After looking last week at how past Ohio State football teams responded upon dropping back-to-back games versus Michigan, today we shift to examining how the Buckeyes bounced back after losing the final two games of the previous season.
Luckily for Ohio State fans, the Buckeyes have only dropped at least the final two games of a season 16 times in the 72 years since Woody Hayes arrived in Columbus and most of those were decades ago.
Speaking of Woody, he lost at least back-to-back games to end a season five times in 28 seasons. It happed to Earle Bruce-led teams only once in nine years. John Cooper? Seven times in 13 seasons.
Since Cooper was fired following the 2000 season, the Buckeyes have only lost at least back-to-back games to close a season three times.
Coop's successor, Jim Tressel, never lost the last two games of any season during his 10-year run before Luke Fickell lost four in a row to close his 2011 campaign. Urban Meyer followed Fickell and only the 2013 season ended with back-to-back losses during his seven year run. Through four seasons of Ryan Day's tenure, last year served as the first such instance his Buckeyes dropped two in a row to end the season.
With Day staring down this barrel heading into the 2023 season after dropping contests to Michigan and Georgia to end the 2022 slate, let's take a look at how Ohio State's last two squads bounced back from losing the final two games the previous season.
TRANSITION YEAR OF 2011 PAVES THE WAY FOR MONSTER 2012
Following Tressel's stunning resignation on May 30, 2011 after 10 years at the helm, along with quarterback Terrelle Pryor's unplanned departure, Fickell admirably stepped in as interim head coach but Ohio State's program was suddenly, understandably, reeling.
With freshman quarterback Braxton Miller under center but given lackluster instruction while guiding a generic offense, Ohio State started 2-0 before losing 24-6 to a very ordinary Miami Hurricanes squad. The Buckeyes would go 4-2 over the next six games before bottoming out with a four-game losing streak. The last two came as Ohio State just missed upsetting Michigan, instead falling 40-34, before a dismal showing against an equally dismal Florida team in a Gator Bowl to forget. The end result was a 6-7 record - Ohio State's first 7-loss season since 1897.
But hey, as calamitous as the 2011 season was, it paved the way for Urban Meyer's arrival and the polarizing but inarguably great head coach quickly reshaped Ohio State's culture, coaching staff, roster and outlook.
Meyer brought on key new assistant coaches and staffers in Mark Pantoni, Tom Herman, Mickey Marotti, Ed Warinner and Kerry Coombs to name a few, along with a top-5 recruiting class.
Ineligible for postseason play due to an NCAA-imposed ban, the 2012 Buckeyes navigated a 12-game schedule with nary a loss to finish No. 3 in the AP Poll.
Though Miller was still raw as a passer, he tossed 15 touchdowns while chewing up 1,271 yards on the ground with another 13 scores. He formed a dynamic rushing duo with Carlos Hyde, who would explode a year later. Hyde racked up 970 yards and 16 rushing touchdowns.
On defense, Ryan Shazier flourished with 115 stops including 17.5 tackles for loss while a Meyer-favorite, John Simon, posted 14.5 tackles for loss including a team-high nine sacks.
With Meyer's championship pedigree and a new staff developing players, the Buckeyes didn't flinch in close games going 6-0 in games decided by seven points or less, two of which went to overtime.
Even without an opportunity to play for a B1G or national championship, Meyer's first season erased the taste of 2011 in spades.
LATE-SEASON COLLAPSE IN 2013 IGNITES A FIRE AHEAD OF MAGICAL 2014 SEASON
Like the 2012 team before it, the 2013 Buckeyes peeled off 12 straight wins capped by a win over Michigan. The victory in The Game was a dramatic one as a Tyvis Powell interception of a 2-point conversion attempt preserved a 42-41 Ohio State win in the Big House.
Unlike the 2012 squad however, the 2013 Buckeyes still had games to play now that the postseason ban had passed.
That turned out to be bad news however as No. 2 ranked Ohio State fell to No. 10 Michigan State, 34-24, in the "Give It To Hyde" B1G title game. The heartbreaker was followed by a 40-35 loss to No. 8 Clemson in the Orange Bowl that saw Miller play through a shoulder injury that required surgery soon after.
Staggered by the back-to-back losses to end the season, Ohio State entered the 2014 season hungry to take the next step. It looked like dreams of glory might be over before the opener as Miller's surgically-repaired shoulder gave way, in the form of a torn labrum, late in fall camp.
That set the stage for redshirt freshman J.T. Barrett to guide the offense. A Game Two loss to unranked Virginia Tech by 14 points in the Shoe gave some the feeling the 2014 season might be in trouble. That feeling proved fleeting however as Ohio State used a playmaking defense, surprising efficiency and overall clutch play from Barrett, electric relief from Cardale Jones after Barrett was injured versus Michigan, and finally a devastating running late in the season from Ezekiel Elliott to win 13-straight following the Hokies' upset.
With Jones showing freakish confidence and a rifle arm following Barrett's broken ankle, the passing game helped stretch defenses and Elliott made them pay. He gashed Wisconsin, Alabama and Oregon for 696 yards on 9.16 per carry with eight touchdowns as Ohio State captured the B1G title and a national title across the greatest three-game stretch in school history.
Fast-forward to present day and the pressure is on Day and company to show their own ability to overcome a gut-wrenching two game losing streak to close last season and parlay the pain into a high-level season this fall.
