Right: Ohio State’s Michael Jenkins (right) hauling in the game-winner.
AP Photo

There are exactly 12 days until Ohio State’s first game, and coincidentally, there was a certain No. 12 who scored the game-winning touchdown in what could arguably be the greatest play in the history of Buckeye football.

Thanks to the Big Ten Network, the 2002 Ohio State-Purdue contest was replayed on Sunday afternoon, billed as one of the conference’s “greatest games.”

I’m not so sure about that after viewing it again because there was some ugly football played on that gray, windy day in West Lafayette, Indiana, back on November 9, 2002, but the ending was spectacular.

In the first quarter, a pass thrown by Ohio State quarterback Craig Krenzel was intercepted by linebacker Niko Koutouvides, giving the Boilermakers great field position at the OSU 23 yard line.

Two straight completions by Purdue quarterback Kyle Orton put the Boilermakers in a first-and-goal situation at the six yard line before the Buckeye defense held firm. After three plays netted two yards, Berin Lacevic connected on a 21-yard field goal with 42 seconds left in the opening stanza to give PU a 3-0 lead.

There was no more scoring until the last play of the second quarter when Ohio State had to rush their field goal-kicking unit out and Mike Nugent drilled a 22-yarder that tied the game at 3-all right before halftime.

During that drive with 19 seconds left, the Buckeyes faced a third-and-9 at the PU 12 yard line when Krenzel scrambled out of the pocket and gained seven yards on the ground. The problem was, Ohio State was out of timeouts and Krenzel didn’t get passed the first down marker, which led to the kicking team having to run out on to the field.

Purdue head coach Joe Tiller argued that the snap came after all zeros were displayed on the game clock, but replays clearly showed that the ball was on its way to the holder before time expired.

Purdue later reclaimed the lead with 7:30 remaining in the fourth quarter when Lacevic hugged the right upright with a 32-yard field goal giving the Boilermakers a 6-3 lead.

Both teams traded punts before Ohio State mounted their game-winning drive with 3:10 left to go in the game. A 22-yard punt return by Chris Gamble gave the Buckeyes the ball at the PU 46 yard line.

On the first play, Kenzel was sacked losing four yards. On second-and-14 at midfield, a poorly thrown ball fell incomplete. On third down, Krenzel hit tight end Ben Hartsock along the far-sideline for a gain of 13 yards just shy of a first down.

On fourth-and-one, Purdue was obviously expecting a running play, but Krenzel dropped back to pass, stepped up to avoid the rush, and lofted a deep pass to wide receiver Michael Jenkins who hauled in the 37-yard touchdown pass over his right shoulder after beating cornerback Antwaun Rogers in man coverage like a drum.

Gamble, who played both flanker and cornerback against Purdue while also returning kicks for Ohio State, sealed the deal when he made a tremendous play on a deep pass from Orton which was thrown into double coverage. Gamble made a diving catch for the pick at the OSU 11 yard line with 45 seconds to go.

Buckeye running back Maurice Clarett, who had nerve damage in his left shoulder that kept him out of the two previous games, started and gained 52 yards on 14 carries. OSU also played without starting wide receiver Chris Vance, who was attending his brother’s funeral.

Krenzel was 13-of-20 passing for 173 yards with one TD and one INT.

Orton and Brandon Kirsch combined to throw for 285 yards on 27-of-39 passing, but Orton was intercepted three times.

Purdue finished with more first downs (17-13) and more total yards (341-267), but also turned the ball over three times to OSU’s one.

Sure, Ohio State had several close calls prior to the Purdue game in 2002, winning 23-19 against Cincinnati at Paul Brown Stadium when Will Allen intercepted a Gino Guidugli pass in the end zone with 26 seconds left.

Five weeks later, Ohio State needed a touchdown pass from Krenzel to Hartsock early in the fourth quarter and an interception by Gamble at the goal line with 7:30 remaining to pull out a 19-14 win over Wisconsin in Madison.

