Tech | W, 42-24 |
Ohio State can at least boast a win in that contest. The Buckeyes dropped the next three season-opening road games against Ohio Athletic Conference competition. The 1892 game at Oberlin stands out in this list for a variety of reasons, largely for the names involved. John Heisman coached the Oberlin Yeomen that season, his first-ever season as a head coach. Jack Ryder was in his first year as Ohio State's head coach with Samuel P. Bush as one of his assistants. The tenures for both were uneventful at Ohio State. Cincinnati sports history buffs may better remember Ryder as a legendary sportswriter who even bequeathed to the University of Cincinnati the nickname they still use today (Bearcats). Samuel P. Bush found his career in industry and is the patriarch of the Bush political family.
Arguably the best player on that Oberlin team, John Henry Wise, was a lineman and theology student from Hawaii who returned to Hawaii after graduation in 1895 to take part in the 1895 Counter-Revolution to restore monarchical rule on the islands. Oberlin's trainer was Ernest Hemingway's mother.
The names involved intrigue but the contest itself was a disaster for the Buckeyes. The 1892 Buckeyes were no match for Heisman's Yeomen, who were, by all accounts, bigger and stronger than anyone on the Ohio State roster. The 40-0 defeat of the Buckeyes underscores how overmatched they were in the trenches. The Ohio State report of the game, which relied almost entirely on cables from Oberlin summarizing the contest, praised Ohio State's "brilliant tackling" while noting Ohio State was "powerless against Oberlin's tremendous rush line" that "could play havoc through center and run at will." That is faint praise for Ohio State to say the least.
To make matters worse, Oberlin played Ohio State again, this time at Ohio Field. The Buckeyes lost again, 50-0.
The Buckeyes started the 1893 contest on the road as well. It was the first game in program history against Otterbein, though the result was not one to remember. The Buckeyes dropped the game, 22-16, in Westerville. Fans, even this early into the program's history, were miffed by the result. However, four of the starting 11 were scratched from the contest hours before it happened. Head coach Jack Ryder was compelled to insert four players into the lineup who had actually never played football prior to that game.
The 1912 opener on the road constitutes a turning point in Ohio State football. It was the last season before joining the Western Conference and precedes a period in which Ohio State started to slowly phase out Ohio Athletic Conference competition from the schedule. Ohio State had outgrown the in-state programs. It showed to start the 1912 season. The Buckeyes easily dispatched Otterbein in Westerville. This would be the last game against Otterbein in Ohio State's history, closing a series that, by that point, featured Otterbein as Ohio State's most frequent opponent to begin a season.
The Modern Era
The four most recent season-opening true road games all have an underlying theme. Ohio State is undefeated in all four contests; most have been routs. Ohio State had been ranked no lower than No. 4 in the AP Poll and was twice even ranked No. 1. Expectations were almost always high, but all seasons ended well short of those lofty expectations.
The 1974 season started in Minneapolis against the Golden Gophers. Ohio State lost a few key players from the undefeated Rose Bowl champion 1973 squad, prominently John Hicks, Rick Middleton, Randy Gradishar, Morris Bradshaw and Vic Koegel. However, that 1974 squad was stil loaded with talent, like the "Fab Four" backfield of Baschnagel, Greene, Griffin, and true freshman Pete Johnson. The defense still featured Neal Colzie, Ken Kuhn, and Van DeCree.
Fans who know well Ohio State football in the mid-1970s probably remember that Woody Hayes carried a vendetta against Minnesota at the time. He did not want to just beat Minnesota; he wanted to humble Minnesota at every opportunity. Woody Hayes, notorious for carrying grudges, despised Minnesota coach Cal Stoll for multiple reasons. Stoll, per Hayes, was a brash snake oil salesman whose success on the recruiting trail came at the expense of Hayes' efforts in Ohio and Michigan. Successfully courting Toledo's Rick Upchurch to the program may have been the recruiting loss that infuriated Hayes the most. Hayes even tried to insinuate in interviews that Stoll was breaking the rules toward that end, a major breach of etiquette at the time.
