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Facts about shut-outs

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DaddyBigBucks

DaddyBigBucks

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  • Since Woody took over in 1951, OSU has pitched 60 shut-outs
  • 14 of those shut-outs have been on the road
  • 5 of those road shut-outs have been over Illinois
  • The last time we shut Michigan out was in 1962 - the last OSU game before I was born
  • OSU pitched shut-outs in the first 2 games of 1963 - the first OSU games of my life (combined with scUM '62 this was 3 in a row)
  • The only other run of 3 consecutive shut-outs was in 1973
  • 1973 featured 4 shut-outs in 5 games
  • Woody pitched a shut-out in his first game as coach (7-0 over SMU)
  • Earle Bruce pitched shut-outs in 5 of his first 19 games
  • Earle shut-out Wisconsin the first 2 times he played them
  • The second of these marked the 5th time in 8 games the Bucks Bageled the Badgers
  • This marked the only time in the Woody-Present Era that we shut-out a team in back-back games
  • After the 2nd consecutive shut-out of Wisconsin, Earl went 42 straight games without a shut-out. By far the longest span in OSU history to that point.
  • John Cooper posted 4 shut-outs in his first 91 games at the helm
  • John Cooper posted 6 shut-outs in his next 36 games
  • John Cooper finished his career with 31 consecutive games without a shut-out
  • Jim Tressel kept Cooper's Streak alive for 30 more games, before his lone shut-out to date
  • The 61 games Cooper-Tressel collaboration is by far the longest streak in OSU history.
  • Earle's run of 42 games is still in 2nd place
  • Jim Tressel's only shut-out came against Northwestern (20-0)
  • OSU has played 32 games without posting another shut-out
  • Only 4 streaks are longer than the current streak, none older than Earle's run of 42
  • Without defensive intervention, as of the game against Bowling Green on October 7th, OSU will have posted 1 shut-out in 100 games.
  • In 1899, OSU pitched 9 shut-out wins and had one 5-5 tie
  • Last year a near shut-out was broken up by a certain score that wasn't possible during any other coach's tenure
  • Mentioning this event more directly than I just did should be grounds for a permanent ban:smash:
Please don't take the preceding as Tressel-bashing. It is evidence IMHO that he calls the dogs off on defense just as much as he does on offense when he gets a lead. The stat about 1899 was included as a reminder that the general trend is for fewer and fewer shut-outs.

Bear in mind though that, as recently as Cooper's streak of 6 in 36 games in 95-98, shut-outs were xxx more common than they are now.
 
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Great information.

I agree that it in no way illustrates Tress is a poor coach. In fact, not only does he tend to call off the dogs, he tends to let a lot of the younger guys see the field.

Sure, it may cost us a few shut outs, but it buys our younger guys valuable field time, and keeps their fires stoked early in their career - rather than gliding through their early years, knowing they're going to be planted on the sidelines, they are forced to prepare each week as though they are in the 2 deep rotation.
 
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DaddyBigBucks said:
  • The last time we shut Michigan out was in 1962 - the last OSU game before I was born
  • Last year a near shut-out was broken up by a certain score that wasn't possible during any other coach's tenure
Click to expand...

So you're the one to blame for us not having any shutouts of scUM...fucker. :biggrin:

Man Tressel, was pissed when Illinois took that botched XP snap for a 2-point conversion, ruining our shutout.
 