In the Buckeyes’ next game against Penn State, Gamble had a 40-yard interception return for touchdown that gave Ohio State a 10-7 lead early in the third quarter. OSU held on for a 13-7 win in Columbus.

Of course the Saturday following the Purdue contest, Ohio State claimed a 23-16 victory over Illinois in overtime, and Maurice Hall scored on a three-yard run as the Buckeyes survived two late drives which included another game-saving interception by Will Allen to give OSU a 14-9 win over Michigan.

But the pass play from Krenzel to Jenkins, also known as “Holy Buckeye” thanks to Brent Musburger, will forever be etched in my mind as one of the greatest plays of all-time in Ohio State football.

Tags: Football by Matt Barker, Publisher & Editor of BuckeyeBanter.com
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Tonight, Buckeye fans will be able to get a sneak peak at the 2008 edition of Ohio State’s tackle football team as head coach James Patrick Tressel and his squad will conduct a full-contact practice at Ohio Stadium, which is open to the general public.

Gates open at 6:30 p.m., the players will arrive an hour later, and the practice is scheduled to begin at 8:00 p.m.

By the way, you can leave your cameras and Sharpies at home because photographs will not be allowed and there’s no autograph session this year.

But you can stick around for roughly two hours watching various drills and possibly a very vanilla scrimmage, since you never know who might be in attendance, so look out for anyone wearing Maize and Blue.

On Saturday morning, Ohio State had their annual jersey scrimmage at the ‘Shoe, which was closed to the public and the media.

Using the modified Stableford scoring system, the offense defeated the defense, 72-52, which means the “O” won the right to wear scarlet-colored jerseys at practice for the remainder of the season, hence, the name, “jersey” scrimmage, which pitted the first-team offense against the first-team defense, the second team “O” vs. the second-team “D,” and so on.

There were no official stats kept or timekeeping involved and the scrimmage lasted 165 plays. In perspective, there were 125 total plays in Ohio State’s season-opener against Youngstown State last year.

Coach Tressel had this to say following the scrimmage courtesy of ohiostatebuckeyes.com:

We got a lot of snaps in and a lot of kids will have a chance to watch film of themselves in the stadium. I thought they played hard. We’re coming off 13-straight practices so they weren’t at top-end speed, but I think they were trying to be and that’s the important part. The hitting was really good, I thought. Now the coaches will have a marathon film-grading session to see where we go from here. There weren’t many turnovers and some guys were making plays. Dane Sanzenbacher jumps out at me … he made some impressive plays out there. Brian Hartline, Boom Herron was probably the leading rusher. Maurice Wells looked very good as well. I thought all the quarterbacks played well. They all looked good. Joe Bauserman made a great play for a touchdown. Defensively, the guys who showed up, looked very sharp. It was good competition all around.”

Those who were held out of the scrimmage due to injuries or a risk of injury were wide receiver Brian Robiskie, along running backs Chris Wells and Brandon Saine.

Coach Tressel had this to say about Chris Wells, as reported by Doug Lesmerises of The Plain Dealer:

I’ve seen Beanie, he’s pretty good. I watch Chris in passing drills, he’s our best pass protector. I watch him in running drills, he’s probably our best runner. So I thought those other guys needed a little bit more.”

Freshman quarterback Terrelle Pryor ran for a score while throwing for another, but had an interception on a tipped pass and a fumble.

Senator Sweater Vest had this to say about his highly-touted rookie, as reported by Ken Gordon of The Dispatch:

He didn’t look like a freshman. He has good presence for a young guy. It looks to me like he’s going to be very, very good. He’s got extraordinary ability.”

Also on Saturday, the Associated Press released its’ Top 25 preseason college football poll with the Buckeyes ranked No. 2 getting 21 first-place votes just behind top-ranked Georgia.

Of course, I feel that there should not be any type of poll until the first week of October, but maybe that’s just me.

Tags: Football by Matt Barker, Publisher & Editor of BuckeyeBanter.com
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