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    Diary of an Unforgettable Season: 2006 Ohio State Buckeyes
    Diary of an Unforgettable Season: 2006 Ohio State Buckeyes
    Diary of an Unforgettable Season: 2006 Ohio State Buckeyes
    Ebook145 pages1 hour

    Diary of an Unforgettable Season: 2006 Ohio State Buckeyes

    By Steve Snapp and Jim Tressel

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    About this ebook

    The expectations, and the stakes, are always sky-high when Ohio State University prepares to begin a new football season. For much of this decade, the Buckeyes have entered the season with very real and realistic national championship hopes. Those hopes became a reality in 2002, and in subsequent years were dashed only by the slightest of margins. Then came 2006, when the expectations again were nothing less than a perfect season and a BCS bowl berth for the national title. OSU's associate athletic director Steve Snapp knew this back in the spring of 2006, which is when he began to pen his personal diary of one of the most memorable seasons in Buckeyes history. His insider's account of the magical 12-0 regular season and the stunning loss to Florida in the national championship game gives fans a rare birds-eye view of the blood, sweat, tears, and love that go into the making of a championship-caliber college football team. Follow the historic season from Snapp's personal accounts that recollect the preseason hype, the spring practices, the non-conference schedule, and then the rigorous, climactic Big Ten slate that ended dramatically with the annual showdown against Michigan. Diary of an Unforgettable Season also details the 51 days between games and OSU's mental and physical preparation for a national title game that went horribly awry. Readers will not only feel like they've been through a big-time college football season, they will also share the bumps, bruises, scars, triumphs, and disappointments that go along with being a player on the grand stage.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTriumph Books
    Release dateOct 1, 2007
    ISBN9781617499180
    Diary of an Unforgettable Season: 2006 Ohio State Buckeyes

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      Book preview

      Diary of an Unforgettable Season - Steve Snapp

      Dedication

      This book is dedicated to the seniors on the 2006 Ohio State football team. Thanks for a magical year, one I will always remember. My thanks, too, to my former boss Marv Homan, a mentor, a friend, and a true gentleman in every sense of the word.

      Contents

      Foreword

      Introduction

      1. Hope Springs Eternal

      2. Outside the Lines

      3. Great Expectations

      4. The Journey Begins

      5. Eyes on the Prize

      6. The Game

      7. Waiting for an Opponent

      8. The Long Layoff

      9. The Heisman Trophy

      10. The BCS Championship Game

      11. Moving Forward

      Appendix

      Foreword

      This is the story of the 2006 Ohio State football family.

      It is the story of more than 100 football players and 10 full-time coaches who put their individual goals aside to achieve a singleness of purpose. It is the story of 19 seniors who never—not during the 6:00 am winter workouts, not in spring practice as they were developing a personality, not during the rugged two-a-days of fall camp, and certainly not during the grind of a 12-week season—lost their focus or commitment to one another. And it is the story of a group of young men who became One in every way—mentally, physically, and spiritually.

      Prior to the 2006 season, all of us, coaches and players alike, settled on two goals: winning the Big Ten title and capturing the national championship. While our second goal went unfulfilled against an extremely talented Florida team, I am enormously proud of what these student- athletes accomplished in the classroom, on the football field, and in the community. This was a team in every sense of the word.

      Thanks to the tireless work of Steve Snapp, the pages that follow will give you a glimpse into the inner workings of the 2006 Buckeyes team. In the long and storied history of The Ohio State University, I cannot think of a team more deserving of such a thorough chronicling. It was truly an unforgettable season.

      Go Bucks!

      — Jim Tressel

      Introduction

      When it comes to Ohio State football, expectations are always high. The 2006 season was no exception. The Buckeyes were coming off a 10–2 campaign in 2005 that included seven straight wins, culminating in a victory over Michigan in Ann Arbor followed by a thrashing of Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl. The Big Ten co-champion Buckeyes were arguably the nation’s best college football team at the end of the year. In reality, their fourth-place finish in the polls really did not give head coach Jim Tressel’s players the credit they deserved.

      But as Tressel often says, You get as your works deserve, and the Buckeyes had lost two games early, all but eliminating themselves from the national championship hunt.

      Almost before the Buckeyes arrived back in Columbus following their win over Notre Dame, their fans were thinking ahead to the 2006 campaign.

      With Heisman Trophy candidate Troy Smith at the controls and a cast of holdovers that included the receiving tandem of Ted Ginn Jr. and Anthony Gonzalez as well as tailback Antonio Pittman, there would be plenty of firepower on offense. Additionally, the offensive line appeared to be the deepest and most talented in Tressel’s six-year stay with the Buckeyes.

      The defense, to be sure, had lost a wealth of talent, including the outstanding linebacking trio of All-Americans A.J. Hawk, Bobby Carpenter, and Anthony Schlegel, as well as all four starters in the secondary. But at Ohio State you don’t rebuild, you reload. Every good Ohio State fan knows that. Besides, in the Tressel revolving-door system, a lot of players see action during the course of the year. Nine starters were gone, but the cupboard was far from bare. If the offense could shoulder the majority of the load early, the defense would come around.

