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    Next Man Up!: Ohio State's Unbelievable 2014 Championship Season
    Next Man Up!: Ohio State's Unbelievable 2014 Championship Season
    Next Man Up!: Ohio State's Unbelievable 2014 Championship Season
    Ebook160 pages2 hours

    Next Man Up!: Ohio State's Unbelievable 2014 Championship Season

    By The Columbus Dispatch

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    About this ebook

    This up-to-the-minute commemorative edition is officially licensed by Ohio State University and featuring stories and photos from the Columbus Dispatch,
     
    On January 12, 2015, the Buckeyes secured their first-ever College Football Playoff Championship with a win over Oregon in Arlington, Texas. Featuring unique images and highlights from the championship game and Sugar Bowl win over Alabama, this book captures the team’s path to its first championship since 2002. Taking readers through every exciting moment of this historic campaign, this chronicle of the Buckeyes’ journey highlights the team’s season from overcoming the starting quarterback’s season-ending injury to the memorable wins over Big Ten foes Michigan State and Michigan to the dominating shutout of Wisconsin in the Big 10 Championship Game and the glorious moments in New Orleans and Arlington. It includes feature stories on head coach Urban Meyer, the team’s seniors, and other star players—accompanied by vivid photographs every step along the way.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTriumph Books
    Release dateJan 19, 2015
    ISBN9781633192461
    Next Man Up!: Ohio State's Unbelievable 2014 Championship Season

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      Book preview

      Next Man Up! - The Columbus Dispatch

      With confetti falling and surrounded by ESPN cameras, head coach Urban Meyer and his team celebrate their national championship. (Adam Cairns/Dispatch)

      Contents

      Introduction By Ben Marrison

      Sugar Bowl vs. Alabama

      College Football Playoff National Championship vs. Oregon

      Elliott Rushes to Offensive MVP Honors

      J.T. Barrett

      Ohio State vs. Navy

      Ohio State vs. Virginia Tech

      Ohio State vs. Kent State

      Urban Meyer

      Ohio State vs. Cincinnati

      Ohio State vs. Maryland

      Michael Bennett

      Ohio State vs. Rutgers

      Ohio State vs. Penn State

      Evan Spencer

      Ohio State vs. Illinois

      Ohio State vs. Michigan State

      Joey Bosa

      Ohio State vs. Minnesota

      Ohio State vs. Indiana

      Senior Class

      Ohio State vs. Michigan

      Missing OSU Player Found Dead

      Ezekiel Elliott

      Big Ten Championship Game vs. Wisconsin

      Introduction By Ben Marrison

      Tim May has witnessed plenty of Ohio State football. The Dispatch reporter’s perspective on the Buckeyes’ improbable and unexpected national championship speaks volumes about the 2014 team’s storybook season.

      This is the greatest national championship in Ohio State history, in my opinion. I have covered 31 straight seasons, and just the challenge of replacing two quarterbacks and persevering made this a season to remember, May said. But more than that, the Buckeyes had to do something no other team in college football history had ever done: win two postseason games to earn the first College Football Playoff championship.

      Bill Rabinowitz, who covers Ohio State football alongside May for The Dispatch, puts this team in a special place in history as well. I doubt that there’s ever been a national championship team quite like this one, he said. Has any team — college or pro — ever won a championship never using its expected starting quarterback, using its second-string quarterback most of the season and its third-string quarterback for the playoffs? I doubt it.

      If you go back to the preseason, many (except perhaps ESPN’s Mark May) considered the Buckeyes a national title contender. They were young and inexperienced in many positions, but were returning a front-runner for the Heisman Trophy in quarterback Braxton Miller. Another strong recruiting class had added speed and depth to a team that needed them. Coach Urban Meyer had brought in co-defensive coordinator Chris Ash to help stiffen a defense that was exposed during the final two games of the 2013 season. They were playing in the Big Ten, a conference that was perceived to be weak, allowing them a less-than-challenging path to the national championship game in Arlington, Texas.

