The Buckeyes of Texas Are Upon You

By Paul Smith
paul.smith@collegeblitz.com

WILLOUGHBY, Ohio — It was Saturday afternoon and yet another football Armageddon Made for ABC was still five hours away.

Business was brisk at the Giant Eagle, with scores of Scarlet and Gray clad Ohio State fans buying sandwich rolls, munchies, meats, condiments, beer and soda pop by the S.U.V. load.

"We're having a tailgate at my place," Big Roy proclaimed. "Right up until game time. Probably 45 people...and I hope my living room and den survive," he added, making the Sign of the Cross."

Enough of the football as religion jokes, already. The top-ranked Buckeyes were singular of purpose some 1,475 miles to the southwest as they prepared to take the field against now No. 8 Texas, which was second ranked while the pre-game repasts were being prepared.

This was still the team, albeit without the departed Heisman Trophy quarterback aspirant Vince Young, that had come into Ohio Stadium before an insane record crowd of nearly 106,000 and stolen off into the night with a 25-22 upset that dashed the ambitious Buckeyes' thoughts of a second national championship in coach Jim Tressel's five seasons.

"We know the task is daunting," Tressel would tell O.S.U. play-by-play man Paul Keels on the Buckeyes' lengthy pre-game lead-in. "We have no illusions we'll have to be at our best."

You could forgive the always cocky Longhorns fans if they were thinking they were watching an optical illusion unfold before them Saturday night in Darrell K. Royal Stadium, a football sanctuary that reeks of similar tradition to the Bucks' "Big Horseshoe."

When it was over, when the Buckeyes had thoroughly punished their astonished hosts, 24-7, there was little bone to contend on for the few precincts around the country not convinced of the Bucks' superiority -- round up the usual suspects (Notre Dame, Ind., Auburn, Ala., and would you believe, despite the loss of Matt Leinart, a couple of Southern California skeptics and a couple of easterners who waxed poetic about West Virginia?)...

In opening the 2006 season 2-0 the Bucks outhit, outplayed and, most importantly, outsmarted a well-coached Longhorns team (1-1), unjustly free fallen to No. 8 in the latest Associated Press poll.

"Texas is an outstanding football team," Tressel told one of the largest in-season college football media gatherings ever to congregate. "Their kids played hard and it was a heck of a college football game.

"I'm sure the people that were here (over 89,000 -- a Royal Stadium record which included some 9,000 Buckeyes supporters) and the people that were tuned in enjoyed the quality of college football."

What Ohio State did, almost from the get-go, was grab this game by the nape and rarely let go. When the Buckeyes had to run the football, they did just well enough (79 yards against a very, very grudging defensive line and active linebackers) to give perpetual Heisman hopeful Troy Smith drop-back cred and time to find his receivers.

When the Longhorns' defense double-covered wideout Ted Ginn, Jr., Smith introduced Anthony Gonzalez to the big stage and it was his wide-open 14-yard touchdown grab after the Bucks had blown an earlier opportunity when Aaron Pettrey missed wide left on a sharp-angled 28-yard field goal attempt.

The Bucks' defense withstood the Longhorns' one serious early-game thrust when Texas' offense caught a severe case of goal line Laurinaitis.

Jim Laurinaitis, a rangy linebacker and worthy successor to Bobby Carpenter, stripped Billy Pittman at the Bucks' 3 as the Longhorns' running back strove goalward, and Donald Washington returned to midfield.

Fifty yards and just over two minutes later, Smith hit Gonzalez for the early score. Two minutes, 8 seconds, a fourteen point swing. The fact that Ginn had managed a sprinting 46-yard snatch from Smith on the first series put Texas' defenders in a quandary.

"We really felt that Troy would run the ball more often," said Mack Brown, whose defending national champions managed 326 yards total offense but were subdued inside the Ohio State 20. "We had such a focus on (Antonio) Pittman and Troy running the ball and stopping Ginn that Gonzalez got so many plays tonight. He didn't miss any, he has sure hands and he was open, and he made great plays.

"He and Troy were probably the difference in the ballgame. It was a surprise for us."