      If this team could get through a brutal September that included road games at Texas and Iowa, there was no reason it could not contend for the national championship, which, incidentally, was in Phoenix. If the Buckeyes were to get there it would be their fourth trip to the Valley of the Sun in five years.

      And the fans were right: it would turn out to be a memorable season, filled with highlights and special memories.

      Here is how the season unfolded.

      1. Hope Springs Eternal

      Thursday, March 30

      Spring practice opens today. In many ways it is the time of year that Jim Tressel enjoys most, because it is a time for teaching. Whenever the Buckeye football coach is queried as to what profession he would be in if he were not a coach, he always replies, I would be a teacher; teaching is what I really enjoy.

      Tressel is the consummate teacher. His meetings are like classrooms and his practices are like labs in which his players put into practice what he has taught them. When practice is over, it is back to the classroom to review the day’s subject matter.

      Tressel and his staff need to be on their A game this spring. Nine starters from what was arguably the best defense in the nation are gone, including the trio of Hawk, Carpenter, and Schlegel. On offense, left guard Robbie Sims, center Nick Mangold, and split end Santonio Holmes, all of whom had been three-year starters, need to be replaced. Additionally, kicker Josh Huston, who tied a school record with five field goals against Texas and earned All–Big Ten honors, has graduated, leaving a giant question mark in the place-kicking department.

      But while the losses are significant, the Buckeyes are not short on talent. Tressel’s goal is to develop that talent during the 15 spring practices allotted by the NCAA.

      Saturday, April 1

      During the traditional hoot and holler drill on the first day of pads, true freshman running back Chris Beanie Wells flattened a veteran senior defender in a show of raw power. In the drill, an offensive player gets three chances to go 10 yards. Beanie only needed one try. It is evident that the former USA Today All-American is the real deal.

      The 6'1", 225-pound Wells was one of three true freshmen to enroll early. The other two are linebacker Ross Homan and defensive back Kurt Coleman.

      Saturday, April 8

      The Buckeyes held their jersey scrimmage, pitting the offense against the defense. The winning unit will wear the home scarlet-colored jerseys through the remainder of spring ball and into fall practice. The losers will be clad in the white away jerseys until they get a chance to redeem themselves in the fall.

      Much of the media discussion leading into the spring was about the inexperience of the defense. In stark contrast to recent years, it appears that early on at least, the offense will have the edge.

      On this day, though, the defense was having none of that. Jim Heacock’s young, but undeniably talented and surprisingly fast defensive unit forced five turnovers and came away with a 69–68 victory, using a unique scoring system that Jim Tressel’s father, the late Lee Tressel, used when he coached at Baldwin-Wallace College.

      Several young players stood out on the defensive side of the ball, including, but not limited to, linebacker Ross Homan, safety Anderson Russell, defensive end Lawrence Wilson, and linebacker James Laurinaitis.

      You can tell these young guys want to be good and uphold the tradition of excellent Ohio State defense, said Tressel, who deep down inside probably did not mind the outcome. This will help their confidence.

      The defense won the scarlet jerseys even though tackle Quinn Pitcock, one of just two returning starters on that side of the ball, did not play.

      The offense was without two of its top linemen, right tackle Kirk Barton and Doug Datish, who, after starting at guard in 2004 and 2005, is sliding over to center this fall as a replacement for departed All-American Nick Mangold.

      But Troy Smith would not use that as an excuse.

      We got our butts whipped and I don’t like that feeling, whether it is in a practice or a scrimmage, he said.

      The scrimmage came down to a 58-yard field-goal attempt by Ryan Pretorius on the final play of the game. When the defense blocked the kick, it was worth one point and broke a 68–all tie.

      Friday, April 14

      Football is a violent game. Over the years, players have gotten bigger, stronger, and faster. Sometimes the collisions on the field are unnerving.

      Ohio State has been fortunate to have never suffered a fatality in either a practice or a game. And up until this spring, the Buckeyes had never had a serious neck or spinal cord injury.

      That changed during a scrimmage in Ohio Stadium today.

      Walk-on Tyson Gentry, who made the squad as a punter and for the first time this spring was also working at wide receiver, was running a square-in when he was tackled by freshman defensive back Kurt Coleman. The hit was clean and was not one of those bone-jarring tackles that make fans cringe. But when the two players hit the ground, Tyson was completely motionless. Everyone in the stadium—the coaches; the players; the doctors and trainers; and the family members in the stands, including his parents, Bob and Gloria Gentry—knew it was serious.

      As the team doctors and the Gentry family hurried to his side, the training staff called 911.

      All the while there was an eerie hush in the stadium. Everyone was praying and thinking, Come on Tyson, just move something. Although Tyson was conscious and talking the entire time, there was no movement.

      Once the ambulance left for the Ohio State medical center, Tressel called the team together. After a brief prayer, the coach canceled practice and sent the team home for the Easter holiday.

      Tressel immediately headed to the hospital along with several members of the team. Gentry had suffered a fracture of the C4 vertebra. He had surgery tonight to fuse the vertebra.

      Thursday, April 20

      The Kick Scrimmage. The kicking game has always played an important role in the success of Tressel’s teams, both in his 15 years at Youngstown State, where he won four Division I-AA national championships, and at Ohio State, where in just his second year he captured the 2002 national championship.

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