      The Buckeyes were ranked fifth in the AP preseason poll and seventh in the USA TODAY poll. But before the ball was placed on the tee for the opener in Baltimore’s M&T Bank Stadium, their season would be turned on its head.

      Miller reinjured his right shoulder, the throwing arm he had so severely injured in the Orange Bowl against Clemson in January and would need surgery again. The season seemed lost.

      That August night when I got a call from a good source that I needed to check on Braxton, I thought it was a joke, May recalled. We’d just talked to Miller at lunchtime. I’d written a story for the next day that the time had come finally for him to crank it up in preseason practice. Instead, as the story I broke revealed, he had suffered a season-snuffing dislocation of his right shoulder that included a tear of the labrum. That was stunning.

      A spirited competition in the closing weeks of training camp left redshirt freshman J.T. Barrett as the starter, leaping over sophomore Cardale Jones — the guy most people assumed would be the next man up behind Miller.

      Alongside his wife, Shelley, head coach Urban Meyer hoists the championship trophy following his team’s victory against Oregon. (Adam Cairns/Dispatch)

      After a sluggish victory over Navy in Baltimore, the Buckeyes slipped to eighth in the AP poll. They didn’t look like national championship contenders.

      The next game would be a defining one. In its home opener, Ohio State’s youth was exposed: The offensive line, which returned just one starter, was overmatched by the blitzing Virginia Tech defense, and Barrett was hammered repeatedly. He played like a quarterback making his second start. The loss to the unranked Hokies dropped the Buckeyes from the national championship conversation.

      While some point to the loss as the galvanizing moment for this Buckeyes team, others pointed to the Oct. 25 game in Happy Valley against Penn State.

      After that double-overtime win at Penn State, a game that turned out to be tougher than most had expected, defensive end Joey Bosa said an interesting thing, May recalled. He said there was a true sense of team as the Buckeyes found a way to rescue the night and the season in one of the more intimidating venues in college football. Looking back, I have to say he was right.

      It was Bosa who made the game-winning, game-ending play by overpowering the Nittany Lions’ offensive line to sack quarterback Christian Hackenberg in double overtime.

      The dramatic win should have given the team a boost nationally. But critics kept pointing to the Virginia Tech loss.

      The loss to Virginia Tech hung from Ohio State’s neck like an albatross for almost two months, May said, but then came the upset win at Michigan State and suddenly the Buckeyes were being taken seriously again.

      After that 49-37 win, the Buckeyes earned some respect: Ohio State jumped to eighth in the College Football Playoff and AP rankings. But sloppy play against Minnesota and Indiana let the doubters continue to question whether Meyer’s team was worthy of football’s final four.

      The week before the rivalry game against Michigan, a tight-knit team became even more unified. Defensive lineman Kosta Karageorge left his apartment early one morning and couldn’t be found. The Buckeyes wore Karageorge’s number, 53, on their helmets. When the seniors were introduced at Ohio Stadium before the game, the 104,000-plus waited for Karageorge to miraculously walk onto the field. It didn’t happen.

      The game played out in familiar fashion, with Ohio State leading — but not comfortably. Then disaster struck: J.T. Barrett was tackled and went down awkwardly. He lay on the field, the stadium hushed. His ankle was broken.

      The next man up was Jones. As he finished the Michigan victory, the questions were just beginning: Could Ohio State win it all with a third-string quarterback?

      Days later, Karageorge’s body was found in a trash bin not far from his apartment. He had committed suicide. The news devastated the team yet steeled it at the same time — just in time for the Big Ten championship game against Wisconsin.

      Entering the game as a four-point underdog, Ohio State played like a team possessed. It was nearly perfect, routing Wisconsin 59-0 and shutting down its Heisman-finalist running back, Melvin Gordon. Jones, making his first college start, stunned the football world with his incredible arm strength and unexpected poise, earning the game’s MVP award.

      The triumphant Buckeyes, who

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