Ohio State fans will hope next Saturday's meeting with Marshall proves less dramatic than the first time the schools met 20 years ago.
The 2004 game between the Buckeyes and Thundering Herd remains one of just two times the teams have faced each other in football – the other coming in 2010 – despite Marshall University sitting on the banks of the Ohio River, merely a two-and-a-half-hour drive away from Columbus.
Given Ohio State's record against in-state schools across the last century plus, the Herd may count themselves lucky that Huntington finds itself just inside of the West Virginia border. Then again, they may harbor a thirst for more opportunities to prove themselves after providing the Buckeyes with a stunning scare two decades ago.
The 2004 OSU season began innocently enough with a 27-6 win over Cincinnati in the first game on the schedule. That victory began a campaign arriving on the heels of a letdown national title defense effort the previous year in which Ohio State suffered losses on the road at Wisconsin and Michigan. The most recent NFL Draft also saw 14 Buckeyes selected, setting the record at the time, but also leaving many prominent shoes to fill back in Columbus.
Fortunately, Ohio State still had two key returning players it could rely on: former All-American kicker Mike Nugent and promising sophomore receiver Santonio Holmes.
Nugent began his senior season as a Buckeye poised to break the school's all-time records for points scored and career field goals, both of which he ultimately achieved. He already owned the OSU record for most field goals in a lone season after booting 25 through the uprights two years earlier. One week following the game against Marshall, he would also go on to tie Bob Atha's school record of five field goals made in a single contest.
Meanwhile, Holmes entered his second season in Columbus full of promise. He already had three games with multiple touchdowns on his résumé from the previous year, including an effort in Ann Arbor that yielded eight receptions for 121 receiving yards in defeat. His only pair of receptions in the 2003 Fiesta Bowl against Kansas State each ended in scores.
But despite all the aforementioned standout afternoons and evenings, the game against Marshall would ultimately become the signature performance in both of these legendary Ohio State careers.
Less than five minutes into the first quarter, Holmes caught an 80-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Justin Zwick on the first play of the second Buckeye possession that day. Holmes brought in the ball from just beyond midfield, and Mike Tirico on the call for ABC that day declared an Ohio State touchdown before Holmes even crossed into the Thundering Herd's red zone.
Unintimidated by the lightning strike delivered from the OSU offense, Marshall immediately responded with a 12-play, 80-yard drive that yielded a rushing score near the Buckeye goal line. The score then found itself equalized at seven points apiece.
After each team went three-and-out on their next respective possessions, Holmes converted a third down for Ohio State on a 19-yard catch, then scored from 47 yards out on his next reception two plays later. At the end of the first quarter, Holmes already had 146 receiving yards and two touchdowns on only three receptions.
However, an inconsistent rushing attack and costly turnovers became the theme for the Buckeyes across nearly the rest of the afternoon. After the teams traded punts for most of the second quarter, Herd defensive end Jonathan Goddard scooped up a fumble by OSU running back Lydell Ross and returned the ball 27 yards for a touchdown to even the score once again.
That play became a defining highlight for Goddard during a season in which he went on to earn MAC Defensive Player of the Year and first-team All American honors. Goddard would turn into a sixth round pick for the Indianapolis Colts in the next NFL Draft and won a Super Bowl ring two years later.
Zwick threw another touchdown to Roy Hall on the next drive for Ohio State to put the Scarlet and Gray back in front, but that would end up the team's final trip to the end zone that day. The Buckeyes did not score any points across nearly the final 34 minutes of the game, as the offense turned the ball over three more times. An otherwise heroic Holmes fumbled the ball to start the fourth quarter before a pair of Zwick interceptions on subsequent drives.
While Holmes' fumble proved inconsequential after Marshall went three-and-out for the fifth time, Zwick's first interception set up the Thundering Herd offense for the third equalizing touchdown of the game. His second pick on the first play of the next Buckeye possession preceded an 11 play, 41-yard drive for Marshall that fortunately ended in a missed field goal.
Both teams then exchanged possession on another set of three-and-outs, but with only 30 seconds left in regulation, Herd punter Ian O'Connor only managed to kick the ball 27 yards to set the Buckeyes up five shy of midfield. Zwick got over his previous mistakes quickly and completed his next three attempts — the first two of which went to Holmes — for a total of 23 yards.
Ohio State needed to spike the ball in the dying moments to set Nugent up for a 49-yard field goal. The Buckeye offense could not hurry back to the line of scrimmage quickly enough, and Zwick received the snap before all of OSU's players could get set, resulting in an illegal procedure penalty that pushed a potential field goal out to 54 yards.
Tirico introduced Nugent to the field as a senior team captain and Centerville, Ohio native ahead of figuratively and literally one of the biggest kicks in his college football career. Nugent lined up from the left hash and snuck the ball inside the left upright with room to spare to the roar of the Buckeye faithful and the declaration of Tirico as a hero on the national broadcast. Ohio State had prevailed with a 24-21 final score.
Shortly afterwards, "NUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE" bellowed throughout the Horseshoe. The kick remains one of the most iconic field goals in the history of OSU football and served as the signature moment in Nugent's second All-American season that concluded with a Lou Groza award.
As for Holmes, the man then-often still inaccurately referred to as "San Antonio" ended the afternoon with 10 catches for 224 receiving yards and two touchdowns. The receiving yards total at the time stood as the second-most in a single game by any Buckeye receiver only to Terry Glenn's 253 in the 1995 game against Pittsburgh. Only Jaxon Smith-Njigba has since eclipsed Holmes' total from 20 years ago, a feat he accomplished twice in the 2021 season with 240 yards against Nebraska and his immortal Rose Bowl performance against Utah that yielded 347 yards.
Holmes went on to finish his career with what originally stood as the fifth-most receiving yards (2,295) and third-most touchdown receptions (25) in Ohio State football history. He has since seen his receiving yards total surpassed by only K.J. Hill, Devin Smith, Marvin Harrison Jr. and Chris Olave — the latter three also eclipsed his career total in touchdown catches. Holmes became a first round pick for the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 2006 NFL Draft and remains the only Buckeye ever to win Super Bowl MVP honors.
After breaking or tying 22 school records at Ohio State, Nugent joined the New York Jets as a second round pick in the 2005 NFL Draft and would go on to kick for nine different teams across an NFL career that spanned 16 seasons. In 2011, Nugent set single-season franchise records for the Cincinnati Bengals in both points (132) and field goals made (33). Three years later, in a 23-16 win on the road against the Baltimore Ravens to open the 2014 season, Nugent made five field goals in the first 30 minutes to tie the NFL record for most successful kicks in a single half.
The longest made field goal of Nugent's NFL career traveled 55 yards, only one yard further than his game-winner in college against Marshall. Given the current Buckeyes have surrendered just six points in two games so far in the 2024 season, the third-ever meeting with the Thundering Herd next Saturday figures to play out in far less suspenseful fashion.