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All shut-outs since Woody came to tOSU

Teams in RED were shut-out on the road

Date_____Team_____Score
9/29/1951___SMU________7-0
11/3/1951____NW________3-0
11/17/1951__Illinois________0-0
No shutouts in '52 or '53
9/25/1954___Indiana_______28-0
11/6/1954___Pitt________26-0
10/29/1955__NW________49-0
11/19/1955__scUM_______17-0
10/27/1956__Wisconsin___21-0
10/19/1957__Indiana______56-0
No shutouts in '58
10/17/1959__Purdue______15-0
11/7/1959__Indiana_______0-0
9/24/1960__SMU________24-0
10/1/1960__USC________20-0
11/19/1960__scUM______7-0
10/14/1961__Illinois______44-0
10/21/1961__NW________10-0
11/24/1962__scUM______28-0
9/28/1963__Tex A&M____17-0
10/5/1963__Indiana_____21-0
10/10/1964__Illinois_____26-0
10/17/1964__USC_______17-0
11/14/1964__NW_______10-0
11/13/1965__Iowa______38-0
11/5/1966__Indiana_____7-0
10/7/1967__Oregon____30-0
10/12/1968__Purdue____13-0
9/27/1969__TCU_______62-0
10/25/1969__Illinois____41-0
10/10/1970__MSU_____29-0
No shutouts in '71
9/16/1972__Iowa________21-0
10/13/1973__Wisconsin__24-0
10/27/1973__NW_______60-0
11/3/1973__Illinois_____30-0
11/10/1973__MSU______35-0
No shutouts in '74
9/13/1975__MSU______21-0
10/11/1975__Iowa______49-0
10/18/1975__Wisconsin__56-0
No shutouts in '76
9/10/1977__Miami(FL)____10-0
10/8/1977__Purdue______46-0
10/29/1977__Wisconsin__42-0
11/5/1977__Illinois_____35-0
No shutouts in '78
10/20/1979__Wisconsin__59-0
10/27/1979__MSU______42-0
9/20/1980__Minnesota___47-0
10/11/1980__NW_______63-0
10/25/1980__Wisconsin__21-0
No shutouts in '81, '82 or '83
9/15/1984__WSU______44-0
No shutouts in '85
10/4/1986__Illinois______14-0
10/25/1986__Minnesota__33-0
No shutouts in '87 or '88
11/11/1989__Iowa______28-0
No shutouts in '90 or '91
11/7/1992__Minnesota__17-0
No shutouts in '93
9/24/1994__Houston____52-0
10/21/1995__Purdue____28-0
9/21/1996__Pitt_______72-0
11/2/1996__Minnesota__45-0
11/9/1996__Illinois____48-0
10/18/1997__Indiana___31-0
9/12/1998__Toledo____49-0
10/10/1998__Illinois___41-0
No shutouts in '99, '00, '01 or '02
9/27/2003__NW______20-0
No shutouts in '04 or '05

None yet in '06
 
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Nice stuff DBB. You know what I would really like to see someone do? (Obviously this is a hint for YOU to do such a report :lol: ) I'd love to see the change in average across a span of years for certain positions.

Say for instance Runningback. On average how does a runningback change from freshman to sophomore, SO to JR, JR to SR. What I think would be interesting are numbers that show what could be generally expected at certain positions. That way we could say (roughly) that this season Antonio Pittman should be expected to gain X total yards, X yards per carry, X fumbles, etc. Obviously, the report would need to cover a large group of RBs (or whatever position) to give us roughly accurate percentages. Food for thought.
 
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Big 10 Teams we have not shut-out in the Woody-Present era:
  • Penn State
Big 10 Teams we have not shut out on the road in that era:
  • Penn State
  • Iowa
  • Purdue
  • Minnesota
Team we've shut out the most:
  • Illinois (9 -- 5 on the road)
 
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MililaniBuckeye said:
Man Tressel, was pissed when Illinois took that botched XP snap for a 2-point conversion, ruining our shutout.
Click to expand...

I was, too. And I'm still pissed about it. I guess you're allowed to block in the back and hold when it's your first points of the game.

And I seem to remember Illinois scoring that same way back in 1990. And that was another controversial play, because the guy running the ball was about to be tackled, so he tried to pitch the ball. However, he pitched it forward, and the next guy caught it and returned it for a score. The forward pitch was not penalized, giving Illinois the 2-point play.

It may not have been Illinois. But I'm almost certain it was in 1990 that it happened.
 