For those in shamrock heaven, certain Southeastern Conference precincts, lalaland and Almost Heaven, that is the difference between the Ohio State Buckeyes and your championship aspirants, with the possible exception of the Fighting Irish.

Gonzalez, who had made his presence known to the Texas secondary with two catches for 28 yards in the Bucks' opening drive, let little grass grow beneath him, taking a first-play pass over the middle from Smith for 26 yards to the Longhors' 24. After a 5-yard false start backed the Bucks up to the 29, he caught a 17-yarder that eventually led to the opening T.D.

"I had a pretty good idea of what coverages they were running," said Gonzalez, the Cleveland Saint Ignatius product told hometown Plain Dealer beat reporter Doug Lesmerises. "...If I know what someone's doing, that makes it a lot easier."

But what really set the Bucks apart from the defending national champs took place in the final minutes of the first half.

When Texas took advantage of a bogus roughing-the-passer call against defensive end Jay Richardson, who didn't record a sack, but was in freshman quarterback Colt McCoy's face often, setting up Billy Pittman's two-yard T.D. smash with 1:55 left to tie it, the Bucks didn't raise an eyebrow.

'They played hard and I thought on the sidelines they were into it," Bucks defensive coordinator Jim Heacock told Lesmerises. "They made a lot of big plays when they needed to."

But what the offense did was somewhat reminiscent of the two-minute drills John Elway and Johnny Unitas used to make famous. Smith and friends cobbled a 66-yard masterpiece, which included a 28-yard over-the-middle pass to Brian Robiskie that opened up the Texas defense wide and Smith, stunning everybody, hit a wide-open Ginn in the left side of the end zone for the go-ahead score with 16 seconds left, a play on which he forced Texas' best d-back, Aaron Ross to bite on an inside fake, then beat him to the corner.

Badly.

"Ross is a great quarterback," Smith said, "probably the best in the Big 12....Ginn had an inside release on that play and he did a great job of using his speed to get over top. I had an ample amount of time to throw...and he made a great play on it."

When Laurinaitis intercepted a McCoy pass in the third quarter, the Longhorns held and forced Pettrey to boot a 31-yard field goal for a 17-7 lead. Still seemingly doable. The 85-degree heat and murky humidity, plus one of the more zealous crowds in Longhorns history would do the rest.

But the Buckeyes were prepared for everything. And it wasn't just reviewing the 2005 game classic, or the Longhorns' epic comeback to beat U.S.C. for the national title. Nor was it U.T.'s opening victory over North Texas State.

For every Texas move that mattered, there seemed to be a perfect Ohio State
counter. The nightmarish memory of Limas Sweed breaking Horseshoe hearts last fall with a spectacular leaping grab of a Young pass over d-back Nate Salley for the game winner with less than two minutes left.

This time around, the Bucks defense was alert all night long. It was left to sophomore Malcolm Jenkins to stay with Sweed step-for-step and make sure he didn't become a two-time hero.

McCoy's pass floated the pass to the front right of the end zone and both players leapt and for an instant, Sweed seemed destined to grab it with one foot in bounds. But Jenkins wasn't having any of that, as he ripped away and jostled the ball loose.

Incomplete.

Deep sighs from the Buckeyes faithful and sideline.

"When (Sweed) fell on top of me, that whole play flashed through my mind from last year," Jenkins told Lesmerises. "All I wanted to do was get the ball out."

When field goal kicker Greg Johnson gave a whole new meaning to U.T.'s favorite slogan, "Hook 'em Horns," by missing a 45-yarder wide left, the Bucks took full advantage of the reprieve.

They'd simply shuttled 21 different defensive players in there, a brilliant bit of Heacockian strategy that virtually assured a fresh Buckeye at every position every play. And as a bonus, O.S.U. put together a mid-fourth quarter 10-play, 72-yard drive capped by Antonio Pittman's 2-yard T.D. bolt with 6:31 left.

"Applaud Ohio State, they are a great team and the way they played tonight, they deserve to be No. 1," Brown said graciously. "Troy Smith made play after play and Ted Ginn, Jr. is as advertised."

Other, perhaps, than the Fiesta Bowl win over Miami (Fla.) or any win over "The Gang Up North," the celebrated "Carmen Ohio" never sounded sweeter.