The 1974 game saw the Buckeyes dispatch the Gophers without much controversy. Archie Griffin's 133 yards in the first game of his junior season gave him the career rushing record, surpassing Jim Otis (2,542 yards) and Hopalong Cassady (2,466 yards) in one game. The Buckeyes were up 28-3 after the third quarter. Tony Dungy and Rick Upchurch scored two touchdowns with two two-point conversions to cut the lead to 28-19. A Cornelius Greene 57-yard touchdown run iced the game.
However, that 1974 season did not end the way the Buckeyes had hoped. Ohio State climbed to No. 1 by Week 3 but were upset by Michigan State in controversial fashion in late November. Ohio State still had a shot at a national championship after Notre Dame upset Alabama in the Orange Bowl. However, a Neal Colzie blunder cost Ohio State a prime opportunity for an easy touchdown. USC beat the Buckeyes, 18-17, in the Rose Bowl.
The 1975 season started with a similar vendetta, this time against Michigan State. Ohio State had important departures like Neal Colzie, Doug France, and Kurt Schumacher, but still had a senior squad led by the Fab Four backfield even if the defense was somewhat young and untested beyond Ken Kuhn. Ohio State shut out Michigan State's explosive offense, holding it to just 11 first downas and 173 yards of offense. Craig Cassady (Hopalong's son) tied a school single-game record with three interceptions.
The 1975 season did not end as Ohio State would have hoped. Arguably the best team in the country wire-to-wire, Ohio State put forward an embarrassing effort in the 1976 Rose Bowl against a UCLA team that it had routed in the Coliseum earlier that same season. The loss cost legends like Brian Baschnagel, Cornelius Greene, and Archie Griffin any chance at a national championship.
The next season-opening road contest happened in 1998. Older Millennials among the Ohio State football fan base might remember this for its billing as the "Amos vs. Andy" contest pitting West Virginia's tailback, Amos Zereoué, against Ohio State's linebacking corp, led by Andy Katzenmoyer. The quarterback battle between Joe Germaine and Marc Bulger excited on paper as well.
An electric crowd of WVU partisans watched Ohio State ultimately overwhelm the No. 11 Mountaineers. The Buckeye offense stole the show. Joe Germaine had 301 yards passing and two touchdowns while Michael Wiley outrushed Amos Zereoué, 140 yards to 77.
That game started Ohio State's run as the preseason No. 1 in the first season of the BCS era. The Buckeyes' inexplicable home loss to Michigan State ultimately cost the Buckeyes a chance at the Fiesta Bowl. Ohio State settled for a 24-14 win in the 1999 Sugar Bowl to end the season.
The most recent entry is more fresh in the memory of Ohio State football fans. Ohio State opened the 2015 season with a Labor Day kickoff against Virginia Tech, which handed Ohio State its only loss in the 2014 national championship run. The 42-24 box score belies how explosive Ohio State's offense was and how overmatched the Hokies were. The Buckeyes had 572 yards of offense. Ezekiel Elliott had 122 yards rushing, including 80 yards on one burst in the fourth quarter.
However, the offense in that game belied how the 2015 Buckeyes would sputter on offense as the consensus preseason No. 1 team in the country. Another home loss to Michigan State cost the Buckeyes a chance to defend their championship in the playoff.
Ohio State will open its season on the road for the second time in three seasons. However, these season-opening road contests are rare in the program's entire history. It happened four times before Ohio State joined the ranks of major college football programs in 1913. It happened just four times since. More recently, Ohio State has entered these season-opening road contests with high expectations, ranked no lower than No. 4 in the preseason AP. National championships were always the goal. While Ohio State has crushed these most recent road-openers, the seasons themselves ultimately fell well short of Ohio State's aspirations. The 2017 Buckeyes will strive to be an exception.