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Zurp said:
I was, too. And I'm still pissed about it. I guess you're allowed to block in the back and hold when it's your first points of the game.

And I seem to remember Illinois scoring that same way back in 1990. And that was another controversial play, because the guy running the ball was about to be tackled, so he tried to pitch the ball. However, he pitched it forward, and the next guy caught it and returned it for a score. The forward pitch was not penalized, giving Illinois the 2-point play.

It may not have been Illinois. But I'm almost certain it was in 1990 that it happened.
Click to expand...

It WAS 1990, it WAS Illinois, and it WAS a forward lateral.

Unfortunately however, it was a blocked field-goal, not an XP. That means that their score (which shouldn't have counted) was a touchdown. It cost us the game. (IIRC we lost by more than 7, but Cooper teams were pawns of momentum for the most part.)

I was working with a couple of Illinois fans at the time, and they were usually trash talkers; but even they refused to gloat about a victory under those conditions. They agreed with me that the lateral went forward at least 4 yards.
 
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DaddyBigBucks said:
It WAS 1990, it WAS Illinois, and it WAS a forward lateral.

Unfortunately however, it was a blocked field-goal, not an XP. That means that their score (which shouldn't have counted) was a touchdown. It cost us the game. (IIRC we lost by more than 7, but Cooper teams were pawns of momentum for the most part.)

I was working with a couple of Illinois fans at the time, and they were usually trash talkers; but even they refused to gloat about a victory under those conditions. They agreed with me that the lateral went forward at least 4 yards.
Click to expand...

Ok. But I'm remembering seeing a 2-point play sometime. I remember the referee calling it a "safety," and I was almost as pissed at calling it a "safety" as I was about the play, itself. If it's a safety, why are the Buckeyes kicking off from the 35 instead of the 20? The point is that I'm about 99.99% sure that I've seen that happen before (which means there's about a 15% chance that I've actually seen it happen before).
 
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DaddyBigBucks said:
Unfortunately however, it was a blocked field-goal, not an XP. That means that their score (which shouldn't have counted) was a touchdown. It cost us the game. (IIRC we lost by more than 7, but Cooper teams were pawns of momentum for the most part.)
Click to expand...

I found someone who agrees with your story.

http://buckeyefootball.homestead.com/Drive_Drive_Down_the_field_20_to_16.html

I don't know who did this webpage, but its a list of top 25 drives in OSU history. #16 on the guy's list is the drive that beat Iowa in 1990. It also writes about the season before and after that game, and goes into the Illinois game:

"More controversy swirled around Ohio Stadium the next week as Illinois dealt the Bucks a 31-20 loss. With the Illini leading 24-20 in the fourth quarter, OSU kicker Tim Williams attempted a 51-yard field goal which was blocked. Illinois tackle Mike Poloskey picked up the loose football and started to run, but as he was being tackled he lateraled the ball forward to Quentin Parker who took it the rest of the way for a touchdown. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to see, either live or at home on TV, that it was without any doubt a forward lateral, but in these pre-instant replay days the officials let the play stand and it would be the final margin."

I'll see if I can keep looking for the 2-point play that I'm remembering. It wasn't against Illinois in 1990.
 
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Zurp said:
I'll see if I can keep looking for the 2-point play that I'm remembering. It wasn't against Illinois in 1990.
Click to expand...

It looks like my memory was right, but my facts were wrong.

http://www.butchandpaulstailgate.com/highlights.htm

It's highlights from 2005. Under the Michigan State game:

The Spartans tried to add a field goal just before the end of the first half, but the 35-yard attempt by Goss was blocked by Nate Salley, picked up by Youboty and returned 72 yards down the left side line for a touchdown to pull the Buckeyes within three points (17-14) as time expired. Youboty's 72-yard TD return is the longest return following a blocked kick since 1991 when Jason Simmons took back a blocked extra point by Iowa 85 yards for a 2-point score.

So it wasn't against Ohio State - it was Ohio State. I was off by one year, and I was off by one state.
 
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