Ohio State just had 10 players taken in the Draft for the second year in a row.
It turns out the only four-time defending conference champs in B1G history are pretty good at producing pros! Right, I know - who could have possibly seen that coming? And while the Buckeyes are soaring, perhaps you noticed the Michigan State Spartans are slumping.
Last year is mercifully getting foggier, but surely you remember Sparty circa 2020. An Ohio State skeleton crew limped up to East Lansing missing 23 players due to COVID and contact tracing - including numerous starters, most of its offensive line and its head coach - and still left East Lansing with an almost casual 52-12 win.
Ohio State's NFL Draft Streak is still young enough to be on its parents' health insurance.
Despite winning its state championship and also upsetting eventual B1G West champ Northwestern (this behavior is Peak Sparty™ and we're just a little too familiar with this as Buckeye fans) MSU was objectively terrible last season. If its 2-5 record wasn't good enough evidence of that, last weekend's NFL Draft was.
Or was it? Maybe you don't have to be objectively terrible to produce no NFL Draft picks. Maybe there can also be other factors at play. Maybe this is all foreshadowing.
Anyway, America had not yet entered World War II the last time zero Spartans were drafted, ending what had been an 80-year streak. You had no idea Little Brother was capable of a run like that.
So Ohio State has to hold a similar streak, right? After all, Michigan State has been the underdog in this series for the vast majority of it, and every year seems to send an orgy of Buckeye stars to the pros. But as it turns out, the streak in Columbus is nowhere close to the one that just ended in East Lansing.
OSU’s streak is only 23 years old. It’s young enough to still be on its parents' health insurance.
It is against the law to invoke the 1997 Buckeyes without including this GIF or at least mentioning what Andy Katzenmoyer did to Corby Jones.
Since you cannot possibly be expected to do math on a Wednesday: 23 years ago was 1998. Ohio State's NFL Draft shutout came following the 1997 season, a magical year in Michigan football history, which is to say it was also the peak of the Cooper Era.
But 1997 in Columbus was a far cry from the two-win clunker that ended Sparty's octogenarian streak. The Buckeyes won 10 games in 1997, finishing second to the Wolverines in the conference. They ended No.12 in both polls and held nine opponents under two touchdowns.
This was more than just a decent team, but perhaps the most important aspect of that season was Coop seeing Florida State's defensive line perform in the Sugar Bowl and immediately putting in the recruiting work that produced the group which left Tempe as BCS champions five years later.
Every bit of that 2002 line was born out of Andre Wadsworth attempting to murder Joe Germaine. Previously, Ohio State played eventual co-national champion Michigan even in Ann Arbor, holding the home team to just 42 yards rushing on 42 carries.
That Buckeye team produced no NFL draft picks. Look at the utter insanity of this cadence.
| DRAFT | SEASON | OSU RECORD | 1ST ROUND | TOTAL PICKS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | 1990 | 7-4-1 | 1 | 3 |
| 1992 | 1991 | 8-4 | 1 | 3 |
| 1993 | 1992 | 8-3-1 | 1 | 4 |
| 1994 | 1993 | 10-1-1 | 1 | 5 |
| 1995 | 1994 | 9-4 | 3 | 8 |
| 1996 | 1995 | 11-2 | 3 | 4 |
| 1997 | 1996 | 11-2 | 2 | 7 |
| 1998 | 1997 | 10-3 | 0 | 0 |
| 1999 | 1998 | 11-1 | 3 | 8 |
| 2000 | 1999 | 6-6 | 1 | 6 |
| 2001 | 2000 | 8-4 | 2 | 7 |
Buckeyes annually in the 1st round, let alone across the draft. And then there were none.
Ohio State didn't produce a single draft pick after going 10-3 and in between seasons where they produced seven and eight picks respectively. So no, this was not your father's 2-5 Michigan State Spartans getting ghosted by NFL GMs over the weekend weekend.
A full quarter of the 1997 All-Big Ten team came from Ohio State. Eric Gholstin, David Boston, Andy Katzenmoyer, Antoine Winfield, Damon Moore and Brent Bartholomew all took honors that year. None of them heard their names called that spring. Yes, there were factors at play.
Gholstin was the only senior in that group. Winfield and Moore chose to return for their senior years; they were taken in the 1st and 4th rounds in the 1999 draft but would have gone had they declared early. Boston and Katzenmoyer were sophomores who joined Winfield in the 1st round.
And Bartholomew - as good as he was - was a punter. He stayed in school, as punters do.
As for the draft-eligible Buckeyes following the 1997 season, NG Jimmie Bell signed a free agent deal with the Giants and DT Winfield Garnett signed with the Jags. QB Stanley Jackson signed with the Seahawks. LB Kevin Johnson signed with the Falcons. Pepe Pearson signed with the Niners.
Only QB/TE Tommy Hoying and LB Marcel Willis went both undrafted and unsigned. DE John Day, slated to replace Matt Finkes that season, lost his senior year to a knee injury in the opener.
The NFL Draft has been held every year since 1936. Ohio State's been shut out only once. It's hard to believe that could ever happen again the way the Buckeyes have evolved into a full-fledged NFL factory - but it's also hard to believe it could have happened at all.
